Man decides to make the Double Down a permanent part of his body

Via Wikipedia

I imagine the mass of grease known as the Double Down would stay with most people for a couple of hours, tops. That clearly wasn't enough for one young man, who wanted the relationship to be more permanent:

In the book Radical Marketing, Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin talk about brands that are so loved, their evangelists literally brand themselves with tattoos of their favourite logos and products.

I guess KFC's Double Down has achieved that:



From Grub Street:

For the sake of a new ad, KFC apparently convinced a bearded individual — he escapes with his anonymity intact — to visit Tattoo Salvation in Louisville for a calf tattoo along the lines of that Norwegian guy's McDonald's receipt. Artist Adam Potts realizes that "with it being chicken, bacon, cheese, and the sauce," this particular design poses a problem: "There's a lot of browns and yellows in it." Still, he inks a bunless beauty, even adding in a very Ed Hardy-ized Colonel Sanders.

The video was featured on #HowDoYouKFC, a portion of the KFC corporate site set aside for "community."

Hey, tattoos are a very personal decision. But the "a lot of browns and yellows" comment should have been a red flag. The chicken "buns" look like a pile of poop.

I was wondering if this was an example of a more regrettable ink idea.

After all, how would I feel today if I had had a McDLT tattooed on my arm, years ago?

Or...?

Via Nerdalicious

I guess 15 minutes of fame is worth it for some people.

Does anyone else find the new Kraft peanut butter bears a little creepy?

Via Kraft Canada

This morning, I happened upon a group of colleagues scrutinizing a jar of Kraft peanut butter. As ad people, we are overly sensitive to changes in branding.

Consensus? Creepy. "It looks like they're looking at you through a peephole" said one.

"They remind me of Pedobear" was my contribution.

"What?" was the response?

So I had to school these innocent young women in the dark ways of the internet. 

"Pedobear" is a really gross and disturbing internet meme popular with people who find pedophilia jokes amusing. It's characterized as a cartoon bear (above) that sexually attacks children. 

Meanwhile, the teddy bears on Kraft peanut butter jars have been part of fond Canadian childhood memories for generations.

Via VincentAbry.com

Damn you, internet...

This celebrity wardrobe malfunction brought to you by Starbucks

As an avid follower of Buzzfeed, I've been watching as their success has attracted more and more corporate sponsorship of what is essentially recycled content.

For example, recently Virgin Mobile posted "The 14 Best Pinterest Boards For Crazy Cat Ladies" and "13 Tasty Twitpics That Prove Fall Is The Most Awesome Season" and "23 Wildly Inappropriate YOLOs"all of which follow the Buzzfeed formula of numbered lists of inane content that reference current memes.

The first time I noticed this was when Arby's started posting sandwich-related content, to promote their new Reuben. Other brands have been on there with more-or-less brand-relevant content as well. Other corporate brand Buzzfeeders include Samsung Series 9 and Starbucks Doubleshot, which like Virgin, have their sponsored posts peppered into Buzzfeed's "Just Launched" feed to pick up views and engage fans.

But something strange is going on in the Starbucks feed. While there is the occasional "double" or "coffee" post, many of them are more about the espresso brand attribute of waking you up and getting your complete attention. Which I guess is why they sponsored actress Sofia Vergara's exposed bum last night.

What?

To be fair, it wasn't your typical paparazzi invasion of privacy. (The Colombian "Modern Family" actress shared it herself.) And Starbuck's didn't choose the post for their own feed. Instead, as part of their Buzzfeed strategy, Starbuck's also sponsored the "Bold" reaction button that appears (along with other reactions) at the bottom of each post:

By reacting to stories, Buzzfeed readers democratically attach these tags to posts and share them with their networks. So, when enough people decided that Ms. Vergara's bum was "bold," Starbuck's automatically got their logo in the header. Above a bare bum. That "looks like boobs".

This, coming from a brand that removed the breasts from their logo to go mainstream, then refused to stock Bruce Springsteen's Devils & Dust CD in 2005 because of the lyric "up the ass" in reference to negotiating sex with a prostitute. Now they're accidentally sponsoring lurid celebrity wardrobe malfunctions.

Hey, I'm all for brands loosening up and getting more personal. But I'm not sure this is the wisest direction for corporate brands to go in. They might just end up making an ass of themselves.

Cleaning ladies are *very* thorough #FdAdFridays

No thanks... I feel violated enough when they move my toothbrush.

Via Copyranter

Unintentional Christian hilarity of the week #FdAdFriday

Via Facebook (obviously stolen from College Humor)

According to manta.com:

Ram In The Bush Christian Center Inc in Memphis, TN is a private company categorized under Non-Denominational Church. Our records show it was established in 2002 and incorporated in Tennessee.

Who doesn't fancy a godly ram in the bush on a Sunday morning?

More unintentionally disgusting branding

Via Buzzfeed

Urban Dictionary: Cleveland Steamer (not for the squeamish)

It's not as obscure as most coprophilic sex acts defined on UD. This one entered popular culture via Tenacious D:

Somehow, I don't think this beer will sell well in the UK #pong

The Consumerist shared the news about this new brand of beer made specifically for American students' drinking games.

Beer pong is similar to the "quarters"game I played in high school, but uses ping pong balls rather than coins. The object is the same: get one in the glass, and your opponent has to drink. (Since your coordination diminishes the more you lose, it's pretty much a guaranteed puke for someone. Lovely.)

According to the Pong Beer site:

"We are beer fanatics committed to providing the highest quality, most flavorful, premium product at a reasonable price.  

Pong Beer is brewed using only the finest natural ingredients to produce an exceptionally crisp, smooth, and refreshing light beer."

 A "crisp, smooth, and refreshing light beer"? Great. But the brand name also brings to mind an unfortunate bit of British slang:

Obscure? The thesaurus entry even has a picture:

Probably not a problem for the brewers, though, since the Brits probably already think most mainstream American beer is pongy...

F'd Ad Fridays: Johnny Worker Red Labial

The perfect nightcap to a night of drinking crotch wine.

Via Buzzfeed

Netflix presents: How to fail at social media branding

Image via Gizmodo

Meet Jason Castillo. Thanks to Netflix's failure to secure the Twitter name for Netflix's new spinoff mail-order DVD business, he is now the unintentional brand ambassador for Qwikster:

(The profile picture is a recent change. Until yesterday it was an illustration of Sesame Street's Elmos smoking a massive joint, but Castillo got scared that the media attention would lead to a bust.)

Those of us charged with making up odd names for new brands that are both "intuitive" and twisted enough to be "ownable" generally go through a checklist of diligence before even getting trademark lawyers involved. We Google, check all top-level domains, and search all the major social media channels (Facebook and Twitter primarily) to make sure someone hasn't already claimed it. This oversight, for a brand as big as Netflix, is actually pretty astounding.

So astounding, as AdFreak's David Kiefaber quips, it is " so dumb that I'd think it was staged if there were anything for the company to gain from it."

Is it possible? I doubt it. Considering the many gaffes that Netflix has committed recently, it's not stretching credibility to think that they simple dropped the ball. And while this kind of situation is usually dealt with by a quiet negotiation and modest cheque, Castillo is so gloriously stoned that he continues to play his hopes for making "bank" on this as the slow-motion trainwreck only social media can provide.

Meanwhile, Business Insider points out that Twitter's TOS expressly forbid the selling of Twitter names. So by being so publicly greedy, Castillo could blow the whole deal.

And Netflix? Everyone hates the split anyway. It may be time to cut bait and run in a different marketing direction.

F'd Ad Fridays: Better than a sausage party, I guess...

Via