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).

#HackAHairDryer wasn't the best way to break stereotypes about women in STEM

Oh, IBM. What were you thinking? In a fiasco similar to the European Union's ill-conceived "Science: It's a Girl Thing" video, IMB has been called out by actual women scientists and engineers for this video:

The Twitter response is at once angry, hilarious, and sad:

I code. But it's to mess around with salamander DNA sequences, not hair dryers. Minor details. #HackAHairDryer

— Cathy Newman (@cenewman0) December 7, 2015

I like makeup and hair care. I also like building robots. Guess which one I'd like to see @ibm promoting to women? #HackAHairDryer

— Randi Lee Harper (@randileeharper) December 7, 2015

Tell this woman to #HackAHairDryer - I dare you. pic.twitter.com/vkr4PHARzj

— Miles Kurland (@Malacandra) December 7, 2015

@IBM shame I don't use a hairdryer. I guess that's the end of my career in STEM. Brb quitting my astrophysics PhD. #HackAHairDryer

— Jessica V (@ThatAstroKitten) December 7, 2015

Here's to every woman at @IBM who tried to stop #HackAHairDryer but wasn't listened to

— Shannon Turner (@svt827) December 7, 2015

Are we #womeninstem going to get a 'mea culpa' apology for the patronising #HackAHairDryer nonsense, @IBM?

— Dr Mel Thomson (@DrMel_T) December 7, 2015

According to Business Insider, IBM has declined to respond.

UPDATE: It's been pulled.

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.

Bic South Africa fails hard for women's day

Via Twitter

August 9 was National Women's Day in South Africa, and Bic SA's social media team tried to share an empowering captioned image. The only problem was, it wasn't really empowering at all.

Reaction was swift and sharp, including this hack:

Twitter

The problem is obvious. "Think like a man" is hardly celebrating women's equality.

I'll hand it to Bic, however. They did take it down and issue a proper apology.

From Facebook:

Hi everyone. Let’s start out by saying we’re incredibly sorry for offending everybody - that was never our intention, but we completely understand where we’ve gone wrong. This post should never have gone out. The feedback you have given us will help us ensure that something like this will never happen again, and we appreciate that.

It still shouldn't have happened in the first place, but at least it opens a helpful conversation. Especially for an international brand with a bad history of gender stereotyping.

Magnum's attempt to raise women's "self-esteem" is not helping

This is one from my backlog of reader-submitted content. Rachel P, who lives in Spain, sent me this Twitter ad from Magnum ice cream bars. She translates the headline as "how to raise a Spanish woman's self-esteem."

Yeah, ice cream, stiletto heels, and jewellery. That'll do 'er. Because feminism is so 20th Century.

Here's the Tweet:

¿Cómo disfrutan del placer del mejor chocolate helado las mujeres españolas? Descúbrelo aquí: http://t.co/FdrmsywrwL pic.twitter.com/QiGSCmbHYD

— Magnum (@MagnumSpain) June 19, 2015

It says, roughly, "How do Spanish women enjoy the pleasure of the best chocolate ice-cream?"

Magnum, a Unilever brand, is no stranger to controversial ads. Marketing primarily to women, they seem to have no problem insulting them with stuff like this. Tiresome.

No, Sasha Grey is not the face of anti-Ukrainian propaganda

Via Daily Mail

Sasha Grey made some rather explicit sex films before she went into mainstream cinema, but she has always insisted that she was never exploited. So I can understand why she sees her image being stolen for use in sick propaganda as a true obscenity.

According to The Moscow Times (via NYP) the social media post above claimed "a nurse named “Sasha Serova” was captured by Ukrainian military forces, who then filmed themselves “humiliating” her before chopping her body up with an axe."

