Defending their right to be asses

Fox News reports that a group of bikin-clad protestors is outside New York City's public transit HQ demanding an end to censorship in their bus media.



These concerned citizens are grieving the MTA's decision to remove an ad for Georgi Vodka from buses that travel through certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are primarily populated by Hasidic Jewish communities.



Apparently, the MTA had received a string of complaints about the ads from religious groups.

By this point, I'm sure you've figured out that this is all a cynical and opportunistic PR ploy. As Gothamist reports:

In response to the take-down, Silver fired up the PR machine and hired some models to wear the Georgi bikinis and hold signs that read: "MTA should butt out of bikini ads." This certainly isn't the first time Silver has dabbled in the fine art of publicity stunts—earlier this year he sent Sean "Diddy" Combs a toilet filled with Ciroc vodka.

At the scantily clad scene he created yesterday, Silver told the Daily News, "They hardly gave us any warning. They just took them off the buses. These ads are clearly not pornography... If you don't like what's on a bus, all you have to do is look away and walk past."

Definitely not pornography, and unless they're in violation of previously posted MTA standards, they probably should have stayed up. One group being offended on religious grounds hardly defines community standards in a cosmopolitan city. After all, despite being named as one of "The 10 Worst "Sexy" Vodka Ads" by BNET, the campaign is a lightweight when it comes to sexploitation.

But that doesn't make the Georgi spokesman less of a sexist ass:

“We’re very upset about the censorship,” Georgi Vodka spokesperson Todd Shapiro told Pop Tarts. “We had about 50 girls pointing their backsides at the MTA as part of the protest, basically telling them to ‘butt’ out.”

I no longer weep for the future

One of the latest "kids today" rant topics is how demanding they are when it comes to the big high school party: the prom. USA Today reports that today's spoiled teens can demand an expense of $3000 and up on their big night. WikiAnswers suggests $200- $1000.

Which is why I was so impressed when I heard that my niece, Emma Robinson, and a number of her classmates at Ottawa's Nepean High School did something a little different. They hired what we like to call "The Red-And-White Limo":



That's right. The latecomers of the dreaded Generation Y are chartering public transit to their night to remember. And a hybrid bus at that! It's enough to make this longtime transit marketer all schmoopy.

Emma tells me that, split about 25 ways, the bus cost them just $12 each. Plus, of course, it meant no drunk driving at the prom. It was organized by her classmates Molly Hotson and Jasmine Silver.

"The whole idea behind this was that prom doesn't have to be serious or expensive, it's just a fun end to high school," she says.

Emma, who recently won a Cappie for her costume design in Nepean H.S.'s production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, took the fun one step further when it came to dressing herself and her date, Jacob. She made their clothes from scrap:



"Well, I wanted a relatively cheap prom," she explains. "The total cost of the fabric for my dress was $70. I went for a combination of retro glam and the traditional sort of prom princess look (by choosing the fuscia pink fabric). The suit jacket was a homage to all the ridiculous costumes I've put Jacob in over the years. It cost around $60. I used a $10 jacket from Value Village as a base, then added the zebra over top."

Responsibility? Creativity? Not taking themselves too seriously?

The kids are alright.

Unreal Beauty

You remember Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, right? The one where they showed women of diverse ages and shapes, and celebrated the wonder of real women?



Well, here's a little insight into their casting process from New York Magazine. It seems that Dove posted this casting call on Craigslist NYC last Friday:

DOVE “REAL WOMEN” PRINT CASTING JUNE 28-30, 2010 in NYC
ABSOLUTELY NO ACTRESSES / MODELS OR REALITY SHOW PARTICIPANTS or ANY ONE CARRYING A HEADSHOT!!!!
REAL WOMEN ONLY!
LOOKING FOR 3-4 REAL WOMEN for a DOVE PRINT CAMPAIGN!

AGES 35-45, CAUCASIAN, HISPANIC, AFRICAN AMERICAN, & ASIAN!

