Who owns "Adland"?

If there's one thing that advertising people actually value, it's a brand. Especially if it's one of our own.

So it's no surprise that Åsk Wäppling, the Swedish owner of the advertising blog adland.tv, doesn't want other people using the term "Adland."

Adland is absolutely ancient in internet terms, having been established in 1996 when most ad people were still trying to figure out if the web was good for anything except free shock porn. A young Ms. Wäppling, under the pseudonym "Dabitch," instead saw the opportunity to create an online global ad archive and professional forum, which in this decade Brand Republic, Business Insider, and Fast Company have listed as one of the most influential in the industry. She even trademarked the name, several years ago. And he's been a mentor as I've fumbled my way into the ad blogosphere.

So you'd think it would be pretty clear that "Adland" = adland.tv. Especially among ad industry bloggers.

Apparently not. As you can see from the Google screencap above, venerable industry magazine Ad Age uses the term "adland," in a generic sense, to refer to the industry in several posts. I have no idea if they used it this way in print, years back, but online it definitely infringes on Dabitch's intellectual property. And she's let them know, many times.

Now other people are letting them know. When Ad Age posted "Adland seeks to hire veterans," Dabitch says she started getting resumes. After finding out they didn't mean THAT Adland, one vet let Ad Age know what he thought about the avoidable confusion:

Courtesy Dabitch

(adland.tv ended up helping the guy get some job leads anyway.)

Dabitch has written directly to Ad Age's legal heads, but after receiving what she characterizes as "nya, we won't" replies, she has taken to the court of social media.

She told me, "Now I tweet at them every time they use the word in a headline and I hope the responses take off."

Here's a recent example:

Here's our best tattoo @adage #adland pic.twitter.com/uQyUzuCDnl

— Adland (@adland) May 6, 2015

Cheeky. But will it get Ad Age's attention now? (More importantly, will it get the attention of its readers and advertisers?) We'll see. Because there are a lot of important ad pros watching that little red TV.

How to go viral without making a cent

It's been almost five years since I started this blog. I don't do it for money, as I already have a full-time job as a Creative Director. So there are no ads, and I don't get paid for clicks. I just write these posts as part of my ongoing professional development, reviewing the fruits of my industry and thinking out loud about the ethics and social issues involved.

I've managed to generate a bit of a following. The numbers aren't huge, but they include some people who themselves have huge followings on advertising, culture, and social science blogs. As a result, every once in a while, the content in one of my posts goes viral. That happened again this week.

Here I was, just not minding my own business as usual, and I saw some really shitty photoshop from Target show up in a Facebook post by Photoshop Disasters. Since sex, sexism and body image in advertising are some of my regular topics, I whipped up a quick "Ethical Adman" post about it, then promptly returned to my day job.

Then this happened:

That mountain range is an analytic spike that hit on Tuesday. It turned out that Jezebel picked up the story and linked me as the source, but not Photoshop Disasters. That gave me about 6,000 extra views. Then Buzzfeed picked up the story from Jezebel, and didn't credit me. I got no direct traffic from Buzzfeed, but may have gained some secondary hits via Jezebel.

Even more traffic came when Kim Komando, "America's Digital Goddess®" teased the Target story and very kindly added, "Click here to see the full story and more photos from The Ethical Adman." Woo-hoo! That was worth almost 10,000 extra hits.

Next thing I knew, I was linked as "an observant blogger" on the Today Show's blog. The frigging Today Show! But surprisingly, that only racked up another 6500-or-so hits. (I guess they'd better stick with mainstream media.)

With all this attention, I was bound to get some of the negative kind. Several people, claiming to be graphic designers, accused me of overreacting and seeing hurtful "thinning" in what they saw as just sloppy Photoshop. But the real surprise came when fanatical followers of the fitness blog, Blogilates, started an organized campaign to accuse me of "stealing" content.