Here is how the actress responded:

I <3 my Russian fans, but this propaganda takes it too far. News that I was a NURSE killed in the Russian/Ukraine conflict. #fuckpropoganda
— Sasha Grey (@SashaGrey) February 18, 2015

People are dying. People are losing family members & BS outlets mock the deceased with Fappery like this
— Sasha Grey (@SashaGrey) February 18, 2015

Just an FYI some other conservative propaganda outlet labeled me & other Russian artists as friends of the Hunta just last summer/fall.
— Sasha Grey (@SashaGrey) February 18, 2015

So to make it clear FIRST I was the ENEMY & now I'm a FRIEND because this was supposedly the fault of Ukrainians.
— Sasha Grey (@SashaGrey) February 18, 2015

I have love & respect for all of my Russian & Ukrainian fans, I wish there was more I could do. #peace
— Sasha Grey (@SashaGrey) February 18, 2015

I think she made herself pretty clear, don't you?

Twitter protip: Research before hashtagging! #whyistayed

Via Time

It's easy to see how this happened: Whoever manages the DiGiorno frozen pizza Twitter account saw a trending hashtag, #whyistayed, and completely misunderstood it.

From the Tweet above, it looks like they assumed the meme was about staying in a tired relationship. It was actually used by survivors of domestic abuse to share their stories, like "I thought I could change him," and "I didn't know he was abusing me." It runs parallel to another hashtag, #whyileft, and both allow strangers to create a huge, virtual support group.

The DiGiorno Tweet was a huge mistake, making it as far as coverage in Time. The administrator has been performing due penance, apologizing individually, over and over again, to people who called them on it.

The moral of the story? Educate yourself. Not just about what hashtags and memes are really about, but deeper on the underlying social issues that drive them.

And when you do screw up, make it right. Even if you are just a pizza brand.

Thanks to Audra Williams (via Facebook) for the tip.

Canada's coolest police force is at it again...

Courtesy of @YRP here is your complimentary frosh week expense list. #makewisedecisions and #partywithcaution pic.twitter.com/vPbfATOPtK
— York Regional Police (@YRP) September 3, 2014

Remember when York Region Police "won the internet" by replying to a guy's Twitter request for dope? 

This year, they're using that same type of humour to warn local university and college students about the consequences of drunken hijinks. And somehow, they manage to make it feel less like a lecture:

Is this Cavalli logo an appropriated Sufi symbol?

Via The Fashion Law

See that fake tattoo on Georgia May Jagger's neck?

Okay, now mentally rotate it 90 degrees. What does it look like? To an entire sect of Sufi Muslims, it looks like this:

Via MTO

Followers of The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Sufi Islam are outraged at seeing their emblem in a sexualized advertising campaign. They've launched a Twitter hashtag campaign, #takeoffjustlogo, as well as a petition.



I have written frequently about the problem of commercial appropriation of cultural symbols. And I think I've established myself as a critic of Islamophobia. But as a branding professional, I think this outrage is completely mistaken.

The logo is clearly a stylized "JC" monogram. There is no extra elaboration. "Just" JC.

I firmly believe that the logo designer was completely unaware of any similarity with the Sufi symbol, and it takes a concerted effort to see it:

Via Allvoices

So what's the big deal? One of the anti-Cavalli campaign organizers, American doctoral student Nasim Bahadorani, said "We have this sign that to us represents blessed peace. It's a refuge … To see it disgraced like this for a company to make money is heartbreaking."

But really? There are only so many ways to create symbols in the world. As much as this one means to The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School, and as much as their religious sensibilities are real, this accidental sort-of similarity ranks pretty low in the problems of the world. At least in my opinion.

Cavalli can choose to withdraw the logo if they want to, and they may if they feel the bad PR will influence their key target audiences. But for now, the brand is appealing to the European Union's trademark and design authority, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).

From Reuters:

"Roberto Cavalli SpA is deeply saddened by the distress expressed by the Sufist School students, but hopes that the sentence emitted by a competent authority such as the OHIM, will convince the Sufist religion of the complete good faith and the groundlessness of their requests," the company said this week in a statement.

Ironically, Roberto Cavalli was the subject of some much more warranted religious outrage back in 2004, when he produced a line of bikinis featuring classical Indian images of Hindu gods. Cavalli apologized and withdrew the swimwear from stores following protests in the UK.

