F'd Ad Fridays: Tums keeps your food from giving you the Tony Danza treatment

Via Wikipedia

I really shouldn't know these things, but here it is: There's an urban legend that actor Tony Danza (of Taxi, or Who's The Boss, depending how old you are) started out as a porn star, and that his signature move was to slap his partner across the face with his manhood. That story lives on in adolescent online parlance as the "Danza Slap".

Stupid anecdote, eh? But now that you know it, you will not be able to watch these Tums ads with anything approaching a positive brand experience:







(That third slappee is NASCAR's Michael Waltrip.)

The Responsible Marketing Blog writes, "What the heck was Grey thinking in creating these spots? And more importantly, how could their client, Tums/GlaxoSmithKline, have approved them? What went wrong in the process for ads like these to get made? Or could the client possibly be that naïve and blind?"

Sleep like a baby

Using babies in adult situations to indicate comfort and innocence can end up looking creepy, but not this time. The mattress (?) campaign from Grey Indonesia seems to get the right balance of surprise and clear messaging:

Those of us who are parents know babies don't sleep like that for long, but when they do they are the epitome of contentment. The couple is my favourite, because it manages to portray familiar intimacy without being inappropriately sexual.

Via Ads of The World

It's written all over your face

Dolex is the name under which Panadol pain and cold symptom relief drugs are marketed in Columbia. This attention-getting (but seriously unnerving) campaign is one of those ones that tells people that they look like shit when they're sick.

They'd be better off staying home and away from other people, but anyway...

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"Sore Throat"

"Watery Eyes"

"Stuffy Nose"

Ads by REP/GREY Worldwide, Colombia
Via AOTW

Some sweet retro work for vintage clothing

When I was a teen in 1980s Kingston, Ontario, going vintage clothing shopping in Toronto was kind of a "thing". So this nice bit of work in I Believe in Advertising gave me a smile:

I was in the market for skinny ties myself, but it reminded me of some old friends.

There are three more ads in this series from Grey, TO, but they're not as elegant. See them at IBIA.

F'd Ad Fridays: Racism, homophobia and dirty old men... sell cookies?

Grey Kuala Lumpur, we need to talk...

"Your inner desires. Right in the middle."

Via Ads of The World