Dear Brands: please stop appropriating terrorism

Never Forget pic.twitter.com/74Br2rBL3A
— AT&T (@ATT) September 11, 2013

Update: They apologized and the embedded Tweet was removed.

Here's a screencap.

It was a terrible thing. It killed a lot of people. It started wars. It forced us to give up a lot of freedoms.

But one thing is for sure: It did not happen so that brands could borrow interest from death.

I'm only picking on AT&T because it just showed up in my feed. Please share any others you see at the contact form below.

Is this boardgame teaching tweens to be boy band groupies?

Go ahead and accuse me of being a dirty old man, but when I saw this boardgame featuring generic boy band One Direction, with the tagline "Be the first to make it backstage!" I did not assume the best.

                  

Here's how Hasbro describes it:

Make it backstage with your favorite boy band with the 1D GIRL TALK game! Can you answer trivia questions? Are you up for the dares on the "Will You Dare?" cards? You can earn a band souvenir every time you answer a question correctly or complete a dare. If you complete your player card and collect the VIP backstage pass, you win!

Okay. You can take this innocently if you want. But I am a cynical old ad guy, and I just can't see a game in which the objective is to take dares to earn a backstage pass for private time with some heartthrob band as having a good influence on girls who will have the opportunity to trade favours for celebrity access in just a few short years.

Blame my upbringing. I saw The Wall, and listened to Joe's Garage, at a young age.

Hooters has a Mother's Day promotion #FdAdFriday

From the Hooters site:

Free Wings for Mom Hooters is showing appreciation to all moms for all that they do to make this world a better place by serving up our signature menu item for free. All day on Sunday, May 13th moms who dine in at Hooters will receive an order of 10 boneless chicken wings tossed in their favorite sauce for free! This Mother’s Day offer is one of many deals that Hooters is giving customers during non-traditional holidays throughout the year. The Mother’s Day free wing offer is good for all ladies who dine in at participating Hooters restaurants. The offer is good on dine in orders only and there is a limit of one order for each mom.

I guess there is something "motherly" about a restaurant chain that is so focussed on maternal organs, but I'm pretty sure that's not the intent.

I did, however, titter when I read Eater's comment about the mention of mom's favourite sauce: "Wow, your mom must go to Hooters a lot if she has a favorite flavor of their wing sauce."

By the way, I was unaware of Hooters' slogan:

"O_O" indeed, Mr. Owl...

F'd Ad Fridays: Now with more Jordache than you can shake your ass at

I don't know if any of the rest of you clicked on the 1980 Jordache jeans spot that popped up as a reco after playing their '70s ad embedded in a previous post. I just now did:



Jordache was know in the '70s for being focussed on how tight they were on the bum.

Which is fine with adults. But translating the slogan and the ass shots to a classroom full of kids? And their teacher?

Times sure have changed. Although in the interest of full disclosure, I had myself a pair of those things on my prepubescent butt within a year after this ad was made.

Have a great weekend, all.

Gap Kids sells sequined hooker shorts to tween and teen girls

PR Twitterer @woodlandalyssa shared a link to this item, from the Gap USA online catalogue:

Available only in sizes 12, 14 and 16, these "Sequined Party Shorts" have just a 2.5" inseam, putting them close to the realm of booty shorts.

Is this yet another horrible example of the fashion industry oversexualizing young girls?

Gap customers seem to think so. From the site comments:

Click to enlarge and read.

Cue the social media outrage in 3... 2...

F'd Ad Fridays: Vintage WTF?

From BoingBoing:

Boy, am I glad we've progressed since then! Imagine, treating an innocent young girl like a "glamorous" sex object, dolled up like a cheap...

Oh, God, no!

Forget it. Who needs a drink?