Healthy bread makes you... brain dead?

It must be something unique to Brazilian culture that associates the line "Break free from guilt" with a slice of bread killing your mind like an old-school villain. Or perhaps that's the evil bread (although its brown colour looks pretty good to me) that the hero bread is about to free your mind from?

I am so confused. But at least the illustrator got paid.

Via IBiA

F'd Ad Fridays: Amnesty International tries a classic Bugs Bunny trick

Via IBiA

In this case, let's hope it works.

Antiperspirant strong enough for a man who cheats on his wife

Also, apparently, strong enough for a man who hates his mother-in-law.

Apparently it is still the 1950s at Lowe, Turkey.

Via IBiA

F'd Ad Fridays: The battery ad that will haunt your nightmares

Click to enlarge. You'll shit bricks.

Part toy, part sex doll, all creepy.

By TBWA, Chile

Via IBiA

F'd Ad Fridays: When in Romania...

Earlier this week, Marc posted an article on Osocio about a Romanian candy company's campaign to rid Google's search engine of prejudicial stereotypes about their country and their people.

In response to suggested searches like this, which result from disparaging Googles done mostly by other Europeans, the advertiser asked people to do positive searches instead.

Nice, eh? I thought so, anyway.

And then, also this week, I catch this Romanian tourism campaign by Lowe&Partners online:

"Visit Romania, get drunk, get laid and meet Dracula". Not really helpful, is it?

Get your Monday morning naked billboard action here

Click to enlarge. Via IBiA

Cute idea to promote The Hangline, an American blog dedicated to improving the quality of local and small-agency outdoor advertising. Although I disagree with the idea of rating ads on their "beauty" (rather than the more practical qualities of their message, art direction and placement) at least these guys have an ethos.

F'd Ad Fridays: In fashion advertising, it's better not to ask questions

Except, perhaps, for the occasional WTF?

Via IBiA

Does Slovakia need a law against cheesy ads?

I can see where the concept came from here. In Europe, cheeses are as unique as the countries that produce them. I just don't see these quirky ads selling a lot of cheese.

Ads by JANDL, Bratislava, Slovakia
Via IBiA

This stop-motion animation may put you off your meds

When I watched this the first time, I thought, "Cool video!  But I'll bet it's going to try to sell me some questionable herbal remedies."


Help Remedies - Take Less from Wulf Casting on Vimeo.

But it didn't. It's an ad for Help, a pharmaceutical company that claims to simplify the way we take medications for common complaints.

"Help® is a new type of drug company—a drug company that promises you less: 

Less drugs 

All of Help®’s solutions are made with a single active ingredient. Help, I have a headache, for example, contains only acetamin-ophen,whereas some other kinds of headache medicines may contain two or three active ingredients.  

Less dyes 

The drugs themselves are made with the fewest possible coatings and dyes. Many drugs are colored and coated for decorative purposes. Help® would rather people didn’t have to ingest decoration. 

Less confusion 

Each product is titled after the specific symptom it is meant to solve, e.g. Help I can’t sleep, instead of an unrelated brand name, so that people understand clearly what they are taking and what they are taking it for."

Interesting concept, "less/fewer" grammar outrage aside...

Ad by agencytwofifteen/McCann, San Francisco
Via I Believe in Advertising

Cool "Arablish" ad from Al Jazeera

From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera has been enjoying unprecedented interest from the English-speaking world. Despite facing suspicion and even censorship in the United States, the network is looked to online (especially on Twitter) to provide a different and often breaking "on the ground" Arabic perspective.

That's why this ad is great. Because much of our historically-important news first comes to us with a distinct accent:

Click to enlarge.

Even the grammatical mistake in the tagline works, somehow. (The ad agency is Danish.)

Via IBiA. The other two, unfortunately, are not very good.

Sometimes it's best not to campaign it

Saw this Lithuanian ad on I Believe in Advertising, and loved it:

And not just the illustration, either. If you're going to sell urban bikes to their target market, you can't go wrong making fun of the well-heeled but stressed out steel cage drivers.

Then I saw these:

The girl needs some common sense and a cab. The guy needs a day job to wake up to... and possibly a cab. Neither of these latter two ads do anything to sell bikes except reference young adult lifestyles.

Yeah, they look awesome. But why not stop when you're ahead, Love Agency? Not all ideas require tenuously-related sets of three.

The weird world of Italian promotional calendars

Weirdness, pretentiousness, awesomeness and lots and lots of nudity — for the 20th anniversary of this particular outreach, the Lavazza coffee company serves up everything you would expect of an Italian calendar.

According to PopSop, Lavazza asked 12 photographers who had shot its previous editions to take self-portraits.

Here they are (via IBiA)

January: Erwin Olaf – Inspiration

February: Thierry Le Gouès – Substance

March: Miles Aldridge – Reflection

April: Marino Parisotto – Seduction

May: Eugenio Recuenco – Culture

June: Elliott Erwitt – Humour

July: Finlay Mackay – Excitement

August: Mark Seliger – Deep

September: Annie Leibovitz – Escape

October: Albert Watson – Intimacy

November: David Lachapelle – Energy

December: Ellen Von Unwerth – Euphoria

Is this what childhood has come to?

