If you ever thought for one minute social media is just another stupid new trend dreamt up by a bunch of buzzword-happy people who do nothing but "consult" and hang out on Twitter espousing bite sized chunks of wisdom in 140 characters, you seriously need to re-adjust your thinking.
Take David Armano. He lives in Chicago. He works in the advertising business. He publishes a blog. He's active on Twitter. But this isn't about him. It's about a woman named Daniela who left her husband because she was abused and how a community came to her aid.
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Once again, it's time to look back and review 2008, Adrants-style: with the hottest, sexiest and raciest ads of 2008. If you've fallen behind the times, check out our 2007 round-up. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy.
Sometimes an ad comes right out and says what everyone's thinking, a method that can be nearly as refreshing as, oh ... an alcoholic energy drink. At least that's the case with this billboard in Denmark for Cult Shaker. Mincing no words, it asked passersby to fornicate with the naked girl featured at left. Are we off to a good start yet?
Combining the well-documented fact that eyes tend to wander down paths made by pulchritudinous cleavage, and the notion a fast camera is paramount to lending permanence to the moment, Olympus presents us with an ad that perfectly captures this deft eyeball dance.
And what would a cattle call of the year's hottest ads be without the famed Why every guy should buy their girlfriend a Wii Fit video starring Lauren, the gorgeous girlfriend of Tinsley Advertising Director-Marketing Giovanny Gutierrez, who made the video as a spec viral?
With 7,634,988 views, the hypothesis is proved once again: amateurishly shot + hot chick + controversy = viral hit.
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Plaid made the holidays extra-special this year by sending a video to clients and friends -- including us -- that claims we were involved in an affair with Mrs. Claus, which has since gone public and may potentially destroy Christmas.
It is a completely insane premise.
You've probably seen this or something like it before, laughed once and never thought about it again. But at least two people out there are so distraught over it, they've had a lawyer send an official cease and desist letter to Plaid, demanding that the material be taken down and that proof of its removal be conveyed to them.
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The "human advertising trend," which involves the selling of parts of one's bodies or personal items to advertisers has been around for quite sometime. Mostly, initial examples were one-offs followed by many unsuccessful followers. Mostly, they were laughed at because, well, it wasn't "real" advertising. Now, with most forms of advertising in upheaval or on the brink of failure, marketers are much more receptive to trying new things.
This receptiveness has allowed web designer Jason Sadler's I Wear Your Shirt to be well on it's way to a complete success. With I Wear Your Shirt, an in the flesh-style PayPerPost, Sadler, 26, will wear a company's shirt for one day every day next year. Off to s good start, 145 days have been sold so far.
Sadler has attractively priced his offering with each day sold at "face value." In other words, January 1st costs $1 and so on. Most days through April have been sold to date. Sadler stands to make as much as $66,795 if he sells all 365 days.
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- Geek rigs maternity device to tweet when his unborn baby kicks. Probably the earliest instance of Twitter use EVAR. (Thanks, Atif!)
- Collateral Damage's top 10 marketing blunders of '08. There's way more than 10 ("It was a very good year for very bad things"), and the top two are tied. Go figure.
- Deep Focus does FlightLipDub.com -- the new online home for Flight of the Conchords.
- Free Will Power aims to safeguard "the future of pro-choice America." There's spoken word poetry! And a T-shirt contest!
- It's a site on the hunt for beautiful ads.
- Another advertising socnet.
- Best and worst of AdFreak. If you consider what Collateral Damage's worst marketing campaign was, you can probably guess AdFreak's best ad of '08. We'll give you a hint: celebrity mashup.
- Pepsi blocks other non-alcoholic beverages from entire first half (!!!) of next year's Super Bowl. And Halftime! Now that's just gluttonous.
- To promote its Scott Shop Towels ("like paper towels but way tougher," the PR folk explained), Kimberly Clark goes on safari for grills gone wild!.
- Bill Green lends valuable insight on how to gain a near-instant boost in Twitter followers.
- Evil Dead -- the Musical.
- If the Peanuts crew were an ad agency, Lucy would be the obnoxiously bitchy, but refreshingly honest, Christmas party organizer. And Linus would be an AD. (The security blanket should've been the tip-off.)
- Powder Blue trailer strips Jessica Biel down to her bare minerals. Eat your heart out, Natalie Portman! (Neither link is SFW.)
- Burger King's King loses wallet.
OK first of all, who knew Diesel made clothes for kids? And who would assume they did given the nature of most of their past advertising work which has included bondage, strippers, near nudity, porn, a meat puppet, disco dancing, S&M and voyeurism. Not exactly child-friendly behavior.
But that hasn't stopped the brand from going after kids. Sadly, though, they appear to be having a tough time getting the word out. A six minute video which some might call enchanting and worthy of being called a film has been on YouTube since September 29. It's received just 2,212 views and no comments. What's up with that?
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Alex Leo over at HuffPo wrote a post on five sexist trends the ad world just can't shake. The following tropes "use stereotypes and violence to prey on our most vile desires" -- and probably aren't going anywhere, despite "cultural outrage" and "personal boredom."
The list (in far less detail than Leo provides):
o Bondage. One awesome example is the ad at left, for Remy Martin's "Things Are Getting Interesting" campaign. Experience has taught us naughty domina girls sell more than liquor, however; they also push PSPs with whip-cracking finesse.
o Rape. Illustrated by this ad by Dolce & Gabbana -- which I think had more of a "gang-bang" in mind than a "rape," per se. It's a feathery-fine distinction.
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"I'm drunk as hell and I'm not going to take it any longer!" Or something like that. One imagines that's the sentiment behind an new effort from alcohol industry watch dog Marin Institute called Free the Bowl. In response to what it calls "oppressive beer ads," Free the Bowl is a contest for 13 to 20 year olds which asks for the submission of videos aimed at asking brewers to stop advertising (wasting mony?) in the Super Bowl.
*old school sound of needle sliding off the record*
Um, say what???! Like that's got a snowball's chance in he...wait...isn't there a better metaphor for this? Hmm. That's as likely as an SUV getting manufactured in January. Oh wait. That's got as much of a chance of the U.S. government EVAR paying off its deficit. Hmm. That's as likely as Janet Jackson ever appearing in another Super Bowl half time show. Uh. That's as likely as George Parker not saying fuck for an entire day. That's as likely as an ad blogger never again using Donny Deutsch's Speedo picture. That's as likely as no one in the ad industry getting laid off in January. That's as likely as Advertising Age ever letting Steve Hall write for them. OK, this is getting boring.
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- A whiff of Hugo Boss Femme may put you in a self-adulating, decidedly Diddy state of mind.
- Twitter marketing toolbox. *twirls finger*
- Contemplating facial hair? Upload your likeness here. For Schick -- which may actually lose customers that may have otherwise grown mustaches out before realizing they looked like Super Mario. (And not in an awesome, sliding-through-the-magic-pipe kinda way.)
- Bob Knorpp contemplates the legal saga of the Bratz. Complete with at least three hooker jokes.
- This HP Mini 1000 is brought to you by Vivienne Tam. We find them semi-sassy.
- Hey Facebook, "your dreams of avarice are fucked."
- Just another world record-breaking stunt.
- Cab driver advertises MBA credentials to customers. One good thing you can say about this economy: it makes everyone a marketer.
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