Hey, Mom. How About Exchanging that Dignity for a Month's Worth of Free Brownies?

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In hopes of selling, I don't know, more sweet potato casserole through May, Boston Market is trying to turn Mother's Day into a month-long event.

Visit The Moms Party to check out the campaign. And if you really want to make the matriarch cringe, upload her picture into a "President of the Moms Party!" poster.

It could always be worse.

Anyway, all members of the Moms Party will get free desserts with purchase through May at Boston Market. The more views your mom-inate (get it? Like "candidate"?) poster receives, the more likely your mom is to become the party leader.

Horrors.

by Angela Natividad    May-15-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Promotions, Strange



Pepperidge Farm Gets Racy. Or is it Racist?

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In a lengthy analysis of a recent Pepperidge Farm print ad for the company's Milano cookie, Beyond Madison Avenue in which such details as "soul mates" versus "soulmates" are examined, the writer points to another take on the ad, from 360Nu.com, which...wait for it...calls the ad racist. Yes. A racist cookie ad.

It seems there may need to be a WTF category added to Adrants to house all these idiocies. However, before immediately tossing this off as yet another case of Chronic Overthink, the 360Nu writer offers interesting commentary on marketing, advertising and packaging as they relate to the reflection, creation, perpetuation or racial stereotypes.

Using two examples, angel food cake with white frosting over black cake and Devil Dogs with black ...stuff over the white, a corollary is made between the white over black as positive and the black over white as negative (devil).

Whether or not you decide to file this away in your own personal WTF category, you should at least read the piece firts. Then you can label the writer a crack pot or an insightful genius.

by Steve Hall    May-15-08    
Topic: Opinion, Strange, Trends and Culture



Fair Trade Groupies Toss Wares in Aisles Six and Seven

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The Max Havelaar Foundation, a coalition of fair trade producers and initiatives worldwide, is using this video to promote fair trade practices.

I'm not really sure what's going on, aside from that a bunch of subversives seem really unhappy with what they're finding at the grocery store.

Alternatively, they could just be looking for buddies to play catch with. Reason #458 to take up Ultimate Frisbee.

by Angela Natividad    May-14-08    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla, Online, Strange, Video



Bogusky Flattered, craigslist Countersues, Home Depot Goes for the Gold

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- Fast Company loves itself some Alex Bogusky. Enough to compare him to Jesus. No word on whether the author washed his feet with her hair.

- Shelf that silly Microsoft morale video. "It's here and it's hot! Home Depot Solid Gold!"

- To combat the eBay suit, craigslist countersues. Then the nanny found their babas and put them down for a nap.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Strange



Its Trump Card Played, Crocs Gets Gimmicky

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Having generated reluctant admirers with its "Ugly can be beautiful" campaign in 2005, Crocs now gives us "What a Croc!" -- which has guts in spades, and occasional moments of flair, but is otherwise far less coherent.

See insane screaming man and the pretty pretty princess. The latter is the result of a collabo between Crocs and Jibbitz, self-styled "the official Crocs shoe charm." And you thought those Godforsaken mules couldn't get any uglier.

Thanks AdFreak for bringing "What a Croc!" to our attention.

by Angela Natividad    May-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Strange



Charismatic Guitarist Peddles for Ribs on Open Mic Night

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I'm not really sure what to say about "Spare a Rib" for KC Masterpiece (agency: DDB, SF). I guess I'd argue that if some guy solicits you for food with a catchy chorus, then compels everyone around you to leap up and perform choreographed dance moves, you should probably leave, because that's some unnerving Pied Piper shit, and we all know how that story ended.

Oh, and nice touch with the ragey guy breaking his banjo over the anvil.

by Angela Natividad    May-13-08    
Topic: Commercials, Strange, Television, Video



Honda Pilot Attracts Geeks ... Just Not the Kind that Get Rich and Marry Models

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In specific, the Honda Pilot will steer you into the path of geriatric ballooning nudists, jetpack users and at least one guy trapped in a cement block. All will be male, and all will be slightly left of your comfort zone.

These unlikely Good Samaritan scenarios highlight the Pilot's merits: rearview camera, navigation with voice recognition and "surprising" fuel efficiency. None of that is terribly unique, but all of it is now lodged in my brain, if only so I can turn the ads into slow-night bar fodder.

But wait! There's print stuff too. See Youtility and Ride Ready, which are less creepy, but also less interesting. Agency: RPA.



Mom's a Slut. Men Are Free Loading Slobs. Happy Mother's Day

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I will admit I did not "get" this Mother New York-created Mother's Day video at first. I figured it was yet another sappy ode to a holiday that demands men to, in one day, must express their appreciation for the mom in their life with trite ditties such as a card or a meal at a restaurant as opposed to the daily verbal appreciation that truly expresses appreciation.

more »

by Steve Hall    May-13-08    
Topic: Agencies, Strange, Video



WTF Doesn't Even Come Close to Expressing This Campaign's WTFness

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Um, open your mind? Facial reconstruction? Experience the beauty of music? Be kind to animals? Kill your kid by blowing off his head? Some campaigns occasionally cause a serious case of WTFness. This one from Bilioteq Creative books goes so far beyond WTF that after seeing them maybe, akin to the ads themselves, you'll tear off your face and rip out your brain forever leaving behind any chance you'll ever again have to be faced (ooo...was that a pun?) with the challenge of harming your brain cells interpreting WTFness such as this ad campaign from South Africa's FoxP2.

by Steve Hall    May-13-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Strange



Jiggling Breasts Yield to Jiggling Bellies in Subaru Commercial

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Well it's about time for some equal time. Why should commercials which involve cars, water and soap suds combined into a slow motion sex-fest be reserved exclusively for hot young women in tiny bikinis that barely cover their pulchritudinous curvaceousness? That's just so...sexist.

Thankfully, Subaru knows this and has left thong-clad females out of it's latest Forrester commercial in favor of...yes...hot, sexy, belly-jiggling sumo wrestlers. What fun! Oh come on. You know a jiggling belly can be just as hot as jiggling breasts, right?

by Steve Hall    May-13-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Racy, Strange