For the record, the Blogilates post went up after 11 pm, Pacific Time. By that point, the Photoshop Disasters/Ethical Adman/Jezebel/Buzzfeed posts were already hours old. Blogilates author Cassey Ho did, however, manage to become the credited source for a post on CNN's HLN blog.

Since CNN, Blogilates, The Today Show, Kim Komando, Buzzfeed, Jezebel, and Photoshop Disasters are all commercial blogs, they all made money off of Target's bad Photoshopping. I didn't make a penny. How stupid am I?

Oh well, like I said at the top, I already have a job. If anything, this whole affair helps me with my online brand as a "concerned advertising guy" and adds to my credibility when I give clients advice on social media and content marketing strategies. This whole thing also helped my all-time pageviews top the two million mark.

So in the spirit of karma, I'd like to give a big shout-out to the person who apparently first caught the Target fiasco and submitted it to PSD, and also made no money from it:

Major Photoshop Fail @Target! http://t.co/EcGtk46SSl @photoshopfail
— Adam Z Lein (@adamzea) March 9, 2014

If you don't already, I suggest you follow Adam Z Lein on Twitter. You'd be amazed how ahead of the curve you can be when you know the right people.

Is this the most dangerous ad of all time?

We complain quite often about ads that reinforce stereotypes, sexually objectify people, and promote bad lifestyle choices. But if a conspiracy-minded blogger is to be believed, this Vodaphone ad from Egypt may be at a completely different plane of evil:



Aljazeera describes the ad scenario, starring starring well-known puppet Abla Fahita:

Fahita and her daughter Karkoura search for her deceased husband's sim card, while explaining to her friend over the phone about another character "Mama Touta." In the background, a radio anchor explains how to make "stuffed turkey'' for Christmas while sitting next to a cactus from which ball ornaments were dangling. 

She said she asked the building guards to get a sniffer dog of a shopping mall to search for missing things and gets money in return.

Weird idea for an ad anyway,  but it gets weirder.

A pro-Mubarak, blogger, Ahmed “Spider," reported to Egypt's prosecutor general that the ad contained a coded message from the Muslim Brotherhood, including details of an upcoming terror attack at an unspecified shopping mall:

Spider explained the alleged code on the Al-Tahrir network on Tuesday night: the mall and the dog refer to the planned site of the attack, and "Mama Touta" is the Brotherhood's secret name. 

"The dog, garage, guard, mall and next to us these are elements tell us that there will be a big mall and an explosion after a dog fails to find the bomb in a car," Spider said. 

... 

His lawyer told another TV network, el-Faraeen, that an ornament on the cactus refers to the bomb. The cactus has four branches referring to Muslim Brotherhood group's Rabaah sign, commemorating the victims of a deadly crackdown on a protest camp held next to Rabaah el-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo. Rabaah is Arabic for "fourth" and is also a name.

Vodaphone described the accusations as "irrational," telling the Associated Press, "The advertisement carries no other meaning and any other interpretation other than that is mere imagination or personal opinion of some of the audience."

Prosecutors are investigating the allegations. This could get interesting, or it could be nothing. But at least 2014 is starting with some interesting advertising news.

This is a much better way to challenge A&F's brand elitism

Meet Jess, AKA "The Militant Baker". In response to Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries's 2006 comments (gone recently viral) that his brand was only for "cool" people and those who are below a certain size.

Mr. Jeffries has since sort-of apologized. But it hasn't stopped the shitstorm of internet activism against the brand. 

One of the better-known memes has been filmmaker Greg Karber's #FitchTheHomeless campaign, in which he tried to denigrate the brand by donating A&F clothes to LA's street people. But as I wrote in Osocio, that is a problematic scheme as it also denigrates the homeless.

