"My Vagina, My Rules" poster is too cool for school

This may be The Year of the Vagina throughout much of the United States, but not at Brooklyn Technical High School.

Animal New York reports that the poster (above), advertising the school’s Progressive Student Awareness club, was swiftly banned after being posted around campus.

Student Brianna Payne was shocked by the censorship, since she had had the posters pre-approved by her teacher, Joseph Kaelin. “He told me that the principal and a couple of the assistant principals saw the posters and they were like, ‘We don’t like them. They’re inappropriate,’” Payne told Animal NY's Andy Cush. “He told me that he agreed with us, and he thought what we were doing was correct, but he couldn’t do anything about it.”

Laura Marquez, Brooklyn Tech's Assistant Principal of Parent and Student Engagement, claims the poster was sensationalist and lacking in useful information. “The poster was passed around to a room of about a dozen administrators, and no person said, ‘Well, you know, lets give them a shot,’" she explained. "Everybody was shaking their heads, or various degrees of annoyed and offended.”

Because "vagina" is a dirty, dirty word. Especially in the context of sexual rights. I can't believe we trust teenage girls to go running around with those things between their legs. Won't someone PLEASE think about the children?

Benetton shakes up NYC with a sexy yarn bomb

Via Animal NY

Provocative marketing is nothing new to United Colors of Benetton, but how can the Italian fashion brand break through to jaded New Yorkers?

Animal NY reports that this "tastefully vulgar" sculpture by Erik Ravelo was placed in their new pop-up location in Soho.

Here's a picture with more context, from Gothamist:

An Instagrammer named samhorine posted a shot of the display, taking it viral, where user "oneoffive" made a comment after my own heart:

It certainly is a very confronting image, but I believe our children see things just as confronting on music videos. Unlike a woman grinding her butt in a guys face like on these video clips, most kids won't even realise what they are seeing when they see this display. And if they do, it's probably time to teach them a little bit about the facts of life. And yes, I have kids. @samhorine very interesting feed you have started! I'm sure this is exactly what the store owners had in mind when they put the display up, hundreds of people talking about it!

Exactly. I rail a lot about sleazy sex in advertising, but this doesn't feel like that. It's explicit, but it's a far more naturalistic portrayal of "the facts of life" that I wouldn't be upset for my 8-y-o son to see. (Since he comments on the squirrels doing it on our daily walks to school.)

Cynical shock marketing ploy? Sure. But we've all seen worse. At least this one is actually about the product it's humping.

Smog globe is a little confused

The Smog Globe, as featured yesterday in Animal NY, is a pretty cool statement. But why the nuclear cooling towers?

Ironically (as it's making a statement on air pollution) nuclear power plants don't generally create smog-causing compounds as part of their operations. In fact, nuclear power has long marketed itself as a "cleaner" option in terms of air quality (with the tradeoff of radioactive solid waste).

Cool idea. Poor execution.

McDonald's wants to occupy your gut

This "lunch manifesto," in the style of social message videos like The Girl Effect, frames having lunch at the corporate behemoth as an act of rebellion against The Man.



Animal NY points out that, ironically, "in the early days of Occupy Wall Street, the McDonald’s located several blocks from Liberty Plaza served as a sort of unofficial comfort station for protesters". But now the OWS message has been "trivialized" to sell burgers.

The upside is that, unlike OWS, McDonald's food can't really "occupy" anyone for long...

A very Lynchian music video by David Lynch

Oh, yes. It's weird. And of course it has nudity, violence and almost painful weirdness.



According to Lynch's own site,

"Recorded over several months at his own studio in Mulholland Drive with engineer Dean Hurley (who also contributes guitar and drums), "Crazy Clown Time" unveils a majestic, yet powerfully idiosyncratic vision of "modern blues" that could only be drawn from the mind of David Lynch. Filled with foreboding soundscapes, hypnotic rhythms and enigmatic lyrics, this is music that will resonate not only with fans of Lynch's films, but also to listeners who appreciate daring, experimental music."

