Comedy Central is really into animals, objects, raping people

What?

WHAT?!?

WTF?!?!?

Apparently, anal rape is funny "in the right place."

This campaign is by Grey, Argentina, and features on Ads Of The World.

Apparently, fat people are also funny:

Or maybe it's rape again. I have no idea.

Argentinian Jeep ads look a lot like blackface

I get the concept of mud mask treatments and going off road. But the execution is both weird and unsettling:

I'm sure the agency didn't intend to invoke the spectre of "blackface," but there it is. Nonetheless, they're pretty masturbatory ads, from a creative perspective. Whatever happened to making the product the hero?

Via Ads of The World

Air conditioning ad promises to keep the psycho killers indoors

At first, this reminded me of our old elder abuse awareness campaign. (I also had to remind myself that it's summer in Argentina.) Then it got weird.



At least this thing is memorable. Even if I feel a little scarred now.


Ad by Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires. Found on Illegal Advertising.

Pymes Magazine doesn't know what babies eat

I understand where the idea came from. But the all-male creative team at ADN Comunicación, in Buenos Aires,  don't seem to know the difference between human breastmilk, infant formula, and cow's milk.

While human milk is recognized by all health authorities as the ideal infant food for the first one-two years of life, manufactured formulas are a reasonable substitute. But while many formulas include cow's milk as an ingredient, it is highly processed to extract purified whey and casein as protein sources.

Normal cow's milk is actually bad for babies. From the American National Institutes of Health:

Cow's milk is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for children under 1 year old. Infants fed whole cow's milk don't get enough vitamin E, iron, and essential fatty acids. They also get too much protein, sodium, and potassium. These levels may be too high for the infant's system to handle. Also, whole cow's milk protein and fat are more difficult for an infant to digest and absorb.

Cow's milk could actually make a baby quite sick.

You could rationalize that the concept implies that more babies means a need for more formula, which will increase demand for cow's milk. But that's a rather indirect way of communicating the idea.

The other two ads in the series indicate that a much more direct link is intended:

I won't even get in to the other awkwardness here...

...or the fact that nobody has used quills for 200 years or so.

Overall, it's just bad advertising. But bedsides that, it might have unintended negative consequences of making women without good prenatal education think that giving "milk" to their baby is OK. And that's a bad idea.

Let's fix it, shall we?

Yay!

Campaign found on Ads of the World

JWT Argentina Halls ads play up the racial and sexual stereotypes

In the world of international brands, everyone can see your regional marketers screw up. Such as when some unknown client at Kraft-owned Halls greenlit this nice bit of premodern racialized humour by JWT Argentina.

It's already weird to see the sore throat remedy marketed as a breath freshener. But the strategic insight, that everything you say sounds better with numbingly-mentholated breath, ends up in the above ad playing out dusty stereotypes about white insecurity and black athleticism.

And then there's this weird one, from the same series.

She says she's Miss Ohio, but her perceives her as Miss California. I guess it's supposed to be a "bragging rights" thing if he manages to date her. Aesthetically, she's the same. Thanks to modern beauty concepts, even in reality I don't see much of a difference:

 Audrey Bolte, Miss Ohio 2012

Natalie Pack, Miss California 2012

The third ad in the series is about a man sounding more impressive to a woman. Does he do it by winning a beauty contest? No, he does it by being a CEO. And the Halls amplifies his status:

All of this casual racial and sexual stereotyping not only makes the Halls brand look bad, when the campaign shows up on international blogs like Ads of The World. It also makes Argentina look backward.

And if that happens, JWT Argentina Creative Chiefs Gonzalo Vecino and Pablo Alvarez Travieso might have a lot of 'splaining to do...

This is how they sell Italian cars in Argentina #FdAdFriday

With boobs.

Well, that's no surprise. But what is baffling is the way this ad (via Copyranter) spends so little time talking about cars, and so much time talking about boobies. Plus, its pro-surgery, anti-natural slant is pretty damn offensive:



The only thing I did like about the ad was the way it visually referenced one of the most referenceable movies of all time.
(The music is more like Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" from the title sequence.) Related: This is how they sell Italian sports cars in Germany

Your Grandma won't rest until you get a job #FdAdFriday

Sissy Spacek has seen better days...

That's the joke in this bizarre ad by Draftfcb Argentina. AdFreak covered it this week, and it made some people really upset. (A commenter on their Facebook page wrote, "I hate this ad and I hope all the people who made it die violently.")



 I thought it was kind of funny.

Absurdly violent condom ads #FdAdFriday

These have to be some of the most absurdly macho condom ads I have seen. By a sausage party of a creative team at TBWA Buenos Aires, Argentina, they seem to imply that men thing they have a mighty warrior in their pants. But it doesn't seem sexy at all to me, and can't possibly be an attractive image for women.

It's about technique, guys, not brute strength. Mine's a lover, not a fighter.

Via Ads of The World

Playboy celebrates getting caught looking at porn

Because, hey! Who wouldn't rather look at heavily photoshopped wannabe actresses' naked bodies rather than spending time with loved ones...

Or working...

Or doing nothing at all?

Clever idea, but it makes me kind of sad for the target audience.

For Playboy's Spanish "TV" web site, by Y&R Argentina. (You wonder if they ever get any work done down there.)

Note that, once again, all creative teams assume everyone owns a Mac.

Via Ads of the World

Playboy Argentina turns Twitter into titter #FdAdFriday

In this video (Spanish with subtitles), Grey Buenos Aires explains how it used Twitter as a second screen to get viewers of the "Saturday Bus" program, featuring Maria Paz Delgado, to retweet each time they saw a reference to Senorita Delgado in their feed. For every 15 RTs monitored, Playboy would reveal another block of her nude pictorial (from her October issue appearance) on Tweetgrid.


