#canneslions bronze winner for Bayer makes fun of consent

I first saw this ad on Twitter, shared by marketer Cindy Gallop, with the comment "Don't use this to sell aspirin, male-dominated ad industry, & don't award it, male-dominated juries. #canneslions"

Seriously. I'm a male Creative Director in this industry, and I think it's awful.

The ad is part of a series by AlmapBBDO of Brazil for Bayer. It won a Bronze Lion at Cannes 2016 in the Outdoor category.

The other two in the winning entry were a little less explicit:

These are part of a over-arching campaign that describes situations that might give the listener/victim a headache. They play all kinds of stereotypes about ex-wives and protective fathers, and are mostly harmless.

But not "'Don't worry, babe, I'm not filming this'.mov"

I see a lot of regressive ads coming out of Brazil, and I'm used to a certain kind of humour in them. But this one, translated into English for an international awards show, is really bad timing for a joke about non-consensual filming of sex.

Yeah, yeah. Call me an "SJW" if you want. But I'm trying to raise a son into a man who doesn't exploit and abuse women. The idea of filming and possibly sharing an intimate sex tape of a woman without her consent is just not funny anymore. It's the kind of bro-attitude that we should be denormalizing, rather than normalizing, along with jokes about other kinds of sexual violation.

Bayer, BBDO, and Cannes should do better than this. It's 20-effing-16.

UPDATE: Cindy Gallop added, via Facebook, some further context as to why this ad's timing is so bad.

UPDATE 2: Adweek reports that BBDO global creative chief David Lubars, who stated: "I learned last night that one of our very own agencies had a pretty scammy ad in the festival, and it won a Lion, I told them to return it. Because I don't want that kind of Lion. BBDO doesn't want that kind of Lion."

It turned out that the sexism was one thing, but what the global ad giant couldn't stand was that AlmapBBDO had paid for their own media placement. Even though Bayer had signed off on the ad, the agency paying to make it official is against the rules.

UNICEF promotes breastfeeding with minimalist mammaries

I'm not sure these really work. But they won two Bronze Outdoor Lions at Cannes this year for Y&R Beijing. 

Perhaps Chinese mothers will respond to the nutrition-labelling copy. But I still find the geometrical breasts (particularly below) a little bizarre.

Via Ads of The World.

The most offensive lottery ad of the day

This sexist crap, by BBDO, Düsseldorf, won a Gold Lion at Cannes as part of a campaign about how winning the Westdeutsche Lotterie can transform your life (or in this case, maybe "wife"?)

Like this headline, your life could change in an instant

I'm not sure these copy-only ads for Swiss Life, in which life changes mid-sentence, are really doing it for me. But it's a neat idea in theory. And apparently they won Gold at the Epica Awards and Silver Press Lions at Cannes International Advertising Festival.

I wonder if they were better in French, German or Italian?

Campaign by Spillman/Felser/Leo Burnett . See two more at The Inspiration Room.

F'd Ad Fridays: Young Lions — unleash your... creativity?

Oh, that is some really unfortunate art direction right there. Especially for "Canada’s official representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity."

Via Black Bag Career Central

The only ad people worse than those obsessed with Cannes...

Are those obsessed with being "above" Cannes.

They could have also done a much, much better job executing this.

Via Ads of The World

Shitstorm in a KIA Coupe

The controversy around the "pedo" KIA ad that won a Silver at Cannes just won't go away.

I just read a post at Care2.com, which asked "Do Pedophile Fantasies Belong in Award-Winning Ads?"

They don't belong in any ads, IMHO, but I'm not sure pedo promotion was the intent.

First of all, the ad was a series of two, both of which cut a story into two parallel streams, a childish one and a pornographic one:

The headline, "a different temperature on each side", was presumably written in Portuguese for this Brazilian ad. "Temperature", can I assume, refers to the contrasting tones of the comic?

It looks like an attempt at humour, but it clearly doesn't translate. Like, really doesn't translate.

From Peggy Orenstein:

"Given the global crisis in child prostitution and trafficking, it’s actually more offensive that KIA believes that selling cars via child pornography is no problem as long as they don’t do it in the U.S. What’s more, Moma is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a country that is said to have the worst child trafficking record in the world after Thailand. No wonder the agency thought the ad was 'clever.'"

I'm not going to defend this ad on the basis of creativity (because it's creepy) or strategy (because I can't see it fulfilling any business objectives.) But I will hazard a guess that the mostly-male creative team is not made up of pedophiles. Perverts, perhaps, who created a campaign that creeps people out and furthers harmful stereotypes of "sexy" student-teacher fantasies, sure. But I think they really intended to create a thought-provoking sense of contrast.

