I shall begin with the easy stuff

No matter your stand on abortion, you have to admit this pro-life commercial from CatholicVote featuring President Obama moves you just a little bit. Doesn't it?

Billboard Characters Interact on Toronto Skyscape

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It's a pity that vehicular manslaughter is wrong

ACTUAL LETTER TO PROCTOR AND GAMBLE

This is a letter written to one of the top executives at Proctor and Gamble. Means a bit more to the gals than the guys.

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your Always maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core(tm) or Dri-Weave(tm) absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favourite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants. Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from "the curse"? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my ‘time of the month’ is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call "an inbred hillbilly with knife skills." Isn't the human body amazing? As Branch Manager in the Feminine-hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers' monthly visits from "Aunt Flo". Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behaviour. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps. Crazy! The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... which brings me to the reason for my letter.

Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: "Have a Happy Period".

"Are you f…..g kidding me?" What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness - is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything "happy" about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like "Put Down the Hammer" or "Vehicular Manslaughter Is Wrong", or are you just picking on us? Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullshit. And that's a promise I will keep... Always.

Read it here.

"Si! Perfecto!"

What is the point of the chap in the Barilla Plus ad? No really, he doesn't cook, he doesn't lay the table, he does not contribute at all other than just standing there looking all hot and Italian.

It does make me want to rush out and buy pasta so it must be working to my demographic.

Dubai Real Estate Ad Takes Record For Biggest Outdoor Ad Ever

It kind of makes sense that a country that can afford to put snow in the desert is now also hosting the largest ad ever. The spot is for Sorough Real Estate and covers over 20,000 square meters (the size of more than two soccer pitches).

Now I want cake

Bloody big expensive ad

Sometimes even Dubai comes up with good stuff

For the Pause & Play International Film Festival. From JWT Dubai. Not bad. Click on images to enlarge.

No Ad Rants for Wolfie

I've recovered enough from the booze-laden madness to check my calendar and realize that I'm supposed to be at the Ad Industry Leadership Conference today. I'm not going, I say defiantly and stick my head back under the covers. They won't miss me. It's not like I have to speak or host or anything.

Crap, do I? I can't remember. Oh well, back to bed.

Good morning, chickiepoos.

Sickening

Now you know Wolfie isn't one to bad mouth a brand because of a difference in opinion but I had to remind you of this Benetton fiasco in 2000. Just in case you'd forgotten why you boycott the damn company. Their shirts aren't even that nice.

An Italian clothing company, Benetton, has chosen to feature death row inmates in the latest in their series of tasteless advertising campaigns. The campaign is expected to last throughout 2000 and will feature 26 murderers and their commentary on life. While Benetton tries to improve their poor market share in the U.S., they are causing unnecessary pain and distress to the families of the innocent people killed by the men the campaign intends to "humanize".

In one article, Benetton USA Executive Vice President Carlo Tunioli admitted that to the company, the campaign has little to do with the morality of capital punishment. It's all about marketing, he explained. "There's no correlation between these guys" he said, gesturing to 5-feet-high portraits of David Leroy Skaggs (2 counts of 1st-degree murder) and Bobby Lee Harris (1st-degree murder) "and our sweaters. In terms of an advertising strategy, what we are really doing is building brand awareness."

In another - "We're not the only ones using emotion for commercial gain," Toscani told USA Today in 1995, around the time a court ordered Benetton to pay damages to French citizens infected with the HIV virus, saying the company exploited human suffering.

Here are case histories on some of these killers who are the new spokespersons for this clothing manufacturer. Hopefully the U.S. sales for this company will slump even farther in response to this outrageous action.

At least 45 innocent victims were murdered by the 26 killers. Let's focus on why these murderers are on death row and humanize their victims instead of the killers.

Caution: don't read case histories if you can't deal with tales of inhumanity. I almost thew up my lunch.

(Old yet) Odd potatoes

The introductory caption to the current potato-talk segment of BenettonTalk tells us "Potatoes: you probably eat them quite often, but what do you really know about them?" and wins prominence on the homepage over other important topics like the Tripoli Six, deforestation and a little rant about airport security.

The illustrations are cute in a creepy sort of way. We also learn that one does not in fact grow more potatoes by putting a potato into the ground. Potatoes come from seeds. There's an impressive networking fact.

Funny girl this Angela Natividad.

"Adopt. You will receive more than you can ever give."

For the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare from the brillant people at Ogilvy.

The future of commercial bulimia

Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the 'delete all' button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings."

City officials in Sao Paulo, Brazil just passed a law that may see the end of ads in public display.

Natural progression? Web 2.0 changed the way we share information. Maybe this is Ad 2.0. Further blurring the lines between art and advertising. Makes sense to me.

Boobs will sell anything

Even Campari. Here's wot Mommy Hayek is doing these days - and as usual from Copyranter, my favorite comment on this one has got to be -

ricpic said...
An unsmiling Hayek backed by two Rudolph Nureyev Royal Canadian Mounties. And it means...what?

Don't bother us with questions of sense. She's got tits, tits, TITS!!

Bloody Coasters

Bloody Coasters (for Mumbai Traffic Police) were printed using a special invisible red ink, wich spreads only when moistened. They were placed at tables and bar counters in Mumbai’s prominent bars and watering holes. When a customer places his frosted, moist glass of alchohol on it, the red ink starts spreading; and the normal face starts bleeding. Alongside, the message reads: Just a reminder: Drunken driving kills.

A brilliant idea from Contract, Mumbai.

Stolen Childhood

Very disturbing ads out of Grey, New Delhi.

Disturbing but true.

How much do you think they paid for the market research?

A recent eMarketer round up of online video viewership stats has some wondering why more men (78 percent) than women (66 percent) watch online video when, conversely, there are more women (97 million) than men (91 million) online. All manner of research hoo ha and analytical blather followed without nary a peep from anyone stating the one word answer to this finding. Porn. Done. Next study please.

In other news...

The final details were hammered out over the past week, advertisers were called the night before and Google's Eric Schmidt was reached the morning of NBC and News Corp.'s blockbuster announcement about a joint online video venture. After months of speculation, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced this week that they would create an online distribution system together for TV content. And by partnering with portals AOL, MSN, Yahoo and MySpace, the yet-unnamed distribution venture would reach 94% of the U.S. Internet audience.

Article here.

So like, I'm sitting at Harvard Ave. Cafe enjoying my Friday off and sipping my Earl Grey and surfing their free wireless and gazing lasciviously at the banana nut muffin on the counter and I have to ask - why do all cafes that want you to linger and spend a couple of hours there with the comfy couches and the indie art on the walls ALWAYS and without exception play Bob Marley? Is there a secret underground cafe network that dictates this? I swear, in any city in the U.S., they're all playing Bob Marley. Marley sales rise everytime a new cafe opens up. I wonder if they know this. Maybe the Marley people secretly own a piece of every such cafe in the U.S. That would be a good business model.

Now this is an interesting idea

At a program development meeting in LA yesterday, ABC introduced a new commercial format which would have actual paid commercials appear in media vehicles shown in the network's dramas and sitcoms. In other words, a character on a sitcom might be watching TV, an actual ad would appear on the screen withing the show and then it would widen out to the viewers TV and be viewed in standard fashion. The plan, still in development, would also incorporate print ads seen in magazines depicted in shows as well as ads shown on cell phones. Presumably, there wouldn't be official commercial breaks rather the commercials would be embedded within the show and appear individually rather than clumped together the way they are now.

Now I want an elephant