This Japanese McDonald's recruitment video is actually kind of neat

Two young guys go into a McDonald's, and are transformed into dancin', burger flippin', uniformed party machines:



You watched it all, didn't you? There's something kind of mesmerizing about it. The handwashing sequence is oddly drawn out, but I hear hygiene is a really big deal over there.

This isn't exactly honest advertising, when it comes to the realities of fast food work. Especially under Mcdonald's Japan's high-pressure 60-second service guarantee. But this one is obviously more about instilling pride in the job.

Tip via Rocketnews24

Pussy Riot appropriated again, this time by Vanessa Hudgens

I've written before, both here and on Osocio, about the appropriation of anarcho-feminist group Pussy Riot's knitted balaclava brand. Here's the latest sighting, from former Disney star Vanessa Hudgens'  '$$$ex' Teaser Video (via Huffington Post):



They didn't even bother to change the colour from the Blush lingerie campaign:

By all accounts, the former child actress is trying to shed her innocent image in the new Spring Breakers movie. It's a complete reversal from her concern for her younger image when she had her nude photo scandal six years ago. But careers evolve. It's just too bad she had to "borrow" so shamelessly this time, from women who are currently suffering for standing up for their independence.

Drink milk, have more wet dreams?

Adrants just posted this odd ad for the California Milk Processors Board by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.



That's right. If you drink your milk at bedtime, you will not have your dreams of an Italian sex goddess interrupted by some obnoxious bald guy.

While the ad is certainly attention-getting, it lacks in truthiness. An MIT study determined that the calming properties of milk were purely psychosomatic.

Then there's the "ick" factor, as Steve Hall aptly summarizes:

Drink milk. Get laid. And "finish" your sex dreams. Which, apparently, milk can guarentee if you drink a glass before bed.

As if we didn't have enough unnecessary sex in advertising already.

New NYC anti-salt campaign takes a more level-headed approach

According to Huffington Post, the above is part of New York City's new campaign to make citizens more aware of hidden sodium in their diets. It's a pretty modest little message. Especially considering what they were doing three years ago:

Via nutritioulicious

Via Diets in Review

Those ads drew the ire of the Center for Consumer Freedom (the lobby group for the fast food, meat, alcohol and tobacco industries). Stating that "the 1,300 milligrams of salt in a can of chicken and rice soup is actually less than a teaspoon," they produced this parody ad:

This is the problem with exaggerating the harm in a public health campaign. If you overstate your case, detractors can have a field day undermining your credibility.

That's why I'm happy to see a reasonable approach to salt awareness. The only problem is that the ad, as pictured up top, has no conceptual or visual appeal. It's as if, after the PRmageddon following their recent teen pregnancy campaign, the city's communication heads have dialed it back a little too much.

Kate Upton's anti-scrotum-hair rant is not, apparently, an April Fool's prank

That's right, guys. Now we, too, can enjoy the pubic grooming anxieties that pornified culture has been imposing on women for more than a decade:



From the YouTube link: "Get the look that women want with the Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler with three-in-one unlimited body styling. Trim. Shave. Edge." Eek!

Well, okay. Ads have been talking about manscaping for a long time now. But they used to be funny:



Now it's just one more jiggling Kate Upton ad. Meh.