Dorkly shared this made-for-viral video for BUYMA, a Japanese fashion brand.
According to Spoon & Tomago, it was created by Dentsu and creative director Takashi Sakuma. It was aired on Japanese television only once, on December 13, 2015.
The beauty of the human body in movement meets the choreography of drones. You've got to admit: It's pretty cool. Just watch out for those blades!
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:
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.
I'll give Nestlé credit; this ad for "natural" Coffee-Mate creamer is getting tons of earned media. And it would need to, since the Coffee-Mate brand has long stood for "non-dairy creamer."
So, to show people that this new product has real dairy in it, they body-painted "nude" baristas (and a few customers) in a coffee shop in what looks to be an experiential stunt:
"Boobs," get it? Natural dairy. Ha ha. But at least they involved men as well in this gag. They even made a point of sexually objectifying the guy more bluntly, although this is hardly progressive.
It's not that bold of an idea, though. Topless coffee bars were a fad out west a few years ago, and public nude body painting stunts go back decades.
But then again, advertising ain't art. It's about getting attention and triggering recall. This ad achieves the former, and might achieve the latter if people can forget a lifetime of associations between Coffee-Mate and unnatural coffee whiteners.
It's also a very American brand ad, which takes full advantage of that country's weird relationship with nudity. As many celebrities' Instagram drama has shown, nude buttocks are perfectly acceptable to the American general public, while women's nipples are not. Take a closer look at the video, and you'll note that not only are the "nude" actors wearing thongs, but the women are oddly nipple-less while the men are not.
It's the same thing that you see on TV, with shows like Naked and Afraid — lots of tease with nude bodies from the rear, with all genitals and female nipples blurred out. Considering all of the real nudity on the internet, this PG sexuality is simultaneously exploitative and bland. In other words, not really "natural" at all.
The poster, apparently, reads “Who squeezes them in Harelbeke?” Har, har, har.
Meanwhile, assault victim Maja Leye, a "flower girl" who was groped by a man named Peter Sagan as she planted a traditional kiss on the cheek of Tour of Flanders winner Fabian Cancellara, says she was "frozen to the spot” in shock, and struggled not to react to avoid further embarrassment.
The problem with the poster, obviously, is that it communicates that unwanted sexual touching is a joke, and shouldn't be taken very seriously.
Ms. Clemitson reserves her most potent ire for the unknown agency behind the creative: "They’re like a bunch of little boys giggling at a glimpse of boob or arse, virtually masturbating over the idea of their campaigns going viral."
Well, here's your international attention, guys: You're assholes.
This ad is entirely in Swahili, but if you look up the term "Mpango Wa Kando" you can get the gist of the story: Two women in the market discuss one of them having an affair with a man. The woman tells her friend, the "adultress" that she should use a condom to protect herself and their families from sexually transmitted infections (HIV in particular).
From the YouTube comments:
The “Weka Condom Mpangoni” advert which features two women who openly admit something we fight to put under the carpet that yes there are married women with mpango wa Kando.
“One of the ladies inquires about the other’s husband and then immediately seeks to find out how her mpango wa kando is doing. The first lady then goes ahead to explain that even though her husband may be away, that does not mean that she miss out on “fun” since the other guy is readily available to provide it. The second lady then counsels her to always use condom whenever she’s having “fun” with her mpango wa kando”.
The Anglican Church and the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya protested the ad, claiming it was promoting promiscuity and infidelity rather than preventing HIV, and Kenya's Ministry of Public Health cancelled the ad's TV broadcast.
Had the clergy not interfered with it, the message would have reached millions of Kenyans and would have benefited even the youth and people already living with HIV. Whether you are married or not, using condoms in Kenya is challenging for most people as it carries the weight of stigma and many shy from buying them from shops.
Gladys (name changed) a married woman who admits having an extra marital affair tells me that sometimes she and her lover opt to have unprotected sex for fear of stigma in the community if anyone saw them buying condoms. "With or without the advert, thousands of married people have extra marital affairs and the clergy should not bury their heads in the sand. They should team up with the government to promote the prevention campaign," she asserts.
