With Michigan State's crushing defeat on Saturday to Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship football game, tensions are particularly high between the two states. It's almost as if any little thing could set a Michigander off — for example, a tourism campaign that likens Wisconsin to a deformed mitten.
Is there anything worse than mommy bloggers? That is a rhetorical question because if you have two firing synapses, you know the answer to that question. Now one of them is all up in arms about a Manhunt billboard that dared to be on the way to her child's school.
Patagonia is a company that sells jackets with the subtle, socially responsible message "I am a significantly better human being than you." People who wear Patagonia jackets are successful enough to take ski vacations and purchase $250 items of clothing that resemble trash bags, but also conscientious enough to donate to attend lots of local environmental charity balls, in Aspen. And while you, the fat slob "average American," were scarfing down styrofoam-encased fast food and doing your "Cyber Monday" online shopping in a non-sustainable manner, Patagonia was doing something a little different for the crazy shopping day.
Here's a sweet Australian ad for—well, I don't want to ruin the surprise (you will probably be able to guess what's going to happen anyway), except to say that the United States could stand to see more campaigns like this.
Finally, an iPhone competitor has figured out a way to, if not quite level the playing field, at least get a few cheap shots in at Apple's expense: This Samsung smartphone ad is extremely petty about the kind of person who waits in line to buy an iPhone. Easy target, surefire results. Will it help to sell Samsung Galaxy S IIs? Who cares! Simply by performing this very necessary public service, I deem this campaign an unqualified success. I'm totally going to text it to everyone I know on my iPhone! (Sorry, Samsung. Do I look like the kind of person who clips cellphones to my belt and uses a Dell Inspiron? Yeah, no. Our love affair ends here.)
Ever since the mediapocalypse that occurred simultaneously with the overall economy-pocalypse, the magazine industry has been, shall we say, not at its best. The financially weaker magazines died off at an alarming rate; the survivors, shaky or not, assumed that they were the strong ones, destined to emerge from the hard times with renewed vigor, ready to soar to ever greater heights as the wounded economy began its healing process.
Who's excited for the most trample-riffic day of the shopping year? Not me. But if ever there was a match made in marketing heaven, it's Black Friday and Rebecca Black's brain-corroding earworm of a viral hit, "Friday." It's the meme that won't die, on the day that won't end (for America's retail employees, that is). Hit it, Kohl's! [via Adrants]
Benetton, the advertising company that also allegedly makes clothes, has some new ads. You'll never guess what is happening in these ads: world leaders traditionally considered to be enemies are depicted kissing each other. The tagline: "UNHATE." We think that means: don't hate each other, we're all humans trying to get by on this crazy rock one day at a time, amirite? Although we can't be sure.
Today's entry in the mesmerizing Asian infomercial arms race: Calorie Shaper, a special Japanese underwear built with a "honeycomb spring" that supposedly helps the wearer burn calories while performing everyday tasks, like walking to the bus stop and performing choreographed dance routines in the office.
Last month we told you about this brilliant, cutting-edge, edgy, ahead of the edge, razor's edge ad out of France for some "unbreakable" eyeglass frames. We gently noted that every last bit of information about who made the ad and where they would be during business hours every day was easily accessible online, should the Hells Angels be interested in those facts. Not that they would, what with their legendary sense of humor!
Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL just sealed a deal to sell premium display advertising space for one another and for any smaller companies that join the consortium. That sounds like an antitrust case in the making, but the parties have one accurate defense against charges of collusion: Google is bigger and scarier.
In a verdict that will please every American who goes into a convenience store, a judge ruled that the FDA can't make cigarette companies put graphic and disgusting anti-smoking warnings on their packaging. Thank god.
Behold the new Boy Scouts of America print campaign, as conceived by Ogilvy & Mather and approved, apparently, by The Powers That Be. And while there are those who will inevitably object to the disorienting addition of bio-realistic beards to the beaming smiles of four pre-pubescent boys eager for whatever adventures lie ahead, I for one applaud the introduction of the century-old youth organization to the emergent hipster hobby of facial forestry and artisanal whisker cultivation. Just keep base camp far away from Amish country. [Copyranter]
The neat thing about this ad is that even though the model guy and his creative team were probably like "We're in France, whatever," it's just as easy to find the names of everyone involved in creating this ad and where they work as it would be to send that information directly to the Hells Angels chapter in Paris.
How many times have you come across a life-sized standee in a movie theater lobby or department store, and not thought to yourself, "If only our ass-backwards society didn't disapprove of inter-dimensional dating, this cardboard cutout of Nikita and I could probably be pretty happy together." Well, Charlie J. Price of Pittsfield, Ma., doesn't abide by musty precepts like "social mores" or "not licking cardboard ladies in public."
One basic characteristic of journalism is this: its content is not bought and paid for and directed by an advertiser. It might be vapid. It might be poorly written. It might be damn near worthless. But it's not an advertisement.
