Malala's inspirational story is now being used to sell mattresses

Advertising people have no goddamned shame.

Exhibit A: Ogilvy India's exploitation of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Malala Yousafzai, and the brave outspokenness that almost got her killed by terrorists, to sell mattresses.

Mattresses. Fucking mattresses.

The campaign also taps Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Jobs. But neither has the WTF factor of an ad featuring a 14-year-old getting shot in the face.

As seen on Ads of The World

Update: The Malala ad is no longer on AOTW. The Ghandi and Jobs ads are still there.
Update 2: Now they're all gone. Spec work? Angry client?
Update 3: It was real, and Ogilvy has apologized.

This 40-year-old PSA will start your week off with a "WTF"?

If this woman looks familiar, don't be surprised. It's Joanna Cassidy, aka Zhora the Replicant from Blade Runner, aka Dolores from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, aka Margaret from Six Feet Under.

Back in 1973, she was known from a couple of cop films, but not well enough to be named in this Ad Council PSA about forest fires. Instead, her sultry delivery seems to be a generic play on the "sex sells" cliché with a bizarre surprise ending:



Interesting that sex in advertising was already a target for parody forty years ago. And yet many advertisers continue to use women's sexuality to deliver unrelated messages to us with no irony at all.

Via Smokey Bear's YouTube channel.

F'd Ad Fridays: In fashion advertising, it's better not to ask questions

Except, perhaps, for the occasional WTF?

Via IBiA

F'd Ad Fridays Fashion Find: Fortunately, it's so small you can't see it

The photo, I mean.

Via The Essentialist

F'd Ad Fridays: Manic Bananaman

Some things just do not translate.

1. Bananaman shoots tiny bananas from his nose at woman

2. Bananas enlarge and multiply in woman's lap

3. She is either thrilled, or horrified, or both

4. Bananaman laughs and flies away

Via Copyranter

F'd Ad Fridays: The most baffling themepark ad ever

What? Why? Where... Oh, Japan.

Welcome to your nightmare.

Nevermind.

Via Picture is Unrelated

F'd Ad Fridays: ... ?

Click to enlarge, if you dare.

... ?

... ?

... ?

I got nothin'

Via Copyranter (once again)

Manhood in the Philippines: circumcision and spicy noodles

Copyranter got tipped off (pardon the pun) to this bizarre Filipino ad in which a boy and his father bond over mannish pursuits like circumcision and spicy noodles:



He even provided translation:

Doctor: Mr. Suarez, he's OK.
Kid: Dad, it didn't hurt!
Dad: I told you you can do it. You're a big boy already!
Kid: I didn't even cry!
VO: Because he's already a big boy, he can now eat Sweet & Spicy Lucky Me! Pancit Canton. It has the right blend and the right amount of spice that we enjoy.
Dad: Oh, can you handle it?
Kid (lowering voice): I can!

Beyond my "intactivist" leanings, the age of the boy getting circumcised freaked me out. Here's Yahoo! Answers' explanation:

"In the Philippines it is expected that all males are circumcised before puberty. If not, a boy will be teased as "supot". It is because he is not seen as "man enough" to face the pain."

Although I guess I should consider this boy lucky to have been brought to a doctor:

"In the rural areas, the quack doctor pulls the foreskin, and places a block of wood under the foreskin. The kid is given a leaf to bite on as the quack doctor whacks the foreskin off, often with a sharpened bamboo or coconut knife, or now, mostly machete knife."

In this context it's not all that different from female genital mutilation, is it?

Coming soon:

Old woman: Mrs. Rahim, she's OK.
Kid: Mom, it didn't hurt!
Mom: I told you you can do it. You're a big girl already!
Kid: I didn't even cry!
VO: Because she's already a big girl, she can now eat Sweet & Spicy Lucky Me! Iskudhexkaris. It has the right blend and the right amount of spice that we enjoy.
Mom: Oh, can you handle it?
Kid (lowering voice): I can!

I don't want to be too xenophobic here, but ads like this make me happy I live in a country where a typical coming of age is having a sip of your dad's beer while out fishing...

One of these McThings is not like the others...

Seen this Easter weekend in Prescott, Ontario:

Mmmmm... 100% pure Canadian beef. Sounds like food. 100% "seasoned" chicken breast? Well, maybe some of it is imported. Hmmm...

And tangy tartar sauce. Yeah, I suppose that's okay, but what is wrong with the "fish" that it doesn't rate an ingredient rave? WHAT THE HELL IS IN THAT THING?

When I was a kid, we always used to joke that it was sucker fish, or some other nasty creature. But then I visited their ingredients PDF, and it turns out the Fish patty is no worse than the others:

Filet-O-Fish® Portion: Alaskan Pollock, enriched bleached wheat flour, water, modified corn starch, yellow corn flour, salt, dextrose, sugar, dried yeast, cellulose gum, coloured with paprika and turmeric extracts, natural flavour (vegetable source). Cooked in 100% vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with THBQ, citric acid and dimethypolysiloxane).

So I'll just assume that some copywriter felt "Alaskan Pollock" didn't sound as sexy as "tangy vegetable oil (soybean and/or canola), relish (diced pickles, vinegar, salt, capers, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, natural flavour (vegetable souce)), frozen yolk, water, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, potassium sorbate, xanthan gum, dehydrated parsley, calcium disodium EDTA."

Although I probably would have gone with "wild-caught fish", or "Pacific pollock", or something else about wholesomeness, since the sauces are the least foodlike things they serve you and the "meat" is the most.

But who am I kidding? I go to McDonald's for anything but breakfast so infrequently, I left there with a severe case of the McPastymouth.