#carbonaragate: Marketing fail, or brilliant troll?

Europeans are very entertaining sometimes.

Last month, French lifestyle site demotivateur posted a video recipe for a pasta "alla Carbonara" that was nothing like the eggy spaghetti dish beloved by Italians.

Even among Italians, there are variations in the recipe, which is a "tradition" less than a century old. However, the French version almost seemed like a parody of French food by Italians. Dry pasta, bacon, and onions are simmered in water, then the mix is tossed in crème fraîche and cheese and pepper sprinkled on. Finally, a raw egg yolk is cracked on top. What?

The video went viral in Italy, according to Huffington Post, with Italians loudly bemoaning the "death of carbonara."

But let's look at that video again.

Nice product placement, eh? When I first saw the original video (now gone) I swear I saw Barilla branding at the end as well. I suspect, as some Italian commenters do, that this was just a piece of content marketing gone awry.

And yet the company denied everything on the Sai cosa mangi? Facebook Page, and offered a link to alternative recipes on their own site.

So, either this was rogue content marketing by Barilla's French team that went very badly, or it was a brilliant trolling of Italians. Either way, Barilla is benefiting from clicks, mentions, and visits by outraged Italians and curious foreigners.

Hmmm...

Examining regional beauty standards through Photoshop

Buzzfeed's content has been going downhill lately, but this post is a refreshing exception. It tells the story of Esther Honig, a self-described "human interest reporter" based in Kansas City.

Ms. Honig sent her raw portrait (above) to 40 people in 25 different countries with one simple request: "make me beautiful."

Here a few results:

Germany (via Buzzfeed)

Morocco (Via Buzzfeed)

India (1 of 3, via Buzzfeed)

USA (1 of 2, via Buzzfeed)

It's interesting to note that while several PSers lightened her skin, few darkened it much. The participants were not all professionals. Hired through Fiverr, an international freelancing website, they were each paid a maximum of $30 for the work. Some of the results are quite weird. And there is no indication whether the "artist" was male or female.

What are we to take from this? Ms. Honig leaves it up to the viewer, simply stating that "each one is a reflection of both the personal and cultural concepts of beauty that pertain to their creator." But cycling through all the images at her site is both fascinating and disturbing.

Check out the whole project, "Before and After," here.

Canadian Cancer Society vs. Zentai

When we process so much cultural information at such breakneck speeds, weir coincidences pop up all the time.

Zentai enthusiasts, via BBC

It happened to me last week, when this February PSA by the Canadian Cancer Society showed up in my Facebook feed:



Then literally moments later, a BoingBoing post about a Japanese fad called Zentai caught my attention on Twitter:

Zentai (short for "zenshintaitsu," Japanese for "full body suit") is a largely obscure Japanese subculture whose adherents go out wearing full-body patterned spandex suits that cover their faces. In a relatively unsensational article in the Japan Times, Harumi Ozawa talks to a few zentais about their hobby, and learns that for some proponents, being completely covered is a liberating experience. The zentais in the article describe the suit as an anonymizer that frees them from the judging gaze of society, which is a fascinating study in contradictions, since the suits undoubtably attract lots of judgmental looks, but these seem to adhere to the suit without penetrating to the wearer within. 

Some zentais wear their suits in superhero fashion, and do good deeds in public, while others wear the suits for sexual kicks. They are often mocked in Japanese pop culture. One academic cited in the article believes that the wearers use the suits to hide their appearance in order to force others to deal with their "true" underlying identity.

I'm not going to pull the knee-jerk Western "bwahaha, Japanese culture is so weird" thing here. Rather, I'm interested to know if the Japanese fad directly influenced the low-budget Canadian PSA. After all, these memes shoot around the world in moments, and we're all soaking in a sort of cultural stone soup that attracts all kinds of random ingredients.

"Hula" STI app offends indigenous Hawaiians, plans to carry on regardless

Via Wikimedia

It's getting to the point where marketers are being challenges to rethink our causal brand appropriation of cultures — even when we mean no harm.

Case in point: The Hula app, "a free way to find STD testing, get the results on your phone, and share your verified STD status," has made some native Hawaiians angry.

From Global News:

An online petition is asking for the “Hula” app to change its name.  

...

The three college students who started the petition say they are not opposed to the app’s functions but don’t want to see the hula dance – a beloved cultural art form – exploited. 

“My culture is more than a tourist destination,” said Kelly Luis, a student at Columbia University. “It is more than a place to go for the summer. It’s more than just sexy hula girls on the beach. There is a culture there.”