I don't know what else to say. You can buy the album here.

Via Animal NY.

American Atheists going after Muslims and Jews now #FdAdFriday

Animal NY reports that the Hebrew one will be erected in an Jewish area of Williamsburg (known for its Hasidic community) and the Arabic one will appear in a predominantly Muslim area of Paterson, New Jersey (home of the American Arab Forum).

It's as if American Atheists are daring both communities to see which one reacts first, and how.

I just think it's stupid. And I don't even believe in any god. But affronting people's deeply-held faith with fighting words like this is no way to open minds. It will just shut you out more forcefully.

Real-life ad blockers strike Stockholm subway

A Swedish activist group posted this video of their shenanigans in the Stockholm subway, removing all ads from a train car and a station.



While I can appreciate a good civil disobedience, and I agree it's nice to have a little break from ad overload, the stunt is pretty obnoxious to anyone involved in public transit.

The group is quoted in Animal NY:

“Public transport is nothing you can compromise about. It is a vital part of the urban nervous system and is a public matter, a premise for the city’s economical and social life to function. The fact that public transport is too expensive is both a structural issue as well as a reality for individual people. It is not fair that a millionaire and an unemployed person has to pay as much for public transport. With tax-paid, fare-free, public transport everyone pays according to how much they can pay.”

I would love for buses, trains, etc. to be able to be fare- and ad-free too. That would be awesome. Seriously. But if even a country like Sweden has to supplement taxpayer funding by collecting fare and selling ad space, you can be pretty sure that is not happening in any capitalist country anytime soon.

I get it. They're anarchists. Me, I just want to be able to take the bus to work. And as a rider, I have a feeling any social action that costs the transit system revenue is going to end up coming out of my pocket.

But hey, have fun sticking it to all the wrong people.

And is this not also an ad?

F'd Ad Fridays: Nude Modelling Camp (sounds totally legit)

Photographer Beau Picasso is keeping the dream alive for short, creepy men everywhere. He has apparently found a way to convince women to pay him to take them to isolated locations where they strip naked and pose for his camera.

And it's not even a professional camera.

"Models are whisked from the airport to a reception at the roof top pool of the five-star Elysée Palace hotel, where they meet the other models from around the world. They are assigned to shared apartments (three models fit quite comfortably) and they start to get excited about the next morning’s shoot at Coco Beach. 

A relaxed photo shoot with Beau and his female assistants (who are also photographers) is sometimes interrupted by swims in the Mediterranean and sun tanning. Then, perhaps, a sunset picnic on the beach and an excited conversation about the next day’s shoot. 

Our camps provide shared apartment style accommodations with complete kitchen, wifi access and 24-hour security. We are only steps away from the beach, food, culture, and shopping. A 50% deposit is required upon registration and the balance is due before camp begins."

Here's one of Beau's softcore porn infomercials. It contains nudity and sleaze:


Beau Picasso Models: On the French Riviera from James Anthony on Vimeo.

Shamed be he who thinks evil of it?

Yes, I cover a lot of fashion advertising and marketing here. Because it's so sexually-charged, attention-hungry and pretentious, it usually provides interesting fodder.

Take this campaign from The Lake & Stars:

The anonymous models are mother and daughter. The younger one is 19. And the fashion brand has been accused of promoting incest with this pictorial.

Maayan Zilberman, co-owner of the New York-based lingerie and swimwear label, described it this way:

"...for our viewer to see these photographs, you're confronted with this feeling of 'who's the sexy one?' Because there's always someone who's sexier and there's always some kind of competition going on; there's always a tenderness going on; there's always a tension," she said. 

"We're opening it up to think about: Is it OK for a mother and daughter to feel tender toward each other? And what happens when they're in sexy clothing?"

Which is actually the creepiest thing about the pictures — the way she describes them. That aside, you can see these pictures in many ways: as a non-sexual intimacy between a mother and a daughter, as two stages of womanly beauty presenting themselves in a sexual context to titillate you, or as OMG HOT LESBIAN COUGAR INCEST NYMPHOS.

