The most disturbing car ad starring Silvio Berlusconi you will see today

Via Ads of The World

Ball gags?!? This is part of a bizarre campaign, by JWT India, for a Ford with lots of trunk space.

The other executions show Michael Schumacher with rival drivers tied up in the back, and Paris Hilton having kidnapped the Kardashians.

Really weird and disturbing. I'm surprised the Ford brand is good with this.

Update: The ads were really created by Ford's Indian AOR, but were not ever approved.

Ford and its ad agency issued apologies for a tasteless Ford Figo ad — in which former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is shown with a bunch of gagged and crying women in the trunk of his car — that was never meant to see the light of day. 

It turns out a young creative team at JWT India, Ford Figo's agency of record, made the spot and posted it to website Ads of the World without approval. (It has since been removed.)

Ford and WPP Group (owner of JWT) have nonetheless issued formal apologies.

Update 2: Not just the work of renegade creatives, apparently. Adland writes that "Bobby Pawar, JWT India's chief creative officer & managing partner, as well as Vijay SimhaVellanki, creative director at Blue Hive, a WPP unit dedicated to managing the Ford business, have been asked to resign."

Happier endings through plastic surgery

Ads of The World featured this rather unsettling campaign for a Venezuelan cosmetic surgery clinic. 

Who needs a fairy godmother when you can just go under the knife?

I am aware that attitudes towards cosmetic surgery are different in South America. And I get the concept. But the unintended message to children is, at best, really unfortunate.

These messages brought to you by #WorldWaterDay

It's World Water Day today, and I'm up to my baby blues in "real" work, so here's a compilation of classic water-related PSAs to remind us all of what's at stake if we don't keep our water resources clean and safe (hint: we all die).

Matt Damon's viral PSA "making of" freakout (contains F-bombs, via earthfirst.com)



Jennifer Connelly has to fetch water from Central Park to live (via search)



Wasting Water is Weird (via Osocio)



Sweden's controversial "dirty water" mom via (Adfreak)



A strikingly similar (and earlier) PSA from the UK (via The Next Good Idea)



Yet another execution of the same idea, again via AdFreak



And again, for UNICEF (via Ads of The World)



And, now for something completely different...

Surfrider Foundation: "Butts" (found via search)



The message is clear: Never take clean water for granted.

F'd Ad Fridays: Yes, you should stop...

...before your head overflows all over the page.

Via Ads of The World

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.