SHOOT: SUNDAY, JULY 18 in NYC! MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR THE SHOOT!
RATE: $500 for Shoot date & if selected for Ad Campaign (running 2011) you will be paid $4000!
USAGE: 3 years unlimited print & web usage in N. America Only

YOU WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN A TOWEL!
BEAUTIFUL ARMS AND LEGS AND FACE WILL BE SHOWN!
MUST HAVE FLAWLESS SKIN, NO TATTOOS OR SCARS!
Well groomed and clean...Nice Bodies..NATURALLY, FIT Not too Curvy Not too Athletic.

Great Sparkling Personalities. Beautiful Smiles! A DOVE GIRL!!!
STYLISH AND COOL!
Beautiful HAIR & SKIN is a MUST!!!

PLEASE SUBMIT SNAPSHOTS of FACE & BODY ASAP & WE WILL CALL YOU IN FOR A CASTING NEXT WEEK 6/28-6/30 in NYC!
urbanproddovecasting@gmail.com

(bolding mine)

The ad has since been removed from CL, but Adrants notes that the ad is still live on Casting Call.

Hmmm... Let's put aside the accusations of significant digital retouching in their ads. That's as expected as McDonald's using fake food for their ads, because nothing ever looks as good in raw footage as it does in reality.

But the hate on scars and tatts? I guess they consider women with injuries or body art to be flawed. And what constitutes "too curvy"? Or "too athletic"? Man, real beauty is complicated...

Oh well, at least they still appreciate freckles:



And wrinkles:



And (gasp!) women over 40:



But apparently, "real beauty" still has its limits. I suppose it's part of their "natural" brand, that they want people to have skin that is unmarked by accident or culture. I wonder what would happen if a woman showed up for the audition with a prosthetic limb?

Postscript (2:30 pm): Looks like the "no tattoos" thing was a change of heart.

Happy #@¢%ing Father's Day

Everyone is familiar with the stereotype that men are really bad at preventative health. Hell, I just had my first physical exam in many years, and that was only brought on by a combination of turning 40 and having a scary family history. So I assume that is the rationale behind the shock tactics employed by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ):





Will it work? Probably not on the men who are the worst offenders. Attempts to shame have a habit of backfiring in social marketing because they push the brain into defensive processing (otherwise known as "denial").

This campaign was launched on Father's Day, too. Ouch.

There are two more commercials you can view on the campaign web site.

Crowdsource goes postpunk

"Iggy Pop is making a new band - and plans to fill it with Kiwis he meets online. He is then going to re-record one of his biggest tracks 'The Passenger', live, online, with the magic of Orcon broadband."

That was the pitch made by New Zealand's Orcon Broadband last October in what I think is one of the coolest crowdsourcing ideas ever, because:

• Iggy Pop is a rock god
• It's such a great demonstration of the product.

Basically, New Zealanders were invited to post audition videos of themselves on Orcon's FB page, playing along to Iggy's 1977 classic "The Passenger" with any instrument they liked. Iggy then picked his top 8, and Orcon set up a live online jam between The Ig, who was in Miami, and each new member of his NZ backup band in their homes.

Here's a particularly peppy audition from up-and-coming "Japanese punk jazz" flautist Miho Wada:



Here's the teaser of Iggy connecting with the talent:



Here's the session:



And here's the final:



Orcon looks cool. Iggy is cool, plus he gets to connect (literally!) with a new generation of fans. And this campaign was just awarded a Grand Prix Award for direct marketing at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France.

Sellout you say? This is the man whose sond about kicking Heroin is used for a cruise line ad. Who shilled for an insurance company.

This, at least, was the real Iggy Pop.



Plus, the man needs his retirement fund.

Does anyone really need to see this?

In a move that appears not to be fake, California is reported to be considering implementing a technology that would flash electronic ads on cars' rear licence plates when cars are stopped in traffic (which around LA is a lot).

From CNN Money:

"Sen. Curren Price, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, said the technology will resemble traditional license plates, with plate numbers visible at all times. However, digital ads and public service announcements would flash on the plate's screen when the vehicle is stopped for more than a few seconds."

