Racy Ads + Free Speech + Conservative Viewpoints = Great Cable Ratings

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Once again, advertising has caused an uproar over nothing. CNN's Mike Galanos covers the new (and really great if we do say so ourselves) Clearasil campaign and is upset over the ads which show a guy trying to pick up his friend's mom and a daughter who says "You should see me now" while her mother shows naked baby pictures of her to her boyfriend. While Galanos prudely prattles on, Melissa Henson from the Parents Television Council talks about how marketers use too much sex to sell and Debbie Wolf from the People Against Censorship says the moral minority shouldn't control what gets seen on TV and everyone should just lighten up and laugh.

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by Steve Hall    Sep-11-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Opinion, Policy, Racy, Trends and Culture



Parker Bullshits, Ads Suck, Hyundai Un-Hyundais

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- Calling AMC's Mad Men, Dr. Ernst Dichter's The Hidden Persuaders and current motivational research "mostly bullshit," George Parker manages to get himself into Advertising Age and promote his new book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders which, if his past book, MadScam, is any indication, won't be bullshit at all.

- Magazines and newspapers aren't doing anything wrong. It's just that the ads inside them all suck.

- Hyundai's new campaign leaves behind the brand name hoping to leave behind associated cheapness.

- Has anyone else noticed how "bloggy" Advertising Age is getting and how it's now OK to "print" words like fuck and bullshit? We just thought we'd wonder publicly a bit about that.

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The New Girl At Work Is Hot, Better Workout to Look Good For Her

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Steve Portigal from Portigal Consulting notes this ad for UK health club Cannons with the headline, "Because a new girl has started at work and she's hot," wouldn't play so well in America or Canada because we're a bit more politically correct than our forefather nation. While the ad is harmless enough, we agree. No doubt, an army of cause groups would be all over this one as soon as it hit the streets.

by Steve Hall    Sep- 7-07    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Good, Outdoor, Trends and Culture



Steve: Changing the World, One Music Player at a Time

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Hurrah, new browser-sporting wi-fi iPods, and they look just like everybody said they would.

Steve Jobs previewed an ad for the new toy in his keynote yesterday, which you can find if you dodge all the 'Amazing!'s, the bad jokes, and his overextended attempt to make a ringtone out of Aretha Franklin's Respect.

The ad is short and follows the same see-what-my-finger-can-do aesthetic as the iPhone ads. Looking forward to seeing the "official" version.

Also, Apple announced a partnership with Starbucks where you can log onto iTunes for free on a wi-fi-ready Apple unit, and even - get this - buy a song in a Starbucks while it's playing. Cashing in on the impulse has never been easier.

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by Angela Natividad    Sep- 6-07    
Topic: Events, Mobile/Wireless, Trends and Culture



Alluring Videos Turn Heads, Become Video Ad Model

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Several years ago, Patrick Sell, who has a history in marketing with stints at Doremus and Reuters, launched a site called I Do Nothing All Day. Aptly, the site contains nothing more than videos he takes while out and about in New York City. Of course, they aren't just any videos, they're videos of beautiful women walking down the sidewalk or in the park. Originally, Sell envisioned I Do Nothing All Day as a site where all kinds of New York City imagery would be captured and shared but as we all know, nothing attracts more attention than a beautiful woman walking down the sidewalk on a hot summer day.

Now, before you go and label Sell a perv, check out the site. It's nicely done and he asks everyone permission before he films them. He's not doing anything more salacious than you'd find in your average fashion magazine or on fashion show runways anywhere in the world. The work is just a simple appreciation of natural female beauty. Now that we have that clarified, Sell has expanded, launching Turning His Head, a site which sells women's clothing featured in I Do Nothing All Day videos.

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by Steve Hall    Sep- 5-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Product Placement, Racy, Trends and Culture, Video



Advertising Evolves, Women Hotter Than Beer

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Who says advertising objectifies women? Certainly not The Ranch which is very kind to women keeping them nice and hot as opposed to letting them get cold like the beer they serve. How compassionate. How understanding. How forward thinking. How evolved! This objectification of women is just a bunch of hogwash (as I guess people who'd go to The Ranch would say), right?

by Steve Hall    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Opinion, Outdoor, Trends and Culture



Talking Polar Bears, Alethiometers, Nicole Kidman - What's Not to Like?!

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Some people, like LotR aficionados, have waited most of their adult lives for their epic to hit the big screen. Others, notably Harry Potter and Narnia fans, haven't really had to suffer the bittersweet agony of waiting for some director to do justice to their literary childhood fantasia.

Our time has finally come. And it's either going to be really crappy, in which case it takes New Line Cinema down along with it, or it's going to blow our fucking minds.

The epic we're referring to is The Golden Compass, part one of a trilogy we've read at least six times. Watch the Comic Con preview for the fullest effect.

While we doubt Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman would ever let us down, we realize how stupid it is to pin all our broken dreams on an adaptation, so we are holding our emotions at arm's length.

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by Angela Natividad    Aug-31-07    
Topic: Best, Online, Promotions, Trends and Culture



According to Advertising Age, Overseas Celebrity Endorsement A New Thing

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Writing as if overseas celebrity endorsements of American celebrities is a new thing and, apparently, never having heard of Japander (which has been around forever but currently appears to be undergoing some sort of renovation). Advertising Age goes for a bit of celebu-journalism. The gist of the piece is how, recently, celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie have fallen on hard legal times making it difficult for brands to rely on them to represent their brands alongside endless news stories about their troublesome dalliances.

However, as if the rest of the world is cut off from the Internet (OK, so some of it actually is), it appears to be news American celebrities and their handlers are turning to overseas markets to strike endorsement deals. This story is five years old. Jus' sayin'.

by Steve Hall    Aug-28-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Trends and Culture



Nike Wants Equality For Female Athletes, Tell That to Marketers

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Rather than launching a multi-million dollar campaign urging people to treat female athletes with respect and to judge them simply on their athletic abilities, Nike could have a spent a lot less money simply by targeting marketers, many of whom love to focus on female athletes' physical qualities more so than their athletic abilities. Or to all those celebrity handlers who love to get their girls in a Maxim or FHM spread.

Oh, and is it just us or is their something weird about this image of the Nike Women website and accompanying text which reads, "Are you looking at my titles?" Nike coyly playing into the very thing their trying to dissuade?

by Steve Hall    Aug-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Good, Trends and Culture



Garfield Dubs Heineken Keg Ad Sexist, College Kids Don't Care

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Writing on Advertising Age today, Bob Garfield, returning from vacation on the Adriatic coast "where hordes of young Eastern European women sashayed to and fro in overflowing bikinis and high heels" reducing him to "a slack jawed cliché of arrested adolescence," wonders if the Heineken DraughtKeg ad is the most sexist beer ad ever created.

After wading through Garfield's extensive hyperbole and detailed analysis of this commercial, he concludes, writing, "Berlin Cameron United has essentially animated the "perfect woman" joke. Whether intentionally or out of pure animal instinct uncivilized by the most basic notion of respect, they have reduced half the world to a man-servicing beer tap."

Fair enough but we wonder if women sometimes inadvertently play right into this girl-as-boy-toy perception as this girl seemingly does here becoming a keg stand play-thing for a couple of guys who, yes, did run out and buy the new Heineken Draught Keg. Innocuous college antics? Or precursor to sexism?

by Steve Hall    Aug-27-07    
Topic: Commercials, Opinion, Trends and Culture