Slate.com published an article this morning about their love for Geico's "Tiny House" television commercial. Generally when I see an article that has high praise for an advertisement I tend to be very suspicious. But despite the writer's own personal endorsement of Geico at the end of the article, I sympathize with his belief that the ad is quite great. It is set up as a commercial for a reality TV show with a ridiculous premise; a couple is filmed while they struggle for sanity in an exaggerated mini house.
It is done well, with details matching any of the hundreds of
reality-based programs out there. Only at the end of the commercial do
we actually know what is going on and that it is in fact an ad for Geico Insurance. I was completely fooled by it. And I concede to its genius as such.
In this day and age, any ad that manages to fool us is undoubtedly smart. Now we must ask
ourselves what the world has come to when such a premise seems
completely believable.
You heard it here people, Miles Thirst is being put to rest. If there are any of you that aren't familiar with Sprite's miniature spokesthing, he is annoying and has been asking for it for years. He is just one of those characters that takes elements of Black culture and compresses it into a hyper-trivialized, unfunny package. Sprite is currently accepting new ideas to replace the aging campaign with something completely new.
Nutrition advocacy groups like the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) have been protesting the Kellogg company to stop airing a recent TV ad campaign that defames the reputation of apples. Their new character, simply called "bad apple," is a coarse jerk who doesn't look appetizing at all. He's mean and ruthless, beaten by life and going nowhere fast. He'll do anything to get at a bowl of Apple Jacks before "CinnaMon," the friendly reggae-tinged cinnamon stick gets to it. For obvious reasons, advocacy groups don't want kids to stop eating apples. Especially in favor of sugary breakfast cereal. I hope they keep it on the air though, that "CinnaMon" is just so damn likeable. You just want to lick its body and listen to Peter Tosh on headphones.
A spikey-haired midget pours tequila down a waterslide. A woman in her mid-twenties does push-ups in a pool of vomit. A pack of cheerleaders hurdle across a giant floating pipe. Is this a glorious dream? Is this a vision of the apocalypse? No! Its a paid infomercial on late night cable television. "Girls Gone Wild" is capitalizing on that state of utter surreality that exists in the wee hours of the night. If you've ever woken up from a strange dream at 4am look no further because the "Girls Gone Wild" franchise has your target group in mind. Now insomniacs and sufferers of nightmares can be pleased to know that there is a advertisement designed just for them. It aims to bridge your lulled state of confusion with more visions of chaos and non-sensical juxtapositions. Apparently these mind games are working, millions of copies are sold every year.
The "National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign" has recently circulated its new batch of TV commercials on our airwaves. Go to Mediacampaign.org for full samples. Generally the ads are trying to find more nuanced ways to go about drug prevention (specifically marijuana) in place of the outdated "D.A.R.E. to say No." Perhaps this is because D.A.R.E. t-shirts are selling on Ebay under headings like this: "Vintage, EMO-Indie-Punxx-awesome!" Lesson: the powers of sappy adolescent irony will always end up clouding any potentially helpful anti-drug message. Regardless, these ads must do some good, and we can be sure that some will benefit.
Do Unilever think they deserve an award for having a couple "fuller" models in their new "Real Beauty" ad campaign? Draped all across my local Los Angeles are images of the new "Dove Girls" wearing nothing but white underwear and smiling like retards. Amongst these girls are a couple more "full" figures whose stance and facial expression says, "Check it out! I'm not totally skinny!" The campaign attempts be "more real" about the beauty standard by using women models that seem to be a little bigger boned and older. But how sensitive are they really being? Last I heard, making 50-foot tall posters of girls in their underwear isn't exactly groundbreaking. Unilever act as if they discovered chubbiness and aging, displaying it as if it was a new invention brought on by years of research. Who knows, maybe they will learn to be more subtle one day. Until then, close your eyes when you walk out that door.
Frank H. Jump has an affinity for old, faded advertisements. Visit FrankJump.com and you will see firsthand. He snaps beautifully detailed photographs of the most fragile and worn old signs. Usually bound to aging buildings, these ads are tiny snippets of a world long outgrown. Mr. Jump has been living with AIDS for 21 years and calls his faded subjects "metaphors for survival." He has opened up an art gallery in Brooklyn that has a permanent collection of his work. When visiting his site, feel free to turn the volume on your computer off. Jump's very own musical composition "Lifetime" is a doozy.
Careerjournal.com posted an article that notes the current trend of ad companies placing "office culture" into television advertisements. According to Brian Steinberg, ad companies are capitalizing on the American public's increased awareness of office life having the potential for wackiness and "morbid" irony at every corner. (No mention of BBC's "The Office" for doing their part.) And I'm not sure where he's worked, but most people I've shared cubicles with have been less funny than Carlos Mencia. Regardless, ads for Burger King, FedEx, and Tostitos (amongst many others) have pronged at the possibilities of the office dynamic to swing their product. Lets count the laughs.
Trojan's recent ad campaign depicting near-nude women with
strategically placed condoms on their bodies has been met with
dissatisfaction by some of the folks at gopetition.com. Consumers who
signed their names thus far (a modest 315) believe the ads to be
objectifying and insensitive. The advertising world is no stranger to
the skin show; nudity sells batteries and Yoo-Hoo chocolate drinks. But we must ask ourselves- wouldn't the opposers of this campaign have their time be better
spent on refuting products that don't directly involve sex? In this particular case, the advertiser wants you to
literally have sex with their product, and for that reason alone we
should let them slide.