California's budget deficit is an estimated $19.1 billion, and this is an attempt to bring in a new revenue stream. While the driver distraction argument is shot down by the fact that the plates only advertise when stopped, this new potential advertising intrusion into our day-to-day raises a number of questions: Can I choose what brands I want my car associated with? What if Honda wants to advertise on my Toyota? Does a major brand really want to be associated with that jerkbag who just cut me off? And... what if someone hacks my plate?



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Is American healthcare any better than their pronunciation?

WHAT my health?



I keep hoping this is fake, but Fauquier Health is a real America hospital in Warrenton, Virginia. And they host these videos on their Facebook page.

From their YouTube link:

We're very excited to share with you the two new Fauquier Health television commercials promoting our patient-centered care. (www.fauquierhealth.org)

The spots have some fun with larger health care institutions, and place importance on the indivualized care offered at Fauquier Health. The spots are also posted on our Fauquier Health fan page on Facebook, so feel free to become a fan and share the spots with your Facebook friends.

Don't believe me? Here's another one:



Now that I've thought about it, maybe they're more clever than I gave them credit for. But either way, at least they went viral...



No, YOU Fauquier Health.

It's Summer! Woo-Hoo!

Summer begins today, and it's the Monday of the last week of school, so let's just kick back and look forward to the weekend with these radio spots from Calypso — Canada's Biggest Theme Waterpark:







The spots were written by our own Mel Lyon, and produced at Studio Lamajeure in Montreal. Hope you liked them as much as my son does. See you at the park!

Four five six, it's a health mnemonic

My mom was a teacher, before she ended up staying home with four kids.But she never lost the spark for teaching. So, in addition to our regular schooling, we all got tutored at home. One of Mom's favourite teaching tactics was the mnemonic device. In fact, just last weekend, she successfully taught my 5-year-old son how to memorize a licence plate by making the letters and numbers into words in a sentence.

Since the days of oral history, many different mnemonic devices have been used to help people remember important things: structured verse, allegory, metaphor, and of course the simple rhyme. But as we became a literate society, the simplest of these powerful cultural devices was relegated to song, bad poetry, nursery rhymes... and... oh, yeah! Advertising:



Having a child now, and watching how easy it is for him to memorize AC/DC lyrics (I'll never forget when he burst into "Let's Get it Up" in the grocery store) I have been re-evaluating old ad methods that I once thought played out. And so when the City of Ottawa challenged us to come up with a campaign to brand the local promotion of Environment Canada's Air Quality Health Index, I drew inspiration from my Mom, Schoolhouse Rock, and Canadian songstress Feist:



(Let's pause for a fanboy crush moment.)

Anyway, the AQHI is a new measure of air quality and how it affects health. From EC:

It is a health protection tool that is designed to help you make decisions to protect your health by limiting short-term exposure to air pollution and adjusting your activity levels during increased levels of air pollution. It also provides advice on how you can improve the quality of the air you breathe.

This index pays particular attention to people who are sensitive to air pollution and provides them with advice on how to protect their health during air quality levels associated with low, moderate, high and very high health risks.

One of the chalenges of this campaign is that there is another index, the Air Quality Index, that also measures pollution levels. It goes to 100 and above. But our job was to differentiate AQHI as a simple tool to help people in general — and especially people at risk — plan their daily activities. We took the scale of ten, and broke it into four easy, colour-coded pieces, and started planting the scale all over town:



This is a fairly modest-budget campaign, so your tax dollars are working quite hard on this one. Now, we're working on a social media strategy to help spread the word over the summer. While it is still in development, you can visit the AQHI Facebook Page and "like" it to sign up for AQHI updates and news.

So, hopefully, people will know what to do the next time manmade smog, climate, or Quebec forest fires cause the air to look like this:



That was a nine, my friends. A NINE.

Next time that happens (hopefully not soon), I'll heed the AQHI number and take the bus instead of burning out my lungs by walking to work.

Making a mix tape for Mother Nature

The David Suzuki Foundation and CBC have teamed up to promote the creation of an all-Canadian mix tape of original songs promoting environmental awareness.

Called "Playlist for the Planet", it has attracted some of Canada's greatest musical stars, from Rush and Gordon Lightfoot to Bruce Cockburn, Broken Social Scene, k-os, and Raffi. Frigging Raffi!



