Expedia Finds Your Understanding For Same Sex Marriage

The newest web film/commercial from the Expedia "Find Yours" campaign is "Find Your Understanding."

On this trip, Artie Goldstein travels across the country to attend his daughter's same-sex wedding, a journey that will test him, challenge him, and ultimately change him in unexpected ways. Leave your negative comments to yourself, this is a beautiful film and a wonderful story.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: 180 LA

The Oreo Gay Pride Rainbow Cookie

Oreo celebrates Gay Pride with the Pride Rainbow Cookie, and forget all the controversy surrounding this across the internet....it's one sweet looking cookie!

Credits:
Agency: DraftFCB New York
Client: Oreo
Creative Director: Jill Applebaum
Agency: 360i
Creative Director: Megan Sheehan
Copywriter: Noel Potts
Art Director: Jared Isle
Art Director: Mike Lubrano
Art Director: Jackie Anzaldi

BP Gulf Coast Update - Our Ongoing Commitment TV Ad

A new ad campaign from BP that will begin airing today, "BP Gulf Coast Update - Our Ongoing Commitment," is the first commercial we've seen from BP since 2010. Their newest spot is a progress report of the cleanup in the Gulf Coast region after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the spring of 2010.

The first in a series of TV spots features Iris Cross from New Orleans, a 29-year veteran of BP who, among other things, reports that all Gulf beaches and waters are open.

As BP shifts it's efforts from clean up into into an environmental-restoration and research phase Geoff Morrell, BP America's VP-communications said: "We made a commitment not only to restore the Gulf but also to keep the American people informed of that effort. We've made significant strides over the past year and believe it's a good time to provide a progress report to the nation."

What do you think of the new ad from BP?

The Cigarette That Saved Lives - The DNA Project

An interesting take on cigarettes showcased here in a new commercial for the "DNA Project" entitled The Cigarette That Saved Lives.
The DNA Project had the following to say about the ad campaign:

Egg Films’ Bruno Bossi recently directed The Cigarette That Saved Lives, a controversial commercial for The DNA Project, a non-profit organisation raising crime scene awareness and fighting crime with science with the invaluable support of The Change a Life Trust.

“It came as a surprise, as it does to most people, that we do not have the legislative framework in place to more fully use DNA profiling for crime scene investigation in our country,” says Bruno.

In South Africa, the National DNA Database only has about 133 000 DNA profiles and there are only two South African Police Services labs that can perform DNA profiling on forensic samples.

Conceptualised by Fox P2, The Cigarette That Saved Lives depicts another brutal South African murder but focuses on the evidence that’s left behind, encouraging viewers to never disturb a crime scene as DNA can convict.

The ad is paradoxical: a cigarette saves lives in a commercial where the lead woman dies. “The wonderful thing about this ad is that it creates conversation,” says The DNA Project founder Vanessa Lynch. “Egg and Fox P2 have done a brilliant job.”

Everyone involved with the shoot worked pro bono, from the crew to the rental houses. “This project struck me as one of the more worthwhile causes in our country,” says Bruno. The DNA Project would also like to thank the Change A Life Trust for helping by sponsoring this advert.

Vanessa set up The DNA Project after her father’s murderers went free because DNA evidence left at the crime scene was discarded, destroyed and not properly collected.

“There was only one chance to collect and preserve that evidence, and it was lost,” says Vanessa. “We can never go back, so that crucial link to my father’s killers was lost with it.”

The Cigarette That Saved Lives is currently screening on local broadcasters as part of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children between 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10 December 2011 (International Human Rights Day).

“Awareness is one of our biggest problems,” says Vanessa. “You can have the laws and systems in place but you only have once chance to gather the evidence before it’s lost forever.”

Credits:
Advertising Agency: FoxP2, Cape Town, South Africa
Agency Producer: Katherine Tripp
Executive Creative Director: Justin Gomes
Copywriter: Gavin Williams
Art Director: Michael Lees-Rolfe
Director: Bruno Bossi
Director of Photography: Paul Gilpin
Producer: Kirsten Clarence
Post Production Company: Black Ginger
Editing Company: Priest
Editor: Matthew Swanepoel
Music: Marc Algranti
Music Publisher: Pulse Music NY

United Colors of Benetton "UnHate"

United Colors of Benetton, supports the Unhate Foundation and releases a great new print campaign. The print includes the simple tagline "Unhate" and features the likes of US President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela kissing

The Pope and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo

Hu Jintao, president of China and Barack Obama

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Fabrica, Italy

The United Colors of Benetton UnHate campaign also includes the film UNHATE by French director Laurent Chanez, tells of the precarious balance and complex interweaving between the drive to hate and the reasons to love.

The official film of the Unhate worldwide communication campaign launched in Paris on November 16th and presented by Alessandro Benetton.