I really think it's up to where your mind is at in the first place. Where's yours?

Many snakes were harmed in the making of this fashion spread

Apparently snakeskin is a thing in fashion this year. I'm not morally opposed to the wearing of animal skin, but I find this spread by Giampaolo Sgura in Antidote unsetting. The wild harvest of pythons just for their skins seems wasteful and irresponsible to me. And naked Ashley Smith letting a live one slither over her sultry nude form as she wears the hides of its brethren is also a little ick.

Via Animal NY, where you can see the rest of the pics.

F'd Ad Fridays: "Occupy", the #OWS colouring book, is amazingly bizarre

If it were just a bunch of spittle-frothed Tea Party rhetoric it wouldn't be of much interest. But this colouring book of the Occupy movement is so many kinds of bizarre all at once, it's actually kind of awesome.

  It even gives you an official get-out-of-guilt-free card if you're one wealthiest 1% of Americans.

From the publisher:

Occupy an American cultural phenomena reflecting who we are as a people and a nation! Great for the holidays, a fantastic commemorative book that makes an excellent gift for parents and children!

With millions of people around the globe watching "Occupy" unfold daily, parents, teachers, educators and simply "interested people" have asked for an educational piece that captures this culture defining event and moment in history. Accurately depicted in detailed line art and conversation the book includes modern and historical figures with quotations from Plato to O'Reilly, Hannity to Maddow, Obama to Boehner. There are pages dating back to the Robin Hood era, drawings of various parks, political views from every angle and a few surprises with imaginative satirical pages. Included are newly written "Occupy" songs, poems and games and a true to life "Guilt Relief Donation Form" for the overburdened 1%!
This is a coloring book novel designed around the "Occupy" event that reflects who we are as a people and a nation, including what the national media is saying and information on the event itself. The Occupy book is for parents and their children alike. Our company is grateful and happy to publish this new book. Inside you will find varying opinions and statements. On the Occupy event we are simply reflecting the nation in colorable pictures based on information and feedback we obtained from citizens around the country.
The high quality 36 page book has enough reading and coloring to last many hours. It's available at major book sellers Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks and always at ColoringBook.com. The book makes a wonderful conversation starter, a fantastic gift and it's a historical commemorative piece that will be around for many years to come. The retail price is $6.99.

Via Animal NY

F'd Ad Fridays: A very scary FEMEN Halloween protest (nudity)

Wasn't this a scene in Heavy Metal?

What's scarier than having FEMEN show up bare-chested and screaming to protest your mistreatment of animals? How about FEMEN showing up bare-chested and screaming, wearing animal masks, covered in blood and flinging raw meat at you?


ZooMorgue from FEMEN Video on Vimeo.


That's what happened to the keepers at Kiev’s ZooPark, where Animal NY reports the animals have been dying from inadequate feeding, shelter from the cold, and vet care.

It's in Ukrainian, as usual, but I'm sure you'll still get their points.

Cool and creepy stop-motion felt animation

It's made by Spike Jonze for Olympia Le-Tan, who makes clutch purses with felt that look like old book covers.


Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side) from Veronica Christina on Vimeo.

"Mourir Auprès de Toi" (To Die By Your Side) is a fun and oddly sexy little fantasy that is well worth a few minutes of your time. Plus, the woman is the brave hero for once.

The heroine is voiced by SoKo and the skeleton by Spike. Cute couple.

Here's a making of:


Making Mourir Auprès De Toi from simon cahn on Vimeo.

Via Animal NY

Truth in branding (and packaging) of cereal for kids

This is a guerrilla art installation by Ron English, who stocked the spoof cereal boxes in Venice Beach.

He calls it "subvertising".  Reminds me of Wacky Packages.

Via Animal NY

Agent Provocateur provokes... the 99%?

I haven't really touched on the Occupy Wall Street movement in here, because its politics are complicated and many others do a better job of covering it than I would.