Slate.com published an article this morning about their love for Geico's "Tiny House" television commercial. Generally when I see an article that has high praise for an advertisement I tend to be very suspicious. But despite the writer's own personal endorsement of Geico at the end of the article, I sympathize with his belief that the ad is quite great. It is set up as a commercial for a reality TV show with a ridiculous premise; a couple is filmed while they struggle for sanity in an exaggerated mini house.
It is done well, with details matching any of the hundreds of
reality-based programs out there. Only at the end of the commercial do
we actually know what is going on and that it is in fact an ad for Geico Insurance. I was completely fooled by it. And I concede to its genius as such.
In this day and age, any ad that manages to fool us is undoubtedly smart. Now we must ask
ourselves what the world has come to when such a premise seems
completely believable. 
You heard it here people, Miles Thirst is being put to rest. If there are any of you that aren't familiar with Sprite's miniature spokesthing, he is annoying and has been asking for it for years. He is just one of those characters that takes elements of Black culture and compresses it into a hyper-trivialized, unfunny package. Sprite is currently accepting new ideas to replace the aging campaign with something completely new. 
Nutrition advocacy groups like the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) have been protesting the Kellogg company to stop airing a recent TV ad campaign that defames the reputation of apples. Their new character, simply called "bad apple," is a coarse jerk who doesn't look appetizing at all. He's mean and ruthless, beaten by life and going nowhere fast. He'll do anything to get at a bowl of Apple Jacks before "CinnaMon," the friendly reggae-tinged cinnamon stick gets to it. For obvious reasons, advocacy groups don't want kids to stop eating apples. Especially in favor of sugary breakfast cereal. I hope they keep it on the air though, that "CinnaMon" is just so damn likeable. You just want to lick its body and listen to Peter Tosh on headphones.
A spikey-haired midget pours tequila down a waterslide. A woman in her mid-twenties does push-ups in a pool of vomit. A pack of cheerleaders hurdle across a giant floating pipe. Is this a glorious dream? Is this a vision of the apocalypse? No! Its a paid infomercial on late night cable television. "Girls Gone Wild" is capitalizing on that state of utter surreality that exists in the wee hours of the night. If you've ever woken up from a strange dream at 4am look no further because the "Girls Gone Wild" franchise has your target group in mind. Now insomniacs and sufferers of nightmares can be pleased to know that there is a advertisement designed just for them. It aims to bridge your lulled state of confusion with more visions of chaos and non-sensical juxtapositions. Apparently these mind games are working, millions of copies are sold every year.
The "National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign" has recently circulated its new batch of TV commercials on our airwaves. Go to Mediacampaign.org for full samples. Generally the ads are trying to find more nuanced ways to go about drug prevention (specifically marijuana) in place of the outdated "D.A.R.E. to say No." Perhaps this is because D.A.R.E. t-shirts are selling on Ebay under headings like this: "Vintage, EMO-Indie-Punxx-awesome!" Lesson: the powers of sappy adolescent irony will always end up clouding any potentially helpful anti-drug message. Regardless, these ads must do some good, and we can be sure that some will benefit.
Do Unilever think they deserve an award for having a couple "fuller" models in their new "Real Beauty" ad campaign? Draped all across my local Los Angeles are images of the new "Dove Girls" wearing nothing but white underwear and smiling like retards. Amongst these girls are a couple more "full" figures whose stance and facial expression says, "Check it out! I'm not totally skinny!" The campaign attempts be "more real" about the beauty standard by using women models that seem to be a little bigger boned and older. But how sensitive are they really being? Last I heard, making 50-foot tall posters of girls in their underwear isn't exactly groundbreaking. Unilever act as if they discovered chubbiness and aging, displaying it as if it was a new invention brought on by years of research. Who knows, maybe they will learn to be more subtle one day. Until then, close your eyes when you walk out that door. 
Frank H. Jump has an affinity for old, faded advertisements. Visit FrankJump.com and you will see firsthand. He snaps beautifully detailed photographs of the most fragile and worn old signs. Usually bound to aging buildings, these ads are tiny snippets of a world long outgrown. Mr. Jump has been living with AIDS for 21 years and calls his faded subjects "metaphors for survival." He has opened up an art gallery in Brooklyn that has a permanent collection of his work. When visiting his site, feel free to turn the volume on your computer off. Jump's very own musical composition "Lifetime" is a doozy.
Careerjournal.com posted an article that notes the current trend of ad companies placing "office culture" into television advertisements. According to Brian Steinberg, ad companies are capitalizing on the American public's increased awareness of office life having the potential for wackiness and "morbid" irony at every corner. (No mention of BBC's "The Office" for doing their part.) And I'm not sure where he's worked, but most people I've shared cubicles with have been less funny than Carlos Mencia. Regardless, ads for Burger King, FedEx, and Tostitos (amongst many others) have pronged at the possibilities of the office dynamic to swing their product. Lets count the laughs.
Trojan's recent ad campaign depicting near-nude women with
strategically placed condoms on their bodies has been met with
dissatisfaction by some of the folks at gopetition.com. Consumers who
signed their names thus far (a modest 315) believe the ads to be
objectifying and insensitive. The advertising world is no stranger to
the skin show; nudity sells batteries and Yoo-Hoo chocolate drinks. But we must ask ourselves- wouldn't the opposers of this campaign have their time be better
spent on refuting products that don't directly involve sex? In this particular case, the advertiser wants you to
literally have sex with their product, and for that reason alone we
should let them slide. 