Hell Pizza Hopes To Sell "Hell Cross Buns" with Jesus Reference

A sure fire way to create some attention for any advertiser is to mention the name Jesus in the copy. To make this known adage even more controversial and possibly blasphemous is the fact that the actual advertiser is Hell Pizza, a New Zealand based fast food joint that branded themselves with demonic imagery. To be fair, ad agency Barnes, Catmur & Friends are being true to their clients brand, even though they may have made a deal with the devil.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Barnes, Catmur & Friends, Auckland, New Zealand
Executive Creative Directors: Paul Catmur, Daniel Barnes
Art Director: Crispin Schuberth
Photographer: Sam Mahayni
Retoucher: Grant Allen
Account Director: Sally Willis

Mattel's Uno Stacko Knows "One Mistake Can Blow It All" for their New Print Ad Campaign

One of the world's most popular children's games Uno has taken a very adult oriented direction in their latest advertising campaign to promote a new spin on the classic card game  with Uno Stacko.  Enlisting  ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, the game maker have created  controversial and unapologetic print ads titled 'Cyclist' and 'Queen'.  The adverts are not only great examples of clever copywrite, with the campaign's perfect slogan 'One Mistake Can Blow It All', but the strategic photos clearly tell the  biting narrative while demonstrating the game play. 

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Bogotá, Colombia, USA
Chief Creative Officer: John Raúl Forero
Creative Executive Director: Juan José   Posada
Creative Directors: Mauricio Guerrero, Diego Cárdenas
Copywriter: Julián Gutiérrez
Art Directors: Andrés López, Daniel Mora, Rigo Abello
Photographers: Carlos Gaviria, Nicolás Quevedo
Art Buyer: David Alvarado
Account Executive: Fabio Quiroga
Production: Rhayuela Films

Ads Gone Bad: Top 10 Worst Ideas in Advertising

We've all seen our share of groan-inducing commercials. But there are some that cross the line into big mistakes, often costing businesses plenty in time, money, and consumer goodwill. These take the cake for the most controversial, disturbing, and ill-advised ads of all time. For more info on the subject check out Bschool.com

1. Quiznos Singing Rodents: The Quiznos "spongmonkeys" inspired strong opinions, most wondering how the strange creatures could make you want to eat a sandwich. Perhaps the most accurate perception was from The Modern Humorist, commenting that the gerbil-like creatures are "what you see before you die."

2. The Lamisil Digger: First, your eyes are assaulted by a disturbing animated foot fungus. And then, this fungus promptly rips the toenail off the toe, exposing the nail bed. Then he jumps in. Disturbing on so many levels.

3. AIDS is a Mass Murderer: Anything involving Adolf Hitler is bound to be controversial, but throwing in a deadly disease like AIDS is like throwing gasoline on a fire. HIV/AIDS organizations distanced themselves from the commercial, citing concern for people living with the disease who might feel stigmatized.

4. Fashion Violence: Fashion ads depicting violence against women are too numerous to name all of them. Among the offenders include Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana for gang-rape imagery, and shoe and suit ads with dead women.

5. Calvin Klein's Amateur Porn: Before Calvin Klein's ads suggested gang rape, they suggested pedophilia. In the 90s, CK ran ads that were made to resemble low-budget porn screen tests with young men and women, answering provocative questions from an offscreen older adult. Retailers and consumers shared their criticism loudly, and even the FBI got involved to investigate possible child pornography charges.

6. I'd Hit It: McDonald's did not fully research their urban slang before making the ad that said: "Double Cheeseburger? I'd hit it." Nearly everyone but McDonald's understood it to mean that the new slogan advocated sex with sandwiches, and the ad lives on in parodies online.

7. Motrin Moms: Motrin learned a powerful lesson about opinionated moms on Twitter, when baby-wearing parents took on the painkiller giant in response to an ad that belittled baby slings as a fashion accessory that might cause pain. The ads didn't last much longer than a day.

8. 7-up at Seven Months: In the 50s, Seven-Up ran an ad that suggested mothers give their babies Seven-Up instead of milk or formula. It shared information about its pure and wholesome ingredients that were supposedly good for babies, and suggested mixing milk with Seven-Up to encourage drinking.

9. Whopper Virgins: Burger King spent millions of dollars traveling to Transylvania, Greenland, and Thailand to find hamburger illiterate people to try their Whopper in an on-the-spot comparative taste test with the Big Mac. Critics blasted Burger King, upset that the company didn't acknowledge the hunger that exists in some of the areas where they filmed, citing Thailand in particular, where 30% of people would never be able to afford a hamburger.

10. Store Testing Coffee: Like the 7-Up ad, there are some vintage ads that would never fly today, like Chase & Sanborn's ad, which depicts a man spanking his wife for not store testing for fresher coffee would be one of them. This is one among many sexist vintage ads that most companies would probably prefer the public to forget.