Suzuki's explanation:

"Earlier this year, I invited some of my favorite artists and friends to write songs for the Playlist for the Planet. Now we’re opening this up to you! This is a nationwide call for Canadian songwriters of all levels to bring their talents forward.

I must admit, however, that my musical tastes are still firmly anchored in the 1960s. When I think of songs such as We Shall Overcome or Give Peace a Chance, it’s clear that music can be transformational. We need your music to inspire people about today’s most pressing issues—it’s a matter of survival.

I believe that an “environmental anthem” can help bring the overwhelming public support for the environment to its rightful place. Together, we can inspire thousands of Canadians to gather around song."

For the humble playing public, there's a chance to get heard online and on-air, win a guitar, and possibly be included on the eventual. Anyone can enter through the CBC Radio 3 site [link fixed], and I'd be kind of disappointed if some of my musical friends on Facebook didn't give it a shot.

I'd love to see Neil Young in there, too. But he's already written that song many times.

Now here's a goofy video of David Suzuki playing guitar:

The lighter side of Social Issues Marketing

Last week, Calypso — Canada's Biggest Theme Waterpark — opened to the public.

As you probably know, in addition to saving the world with all of our usual social issues marketing work, we've been secretly creating a world of colourful characters for Calypso's grand opening.

Beginning with character sketches, we developed the backstories of Calypso the water goddess, Wildman Jack the adventurer, Sara Max the daredevil, Capitaine LaPlank the pirate, and Dr. Dunk the evil scientist. Over the past couple of months, we have literally been bringing these characters to life designing costumes and characterization for use at the park.

And now, in this Acart-written, TVA-produced TV ad, we can finally give you a look at the Calypso characters in flesh and blood:






So, how is this saving the world? Well, it's certainly bringing seasonal jobs to a previously-quiet corner of the National Capital Region. And it's providing a great sense of pride for our community, as well as a strong pull for tourists around the world to take a second look at Ottawa as a fun destination.

But most of all, we're enjoying this change of pace because when you spend 80% of your time addressing the world's problems, it's just nice to celebrate the lighter side of life in your own backyard. Next week, I'll let you hear what some of these characters sound like as I blog our radio campaign.

See you at the park!

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

Those of you who follow this blog know that this is a topic of great importance to us here at Acart, as we are honoured to be the agency chosen to work with the Government of Canada on this important file. And we were further honoured with a Excel Award for the campaign's effectiveness in getting people to talk about — and even act on — this important social issue.



According to seniors.gc.ca:

Elder abuse is an important issue for Canadians. It is estimated that somewhere between 4 and 10 percent of seniors in Canada experience some kind of abuse. New research conducted by Environics for Human Resources and Social Development Canada has provided the following information * about Canadians' awareness of the issue of elder abuse.

• 96 percent of Canadians think most of the abuse experienced by older adults is hidden or goes undetected.
• 22 percent of Canadians think a senior they know personally might be experiencing some form of abuse.
• 90 percent of Canadians feel the abuse experienced by an older person often gets worse over time.
• Raising awareness among seniors about their right to live safely and securely is seen as the most important issue for governments when it comes to elder abuse with 9 in 10 Canadians (90.5 per cent) rating it as a high priority.
• 67 percent of Canadians feel older women are more likely to be abused than older men.
• 12 percent of Canadians have sought out information about a situation or suspected situation of elder abuse or about elder abuse in general.
• Almost 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent) have searched the internet for information specifically about elder abuse issues.

Seniors.gc.ca has lots of information on understanding and identifying elder abuse, whether it's physical, psychological, financial, or neglect. If you're caring for an older adult, you might also want to watch the older ad (not ours) embedded below, and ask yourself if you are treating your elders with all the understanding they deserve:



It's time for everyone to face the reality of elder abuse.

Fast, cheap and satisfaction guaranteed

When I talk to clients about social media strategies, I tell them that social media communities can sometimes self-police quite efficiently. This morning, I saw a post on the Sociological Images blog that shows how this regulation by consensus can actually be much more powerful than traditional means of enforcing advertising standards.



