#carbonaragate: Marketing fail, or brilliant troll?

Europeans are very entertaining sometimes.

Last month, French lifestyle site demotivateur posted a video recipe for a pasta "alla Carbonara" that was nothing like the eggy spaghetti dish beloved by Italians.

Even among Italians, there are variations in the recipe, which is a "tradition" less than a century old. However, the French version almost seemed like a parody of French food by Italians. Dry pasta, bacon, and onions are simmered in water, then the mix is tossed in crème fraîche and cheese and pepper sprinkled on. Finally, a raw egg yolk is cracked on top. What?

The video went viral in Italy, according to Huffington Post, with Italians loudly bemoaning the "death of carbonara."

But let's look at that video again.

Nice product placement, eh? When I first saw the original video (now gone) I swear I saw Barilla branding at the end as well. I suspect, as some Italian commenters do, that this was just a piece of content marketing gone awry.

And yet the company denied everything on the Sai cosa mangi? Facebook Page, and offered a link to alternative recipes on their own site.

So, either this was rogue content marketing by Barilla's French team that went very badly, or it was a brilliant trolling of Italians. Either way, Barilla is benefiting from clicks, mentions, and visits by outraged Italians and curious foreigners.

Hmmm...

France 3's sexist boast about its hiring of women

Most of TV network France 3 on-air talent are women. Great!

But what was not-so-great was how they chose to communicate their pro-woman hiring practices:

That's right! Because they hired all the women, nor cooking, cleaning, ironing, toilet-seat-putting-downing, or dog walking is getting done.

In their attempt to look anti-sexist, France 3 brought back some of the worst anti-Suffragette memes from a century ago.

9 News reports that the negative reaction to this ad went all the way to the French government, with Secrétaire d'Etat chargée des Droits des Femmes Pascale Boistard Tweeting that the ad “does not seem like a good way to promote professional equality."

It has since been pulled by the network.

Fashion brand adopts "will strip for attention" strategy

This could be the sleaziest use of sex in advertising that you will read about today. French fashion brand Vicomte A. hired Fred & Farid, Shanghai, to create an online campaign that allows users to undress a woman (or a man, apparently) by sharing promotions for items of clothing.

The portfolio video claims incredible success: >150,000 Facebook shares; >300,000 Twitter accounts accessed; 150% increase in Facebook "likes" and a fivefold increase in traffic to their e-commerce site:



Hey, waitaminute! Isn't something missing here? Sales figures?

Getting people to share information for a reward — whether is be voyeurism, altruism, or even just looking cool —is easy. The real problem is one of conversion.

Online fundraisers know only too well that you can emotionally trigger a user to share your cause, but you can't make them open their wallets. Using sex in advertising for attention is another part of the same problem. You can get tonnes of earned media and shares by titillating and outraging the internet with blatantly sexualized images of people, but to sell product you still have to brand and convinced based on that products actual benefits. Even a fashion brand, which depends on intangibles like cool factor, has to be able to deliver by providing great looks and a label that will impress peers.

This is French fashion. It looks pretty good. But check out the prices:

I'm going to hazard a guess that this campaign — which owed its viral success to men who had nothing better to do than to show all their friends they were willing to prostitute their social media persona for a peek at online nudity — was not well-enough targeted to people actually willing to shell out $383 USD on a goddamn pair of pants.

Sure, they'll click a call-to-action. But where are the sales?

Tip via Ads Of The World

More weird European condom ads

My French isn't good enough to catch all the nuances of this series of short ads for Intimy condoms. But I think I caught the broad strokes.



It's all about dick jokes, right? And disembodied parts. Apparently, it's being shown so much on TV that French teens despise it.

The last one is the strangest: "Is that a glowworm? No, it's Michel's phosphorescent penis flopping around in the woods at night!" (Or something like that.)

Better translations welcomed, in the comments below.

H/T Cassandria for the tip.

Stamp artist trolls the entire nation of France for #Femen

"Dear fascists, nationalists, homophobes and extremists of France, now whenever you want to send a letter, you will have to lick my ass!"

Marianne is the mythical face of the French Revolution. A symbol of France's revolutionary values, Marianne's face graces a series of stamps issued every few years with a new interpretation.

This one just happens to be based on Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko, of topless radical protest group Femen.

According to one of the stamp's designers,

"For all those who ask who the model was for Marianne, it's a mix of several women, but particularly Inna Shevchenko, founder of Femen [France]" 

According to The Local, Ms. Shevchenko was not even aware that her face had inspired this small act of nationalist subversion. The artist told the press, "For me, Marianne, who is represented bare-breasted, would probably have been a Femen in 1789 because she fought for the Republic's values - liberty, equality and fraternity."

France's Christian Democrat Party has demanded a boycott of the stamp as "an affront to the dignity of women and the sovereignty of France."

The strangest McDonald's ads you will see today

Two teenage girls mug a terrified Jason/Leatherface hybrid for his burgers.




But they're French girls, and those burgers have stinky cheese on them! Who could resist?