Controversial Air New Zealand Cougar TV Ad Commercial

This new ad for Air New Zealand was created to advertise their grab-a-seat deals, it ended up being being pulled from TV and had to be banned from the air due to people's complaints about the use of the term cougar. Rape Prevention Education director Kim McGregor told the NZ Herald the ad was objectionable on several levels and that some Air New Zealand staff were concerned about the promotion.

"They find it degrading and that it is encouraging potentially harmful behaviour, so my question is why is our national carrier promoting sexually predatory behaviour?"

Antonio Federici Gelato Shocking Print Ads

Antonio Federici is Italian for ice cream and the print ad campaign is universal for shocking in the eyes of some. The Gelato campaign where nuns and priests get a little more intimate than the Holy Spirit is comfortable with. Short but sizzling taglines include "submit to temptation" and "kiss temptation".

UK's Advertising Standards Authority, which has banned campaigns less shocking has apparently never indulged itself in the sensual magic that is italian gelato. The watchdog is investigating the ads now, but that's pretty much a formality: according to the Committee of Advertising Practice, "linking sex or sexualised images with religion may cause particular offense" and "portraying nuns in a sexual manner is inappropriate." In other words, don't expect to see the Federici Gelato print ads dangling above the ice cream section at your local supermarket.

It's actually too bad they are going to ban these ads as they are pretty good, they just used a couple in the wrong proffesion. For those of you who just have to see more the Antonio Federici Gelato website has the music and the complete campaign up for your viewing pleasure, just remember God see's everything you do.

BK Texican Whopper Commercial

The latest commercial for Burger King BK is the Texican Whopper created by the Ad Agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky. CP&B have been creating an uproar lately with their work for BK, this Texican Whopper ad has really offended the Mexicans and just last week the their commercial with SpongeBob and Sir Mix-A-Lot has parents up in arms. If you missed that SquareButts master piece click here.
Apparently the Mexican government is upset over this spot because they see this ad as depicting big, strong America having to help out little, weak Mexico, but I read that what actually really upset the Mexican government was the use of the Mexican flag as a serape in the print ad for the Texican Whopper. Crispin Porter Bogusky, says they are going to revise the creative “as soon as commercially possible.”

The Music in the commercial is R.E.M., song title "At My Most Beautifu," please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ashley Madison Commercial gets pulled from ESPN

Ashley Madison dot com new racy TV commercial was created specifically much tamer than most of their advertising spots just so they could be aired on ESPN. The new spot was to be less risque so prime time wouldn't go all nuts when it aired .
ESPN pulled the Ashley Madison commercial right away but not after a few affiliates aired the commercial, stating that the Ashley Madison TV spot was not appropriate. Bob Garfield an Advertising Age columnist had this to say about Ashley Madison:

"They're ADVERTISING FOR ADULTERY! That's what they're doing wrong.The media are responsible for being the gatekeepers of their own medium. It's certainly within their rights, and they do all the time decide whether a given message is inappropriate for any number of reasons. In this case, I think not only did they make the right decision, they made the only correct decision."

The Full Reuters news report,

Is it just me, I can't believe that they have over 2.5 million paid members, and the Ashley Madison slogan "Life is Short, Have an Affair".

The unedited Ashley Madison TV commercial that aired on ESPN.

Controversial Ashley Madison commercial, the TV spot goes on to state that this couple is married, but not to each other. What a sad sad world we live in. ESPN had every right to pull this ad.

Eva Mendes for Calvin Klein "Secret Obsession" uncensored

Eva Mendes for Calvin Klein "Secret Obsession" uncensored commercial spot. If you have made your way here from my Bikini Lines Advertising site, you know keeping a working version of the new Eva Mendes Calvin Klein Secret Obsession commercial has been rather difficult.

Here it is again, what the big deal about having this Calvin Klein Obsession ad with Eva Mendes banned is I don't know. Sorry, but this commercial really isn't that good anyway.

Well, was it everything you hoped for?

With so many great commercials being produced we seem to get so wrapped up in nonsense like having Eva Mendes commercials banned. Why can't we just take them for what they are?

John McCain Presidential Commercial August 2008

The latest John McCain Presidential ad campaign highlights Barrack Obama as The One and asks us in the end simply if he is ready. Great campaign.
John McCain campaign ad (August 2008)


"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

The One:

It shall be known that
In 2008 the world will be blessed.
They will call him THE ONE...
And he has anointed himself,
Ready to carry the burden of the world.
To quote Barack:
"I have become a symbol of America
returning to our best traditions."
He can do no wrong...
Can you see the light?
And, the world shall receive his blessings.
Barack Obama may be the one—
But is he ready?
To lead?

