it's become self-aware

sort of creepy, but also adorable. the reasons to get a dyson just keep piling up.

Winter Tale (stop-motion animation) from Sergey Yazvinsky on Vimeo.

conan and amex

italian glass:


indian fabric:


the man has good taste.

yes it's advertising, but it's also art!

there is a reason why canon is my favorite.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

reblogged from bearpope.tumblr.com

wild. nocturnal.

combining three things i love: owls, conan o'brien, and advertising


yanked from team coco.

get ready for the comedy, folks.

hamburglar, 1977.

when i was a kid we had a bunch of these amazing mcdonald's drinking glasses. sadly only one survived (from the odd mcvote '86 series), but luckily i salvaged it from the reckage that is my childhood home. it is a prized possession, as you might imagine. as luck would have it, i was recently browsing through an antique store, and i came across a small collection of other vintage mcdonald's glasses. being who i am, i just couldn't pass up the opportunity to give mcdlt a friend. especially since it's the hamburglar. i would burgle hamburgers too, if i ever got desperate. although, probably not from mcdonald's. i'm more interested in their paraphernalia.

girls like you love girls like me.

i really appreciate when advertising is self-aware. see below:

lock jaw.

i heard about this story courtesy of the most recent episode of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! sometimes you really can have too much meat. the best part, in my opinion anyway, is that they've taken this guy's unfortunate eating experience and turned it into a contest and publicity stunt. america!

hot beef balls.

i generally don't like hot pockets. this commercial makes me sure that i don't.

whoopi goldberg has a problem

have you seen this? it is perhaps one of the best commercials i have ever seen. absurd advertising at its finest.



you can find individual commercials for each of whoopi's alternate personas on youtube as well.

what's going on here is uncomfortability.

budweiser golden wheat

i just saw this commercial on tv and decided it was just weird enough that i needed to share it.



i don't know about you, but i don't like thinking about my beer macking on wheat, or anything else for that matter.

burberry.

i've never been all that into Burberry. i always found it a bit stifled and boring. so much khaki and so many trench coats. well this season, despite still have quite a lot of khaki and trench coats, i think Burberry's collection is pretty fantastic.

new york magazine has a good slideshow of the looks, which is worth checking out despite the near constant advertising interruptions.

the whole collection seems basically very wearable. there might have been one too many of the gauzy, bandage style wrap skirts and dresses, but overall i really liked their look. plus, it's nice that this fashion seems at least moderately accessible (even if still not affordable).

and emma watson makes a pretty good spokesmodel. she's got the whole young, british thing going for her. and while Burberry has always been quintessentially british, until recently they didn't come across as very young.

for some background on Burberry fashion director Christopher Bailey check out this article from last fall.

stinky. stinky. stinky.

recently, Hefty brand garbage bags has been pushing their "odor block" technology. to raise awareness for their product they created this gem of a commercial:



i hate this commercial. here's why:

i know that advertising is supposed to manipulate us. we're supposed to see a commercial or a billboard or a print ad and be swayed to want to partake in whatever that ad happens to be selling. in this case though, the ad is completely misleading in the way it is presenting itself. it's not really selling you a garbage bag so much as it's selling you on the acceptability and normality of an unsustainable way of life. you are supposed to be convinced that yes, your garbage is stinky, and yes, wouldn't it be wonderful if it wasn't? however, most of the "stinky" things they show being swallowed by the almighty Hefty bag shouldn't be thrown into the garbage at all. most of what they are showing is either compostable or recyclable. if these people with the stinky garbage just disposed of their waste responsibly they wouldn't need fancy odor-blocking trash bags.

how about this: instead of rethinking our trash bags, let's rethink our trash.

