Is McDonald's #internationalwomensday2018 logo-flip a Freudian slip?

MSN reports that, for International Women's Day, McDonald's has flipped the golden arches on one restaurant sign, as well as on social media, to make the M a W.



I've seen comments that it unintentionally ends up looking like breasts. Which brings up the weird psychology behind the original logo.

From Quartz:

Do you get an irresistible urge to visit McDonald’s whenever you see the golden arches? That’s because, subconsciously, the magnificent yellow M reminds you of breasts. At least, that was the theory of the psychologist and marketing design consultant who persuaded the corporation to keep its logo in the 1960s.

The psychologist/consultant was  Louis Cheskin, who applied the Freud-friendly social science of the time to an analysis of the original golden arches, and he believed that the brand's double-dome evoked feelings of maternal love and sustenance.

This may sound a little flakey now, but Cheskin was an innovator in the deep instincts evoked by colour and shape in branding. His advice convinced Ray Kroc to allow the original arches (which used to be an architectural element) to be transformed into what would one day become a global behemoth of a brand.

How advertising innovations gave the world President Trump

It's been less than a year since we all woke up, rubbed our eyes, and realized that the United States of America had elected a blowhard reality show host as President.

It seemed impossible. But that was just the beginning of one unbelievable thing after another.

The suspicions and accusations of Russian interference in American political discourse felt like sour grapes to some, but now we're seeing proof. Last week, the US House Intelligence Committee published a selection of Facebook and Instagram posts and ads that came from accounts now known to be Russian-controlled.

Most of them speak the language of memes, at least what a "meme" is considered to be in the twentyteens: a captioned image that provokes a strong positive or negative reaction. Many, like the infamous Jesus-boxing-Hillary image above, also had a call-to-action that would help them spread virally.

The memes and other posts are highly-targeted, and many are aimed squarely at the fault lines of American society, both pro- and anti-Trump:

What's the point? Analysts call it Putin's attempt to destabilize the west, so that allied countries are less able to act against Russian interests. In the case of the USA, the goal was obviously to promote the election of a singularly unqualified presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who may or may not already by compromised by Russian intelligence.

At the same time, look at what's happening to the two major parties in the US: The Democrats lost the election partially due to infighting, which was additionally fuelled by pro-Sanders Russian ads, and Republican infighting allowed Trump to emerge triumphant.

As a social (and social media) marketer, I can't help but look at the strategy behind this with a mix of wonder and disgust. Segmentation, and telling people what they want to hear, are old advertising strategy. However, social media has provided a more targeted and intimate advertiser-consumer experience than ever before. Advertisers, or rather advertising platforms (Facebook, Google, etc.) also know more about consumers on an individual level than any direct marketer in the past could imagine. Apply some behavioural psychology to this, and maybe you can disrupt democracy itself.

How did we, the world, allow ourselves to become so easy to manipulate? Blame advertising. The desire of marketers to get inside consumers' heads is relentless, and it's really working. Just a couple of days ago, my partner was looking at soufflé dishes online. While she was still doing that (as we have a shared family account for Gmail) ads for soufflé dishes started appearing on my Facebook feed. This is simple behavioural retargeting, but it works.

In the mysterious inner workings of Facebook, all of my online relationships and posts are analyzed to better serve me content and ads that will be of interest to me. That was the plan, anyway. In reality, our social media networks become expanding bubbles of confirmation bias that can actually transform and/or stratify our worldview.

For a consumer advertiser, the goal is to build brand loyalty. Today, a brand can take advantage of the information Facebook and Google collect to attach their brand to "the big issues" and develop loyalty that is based on lifestyle, community, and even politics.

For the propagandists behind the 2016 US election disruptions, however, the goal was to inflame fierce loyalty within one's political sphere, while sowing FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about their opponents. The result is an influence on voting behaviour and the breakdown of the American political system.

When all is revealed by the House Intelligence Committee, 2016-17 will become a case study in mass persuasion, creating a belief system that turned voters away from mainstream politicians and into the arms of a complete disaster of a President. People didn't need to be convinced Trump was great, only that existing system was broken and Trump could disrupt it for the benefit of his base.

This operation, by the way, is ongoing, as any review of the replies to a Trump tweet will show. The United States is fractured, and the jagged pieces are drifting further away from each other every day.

#LaPizzaWeek Montreal figures women don't eat pizza anyway, so...

Despite the tagline "Everybody Loves Pizza," La Pizza Week Montreal has chosen to insult at least half of humanity with this poster.