Jess, on the other hand, uses the A&F brand to express her own self-confidence. As she wrote in her open letter to Mike Jeffries:

I was inspired by the opportunity to show that I am secure in my skin and to flaunt this by using the controversial platform that you created. I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe. Not only do I know that I'm sexy, but I also have the confidence to pose nude in ways you don’t dare. You are more than welcome to prove me wrong by posing shirtless with a hot fat chick; it would thrill me to see such a shoot.

Cheers, Jess!

Tip via Buzzfeed

Boing Boing get hoaxed, reports Bill Nye calling GOP "retards"

It seemed too funny to be true, and it was.

Boing Boing's Jason Weisberger reported that Bill Nye, who has recently issued a video plea to American parents about science education, totally lost his shit.

Here's the copy:

Once again, super science instructor and amazing guy Bill Nye tells it like it is. This morning, on an interview with the Smithsonian Channel, Nye responded to US Congressman Todd Akin's ridiculous statement that a recent video on teaching science over creationism was responsible for Hurricane Issac. 

"Look, these people they're fucking retarded. Rape can't cause pregnancy? Breastmilk cures homosexuality? I caused a hurricane by challenging creationism? Who can possibly take these people seriously anymore?" 

Nye also challenged Akin to a debate. I would absolutely love to be in attendance for this one. 

"So Todd I got an offer for you. You and me. Any time. Any place. Debating science mano- a-mano. I'll bring the facts, and you bring the Vaseline. Because your ass is gonna fucking need it when I'm done whipping."

Yeah, I know. Reads like The Onion. I couldn't believe that such an intelligent and, well, nice man would ever call someone a "retard". And the last quote was completely out there.

But it was on Boing Boing, so I shared it. With a one-word comment: "whoa".

Pretty soon, my brother told me the link was dead. Luckily, Google cached it.

Also deleted, but cached, is the source article from the Daily Currant:

Bill Nye may still be The Science Guy, but he's no longer Mr. Nice Guy.

During a live interview this morning with the Smithsonian Channel, the mild mannered science educator unloaded on U.S. Congressman Todd Akin, calling him "a fucking idiot" for accusing Nye of personally provoking Hurricane Issac.

Last week Nye uploaded a video to Youtube urging parents not to teach their children creationism. At a town hall campaign event yesterday, Akin used the video as an example of immoral behavior driving god to punish America through extreme weather.
Although reporters reached out to Nye for a statement yesterday, his first discussion of the matter came this morning at Smithsonian's Washington D.C. headquarters. 

Nye Got a Feeling... 

The 56 year old star of the long-running "Bill Nye The Science Guy" was in the studio to promote his new documentary series focusing on the neuroscience of childhood development.
After briefly discussing his show, the Smithsonian anchors asked Nye about Akin's recent accusation. The normally genial Nye wasted no time venting his rage about the comments: 

"Look, these people they're fucking retarded. Rape can't cause pregnancy? Breastmilk cures homosexuality? I caused a hurricane by challenging creationism? Who can possibly take these people seriously anymore?" 

The slightly uncomfortable anchors then tried to change the subject, but Nye persisted:
"It used to be these Republicans didn't believe in global warming or evolution. That was bad enough. Now they don't even believe in egg + sperm = baby. Where does Todd Akin think babies come from? Does he think there are separate storks for people who were raped and people who weren't? " 

"Hey look over there! It's the rape stork. It drops off all its babies directly at the orphanage."
"He's a fucking idiot. Just a plain fucking idiot. I'm sorry - I don't say that word very often - but it happens to fit in this case. He's just a fucking idiot."

A Decent Proposal 

As the stunned anchors hurriedly tried to wind the conversation down and cut to commercial, Nye stared directly into the camera and issued a challenge to his new-found rival: 

"So Todd I got an offer for you. You and me. Any time. Any place. Debating science mano- a-mano. I'll bring the facts, and you bring the Vaseline. Because your ass is gonna fucking need it when I'm done whipping." 

Nye apologized once more for his language before ripping off his microphone and walking off the set. 

