Coke celebrates bikini weather, internet responds predictably

The image above turned up today on Ads Of The World. Created by agency Phibious, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, it's a sexed-up — but mostly harmless — transformation of the brand into bikinis.

Within an hour of posting, AOTW's Ivan Raszl pointed out that there was already a parody version going around:

Posted on Facebook by Carlos Ríos, the caption reads "a real Coca-Cola's summer model, shall be like."

This is a common reaction to "junk food" advertising, familiar to readers of Adbusters:

Do you see the problem? Yes, soft drinks and fast food are fattening. But do we need to make fun of people's bodies to make this point?

PETA apparently thinks so, too:

Pic via Buzzfeed

It's another example how conflicting priorities and sensitivities make social media complicated. People who are against the corporate food industry want to make a statement about promoting unhealthy consumption, but in doing so they cross a line into "body shaming" that's hurtful to people other than their intended targets of derision.

Is the "Buy a wife from Vietnam" ad for real?

A friend through FEMEN posted this on Facebook. Part of me really hopes it is fake. But in trying to authenticate it, I ran into this colour screencap of a "banner ad" version:

I then tracked it back to a three-month-old Reddit post.

Real or fake as the ad may be, this kind of thing does happen in the world.

History repeats itself. History repeats itself. History...

Mexico City's Museo Memoria y Tolerancia is an interesting idea. In a place founded on genocide and the clash of ancient empires, the museum stands "to warn about the dangers of indifference, discrimination and violence for generating, instead, responsibility, respect and awareness in each individual."

These ads, by Mexico's Made agency, paraphrase the George Santayana  quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and matches it with iconic images of war and violence to amplify the message.

The effect is not subtle, and you could accuse the campaign of relying too much on borrowing interest from some of the world's great tragedies. But the message is, at least, clear. and as important now as it was over 100 years ago.

Via I Believe in Advertising 

F'd Ad Fridays: Bottle-feeding in Vietnam

Okay, it's not an ad. But it is effed:



Jeez, dudes, breast is best!

Don't even ask how I found this. YouTube can be a scary place.

F'd Ad Fridays: Every fisherman's nightmare

As somebody who fishes (yes, I know "Fisher" is the inclusive term now), I really hate these ads. Why?

Because accidentally hooking a mammal or bird, especially somebody's pet, is an absolute nightmare scenario. When I was a kid, my dog pierced his nose on a trolling lure when sniffing an open tackle box on an unsteady boat. He had to go into canine surgery to take it out. Just this past summer, a neighbour's dog chased my son's bobber into the lake, and hooked his lip. (The neighbour and I got it out without bloodshed on either side.)

Cute idea in theory, TBWA Vietnam
. But you just turned off your target market with a concept that is way too close to reality.

Via I Believe in Advertising