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What’s That AO Smell?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on May 18th, 2010 1 Comment

After completely overhauling their brand’s design, dropping beaucoup bucks everywhere on event marketing and then adding on a massive digital staff to gain a foothold on online buzz (Asylum)… AOL decided to go one further and add “advertorial content” to their front page. Wait. What?

Forget any half-assed destruction of their recent rebranding campaign in exchange for minor Hollywood marketing dollars… These geniuses are going Kamikaze. Ignoring all trending summer blockbusters, they’ve focused on giving tiny-font media critics a run for their money. Now, some small-time regional radio station might get away with saying “MacGruber is the funniest SNL film in ages…”, in exchange for a press-junket gift basket. Not AOL. They’ve decided to show everyone how the big-boys play, by making EVERY STORY ON THEIR NEWS PAGE about the new Katherine Heigl / Ashton Kutcher movie. The one that seems purpose built to obtain the lowest rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Way to pick a winner! This will be like Coke Zero branding with Avatar’s release… If you replace “Coke Zero” with “AOL.” And “Avatar” with “Herpes.”

We’re not even saying “Space Herpes” (YouTube). I mean… Don’t they think that maybe, possibly, this could be a bad idea?

Tags: Advertorial Content, AOL, Rebranding

HATEBOMB: KFC BUCKETS FOR THE CURE

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on May 6th, 2010 2 Comments

Paradox (noun): A self-contradictory statement that at first seems true

Remember when KFC had the urban myth floating around (Snopes), that they no longer referred to “chicken” on the menu and that their rebranding as “KFC” came as a result of the genetically modified, mutant stuff that they grew in a lab being legally unfit to call “chicken.” Which isn’t that crazy, when you consider the Kosher upheaval that resulted from Burger King disclosing that their white-meat Chick’n patties actually contained pork. The legal argument being that they never expressly sold it as “chicken.”

So who better to advocate for Breast Cancer, than those who deal in carcinogenic breasts all-day long? The fact eating at KFC might contribute to what eventually they support curing brings about another definition – vertical integration.

It’s almost like you can smell the bullshit emanating from the agency boardroom that came up with this fucking trash.

Does LonerBoner have to partner with whoever creates the “negative energy” meters for Scientology, to fabricate somesort of bullshit-meter / online app? Something that can weed through tweets and Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Campaign, HateBomb, KFC, Twitter

Pro Abortion Mini-Van

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on May 4th, 2010 2 Comments

Saatchi & Saatchi wanted to do something really clever in rebranding the mini-brand image. So they shot TV spots featuring two cool (too cool) young parents repping their cred in a hip-hop style campaign called “Swagger Wagon.” And then they bought up ad space today on YouTube, so everyone sees it.

Apparently Toyota is really into irony at the moment.

You know what else is really ironic? It looks like they cast the lead actress from the current film Greenberg, who’s entire roll consists of sleeping with random dudes and getting an abortion. We guess Saatchi & Saatchi passed that off as a deft way to ignore the “Mommy Syndrome” that goes along with promoting a mini-van.

Talk about “keeping it real.”

Tags: Greenberg, Greta Gerwig, Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota, YouTube

Ad For A Kid’s Movie?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on April 26th, 2010 1 Comment

This ad campaign is currently everywhere. Apparently Dreamworks and company feel it’s not 100% tasteless to promote a kid’s movie as a pun on “What the Fuck Just Happened.”

But then again, if anyone had any sense of good taste they probably wouldn’t be working on another Mike Myers franchise.

Seriously, is the agency behind this trying to appeal to kids and assume that 8-year olds get the joke?

Can’t wait to see the taglines for the inevitable McDonald’s tie ins. Kids will be saying “This Happy Meal tastes like Shrek” and “Go Shrek Yourself.”

Tags: Campaign, Shrek

Al Gore Walks Dogs?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on April 16th, 2010 1 Comment

The hackneyed “Eco-Friendly” approach, now appears at every strata of advertising. People… It’s officially time for new ideas. Feel free to suggest your own “faux-green” ad in the comments below.

Related: Bottle Service of Haiti

Tags: Eco-Friendly

Absolut Targets Hipsters

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on April 12th, 2010 1 Comment

After the awful campaign (Absolut Crap) where they dressed up cutesy, indie icon Zooey Deschanel as a platinum blonde Barbarella, TBWA has taken a new approach.

First off they quietly commissioned the Spike Jonze Sundance short, featuring hipster robots hanging out in LA and listening to Pitchfork bands. Which became a site where you can appreciate the naturalistic visuals of previously mentioned Lance Accord.

SHORT FILM: I’M HERE

Unless you stick around ’till the credits, you’d have no idea Absolut was funding this target on the forehead of hipsters. For the brand to ingratiate themselves with the PBR set makes sense, as these psuedo-blue collar fools eventually turn 40 and need to drink something else.

On that note TBWA has created an event space for 30 days in NYC, showcasing the genesis of the hipster era. Namely, the very 1999 notion that graphic design passes for art. To bolster this flashback, TBWA has enlisted the hipster version of Collette, a bookstore from the new cusp of gentrification out in LA (Miracle Mile area) called “Family.” Which already has a 10-min documentary on it, shot by Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Absolut, Hipsters, LA, Lance Accord, Spike Jonze, TBWA, Vice Magazine

Is This Irony?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on April 6th, 2010 1 Comment

Question

Answer

Seriously. What agency came up with this tagline?

Questions View Results

Tags: Agency, Pacino

Brand Identity?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on March 30th, 2010 No Comments

This ad is currently running and most likely you’ve seen it several times this week. But do you have any clue who it’s pitching for?

So to make a game of it – we blurred the logos on the cars above. Now go ahead and pick from the multiple options and we’ll announce the results shortly. It’s pretty funny when you consider the millions that were spent on terms like “brand identity,” “creativity” and “connecting with an audience.”

Questions View Results

Now, shifting our focus from advertising being “ineffective,” to downright “incompetant” we have this following 2009 TV spot from a campaign AAMCO spent $30 million dollars on. Did we mention they Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AAMCO, Auto, Campaign, Poll, Qorvis Communications

More Plagerism and Twitter Bullshit

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on March 23rd, 2010 4 Comments

Do you like those cutesy, stop-motion Amazon Kindle commercials? Wish that photographers Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths made more of them? Well… Good news… Sorta.

The World Wildlife Fund (the other WWF) has hired LA’s Viral Factory to do what advertising does best. Rip-off other people’s ideas. Granted we just complained about this trend with HATEBOMB: Reboots, Remakes and Rip Offs. And we need to keep doing so. Like some substitute high school teacher, it’s our job to remind everyone that “you can’t take credit for appropriating other people’s work.” Or something like that.

Seriously. Do Creative Directors just sit around and see what’s popular on YouTube? If so, is there an iPhone app that can replace them? That would really speed along our plans to open an automated, cat-run digital shop. After all, in the YouTube game… cat videos have the upper-hand.

Non-cat videos and more after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Amazon, kindle, plagerism, Twitter, Viral, WWF, YouTube

Who The Fuck Is Timothy Olyphant?

Posted by Pedro Moncrief on March 23rd, 2010 8 Comments

Apparently FX Network has given “carte blanche” to the creative team behind these ads for the new show Justified. Which are appearing everywhere at the moment. In each instance exclaiming, “this is the new show starring… TIMOTHY OLYPHANT!”

Who? Is that even a marquee name? Because in all the video clips we’ve seen for the show, the main Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: brandname, Campaign, Digital, post-celebrity