At least, I think that's how it worked. Contains nudity, obviously.



Playboy Tweetgrid from Velasco845 on Vimeo.


Tip via Ads of the World

MILFs for sale #FdAdFriday

Ads of the World featured this interesting guerilla campaign by O&M Buenos Aires for womwn's organization AMMAR.

Apparently, 93% of the country's sex workers are mothers trying to make ends meet. The campaign aims to raise awareness for the need to protect these women with more progressive prostitution laws.

At first blush, however, the campaign seems like more of a way to scare clients away. Argentina's callgirls advertise using business cards left in public places. O&M created surprise fold-outs that showed the maternal reality behind the sexy promotion.

I'm not sure targeting clients is the best direct strategy, but of course these days innovative campaigns are all about indirect reach through PR and social media.

Every family's worst nightmare: Dads in briefs

You know, as a "needs to get in shape" middle-aged man, I have no problem whatsoever with the double standards in what would be considered ageism, sexism and body shaming if this was an ad about women.

It's just one of those times when we need to accept the payback.

Flash only (for now):



Ad by Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Beunos Aires

Via Creativity Online

Why are these Argentinian health insurance ads in English?

I saw these today on Ads of The World:

Nice ads, simple idea, well-executed. But as with many campaigns I see on AOTW that were created for non-Anglophone countries, I scratched my head and wondered how they would work in Spanish.

You see, it's become common practice for agencies around the world to create parallel English-language print campaigns so that unilingual Anglos, as well as ESL people from other language groups, can evaluate and share their ideas in blogs and award shows. Sometimes the headlines are poorly translated. Other times, the agency puts a lot of effort into adapting the concept.

With a copy-based campaign like this, depending so heavily on words-within-words, I assumed the latter — and was quite impressed. But then I tracked down the original-language versions at the Medicus site:

The body copy is in Spanish, but the headline is the same. I guess the client was convinced that every member of their target market read English well enough to get the concept, and wouldn't mind that it was in a foreign language.

A couple of other notes about "international" versions of campaigns:

• The client only showed three executions, while the portfolio piece shows five.  
• The client version has body copy and a call to action, whereas the portfolio piece drops it and goes landscape — billboard version, or just Creative Director's choice to keep it "clean"?

Have you seen other examples of English ads created for audiences within a non-English country? I'd love to see them.

What a brilliant (stolen) concept!

I just saw this campaign in Ads of the World:

Really awesome concept. But not an original one. The ads immediately sent me searching through my blog archives to find the originals, in an art photography series by Argentinian photographer Irina Werning:

The ad version is by an agency called Propeg in Salvador, Brazil. The creative team is Ana Luisa Almeida and Emerson Braga (CDs) and Edson Rosa (AD).

So here is my question for photographers and ad creatives alike: Is it right to rip off someone's personal art project for ad glory and profit? Is it "inspiration" or outright theft?

An Ottawa radio station is currently running ads that use the Sleeveface meme. But that's a collaborative and tongue-in-cheek project that uses already copyrighted work. This, on the other hand, is a clear ripoff in concept, style and content — with only the addition of a product placement — Irina's Back to the Future and Back to the Future 2. Is it even legal?

Opinions welcome. I have e-mailed Irina as well.

It's the end of the world as I know it, and I smell bad

Copyranter and AOTW shared this bit of apocalyptic partying, via Argentina.



At least it didn't have any goddamn angels in it.

Sex sells... paint? (nudity)

Of course it does. It's so easy to get attention in international advertising. It got mine. Just get a naked woman (in this case, Argentinian model Pamela David) and splash your product all over her body.



A big question is, will it never not be this easy to draw eyeballs online? Doubtful. But should advertisers be taking this easy (and sexually objectifying) route just because they can?

That's up to the consumers to decide. Because looking is not the same as buying.

Agency: Oil Comunicacion
Via Illegal Advertising
Via Illegal Advertising

F'd Ad Fridays: The truth about factory-made hamburgers

Via Huff Post

F'd Ad Fridays: Exploiting the death of a rock star's child for fun and profit

click to enlarge and read

"Love All, Serve All, Offend All."

Via Copyranter

Marketing grooming product to real men

Why are men's grooming products so hard to sell? I guess it's a sign that the whole metrosexual thing is long gone that we're now at a point of parodying the "real men" who are supposed to use these products.



This one is from an Argentinian agency agency called (without irony) "Ponce". Argentina is apparently a pretty rough neighbourhood. It's funny, though, and won a Cannes Silver Lion for "best use of music".



This one's  from Los & Co in Oslo, Norway. It's also pretty funny, but may be trying a little too hard. It won a Bronze Lion in the "Film" category.

The moral of the story? Male self-deprecation wins awards. Now let's see if it moved product.

(Both tips via Copyranter)

Kids GIS the darndest things

This could have been a really great campaign about unfortunate Google Image Searches that kids make. But instead of taking it to the next level, the creative team gutterballed it:

“Let kids stay kids. Use parental control.”

"Wet Pussy"? Was that really the best you could come up with? How likely would it be that a kid young enough not to know the slang would choose those exact two words, as opposed to the more common "cat", or "kitty"...

And this one's just annoying, not only because of the improbability of "black cock" as an innocent search, but also because it feeds off of that racist sexual fetishism some people have for black men.

As a parent, I know how this kind of thing really goes down. It's the truly innocent search for "beaver", "facial", or even "toe" that ends up in the bad place. And those examples (only the tip of the iceberg) are far more shocking and more likely to be stumbled upon.

These ads are actually by DDB, Buenos Aires, so I wonder if there's a language issue at hand here. Perhaps they just used the limited English slang that they (and their audience) know.

Via I Believe in Advertising