Burger King crashes McDonald's

The Rome (Georgia) News-Tribune reports:

Rome Police were called to the restaurant at 2215 Shorter Ave. at approximately 1 p.m. by a manager in reference to a suspicious person. 

When they arrived, the manager said that a man dressed as the mascot for Burger King entered the restaurant with bags of hamburgers and began handing them out to several customers. 

He danced while inside the restaurant and stopped to take pictures with children. The report states that one child took a picture with him and ran away as he appeared to be scared. 

When the manager approached the man he said he was collecting for children’s charities. She noted that he had not collected any money during his time inside the restaurant. 

The subject then got into a white Acura. The manager saw him take off his mask and he appeared to be a middle age white male with dark hair. 

The tag on the car came back to a 2001 white Acura belonging to a Calhoun man.

Non-sanctioned prank? Probably. The "Woodcreek Faction American Surreal Comedy Group" took credit. But if it had been brand-orchestrated PR, it certainly worked.

Tip via BoingBoing

Plumber's cleavage #FdAdFriday

According to BoingBoing, this crack photoshoot by Markus Mueller (for a campaign by scholz&friends Berlin) is for a trade union called "Das Handwerk".

Google translates the headline as "More attractive than you think"

**shudder**

The People of Burning Man

Via BB

BoingBoing posted an interesting review today about Julian Cash's portrait book, shot over several years at Burning Man festivals, and funded by Kickstarter.

Since Burning Man is famed for nudity, this promotional video has a lot of it:



The promotional site for the book really gets into the skin. The section "critical tits" features a 30 foot, scrollable, composite panorama of all shapes and sizes of topless women holding hands.

And it ends, sweetly, with a mother and child.

BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow has a copy of the book, and had this to say about it.

People of Burning Man is to be celebrated also for its admirable lack of text. There's very little narration here, because very little is needed. The pictures tell their own stories -- sometimes in a frozen snapshot, and sometimes over time, as we visit with the same Burners over consecutive years (including one woman who appears first in a very pregnant state, and then with a babe at her breast). What little text there is -- a bit of background on the art of shooting portraits in a harsh desert, a little bit of biography supplied by the subjects -- complements the images without upstaging them.

I've never been all that interested in attending Burning Man, since my wife doesn't even like the idea of camping in non-deserts and my potential naked Adonis days are over. But Mr. Cash sure does make it look like a lot of fun.

Read the whole review, and see more exclusive pics, at BoingBoing. (There are also some weird and wonderful sample pages on the book site.)

The most obscure sexist marketing you will see today #FdAdFriday

Vibrating grizzly feeders, according to Thailand's Dove Mining, "are designed for continuous and efficient classification, separation of the ore and aggregate for sizing, removing the unwanted and oversize materials and bypassing the smaller particles for the Crusher, or Trommel, and the processing plant, which results in maximizing the plant capacity."

They are also, these models remind us, a product for which the target market is men who spend weeks in isolation mining the far reaches of nowhere:

So while the use of attractive, lightly clad women to provide "eye candy" in the product shots may be obscure, it is not really surprising. It's part of the long tradition of pin-up calendars from the hardhat days of yore.

Via Reluctant Paladin

Tip via boingboing

Condomize everything! #FdAdFriday

Sure, we have safer sex now. But in the hygiene-obsessed 1940s, they wrapped everything to protect it from contagion:

Via BoingBoing

Wrap that coffee maker! You don't know where it's been...

Are books more interesting than women? #FdAdFriday

BoingBoing posted this piece of over-the-top vintage sexism.

Given the nature of the "literature," I wonder why they didn't address the additional point that the book will "stick together" with you after you're finished.

ASA okays furry fandom SIMS ad for UK

"Are you an animal person? Well, not like me cos most people are made up entirely of person. And if you're a person person, then you'd be missing out on the duality of life. With the Sims 3 Pets you can have a pet or be a pet. You can play both ways. So, go on, experiment. Chase some tail. Play with life".

According to BoingBoing, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (who always make for good blog) received a complaint about the sexualized nature of this ad, featuring both people and animals (as well as people as animals):



From the ASA site:

"A TV ad, for a console game, included an animated character that had a human body and a dog's head. It stated "Are you an animal person? Well, not like me cos most people are made up entirely of person. And if you're a person person, then you'd be missing out on the duality of life. With the Sims 3 Pets you can have a pet or be a pet. You can play both ways. So, go on, experiment. Chase some tail. Play with life". The ad also included animated scenes of a man playing a guitar surrounded by animals and other people. He was also shown in a bath and then appeared about to kiss a woman on a bed."