The Change.org petition, which so far has just over 1200 signatures, details how Hula was a sacred art form that was suppressed by colonial missionaries, and is now degraded by sexualized portayals in popular culture.

Some protestors on the Hula Facebook page also bring up the supreme irony in naming an STD app after a Polynesian sacred rite. Following European contact in the late 1700s, venereal diseases introduced by foreign sailors decimated indigenous Pacific island nations. From the time of Captain Cook's landing in Hawaii in 1778 to 1853, the population of the islands fell from an estimated 300,000 to just 71,019.

Screencaps via Hula

I have no doubt that the people developing the Hula app and brand bore no ill will towards the Hawaiian people.

Global reports that the company posted the following on their Facebook page:

“We are in the process of learning more from your community, discussing internally and hope to address your concerns shortly.”

I can't seem to find it, however.

The company's CEO and founder, Ramin Bastani, told AP that he is going ahead with the brand name, but will stop using puns like "getting lei'd" because he "didn't realize that it was offensive."

Here's his story about the brand evolution:

The app was originally named Qpid.me, but it sounded too similar to a dating site and was changed to "Hula" because the company wanted to evoke a "sense of beauty and being relaxed," Bastani said. "It was a pop culture sense of the name." 

"We loved the idea of calm and beauty of anything Hawaiian," he said, "which is the antithesis of anything having to do with health care." 

Learning about Hawaiian culture has taught him that dancing hula is a "communication tool" used to pass on information among generations, Bastani said. "That plays very well with what we actually believe as the core of the company."

To be honest, I could have made the same mistake. It's really easy to see cultural traditions, which have been treated so superficially for so long in popular culture, as nothing more. And indeed, Hawaii itself has marketed a sexy, silly, version of Hula for some time.

This instance is not easy to be judgemental about. Native Hawaiians have the right to define what their cultural and religious properties mean to them, and are more than justified in being offended. At the same time, "mainstream" western culture has a tradition of treating its own religions irreverently.

The Hula people most likely believe that the controversy will blow over. In the meantime, they will probably actually benefit from the publicity, since everyone now knows who they are.

Meanwhile, the Hawaiian students have an international stage on which to start to redefine the way we perceive and treat indigenous cultures and their best-known rituals.

In a weird, cynical, marketing-world way, everyone kind of wins this one.

That's some f#cking bold pizza branding... #PizzaChingona

As ad controversies go, this one's pretty harmless. The Laredo Sun reports that Dallas-based pizza chain Pizza Patrón is upsetting people (and generating massive earned media) by naming their extra-spicy pie after a common Mexican expression — "La Chingona" —  which is politely translated as "the badass".

Those of you with even a passing knowledge of Mexican Spanish slang will, however, note that  "chingo"and its derivatives tend to be used as a Hispanic version of "fuck". The context is not always sexual, however, as in when we say "bad motherfucker". Which might be a more honest translation of this pizza's name, from what I can tell.

Swearing in another language (even in a country like the United States that pretends it's still unilingual) is a risky yet potentially fruitful strategy. On the one hand, older Mexican-Americans could be offended by it, and the FCC could even potentially fine the advertiser. (Which is why Spanish radio stations refuse to air the product ads uncensored.) On the other hand, the youth market could be quite drawn to such badassery.

I'm pretty sure the latter will be the case, and the advertiser isn't budging. Andrew Gamm, brand director for Pizza Patrón, told Pizza Marketplace, "When the Real Academia Española, the world's foremost authority on the Spanish language, defines 'chingón' as a very positive characteristic, it makes us feel confident in our position and in our decision to move forward without apology."

Aldo Quevedo, principal/creative director for Richards/Lerma, says the controversy north of the Mexican border is really a matter of cultural ignorance:

"In Mexico, people make fun of everything: pop culture, international events and even catastrophes. We are used to it and nobody really gets offended. We have thicker skin and there's a reason for that. That's why it's more shocking to me that the name is being censored here in the U.S.," he said. "I understand that the name of the product could be controversial. But really, after you try it you will understand that it's the best descriptor. To me, it's the only name that fits: La Ch!#gona."

Canada vs. The USA: An Infographic

American adblogger Steve Hall posted this promo piece from Media-Corps, an American media sales firm specializing in Canadian media sales.

What's funny for me, as a Canadian, is that it's another example of how one-sided our relationship with "The States" really is. Steve prefaced his post with a bunch of "did you knows" (Canadians spell differently than Americans; Canadians call a couch a chesterfield; Canada has a higher concentration of Asians; Most Canadians live near the American border...)

Meanwhile, I wonder if there are more than a couple of USA facts here that Canadians did not already know about our neighbour (see what I did there?) to the south:

See the full-size version here.