Representatives of the Smithsonian Channel say they have no comment on the incident.
Bill Nye could not be reached, but a since-deleted tweet on his Twiiter account posted shortly after the incident read: 

"@ToddAkin Never enter the eye of Hurricane NYE!" 

In case you missed it, The Daily Currant is a satire site. 

Related stories include:

• Todd Akin Blames Bill Nye for Hurricane
• Todd Akin Claims Breastmilk Cures Homosexuality
• Trump Announces Casino on Site of Obama’s ‘Kenyan Birthplace’

It's like all those times when conservative media took Onion stories about Harry Potter satanism and gay recruitment seriously; but this time it's the right wing that is having a good laugh at "the liberals'" expense. (It's usually the other way around.)

What surprises me about the gullibility of Boing Boing is the fact that Huffington Post covered another Currant-fuelled hoax just days ago.

This isn't Boing Boing's first hoaxing, though. Like almost everyone else on the internet, they believed the brilliant "Shellfail" video was real.

This kind of thing can happen to anyone. I get pulled in too, now and again. But the silence on this one is deafening. I would really love a comment from someone at Boing Boing.

The Daily Currant, by the way, is currently offline. Maybe they were the real victims of Hurricane Nye...

UPDATE: It's back.

Copyranter goes upstream, joins Buzzfeed

I've been following Copyranter's blog at Blogger for years. One thing I figured out, once I started one of my own, was that the only way to get good tips and leads was to go upstream, to Buzzfeed, Reddit, Fark, and all those other clearing houses of internet stupidity.

Now, however, Copyranter's Mark Duffy (whose last name I did not know until today) has actually moved himself upstream, taking his blog to Buzzfeed.

Smart move, and presumably he'll get paid for his work now. At least I hope so. But after being so used to the bare-bones template of his old blog, the change is a little jarring right now.

At least he promises, "you will still find 'fucks' and dirty, unfunny jokes and misanthropy and hyperbole." So there's that.

Update: In their coverage, AdFreak added a link to the "about" post I missed, which explains that Copyranter has actually quit agency life and even posed for a photo:

Yeah, fuck you too Mark. And best of luck!

Egyptian blogger exposes herself for freedom (nudity)

We are used to seeing all kinds of nudity in the West. But in the Muslim world, it is much different. Even fairly secular countries censor nudes in art as well as advertising.

20-year-old Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy wants to change that. Last month, she started a new Google blog, called "Nude Art" which features full-frontal nudes of herself and an unidentified male, as well as a cat and some artsy underwear and embrace shots.

They're not great art shots. They look like 1940s amateur pornography. But like that, what they do have is a certain authentic and defiant naïveté from someone who wants to own her own body in a culture than denies that freedom.  The most political of the pictures features self-censorship: “The yellow rectangles on my eyes, mouth and sex organ resemble the censoring of our knowledge, expression and sexuality,” she explained.

“I have the right to live freely in any place… I feel happy and self satisfied when I feel that I’m really free,” she said.

Nothing particularly shocking to jaded Western internet eyes. But in Egypt, where the post-Tahir atmosphere is one of increasingly conservative religious influence, this is practically treason.

The responses on the blog on Twitter (#nudephotorevolutionary) are in both English and Arabic. One negative comment is translated as “a desperate act of social political suicide by a young woman”. And another: “We are defending secularism from innuendos & then we get this #NudePhotoRevolutionary Stop shocking people to the point of repulsion.”

But the comments also show that there is a new generation, globally informed, who want more than an end to political oppression. They want total freedom. Said one English commenter:

"I'm very impressed and inspired by your courage. The revolution in Egypt needs to be a catalyst for greater freedom of expression. If somebody wants to wear a hijab they should be free to do so without facing discrimination but you must also be able to express yourself any way you choose without fear. It's your body and it's entirely up to you how you choose to express yourself."

Is this how a sexual revolution begins?

Link and Arabic translations via Almasri Ayoum
Tip via FEMEN

Here I am, Ms. Nixon...