Paddy Power are being assholes for a cause now

C'mon England! #BrazilNuts pic.twitter.com/8O1Ayyd8TR
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 7, 2014

The Tweet above showed up on Saturday, and people went nuts on the online gambling brand.

Is the picture real? If it is then theyre disgusting “@paddypower: Get behind Roy's Boys! #BrazilNuts pic.twitter.com/2lKLxPt6hR” cc @PicPedant
— 4tis (@4tis) June 8, 2014

That could be the cure for cancer gone right there. Oh well, it is the world cup. "@paddypower: #BrazilNuts pic.twitter.com/vs3FeeeUj4"
— Ben Prater (@benpratershow) June 7, 2014

Hoped it wasn't real. Wow. Away to close my account. RT “@paddypower: Run, forest, run! #BrazilNuts pic.twitter.com/Yk0vn77BrU”
— Kenny Stewart (@Kenny__Stewart) June 7, 2014

But then yesterday, they revealed the whole thing as a "corporate social responsibility" campaign:

Wood you believe it? http://t.co/DxupnvU2Lf #SaveTheRainforest pic.twitter.com/UT3DA4igl4
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 8, 2014

Of course it was faked. How could anyone doubt that? But it's interesting to note that Paddy Power, who are not exactly know for social sensitivity in advertising, used predictable outrage as a way to get rainforest issues in front of soccer fans.

No, deforestation is not a laughing matter. But they played Twitter like a piano. And like it or hate it, that's one for the record books.

Ogilvy apologizes for Malala mattress ad

On Monday, I blogged about this really distasteful "borrowed interest" of Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai's near-fatal shooting and recovery to sell mattresses in India.

A couple of days later, the whole campaign disappeared from Ads Of The World. But it was too late. The PR damage to Ogilvy, India, was apparently already done.

Just now, on Twitter:

We would like to apologize to Malala Yousafzai and her family. Our official statement can be found here. http://t.co/DgGPz6gK33
— Ogilvy & Mather (@Ogilvy) May 15, 2014

Here's the statement:

The recent Kurl-On ads from our India office are contrary to the beliefs and professional standards of Ogilvy & Mather and our clients. 

We deeply regret this incident and want to personally apologize to Malala Yousafzai and her family. We are investigating how our standards were compromised in this case and will take whatever corrective action is necessary. In addition, we have launched a thorough review of our approval and oversight processes across our global network to help ensure that our standards are never compromised again.

It's just one more example of how global brands (including ad agency ones) are exposed to risk when regional partners do something that contravenes the sensibilities of the internet. More strategic and creative oversight is clearly needed.

British MP slammed for patronizing "bread and circuses" ad

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

- Juvenal 

 Seems some things never change.

#budget2014 cuts bingo & beer tax helping hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy. RT to spread the word pic.twitter.com/5vbL7RDAg5
— Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 19, 2014

According to The Drum:

Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps has insisted he loves bingo and drinks beer after he faced a storm of criticism over a poster he tweeted following the UK budget this week. 

Chancellor George Osborne gave the bingo industry a tax cut and took a penny off beer duty in the budget, prompting Shapps to tweet a poster reading ‘Bingo! Cutting the bingo tax and been duty – to help hard working people do more of the things they enjoy’. 

Shapps encouraged followers to retweet him and spread the word – which they did, kicking off a storm in which users accused him of being condescending. He also faced criticism for using the term ‘they’.

Mr. Shapps has since defended his message, insisting, “personally, I drink beer and I love a game of bingo." The Guardian's Owen Jones called it "so patronising it looks like a crude attempt at satire."