There's another ad in the series, but it's a pretty weak extension of the concept:

Campaign by TBWA Paris. Via Ads of The World

Subway location in France offers "straights only" Valentine's deal

Opposing Views reports:

A branch of the Subway chain in Angers, France was forced to close recently after a Valentine’s Day special was offered to heterosexual couples only. 

The store’s owner put up a poster advertising a meal deal for couples that included a footlong Subway sandwich, a drink and a dessert each for 14 Euros. Bracketed next to the word “couples” were the letters “H/F,” indicating a couple was defined as a man and woman only. 

Also on the poster was an asterisk that read: “Discrimination (?) No, the marriage for all law has advanced, but has yet to be ratified by the Senate. Until then, I’ll use my freedom of expression.”

The special offer was apparently made by a rogue franchisee, and spent Subway France spinning on Twitter and Facebook.

On Saturday, when the news had gone global, they even posted in English on their Facebook page:

As we stated in response to many posts yesterday: The SUBWAY ® brand is strongly committed to maintain the values ​​of diversity and inclusiveness in its restaurants around the world and does not endorse in any discrimination of any kind . , we apologize to all the people being offended by individual initiative to promote Valentine's Day a restaurant in Angers, France. All SUBWAY ® restaurants are owned by franchisees and are managed independently. We work with the owner of the restaurant in order to strengthen our values ​​and company policy.

The French National Assembly recently approved a law that would legalize same-sex marriage and give the same rights to all married couples to adopt children. Although the legislation has met with organized protest, a recent poll indicated that 63% of French citizens support equal marriage.

But not, apparently, that one rogue sandwich artist who caused his brand a massive embarrassment.

Long-separated breasts reunited in French push-up bra ad

Everyone knows European ads show lots of bare breasts. But these are the weirdest ones I've seen in some time. Created by Marcel Paris and Publicis Espana for Valege Lingerie they show anthropomorphized boobs having a bunch of squishy reunions:







According to AdFreak, the ads were directed by "J.A.C.K." of Wanda Productions. They're certainly playful, but humanizing the "breast friends" creates all kinds of weirdness — especially with the nipple "squint" in the airport ad.

It's pretty harmless, and very French. Although as AdFreak's Tim Nudd points out, "It's not generally assumed that breasts enjoy being squashed together in a push-up bra."

Durex France proves that you can still make a great condom ad

You can see the gag coming (sorry) from a mile off, but it doesn't hurt this ad's effectiveness.



When condoms advertise disease or pregnancy prevention, or even consequence-free sex, they can be creatively intriguing but haven't told us anything special about the specific brand. They're indistinguishable from safer sex PSAs.

This one, directed by Charlotte Rabate for Durex France,  is different. It feels like an overpromise if taken literally. But by making us think about durability while enjoying childish hijinks, it gets the message of protection through strength across... flawlessly.

Tip via Creative Criminals

Sony compares playing their new PS console to feeling up a four-breasted woman

"Two sides to touch. Twice the sensations." reads this French ad for the PlayStation Vita.

According to Adrants, English Sony people on the other side of the Channel have completely disavowed the ad, following a PR shitstorm on Twitter and elsewhere, stating "this advert is not creative that we are or would consider running in the UK."

Way to improve the image of gamers, Sony France. Now people will be convinced that your target market really is composed entirely of zitty 15-year-old boys who can only fantasize about what actual women's breasts feel like.

Amnesty ad compares arms trade to tsunami disasters

(Cross-posted at Osocio)


Oh, dear. Remember this fiasco?

Created by DDB Brazil for WWF Brazil, it ignited a firestorm of protest, which WWF's international office first disavowed, then admitted may have been the approved regionally. On this year's September 11th anniversary, Buzzfeed's Copyranter named it #1 in his list of "The Five Worst 9/11 Exploitation Ads".

You could say that it simply tells an inconvenient truth about inconsistent cultural attitudes towards tragedy and death. But that point would be made at the expense of causing further hurt to the families of the World Trade Centre attack, as well as to those deeply affected by it.

Now, strangely, the 2005 tsunami tragedy that is being exploited to make a point about war and the arms trade:

The ad is by TBWA, Paris, for Amnesty International.


This brings the saga of over-produced, tragedy-exploiting ads full circle: "an epic and tragic natural disaster killed more people than an infamous terrorist act, but the arms trade is even worse."

(Admittedly, it could also be a reference to the more recent Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.)

Once again, creatives go for maximum impact to make one message of human loss at the cost of trivializing another. This kind of trade-off is a devil's bargain, in my opinion. It's all bad. You don't need to get into a comparison of which is worse. From my perspective this looks like lazy strategy and the elaborate (yet derivative) execution is blatant award-bait.

And I say this as a member of Amnesty. You can do better than this. You often do.


Tip via Ads of the World

The most beautiful car ad you will never see in the United States

Because, you know, "won't somebody PLEASE think about the CHILDREN!"



Being a French ad, it also has a little sex in it.

Wonderful work by Euro RSCG.

Via Illegal Advertising

As we head into the weekend, don't forget...