The Italian headline translates literally to "this cock doesn't rub me," although it's a colloquial phrase that means "I don't give a fuck." Well, obviously.

Whether this piece of work offends your feminist principles, your creative sensibilities (as it's really awfully executed), or your love of Loi 101, you might want to let your favourite Montreal pizzeria know that their name is on this nonsense.

Update:

For what it's worth, I just spoke to the organizer who insists the image was posted without his permission and it's coming down.

— Toula Drimonis (@ToulasTake) September 18, 2017

More update: I had assumed it was stock, but the pic appears to be from a catalogue or something. Grossest thing is that the image is used in "pizzagate" posts.

Being banned from Facebook and Instagram sends "honest" bra ad viral

Some ads are made to be "banned." This one, from the Australian division of underwear brand Berlei, pushed the bounds of breast portrayal and was subsequently taken down from the brand's Facebook and Instagram pages for being "offensive."

News.com.au's Angela Mollard writes:

Berlei’s ad is not gratuitous. It’s not sleazy or even sexual. Rather, it’s a fistpump-worthy piece of advertising that addresses women’s body concerns head or, rather, breast on. Yes there’s boobs bouncing under a sports bra and women trying to cover their nipples and prod or poke bits of flesh back into an unsatisfactory garment, but that’s life with breasts.

I'd have to agree, although the ad is certainly provocative in a very deliberate way.

As of this moment (10:30 EDT, Saturday September 9, 2017) the ad has almost 225,000 views on YouTube. Expect to see many more as the earned media does its job.

Are people interested in this ad because it's about breasts? Of course! Is that a problem? Perhaps to some prudish American social media moguls. But it seems pretty feminist to me.

If you have any thoughts on the ad, please feel free to comment. I'll be ramping up this blog again over the next few weeks, so expect to see more posts. Let's talk about ethics in advertising!

KFC reminds moms that it's their job to cook. On #MothersDay

The idea is pretty cute: Kentucky Fried Chicken publishes a romance novella starring Colonel Sanders as a mysterious Victorian sailor.

Give Mom her true heart’s desire this Mother’s Day—a family meal and a romance novel featuring Colonel Sanders. pic.twitter.com/WHJNL9kRqn

— KFC (@kfc) May 4, 2017

It's funny stuff by Wieden + Kennedy. But there's a problem here, and it has to do with what "moms" are expected to do when it's not Mother's Day.

Let's hear it directly from the mouth of George Felix, director of advertising for KFC U.S.:

"...this Mother's Day, the bucket of chicken I get for my wife will come with a side of steamy romance novella. Dinner is taken care of and she'll have the time to escape her busy schedule."

Dinner's taken care of? That's great! Mom gets the night off from cooking for her family. Because that's what moms are expected to do, right?

I get that advertising isn't supposed to push social progress, but rather sell stuff. And KFC has been selling fried chicken as a "break for mom" since the beginning.



You get the idea.

Nonetheless, the dusty old ideas about family division of labour seem to work for the KFC brand, who claim a 40% jump in sales on Mother's Day.

Moral of the story? More men and children need to learn how to cook.

One terrifying circumcision ad (f. Wolverine)

As shared on Twitter by @AccordionGuy. Origin unknown.

From the Philippines, where foreskins are apparently as disposable as copyright laws.

I really have nothing else to say, except thanks to @MikeGormanHFX for the tip (so to speak).

Pop go the world's problems

So, here's that Pepsi Max ad that made lots of people angry.

Why? Because it seems to imply that the problems of police violence, especially against people of colour, can be solved by a member of the Jenner/Kardashian clan with a cold beverage:

What a different time we live in than 46 years ago, when Coca-Cola quite successfully co-opted the hippie zeitgeist at its very end:

What's different?

Imagine if Coke's iconic "Hilltop"ad,  instead of showing a bunch of people singing on a hill (like in The Sound Of Music) instead showed them facing down armed National Guardsmen (like at Kent State in 1970):

Instead of killing four students and wounding nine, in this Coke ad in an alternative 1971, the Ohio National Guardsmen are stopped by a cold beverage. How would the friends and families of the dead and wounded students have felt about the trivialization of their tragedy?

That, I understand, is how many racialized people feel about this week's Pepsi ad in the context of Black Lives Matter.

Jewellery billboard thinks stoning women is funny

My colleague Katie sent me this abomination of a billboard, via Fast Company, with a simple comment: "ugh."