Issue

1. Some of the complainants challenged whether the ad, in particular the scene with the couple on a bed, was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

2. Most of the complainants challenged whether the ad, in particular the scene with the couple on a bed, was suitable to be broadcast when children might be watching.

...


Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA considered the presentation of the ad was such that it was clear that it was for a videogame and that the scenarios shown were not a reflection of real life. We acknowledged some viewers might find the content of the ad, in particular the scene of the couple on the bed, distasteful but considered most viewers were likely to interpret it as being light hearted and mildly suggestive, rather than as being overtly sexual. We therefore concluded that it was not likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

On this point, we investigated the ad under BCAP Code rule 4.2 (Harm and offence) but did not find it in breach.

2. Not upheld

We considered the scene of the couple on the bed was mildly suggestive but noted it was brief and that although they appeared about to kiss, kissing did not take place. We considered the ad did not include anything that was likely to cause harm or distress to children or was otherwise unsuitable for them. We therefore concluded that the ad did not breach the Code.

On this point, we investigated the ad under BCAP Code rule 32.3 (Scheduling of television and radio advertisements) but did not find it in breach."

So go ahead, Britons! Get your yiff on...

Siri hates the Scots

"The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley!!!"

Voice recognition is an awkward thing. After reading that the new iPhone's digital assistant can't understand Scottish accents, YouTube comic thegavin2000 (actually :"Godfather of hipsterdom" Gavin McInnes - see below) made this wee parody:



Via BoingBoing

How to make money writing short paragraphs (in the days before Twitter)

This unprovenanced ad for piecework copywriters was posted on BoingBoing. I'd love to repurpose it the next time we're hiring word people. "No tedious study."

What he's actually doing is selling you a series of books on writing for things like greeting cards and (I assume) tiny classified ads. If you're interested, there's a box of them on Ebay right now.

Ironically, there is also a long copy advertorial version I found here.

A Google search also turned up this one in an early-70s issue of Ebony:

Note that the Ebony insertion lacks Barrett's creepy mug, unlike this one in a 1973 Bangor Daily.

Sometimes a cigar just... isn't a cigar at all

BoingBoing posted this hilariously unironic ad from WWII-era America.

Indeed, who is that man with the impressively large cigar? My guess is war profiteer. Although putting "Dramatist" among the high-status professions is curious.

Even curiouser is this funny little visual, which should be co-opted by the anti-circumcision lobby.

...or not O_O

Ah, the good old days...

F'd Ad Fridays: Blood in the water

There aren't many Friday ads that I can share with my 7-year-old son, but this one he will love. "The real blood bleeding minnow". Awesome.

Via BoingBoing

F'd Ad Fridays: F'd Nutritional Science Edition

In my day, it was ketchup that the US government reclassified as a vegetable to meet nutritional standards for school lunches. Now, after great advanced in food science, they have decided to replace it with much-healthier pizza sauce.

In case their is any confusion, Jonathan Mann has created this helpful little PSA:



Via BoingBoing

Is this the work of an agent provocateur?

No, I don't mean the people who do those awkwardly sexualized underwear ads. I mean this anti-pacifism screed that BoingBoing says is being circulated at Occupy Oakland.

I would say that the greatest threat to nonviolent protest is violence from within. Although I have seen those ninja-clad assholes who go to protests just to fight with cops before, part of me hopes this is just the work of an individual anarchist loonie. However, it could also easily be the work of a capitalist loonie who wants to discredit the protests. Either way, the Oakland people apparently weren't buying it.

Me neither. The copywriting is abominable.

"Angry Cable Guy" and the analog era of viral audio

In the days before the modern internet, it took a lot of awesome to make a meme. Usually, these were faxed visuals of dirty cartoons, pictures or jokes. But there were also audio memes. They were dutifully recopied from one analog cassette tape to another, resulting in increasing levels of hiss.

Some, like tapes of the Tube Bar prank calls, became permanently embedded in pop culture by getting written into The Simpsons. Others just faded into memory when the tape got eaten.