But as the civil disobedience continues to mount, and the wealthy themselves are being directly blamed, you can leave it to the fashion industry to continue marketing luxury goods using ultra-decadence as an aspirational branding strategy.

This Agent Provocateur video [contains sexualized nudity, via Animal NY] is a perfect example.


AGENT PROVOCATEUR 'SOIREE' COMMERCIAL from LoveHate Productions Ltd on Vimeo.

Pretentious, debauched and out-of-touch with reality, it makes me wonder if this was what it felt like to be a Roman noble during the bread riots.

"Satyri...what? I thought we were doing Kubrick!"

Lou Reed/Metallica poster banned from London Underground

It must feel like the good old days for Lou, being banned for being too "street".

Animal's Marina Galperina reports that posters depicting the cover of the new Lou/Metallica album, Lulu, have been banished from the Tube. Not for the armless and nippless bust, mind you, but for featuring lettering that looks too much like graffiti.

This can be nothing but good publicity for the album, to be released this Halloween.

So far, I'm not sure it's sounding like a great combination of talents:

F'd Ad Fridays: Bondage, torture, humiliation and suicide are what it takes to sell underwear these days?

I skipped through parts of this video. Not because of the disturbing content, but because it was just so goddamned pretentious.  (Note to self: beware of ads with credits that start "A Film By...")



Either I, or the makers of this video, completely misunderstand what people find "sexy".

I thought it was an awful, more than occasionally offensive, waste of time. What do you think?

Via Animal New York

Spoof kids' show expresses the dark side of creativity

Created by This Is It studio, the following bit of insanity starts out like a harmless (and painfully cheerful) kids' show, builds slowly, and eventually takes a left turn into the darkest depths of the creative mind.


Don't Hug Me I'm Scared from This Is It on Vimeo.

Perhaps it's a warning about the fine line between genius and madness. Or maybe the creators were doing some other sorts of "lines"...

I have no idea. But I'm scared now.

Via Animal NY

Nostalgic drug ads? So that happened.

I get what they're trying to do. The parents of today's teens are younger Boomers and older Gen-Xers, many (most?) of whom did not "just say no" back in the day.

So instead of lying that pot will make your kid into a zombie, this one tries to focus on the facts of hard drugs:

This one takes quite a while to get to its point, and I'm not sure the point is all that comprehensible. Purer must be better, right? Just like '70s ditch weed sucks when you compare it to 21st century wheelchair dope?

Seems like this is more of a PSA to let young junkies know how much better they had it than The Stooges.

Meanwhile, this one goes back to the old "lose all credibility among critical thinkers by exaggerating the risks" strategy:

"K2" and "Spice" are street names for synthetic cannabis. Being too effing old, I had to look that up in Wikipedia, where I also read:

No official studies have been conducted on its effects on humans.Though its effects are not well documented, extremely large doses may cause negative effects that are generally not noted in marijuana users, such as increased agitation and vomiting. Professor John W. Huffman who first synthesised many of the cannabinoids used in synthetic cannabis is quoted as saying, "People who use it are idiots. You don't know what it's going to do to you."A user who consumed 3 g of Spice Gold every day for several months showed withdrawal symptoms, similar to those associated with withdrawing from the use of narcotics. Doctors treating the user also noted that his use of the product showed signs associated with addiction. One case has been reported where a user, who had previously suffered from cannabis induced recurrent psychotic episodes, suffered reactivation of their symptoms after using Spice. Psychiatrists treating him have suggested that the lack of an antipsychotic chemical, similar to cannabidiol found in natural cannabis, may make synthetic cannabis more likely to induce psychosis than natural cannabis.

Doesn't sound half bad.

I would also like to point out that Lucasfilm does not take kindly to social marketing campaigns that "borrow" its intellectual property.

Besides which, we middle aged hipsters all know that R2-D2 is more of a tobacco guy:



Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey ads Via Animal NY

Augmented reality ghetto blaster

Nice.



By Berlin artist Sweza.

Via Animal NY