But it won't matter now. The agency, MoMa, appears to do business with KIA Brazil. They can kiss that goodbye.

According to PR from KIA Motors America:

IRVINE, Calif., June 24, 2011 - Kia Motors America (KMA) has become aware of an offensive piece of advertising material that was created by an ad agency in Brazil that KMA has no business relationship with and has never worked with. This ad was not created in the U.S. by Kia Motors America or any of its marketing partners and does not reflect the opinions or values of KMA or Kia Motors Corporation. The ad is undoubtedly inappropriate, and on behalf of Kia Motors we apologize to those who have been offended by it. We can guarantee this advertisement has never and will never be used in any form in the United States, and our global headquarters in Seoul, South Korea is addressing the issue with the independent Brazilian distributor.

The other weird thing about this is that I cannot find the ad anywhere on MoMa's site, can't find one in Portuguese anywhere. Kia Motors Corp. spokesman Michael Choo is quoted as saying "We have received confirmation that these ads were never published nor were there any plans to run a campaign based on these creatives in Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. We can ensure that these ads have not been run in public other than being submitted for the Cannes Lions competition and that they will not appear in any public forum in the future."

Is it possible the Cannes judges were tricked by a fake ad? And if so, what will happen to MoMa?

I guess this will be one story to watch.

AN UPDATE ALREADY: Adland noticed that the CD on the KIA ads, Rodolfo Sampaio, was also in the credits of DDB Brasil's awful (and fake) WWF/911 ad.

Marketing grooming product to real men

Why are men's grooming products so hard to sell? I guess it's a sign that the whole metrosexual thing is long gone that we're now at a point of parodying the "real men" who are supposed to use these products.



This one is from an Argentinian agency agency called (without irony) "Ponce". Argentina is apparently a pretty rough neighbourhood. It's funny, though, and won a Cannes Silver Lion for "best use of music".



This one's  from Los & Co in Oslo, Norway. It's also pretty funny, but may be trying a little too hard. It won a Bronze Lion in the "Film" category.

The moral of the story? Male self-deprecation wins awards. Now let's see if it moved product.

(Both tips via Copyranter)

Sex sells. To monkeys.

Move over, American Apparel!

The sexiest ad campaign shown at Cannes wasn't even meant for humans. A partnership between Yale and Proton Studio, it was part of a groundbreaking study on whether monkeys could be persuaded by advertising.

And not just any advertising, but explicit images of female sex and male power.

According to New Scientist:

"One billboard shows a graphic shot of a female monkey with her genitals exposed, alongside the brand A logo. The other shows the alpha male of the capuchin troop associated with brand A.

[Proton adman Keith] Olwell expects brand A to be the capuchins' favoured product. 'Monkeys have been shown in previous studies to really love photographs of alpha males and shots of genitals, and we think this will drive their purchasing habits.'"

Humans, on the other hand, are far more sophisticated.

F'd Ad Fridays: Cannes celebrates car ads for creeps

This sick little non-ad got a Press Silver Lion.

Click to enlarge, or just walk away...

This is one of those creative self-pleasuring exercises that has nothing to do with the brand or selling product, but it's nonetheless held up as the best our industry is capable of.

As Copyranter points out, "What do you expect when virtually 100% of the judges are undersexed unattractive men?"

The companion piece is even naughtier, although less creeptastic:

The agency is Moma, from São Paulo, Brazil.

F'd Ad Fridays: Somebody just got f'ired!

Seen flying over Cannes:

I suppose it could've been worse. Like spelling Grey with an "a"?

Oh well. Maybe you can use the money you save from firing everyone who signed this off to hire a proofreader who speaks English.

Via Agency Spy

F'd Ad Fridays: They actually give prizes for these things

They're called Cannes Lions. Silver. For a campaign abut menstrual relief that not only does not target women, but manages to find a creative way of offending them:

The ad is one of a series of three from Prolam Y&R, Chile.  They all have the same concept: long suffering man as war hero, for having put up with his woman's "lady times" all these years.

Hey, don't blame me. Take it up with the uterus-free creative team of Max, Pablo, Tomas, Francisco and Patricio.

Via Copyranter

If there's grass on the field, give it a Bronze Lion

These ads raise so many questions: Is it really a good idea to use a razor down there? Does she shave her pits and crotch, but not her legs? And why the hell does he depilate a semicircle above his junk?

These towels were created by BBDO Germany and supposedly left in grassy parks to promote Gillette's brands to men and women. Cannes gave them a Media Bronze Lion for "best use of ambient media, small scale."

I give it a "meh". I'm so tired of this "look how I represented the brand in a surprisingly visual way!" trend that's been prevalent in international advertising for the past 15 or so years. Awards judges (and ad bloggers) are not the client's target market.

Link via Copyranter