Kenya is the 4th most HIV/AIDS-affected nation in the world, with at least 100,000 new infections in Kenya annually. But heaven forbid we talk about safer sex, even outside of marriage.
There's a lot of talk about Dame Helen Mirren starring in L'Oréal Paris' new ad for "Age Perfect" skin cream:
Dame Helen is an interesting choice, as she's almost 70 years old, and has remained a sex symbol since the days when she was doing bold scenes in movies like Caligula (1979) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). She has an Academy Award for Best Actress under her belt, as well as four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards. And she continues to steam up the media.
I love some of the copy in this ad: "help me look like me" is a great self-affirmation, and "grow another year bolder" is nice. But the best message is "The perfect age... is now!"
There's a lot to like about the ad, despite the fact that is for an anti-wrinkle product with the latest fad ingredient. After all, Dame Helen's hard-earned wrinkles are clearly on display, in close up.
My main criticism is the ending. Not because of the age difference, but because it's creatively lazy. I was so excited seeing Dame Helen be herself throughout the ad that I found the fiction of the older woman "preying" on much younger men to be a cliché that is beneath her. (In reality, she's married to a man her age.)
Dame Helen doesn't need to prove that she's sexy to all ages. She just is. And the ad would have been so much better if they had not felt the need to end it with a message that she needs it to be validated by a young man.
"Hey, you know what would be really funny?" asked the Creative at Grey, NY, to nobody in particular. "If we took these sexy supermodels and juxtaposed them with 'trashy' versions of themselves in the SI swimsuit issue!"
And thus a DIRECTV campaign was born:
What could be funnier than fantastically rich supermodels pretending to be less glamorous people?
A lot, probably. But it's the last juxtaposition that really bothers me. The intention is to show that DIRECTV is for the beautiful, sexy people, while cable is for... you know... others. Like working class housewives, or cat ladies, or or service industry workers.
That's not out-of-touch at all. Not even the slight bit classist. Nope.
These "ads," posted on Ads Of The World, are showing up around the internet. It's not the first time women's body hair has been used as a punchline. (Thanks, Joe La Pompe!) However, I suspect that these are spec ads. The only credits are to the AD (Peder Stryhn) and photographer (Magnus Ekstrøm), who presumably are counting on sex and controversy to get their names mentioned.
But why would this be controversial?
AOTW
Over the past few years, fashion brands such as American Apparel have used the tactic to get headlines, but as grooming fashions continue to change will these types of stunts lose their edge?
University and college marketing are a challenge. When you approach the subject, you tend to either focus on the benefits (graduates getting jobs, making a difference) or you focus on creative a more emotively attractive brand for youth.
This recruitment ad for the French-language Université de Moncton is definitely the latter:
Simon Paulin told them, "I can understand how they are trying to bring popularity to it because young people think about it a lot. But still I don't think they should focus on that. It's not really professional, cause we're here to learn."
Another, Sebastien Mallet, said "I thought that's awesome. I really enjoyed it. I think that's what young students want to see. There is some controversy over the little kiss in the library, but its not the point of the publicity."
Oddly, the only woman interviewed was from the faculty (she hated it).
It's certainly not a particularly academic approach, but the strategy is clearly to position the university as one that belongs to francophones in the Maritimes. ("À l'Université de Moncton, notre langue c'est le français. Et nous en sommes fiers." means "At the University of Moncton, our language is French. And we're proud of [it].")
Francophone Maritimers, the Acadians, have a unique, tragic, and inspirational history in Canada. Unlike Quebec, which was incorporated into Canada (following English conquest) with its language, Civil Law and religion more-or-less intact, the Acadians were forced to either pledge loyalty to their English conquerors or flee. Many went south to Louisiana (to become Cajuns) while others resettled in the sparsely-populated edges of the eastern colony. Today, however, their communities thrive in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. New Brunswick is Canada's only officialy bilingual province.
Acadian pride makes sense as a brand foundation for U Moncton, especially since Maritimers have been moving away to make a living in Canada's western oil patch for a generation. Now that oil prices are down, young Maritimers might be more apt to pursue a life closer to home.
