This ad will restore your faith in advertising, sports and humanity

Copyranter shared this on Buzzfeed. The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins to take the Stanley Cup in game 6 of the finals on Monday. While they held a massive victory parade in Chicago, they also committed the time and money to pay tribute to the spirit of Boston after the awful marathon bombing this spring. This was a full-page ad in Friday's Boston Globe.

Hats off to you, Chicago.

What if boys got pregnant:? A concept as old as I am

That's the question implied by Chicago's new anti-teen-pregnancy campaign.

“The point was to get people’s attention and get conversation started about teen pregnancy and teen births, and how they really affect a community,” Chicago Department of Health spokesperson Brian Richardson told the Daily News.

The ads are running on transit and near high schools with high rates of teen pregnancy.

While attention-getting, I'm not sure the ads really get the full value of the message across. I'm not sure any ad campaign can get boys to be more responsible, but imagine targeting these to girls and saying "If it was him who could get pregnant, don't you think he'd want to use a condom?" or something like that.

But at least these ads, while presenting teen pregnancy as an unwanted consequence of teen sex, don't try to heap shame on teen parents the way New York City did with their campaign. Even if the concept behind the Chicago campaign is as old as I am:

Yep, that's the famous "pregnant man" ad by Jeremy Sinclair of Cramer Saatchi (Predecessor of Saatchi & Saatchi) circa 1970 (via Creative Review). If you're going to borrow creative ideas, they might as well be this classic.

A Brazilian reasons to use original photography

I've seen a number of campaigns, over the years, in which custom photographers try to fight back against smaller agencies' use of shitty stock photos. But I like this one the best so far.

Brazilian fashion photographers Marcio Rodrigues and Marco Mendes, of Lumini, hired Lápiz, a Hispanic-focussed agency in Chicago, to peddle their services to the American market.

Let's hope the message gets through to the next generation of lazy designers and junior ADs.

Via Ads of The World

Hot dogs are bad for your ass #FdAdFriday

"Okay, I guess I'll stop sticking them up there now."

Ah, the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine! Always at the forefront of getting headlines by any means necessary.

Last year, they told Wisconsonites not to eat cheese during football games. Now they're telling people in Chicago not to eat hot dogs just in time for baseball season.

Their message:

"Consuming processed meats increases the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a large number of studies, including the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Studies also show a strong link between other types of cancer and processed meats. An NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, for example, found that processed red meat was associated with a 10 percent increased risk of prostate cancer with every 10 grams of increased intake."

So if I eat 100g of hot dogs, I'm have a 100% chance of getting prostate cancer? I'm already a goner many times over!

As usual, PCRM is just making waves while preaching to their shrill choir. Yes, processed meats are bad for you (especially those nasty factory dogs). But this provocation will do nothing to educate people about making better eating choices. It will, if anything, have the opposite effect as angry Chicagoans are motivated to have a dog just to spite the billboard.

"What about the mustard, relish, onions, pickle, tomato, pepper and celery salt?  Those are vegetables, aren't they?"

Meanwhile, the American Meat Institute does itself no favours by protesting too much:

"Hot dogs are a great Chicago tradition and part of a healthy, balanced diet. They come in a variety of nutrition and taste formulas and they are an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals," said National Hot Dog & Sausage Council President Janet M. Riley. "This group's claims are an effort to seek attention for their animal rights cause.” 

...

"Consumers need a healthy balanced diet and they need balanced, credible information," [says] Riley.  "When it comes to nutrition and cancer, check with health sources such as your doctor, dietician or the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. You can be assured that they will tell you that a healthy diet can include processed meats like hot dogs alongside your vegetables, grains and dairy." 

Damn it, Janet. This isn't health food we're talking about here. People know that hot dogs are salty, smoked, conglomerations of scary dead pig leftovers. We know they are junk food. And we love them anyway. 

Tip via The Consumerist