One day, residents of Minneapolis woke up to this billboard, and were offended. And not just by the painful pun, horrible art direction, or tasteless concept. It turns out that residents of one particular neighbourhood where the ad was erected had just gone through a major community purge of street prostitution. "There are still lawn signs up along Cedar saying, 'Keep johns out,'" explains 9th Ward denizen Stacey Burns in MinnPost's coverage of the incident.

Now, Stacey hadn't even seen the billboard in real life yet. She saw a photo of it on a friend's Facebook page, and realized it was near her house. She then called the service provider, USI, to complain, but didn't get anywhere.

So she re-posted the image on her own FB page:



There are many comments on there from friends who said they had complained to USI but were told the company did some test marketing "and everybody loved it."

This viral action eventually got the attention of City Council Member Gary Schiff. He talked to city staff about it, and they told him they had been talking to USI's founders for three days but had gotten nowhere. He called USI himself, but said his calls were never returned.

USI, by the way, has a 10-year, $12.5 million contract to provide Minneapolis' citywide Wi-Fi service. But since the Councillor had no more luck getting client service than the average ISP customer, he decided to go after the media supplier.

From MinPost:

"I looked at the photo [in Burns' post] and saw the Clear Channel logo and remembered that Clear Channel was extremely supportive in donating billboard space for the city's anti-prostitution campaign," said Schiff.

He called the advertising company's vice president and e-mailed him an image of Burns' Facebook page. "Thirty minutes later, he called back and said, 'They'll be down tomorrow,' " said Schiff.

Schiff said he knew the company had strong decency guidelines.

Knowing he was on to a good thing, Councillor Schiff posted his triumph on his own Facebook page, where it quickly elicited dozens of comments and "like" votes.

Another Council member, Elizabeth Glidden, made sure she got a piece of the action by calling on USI as well:

"My message to them was, 'I hope you're taking these down right now,' " she said. "Was it persuasive for me to say I'm shocked and disgusted? Yes, I'm sure it was."

USI pulled down the boards, but Operations Manager Sam Turner claims they did so voluntarily. Although he is hardly contrite:

"We didn't mean to offend anyone," Turner told MinnPost. "Our response to the overall situation is we didn't, and don't, feel that the spokesmodel from the ad looks like a prostitute. We've seen way worse."

So what's the moral of the story? You have a right to offend people, to some extent, when you buy mainstream media. But just be aware that when you piss off today's fully-connected vox populi, political action through Facebook outrage is fast, cheap and satisfaction guaranteed.

South Africa choses "skins" for the World Cup

At the beginning of the week, I criticized an otherwise-stunning Sapporo beer online ad for its reliance on tired old Japanese cultural stereotypes.

This is not an isolated incident of yokelling it up for foreigners. Australia's current global tourism campaign, which is playful in its stereotyped portrayal of the land and its inhabitants, has angered many at home. “Why do we have to portray ourselves as a nation of backward bogans (hicks) stuck in a timewarp on the global stage?”, said one commenter.

It's in this context that I was amused to see the trend parodied so pointedly by Nando's, a South African fast food chicken chain, in their pre-World Cup campaign:

(warning: pixelated partial nudity)



Yes, I know. It's sexist. It's juvenile. And the puns are appalling. (I laughed, but I share my five-year-old son's sense of humour.) Look past that for a moment, though, and notice something else: the urban multiculturalism.

Nando's is known (infamous, actually) in South Africa for its controversial — even deliberately offensive — ads. The brand is anything but progressive. And yet they're the ones challenging our outdated view of Africa, gained from the dog-eared pages of an old National Geographic?



Hmmmm...



(via MTLB)

Can the Shat save the salmon?

Today in Ottawa, William Shatner will join New Westminster–Coquitlam NDP MP Fin Donnelly, marine biologist Alexandra Morton and Chief Bob Chamberlain of Kwicksutaineuk Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation to speak in support of a New Democrat bill that would force BC salmon farmers to move their operations to closed-containment tanks and away from coastal waters.

The Shat won't be appearing in person, though, but will join via communicator from his base in L.A.

"Must... SAVE... the... SALmon..."

The Private Member's bill in question calls for an amendment to the Fisheries Act requiring that commercial fish farming be carried out in closed containment pens within five years. It was actually inspired by Grade 10 student Thea Block, who works summers on her father's fishing boat out of Cortes Island, B.C.

Thea won an NDP-sponsored contest that asked high school students to submit proposals for legislation.

According to David Suzuki's web site, sustainable aquaculture must meet the following:

• Uses less wild caught fish (in the form of fish meal and fish oil) than it produces in the form of edible marine fish protein, and thus provides net protein gains for society;
• Does not pose a substantial risk of deleterious effects on wild fish stocks through the escape of farmed fish ;
• Does not pose a substantial risk of deleterious effects on wild fish stocks through the amplification, retransmission or introduction of disease or parasites;
• Employs methods to treat and reduce the discharge of organic waste and other potential contaminants so that the resulting discharge does not adversely affect the surrounding ecosystem; and
• Implements and enforces all local, national and international laws and customs and utilizes a precautionary approach (which favours conservation of the environment in the face of irreversible environmental risks) for daily operations and industry expansion.

Landlocked salmon farms are uncommon, but creativity and technological innovation are needed if we want our grandchildren to enjoy one of Canada's most prestigious food fish.

"LLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOXXXXXX!"

I'll update once the press conference coverage comes in.

UPDATE (10 pm) Here is what he said:

“Salmon feed and nurture not only the animals that are on the land but the sea as well, and the plants and trees and shrubbery,” the 79-year-old actor’s disembodied voice told a news conference Thursday that had been organized by the New Democrats.

“The fauna and the flora of the British Columbia river shores and rivers are nurtured by the salmon. Without the salmon, they die. And when they die, [there is] a huge rent in the tapestry of nature in that area. It is a basic species that must be saved.”

There's one born every minute...

A great advertising concept, that is.

This one is from Microsoft:



From the YouTube description:

To prove how vulnerable your personal information is, Internet Explorer 8 recreated notorious internet scams--live, off the web-- in the most street-smart city in world: New York. Watch what happened.

New Yorkers scammed by a bricks-and-mortar version of a common Internet fraud? As Mashable notes, the social experiment exposes "just how gullible we can be when the promise of money is dangled in our face."

Whether a new version of Internet Explorer can actually protect humans from their own gullibility remains to be seen. Same goes for whether a clever ad can trick users into trusting IE8.

Raised on commercials

When you have kids, it can be a little scary just how influential TV commercials can be to their growing minds. My five-year-old son, who loves the Discovery Channel, has suddenly started hounding his mother and me to buy everything — EVERYTHING — he sees advertised.

"You should get a Highlander. It's really powerful."
"Mom? You should buy this shampoo. It smells really good!"
"Dad, you would like to play poker. It's a man game."

And, despite every locavorous, artisinal, foodie meal we make him he sees one spot with beauty shots of kids piling into hotdogs with Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" booming in the background, and:

"My favourite hotdogs are Maple Leaf."


Sigh. But I'm not going to take TV away from him. In my opinion, mass media are part of our modern consumer environment. Rather than censoring, I prefer to watch with him, do my best to counteract the pitches, and use my insider knowledge to give him age-appropriate media awareness education.

But despite the short-term brainwashing, I also wonder if the long-term effects of this exposure will really be all that negative. I turned 40 today, so I guess I'm in kind of a nostalgic mood, but I also consider my Gen-X childhood spent in front of the electronic babysitter part of what made me what I am today.

For example, much of our PSA work here at Acart, as well as the campaigns I cover on this blog and at Osocio, has to do with road safety. And what was an early influence?



Seems negative, but we actually based a two-year Transport Canada safety campaign on toys called "Safety is No Game". Look familiar?

This next commercial is just a reminder of how far we have come in child safety. Check out these kids doing bootlegger turns, helmet free, on these awesome death cycles. My friend Keith had one of these. I think I still have a piece of gravel in my elbow from a wipeout when I tried to emulate the stunt kids:



The biggest influences on us as kids, though, were the consumer jingles and slogans that we sang in the schoolyard every day. Remember any of these?






Sometimes, it was jingles for the "adult" products that didn't target us whatsoever that really stuck in our heads:



But it wasn't all consumerism. The '70s was the golden age of PSAs. Many of them seem awkward and clunky today, but if you're of a certain age, Iron Eyes Cody's "crying Indian" pollution spot is iconic:



Who cares if the actor was really Sicilian? There really used to be that much garbage lying around — especially in the U.S. I believe that a whole generation of environmentalists was influenced by the "noble savage" myth of this ad.

And for Canadian kids, another big environmental icon was Hinterland Who's Who:



These ads gave me my lifelong love of nature. It outlasted all the toys, and all the fast food cravings, that I ever had as a kid.

Now my son is the nature freak, feeding off of the endless varieties of documentary available on cable and DVD. So perhaps he'll turn out okay too.

Roll out the biru

This visually stunning new video campaign for Sapporo Beer, created by Dentsu Canada, manages to cram just about every traditional Japanese stereotype into two minutes and three seconds:



Marketing Magazine says that this video was developed to "tell the story of the brand's history and how it's brewed."



So if you like your beer fired by dragons, bowed to by Geishas, and — well... I have no idea how giant sumo wrestlers fit into the brewing process — then Sapporo is just the pint for you!

I'm just surprised they didn't manage to work Pikachu in there somewhere.

For reference, here's a domestic Japanese Sapporo spot:

Alcohol and online Truth or Dare? This will end well...

It's Friday at Acart, and that means we'll be ending a long week with a glass of wine in the office and some chit-chat. Wine is a great social lubricant. As long as everyone drinks responsibly (especially in regards to driving), it's healthy and harmless.

That's in real-life social situations. In social networking, booze really can be a terrible vice. Think of unfortunate Facebook pictures and comments. Regrettable texts. And... online Truth or Dare?



Naked Grape is a Canadian wine brand by international giant Vincor. Made from a blend of domestic and imported grapes, it's a fair-to-middlin'/easy drinkin' choice in various reds and whites, and is not expensive.

The current promotion is clearly aimed at younger drinkers, with posts about dating disasters like these:

"one year it was my birthday party and my boyfriend and all his friends came to the party and my boyfriend was really drunk and so was i and i ended up making out with his bestfriend. i only knew about it was the next day when his friends were going through the pictures"

"...I just spilled and said.....like dude....did you put a pic of your Dad on-line or something?? And sure enough....he DID!!! It was a pic of his Dad when he was in his early 30's! He was actually 19....which was a little less creepy than the 15 I'd thought but needless to say, the date ended before the dinner was even ordered!"

"i started my period and it was on the chair when i got up from supper as i was wearin a skirt and thong"

Ummm.... thanks for sharing.

And then there are the dares:





I'm sure this is moderated, and it seems like fairly harmless fun so far, but with Gen-Ys being advised to tone down their online "brand" — and many becoming increasingly concerned about their lack of online privacy — I wonder if this is good timing for an online initiative that encourages oversharing. Especially for a purveyor of booze.

(image from OMG Facebook)

If you want, you can get onboard before the trainwreck at naked Grape's Truth or Dare Facebook page (installs an app) or web site.

Cleaning up this town...

For the second year in a row, Acart's Cause Loop (our corporate social responsibility committee) organized a clean up of the block of Nepean Street in front of our downtown Ottawa office.



Everyone who could spare an hour came out in amusingly decorated hazmat suits to remove a year's worth of cigarette butts, beer caps, Timmy's cups and worse from our block.

We had a good time, thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of my 5-year-old son (a nature-lovin' litter-hater who pitched in last year as well). And hopefully we showed the neighbours and passers by that we are proud of — and dedicated to — our inner-city community.

Plus we had the pleasure of noting that the street was much cleaner this year than last. And we only had to deal with two dead birds, one "white balloon" (as I called it to my son) and two (empty) dope baggies!

See more pics below, or view the whole (growing) photo album on our Facebook page.

Acart Excels at Social Marketing

Acart just picked up some hardware at the 2010 IABC Ottawa Excel Awards Gala: The Excellence in Communication Leadership (EXCEL) Award for the Social Responsibility campaign category.