Last year, I blogged about Copywriter Alec Brown's clever self-promotion of buying the names of top NYC Creative Directors on Google Adwords. The idea was that CDs are so vain that they Google themselves several times a day. It worked.


In that context, I will humbly point out that I did not find this on my own:

It's a post in the blog Flo in The City, where writer Dorothy Nixon inquires into the internet void about freelance opportunities. Jason Hamilton, our Director of Digital Media, stumbled upon it somehow. (Stop creeping me, Jason! :)


Well, here I am, Ms. Nixon. Let's see if you find this post. You're "it".

So much sexism, so little time

Yesterday, I stumbled upon the latest attempt to document the worldwide reality of women treated as sex objects in advertising.

It's a Flickr photostream by a user called woman_objectofdesire, and it's called "Sex Sells (ad sexism photoblog)".

It isn't original by far, but what amazes me is this photoblogger's energy. Between September 14 and today, woman_objectofdesire has posted 620 images. (Not to mention the other photostreams on the site!) They range from well-known PeTA and American Apparel smut to retro ads from "men's magazines", movie stills, and even book and album covers. (That Roxy Music album, IMHO, is one of their best!)

I even found an ad that provided a stereotype of Canadian men I wasn't previously aware of:

A worthwhile archive for anyone looking to research the topic of women's sexuality as ann advertising obsession. It's particularly interesting because it has so many obscure European and Asian examples I had never seen before. I just wish it were more focussed in its scope, sticking to the topic of ads. (Update: This linked set is much better.) There should be enough content in that alone to keep this blogger busy for many years to come!

Burundi Mondays

For the next few weeks, every Monday's post will be dedicated to following the African exploits of Acart Videographer Christopher Redmond as he teaches film and advertising in Burundi.



Christopher is a co-founder of the Burundi Film Center, a non-profit media development project that "helps Burundian citizens to learn essential 21st century mass communication skills from international filmmakers and documentarians, while engaging those same media experts in African issues".

Christopher arrived in Africa last week, and immediately set about sharing what he has learned working at our ad agency for almost 3 years.

From his blog:

Today was the final day of the Rwanda Film Festival and I was asked to teach a TV advertising workshop to about a dozen students. As I explained to them, even directors in Hollywood work on commercials between projects to help them make a living. The fact Rwanda only has one national television station was beside the point. The tips I gave could all translate into making good short films – keeping the message simple, telling the story visually and making sure every shot says something.

I walked them through the entire process of creating commercials using samples from my work at Acart Communications in Ottawa. So I broke down what makes up an advertising agency in North America (creatives and client services), then showed them the steps and format to write for TV, create animated storyboards and finally the finished product. The fact I used mainly Government of Canada commercials as samples, like our Elder Abuse and 72 Hours “Get Prepared” campaigns, also made them laugh. “Wow, your government cares so much about your people,” one student told me. “It is very different here.”

Overall, I tried to keep things basic and relevant, giving them ideas for how to break into an industry that otherwise seems exclusive and, well, alien. I explained that creating spec TV spots (fake commercials) or exciting “pitch” videos for clients is a good way to start. See there’s often a “catch 22” for working in film and TV –you need to have already done it in order to do it. But everyone has to start somewhere. And knowing how to take that first step yourself can end up being a giant leap in your career.

Best of luck to Christopher and his students, from all of us here at Acart. You see? Doing work that matters is more than a slogan to us. It's a way of life.

Who knew stock photo agencies were so psychopathic?

We always knew they were pervy. Back in the days when we used to receive hundreds of pounds of stock photo catalogues every month, we'd flip through them for inspiration and stumble upon the requisite "artistic" female nudes. My Art Director friend Donna told me that it was a holdover from the days when most ADs were men. "They really know their audience," she'd snark.

