"Schizophrenic Man Terrifies Kids at Party" is a YouTube piece released by English mental health charities Mind and Rethink under their "Time to Change" campaign. We like how it plays on our expectation of crass amateur video fare to illustrate two important messages:
o That people with mental disorders can function in society
o That retaining the stereotype of the off-the-hinge crazy person is counterproductive for everyone involved
It also reminded us that as kids, we were always screamy-scared about stuff we couldn't see, however facile or harmless said "stuff" actually was. And then, lightbulb moment, it was like hey, tripping out about schizophrenia is kind of like that.
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"It's funny how new furniture has a way of restoring people. Add something special to your home and experience it firsthand."
Awww. Tent cities have hardly folded up and we're already being hawked side tables. The piece at left comes from "Is it Home Yet?", a campaign/sweepstakes meant to bring gunshy spenders back into furniture showrooms.
The World Market Center Last Vegas, a showroom and exhibition space for the furniture industry, is pushing the effort, with help from collaborators like the National Home Furnishings Association and the Western Home Furnishing Association. In addition to a nationwide multimedia push, it will receive still more attention from widespread celebration of "National Home Furnishings Month" -- September, a traditional (but cozy!) period of change.
Note the ornaments of an industry calibrated for battle: a couch that, according to its materials tag, meets or exceeds "comfort and happiness standards"; and a slogan that appears on a rustic welcome mat. You can also expect to be heavily exposed to soft-touch shots of smiling unbroken families, cushy stuffed couches and other timeless accoutrements of the resilient nuclear unit.
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Speaking of MySpace, the hot mess at left was recently rejected by the social networking site for being too sexually explicit.
The ad is part of a campaign, "Hottest Body in the World," for Parfums de Coeur's new men's fragrance, Body Heat. It's a contest where users turn in photos, the hottest of which will be used on a Hollywood billboard. (The winner also gets $10,000.)
Featured prominently at center is a screenshot from a :30 commercial that will run across Fox TV stations and on Facebook. It depicts a shirtless man and some hot fawning ... fawns, one of which is edging down toward his waist.
Dot Box, which originated the idea, called the MySpace rejection an "odd development considering MySpace's less-than-prudish reputation."
But we're kinda with @RGA on this one:
Was this ad too hot for MySpace [dramatic pause, raised eyebrow]...or was it not trashy + poorly designed enough?
One ... two ... three ... Discuss.
How completely insane. Here is a series of videos that purport to teach you how various indie emo hipster-looking people achieve their MySpace profile pic angles.
Sounds innocuous enough. Even seems to promise a spirited joke or two: how does the Crooked Bathed-in-Light guy get his gooseneck lamp to cast just right?
Click on one to view the how-to. What you discover is that each person, or group, is actually a disfigured or terrifying zombie/witch/monster thing. Then you're walked pragmatically through the process of how they covered blemishes and used various cheats on their cameras to make themselves as MySpace-worthy (and, uh, human-looking) as possible.
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- People dig sharing stuff on Facebook, more than via email, or via MySpace, or via Twitter, or via anything else, really.
- "Life Guard" tees get Ralph Lauren sued. (Via.) Just for giggles, we ran a search for [ralph lauren lifeguard] on Google and clicked on "Lifeguard Cotton Tee - RalphLauren.com," which comes up first in search results. That link now leads to this beach patrol tee. But if you hit "Cached," you'll find it used to lead to that really boring sucker at left.
- Canadian model Liskula Cohen wins landmark case that will force Google to unmask an anonymous blogger who posted slutty pictures of her and, logically, called her a skank. Sigh.
- The least interesting man in the world probably won't sell any beers. He may, however, contribute to the sales of many geeky t-shirts. "Stand back. I'm going to try SCIENCE."
- MySpace swallows iLike.
- Talking Quizno's oven drives guys to therapy for what should be obvious reasons.
- Something that has nothing to do with advertising, but everything to do with "geometry, light and a wee bit of magic."
"Hey big nose. I think we're in a Quilmes spot."
Young & Rubicam make good in the comically self-aware "Spot," where two guys at a club look around and discover, by virtue of the gimmicks they recognize from beer ads, that they're living in an ad for Quilmes, a brand of Argentinian beer.
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We were thinking the other day about all the technological advances that happened with dolls when were kids: the kind with the hair you could cut that grows back, or the one whose hair changed colour when you ran a cold hairbrush through it, or -- our personal favourite -- the one that pissed into a changeable cloth diaper! after suckling real fluid from a bottle.
So maybe Spanish doll maker Berjuan is adding a logical cobblestone to what's already a long illustrious tradition. Still, this demonstration for Bebe Gloton, a doll little girls can pretend to breastfeed, left us suffering from WTF Face.
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In what could, for some, be considered poetic justice, Barely Political contributes to the untimely-yet-prolonged death of its charmingest Frankenstein Monster: Obama Girl.
Amidst a campy new jingle and some ass-wiggling with a faux Republican, a reluctant Obama Girl -- recently informed that she's cheated vindictive Death -- is thrown into a wall of knives. The resulting perversion of a quaint Victorian pastime gives her the chance to perform something most actors salivate for: a death scene.
The chill demeanour she maintains, even as life leaks unconvincingly out of her sternum, is a tribute to our casually jaded generation. She even gets a dandy little healthcare message in.
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- Need a date? Mad Men need not apply.
- KFC wants you to Go f... fry yourself.
- More real fake designer bag bargains.
- Naked Netflix.
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A few new docs out on the business...
First up, Art & Copy looks at... advertising. I haven't seen it yet but it's produced in conjunction with the One Show. From what I can tell by the trailer, it looks like it covers the usual topics and players relative to the business. (What, no George Parker?)
Next up is Marc Colucci's Lemonade, a look at people who were fired from agency jobs and who have now found new directions in life. Yea new things in life! It's an extension of the Please Feed The Animals blog. (Via AdPulp.)
Another older but still relevant look at the business is PBS' The Persuaders. Watch the whole thing online for free.
Add them to the cue kids.
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