So, what do you think? Does it ring true? (I'm pretty sure "yogourt" is a deliberate joke...)

Israel: Come for the culture, stay for the group sex?

I never really associated Israel as a place to get one's freak on. But apparently, I've been missing out on Tel Aviv's "24-hour" party culture. Which apparently includes MFM threesomes in the shower:



The video is the latest provocation from Size Doesn't Matter, "a cutting-edge social media experience that includes videos, an interactive website and promotional give-aways... aimed at highlighting the multitude of Israel’s accomplishments and contributions in a new, fun and attractive way"

An outreach of Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, SDM is trying to attract a target audience of young Canadians with an interest in Israel. They previously raised eyebrows with this 2010 video, which is one, drawn-out, awkward oral sex gag:



The new threesome video, according to the Jewish Tribune, annoyed Canadian rabbis who were exposed to it:

“I would have hoped that even supposed secular Tel Aviv had greater appeal than a shower and a threesome,” said Rabbi Mordecai Zeitz of Montreal’s Congregation Beth Tikvah Ahavat Shalom Nusach Hoari. “It’s unfortunate that we are afraid to market our true essence, especially as part of what the rest of the world considers the Holy Land.” 

“I think they want to promote that it’s an open society but there are other ways of doing that,” said Rabbi Philip Scheim of Toronto’s Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue. “You don’t want people coming to Israel for sex and that’s almost what it’s suggesting. It’s the ultimate trivialization of the Zionist dream and bordering on the extremely offensive.” 

Rabbi Scheim described the video as “soft porn” and added, “This is a very poor use of communal funds. This is not what Jews fought and dreamed for over the centuries; this is not what we fought to achieve or dreamt to achieve or prayed to achieve.”

I can certainly see a generation gap here. Both videos are mostly harmless, even though they're juvenile and not at all strategic. My guess is that they're the work of young creatives who haven't grown out of the inevitable "SEX! Now that I have your attention" phase.

Sexual disgust as a marketing strategy

I saw two ads this week that managed to turn the whole "sex in advertising" thing completely around, with an attempt to elicit not arousal but rather disgust.

The first, via Adrants, is an online ad for singles phone line QuestChat:

Coincidentally, it was just announced that an app has been developed to help legendarily homogeneous Icelanders not hook up with not-so-distant relatives. So the timing was perfect to play on the cultural taboo of cousin incest.

(I don't want to get all Shelbyvillian about it, but I knew a guy whose parents were first cousins. The whole family were actually quite brilliant.)

The second ad, via Copyranter, is more than a little more disturbing:

No, I wasn't disturbed by the idea of an elderly person having sex (although that was certainly the intent). I'm more bothered by the cheap shot at seniors taken by this ad. It doesn't even communicate a true product benefit, as not even the most modest claims of cosmetics are necessarily honest. Bah!

The photo montage for "Canadian cuisine" on Wikipedia is kind of embarrassing

"A small sampling of Canadian foods. Top to bottom, left to right: Montreal-style smoked meat, Maple syrup, Peameal bacon, Butter tart, Poutine, Nanaimo bar"

Yep, that's what we eat. That, and Vachon cakes.

Not really. The problem is that most of our cuisine west of Montreal is not greatly differentiated from the American food on the other side of the border, so we're stuck referencing things our southern cousins would consider quirky. And, of course, we love our "ethnic" food that the later immigrants brought.

Fortunately, Quebec and Atlantic Canada have more distinctive culinary traditions. (So does Aboriginal culture in the north and elsewhere, but it hasn't found much of a mass market outside of the ingredient contributions of corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, squashes, etc.)

Don't give up on Ontario and the rest of the provinces, though. We just need more history to happen.

Is being on Reddit unpresidential?

As I write, the internet is buzzing with news that President Obama has actually, really, provably taken to Reddit to answer "Ask Me Anything" questions.

It's impossible to even try to keep up with the thread, which has over 5,000 comments at its halfway point.

You could say that this is a clever way to distract attention from the Republican National Convention, and connect with young voters. But was Reddit the right place for him to go?

This is a community that represents the best and worst of the internet. At its best, it provides unfiltered and immediate information and opinions on emerging events, trends and ideas.

At its worst, well. It is a haven for creeps who steal people's private pictures and repost them for each other's sick pleasure, for assholes to bully abuse victims, to provide support groups for rapists, make racist rants, and until recently — share child pornography.

Is this the equivalent of Jesus hanging out with sinners, or has the President accidentally given his critics ammunition against him for validating a very controversial forum?

I guess we'll see.