Mustmayostarayonnaise

Also on the subject of combining condiments, there's this gem from Mr. Show. Mustmayostarayonnaise would sure give Dijonnaise a run for its money.

dijonnaise

advertising is all around us. more worrying, advertising is inside us. what i mean to say is, for the past week or so the jingle for Hellmann's Dijonnaise has been stuck in my head. this is a commercial i haven't seen or thought about in years. it is for a product i never even thought about buying. and yet, suddenly, i started singing di-di-di-dijonnaise. i resent the fact that Hellmann's is taking up prime real estate in my brain. take a gander at the commercial for yourself. or don't. i would hate to get dijonnaise stuck in your head too.

BURGER. GREASE. ART.

this guy is amazing:


so is this:


too bad it's an ad for arby's:
www.burgergreaseart.com

beefscape: river

just because i feel like posting something, but i can't think of anything to talk about.

white castle commercial

i found it!
the picture quality is not great, but you get the gist.

produce more. conserve more.

yesterday, on my drive home from work, i switched my radio to NPR to catch Marketplace. typically, i'm not really into economics or business, but i do enjoy Kai Ryssdal. also they play great music in between segments.

anyway, the introductory ad into the show was from Monsanto. as in: "Marketplace is brought to you by Monsanto." which struck my as odd because i just never associated the two things before, but also because apparently Monsanto is committed to "sustainable agriculture" which didn't seem quite right either.

from Monsanto's website:
Monsanto is an agricultural company. We apply innovation and technology to help farmers around the world produce more while conserving more. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods, better animal feeds and more fiber, while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment.

that's more or less what the ad before Marketplace said too.

the thing is, as far as i know, that's total bullshit.

Monsanto, before it was all about sustainable agriculture, was better known for producing things like agent orange, polyurethane, and DDT.
and still today they are a major producer of herbicides, the most popular, of course, being roundup.
but to make an even neater package of the whole organization they started bioengineering seeds to be "roundup resistant." meaning, you can buy their seeds and spray the hell out of them with roundup, killing all the weeds, without harming your crops! it's inspired, really.

and so Monsanto produces genetically modified seeds, which turn into genetically modified food. and they love their seeds. they feel a strong attachment to them. so much so that they can claim rights to crops that were not intentionally grown with their seeds. (nature has wind. wind carries seeds.) take, for example, this article from Vanity Fair. this also requires that farmers who do use monsanto seeds need to buy new ones every year. constant profit!

a bigger problem though, as far as i'm concerned, is that, politics aside, we don't really know what eating genetically modified food is going to do to us.


more on that later i guess. i only have so much internet time to devote to random rants.

meatsex

so, it's not really news that often in advertising meat gets associated with sex in one way or another. for example:
how about the mcdonald's ad with the ambiguous man who seems to want to fuck their hamburger?

or the carl's jr ad with paris hilton in a bathing suit washing a car/eating a burger?

or, more recently, the arby's commercial with the man getting a special arby's birthday treat? (doesn't that arby's symbol look like a penis to you?)


all of these (and so many more) are wonderful and disgusting examples of meatsex in advertising. however, i think that white castle has outdone them all.

picture this:
a person is dressed up in a pig costume. she is dancing on stage at a strip club to the delight of the men in attendance. then, channeling flashdance, she sits down in a chair and soaks herself, not in water, but in barbecue sauce. the crowd goes wild. some lick the sauce.

as i was watching this i couldn't help questioning the state of advertising today. because someone out there came up with this idea. and other people thought this idea was good. this does not make me want to try their new pulled pork sandwich. if anything i want white castle less than i did before seeing this ad.

unfortunately i can't seem to find a video of this commercial anywhere online. i guess it's too new. but keep your eyes peeled. it's pretty ridiculous.

mastercard with mascots.

i realize this has been out for a while, but i still have some gripes about it.

1. i feel bad for the man playing to Gorton's Fisherman. he's the only real person there. it must have been so awkward.

2. Charlie the tuna is serving tuna. that's a little bit cannibalistic.

3. if they were going to invite the Jolly Green Giant, couldn't they have planned for a picnic? it's rude to invite someone to a party and then make him watch the festivities from outside.

4. i understand that Mr. Clean really is the man for the job as far as dishwashing is concerned, but why couldn't he have been included in the dinner as well?

priceless.