F'd Ad Fridays: Human rights for sale... cheap

George Takei's equal rights group shared a link that led me to this:

That's right. All you have to do is get five of your fellow citizens to throw gay people under the bus in the next election, and you'll be entered in a draw for a $100 Visa card!

According to Minnesota for Marriage:

"Recently, a bi-partisan majority of the legislature voted to place the Minnesota Marriage Amendment on the 2012 statewide ballot to ensure that the people of Minnesota have a voice on this important issue. Please join us today to preserve marriage!"

But the Minnesota Independent points out:

"Bribery, advancing money, and treating prohibited. A person who willfully, directly or indirectly, advances, pays, gives, promises, or lends any money, food, liquor, clothing, entertainment, or other thing of monetary value, or who offers, promises, or endeavors to obtain any money, position, appointment, employment, or other valuable consideration, to or for a person, in order to induce a voter to refrain from voting, or to vote in a particular way, at an election, is guilty of a felony."

So in this case, perhaps the "F" for this campaign could also stand for "felonious"...

F'd Ad Fridays: Free set of knives with Amanda Knox issue!

In Italy, where open air magazine stands are still on every other corner, the competitive market leads publishers to continually try to top each other with novelty giveaways. Often it's a CD or DVD.

But as AdFreak reports, the issue of gossip mag Oggi with Amanda Knox on the cover features a set of knives (and inexplicably, a pizza cutter):

Knox spent four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of killing her roommate with a black-handled kitchen knife. She was just recently released after much legal wrangling, but The Daily Mail says that Oggi continued to imply she was guilty and that prosecutors had flubbed the case.

Via The Telegraph

One thing is for sure: Oggi is guilty of insulting the memory — and the family and friends — of a young murder victim.

UK to treat ambush marketers like terrorists at London 2012?

"Ambush Marketing" is a popular stunt by underdog brands who hire people to infiltrate public and sporting events, then do something provocative to get attention. One of the most infamous is Golden Palace, who sent a male streaker out on the field during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast.

Not that I want to see this, mind you.

Some of us find this amusing. Official sponsors who have paid to be upstaged by some naked guy do not. And when it comes to the Olympic Games, with multi-million dollar international sponsorships at stake, the lack of amusement can have an impact on the very fabric of the legal system.

The Dim Dim Girls must be stopped at all costs!

According to The Drum:

Revised legislation has been issued this week stating that exhibitionists baring their flesh for marketing stunts in and around 2012 Olympic venues could face criminal charges and fines of up to £20,000 in the magistrates court.

CEOs, marketing directors and other senior staff of brands appearing in "ambush marketing" in the vicinity of Olympic venues will be presumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence by proving that they had no knowledge of the activity or that they took reasonable steps to prevent it happening.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) noted the risk of human bodies being used for ambush advertising following concerns raised in a recent consultation process. It has promised to "make additional changes to prohibit advertising on the human body". It says the legislation is "reasonable and proportionate", and that the matters a person is required to prove in their defence are "entirely within their knowledge".

Prove your innocence? Are they serious?

Now anyone with a financial or personal reason to cause legal trouble for marketing high-ups can just draw a logo on their bum, whip off their pants, and let the charges fly. London-based advertising lawyer Nick Johnson is quoted: "Exactly how is a CEO, a marketing director or a legal director supposed to prove they had no knowledge at all of an infringing act featuring their brand?"

And what happened to The Man having to prove guilt? Usually these kinds of draconian legislation are enacted to fight terrorists, not to protect brand integrity or sponsorship deals.

via

I'm not defending ambush marketing. It is not playing fair. But this kind of legal pandering to the Olympics and big brands? Bullshit.

F'd Ad Fridays: F'd Law Association Ad

I couldn't find a non-flash version of this ad for The Association of Finnish Lawyers, which just went up on Copyranter, which is too bad because it's a little embarrassing for desktop viewing at work. (Turn down the sound and keep an eye out for passers by.)



Goodness me. And I thought it was the lawyers who kept the admen in line...

And I think I know why they misspelt "Finnish"

Mexican restaurant takes shot at anti-immigration laws

Well done, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill of Orlando. Well done indeed.

Via The Consumerist

If you don't get it, read the news.