Know what helps pumps millions into the university athletics umbrella NCAA? The same thing that pumps millions into magazine publishers and criminal defense attorneys: booze! Though the NCAA supposedly has the interests of college athletes in mind as it sucks in huge broadcasting revenues for its games — they’ve got a $11 billion deal with CBS — they also allowed alcohol sponsors to advertise during games. This upsets some people, like college presidents, who pointed to beer sponsorships during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament “embarrassingly prominent.” Too bad there’s nothing the NCAA can do! Or so it says. CONTINUED »
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 »
While the Olympic media are learning some lessons the hard way — such as: do not take a picture of Chairman Mao’s portrait, or Chinese guards will shove you — the biggest challenge on their plate is surviving the smog, which has returned to Beijing after a few days of clear air, which was triumphantly portrayed as China caring about the environment. “At first I thought it was the smell of the jet engines,” blogs CNN’s Steve Almasy. “Then I thought it was the bus engines. But as we pulled away from the Beijing airport in the media shuttle, the stench was joined by a haze. It was 830 p.m. when I arrived with some of the guys from CNN sports. So we have yet to get the full visual effect of the smog. The smell of the pollution lingers with us now as we sit in the cafeteria, having a few drinks, swapping stories about the flights over and Olympics past …”
LA Times writer Eric P. Lucas has had enough of the Heath Ledger hype and wrote a strongly-worded article to argue otherwise. Except instead of convincing everyone that the Oscar buzz is unnecessary, he makes the fatal mistake of insulting Heath and sending his diehard fans into an angry frenzy.
It’s 1999 again! Back before the dot-com bust, with-it companies were all about Aeron chairs, free cafeterias, in-house masseurs, and on-the-clock drinking courtesy the office bar. Now, with multiple ad agencies gloating over their top shelf staff offerings, we’ve officially got a trend on our hands. And perhaps it’s all thanks to AMC’s Mad Men, a throwback to the good old days where 10am didn’t role around without a single malt. CONTINUED »
Since 2004, George Clooney has been the face of Martini vermouth, his ads popping up on European television where he doesn’t think American audiences will find him and realize, in addition to lending his name to charitable causes, he lends his name to corporate come ons. Here’s his latest spot, which, like his previous ads, features Clooney with a moustache, an uttering the one word he knows in Italian.
But analyzing the ad under another context makes it more interesting.
In 2005, Britain’s Code of Advertising changed the rules for liquor ads, requiring them not to link alcohol to “seduction, sexual activity or sexual success.” However, romance and flirtation are allowed, which explains Clooney’s PG chase of the object of his desire.
If this ad had aired in America, of course, you would’ve seen Clooney sealing the deal.
Another of his tame spots, below.
Rupert Murdoch’s third wife Wendi Deng is going to have his balls handed to him if he doesn’t find the wedding ring he managed to lose at the annual Allen & Co. media orgy in Sun Valley. The News Corp. mogul had a few too many at the Lodge bar and, en route to losing his sobriety, also lost his wedding ring. A 15-minute reporter-fueled search — must obey The Man’s orders! — failed to turn it up. Forbes’s 73rd richest man in the world … laughing stock of the upper echelon. [Reuters]
Remember two seconds ago when we were talking about how marketers can get consumers to think well about their brands by promoting them during television shows they like?
There’s one other way to get consumers to like your brand: Create clever advertising.
Another, more morbid, spot below. CONTINUED »
The American press corps isn’t the only group anxious to see President Bush leave office in January — the Brits are twiddling their thumbs just as much. The Guardian’s Bill Blanko, who refers to said American press corps as a “bunch of toadies,” lays into the current leader of the free world, and his list of complaints is lengthy. Among them: “His sneering performance this week at his press conference with Gordon Brown in the Locarno Room (which lobby correspondents much prefer visiting for Foreign Office drinks parties) confirmed that he obviously loathes us. And after his surly verbal swipes at journalists, in between such horrendous Bushisms as “white-guy Methodists” (imagine the row if a British politician used a phrase like that), the feeling was mutual.”
But most of all, what really bags Blanko is a little thing called alcohol — and the fact that the president doesn’t drink any. And that the D.C. media doesn’t drink enough. CONTINUED »
Now that the United States is allowing the sale of Absinthe goods, it was only a matter of time before the green fairy juice was transformed from a liquid-only embellishment into a more solid form. Namely, candy.
Enter Absinthe Gummi Bears, available at Tailor on Broome Street, says UrbanDaddy. “You’ll mostly taste licorice—it’s really the anise in the absinthe—but this gummi is smarter (and boozier) than the av-e-rage bear. It’s 85% absinthe, with just a touch of gelatin and sugar added to keep things solid.”
Yum. Please, Dylan Lauren, begin stocking these at your Candy Bar.
Does every alcohol company need to commission a study that says men don’t want to see the Sex and the City movie? Or rather: Does every alcohol company need to latch on to the Sex hype by promoting some shameless “study” that concludes men would rather be, uh, drinking booze than watching Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha on the big screen?
Earlier today, Moosehead Breweries found 36 percent of men “will be drinking beer while watching the hockey playoffs on the night of the premiere.”
Now comes a report from Canadian Club Whisky – “the liquor of choice for masculine, sophisticated and unpretentious men everywhere” – that claims “41 percent of men [said] they would not be caught dead in the theater on May 30th.” Bet that percentage would go up if they could bring some Canadian Club inside the theatres, eh buddies?
N.B. Absolut, which benefited so much from Smith Jerrod’s fictional “Absolut Hunk” ad used in the show, didn’t bother trying to find out whether men didn’t want to see the movie.
Surprise! That clever YouTube video featuring a guy perfectly pouring a Coors Light from a can to a glass was actually produced by Coors Light and its agency Avenue A/Razorfish (owned by Microsoft), not brand-devoted fellas with a video camera.
The spot on the left has been viewed over a two hundred thousand times, which means it’s reached its viral effect, and now it’s kosher for Coors to tell all about the videos, which comes on the heels of Levi’s “pogo pants” spot, and a slew of others.
But lest you think this is the end of these pseudo ads, there’s a suspicious Stella Artois that’s been seen over a half million times. CONTINUED »
The ad at left, for Cabana Cachaca, is running in a few men’s magazines, and is causing a little spat of controversy, owing to the fact that the model featured in the spot is not wearing any clothes. [WWD]
The ad at right, for Tom Ford’s fragrance, should quiet any notion that we’re entering some sort of new debate about nudity in advertising.
(Click for larger image) CONTINUED »
These two ads are new spots from Absolut Vodka, which are paired with a TV spot labeled “Dissection,” which they hope pushes the message that the brand’s infused flavors, Pear and Mango, are as naturally a part of the flavor as the distilled vodka itself. The ads are part of Absolut’s “In An Absolut World” worldwide campaign, which replaced the “Absolut _____.”
But if you’re a consumer of gay media, the message Absolut is trying to send is a little different. CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
