To show how the penny is shortchanged in the value hierarchy, Office Max launched a campaign called "Power to the Penny." Toting a hidden camera, comedian Matt McCarthy pisses people off all over New York City by trying to buy stuff, like steak dinners, with nothing but bags full of copper coinage.
My favourite scene from the above video:
Chef (who pops outta nowhere): "How about if you come in here and you order the steak, and I take the steak, and I put it in the blender, and I give you the steak in a milkshake. Is that a steak?"
Long pause.
Matt McCarthy: "Why don't you go back in the kitchen, because you're not helping the situation."
I wish I had a penny for every time daddy said that to mommy.
More videos at PennyPranks. Each one ends with a clip-happy visual orgy of everything you can buy at Office Max for a penny. Crayons! Yardsticks! Glue! It's diorama time.
- The Social Path drew our attention to this perplexing Oasis ad where a girl gets knocked up by a cactus -- not for its own sake, but to justify half-assed Myspace campaigns.
- 50 Cent is upset with Taco Bell. Yeah well, we are too.
- Support your Presidential contender of choice with a handy-dandy kippah. Goes with everything.
- This is kind of neat. By the way, save water.
- Just what you need: a Samsung Instinct miniseries.
- Kanye West helps improve self-esteem. With vodka. But you probably already know that trick, don't you?
- Philippe Starck and BBC Two are doing an Apprentice-style series called School of Design. "Vous etes fired." Heh.
Hoping to expand your nuptial smorgasbord? Add Shaadi to your list -- which, if you've been paying attention, should already include Russians, Filipinos and good white-bread Christian girls.
Shaadi is a conservative Indian "matrimonial" site, which I guess is less obnoxious than Filipina Heart's more overt cattle call. I found the ad alongside an article titled "Ad campaign promoting Islam angers NY lawmaker." Dude, that is some seriously misguided contextual action.
As a follow up to its original rugby film, Land Rover is out with another which debuted mid-July and has, again, tapped British royalty to appear in the video. In the new video, the goofy rugby lover puts his smarmy moves on Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. Phillips, an equestrienne Eventing World Champion is seen taking her horse out of its trailer while the goofy dude tries to explain to Phillips, who, apparently, he doesn't know, how simple horse rising is. Philips just smiles but the horse doesn't take too kindly to the dude's smarm.
In late 2006, Phillips appeared in a print ad for Land Rover wearing a gown covered in mud with the headline, "Beautifuly Poised." The Queen wasn't all that happy about her appearing in the ad but perhaps she's had a chance to get used to Phillip's more "real world" endeavors.
Check out Faceless People, for which a bunch of, well, faceless people appear in high-profile places all over England.
By wading through a sea of faceless folk on FacelessPeople.com, you can read up on the specs for the new Lotus Evora. Tagline: "True character in a faceless world."
Diggin' the creepy guerrilla effort (imagine getting on the bus and sitting next to somebody WITHOUT A FACE!), but I also think it's pretty bitchy to claim to have a premium on character. (Why spend $80K for character when a jagged scar does it for free?) Thanks to Adrants reader Tom Quinn for sending this over.
It's a forgone conclusion that Verizon ads suck and deserve to be pummeled by bitchy ad critics such as those employed at trade rags like Adrants. Oh wait, that's us. Oops. That would be...leading industry publication Adrants. Now that we have that settled...
It's official. America has no sense of humor and has become so literal, no one can say anything at all without offending various cause group members who, due to an onslaught of grade school self-esteem-focused curricula which have rendered them incapable of chilling out and enjoying life without looking at it through a microscope.
So what's all the fuss about this time?
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- We got to check out the Facebook redesign yesterday. There's tabs and room for more ads (I'm seeing TWO now instead of just ONE!). Also, personal information is intuitively distributed so you don't have to read everything from one long column. A lot of people are annoyed because it's heavy with the social media vibe, but we'll be used to it in, like, two weeks.
- For Parrot, Feed Company started a video campaign featuring a nightmarish kid on a driving lesson. "We're done, we're done! FUCK IT!" Heh.
- Shark sighting. Or not. By Mullen for the sharks and rays exhibit at NE Aquarium.
- New spot by BBH/NY and Partizan/LA for LG Steam Washer. It's called "World of Steam" and takes place in a wrinkly fabric world. It's weird, but not as weird as this was, and I guess sort of passively pleasant.
- Another Parrot thing: Parrot Not Quail. (I'm not really down to make a parrot the state bird, but we did make the Terminator governor.)
If you carry a knife, you risked being stabbed by your own blade. Most likely wielded by Evil You from Mirror World.
The spot was put together by AMV BBDO for the Tower Hamlets Council, which is concerned about "rising!" knife crime and convinced people won't stop carrying blades unless they believe they're disproportionately likely to trip, fall and impale themselves.
Bet that pansy-ass excuse didn't stop Genghis Khan, though. (Yeah, I know that's not Genghis, but it's a pretty rad picture.)
- The FWA has announced its 2008 Site of the Year judging panel. Some idiot named Steve Hall will be one of the judges.
- Chuck McCarthy has a few ideas for those of us in advertising. Not one to overlook a missed ad opportunity, Chuck thinks branded background images on those distorted login codes would be a great medium, Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back could be turned into Snackin' Back for a cracker brand and energy drink product placement in porn would be hot.
- A dude thinks the back of pennies are a great medium. He was right. After affixing his URL to the back of fifty pennies and distributing them around New York, business boomed.
Some people are more dedicated than others. Or more stupid, depending upon how you look at it. If all it takes to appear in a McDonald's promotion is to rob one at gun point and then spend 12 year in prison, then Tamien Bain is one smart man.
After having held up a McDonald's in 1994 when he was a teenager 14 years ago, Bain spent 12 years in prison. Now he's among five finalists in a MySpace BigMacChant jingle competition for the Big Mac. While he was in prison, he took a liking to music and now, at 29, he just may see some glory after his 12 years of hard work.
Now that's dedication.
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