Spicer Greene Jewelers has already taken a beating/earned hordes of free media for this, so at the risk of helping them sell more rings to people without souls, I'll just add the following:

Death by stoning is still practised in several countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, whether legally or illegally. Women are frequently sentenced to stoning for offences against puritanical sexuality laws and customs.

Here's an infographic by the Thompson Reuters Foundation, to help this sink in:

But hey, let's make light of violence against women to sell jewellery to men.

President Shill? Trump as Brand Influencer

I took a little break from blogging, and look what happens. The United States elects a man who knows nothing but self promotion, and profiting off the backs of others, to their highest office.

Trump is not yet in office, but is using his very big soap box to manipulate stock prices as a bully tactic to tell aerospace companies and automakers where to put their factories. (Although the corporations themselves say it's a coincidence.)

How is this a matter for "The Ethical Adman"? Look above. The PEOTUS is literally telling his followers to buy certain brands, as if he is a paid shill. Is this also "unpresidented"?

Welcome to the United States of America in the reality television era, where someone like Kylie Jenner can make up to $300,000 per post as a paid "brand influencer" on Instagram. Trump is part of this world — a world television viewers and social media users created — and he seems to think it's his job as future leader of the "free world" to punish and reward brands depending on whether they support him politically or not.

The most worrisome part of this phenomenon is Trump's open hostility towards certain media outlets. He used his first press conference since the election to call BuzzFeed a "failing pile of garbage" and CNN a "fake news site" from a position of ultimate power.

And that's not all:

Advertising, entertainment, politics, and the personal vendettas of a singularly unqualified president-elect: it's all one big stinking mess in 2017.

UPDATE: JC tells me that LL Bean has already stated it doesn't want Trump's endorsement.

Skater brands denounce gay-hating fans #toplovesall

A couple of young men from Western Quebec have drawn the ire of the social media shame machine for their violently anti-gay shirts and statements.

One of them (I won't repeat their names here) was photographed wearing a shirt with the name of his gamer group, along with the words "If you are gay, don't approch [sic] me I'll kill you," to a popular Halloween event in Ottawa. Once identified, the man and a friend spoke to media defending their group's message, even though it might be considered hate speech in Canada.

These guys don't deserve any more infamy than they're already getting, however local skater store Top Of The World's reaction is interesting from a branding point of view.

Recognizing RVCA and other subculture brands on the offenders, Top Of The World posted the above captioned picture with the words, "I'm sure you've seen these fellas in the news or on social media. If not check it out. We wanted to make ourselves clear when it comes to this kind of garbage. #ottawa #toplovesall"

In recent years, many brands have struggled with the polarizing issue of LGBT equality, such as in the pasta wars of 2013. But with gay rights in the mainstream consciousness, in more progressive parts of the world brands have more to gain (and less to lose) by being LGBT allies than in courting homophobic customers. 

Top Of The World and RVCA picked the smart side in this one.

Mexican soft drink places undocumented migrants in America's great immigration story

In The Journey, Mexican soft drink brand Jarritos shows a group of Latin Americans walking determinedly through the desert, then follows it with a grand montage of how immigrants have made the United States what it is today.

I doubt anyone watching, whatever their views on immigration, would miss the implied message. The group on foot are making an undocumented crossing into the USA, but once there they will work hard and contribute the way all other groups of "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" have done.

It's a bold statement, in the face of Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump's "Bad Hombres" rhetoric and armed, vigilante citizen "border patrols."

Latino Rebels asks, "Are you proud big brands are celebrating the immigrant legacy or is it just commercial exploitation to sell more soda?"

I'd say that it's doing both. Jarritos has a strong presence in the USA, especially among Latino communities. The iconic bottles make a cameo appearance around the 45 second mark:

Yes, it's here to sell. But I think the politics are pretty clear as well. Jarritos has made supporting Mexican immigrants, and appealing to other recent immigrant groups, an essential part of its brand DNA. And by taking sides, it will probably deepen its cultural connection with existing customers.

Watch the video here, in English and Spanish:

This eel-farming video would make a (not-so-) great PETA ad

According to The Irish Times, this video was made to promote the Japanese city of Shibushi, to promote its local eel farmers.

The male narrator... describes how he had vowed to do all he could to nurture her. “I fed her delicious food until she was full, and allowed her to get plenty of sleep,” he says.
Seconds later viewers are treated to a close-up of eel being cooked on a barbecue grill. “We take great care when farming our eels,” says the narrator.

Indeed! The video has since been withdrawn by authorities, but not before it caused an uproar online.

