Seriously, Is There Anything a Japanese Fetish Game Show CAN'T Sell?

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There's something about Japanese pop culture that compels us to watch and not look away. Japan is the seat of all fetishes, magnified for your viewing pleasure. (And we're not just talking* sexual ones.)

To ensure eyeballs for Nivea's line of shaving products, DraftFCB and Rubber Republic tapped into "glabermania" -- the addiction to shaving and being smooth. Inspired by our game show-crazed Japanese cohorts, here's what they came up with.

Come on, don't knock it. What else do you and your jaded creative homies have to do on Saturday night? Grab a camera and pool your shaving cream; think of it as a company morale-builder.

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By Gad -- a Bra that Demands Creativity!

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We're not really sure why something like the Doodle Bra should exist -- much less why you'd want to graffiti your lingerie with friends, or under the watchful eye of Proud (and Copiously Botoxed?) Mom.

What we do know is that the Doodle Bra is real, tantalizing us with its Chinese convenience store packaging, mocking us with its generic markers and broad selection of stencils.

Here's an encouraging thought: someone out there is getting rich this way.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 4-09    
Topic: Packaging, Strange



Carlos Mandelbaum Gets Wasted

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In the continuing saga of Carlos Mandelbaum and his insightful take on the state of marketing today, his latest outing examines the fantasy life of corporate managers. Mandelbaum ponders the penchant of corporate managers to fantasize they are warriors or mystics or...students getting all philosophical and intellectual by enjoying mind-expanding lectures by really cool professors...like the dude that did those weird UPS whiteboard ads.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 1-09    
Topic: Good, Opinion, Strange, Trends and Culture, Video



Clean Coal is So Clean It's An Air Freshener

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Hmm. So Crispin Porter + Bogusky asks the Coen Brothers to do a spot for their client, The Reality Coalition, to poke fun at the notion there's such a thing as clean coal. Aside from the irony of the word "coal" being in the cause group's name, the Coen Brothers do an OK job withe the cheesy spokesman approach.

In the commercial, the spokesman says, "clean coal harnesses the awesome power of the word clean," as the wife half of the couple he's speaking to sprays black clouds out of an aerosol can. Complete with coughing kids, the spots also claims "clean goal is supported by the coal industry, the most trusted name in coal."

You see? Just like the word clean guarantees your clothes will be clean in laundry detergent ads, the word clean in clean coal ads assures the same, right?

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-09    
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Commercials, Strange



Picturesque Mountain Cabin + Lingerie = Seriously Twisted Ad

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As we have come to expect from Agent Provocateur, weird is normal. So, in this new commercial, it makes perfect sense a lingerie-clad woman in ironing on the front porch of a mountain cabin while the strangest of music plays in the background.

And that she then goes inside to go all S&M the guy laying in bed.

Yes. Agent Provocateur.

Provocative.

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-09    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Racy, Strange



Billboard Karma Shines on Pro-Biking Campaign

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When Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing Co. was offered a package of urban Denver billboards, pro bono, for a pro-biking ad campaign, it quickly accepted, and assigned its agency, Denver-based Cultivator Advertising & Design to create the outdoor messages. And that's when serendipity stepped in and flooded the billboard placement Gods with good karma.

The headline, "Work to Bike More," was inspired by the priorities of several New Belgium employees who may well be more passionate about cycling than about gainful employment. The billboard promotes New Belgium's Team Wonderbike, which encourages both New Belgium employees and the general public to trade in their cars for a bike. The placement above PT Motor's "Cash for Cars" sign, at I-76 and North Federal Blvd., Denver, was...oh yea...serendipitous.

by Steve Hall    Feb-25-09    
Topic: Good, Outdoor, Strange



Mystery Solved! Peter Arnell is Mister Six in Disguise!

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Oh now it all makes sense. So this is what Peter Arnell did before he spent (wasted?) $35 million messing with Tropicana packaging (only to have the brand revert to the original) and who knows how many millions on the Pepsi logo...and that document.

Yes, indeed. Now it makes perfect sense.

by Steve Hall    Feb-25-09    
Topic: Agencies, Spoofs, Strange



If They're Gonna Be Plotting Your Demise, Better to Eat Them While Sober

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Belin Crazy Rings/Tubes/Starfish are essentially drinking snacks. We'd call them beer nuts but the branding material reads "l'apero cingle" -- aperitif snacks. Classy.

Anyway, to best target its market of casual at-home cocktailers, the French company is broadcasting this ad from its website and in banners on sites like MySpace. Our best guess is that they thought, "Drunk people engage in slightly malevolent, poorly thought-out hijinks all the time, so what if our snacks did too?!", and went zealously from there.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-25-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Strange, Television, Video



Triscuit + Kraft = No Snackrifice Necessary

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We have it on good authority that Nabisco's started circulating a new slogan, "Why Snackrifice?", to promote Triscuits -- and, to a lesser degree, Kraft cheese (its perfect mate).

Annoyingly, video searches for "triscuit snackrifice" or "snackrifice" yielded little more than videos produced by people that should not own cameras and a ton of Neopets-related stuff, respectively.

However, we did find a Why Snackrifice? page on NabiscoWorld, which promotes Triscuit (and Kraft!)'s health merits and pocketbook-friendliness. Also, there's a really rad shot of two women snacking responsibly while sitting in ecstatic postures normally reserved for yogurt eating. Scandale!

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-25-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Promotions, Strange



Helpful Blogger + Brand Idiocy = Social Media Disaster

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Oh wait. Didn't we just write that headline? Here we go again. Or is it "there you go again?" I can never remember what that Reagan dude used to say all the time. Anyway, here's the deal.

In a blog post, Jason Roe pointed out a fluke on the Ryanair website that made it possible for someone to book a flight and not be charged for it. He didn't actually book a free flight but he wanted the error to be made know.

How did Ryanair react? As if a Mastercard blowjob ad, pricelessly:

10. Ryanair Staff #1 Says:
February 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

jason!
you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!

Sweet, huh? But it gets worse. Upon confirmation the above comment did, in fact, come from a Ryanair employee, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said:

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by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Social, Strange, Weblogs, Worst