Hacking darts and saving lives

More clever stuff from those Brahma drinking, beach loitering Brazilians – a great outdoor setup in Porto Alegre from agency “Shoot The Shit”.

They painted several sets of mini sidewalk poles to look like butted out cigarettes. On the poles, it says “Save a life. Put out your cigarette.”

Disco Death

Although the scattered auto parts are rather suggestive, the death of Discotheque Stu is still up for debate. Perhaps he got into a drunk driving accident, or maybe some Gwar fans just ran into him and decided he deserved a good thrashing.

Copy, translated, reads: “Staying Alive. Stay sober and you’ll stay alive. Every year, 6000 people get killed in road accidents caused by alcool abuse, especially on weekend nights. The City of Nettuno invites you to drink responsibly.”

via Ads Of The World

 

Agency: Link, Anzio, Roma
CD: Hilde Capra
AD: Valerio Cicco
Copywriter: Francesca Carpineti

The ass clowns of email

A few nay nays for all you kids using the ether-mail:

  • Any salutation that is immediately followed by a period (ex. Hey.)
  • Placing any piece of critical information pertinent to the message within the the subject line instead of the email itself “ex. Unread: John Sally – I’m not sure about the revisions, I’ll re-send the latest draft to you sometime today – 86.3 MB
  • Having an over-dramatic fine print disclaimer as part of your signature. Basically anything with phrases like “…destroy this message immediately” or “…strictly prohibited”. Dude, chill out. Unless you’re James Bond, most the stuff you’re writing isn’t that important.
  • Forwarding complex email threads internally without writing anything in the new message that describes what the shit is going on.
  • Not forming complete sentences, as if to say to the recipient “I don’t have the time to obey the rules of written word”

A zipper will never love you

In a counter-measure against society’s continuing effort to devalue the worth of having a male partner, McCann Erickson in Tel Aviv put together this cool POP effort during Ty B’av (Jewish Valentine’s Day).

In order to promote JDate – an Israeli dating website – they attached tags to the zippers of dresses at a bunch of Mango fashion stores. The idea being that single women traditionally buy slutty little dresses during the season of love in order to make themselves feel better about their lonely, manless existence.

Oh shut up. It’s true.

Well guess what Jessica Sarah Parker, there’s one little issue with your man-hating, scented candle fueled, “I don’t need a stinking pig of a man to be happy!” attitude: who’s going to do up your stupid dress?!

Answer: A tag with a long string attached to the zipper.

Written on the tag: “Some things you just can’t do alone.”

So in the end, I guess the message here is a little confusing. They’re trying to say, “You really need a man to be complete”, whereas the useful zipper device really says “A strategically placed tag eradicates the only existing use for a male companion”.

Agency: Mccann Erickson, Tel Aviv
VP Creative: Eldad Weinberger
CD: Shahar Filer
Copywriter: Sahar Lewenstein
AD: Maayan Froind

Tropitone’s bringing sexy back. And by sexy, I actually mean segregation.

You know when one of your grandparents says something really inappropriate and politically incorrect, but you don’t say anything because you know they’re just kind of stuck in an older time? So you let it slide but ultimately you’re left feeling really uncomfortable….

That’s kind of how I feel about this ambient piece for Tropitone Sunless Bronze self tanner.

What their agency morrisjones&co did is spray paint the translated words “Non-Whites” on public benches in Johannesburg, South Africa – an obvious reference to the days of segregation and civil injustice. Definitely an eye-catcher to people passing by, but is it in good taste?

Now, I’m nowhere near from Africa, so maybe I’m not qualified to judge the appropriateness of this. What do you think?

Agency: morrisjones&co, Johannesburg
ECD: Angel Jones
CD: Margarita Karvouniaris
AD: Bernie da Silva
Copywriter: Michelle Kreuiter

Waaahhhhh the client wants me to work

You know what they say: don’t pass judgment on someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes – even if those shoes are the stiff leather loafers of a frustrating client.

Let’s face it – we advertisers turn into drama queens from time to time. It’s not our fault – we’re passionate, often exuberant, and definately creative people. If we were better looking, we’d be actors. Which is why it’s so common for us to throw obscenity-laced temper tantrums. And what’s the cause?

Clients.

We love them, we hate them, and we sometimes have issues during the work relationship. However, I think we occasionally lose sight of what’s worth complaining about. Matter of fact, sometimes - GASP – the client is in the right. A few examples:

“These ass monkeys know NOTHING about marketing. What the hell are they thinking!?”

Well, they did hire you to guide them in the proper direction. It’s part of the agency’s job to consult and lead them down the right path. If you can’t effectively show them the light, then the failure doesn’t rest on their incompetency – it’s on your hands.

“Why can’t these turd masters make up their minds!?”

They’re probably thinking: “Holy moses – my company, livelihood, and a boatload of my money is at stake here. I want to be very careful with this decision.” Yes, the work is important to the agency that created it, but it’s ultimately the client that has to deal with the very real results. Show some compassion and understand their position. Ever bought a car or a house? Nuff said.

“These donkeys keep asking for changes!”

Then do them. Contractual restrictions permitting, you’ve been tasked with creating something that the client likes. Again, if you don’t think the requests are in their best interest, then it’s totally up to you to convince them otherwise. But if it will benefit the work and make everyone happy, tell your primadonna artist to quit whining like a tweenage Belieber, open up Photoshop, and make the effing changes. If they’re still being dicks, threaten to take away that autographed Joy Division vinyl on their desk or something.

“How can we make something if they don’t even know what they want!?”

Show them what they want. Keyword here is show, not tell. A lot of advertising is intangible. It’s about feelings and vibes and all that hippy artist crap. So don’t blame a client when they can’t quite put a finger on things. Work closely with them, put your professional expertise to work, and you’ll eventually uncover a great strategy. Just remember, that ever elusive ‘it’ – does exist. You just have to go hunting for it.

“They want their logo bigger!”

This one’s totally free game. Chirp away, disgruntled creative. Chirp away.

Diet pills rock

DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu (which is either an agency in Manilla, or possibly some sort of robot – I’m not entirely sure) came up with this promotional tote bag to go along with one of GNC’s dietary pill products.

This is a fun one because it combines two of advertising’s all time greatest elements: boundless creativity, and exploiting women’s perception of desirable self-image.

1+1=awesome advertising. It really is a timeless formula.

All ethical debates aside, this is a very clever setup. Seriously – I’d kill for legs like that… Where can I get some diet pills? Maybe I’ll just make myself throw up instead…..

Agency: DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu, Manila
ECDs: Merlee Jayme, Eugene Demata
CDs: Gogie Sinson, Allan Montayre
AD: Gogie Sinson
Copywriter: Biba Cabuquit

Sleep overs are the best with our Snuggie.

I’d usually try to write something witty or obnoxious here, but no words that I’m currently aware of could possibly add to the value of this post.

Instead, I will leave you to bask in the natural glory of this ad. Go ahead, suck it in.

Lyrics:

Sleep overs are the best with our snuggie,
Playing games when we’re dressed in our snuggie,
Everyone is so impressed with the snuggie,
We love our snuggie.
Studying hard for school in our snuggie,
Everyone says I look cool in my snuggie,
Im telling you that you’ll love your snuggie,
I love the snuggie.

Eyes on the road

Those whacky Brazilians (the ones at Leo Burnett, to be specific) took a few minutes away from their standard routine of waxing groins and dicking around with soccer balls to create this visually pleasing piece for GPS company Fiat.

Copy reads: “Focus on the road, not on the GPS”. You may want to enlarge this one if you don’t catch it on your first glance.

Very cool idea. That’s one hell of a roundabout on Steering Wheel Ave. Or perhaps a giant water fountain?

A bunch of adfreaks on the blogs are criticizing this spot – saying the message is counterintuitive because you do everything but look at the road when viewing this piece. I think they’re jealous that they didn’t think of it themselves. It’s easy to pick apart ideas when you have no stake in the matter. Assholes.

Then again, I do the same thing on here all the time…

Either way, three smoothly shaven cheers for Leo Burnett! Hip hip hurrah! etc. etc.

Agency: Leo Burnett, Brazil
CD: Ruy Lindenberg
AD: Alessandro Bernardo
Copywriter: João Caetano