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...

Is this NZ beer billboard the right way to welcome equal marriage?

Now that New Zealand has equal marriage, this ad brings up the question of whether the advertiser is taking a cheap shot at same-sex marriage or simply "normalizing" it by including gay people in some rusty old step-parent humour.

According to the brewer:

‘‘Our intention with the current Tui Yeah Right billboard ‘Dad’s new husband seems nice’ was to highlight the common situation or uncertainty experienced when someone’s parent remarries. 

‘‘Given the recent passing of the Same Sex Marriage Bill in Parliament, this ‘Yeah Right’ line is a topical spin at the age-old situation of a parent's new partner.’’

Tui's Facebook page is hosting an impassioned discussion of the ad's intentions, including the (regrettably) inevitable homophobic comments.

Adfreak's David Kiefaber concludes, "I don't think Tui meant any actual harm here, but the delivery was crap. If you have to explain a joke, that's proof that it bombed. That's not something you can blame on the audience."

2013 Toyota Corolla drives cat to suicide

And it's not really recommended for cat lovers:



The ad is by Saatchi & Saatchi, New Zealand, for Toyota. Man, they do some wild work down there.

The product benefits are straightforward, while the concept is rather unexpected. It could work. But are you bothered by the cartoon violence? Is it responsible advertising?

I'll leave that up to you. But you have to admit, funny cats are a surefire hit on the internet.

Via I Believe in  Advertising

Mary had a little lamb, fries, and a Coke

This was posted on Copyranter today. It's part of a big product launch in Australia and New Zealand. (You can see the whole campaign at The Inspiration Room.)

Made me laugh, anyway.

This type of carnivorous humour is nothing new, of course. And The Saskatoon Restaurant did it best.

What's wrong with this vampire ad?

When I first saw this billboard, I thought "cool idea to show the two bandaids on the vampire bite, but they look like nipples".

Then I noticed that the name of the submission to Ads of The World is "boobs". It was intentional.

Which is fine, from a "people will look" point of view. But the concept bugs me.

Here's why — the thought process here is two parallel ideas:

"Trueblood is about vampires, they bite necks, two circular bandaids is a cute way of showing that."

"The bandaids look like nipples, and that says "adult"

The second idea is actually the concept. But it requires us to accept the two bandaids as something so common as to be a universal symbol for vampires, requiring no interpretation.

The second ad is much better:

The "sex" read is instant, and the patches add vampire, so the connection is much clearer.

There was also a novelty outdoor installation, which was quite clever:

Weather conditions as human stereotypes

From Y&R NZ comes this series of ads for a weather smartphone app that pun away at some really cardboard stereotypes. They are at least not all female ones:

It's pretty funny stuff, as long as you don't think about it too much.

Via Ads of The World

NZ tampon brand disses "fake" women

Kerry sent me this weird ad about womanhood:



The XOJane blog had a big problem not only with the apparent transphobia of the ad, but its overall implications for all kinds of women:

"If we’re assuming that menstruation is absolutely necessary, the implications don’t simply come down against the right-to-womany-ness of trans women, but also ANY women who do not menstruate -- and there are lots of reasons why a woman might not have regular periods (it's also worth noting that there are plenty of folks who do menstruate but who do not identify as ladies)."

After taking a lot of heat over the ad, Libra voluntarily pulled it, stating "Libra regrets any offence taken to our recent tampon advertisement. It was never intended to upset or offend anyone. Independent research was undertaken and the advertisement was viewed positively during that testing."

I can see how this happened. They created an ad for their target audience of mainstream, fertile young women, and tested it on groups of the same. But once the ad was out there (including on Facebook) it reached many more people than its intended audience. While the primary target presumably found the "fake woman" skit amusing and perhaps even empowering, other non-targeted audiences saw it differently.

A good lesson in the social age of advertising. There's no such thing as isolated segmentation anymore. Whoever can take the most offence to your ad will eventually see it, and complain about it, and share it. That's just the way it is now.

And that's probably a good thing. We're all getting to know each other much better than we ever have before. Acceptance comes with familiarity and empathy with people who are different from us.

NZ church keeps up its irreverent Christian holiday ad tradition

St Matthews in the City Church in Auckland, NZ, is known for its controversial billboards. This Christmas, they did not disappoint:

Via stuff.co.nz and Copyranter

Here's a clearer image:

Via The Daily Mail

Well, how would you react if you were an engaged homeless virgin who just found out she was pregnant?


Vicar Glynn Cardy says the irreverent ad has a serious Christmas message:

"It's real. Christmas is real. It's about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It's about real anxiety, courage and hope. This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus' mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant.   Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking.  Mary was unmarried, young, and poor.  This pregnancy would shape her future.  She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last."

Screw the haters. I love these guys.

Other great St. Mathews billboards:

• This billboard will rise again
• God is an All-Blacks fan
• God is a hard act to follow
• Beware of God
• "Hell no, we're giving up pizza for Lent"
• Same-sex couples on Noah's Ark

Putting out cooking fires in urinals

I've heard of this "drinking and frying" issue before, but it was in Wales. Guys were going home wasted, putting bacon, sausage or eggs on the stove, then passing out and allowing the grease to ignite.

I guess Kiwi men have the same weakness for late-night eggs'n'bake. So this campaign by the NZ government uses heat-reactive urinal stickers to remind men — while they're peeing out that last pint — to grab some takeout on the way home instead. (How appetizing!)

Via Creative Criminals

I think late-night junk food takeout joints here in Canada should take advantage of this issue in their POP marketing: "poutine saves lives"

In the short term, anyway...