For about 13 years, I have occasionally searched for one of my favourite audio memes from the '80s and '90s: Cable Guy. But somehow I missed it when the recording finally surfaced on YouTube last year (and two years before) and was covered on BoingBoing:



The transcript has errors ("AutoMag" was the name of the show, and "Dogan" is an ancient slur against Catholics) but there it is.

According to No Cable: "This tape came from the answering machine at Cablenet (now Cogeco) in Kingston, Ontario in the mid 1980's. "Automag Magazine" was a car review show that used to air in the area. This customer obviously loves his Automag Magazine! Not safe for work or near children due to the excessive (and hilarious) profanity. This tape was recently featured on Boing Boing, and yes, copies were made and distributed at my high school as well."

From Kingston (my hometown) it spread across Canada in both Beethoven and non-Beethoven versions. The band my brother played in at the time, The Pariahs, used to play it at The Toucan before they took to the stage. It was shared in dorm rooms, at parties, through the mail.

And then the tapes got worn out. Our cassette decks became obsolete. And we forgot about it.

The rate and frequency at which new online memes emerge, spread and fade today is dizzying. You basically need a daily update. Back in the day, though, these things were unusual and long-lasting enough to leave a mark.

And now it's back. It has even been Xtranormaled:



Welcome to the 21st Century, Angry Cable Guy. Wherever you are.

F'd Ad Fridays: Who wouldn't want to lick a big scoop of Schweddy Balls?

One Million Moms, that's who. This sub-brand of the hateful American Family Association takes issue with Ben & Jerry's newest goofy ice cream flavour:

The ice cream is based on one of latter-day Saturday Night Live's funniest (and most puerile) sketches, starring Alec Baldwin at his deadpan best:



But why watch? The Million Moms are happy to describe it to you in lingering detail:

The name originated from a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy, owner of a holiday bakery called Season's Eatings. "There are lots of great treats this time of year," Schweddy says. "Zucchini bread, fruitcake, but the thing I most like to bring out at this time of the year are my balls."

He then explains that he sells popcorn balls, cheese balls, rum balls—balls for every taste—and the ball puns proceed for about four minutes. Ben & Jerry's chose to go with fudge-covered rum and malt balls for their flavor. The skit culminates in Baldwin stating that "No one can resist my Schweddy Balls."

Neither can they, obviously. However, they are calling for a boycott of Ben & Jerry until "they refrain from producing another batch with this name or any other offensive names or you will no longer be able to purchase their products."

Their last "offensive" ice cream name, according to the Moms, was "a special edition of Chubby Hubby called Hubby Hubby last year which celebrated gay marriage."

Yes, the ice cream brand is amusingly f'd. But there's nothing funny about the effing AFA.


via BoingBoing

Skyping in 1968

What will those crazy scientists think of next: Talking maps? Personal tracking devices? Computerized books?

Via BoingBoing

F'd Ad Fridays: Zombie bikinis

The eyes are hypnotic. The teeth placement, horrifying.

And yet these designs from  Iron Fist's zombie sportswear line are pure effing awesome.

Seen on BoingBoing

The YAHOO! logo meets its long-lost deadbeat father

BoingBoing has a cool post about the eerie similarity between the YAHOO! logo, launched in the digital neolithic period (1995) and the hand-drawn identity of the anti-establishment performance art movement known as the Youth International Party, or "YIPPIE!"

This is a 1960s YIP flyer secretly kept on file by the FBI of the time (recently released under the Freedom of Information Act):

Here's a side-by-side:

Whoa.

BoingBoing notes, "Yahoo's was designed by Organic, Inc. in 1995, and refined a few years later to use the Able typeface (also used in the Harry Potter franchise) Able, from foundry T26. The typeface was designed by Marcus Burlile, who was not born until the 1970s."

Now THERE's a conspiracy theory worth looking into, G-men...

F'd Ad Fridays: Giant freaky baby goes to the park

Landon Meier is an artist who makes latex masks under the brand Hyperflesh. To promote his latest creepy baby head work, he convinced a grown man to don the mask and a diaper — and nothing else — and be taken for a walk in the park. Bizarrilarity ensures.



Try unseeing THAT!

Via BoingBoing

iPhone 4's awesome anti-cancer feature

Ironically, though, the vid is in flash and can't be viewed on iPhone or iPad...

iPhone No Cancer Commercial - watch more funny videos

Via BoingBoing, who also debunked the sudden panic over cellphone-cancer risk.