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scandals
Dove's 'Real' Women: Fakes?
You know that Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty," which featured women slightly less skeletal than the average model, and therefore demonstrated that Dove is the greatest, most big-hearted company ever in the world? Well now there's a scandal about it! A new New Yorker story about Pascal Dangin, the world's "premier retoucher of fashion photographs," contains this tidbit on Dove's campaign, which ostensibly celebrates authentic, unadulterated womanhood: More »
advertising
Do We Really Want Better Ads?
MTV Networks is having its upfronts today, where it pitches its new season to advertisers. The network is also trying to sell sponsors on its "podbusting" techniques—i.e., making commercials that are like mini-shows in themselves. The theory, of course, is that making ads more like regular programs will defeat the almighty Tivo, with content so compelling that you cannot help but watch, slack-jawed, as the hypnotic 60-second Mountain Dew Bourne Ultimatum spinoff flickers before your eyes. They're so entertaining! Way better than boring old regular commercials. In one sense, this is corporate America trying to give us what we want. But do we really want better ads? More »
movies
SATC Marketing Continued: "But What About the Fabulous Look of Mr. Big"
Everyone in the fashion, TV, magazine, footwear, apparel, movie, and vodka industries is salivating over the various self-promotional opportunities that come with the release of Sex and the City, the movie. (May 30th; we'll be there tottering on heels, sloshed on Cosmotinis!) Today's casualty: "With the debut of summer's most anticipated movie, don't be a 'Fashion Roadkill!' Everybody is talking about replicating the looks of our New York socialistas. The fabulous four, Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are back... But what about the fabulous look of Mr. Big."
public relations
CEO Ready To Sponsor Event Where Nothing Dies
You like to play with the pretty horses? Step away, until you pony up some cash, ha. High profile horse racing has become an entirely corporate marketing-driven spectacle, where horses are sponsored by UPS and owned by hedge funds. The big sponsor of the Kentucky Derby is YUM Brands, owner of Taco Bell and KFC. Who could embody the noble spirit of galloping stallions better than the nation's leading purveyor of Mexican Pizzas? Anyhow, YUM's CEO, David Novak, found out the perils of sponsoring an event with live animals when a horse up and died on the track at the Derby last weekend. With no idea what was happening, Novak stepped up moments later and gave his little speech plugging his company, which has proven to the world that he hates dead ponies: More »
stanley fish
Rental Car Ads Are The Intellectual Issue Of Our Time
Stanley Fish—public intellectual, Times blogger, and man of secret ethics—has been doing a lot of thinking about rental car ads, and their relation to cheating on your wife and/ or gay lover. "The genius of the commercials is that they foreground the sexuality that informs the relationship between the car owner and the object of his/her affection," Fish wrote. That's what I'm saying! Because many rental car ads play on the theme of leaving your old car for a new one, Fish believes they are deserving of deep deconstruction. About his favorite Avis ad, he concludes "Lust is lust and betrayal is betrayal, whether the relationship is gay or straight." Others might just like the part with the car, and the guy, and the joke. The ad, and his deep, sexy analysis of its genre, below. More »
The Webbys
Hey, lazy Reuters hack: there is nothing "top" about the Webbys. Most of the awards—"the Oscars of the Internet" says the wire's Paul Thomasch—are bought by contestants, who are charged application and attendance fees. A few categories are reserved for celebrities who have to be bribed to pick up their statues. But maybe I shouldn't be so dismissive: this scam still generates coverage from wire-service stenographers like you.
advertising
'We're Just As Good As NYC,' Lies Rest Of New York
New York City: It is surrounded by New York state. This is the key message that state officials are hoping to communicate to you, the public, with their new and improved "I Love NY" campaign [NYT]. "There are a lot of beautiful pictures of serene mountains and lakes. How do you make your mountains and lakes different?" asked an ad exec. By polluting them with dioxin and a plethora of prescription drugs? No, it turns out the answer is to suggest that "we have the pulsating heart and soul of New York City in everything we do." In fact, it looks like the whole campaign is an attempt to slingshot some tourists out of the city for little jaunts upstate. Which will be hard, because New York state pretty much sucks. More »
advertising
New Optimum Online Ad Trades Reggaeton For Suburban R&B!
Optimum Online commercials: they are now their own genre. A specific category at the Grammy Awards, a spot in the Olympic Games, and a bust on Mount Rushmore are reserved specifically for the psychedelic, grating ads that this strange company produces. The original "Reggaeton-Jet Ski-Lifeguard" spot was an over-the-top classic after only 17,000 exposures per person in the Tristate area; the follow up spot, all shiny, kinetic, and Hype Williams-esque, expanded the motif. Now there's a new one in circulation, and it shifts the setting to suburbia, with a sort of knockoff Gwen Stefani character whirling through a household with backup dancers, and the odd appearance of an old lady who is also a race car driver. Philosophers, break out your thinking caps. The full ad is after the jump. More »
public relations
Coach Brand Teaches Students How To Be Dirty Shills
Hunter College, the luxury brand Coach, fraudulent PR campaigns, and dishonest corporate collaboration with academia are the topics of the day today. Important topics! Adweek has just come out with a long investigative piece on a Coach-sponsored PR class at Hunter, which reeks of impropriety and dishonesty, and ended up tangling a bunch of college kids up in a fake online PR blog that makes them all look like a bunch of shady, dishonest undercover marketing hacks. "I knew a lot of hell would break loose about the class. And it did," said the teacher. Indeed. The condensed version of the whole sordid tale, after the jump. More »
advertising
Mentos Wants You To Smooch Your Computer. Literally
Mentos ads started out very friendly. "The freshmaker!" the man with the vaguely foreign accent would proclaim. They were cheesy and fun. Their newest project, though, is far, far, darker. We're not quite sure how it's supposed to make us feel, but we would describe the experience as awkward and terrifying. If you choose to visit MentosKissCam.com [via Adrants], be prepared for some virtual sexual harassment. More »
advertising
New Economist Ads Target Kindergarten Demographic
The Economist, the smartest magazine in the world, may not be the smartest magazine in the world any more. Oh, the articles are just fine (we assume. We haven't read it since that free trial subscription ran out). We're basing our judgment on the magazine's new ad campaign. Which is utterly baffling. What, exactly, is the message here? Is the clown-and-stuffed-animal motif too clever for me to comprehend? Quite possible, but the campaign still reeks of a weeded college student breaking into the ad agency one night and replacing the real ads with these. Disturbing. Two full-sized pics of the inexplicable things [via Copyranter], below. More »
eat yer puddin