But for now, there's this:

Advertising as cultural immersion, Lithuanian edition

My previous post, about a cool new Lithuanian music festival campaign, prompted my Lithuanian friend (okay, my only friend in Lithuania) to send me an interesting campaign from his former colleagues at Adell Taivas Ogilvy, Vilnius:

What?

My friends, if you even get a chance to meet a Lithuanian, buy him or her a drink. You will learn things .

Lithuania is a proud nation with an interesting history. It was one of the last pagan strongholds in Europe when it was officially converted in the late Middle Ages. Soon, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became the largest country in Europe, incorporating modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia.

That explains the first ad.

This one is more obscure, but Lithuanians (the target audience) would get it.

From a tourism site:

Lithuania has long history and capital was moving along with the ruling power. The most ancient known Lithuanian capital was Kernave - until 13th century there was big settlement here located on 4 mounds facing River Neris. In 14th century Trakai became residence for Lithuanian Grand Dukes. Grand Duke Gediminas settled Vilnius in 1323 and the capital moved to the new residence where it is until today. Kaunas was temporary capital of Lithuania between World War I and World War II when Vilnius was occupied and temporarily outside frontiers of Lithuania.

Also, there was only ever one person who took the title of "King" of Lithuania: Mindaugas (ca. 1203 –  1263).

Whew! Covering international advertising can be a lot of work! But I always told people I got into this industry and stayed because I get to learn something new every day...

The white stork is a native Lithuanian migratory bird, the official bird of the country, and a big part of its folklore.

Which brings us to...

Ummm... uhhhh... any Lithuanians out there want to go grab a beer with me?

All ads via Ads of The World

"Ici, c'est Pepsi"

Here, it's Pepsi!

Vincent just sent me this funny Pepsi ad from Quebec, in which a gang of French Canadian stereotypes attack an American tourist stereotype for daring to drink Coke.



Pepsi has long played the market in Quebec very differently than the "rest of Canada" because the soft drink has a special relationship with the province. It far outsells Coke there now, due to a its dedication to homegrown Quebec-only campaigns that celebrate their unique culture and sense of humour. This relationship is so tight and well-known that, when I was a kid, "Pepsi" was also a derogatory term for our francophone neighbours to the east and north.

The new ad is pretty funny even to this anglo. Anyone have credits?

Playboy's late-life identity crisis

Poor old Playboy doesn't know what to be in the 21st Century.

Founded as somewhat of a countercultural icon for affluent and educated men almost 60 years ago, it played an important (if one-sided) part in the Sexual Revolution and spoke out against McCarthyism. In the '60s, it matured into a brand for the wannabe martini set. But by the '70s, hardcore pornography took away its more horny audiences as it maintained its relevance through top-notch interviews and celebrity pictorials. In the '80s, it was all about video.

Now, here we are in the digital age. Pictures of naked women are abundant and free. So is interesting and subversive content. So what's left for Playboy?

I think their biggest problem is that sex, culture and politics are no longer a man's exclusive domain. Playboy will never be able to shake its basically sexist brand character, and who wants to be associated with that?

The douchebag market, that's who. Young men who read Maxim and wear Axe.

To compete with Maxim, Playboy launched The Smoking Jacket, an online ladmag that covers culture, entertainment and boobies with a less overtly-pornographic, teasing style. Fellow adblogger Steve Hall, from Adrants, is one of the contributors. (He pens a "sexy ads of the week" column.)

And Axe?

Check out this Playboy shower gel ad by DDB Paris:



Yeah, it's a shitty ad. It's also extremely creepy. Can you imagine how a young woman would feel if a strange man, alone with her in the elevator, hit the emergency button? She'd be expecting the worst.

I don't really know if Playboy has a future as a serious brand. It could be that, in a few years, it will only survive as a logo worn ironically (or desperately) by attention-seeking young women.

What do you think?

Indian ad provides a golden cultural insight

My favourite thing about the global nature of ad blogging is being able to see work from cultures different from mine, and seeing what their consumers respond to.

In the case of India, when I filter the ads through my own Canadian sensibilities I am sometimes disturbed by what I see. Other times I am delighted.

This time, I am intrigued:



From the Indian people I have known here in Canada, I have come to understand that gold has a special place in the culture. Women traditionally owned and wore jewellery of extremely pure gold as a form of personal and family wealth that is portable and always on-hand. Even in today's digital money economy, the tradition continues to some extent. Obviously, the World Gold Council would like that to continue.

Tip via AOTW

India even does fast food cooler than the west

Not only is their McDonald's menu way more appetizing, but their Pizza Hut features a Bollywood floor show:



Make me one with everything...

