Sex toy retailer creates a potentially deadly road distraction

Today's astoundingly irresponsible marketing idea is brought to you by Adam & Eve, an online sex toy store.

According to Adrants' Steve Hall, four of these trucks featuring model Bree Olsen will drive across the United States.

The brand wants drivers(!) to photograph the trucks on the road and enter to win... ...a traffic ticket? a multi-car pileup? A horrible, violent death?

Via Facebook

A press release quotes Adam & Eve Marketing Director Chad Davis:

"We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to bring Adam & Eve to the public this way. We are encouraging drivers who run across our trucks along I85, I95, I75 and I77 to send us pictures of the trucks to track their effectiveness and possibly win prizes."

It reminds me of all the times lingerie billboards have been accused of distracting drivers. Except this billboard is moving. And they want you to photograph it.

Ugh.

Not the typical gruesome distracted driving ad

If you're freaked out by going to the dentist, don't watch. This very strange ad about distracted driving by the US Department of Transportation may be a little too extreme in its goofiness and gore to actually get its point across:



My other question: Is this campaign real? Or is it another spec nightmare?

Via Illegal Advertising

F'd Ad Fridays: Don't get distracted by the headlights behind you

And by headlights,  I of course mean "headlights" in the parlance of our times.



This British (?) distracted driving PSA was a related video to the Farrah one from my last post. But whoever put it on YouTube cut off the branding and call-to-action. Does anyone know its origin? It certainly looks real, and of fairly recent vintage.

The poster claims it was "banned", but they all say that. It actually makes some pretty good points about both the passengers' and the divers' responsibilities when it comes to preventing distracted driving.

What not to do in the back of a boy's car. (Not while he's driving, anyway.)

Have a safe weekend.

The bleeding ear cell phone concealer

Ridiculous from start to finish. But then again, so is driving while talking on a cell phone.

(Warning: bleeding dick joke included)

The Bleeding Ear Cell Phone Concealer	UCBcomedy.com
Watch more comedy videos from the twisted minds of the UCB Theatre at UCBcomedy.com

But all the stupid was worth it for this little social commentary:

"Also available in Not White"

Via Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

Change the Conversation

According to our client, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 81% of licensed drivers never drive after drinking. Those who do are clearly in the minority. So why are a third of road deaths alcohol related?

The problem is that we Canadians tend to be very tolerant of others, and shy about confrontation. Many of us are proud of doing the right thing for ourselves, but we pause before either letting other people know what we believe or speaking out against wrongs.

That's the challenge we faced when TIRF asked us to partner with them on the Change The Conversation campaign. Responsible drinkers are in the vast majority, and it is time that we do something about the hard core of irresponsible people.

Confrontational, and even aggressive in their look and message, these posters are here to get attention and invite people to join the conversation at the campaign site, changetheconversation.ca, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed (@changetheconvo) and an eventual YouTube Channel.

The campaign messaging and look are by Acart Communications, while and our longtime clients the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) led the partnership with Arrive Alive and The Student Life Education Company, for web implementation and PR. Brewers Association of Canada sponsored it.

What do you think? Would this campaign make you think twice before getting in a car with someone who  had been drinking irresponsibly, or letting someone drive home from your place after a few?

The rest of the campaign brings further challenges: Planning ahead not to drink and drive, not letting young drivers get distracted driving drunk friends around, and the career limitations of conviction.

Call it a "sensitivity disability"

I get these anti-distracted-driving ads from Romania. And they're well art-directed. But I don't like them.

It's quite simple, to me: These ads are offensive to people with disabilities.

Okay, so blind people should not be driving. But amputees can, and do, drive without any problems.

The message that you're disabled from driving when you're texting is clear enough, but I just don't believe that a social marketing campaign to raise awareness and compassion for one issue should be inconsiderate towards another.

I wanted to get a local cultural opinion on this campaign, for balance, but the only person I know in the Romanian ad industry just had a baby (Felicitări, Roxana!) so she's busy.


The campaign is by Publicis Bucharest, for Bucharest City Police. Via Ads of the World.

Distracted driving PSA shoot distracts drivers

Now that's ironic.

California news site KION reports that a Seaside, CA, shoot for a TV PSA on texting and driving caused serious consternation among area drivers.

"The PSA looked so real that several people driving by thought that a real fatal accident had occurred. Cars were flipped over and people were thrown to the ground."

The campaign was being shot by Monterey's Clear Blue Studios for Impact Teen Drivers. The spot was partially conceived by a local high school student.

There's a bystander video of the set embedded in the KION article, as well as a TV news item. No crashes were reported as a result of the shoot.