Mad Men new season premiere falls on March 25

Via Copyranter

Arnold Worldwide's Christmas "card" is cute

And labour/planning intensive. Acart could never pull this off. Our building only has 6 storeys.

The most confusing thing I have seen all week

Fortunately, it's only Monday morning.

It's an ambient idea from CP+B Canada, for Tourism Toronto. But what is it?

According to the submission on Ads of The World:

"In order to curate the vacation photos Toronto visitors take and put online, we unleashed 21, 8-foot snowmen designed by top contemporary artists and placed strategically at key tourist spots in the city. When you take a photo with the snowmen, a famous Toronto scene is featured as the backdrop. And to encourage the photos would be shared, Tourism Toronto is donating $2 to Starlight Children’s Foundation for every snowman photo uploaded to the campaign’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/visittoronto, up to $50,000. And, we’ve integrated each photo takers’ network, by offering another $1 for every ‘Like’ each photo generates, further expanding this campaign’s reach. To date, more than $24,000 has been raised."

I would like to point out that this submission comes from a country in which English is frequently spoken. "In order to curate"? Okay, that's just shitty jargon. But the rest of the write-up is similarly convoluted.

They set up giant snowmen in popular Toronto tourism photo op sites, then provided a fundraising incentive to share them on Tourism Toronto's Facebook page and get their friends involved. Was that so hard to say?

I am amazed that such a famous agency brand would leave the adblog PR to someone who don't write good.

But the most confusing thing about it all is this:

Why does the snow"man" have a vulva?

Wrigley's exploits drivers' disgusting and unsanitary habits to sell gum

"Einfahrt" Tee hee hee...

PFSK reports that Wrigley's is promoting its latest flavour of Extra gum in German parking lots by putting a thin strip of mint flavour on the tickets taken by the motorists and used to pay on exit.


Mint parking tickets from Art Directors Club of Europe on Vimeo.



Apparently, "the clever idea came about as many drivers tend to insert the ticket between their lips after paying and driving out."

Am I the only one grossed out by this? Maybe not. Imagine being the guy who has to take the tickets.

Durex fortune teller says "cover your little feller"

Ads of The World just posted this nice ambient ad infiltration by Durex in Taiwan:



An interesting case of manipulating cultural predispositions. According to the case study, Taiwanese youth don't want to talk about condoms or sex, but are obsessed with having their fortunes told. So the agency (Ogilvy) built an old-school fortune booth that distributed condoms and warnings about unsafe sex.

Clever. The ending looks pretty staged, but still clever.

If there's grass on the field, give it a Bronze Lion

These ads raise so many questions: Is it really a good idea to use a razor down there? Does she shave her pits and crotch, but not her legs? And why the hell does he depilate a semicircle above his junk?

These towels were created by BBDO Germany and supposedly left in grassy parks to promote Gillette's brands to men and women. Cannes gave them a Media Bronze Lion for "best use of ambient media, small scale."

I give it a "meh". I'm so tired of this "look how I represented the brand in a surprisingly visual way!" trend that's been prevalent in international advertising for the past 15 or so years. Awards judges (and ad bloggers) are not the client's target market.

Link via Copyranter

Getting pissed with drunk drivers

This ambient campaign from Publicis Milan is one of those that is probably more effective as a case study than as an actual installation.

McFarland Beer placed heat-sensitive ads inside urinals at a Milan nightclub. Whenever a guy let out a long-enough leak, it revealed a corporate socia responsibility message:

I'm not sure they really needed to focus so much on the stream... or the guy bending down to read it close up. Ew!

Tip (and video) via Ads of The World.

Target market fail enshrined in case study

Who the hell approves these case studies? (Not to mention the campaigns themselves?)

This case study layout for Korea's Cup Noodle Diet (posted on Ads of The World) is supposed to show how effective this "sexy white girl is so skinny her skirt fell off!" ambient is in getting attention:

From men, that is...

While women are shown walking past it with gazes cast down in embarrassment:

Yes, this is the photo they chose to feature.

Too bad those suit dudes aren't the market for your diet ramen. Or are they?

Just imagine the guy on the left coming home with a bag full of diet noodles for his wife: "Look what I bought you, honey! Now you can be as thin as the girl in the ad that I undressed in public today!"

Are you ready for smart billboards?

They see you coming, they know everything about you, and they put you inside the ad. Creepy? Just think of it as ambient Facebook:



Ads of The World shared this demo of the prototype software on Twitter, making the comparison to Minority Report. Remember that?



Are you ready?

Now, that's a reach...

Usually, this is a criticism of someone's really obscure creative rationale for a pet idea that doesn't work. In this case, though, I meant it literally.

These "prop" versions are cool gimmicks, but you have to wonder how long the extensions will last on the streets of Toronto. (If the vandals don't get 'em, the snow probably will.)

What I like even better are the diptych and triptych versions. What can I say? I'm a sucker for any social campaign that takes the piss out of consumer advertising.





Inspired? Give to the Salvation Army here.

By Grey Canada, via Ads of The World.

Voyeurtising?

Aubade, a French lingerie company, came up with a rather naughty ambient campaign to promote its new campaign web site.

Over a three week period, in three high-traffic locations around Paris, lingerie models performed an elaborate striptease — silhouetted by curtains — to make passers-by stop and watch.



(via Ads of The World)

The campaign ran about four times a night. The woman pretended she was unaware of the show she was putting on, making the people on the street (men and women alike) voyeurs. The advertiser calls it making "the girl next door" fantasy a reality.

From the video, it's fairly obvious the bystanders know they're being advertised to. Which is a good thing, because it sort-of lets them off the hook for a gross invasion of privacy.

What's that, you say? Well, let's put it this way: how would your real-life neighbour feel if they saw you standing outside their window, taking in their intimate life?

"I am calling zee police, Monsieur LeCreep!"

At the end of the show, the woman made a brief appearance in Aubade lingerie, then drew a new curtain with the call-to-action: frenchartofloving.com.

Although when I tried to access the site this morning, I was exposed to something much more shocking than a semi-nude woman drying her hair:

After all that tease, the ultimate letdown.

("That's what she said?")

Run!

BoingBoing posted this great bit of ambient advertising, supposedly posted in the urinal of the bathroom at a jewellery store specializing in engagement rings:

Commenters say it's from Spence Diamonds in Vancouver, and that there's another sign on the door back into the shop that says "Good talk."

A beautiful example of long-form copywriting that we can all look up to.