Well-founded accusations of sexism aside, I find it ironic. The concept of anthropomorphizing animals we eat is a common tactic used by PETA:

Either way, the image of women as pieces of meat is pretty unpalatable.

Thanks to KP for the tip!

Wrangler tells women they're #MoreThanABum while focussing on their bums

Wrangler Europe's attempt to empower women ended in powerful PR failure.

The brand launched the campaign with the claim that they wanted to "change the conversation to what women DO and not just how they look." Partnering with New Zealand pop artist Kimbra, they released a video with lyrics like:

She's changing the conversationWith a whole new exaltation Say - I'll be who I be Won't let the world tell me no differently Ain’t about what's behind me

And it has imagery like:

The video eventually shares the whole woman, but the focus on bums tends to undermine the whole point of the attempt at socially-responsible advertising.

Source: The Independent

#Maltesers tries mixing disability with humour, nails it

How interesting is this? Maltesers, a British candy brand, has taken the bold step of taking a humorous look at the lifestyles of people with disabilities in a new campaign for the Paralympics.

Instead of dewy-eyed homages to bravery and overcoming obstacles, these ads portray people with disabilities talking to their friends about real-life challenges like awkward sexual situations:

Another talks about a hearing aid being eaten and shat out by a partner's goofy dog:

Yet another is about a wedding dance floor disaster:

They're funny (the first one especially), respectful, and wonderfully human. They don't pretend the disabilities don't exist; they show instead that they are essential parts of the lives and identities of the people who live with them.

The other thing I like about these is that they're still ads. No product benefits (like taste) are mentioned, but the candies still play a big support role in these cute little vignettes.

And they're paying off! According to campaign, Britain's Channel 4 offered a million Pounds worth of free TV media during the Paralympics to the advertisers with "the best creative idea with diversity at the heart of a campaign."

Maltesers (a Mars brand) and its ad agency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, were selected from a shortlist that included Amazon (Lucky Generals); Barclays (Bartle Bogle Hegarty London); Dove (Ogilvy & Mather); H&M (Adam & Eve/DDB); Lloyds Bank (Adam & Eve/DDB); Lynx (TMW Unlimited); and Purdey’s (Iris Worldwide).

My only criticism is of the third one, "Dance Floor," which seems a little forced at the end. But kudos to a brand and agency for trying something new with the right mix of bravery and sensitivity.

Spike Jonze sequels "Weapon of Choice" ... for a perfume ad?

Well, it sure is entertaining.

nofilmscool.com shared this video with a commentary about how ads for organic social media are getting more and more cinematic:

This one, for France's Kenzo perfumery, is directed by Spike Jonze. He's one of an increasing number of film directors being recruited to do branded entertainment for consumer companies.

Let's face it: This video is awesome. The woman, played by Margaret Qualley, is bored of stiff formality. She breaks out of reality does an awesome solo (mostly) dance — choreographed by Ryan Heffington — through a vast empty lobby.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, that was Jonze's work for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice," back in 2001. It's one of the best music videos ever made.

And now, its child is selling perfume.

Thanks to Justin for the tip.

Enough already with "meatatarian" marketing

Via Burger Business

I like meat. I eat quite a bit of it. But there's nothing more tiresome than a junk food brand thinking it's being edgy by trolling vegetarians.

Remember this one?

It's an old idea, and this kind of oppositional marketing is only funny once or twice.

Call me a "meh-tetarian" I guess...

David Duke: From KKK to intellectual property theft

You've probably heard the news that David Duke, former "Grand Wizard" of the racist KKK, is running for United States Senate. He's promising to "defend the rights of European Americans."

One of the many meme-ish campaign posters he's sharing on social media is this one, which Lisa Wade of Sociological Images pointed out looks rather... ummm...

David Duke is running for senate. The campaign poster on the left is his. #DavidDuke #AmericaFirst #shudder pic.twitter.com/XjGPViDut0

— Lisa Wade, PhD (@lisawade) July 23, 2016

Aside from that, the photo appears to have been stolen from the portfolio of Dutch model Romy van de Laar. Signed to Elite Model Management, Ms. van de Laar was photographed in this shot in 2012 or before, as far as I can tell from the many fashion blogs (and creepy tumblrs) the shot appears in. Now 20, she must have been 15 or 16 at the time.

Tweeter @joshuacomer also tracked down the model's identity through a reverse image search, and says he has reported the presumably-unauthorized use to Elite.