Here are some of the better reactions on Twitter:

@double_dex I've never been more convinced something real was fake. Maybe it's some sort of genius we haven't worked out?
— daysofspeed (@daysofspeed) March 19, 2014

@grantshapps hey @David_Cameron have you read this? Do you have anybody who isn't a liability?
— John (@biod49) March 19, 2014

@JeanHaines @grantshapps Sorry I was distracted for a moment thought I'd got "house" - hadn't :( back to me beer!
— John (@biod49) March 19, 2014

@grantshapps Gawd bless yer, guv'nor. You're a toff. Doffs cap. Dies of plague. #ToryBingo #GinPalaces
— Tony McK (@oakroyd) March 19, 2014

Sweet Jaysus, @grantshapps, why not just stick a picture up of a bloke with a flat cap, whippets and a fucking football ticket.
— Chris Nicholson (@EraseThisTweet) March 19, 2014

Are a film critic's Tweets fair game for advertising blurbs?

On Twitter, Adland's @kidsleepy shared an interesting new phenomenon: Tweets as ads!

Pictured above, according to PFSK, is a full-page ad in the New York Times that consisted of nothing but NYT film critic A. O. Scott's Tweet about the soundtrack to the recent Coen Brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis.

While quoting critics from mainstream media is fair sport, PFSK points out that social media is different:

What makes this new reverse-engineered advertising so interesting is that if Scott did not give permission for his tweet to be included in the ad, CBS Films may have violated Twitter’s “Use of Content” guidelines. The guidelines stipulate that “without explicit permission of the original content creator, Twitter content may not be used in advertising.”

There's even more to it than that. It's actually modified from the original Tweet, which read "You all keep fighting about Wolf of Wall St. and Am Hustle. I'm gonna listen to the Llewyn Davis album again. Fare thee well, my honeys."

Now, it seems, this was not even a case of accidental violation. NYT Editor Margaret Sullivan revealed that when the movie’s publicist, Cynthia Swartz, contacted Mr. Scott directly to ask permission to use the quote in an ad, his e-mail response was:

Well this is a new one. I’d prefer though that my tweets not be used in advertisements. That seems like a slippery slope and contrary to the ad hoc and informal nature of the medium. 

And changing the tweet is basically manufacturing a quote, something I avoid. 

So I’m afraid the answer is no.

Nonetheless, the ad went ahead. One of the film’s producers, Scott Rudin, was the one who asked the publicist to use the Tweet. He told Ms. Sullivan, “If a critic is going to tweet it, we’re free to use it,” he said. “We’re free to edit any review. We pull out what we want.” Also,  “The paper running the ad is a tacit approval of the content of the ad... They took our money and they ran the ad." He also said the placement cost CBS Films $70, 000.

So who is at fault here? A spokeswoman for the newspaper said that its advertising staff were unaware of Mr. Scott’s objections and would have handled it differently had they known. The advertiser broke the rules of Twitter and trust of a critic. And the critic learned a lesson about unintended consequences of social media.

Ms. Sullivan concludes:

In the end, nothing terrible happened here. But it’s a moment that, at the very least, ought to cause some internal discussion at The Times and the establishing of clear rules and practices.

What do you think?

"This is a test of the emergency Twitter broadcasting system. This is only a test."

Those of us who grew up during the cold war, within range of American TV signals, will remember this traumatizing sound:



Here's what one version of the "Emergency Broadcasting System" looks like in the 21st century:

Twitter Alerts: A new way to get accurate, important information when you need it most. Learn more: https://t.co/ygFxyE04AO
— Twitter (@twitter) September 25, 2013

Hell, we all get our emergency news from Twitter already. But this is a great opportunity to ensure you get the most "official" news as it happens.

According to the Twitter blog:

If you sign up to receive an account’s Twitter Alerts, you will receive a notification directly to your phone whenever that account marks a Tweet as an alert. Notifications are delivered via SMS, and if you use Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android, you’ll also receive a push notification*. Alerts also appear differently on your home timeline from regular Tweets; they will be indicated with an orange bell.

It looks like you have to subscribe to individual organizations' Twitter Alerts. Here is FEMA https://twitter.com/fema/alertsRight now, Twitter alerts are limited to public safety organizations in the U.S., Japan and Korea, with plans to include more public institutions and NGOs around the world.

