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Posts Tagged ‘Vice Magazine’

Absolut Targets Hipsters

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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 »

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WTF Demographic Mashup

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Okay, so we made fun of Vice / Virtue / VBS.tv earlier for taking any and all baby-boomer dollars with their “open door” co-branding approach. But really, we’re joking on the lazy agency mentality of outsourcing youth-targeted digital advertising to Vice, who have been selling-out for so long that they’re essentially a joke. But this new one really takes the cake. It’s like they’re making jokes for us.

This bewildering demographics mash-up of AMC, as in American Movie Classics and Vice is pretty clear. AMC wants to re-brand themselves as hip and edgy and Vice wants their money. So somebody sat Read the rest of this entry »

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The Integrity of Plagiarism

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While advertising’s main skill set seems to be “Bullshitting Others,” coming in a close second would be the smarmy pride exuded in co-opting other people’s ideas. The rise of an agency creative relies 95% on their ability to combine being a prolific bullshit artist and a proud phoney. Look around – there’s nothing else to advertising. Other than buying people drinks/dinner/coke and getting into events.

Nowhere is this better evident, than in the mountain of people that take credit for print campaigns based solely on run and gun location shoots, done by a single photographer. Especially when the campaigns are capitalizing on the photographer’s personal aesthetic, which gained them notoriety.

Case in point is Ryan McGinley, the youngest person to show at The Whitney and best thing to precipitate out of the whole Vice era. He shot two print campaigns in 2009, for competing jeans brands. However the look of the Gran Prix winning Wrangler ads are cold and menacing, compared to the sun-drenched open spaces of his Levi’s “Go Forth” print ads.

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Generation eXamine, Your, Zipper

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Double Whammy

Double Whammy

Really quick, we need to define a new term that we’ll be using quite often here  – “post-boomers.” Which are basically the clueless 40-somethings that came after baby-boomers and emulate everything we hate about that generation . They aren’t baby-boomers and never got in on the whole American Dream of 4-kids, 3-Bedroom house, 2-cars in the garage… all on 1-salary. However, they ARE the same marketing robots that churn out semantics and corporate speak cliches on how advertising that its a “good hamburger,” is actually better than making a “good hamburger.” Read the rest of this entry »

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