It's always a little risky when major corporations try to wedge themselves into a subculture that hasn't invited them in.
Hiphop-Ads hustles us in the direction of the latest leg of Nissan's "SHIFT" campaign, entitled "SHIFT_Respect." (Insert cringe here.) With a highlight on the Tokyo hip-hop subculture, the campaign aims to illustrate the iffy ethos, "The Black Experience is everywhere."
It's a fine line Nissan walks. "The Black Experience is everywhere"? It just pokes nerves all around - among those sensitive about what it is to be black, those who feel Asians and other non-white or black minorities do nothing but throw themselves behind majority trends, and those concerned about the commoditization of hip-hop.
Did you have to say The Black Experience is everywhere? Who knows, maybe it's genius. At least it starts a conversation. We'll totally ignore the fact that it's a conversation that gets rehashed more than the sum total of celebutrash trolling bars without panties.
Because there's nothing like the ugly awkward suffering that composes puberty, and maybe because "puberty" happens to be a loaded and funny word to say, MTV makes its first leap into the mobile universe with a set of 11 characters who, in their collective uncoolness, make up Puberty.
Created by Clay Weiner and Hornet with the help of WDDG out of NYC. Suggesting the characters may be an allegory for the everyday, Clay notes, "Puberty, as painful as it was, proves in hindsight to be a pretty apt metaphor for life. But the cruel truth is that you never get over it. No matter how old you get you still get pooped on (Doo-doo), you always wish you were more mature than you are (Pubes), you always think you have a big butt (Booty), and they'll always laugh at you for sticking out of a crowd (Boner). As bad as Puberty is, adulthood is worse."
We're just making that discovery ourselves. But hey, at least now we don't have to worry about getting stuffed into lockers, and it's been a long time since we last wet the bed. Check out the cast of Puberty here and see the promos.
Candies' new cover girl Fergie sparks strong feelings among parents who don't want a celebrity sporting a "Parental Guidance" advisory to be hawking teeny-bopper bomber jackets to their guileless Hilary Duff-loving ingenues. The ad that sparked the fire featured Fergie with what appears to be liquor in the background of a recent Candie's ad.
Having done her part to destroy hip-hop (contrary to a recent campaign in which she and other members of the Black Eyed Peas actually save it) with pop hits like My Humps and Let's Get Retarded (later tastefully renamed Let's Get it Started), it's always been our suspicion that the kiddies didn't need Fergie to actively encourage them to drink; it's part of what you need to do to make her palatable in the first place.
But hey, kids have their own minds and in an ideal world if you raise them right you don't have to go on a witch hunt for every suggestive social ill that slips out of the woodwork, yeah?
- A tipster attending OMMA Hollywood tells us R/GA Chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg told his VP of Visual Design Nick Law not to sit on a panel he was scheduled to participate in because, apparently, he's stealing too much limelight.
- Commercial ratings, versus program ratings, are fast becoming the gold standard and many, including Starcom CEO John Muszynski, will be using them in this year's upfront.
- If you're in search of an email address, Tattoo Projects has created Abalooba, and email address search engine.
- MTV's The Andy Milonakis Show which will premiere on a wide variety of digital platforms - including iTunes Store (www.iTunes.com), Amazon Unbox, AOL Video, MTV Mobile, MTV On Demand, MTV2.com, Wal-Mart Video Downloads and Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 - all prior to the show's on-air MTV2 debut on April 27th.
- Entries for international viral awards show, Germ, must be submitted by March 31.
- The New Yorker, Wesley Autrey, who saved a man from being hit by a subway train in January, is featured in a new colon cancer PSA campaign.
- T wallow in the oddity of Japanese culture, check out a few kinky commercials for Axe in Japan.
- Copyranter disses the Siemens' ongoing wannabee hipster campaign complete with headlines like "Bling Bling" and "Chill."
We've since relegated Hostess to the banks of childhood memory along with Pixie Stix, Kool-Aid and other non-food food, but we actually did swoon when we saw this promotion for their new 100 Calorie Packs.
Plug in your Calorie Pack preferences and the 100 Calorie Crooner will sing a song that sits somewhere between the Beauty School Dropout scene in Grease and Sinatra's last live rendition of Strangers in the Night.
The denigration in standards from Sinatra to Grease to the 100 Calorie Crooner didn't escape us, but the gaping void left by lack of class is nothing that can't be filled with three mini-cakes (at 100 calories total! Come on).
American Legacy expands on their Become an Ex campaign with three spots on re-learning behaviour typically associated with smoking, like drinking coffee, driving and starting your day. The campaign is by GSD&M out of Austin, TX, a city where smoking is permitted in designated indoor spaces.
The ads feature bewildered middle-aged characters bumbling over said activities as they try renegotiating space without the soothing puff-puff. It's a little like watching Britney Spears stagger around like a bald Cyclops after her latest failed stint at rehab.
We're thinking bra sizes over in England must follow some metric other than that of the U.S. In this Bravissimo campaign, woman of various bra sizes hold placards stating their bra size. Oddly, none of the women look anywhere near as big as their stated sizes. We cold be wrong but the woman with 30F? She looks flat. Anyway, the editor of Adrants requires that all bra ad campaigns receive full coverage so we must comply with those wishes whether or not we agree. Take a look at the ladies individually here.
Ugh. We're not sure what Carsguide was thinking when they agreed to launch this campaign by Cummins and Partners out of Melbourne.
Animated by Firehorse Films, the guys who did bro'Town (NZ's response to Family Guy), this film, called Day Rider, is a kitsch-ridden, awkward spoof on the '80's series Knight Rider. Naturally the car becomes the protagonist's worst enemy.
Because for some odd reason watching an '80's hoopty go bad will inspire you to possess one of your own, Carsguide ties the campaign in with an opportunity to win an '84 TransAm.
We're trying to think of more mean things to say but we're too sleepy and bored, so we'll just move on now.
Ever-so-delicately raising the topic of flatulence in the Ladies Home Journal, Copyranter tips us off on these completely weird cauliflower love letter ads for Beano. Check out a break-up variation.
We're totally mystified by the melodramatic soap opera serial vibe of the campaign, set off with wilty illustrations. Why can't we just say it would be nice not to look preggers in our little black dress tonight? Enough of this tiptoeing around the subject with the mopey gas-bestowing veggie. Nobody's writing love letters to vegetables. We're all just trying to keep our stomachs tucked into our jeans.
When you've got serious marketing dollars to throw behind wooing someone, it's a fine line between making them feel like stars and just, well, stalking the dickens out of them.
Philly-based 160over90 assists Wilkes University toward one or the other of these ends. Using mall kiosks, MySpace ads, billboards and whatever other media happened to be standing in a would-be Wilkesian's way, the university gave accepted students a king-sized shout-out.
The campaign makes Mini's "Hey Joe Shmoe" RFID-based billboard idea look piddly - it actually goes into details about the students' activities and ties them into the ad pitch.
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