So to summarize: David Duke, a venomously racist white nationalist, is running for high office in the United States. I suppose stealing a picture of a teenage girl to further his evil agenda isn't the worst thing he's ever done, but it's pretty despicable.

Oh yeah, and Donald Trump seems to like him.

#canneslions bronze winner for Bayer makes fun of consent

I first saw this ad on Twitter, shared by marketer Cindy Gallop, with the comment "Don't use this to sell aspirin, male-dominated ad industry, & don't award it, male-dominated juries. #canneslions"

Seriously. I'm a male Creative Director in this industry, and I think it's awful.

The ad is part of a series by AlmapBBDO of Brazil for Bayer. It won a Bronze Lion at Cannes 2016 in the Outdoor category.

The other two in the winning entry were a little less explicit:

These are part of a over-arching campaign that describes situations that might give the listener/victim a headache. They play all kinds of stereotypes about ex-wives and protective fathers, and are mostly harmless.

But not "'Don't worry, babe, I'm not filming this'.mov"

I see a lot of regressive ads coming out of Brazil, and I'm used to a certain kind of humour in them. But this one, translated into English for an international awards show, is really bad timing for a joke about non-consensual filming of sex.

Yeah, yeah. Call me an "SJW" if you want. But I'm trying to raise a son into a man who doesn't exploit and abuse women. The idea of filming and possibly sharing an intimate sex tape of a woman without her consent is just not funny anymore. It's the kind of bro-attitude that we should be denormalizing, rather than normalizing, along with jokes about other kinds of sexual violation.

Bayer, BBDO, and Cannes should do better than this. It's 20-effing-16.

UPDATE: Cindy Gallop added, via Facebook, some further context as to why this ad's timing is so bad.

UPDATE 2: Adweek reports that BBDO global creative chief David Lubars, who stated: "I learned last night that one of our very own agencies had a pretty scammy ad in the festival, and it won a Lion, I told them to return it. Because I don't want that kind of Lion. BBDO doesn't want that kind of Lion."

It turned out that the sexism was one thing, but what the global ad giant couldn't stand was that AlmapBBDO had paid for their own media placement. Even though Bayer had signed off on the ad, the agency paying to make it official is against the rules.

Grey Singapore wins Bronze Lion for failed App

Well, isn't that awkward.

ADWEEK reports that Grey For good Singapore's I SEA App, intended to use "the power of crowdsourcing to monitor the vast sea and make an impossible task possible" has been removed from Apple's iTunes a few hours before it won a Bronze Lion at Cannes.

To add insult to injury, the "client," Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAT) denies that they had anything to do with it, stating, "All we can say on the developers' behalf is that the app probably sounded interesting in concept form but failed miserably in execution. We were asked to support the launch of the app in concept only. So we were included in a press release."

The App was supposed to assign a square of Mediterranean Sea to each of an assumed thousands of observers, who would opt-in to keep an eye on the water via live satellite feed, then report any suspected migrant boats to MOAT for possible rescue.

But, according to ADWEEK, "...various tech outlets downloaded and tried to use the app and found that it was not functional. The primary issue concerned a GPS feature which promised to provide real-time screenshots of areas in the Mediterranean Sea where migrant vessels might be located but did not appear to work."

Tech blogger @SwiftOnSecurity called the app out as "fake" and stated, via several Tweets:

"Tried it, the app is completely non-functional. It's a marketing stunt for the developer to get press articles.
The point of the articles isn't even to get people to use the app, it's to make readers feel better that other people are doing something.
Someone who DM'd me familiar with international advertising thinks this was an in-progress intern proof-of-concept they pushed as finished.
HOWEVER, it does not explain how the "I Sea" app ever hoped to get high-resolution, near-real-time satellite imagery of entire Mediterranean.
Nor does it explain the entire concept of how laypersons are supposed to identify stranded refugee boats from old blurry satellite imagery.
Note that I intuitively knew this app was fake within 20 seconds of using it. It screams unfinished interface mock-up, doesn't act right."

Incredible. Cannes has a bad reputation for awarding lions to "fake" campaigns, but this one is a special kind of fail.

ADWEEK has still not heard back from the Cannes Lions' PR department.

Cross-published on Osocio

Father's Day ad suggests daughters give Dad "a threesome"

A friend received this by e-mail and sent it with the comment, "Thought you might appreciate the insane inappropriateness of this spam email I received. Can't imagine how someone thought this was a good idea.

I love that this offer is for "ethical" coffee.

I haven't seen any "gift" ideas for dads this twisted since Genesis 19:36...