British wine campaign makes a vintage joke in bad taste

Premier Estates Wine, a British importer, has decided to recycle a very old sight gag to get publicity for its products. With the tagline "#tastethebush, they've taken to Twitter and YouTube:

They call it "the brand’s playful, tongue-in-cheek tone that’s born from classic British humour."  I call it a bad pun.

But hey, here's your attention:

No energy for outrage But the #tastethebush thing just makes me sad for all the oz winemakers working to improve the image of their wine

— Melanie Jappy (@japster2008) August 13, 2015

Nothing says 'Our wine is good' like comparing it to cunnilingus. #tastethebush https://t.co/GQfatvislI

— David Lewis (@davidclewis) August 13, 2015

Both amazing and horrendous #tastethebush autocorrected to #taste thrush on my phone https://t.co/59Ati9EPYb

— Jo Murray (@Crunchbunchfit) August 13, 2015

Tweet I want to #tastethebush and you could win a restraining order. https://t.co/qdyqXT6RyR

— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) August 13, 2015

Another #marketing campaign thought up in a bar. A bar based on a uni campus. In 1960 #tastethebush <slowclap> pic.twitter.com/94rpADyae3

— Louise Dixon (@LouiseDixonMCR) August 13, 2015

Taste my menstrual blood @premestateswine #TasteTheBush pic.twitter.com/DaXrmd5w8Q

— Sarah Moore (@knityoghurt) August 13, 2015

I tend to agree with the complaint about Australian wines. Monty Python once compared the bouquet of one to an armpit (with regrettable racism). It makes you wonder why a UK wine seller wants to compare the taste of their Shiraz to the great down under.

Jarlsberg: Fear of a Black Baby

It's an old joke: The white woman with a white husband has a Black baby. It's the punchline of a joke that goes way back in time, and it's awful.



In this case, it's used as a sight gag in a Norwegian ad for Jarlsberg cheese, by TRY/APT, Oslo. As Joe La Pompe points out, the overall ad concept is unoriginal, as it is suspiciously similar to a French paper ad that won a Bronze Lion at Cannes just last year.

The French ad used the comparison of "this is inferior to that" in a comical and fairly harmless way. Now let's look at the same gag in the Norwegian spot:

Jarlsberg is to other cheeses as:

• Football (Soccer) is to Vacuous American Entertainment Shows
• Proper Funeral Attire is to Inappropriate Party Attire
• A Formal Caregiver is to a Male Stripper
• A Nursing Home is to a Mental Hospital

and...

• A White Husband is to an Affair with a Black Man

See the problem? Well, there is more than one, but the black baby gag is the most objectionable.

Enough with the racist jokes, already. This is the 21st Century. Playing on white fears of Black sexuality is old, and it's harmful.

Two campaigns, same concept, same country, competing products

Ads of The World's Ivan Raszl pointed out that both of these ads were submitted to him on the same day:

Post by Ads of the World.

What is going on here? The first is by Artplan in Brasília, Brazil. The second is by Propeg, in Bahia, Brazil. They're both for armoured vehicles. Coincidence? It can happen to anyone. But is this too statistically unlikely to be innocent?

I would love to be a (portuguese-speaking) fly on the wall at either of those agencies today...

Playboy is just putting labia on the cover now

Copyranter just posted this cover from Playboy South Africa that turns a woman's lips sideways to mimic the "other" labia.

I was sure I had seen this visual trick before. Here's one from Y&R Mexico, via Advertolog, from 2004:

Not that it's any more imaginative, mind you. (It's also been done with a heavily-lidded eye.)

Cheap shock, and it's been done before. Yawn.

If you find any other examples of this concept, link them in the comments.

Update: Here's a poster for the Vagina Monologues, done by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand in 2002 (via Coloribus):

Update 2: Just found three more (spec?) from DGLY Shanghai, China, for Dior Addict High Shine Lipstick in 2009 (Via Ads of The World Forum):

It's green! With teeth!