Via Viral Videos (Facebook)

Exposing the myth of the chain mail bikini

Turns out Boris Vallejo, Heavy Metal Magazine, and countless other sources of adolescent boy fantasy lied to me.  No woman warrior worth her salt would be caught dead wearing a chain mail bikini into battle.



The video is pretty well done. And ironically, it comes via College Humor. (Where the Flash version has an extra bit at the end.)

But it's all in good fun, right? Well, tell that to Taarna:

Leather thong armour is less effective, even with FM boots.

Manufacturing pop stars

Does one of these girls seem a little... off?



The star of this candy spot is Aimi Eguchi, the newest member of Japanese teen pop group AKB 48. She fits in so well with her bandmates because she's more than one of them — she's all of them.

Singularity Hub explains:

"This past Sunday, Ezaki Glico, the candy company which aired the commercial, confirmed what many of AKB 48’s fans had come to suspect: Aimi Eguchi wasn’t real. The new group member, it turns out, was a computer-generated composite of the real band members. Her pretty face was actually made up of the “best features” of six other members: her eyes, nose, mouth, hair/body, face outline and eyebrows were not flesh-and-blood, but cut-and-paste."

This was done as a publicity stunt, and the sponsors quickly came clean with the hoax. But at the same time it's a timely reminder that you really can't believe your eyes anymore.

I sofa, therefore I am

There's a fine line that separates all we have accomplished, culturally and intellectually, from our savage animal past. And according to this campaign, that line is actually an online store for Australian furniture:

Furniture. It's what separates us from the animals.

Furniture. It's what separates us from the animals.

Furniture. It's what separates us from the animals.

Clever campaign, actually, despite its obvious ethnocentrism.

After all, can you really claim these guys aren't enjoying some highly civilized awesomeness?

I want to live in a yurt.

Ads by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne.
Via Ads of The World.

Manhood in the Philippines: circumcision and spicy noodles

Copyranter got tipped off (pardon the pun) to this bizarre Filipino ad in which a boy and his father bond over mannish pursuits like circumcision and spicy noodles:



He even provided translation:

Doctor: Mr. Suarez, he's OK.
Kid: Dad, it didn't hurt!
Dad: I told you you can do it. You're a big boy already!
Kid: I didn't even cry!
VO: Because he's already a big boy, he can now eat Sweet & Spicy Lucky Me! Pancit Canton. It has the right blend and the right amount of spice that we enjoy.
Dad: Oh, can you handle it?
Kid (lowering voice): I can!

Beyond my "intactivist" leanings, the age of the boy getting circumcised freaked me out. Here's Yahoo! Answers' explanation:

"In the Philippines it is expected that all males are circumcised before puberty. If not, a boy will be teased as "supot". It is because he is not seen as "man enough" to face the pain."

Although I guess I should consider this boy lucky to have been brought to a doctor:

"In the rural areas, the quack doctor pulls the foreskin, and places a block of wood under the foreskin. The kid is given a leaf to bite on as the quack doctor whacks the foreskin off, often with a sharpened bamboo or coconut knife, or now, mostly machete knife."

In this context it's not all that different from female genital mutilation, is it?

Coming soon:

Old woman: Mrs. Rahim, she's OK.
Kid: Mom, it didn't hurt!
Mom: I told you you can do it. You're a big girl already!
Kid: I didn't even cry!
VO: Because she's already a big girl, she can now eat Sweet & Spicy Lucky Me! Iskudhexkaris. It has the right blend and the right amount of spice that we enjoy.
Mom: Oh, can you handle it?
Kid (lowering voice): I can!

I don't want to be too xenophobic here, but ads like this make me happy I live in a country where a typical coming of age is having a sip of your dad's beer while out fishing...

Stop F---ing The Sharks!

And by that, I mean "Finning"...

I Believe in Advertising posted this ad from Grey Hong Kong that speaks out agaisnt the Chinese tradition of killing sharks just to add their (tasteless) dried fins to prestigious wedding soups. It's really kind of freaking me out, but I thought I'd share based solely on the urgency of the issue:

IBiA also posted this translation:

“Jaws never return
Shark killing tragedies. Showing every day.
73 million sharks are brutally killed every year. In Hong Kong last year, 4460 tons of shark’s fin were consumed. Experts estimate that in the next decade, most species of sharks will be exterminated. Your choice will determine the ending of this tragedy…
Rescue sharks. Preserve the ocean. Please stop consuming shark’s fin.”

I should add that, if you don't stop eating that stuff, my 6-year-old radical naturalist son will also kick your ass.