Mr T Snickers ad pulled for being offensive

The new Mr. T Snickers commercial, with the Speed walker. And the new Snickers - Gun
Sadly, this great commercial has been pulled from the air. I guess a sense of humor is a thing of the past in advertising.
Mr.T as himself
Kirby Heyborne as the Speedwalker



Mars has pulled a UK TV ad for Snickers featuring Mr T harassing a speed walker for being a "disgrace to the man race" after US complaints that it was offensive to gay people.

The American confectionary giant pulled the Snickers ad even though it was never shown on TV in the US - as happened last month with the Heinz Deli Mayo ad featuring two men kissing.

The Snickers ad, made by the same agency that caused an international furore with the Heinz male kiss commercial, was first broadcast in the UK on July 13.

The commercial, by ad agency AMV BBDO, features Mr T in full-on BA Baracus mode, the character he played in The A-Team.

It opens with Mr T crashing through a building on the back of a flatbed truck mounted with a Snickers-firing machine gun.

Mr T pulls alongside a man in tight yellow shorts who is speed walking and growls: "Speed walking. I pity you fool. You a disgrace to the man race. It's time to run like a real man."

He then opens fire, peppering the man with Snickers bars and forcing him to break into a run.

In the UK the TV ad barely ruffled feathers, the Advertising Standards Authority said.

The ASA received just two complaints and did not investigate the commercial for a possible breach of the advertising code.

However, the ad caused a storm overseas. A US advertising industry title published an open letter challenging Omnicom, AMV BBDO's American parent company.

The Human Rights Campaign criticised Mars for perpetuating "the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable, but humorous".

Mars said that the ad was meant to be "fun", that it never intended to cause offence and has pulled the campaign.

"This ad is the second in a series of UK Snickers Ads featuring Mr T, which are meant to be fun and have been positively received in the UK," said a spokeswoman for Mars.

"However, we understand that humour is highly subjective, and it is never our intention to cause offence. Accordingly, we have pulled the Mr T Speedwalker ad globally."

Mercedes Benz Print Ad - Fake? Student Work? Copy?

Just came across this new Mercedes Benz Print Ad for the new Mercedes Benz C-Class at Ads Of The World. Created for Mercedes Benz by Dentsu Beijiing, China the controversial ad titled Be Overwhelmed by the new C-Class seems to have created a bit of a stir in the forum there. Some advertising professionals hate the idea, seems to remind them of the Guiness Beer Ads.I do know that Mercedes Benz works the BBDO ad agency worldwide, this could simply be another fake or student work from Dentsu. By the way I don't like the ad either, this ad makes no sense to me and I'm sure Mercedes Benz would have wanted more of the C-Class Benz in the ad.

Advertising Agency: Dentsu, Beijing, China
Creative Director / Copywriter: Hiroshi Yoda
Art Director: Wang Rui
Published: January 2008

Kiss All Natural Tobacco - Controversial Print Ads

Kiss - All Natural Tobacco. This clever yet controversial print advertisement campaign, launched by Kiss cigarette Israel did not go without it's share of legal problems. Gee I wonder why? I'm sure my loyal readers don't need me to go into the details of why this ad campaign was stopped and a fine was issued by Israel's Health Ministry. The ad agency was guilty of using human figures to advertise tobacco. The agency claimed that the ads were works of art and that the audience they were intended for wouldn't be offended by the ads, they still got fined.

I kinda like em.

Title: Kiss — All natural tobacco
Advertisers: Winston-Salem
Brands: KISS
Geography: ISREAL

Absolut Vodka Pulls Its American Mexico Map Ad

Well it did not take too long to have this rather clever ad from Absolut Vodka and the advetising firm Teran/TBWA pulled after an uproar from the Americans. This controversial ad ran in Mexico and was not meant to be seen in the USA.

IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD

The Absolut Vodka advertisement which ran in Mexico showing a map of where the North American border stood before the Mexican-American War of 1848 (released by the Mexican advertising firm Teran/TBWA).

Although it was not shown in the United States, US media outlets picked up on the ad, and after a barrage of complaints, Absolut's maker said yesterday the ad campaign would cease.

Defending the campaign last week, Absolut maker Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the US market.

"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokeswoman wrote on Absolut's website.

"Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal," she wrote.

Absolut's blog site has received more than a thousand comments since the ad campaign was launched a few weeks ago, with many calling for boycotts of the Swedish company.

"I have poured the remainder of my Absolut bottles down the sink," one blogger wrote.

A war between Mexico and the United States from 1846 to 1848 started with Mexico's refusal to recognise the US annexation of Texas and ended with the occupation of Mexico City by US troops.

At the end, Mexico ceded nearly half of its territory to the United States, forming the states of California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Sorry, what is the big deal here? That is what the map looked like back in 1846 did it not?