We entered the show with confidence, based on the phenomenal success of our Elder Abuse Awareness campaign for HRSDC: 58% total aided recall, 53% unaided recall and 54% aided TV recall. (The Government of Canada benchmark for aided recall is 36%.)

But creating change is what really matters in a social marketing campaign, and this one was a big deal to us. Elder abuse is more common and damaging than many people realize. From the very first day we began work for this campaign, we were conscious of the emotions and personal stories it would bring up. We, our clients, our friends at production house SOMA, and the actors all shared a sense of purpose in this campaign — as if we were all doing it for someone we knew.

And the general public reacted strongly as well. Of Canadians who recalled the campaign, without prompting 9% said they took specific action as a direct result: 72% of these said they discussed the ads with others and 4% called or visited their mother.

A big pat on the back to everyone who worked on this campaign — whether on the agency, client, or production side. We're really doing work that matters!



The Elder Abuse Awareness campaign is ongoing, and will be back n air next fall. See the whole campaign, and more of our Social issues Marketing work, in our advertising portfolio at acart.com.

McGaypositive?

A McDonald's ad is making a statement about gay acceptance. I repeat: a McDonald's ad.



Okay, it's McDonald's France. It's part of the "come as you are" campaign, which has included such bizarre ads as this one:



It's kind of a weird progression, in context. "We'll serve anyone... Sith Lords, gay teenagers, whatever." But that's obviously not the intended point. The campaign has just taken a more realist and human turn.

Will it work? The ad is all over the Internet this week, and is certain to cause discussion and controversy of various kinds.

The Telegraph points to one YouTube comment: “They could never show that in the states, or the Christian right would boycott the restaurant forever.”

Others believe the ad also makes a statement about gay NON-acceptance. As the Change.org Gay Rights Blog points out:

"If McDonald's is 'come as you are,' why doesn't the young man's father know his son is gay? Why is it the son doesn't tell him at that moment? Are you really who you are if you have to put up with heterosexual assumptions about you, and don't feel you can challenge them? I'm just saying ..."

Or maybe the spot is showing how a shared moment at MacDoo gave a son the opportunity to open up to his Dad (that's how I interpret it). Nonetheless, an interesting move by the fast food giant. Because gay people should feel welcome to fatten themselves up on Big Macs just like everyone else.

What's your take on it?

Shades of abuse

A new Welsh social marketing campaign is trying to show men how more "accepted" forms of sexual harassment can add up to make women feel threatened and abused:




According to The Drum, the It all adds up campaign "aims to generate debate about gender inequality by challenging the conscious and subconscious attitudes which can lead to the normalisation, acceptance and tolerance of violence towards women".

The campaign was created by Manchester's Access for Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru (The Welsh Assembly Government). There's a site, too, at onesteptoofar.org.

The Drum quotes the Access's Managing Director as saying:

"Essentially we’re looking at changing behaviour which has been instilled through years of upbringing, society and the media, this is very tough - it could take years to change attitudes, but it’s great that the Welsh Assembly Government has acknowledged there is an issue and are tackling it head on.

"I believe we’ve come up with a great campaign which highlights the problem in a very simple, none preaching or judgemental way and because there will be research conducted pre and post campaign, I'm interested to see what impact this will have.”

Let's hope it helps, although I wonder if the exaggerated harassment situations will work against it. Generally, when you vilify people in social marketing, it is easy to turn them off and lose your intended audience. In this spot especially, all the guys harassing the woman are really obvious jerks. (Either that, or Wales is still in the Neolithic.)



As an ordinary man who has to ask himself if this compliment was inappropriate, or if that joke made someone feel uncomfortable, I would have preferred an approach that was less about obvious villains and more about the ingrained (and sometimes instinctive) sexism that threatens the safety and confidence of women in a supposedly gender-equal environment. It should be about "nice guys" taking a hard look at behaviour they take for granted, and maybe even seeing it through someone else's eyes.

We will never live in a non-gendered world (thank God!), but this ad — while heartfelt — feels more like it's going to make people hate the obvious pigs even more while letting the subtler ones stay in denial.