My mom doesn't drink. I guess that's why I was such a grouchy kid.

Canadian focus groups shocked by topless statues on WW I memorial shown on $20 bill

Journalists really have to stop basing their coverage of political issues on Access to Information requests for focus group results.

Here's a scoop: sometimes, focus group participants say stupid things.

Case in freaking point: CTV reports that focus groups shown Canada's new $20 bill design complained about "pornographic" images of partially nude women and "the twin towers" from 9/11.

They were looking at an engraving of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, a world famous monument to First World War Canadian soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave.

And, being a neoclassical kind of monument, it includes naked boobies:

Oh! The humanity.

I would like to ask the journalistic community to please stop making Canadians look so ignorant.

Also, nudity in currency notes is classy.

And the most Effed ad of #FdAdFriday goes to...

...this barfworthy spot for French radio station Le Mouv':



Copyranter translates the kicker:

"Not everything was better before."
"My time. My radio."

You see, condoms were once made of sheep guts. (Some still are.) And listening to classic rock is kind of like putting an intestine on your johnson.

Okay.

What does a pedophile look like? #FdAdFriday

I'm trying to imagine the creative session at Herezie in Paris:

Copywriter: ..."and then it's really a pedophile holding his 'thumbs-up' in front of his face"

Art Director: "How do we know he's a pedophile?"

Copywriter: "I don't know... he's a creepy, middle-aged white guy. With a slightly open bathrobe."

Art Director: "Ewww... but is it campaignable?"

Copywriter: "Sure! We'll show that creeps can come from all ages. We'll have a young guy with a beard, a muscle shirt, and... a TEDDY BEAR!"

Art Director: "I guess we could put the same teddy bear in every ad, as a symbol of lost—


"Copywriter: "Yeah, yeah. Whatevs. But we need three."


Art Director: "Why?"


Copywriter: "We just do."

Art Director: "How about a fat, hairy shirtless guy? And he's bald?"


Copywriter: "Does he have a teddy bear?"


Art Director: "No, too many fuzzy things in one ad. He has a tin cup."


Copywriter: "Why a tin cup?"


Art Director: "I don't know. Can we wrap this up? It's almost wine-thirty."


Yes, it's a serious topic. But besides scaremongering, this campaign implies that sexual predators have a "look". They don't. Why is why so many "nice people" get away with it for so long.


Via Ads of The World 

FEMEN invite the women of Islam to get naked with them

FEMEN are in Paris, demonstrating for Muslim women around the world to demand sexual freedom and equal rights.

     Allah made me naked from FemenFrance on Vimeo.

The demonstration, themed "Allah created me naked" includes slogans such as "Muslim women let's get naked", "Nudity is freedom", "I am a woman, not an object", "Naked war" and "Naked truth". (They also hold signs in Ukrainian, French and Arabic.)

While their hearts are all in the right place, the show of solidarity also reminds me of this cartoon:

The question being whether sexual freedom depends on sexual display. I'm sure the women of FEMEN would agree that the choice of dress or undress is every person's individual choice — as long as they are not being coerced or brainwashed.

On the other hand, women from more oppressive religious Muslim societies who choose the route of nude expression, such as Golshifteh Farahani or Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (who is name-checked in body paint), face disapproval, banishment, and even physical harm.

What do you think of this message and tactic?

You can see and read more about the demonstration (in Ukranian) at FEMEN's Livejournal.

Is this ad saying what I think it is?

Maybe not. Hopefully not.

This campaign from Euro RSCG for a social network encouraging trading features scenarios of people who have things each other want. But it's not good advertising for a place to make trades, since in the other two cases the "trade" is an uneven one born out of desperation and greed:

Toilet paper girl wants nice shoes. Lifesaver boy wants to be captain. But what does the Chinese food delivery guy want with the dog?

Yeah, I'm being disingenuous. But you'd never get away with that joke where I live. At least, not in print.

Via Ads of The World

F'd Ad Fridays: Did Jean Dujardin eff up his Oscar chances?

These posters were too much even for France. The Local reports that these posters for Les Infideles, showing Jean Dujardin (below) and costar Gilles Lellouche (above) being sexually serviced by anonymous women (with punny headlines), were found by French ad regulator ARPP to be in "bad taste". They were voluntarily taken down.

International media are speculating, however, that the bad PR surrounding the campaign could hurt Dujardin's chances at getting the Oscar for his role in The Artist.

I don't see what these posters have to do with his performance in another movie, but anyway...

Tip via Buzzfeed

F'd Ad Fridays: Naked guy photobombs kids' clothing shoot

It apparently showed up in La Redoute's web site and catalogue.

Here's a Google Translate of their apology on Facebook:

"La Redoute apologizes for the photo published on its site and is taking steps to remove it. 

We opted to remove all the posts including this picture. We are aware that it may offend the sensibilities of surfers. 

We will strengthen the validation process of all brand communications for this can not happen again in the future."

And, presumably, to keep naked dudes out of their kiddie photoshoots.

Via Copyranter