Having done emergency preparedness (and actual emergency) campaigns for clients like Public Safety Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, I can see this being pretty essential.

And I'm glad Twitter Alerts don't use that awful noise...

Ontario healthcare recruitment ad hints at a Quebec "values" brain drain to come

This ad was Tweeted by @sarahleavitt and others. I can't seem to find it on any of Lakeridge Health's web or social channels, so I don't know whether it predates yesterday's news from Quebec, or if it's a coincidence, or even if it is a real client ad.

What the ad is, however, is a wake-up call to Quebec's provincial government, who yesterday introduced a "Charter of Values" that would prohibit the wearing of "overt religious symbols" in public workplaces, or even when doing business with the public sector. Bizarrely, while hijabs, turbans, kipas and comically-large crosses are explicitly banned by the decree of enforced secularism, existing Christian symbols in prominent places like Quebec's legislature and the provincial flag get to stay because of "historical patrimony".

Montreal Gazette

In Quebec, as in all of Canada, public education, including universities and colleges, and hospitals are provincial responsibilities. The Charter apparently will include a five-year exemption clause for municipalities, hospitals and postsecondary institutions that wish to allow their employees to continue wearing religious symbols on the job. But the xenophobic nature of the Charter is clear to targeted groups.

"We're not asking for time to conform. We're very resolute in the fact that the charter is just wrong," Glenn Nashen, Director of Public Affairs at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, told the Montreal Gazette. (And speaking of "historical patrimony," Jewish Montrealers have been part of Quebec culture since the mid-1700s.)

Which brings us back to the ad, above. Having done professional recruitment for hospitals myself, I know that there is an HR crisis. The competition for nurses, doctors, technologists and others is fierce, with employers often aggressively recruiting in other cities, provinces, and even countries. In an increasingly multicultural Canada, many of the healthcare professionals we come in contact with are new Canadians whose cultures include these types of religious attire — for example, Islam is Canada's fastest-growing religion.

Quebec already has long had problems keeping its healthcare workforce, because of lower compensation and language law issues. Will the new "values" take the brain drain to the next level?

From The National Post:

Dr. Sanjeet Singh Saluja, who wears a turban as part of his faith, said Wednesday that the PQ’s controversial “Charter of Quebec Values” would drive people from the Sikh, Jewish and Muslim communities away. 

“The sad thing is I don’t know if I’d be able to stay here in Quebec,” said Saluja, an emergency-room doctor with the McGill University Health Centre. 

“Even though I love my practice here in Quebec, my faith is something that’s important to me and I don’t feel comfortable giving up that part of my persona and I don’t think a lot of people would be willing to, either.”

While it might seem opportunistic for "Rest Of Canada" hospitals to use the Charter's presumed racism as an edge in poaching candidates, can we blame them?

While analysts say that the Charter is unlikely to pass, the message to people who publicly practice non-Christian religions is clear: Give it up, or move on.

UPDATE: It's real!

Want to be part of a leading hospital focused on quality and safety? We want you. Check out our new ad: pic.twitter.com/0Od8NS2OxI
— Lakeridge Health (@LakeridgeHealth) September 12, 2013

Dear Brands: please stop appropriating terrorism

Never Forget pic.twitter.com/74Br2rBL3A
— AT&T (@ATT) September 11, 2013

Update: They apologized and the embedded Tweet was removed.

Here's a screencap.

It was a terrible thing. It killed a lot of people. It started wars. It forced us to give up a lot of freedoms.

But one thing is for sure: It did not happen so that brands could borrow interest from death.

I'm only picking on AT&T because it just showed up in my feed. Please share any others you see at the contact form below.

Online threats replaced with rainbows and kisses

According to The Drum, this is the work of an ‘anti-trolling browser extension’ developed by V-Hab, a clever campaign site to promote New Zealand's V Energy Drink.