Yes, with all the talk about campus rape perhaps focussing on sex is questionable for university advertising. But perhaps this ad, going so far as to make a pun on the shared word for "language" and "tongue," is purposely distancing itself from the conservative, English-dominated, universities in New Brunswick and its neighbouring Atlantic provinces.
Besides, that kiss looked pretty consensual.
I'd like to hear some feedback from French-speaking readers on this. Too commercial? Too sexy? Or people taking things too seriously?
PornHub, the internet sexual content provider recently known for dabbling in music, managed to score an earned media hit by getting their new billboard forcibly removed from Times Square, NYC, within 24 hours.
Gothamist writes, "though an advertisement for a porn site would have fit in on 42nd Street a mere 20 or so years ago, the city's long since swapped out the peep shows for a Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and sadly, Pornhub's billboard was removed only hours after its first appearance. We can't have anything fun anymore."
Apparently, a neighbouring hotel managed to get the billboard yanked (so to speak).
This year's earned media campaign leads with Huffington Post's coverage of the "Sexy Deadmau5" costume. I'm contributing to their marketing as well, just like I did in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Let's be honest with ourselves: Outrage is the currency of social media. Marketers offer up new outrages with every passing season, and we predictably rage about it to anyone who will hear.
I don't expect much from fashion advertising. I know that they're selling an idealized self-image, making people think that you can magically transform into an airbrushed beauty if you just buy their brand. It's a fantasy, like vacation advertising. I get it.
The Rideau Centre, at the nexus of Ottawa's bus routes and downtown business, shopping and tourism streets, is the favoured hangout of teens from across Canada's National Capital Region. This display faces the main escalators that hundreds of young people ride every day. And its implicit message, beneath the pun on the product name, is clear.
More than ever before, today's young women see the female body exposed, critiqued, and brutally shamed in the public and private media to which they are addicted. And the young men grow up in a time when viewing and judging women's bodies is a national pastime.
I'm not a prude. I think that nudity and healthy sexual interest are completely harmless. But setting up impossible visual standards for women (at least, those who don't spend four hours a day in the gym before being digitally smoothed and contoured) and emblazoning the words "the perfect body" over them is bound to cause insecurity in girls and impossible "standards" for the boys who will date them.
Add to this that the Ottawa VS includes the "Pink" sub brand — aimed at 15-to-22 year olds — and this gets even more creepy.
An Australian company that calls itself "Wicked Campers" has pissed off thousands of people with its on-vehicle slogans, prompting a massive online petition and complaints to regulators.
The campaign was led by Paula Orbea, who reacted after her 11-year-old daughter told her about the "little slut" slogan she had seen on a Wicked Campers van.
It is inconceivable that Wicked Campers choose to not only write the misogynistic 'joke' but also then publicise it through their moving, billboard vans.
Disgustingly they have also promoted that, 'Fat girls are harder to kidnap.'
Shame on them.
Adult females are also degraded into sexual objectification and disrespect - with slogans on show for people of all ages to indiscriminately see and absorb:
'A wife: An attachement you screw on the bed to get the housework done.''A blowjob is a great last minute gift!''I wouldn't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die!'
Racism has also played a part with slogans such as:'Save the whales, harpoon a Jap.'
The company, which markets mostly to young backpackers, has gotten in trouble with Australia's Advertising Standards Board before. Many, many times. But according to Marketing Mag, they have failed to respond to any rulings, whether for or against, since mid-2010.
This time, however, the company seems to have rolled over, and Ms. Orbea declared victory:
Wicked Campers have apologised, and committed to removing all misogynistic slogans from their vans within six months. Nothing has shifted them in the past. Complaints. Fines. But after initially responding to the petition saying they "didn't care about the uproar" – after your massive support for my petition, they've apologised and will re-spray the offensive, sexist vans.
That's right — over a minute of blurry (?), slow-mo, mammary movement because someone thought up a bad pun.
