At the risk of igniting a shit storm, were those Salesgenie ads really that racist? Let's examine. The ad where the Indian guy is berated by his boss is an illustration of an employee being berated because his sales are down.
We have to imagine that happens quite a lot no matter where in the world people live. We also have to imagine there are quite a few instances in real life where the boss is white and the employee is Indian.
If the tables were turned and an Indian boss was shown berating a white employee for his lack of sales, would the ad still be racist? Or is it racist because the Indian employee has an Indian accent? Maybe it's racist because the boss is a bloated fat asshole.
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Our enigmatic West Coast resource, who's really good at drumming up touchy rumours about the goings-on at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, just sent us this Oakley spot by AWOL.
The spot depicts Shaun White's offseason life a lot less sexily than HP did. It's almost funny -- if you're thirsty for schadenfreude.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, the source quickly points out, agency AWOL is composed of Doug Mukai, Scott Wilson and Chris Dutton.
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Jaffe Juice pointed us over to this video of a super-talky Miller High Life employee dropping knowledge about this year's Super Bowl ads. Among his observations:
"Unibrow aside, would you wanna date a woman who smelled like nuts? Cashews in particular."
"If you're looking for work, it helps if you're a lizard."
We love how he can never seem to remember the brand name for all those beer ads he mentions.
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AOL just now released its results for the top-ranked ads in its 6th Annual AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll, sponsored by Verizon. Here's the top five:
1. Budweiser Clydesdale/dalmatian ad
2. Bridgestone squirrel spot
3. Coca-Cola's Balloons
4. Life Water's Thriller
5. E-Trade's talking baby spot
"Advertisers bring their 'A' games to the Super Bowl commercials, and Budweiser scored an impressive victory this year as the best of the best," gushed GM Derrick Heggans of AOL Sports. Nothing new there.
Gotta say we're glad the Coke Balloons spot made it into somebody's top five. But what'd we tell you? There's no beating Rocky. Maybe next time, Charlie Brown.
Oh how the morning after brings clarity to the prior evening's dalliances. After having obsessively consumed over 40 ads, analyzing them and then writing about them all within a three to four hour period, we sat down this morning with a cup of coffee and did what ad people to the morning after: we watched the game again. Or, to clarify, we fast forwarded through the game and watched the commercials
We laughed. We smiled. We grinned. We even enjoyed that Will Ferrell commercial. And, we bathed in the beauty of Coke's beautiful balloon ballet. In the heat of the battle, people can be harsh and in some cases, we were. But from the perspective of the average viewer not hunched over a computer or in front of a conference room screen, most of the ads weren't so bad.
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Big conclusions:
- The Pats have spoiled what may have been a historic football streak. Can you say performance anxiety? Somebody could have made a killing selling warm crying towels in the locker room after game time.
- No matter how exciting a game is, shouting "GO BARACK" in the AdGabber Super Bowl chat room will result in a half-hour-long political death match.
- "Plaxico Burress" sounds like it belongs on a big pharma's drug pipeline.
- Bud Light failed to impress. Well, this was all right.
- The question of the night: Who thought the SalesGenie ads were racist? We didn't much notice -- but then again, we were also sharking Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts after that racist tee fiasco.
- eTrade spots: Latent trauma or the quiet mark of an Ally McBeal fan?
- Coke dives into the Super Bowl -- traditional Pepsi territory -- and accomplishes two goliathan tasks: mending American politics for :60 over Jinx (have you got a better idea?), and recapturing America with "Balloon". The AdGabber chat room is screaming (or rather, furiously typing) "Charlie Brown! Did you SEE CHARLIE BROWN!" for the next 10 minutes -- a cheer only seconded by "BANANAS!" when, for some reason, the Super Bowl camera guys take a few wistful shots of some browning bananas on the sidelines.
Good game. Last-minute crowning glory for the Giants? Very The Art of War.
"It was the art of bad football," snarled twinzdad6 from the AdGabber chat room.
OK, we're not complaining but if half time Super Bowl acts keep going in the direction they have been, they're going to have to resurrect Chuck Berry. At the risk of igniting the firestorm we did last year when we seemed to be the only people who had unkind things to say about Prince's halftime show, we're going to go easy this year. And with good reason. Tom Petty did a fine job.
Petty performed all his usual classics on a very cool looking stage shaped and designed like a guitar. We actually enjoyed the show. See? We can be nice sometimes.
By now you've heard the spot GoDaddy's Bob Parsons wants you to see won't air during the game. The spot(s) that will air feature a crowd of people at a party scene. In one, White Light, Candice Michelle makes her appearance in a doorway to a transfixed audience. In another, Spot On, Danica Patrick teases the crowd to check her out online in her "OMG! Fox Rejected Commercial!" So after the game, if you care, that's where you can see Danica and that whole beaver thing.
We're going back to sleep now.
Slapping down the UK's Advertising Standards Authority which didn't like a recent ad Ryanair ran in three newspaper which featured an image of a model in a school girl outfit with the copy, "Hottest. back to School Fares," Ryanair head of communications Peter Sherrard said, "This isn't advertising regulation, it is simply censorship. This bunch of unelected self-appointed dimwits are clearly incapable of fairly and impartially ruling on advertising."
Sherrard went on to site the common practice of British newspapers which feature topless women within their pages on a regular basis and stated the airline would not withdraw the ad as requested by the ASA which received 13 complaints.
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Advertising Age's Laura Martinez comically comments on the launch of a line of jeans from Fiorana which are cut to accommodate the stereotypically Latina butt such as the ones attached to Jennifer Lopez, America Ferrara or Vida Guerra (OK, she's Cuban but still).
Fiorana President Mike Braden tells us, "The Latina body is different in waist and hip structure. When wearing Anglo cut jeans, there is always a fit problem around the waist area." Martinez ponders the point by wondering why she, who is of Latina descent, does not possess the bootylicious qualities Braden seems to believe all Latina women possess.
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