How many times can you do the same freaking "vulva face" ad?

Recycled pee jokes shock British shoppers #FdAdFriday

Copyranter posted some controversial mailers for UK retailer Harvey Nichols:

(Via Daily Mail)

These caused some outrage, but HN was happy with it. They told the Daily Mail:

Defending its latest ads, a spokesman for Harvey Nichols said: 'We developed the campaign to promote our summer sale and capture the excitement in a light-hearted, humorous way.  

'The images in our advertising were designed to be a visual representation of a well-known phrase. 

'During the production of the campaign, we researched the use of this expression in popular culture and social media and were satisfied that is is both commonplace and invariably used in a playful, inoffensive manner, which was in keeping with the tongue-in-cheek spirit in which we intended our campaign to be taken.'

What their research did not turn up, apparently, is that the concept is done:

CP+B, 2007 (Via Coloribus)

  And done:

BIG Advertising, Beijing, 2009 (via AOTW)

BIG Advertising, Beijing, 2009

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.

Snow White and the Seven Unwanted Pregnancies

What a strange ad, by Portugal's Fuel agency for Ajuda de Mae ("Help for Mothers'). Although it would seem that it is supposed to be a warning against unwanted pregnancy, the organization itself is an anti-abortion one, with a mission "to support Mother of pregnant women, respect for the life of unborn baby, so that with this support, each parent can improve the lives of their families."

They do, however, seem to support family planning as an educational organization. But considering their overall message of creating healthy families, the negative example of seven little people  making life miserable for Snow White seems rather negative.

See more here

Plus, the ad is shamefully similar to Vancouver photographer Dina Goldstein's portrayal of Snow White in her excellent "Fallen Princesses" series. Ripoff? Hmmm...

Via Ads of The World

What a brilliant (stolen) concept!

I just saw this campaign in Ads of the World:

Really awesome concept. But not an original one. The ads immediately sent me searching through my blog archives to find the originals, in an art photography series by Argentinian photographer Irina Werning:

The ad version is by an agency called Propeg in Salvador, Brazil. The creative team is Ana Luisa Almeida and Emerson Braga (CDs) and Edson Rosa (AD).

So here is my question for photographers and ad creatives alike: Is it right to rip off someone's personal art project for ad glory and profit? Is it "inspiration" or outright theft?

An Ottawa radio station is currently running ads that use the Sleeveface meme. But that's a collaborative and tongue-in-cheek project that uses already copyrighted work. This, on the other hand, is a clear ripoff in concept, style and content — with only the addition of a product placement — Irina's Back to the Future and Back to the Future 2. Is it even legal?

Opinions welcome. I have e-mailed Irina as well.

Ah yes, the "kid in bubble wrap" cliché...

I'll admit it. I've had this idea come up in creative sessions about family safety issues on many, many occasions.

via AOTW

But do you know why we don't end up using it? Because GIS, that's why.

When your "there's a better way..." concept is already a tired cliché in stock photo libraries and mommy blogs, it's time to start over. 

And not just with different materials, either...

Cloning the talking baby

A few months ago, I blogged on Osocio about Bristol Palin's PSA for the Candie's Foundation, an American not-for-profit that tries to show girls the realities of becoming a teenage mom.

Now there's a new spot out with Bristol's endorsement, although this one is less about comparing her wealthy life to that of poor teen moms. Instead, it steals E*Trade's talking baby concept (which itself was an old idea) to demonstrate what a tyrant a baby really can be:



Mind you, teen parenthood is a very serious issue, and I hope this PSA convinces a few girls (and boys!) to take steps to avoid it. But it's always a shame when lazy ad people waste an opportunity for originality by ripping off a well-known idea and then doing a poorer job of it.

I do, however, love the line "and you thought your parents were controlling?" coming from the daughter of someone who almost became Vice President of the United States.