Apparently, some One Direction fans took umbrage to British GQ's pairing of a Harry Styles cover with the cutline "He's up all night to get lucky" and reacted the way only juvenile fanatics seem to be able to anymore: with threats of violence and sexual assault:

A V-Hab spokesperson told the Drum:

“We love British GQ, but boy did those poor souls not know what they were getting themselves into! “Luckily for them, at V-Hab we’re all about countering trolls with a bit of positive energy so we’ve created humour and positivity into what has clearly been a rather large misunderstanding on all sides.

Coincidentally, Jezebel's Lindy West wrote a lengthy rant yesterday about how she felt "don't feed the trolls" was bad advice, especially for women:

I feed trolls. Not always, not every troll, but when I feel like it—when I think it will make me feel better—I talk back. I talk back because the expectation is that when you tell a woman to shut up, she should shut up. I reject that. I talk back because it's fun, sometimes, to rip an abusive dummy to shreds with my friends. I talk back because my mental health is my priority—not some troll's personal satisfaction. I talk back because it emboldens other women to talk back online and in real life, and I talk back because women have told me that my responses give them a script for dealing with monsters in their own lives. 

V-Hab's mockery is not the same as the fight that Ms. West is advocating, but it still feels good to watch aggression mocked so sweetly.

#FML = "Fun My Life"?!?

JELL-O is having some fun with Twitter, responding to #FML ("Fuck My Life") Tweets with little shots of sunshine:

While this kind of sugary cheerfulness could get annoying, the little unexpected gifts are really cute.

According to AdFreak, the work is by CP+B (who else) and "between now and June 14, everyone who tweets the #FML hashtag is entered into a pool, from which a certain number will win 'Fun My Life' prize packs 'specially created to get their life back on track.'"

LMF(un)AO....

Can this kind of teaser campaign still be effective? #smallenfreuden

It's like a combination of the fictional Gabbo! campaign from The Simpsons and early meme site Zombo.com.

As Marketing reports:

Several ominous orange billboards appeared in Toronto last week, posing a strange question: “Do you #smallenfreuden?” 

They feature no tagline, no brand logo and no call to action. Just a question with the term smallenfreuden (an English/German portmanteau meaning “the joy of small”) styled as a hashtag.

Doing some research, the Canadian ad blog found an obscure Twitter account and this video:



So what is it for? I'm not that curious, really. I'm more interested in seeing if such an old-school teaser campaign can still work, without either being prematurely outed or simply forgotten about before it reaches critical mass.

What do you think? Is this approach stuck in the 20th century, or will people pay attention long enough to be a captive audience?

UPDATE: It's Visa

#agencylife is way more fun than agency life

Yesterday, my friends at Adland started a fun hashtag thing on Twitter. Called #agencylife, it was inspired by one Adlander's complaint about a typical agency problem. Soon, everyone was doing it.

It became a thing. So much so that AdAge reported on it, asking "are folks just having a laugh or sharing some harsh truths about the industry?"

the answer is, "both". The hashtag brought together creatives and suits, large and small agencies, from countries all over the world. There are no secrets being shared here, just the kind of in-jokes that any industry breeds due to the day-to-day demands of trying to please everybody and manage a stable full of clashing egos.

I was really happy to see one of my contributions make the AdAge post:

Creative Director uses the non-words "virality" "sharability" and "memification" in the same sentence. With a straight face. #agencylife
— Tom Megginson (@CreativeTweets) April 11, 2013

Even better was the response I got from Noise Digital:

Challenge accepted RT @creativetweets: Creative Director uses the non-words "virality" "sharability" and "memification" in the same sentence
— Noise Digital (@NoiseDigital) April 12, 2013

To which I responded:

@noisedigital #Vine it or it didn't happen. :)
— Tom Megginson (@CreativeTweets) April 12, 2013

And then this happened:

@creativetweets BOOM! Proof that virality, sharability and memification are real. vine.co/v/btYri5F69hD #agencylife
— Noise Digital (@NoiseDigital) April 12, 2013

There's nothing like a Twitter support group to make another week in advertising worthwhile.