I get the ads. I just hate them.

Why? Because they are telling the truth about what these little boxes do to kids. They isolate them from normal external and social stimulus and make them into obsessive couch potatoes.

Many parents might love the convenience of plugging your kid into personal digital media. Hey, they aren't running around causing trouble. They aren't talking at you non-stop. They aren't really asking for anything, except the latest game and some Kraft Dinner once in a while.

But you know what? Kids are supposed to be hard work. They learn by asking, interacting, and getting into all kinds of real world mayhem.

Yes, some games can reinforce mental skills, coordination, etc. But so does being in touch with the outside world. Kids need the right mix of both to grow up healthy and happy.

These ads may be intended as funny, but they're way too close to the reality I see around me to make me chuckle.

Ads via IBIA.

Casting without seeing

Here's an interesting marketing stunt: BareEscentuals, a premium cosmetics company, cast its latest campaign by evaluating models from an open call based first on their written words, then by their voices and interview responses. The client and agency never saw a face until they made their final selections.



Here are the winners:

What, you expected them not to be this beautiful? Perhaps a little older, in some cases, than the average cosmetics models. Perhaps brainer. (Andrea is an environmental scientist and entrepreneur, Melanie has an engineering degree, and all are very accomplished.) But wouldn't you have expected a "blind" casting call to have at least turned up someone more average looking? Or older? Or larger?

Only the client, or perhaps TBWA\Chiat\Day, LA can answer those questions.

Nevertheless, a good marketing tactic. I'll bet Dove wishes they had thought of it first.

Via IBIA

Digital Love, for safer sex

If you have headphones and a private screen, or are otherwise in a liberated work or home environment, try out this new interactive safe sex experience by Buzzman, Paris:

Digital Love (new window)

The video allows you to choose a partner by sex and geographical population group (with non-Arab Africa conspicuously absent) and then sets you up for hot cybering.

This incredible online experience is brought to you by Digital Love Corporation, who are on a mission to give people everywhere an opportunity to experience safer orgasms.

Yeah, of course it's an ad. For Durex. Although watching attractive people get all hot and bothered on a computer screen will probably lead to a much lower tech (and even safer) version of "digital love" — if you know what I mean.

F'd Ad Fridays: Creepy bunny creeps you in the men's room

This series by Ogilvy Group in Bucharest, Romania, will ruin Bugs Bunny for you. Unless you want him to be like that, in which case... you're welcome?







Via IBiA

Hey, look! A great Google ad.

Reminds me of a time when I looked up my hometown in an Italian travel guide. It listed the historic Plaza Hotel (home of Shakers Lounge) as a "small, central, and family-friendly hotel".

So while the concept feels like it has been done before, perhaps it's because to the budget traveller the experience is all too real. Social media may help some these days, but not always.

By BBDO Moscow
Via I Believe in Advertising

What are we teaching the next generation of creatives?

Student work that makes the blog rounds is very telling. On the one hand, it shows us what the next generation of creatives has to offer. On the other hand, student (and often junior) work tends to be an exaggerated reflection of what these impressionable young adpeople think is great.

This Maxim/Humane Society CSR spec from Miami Ad School, Brooklyn, is a prime example.

It's a digital campaign that asks men what type of woman they want to hook up with, and suggests a breed of dog to adopt to attract her. It also provides stereotype-specific pickup lines.

So, what are we teaching today's ad students?

Well, "sex sells" is a given. But wait!  There's more:

Lesson One: It's okay to sexually objectify women as long as it's for a cause 


Thank PETA for that one.

Lesson Two: Porn is reality

Is any Maxim reader going to meet women like this? No, because they do not exist. They are stereotypes ripped from the hand of a Letters to Penthouse reader, as portrayed by surgically and digitally enhanced models. Hey, look! The smart girl has glasses! (Don't worry, she's taking them off.) Note that most of them are white, and "Latina Princess" has no personality beyond her exotic ethnicity.

Lesson Three: Bitches are disposable commodities


What a great idea. Imagine if you could borrow a dog just long enough to attract a girl like this, just long enough to bed her. Then you can go back next week and get a chihuahua and maybe bang the Latin girl! Because attracting non-committed pet owners is what the Humane Society is all about. And tricking women into sex is what being a man is all about, big guy!

Lesson Four: You can insult people all you want, as long as it's a joke

If someone questions the appropriateness of your campaign, "Get the sand out of your vagina!" is a proper response. If the critic is a woman, this both reminds her that she is defined by her sexual parts, and outs her as a humourless prude. If the critic is male, it implies he is no man at all (and is probably gay) because he refused to fist bump a bro for putting the hos in their place. Also, he is probably gay.

Lesson Five: To get ahead in advertising, think like a man (with your penis)


If you have already seen this campaign (in I Believe in Advertising or elsewhere) you probably skipped straight to the comments to tell me what an idiot I am. The credits, you see, are "Art Director: Jennine Punzone
Copywriters: Jaclyn Shelton, Kaley Coon".

Young women. Trying to impress middle aged creative directors by selling out their own dignity.

They'll go far.