A smarter way to stop drunk driving

Copyranter just featured this NZ anti drunk driving spot, and I'm reblogging it because I really love it:



Here are all the things it gets right:

• It accepts that teens like to get drunk
• It recognizes the social pressure not to take a stand
• It's funny and culturally relevant
• The language, characters and setting realistic

Here are things it didn't do:

• Guilt
• Preach
• Shock
• Tell youth not to drink

Through my work with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation I've come to understand that positive reinforcement is the only way to really get through to anyone. To completely denormalize drunk driving, you've got to normalize the culture of refusing to participate in it.

This isn't the first time New Zealand has taken a more progressive approach to encouraging responsibility. The "4 Mates" series, aimed at men, also showed that being a designated driver for your drunken friends sucks, but is sometimes necessary.



(There is something wrong with the vid, though. It shakes.)

F'd Ad Fridays: Femen emasculates NZ men (nudity)

Back in March, Ukrainian women's protest group FEMEN protested a New Zealand radio station's contest to "win a wife" in the Ukraine via one of those awful mail-order bride companies.

The winner, a winemaker known only as Greg, was so scared of the publicity that he refused to go to meet his "prize".  With characteristic subtlety, FEMEN celebrated their victory — and gave a warning to all other Kiwi men to stay away from Ukrainian sex tourism — by having this poster pasted all over Auckland:

Millions of men are now crossing their legs awkwardly.

I love the parody of Soviet propaganda.

Femen's statement (via Google Translate):The action served as a clear warning to the New Zealand men that Ukraine is not a country of sex tourism, and the Ukrainian is not a gift!

Me, I'm just trying to stay on their good side.

The ad industry is going to hell.

It's Easter season, so expect to see lots of outrageous campaigns and outraged Christians.

But in a cynical world, how far do you need to push irreverence to even get noticed? For a start, we have a strong contender from Auckland, New Zealand's Hell Pizza chain, promoting their pentagram-decorated "Hell Cross Buns":

According to the NZ Herald, Anglican Church media officer Lloyd Ashton was quick to comment:

"The ad is another example of already over-remunerated ad people getting paid more to churn out 'risque' ads. They've dared here to take a clumsy poke at something that numbers of people hold sacred."

He also commented that "their buns are stale".

Hell Pizza director Warren Powell countered with one of the most disingenuous rationales ever uttered:

"We expected it would spark some debate and some talking between people in the offices. Which is good. It means our marketing budget works a little bit harder.
I do not see how it could possibly be disrespectful to anyone's religion.

First of all, we're acknowledging that Jesus Christ may have been on Earth for a limited time. We may bring them back next year, and everyone's saying that
Jesus Christ is coming back one day. Again, it's a debate. I think if people take it that way then they're being a little bit single-minded."

The Herald does not mention whether Powell was smoking anything at the time, or whether he was able to maintain a straight face.

To set the record straight, I'm not offended by this ad's cheap poke at Jesus. I just find it a dumb, lazy creative idea, that at no time was intended to generate "debate". It's just there to ingratiate the brand among its target audiences of anti-religious students and stoners by freaking out the squares. Yawn.

Plus, it's in bad taste to make fun of a dead guy. Even if he has taken an unholy interest in pizza of late.

"Blessed are the cheesemakers..."

From Drive-Time to Human Trafficking?

The Daily Telegraph reports that a zany radio contest by New Zealand's The Rock FM has raised a little hell (and not the good kind).

"Panties in a twist" because all manly men are assumed to be cool with it.

That's right. The prize is a woman. And not just any woman, but one of the "beautiful genuine Ukraine ladies looking for love and marriage with Kiwi Men" offered up by the Endless Love Agency.

After initial criticism from — well, pretty much anyone with a functioning brain — the radio station sarcastically changed the title of their promotion to:

Note gift tag. How thoughtful!

NZ social activist Sue Bradford is quoted as saying The Rock FM "takes commercial radio to new depths."

"It is unusual and somewhat disturbing that a commercial entity would commercialise what should be one of the most meaningful human relationships and actually offer it as a prize for a radio show," she said.

But there's more than sexism and bad taste at play here. The Ukraine is now a well-known destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries, and "Mail-order Bride" operations are well-known panderers. (As the women are expected to offer "test drives" to prospective grooms.)

This has caught the attention of FEMEN, a Ukrainian radical feminist group who use their own sexuality to protest human trafficking — and sexist culture in general.

They turned out in the freezing Kiev winter to draw attention in their usual way:

[Add "must be a bit nippy over there" joke here.]

These are the same women who have pledged to castrate the Kiev subway groper (if they ever catch him).

The man who makes Rick Rockwell look like a romantic.

So to the contest winner, "Greg" (above) best of luck on your voyage into the glamorous world of sleazy marketing, human trafficking, and international shame.

Or as FEMEN puts it:

Women's bodies exploited by advertiser

Literally:

Posted on Copyranter this morning, this purports to be a guerilla move by DDB Auckland to get more impressions (ha ha tee hee) for NZ fashion boutique Superette:

"We put indented plates on bus stop, mall, and park benches, so that when people sat down, the message was imprinted on their thighs. This meant that as well as having branded seats, a veritable army of free media was created, with thousands of imprints being created and lasting up to an hour."

As Copyranter noted, probably none of the un-staged impressions was particularly legible. But of course that's not the point anymore. Guerilla and ambient work these days is designed to appeal to a global internet audience (and awards show judges) rather than to function in the meatworld.

But points for finding a new way to impose sexy advertising on women.