According to the TomTom YouTube Page, which claims this ad was "banned," the subject (or rather, "object") is American model Alexandria Morgan. Ads of The World lists an all-male creative team with apparently zero interest in selling any TomTom Runner Cardio watches to women athletes.
Followers of The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Sufi Islam are outraged at seeing their emblem in a sexualized advertising campaign. They've launched a Twitter hashtag campaign, #takeoffjustlogo, as well as a petition.
I have written frequently about the problem of commercial appropriation of cultural symbols. And I think I've established myself as a critic of Islamophobia. But as a branding professional, I think this outrage is completely mistaken.
The logo is clearly a stylized "JC" monogram. There is no extra elaboration. "Just" JC.
I firmly believe that the logo designer was completely unaware of any similarity with the Sufi symbol, and it takes a concerted effort to see it:
So what's the big deal? One of the anti-Cavalli campaign organizers, American doctoral student Nasim Bahadorani, said "We have this sign that to us represents blessed peace. It's a refuge … To see it disgraced like this for a company to make money is heartbreaking."
But really? There are only so many ways to create symbols in the world. As much as this one means to The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School, and as much as their religious sensibilities are real, this accidental sort-of similarity ranks pretty low in the problems of the world. At least in my opinion.
Cavalli can choose to withdraw the logo if they want to, and they may if they feel the bad PR will influence their key target audiences. But for now, the brand is appealing to the European Union's trademark and design authority, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).
"Roberto Cavalli SpA is deeply saddened by the distress expressed by the Sufist School students, but hopes that the sentence emitted by a competent authority such as the OHIM, will convince the Sufist religion of the complete good faith and the groundlessness of their requests," the company said this week in a statement.
Ironically, Roberto Cavalli was the subject of some much more warranted religious outrage back in 2004, when he produced a line of bikinis featuring classical Indian images of Hindu gods. Cavalli apologized and withdrew the swimwear from stores following protests in the UK.
Can you spot the differences between this ad, starring reality TV "daredevil" Bryan Spangler, and the burger chain's more typical ads?
Hint: He's fully dressed. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Does Mr. Spangler present himself to the viewer as a sexual object? Not really. He looks skeptically at he burger, eats it, then reclines manfully on his car as if he's getting a BJ.
As much as I complain about sex in advertising, it's not because I'm "anti-sex." What I am is anti-contributing-to-women-being-commoditized and anti-lazy-creative.
This ad, for a fashion shopping app, is pretty tasteful in its sexualization of both male and female models, and the insight is pretty clever. Using the pixelization we're used to seeing on the naughty bits, it tells us that it's the clothes that their customers really get off on:
It was actually kind of refreshing for a sexy ad, wasn't it?
When this video first made the rounds last week, I filed it under "someone's idea of clever spec work" and kind of forgot about it. Not even worth a comment. Or so I first thought.
After all, PornHub is already in-market internationally with the crowdsourced "SFW advertising contest" which is much more clever than this. But since the mostly-male creative class in global advertising wants to do work that is even more sexist than the stuff that's already out there, we keep getting things like this:
I'm not convinced that PornHub had anything to do with this "ad". The post on Ads Of The World gives credit to a Spanish digital agency called La Despensa, which has a number of known brands in its portfolio. But did anyone at PornHub sign a contract, make an approval, or place this on any media?
Not that they're paragons of virtue. I just can't see them thinking this was a worthwhile regional campaign.
Much more interesting, to me however, is the commentary showing up on the AOTW post:
This is not a place in which I am used to seeing a lot of sensitivity. Is #YesAllWomen even reaching the hardened hearts and burned-out souls of advertising enthusiasts?
NPR points out that while breastfeeding rates in Mexico are among the lowest in Latin America, the causes have more to do with a society that is not supportive of working women breastfeeding, and one in which formula companies ply their trade among rich and poor alike with little or no regulation.
Will saying, "Look! These sexy celebrities want you to give your breasts to your baby" be an effective way to turn this around? Unlikely. The whole idea that breasts only serve to turn us on is part of the problem in societies unfriendly to breastfeeding. This will probably only make things worse.
