Famous photos defeminized for IKEA's Saudi market

Thanks to an overly culturally "sensitive" editor who photoshopped all adult women out of the Saudi version of their catalogue, the IKEA brand has taken quite a hit this week.

And the hits keep coming. The latest salvo is a Tumblr in which users share pictures in which iconinc women have been replaced by IKEA products:

Another example of how brands are in the hands of the masses these day. IKEA will no doubt recover, but their willingness to throw toss aside the brand's human rights "values," just to expand the business into an area that does not share them, is an albatross they will have to bear until they truly redeem themselves.

UPDATE: People have been asking me how IKEA could have handled this differently, without offending Saudi sensitivities about female modesty.

Are you listening, IKEA? This is a freebee:

For countries in which the portrayal of casually-dressed westerners is not the cultural norm, shoot your catalogues as furniture-only. This will incur a slightly higher photo shoot cost, but might have some significant savings in talent fees.

Add a disclaimer to the catalogue:

IKEA respects sensitivities towards modesty and western modes of dress in some cultures. However, we are a company that believes absolutely in sexual equality. For that reason, we have produced a catalogue for some regions that shows only product. Because we cannot, as an equal opportunity company, treat men and women differently.

Tip via Copyranter

FHM presents "The 100 sexiest women in nonexistence"

Betty or Veronica? Other Betty or Wilma? Erin Esurance or Kim Possible?

Since the stone age,  oversexed boys (and men) have fantasized about women who are figments of artistic imagination, from Venus figurines to coffee mascots.

To fan the hormonal fires, ladmag FHM is currently running a Facebok-based pageant in which users are encouraged to nominate and vote on "The 100 Sexiest Women in Nonexistence".

A motley collection of mythical, cartoon and literary characters, commercial mascots, internet memes, classical art and even pictograms, the list is intended to be a joke.

(The iPhone personal assistant, Siri, is on the list even though "she" is only a voice.)

But with this kind of humour also comes the opportunity to cross a few lines...

As the contest copy says, "This is your chance to vote for the sexiest non-existent woman ever. Lusty logos, saucy statues, cute cartoons: they're all here so get voting and make one imaginary woman very happy indeed."

While not exactly helping the status of women, it's just more dumb, boy humour. Although, I will have to admit — if somebody nominates the Feministing logo, I will be required by the rules of irony to laugh heartily.

Tip via Brands of The World

"Scumbag Steve" meme the latest victim of product placement

I miss the days when "meme" was a scientific term (coined by Richard Dawkins). But now it's so bastardized that most young 'uns thing it's what you call those captioned photos that are generated by morons and spread virally by their friends.

Scumbag Steve is one of the classics of the genre, based on a 6-year-old MySpace photo of a guy who calls himself Blake Boston. The whole idea behind it is to match his douchey expression with some dick move you'd expect from him.

According to fastcocreate.com's Joe Berkowitz, the version you see at the top of this post was actually seeded by Mekanism on popular image sharing site imgur in what must be the laziest "advertising" placement of all time.

From fastcocreate.com:

The ad is Imgur’s first step in a new Promoted Image ad unit. It will be featured in the site’s image gallery, alongside similar pieces of content. Users will be scrolling through images of the next Sad Keanu or Schrute Facts, and eventually encounter the Brisk version of the Scumbag Steve meme in an elevated profile. The next phase of the ads will require a more curatorial role for Mekanism, though.

I just have two questions:

• Why not just do this without paying, and use your own network to promote it?
• When does Blake Boston get paid?

Sad Croc Monster will haunt your nightmares

We were picking up new shoes for our son at Kiddie Cobbler when I noticed this awful beast out of the
corner of my eye. As soon as I stopped shitting my pants in sheer horror, I wondered why the hell any person in Crocs' marketing department would think this awful thing would create any kind of positive brand association with children. That is, unless the brand promise is "I'm going to eat your face when you fall asleep, if you even sleep again."

There is a certain pathos to the horrible creature, however, similar to Frankenstein's monster. So I submitted it to Meme Generator:

We'll see what the internet thinks.

McDonald's attempts to manufacture another meme #shamrocking

Apparently not fazed by the #McDStories hashtag disaster, McDonald's is again attempting to seed its own "grassroots" social media campaign.

This time, it's a sponsored post on Buzzfeed, complete with amateur-looking pictures and a video.

The pitch:

"Have You Tried #Shamrocking Yet?
The Irish jig has been an expression of joy since the 16th century, and thanks to the hot new viral trend of #Shamrocking, it's making a modern day comeback. Check out some of these high-stepping #Shamrockers, then get out there and treat your friends to a shake and make them dance with delight!"

Irish stereotypes aside (since we're used to those in March) this retail appropriation of stupid photo memes like planking, horsemaning and tebowing is just asking for trouble. (Not to mention that the term "shamrocking" already has some disgusting and/or random double-meanings at Urban Dictionary.)



At least, I hope people will subvert this cynical attempt to manipulate people into creating free viral advertising. Otherwise, I may lose a little more faith in humanity.

Update: This story was picked up by AdFreak.

The latest stock photo meme

Stock photo cliché memes are a thing now, from women laughing alone with salad to things real people don't say about advertising.

This one, from Sad and Useless (via 22 Words) started last October and is pretty uneven, but some of them are worth sharing:

Yeah, ad people are cynical.

Rick Perry's "Strong" ad just keeps giving and giving...

This one combines the "Brokeback Jacket" meme with the "Bad Lip Reading" one:



And in case you live in a rolled-up newspaper at the bottom of a lake, here's the original:



It's the most hated video on YouTube, apparently. So there's that, too.

Forced memes aren't even trying anymore

Some Buzzfeeder posted this with the sarcastic statement, "Mark my words, this will become the new 'thing'."

Taking the Pop Tart from Nyan Cat and subbing it for the iPhone in "sexy" mirror self-portraits is mildly amusing — until you see the definition some Urban Dic submitter gave the term.

Internet, you can do better.

Sleeveface: the greatest photo meme lives on in radio station ads

Long before today's trend of stupid photo memes, there was Sleeveface. Although earlier examples exist, the fad was named and made famous in 2007 by proud Welshman Carl Morris.

Following the success of his user-generated site, in 2008 Morris and his friend John Rostron published a book of Sleeveface pictures. Having fallen in love with the concept from the start, a bunch of us at Acart Communications had submitted our own, photographed by our colleague Rob Wilson. Most of them made it into the book.

So sliiiiide over here, and give me a moment...

I've always wanted to find a way to use Sleeveface in a campaign. So I was a little bummed out when I passed this billboard in Ottawa last week:

It's a little obvious to do it for a classic rock station, but I guess I'm glad that the meme lives on.

Close-ups below:

Jammin' in the cubicle

Sisters are doin' it for themselves?

Online and meat worlds are colliding at the Better Business Bureau

JP Moore of Buzzfeed shares these examples of common internet meme faces being used in the BBB's "Top Online Scams" page.

Most originate in social media's darkside, 4chan, but quickly filter outwards to more manstream fora, groups and networks.

I've been trying to convince my clients of the potential for using this kind of borrowed interest (if the target market's right) literally for years. It's nice to see.

Hipmunk's expository supers are very un-hip

Not that it was a great ad without them, but if you're going to parody memes let your performance stand on its own merit. You don't need to label and link every one.

An ode to YouTube

Bill Doty has made a supercut of some of YouTube's greatest viral hits, and set them to "Bohemian Rhapsody".



How many of the memes do you know?

Via Buzzfeed

Meme-ing for Jesus

Even without being a parody of Rebecca Black's unironically awkward teeny-bopper viral hit, "Friday", this is epic. A bunch of young and unironically Christian counsellors from Camp Cho-Yeh, in Texas, partying wholesomely with Lord Jesus in their hearts:



It's hard to choose a favourite scene, but here is my shortlist:

Chaste dancing. Check out the morality monitor in the back.

Chaste hugging. He a playa.

Despite the chaparones, though, they manage to get girls dancing in swimsuits.
One-pieces, but still seems out of place.

?

Cameo by FREEZE of Icy Hot Stuntaz fame.

Another star cameo: Canada's beloved indy chateuse,  Feist

Camper praying fervently to God to make it stop.
Or perhaps to mercifully strike him down.

Rapture. RAPTURE!
Damn. They're still here.

And a good summary of the entire Rebecca Black parody meme.

See the rest of the Camp's videos here. And have a wholesomely crunk weekend.

Selling Entertainment

They say you can't force a meme, but the guys at Vat19.com sure do a good job of trying. From the people who previously brought you the world's largest gummi worm and magnetic putty comes the latest useless product you'll have to own: Das Boot:



Like their other offerings, Das Boot is just an excuse to make another ridiculous online infomercial. Which would be annoying if their humour weren't so awesomely random. It's like Forever Lazy meets The Lonely Island.

It turns out that Vat19 is actually a St. Louis straight-to-DVD video production studio started by Jamie Salvatori.

This is where the magic happens.

 Salvatori turned to selling novelty gifts online way back in 2005 as a way to promote his services by giving unusual products the bizarre online promotion they deserved: "His philosophy is to create fun, entertaining, and descriptive web pages for each and every curiously awesome product sold on Vat19.com."

 The result is advertising that is truly entertaining. Or perhaps entertainment that is truly advertising.

Who cares? It's awesome.

Link via Copyranter.

Disney's The Little Mermaid's sexual coming-of-age story, as told by her hipster meme

The Little Mermaid is my favourite Disney movie. No, I am not a dirty old man. I was 18 years old when I went to see the film in the cinema with a 16-year-old female friend. We arrived at the show pretty intoxicated, and proceeded to laugh ourselves silly over all the overt sexual references in the movie. (Yeah, we were smarty pants teens.)

The movie has already been hilariously deconstructed as really bad advice for girls about how to get a guy by completely compromising yourself.

But back in the '80s, I saw more than that. As a teenage boy, dealing with teenage girls as both close friends and occasionally romantic interests, I was fascinated by how the movie seemed to capture the physical and emotional turmoil I saw among female peers as they went along the rocky road to maturity, from age 15 to about 25.

I was reminded of all this when the Hipster Little Mermaid meme started making the rounds of social media. You can generate your own captions on Meme Generator. But instead of making her talk about mainstream culture and Pitchfork magazine, I thought the older, wiser, and bespectacled Princess could walk you through Disney's most awkwardly sexualized classic.

Yeah.

 Little Mermaid lyrics.

 She really does.

Link to the "humanizing" sequence.

I actually sympathize with the guy. I was that clueless as a teen.

 Really. Those Disney animators were pretty pervy.

 In Polish, but you get the gist.

For some unknown reason, my favourite urban legends debunking site, Snopes, insists that the penis tower illustration is unintentional. I have a copy of the original VHS release. Towers are usually less veiny than that...

It's the middle one. Click to enlarge. (No pun intended.)