Taking the bus is awful. Then again, flying commercial is generally an exercise in legal torture. And driving costs, like, $900 per block. So it made sense for Greyhound to compete with the Deltas and Continentals of the world, as well as your own person behind the wheel, with an ad campaign that read, "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage.'" It was kind of clever, and at the very least nudged you in the direction of booking a motor coach ticket for your next trip. Then some guy in Canada cut the head off of another Greyhound passenger. The bus company has pulled the campaign.
Over the past five years, the BBC collected $11.5 million as part of sponsorship arrangements, where programs like BBC Sports Personality of the Year were "brought to you by" a corporate advertiser. Over in the U.K., this is considered bad form and unethical, but mostly because the BBC is still a "public" utility. Which is sort of like saying a broadcast network's local newscast here in the U.S. — supposedly there to serve the local public good — is something more than a chance to plug what's ahead in primetime. [Times]
Who said John McCain is letting Barack Obama steer the election news cycle? Fine, everybody, but this latest bit of news out of the McCain campaign shows a certain Republican can administer some agenda setting of his own: McCain will spend $6 million on television advertising during the Olympics. Put another way, McCain will foot 0.67 percent of NBC's $894 million payment to broadcast the Olympics. Of course, this announcement comes after Obama already announced he'd be spending $5 million during the Olympics, so McCain is, um, once again letting Obama set the election news cycle. And then trying to one-up him. Of course, this represents both candidates tacitly endorsing the Olympics, NBC's decision to broadcast it, and China's horrendous civil rights record.
That nipples — or is it mere areola? — are, much like actual genitalia, one of the defining lines between "acceptable" and "OMG NUDITY HIDE YOUR CHILDREN!!!" is something Americans learn at an early age. This explains why print advertisements around New York for the Brazlian rum Cabana Cachaça go without nipples, while advertisements for newspapers in Europe include full breasts. (Okay, not always; NSWF.) On television, nipples are an even bigger affront to civility, which explains why the Eva Mendes spot for Calvin Klein's new fragrance Secret Obsession was banned from U.S. airwaves in a convenient publicity-driving announcement. The scent's print spots, too, do not show nip.
But why, in an age where music acts and television shows can be named "Pussycat Dolls," are we still afraid of nipples? CONTINUED »
They didn't try fooling you into believing a cell phone could pop corn. They didn't try pretending a German town wanted to launch a car across the Atlantic. They didn't try passing off a movie promo as security camera footage of an office freak out. And they didn't try to encourage stalking women.
Instead, Staple's took a hidden camera cue from Burger King to create this series of excellent viral videos — where a guy tries to pay for things with pennies — plugging its back-to-school shopping event. Two more videos worth complimenting, below. CONTINUED »
This advertisement is airing on the BBC to promote their upcoming Olympics coverage. Like NBC in the U.S., the BBC will be handling all of the U.K.'s 2008 Beijing Games coverage. It's just too bad we don't have any idea what the hell the BBC is trying to say in this two-minute spot. Do you?
These shots are for a new Olympic advertising campaign in the U.K. from Powerade, the sports drink owned by the Coca-Cola Company. The spots feature athletes like jumper Phillips Idowu and swimmer Gregor Tait all sorts of naked performing their sport of choice. Says the company's marketing director Cathryn Sleight: "Everyone is used to seeing athletes in competition or winning, but we wanted to give people the chance to see the real make-up of an athlete and their muscle and power, celebrating the body and spirit and the hard work that goes into training for all athletes whatever your level." And also to show that Michael Phelps isn't the only sex symbol who can shill. [DM]
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Finally - some closure in South Carolina’s “So Gay” advert scandal.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we all now have an inside view as to what went down after the State’s tourism officials first heard of the controversial ad, which had been designed and distributed in London:
Know what's proven to be an excellent way to market stuff? Sex! Also? The word "free." Usually when you see advertisements featuring either of these two things, you will not get a single one. Such is the case with FreeCreditReport.com, which isn't so much a place to download your financial history from one of three credit bureaus, but a chance to sign up for a paid monthly "credit monitoring" service. This credit monitoring service will not, however, alert you to the fact that you actually started paying a monthly fee for this convenience. And guess what? Experian, the credit bureau that owns the website, didn't accidentally insert the word "free" into its web address! It's supposed to be there to trick the gullible into thinking a company responsible for holding your credit history hostage actually wants to give you anything gratis. And it's working! CONTINUED »
What does Verizon have in common with Snickers, Nike, and Heinz? It came up with an ad that it thought was super clever, but actually rankled more than a few consumers and activist organizations and, rather than defend its ad spot, pulled it altogether.
While Snickers, Nike, and Heinz fell victim to gay rights groups slapping their ads on the wrong side of homophobic, Verizon caught the wrath of PETA for this spot, which shows pit bulls chained up guarding a car lot where a young gentleman managed to lose his phone. After PETA got on the case, some 7,000 people emailed Verizon with complaints. So what got everyone so upset? CONTINUED »
Here we go! The latest and greatest Obama attack ad out of John McCain’s camp not only juxtaposes the Democratic nominee with wearying tarts Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, it also resorts to one of the oldest scare tactics in the book: reminding everyone that Obama wants to raise taxes (possibly to fund his wife’s Black Panther arsenal? Nobody knows!).
It’s still only July, kids.
Dwight Eisenhower may have invented presidential TV advertising, but John McCain is being credited with exploiting it.
The Republican candidate's latest ad — attacking Barack Obama for not visiting wounded American troops during his overseas trip, while still making time for the gym — aired just a dozen or so times, thanks to his campaign's paid advertising spend. But the media impressions it racked up overall? Thanks to the press corp's incessant coverage of the ad, you better get your calculators out. CONTINUED »
With all this talk about presidential candidates launching their national advertising spots — and the super fun rebuttals that come with 'em — it's worth a trip back some 56 years to the very first television ad from a White House hopeful. Here's one of Dwight D. Eisenhower's ads that aired in 1952. The ad gets bonus points for featuring zero racial stereotypes or Swiftboating.
It was produced by Disney, in case you couldn't tell, and helped successfully get Ike elected over Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, who thought it was tres un-presidential to appear on television. Eventually, he bagged that position, and had this produced: CONTINUED »
This balloon, floating above Central Park, serves two purposes: To offer vertical rides in the helium balloon for $25 a pop, and to provide another facade to slap advertising on, in case you get too far north of Times Square and start wondering what city you're in. [AdAge]
What's this? A news anchor actually using the word "lie" to describe a politician's actions? That alone is news, since the media is all too willing to write around blatant lies with words like "misrepresentation," "stretch," and "misleading."
But here's MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, known for pushing colleagues out of the way, doing it to describe John McCain's new ad about Barack Obama's decision not to visit troops in the hospital during his trip overseas, and how it was motivated by Obama's inability to turn the event into a press opportunity (since cameras wouldn't be allowed).
Funny, then, that Mitchell herself may have played a role in Obama's canceling of the hospital visit. CONTINUED »
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