But when I look at some of the pictures dredged up by a great new user-generated viral blog, Awkward Stock Photos, I wonder what kind of deranged lunatics they think they're appealing to now.



The Shutterstock description says it all: "An insane nurse in wearing hypno glasses gets ready to inject you with a giant hypodermic syringe". Yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for.



Not sure what they're smoking over at Corbis, but I'll bet it's damn good.



Getty gives us "woman with meat necklace". This one is part of a series, in case you feel selling prosciutto jewellery to women with altered skintones is campaignable.



I far prefer this Getty image for its honest approach: "I have no idea what your concept is about, so here's a dog with a donut on its head".

Go deep into Awkward Stock Photos. It's a worthwhile time-waster.

And yes. There are boobies.

Thanks to Vince for the link!

The Road to Viralville

...is full of bumps and detours.

As you know, I'm promoting the hell out of iheartmom.ca, our online Mother's Day campaign for women's heart health starring Olympic figure skated Joannie Rochette.

Everything is in place. Now all we have to do is "go viral". One... two.. three...



Okay, where is everybody? (Just kidding!)

Fast Company says that the three keys to a successful viral idea are "emotion", "public service", and "triggers".

In the case of this video, the emotion (Joannie talking about the loss of her mom), public service (help fight heart disease in women) and trigger (Mother's day) are obvious. Plus, we have the star power of one of Time Magazine's Top 100 people of 2010.

Joannie with Girls / Joannie avec les filles
Originally uploaded by University of Ottawa Heart Institute

With everything going for it, the campaign is going pretty well on Day 3. The video is on-track to hit the next milestone of 1500 views any minute now, the press is all over the campaign launch, and the campaign just got some surprise coverage from a Swiss blog:

"A beautiful example of an extremely simple social marketing campaign."

There have been setbacks, though, and these are lessons worth sharing too.

For one thing, our English homepage on Causes.com conked out mid-day yesterday. This meant that people trying to join our cause from iheartmom.ca couldn't get in. By this morning, we learned that people were still getting in via facebook invitations, so we redirected visitors to the "about" page. (If you haven't already, please join up now!) The home page is back online as of this writing.

Another glitch was the temporary loss of the French video on YouTube, which broke links and set the counter back to zero. It's back now.



As well, because we had to film Joannie on the day of the press conference, the video could not be ready in time for the first wave media blitz.

As a result, we've probably lost some opportunities. But now that we've fixed all our links, we're back on track and I'm busily working on our BR ('blogger relations") strategy — pushing the story out through my own social media outreach, and communicating with other influencers in sport, health and media who might be willing to help. Stay tuned for more results.

At the end of the day, the biggest challenge to this campaign will be to translate the rising awareness into actual donations. If you'd like to help, please join now at http://www.iheartmom.ca/ or use this handy campaign badge:

Payola... Pay-oh-el-ay-ol-la...

Just caught news on CBC that American bloggers are now expected to be transparent about who is paying them off:

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced new rules that require bloggers in the United States to disclose "material connections" — or "connections that consumers would not expect" — with the subjects they write about. The connections can take the form of outright payments, advertisements or free products given to the blogger by the subject.

Not complying could cost bloggers up to $11,000 U.S. per post. Meanwhile, Canadian authorities aren't in a hurry to enact similar rules, because they can't figure out who's territory blogs are.

The U.S. rule seems kind of dumb to me, since blogs are supposed to be subjective and suspect by their very nature. I prefer to take care of this on the consumer level, by educating them not to believe everything they read, and to always assume ulterior motives.

Anyway, just in case Canada happens to enact similar rules, I'd like to state for the record that I am a [bleep]ing adman, and therefore in the pocket of every client we have. There can be no "payola" scam here, because I am proactively disclosing that I will use this blog to promote paying clients whenever possible.

Take public transit. Become a foster parent. Go back to school. Stop elder abuse. Protect yourself against H1N1, Etc.

But if you still want something Payola-related, here you go: