Sprint really is not fond of the proposed AT&T and T-mobile merger. This week they ran an ad in some papers and on political websites that was a takeoff on T-mobile’s recent ads. They feature an older shaggy businessman with a cigar wearing a pink dress like the one sported by the gal in the T-mobile ads. The man looks very similar to the one T-mobile used to depict AT&T in their ads mocking their rival before the merger was proposed. [More]
advertising
Why Is Coors Light Advertising During This Children's Song?
By 5.9.11
Reader Jonnie was looking for YouTube videos to help his son remember his multiplication tables. He found one for 8’s, but was taken aback by what he had to watch first before he could watch it. It was an ad for Coors Light beer. That is some pretty dumb media buying right there. [More]
Honda Spokesman Gets Screwed By Honda Dealer
By 5.9.11
An actor who pitches Honda cars in their ads says he got screwed over by a Honda dealership when he tried to get the very same deal he helps sell on TV. [More]
Advertisers Fire Back At Government Over Proposed Food Marketing Guidelines
By 4.29.11
Yesterday we wrote about the proposed guidelines put forth by a federal interagency working group regarding the marketing of food to children. The “principles” asked for food companies to market products with healthier ingredients and gave suggested limits on things like fat and sodium. The ad industry is less-than-pleased by the news. [More]
Government Proposes New Guidelines For Marketing Food To Kids
By 4.28.11
Earlier today, an interagency working group consisting of folks from the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and the Dept. of Agriculture, issued a set of “proposed voluntary principles” it hopes the food industry will ultimately adopt in its marketing to the youth of America. [More]
Empire Carpet Man Passes Away
By 4.28.11
You know that animated little guy for Empire Carpets with the bushy white mustache? He was based on and voiced by a real person, Lynn Hauldren, who passed away this week at the age of 89. Farewell, friend. Spokesman for the brand for the past 40 years, and originally appearing in commercials in live action before being replaced by a cartoon version of himself, Hauldren occupies a special place in advertising history. And who could forget that jingle? Let us take a moment to remember his body of work: [More]
Author Opens Book Store To Sell His Book And Only His Book
By 4.28.11
At a small book store in NYC’s West Village, there are shelves labeled “Best Sellers” and “Sale,” but even a quick scan of the spines will reveal something: They’re all the same book. In fact, all 3,000 or so volumes stacked and shelved in Ed’s Martian Book store are the same. [More]
Rest Easy, America: The New AFLAC Spokesduck Has Been Chosen
By 4.27.11
Our brief national nightmare is over: supplemental insurance company AFLAC has chosen a new man to voice its spokesduck after comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired from the job for cracking jokes about the tsunami in Japan over Twitter. The new man for the job? a 36-year-old radio sales manager from Minnesota who auditioned for the job online. [More]
Lithia Motors Doesn't Believe You Actually Want To Opt Out Of Their Text Message Spam
By 4.19.11
Unwanted text message ads are annoying, but if the advertiser lets you opt out that should be the end of it, right? Apparently the folks at Lithia Motors, one of the nation’s largest auto retailers, think you might not have meant it when you told them to stop bugging you. [More]
Drink Wilkins Coffee Or These Muppets Will Hurt You
By 4.14.11
In 1957, Starbuck was a literary character, and instant and percolator coffee reigned supreme. Television advertising was then a new medium and sort of uncharted territory. One regional coffee company, Wilkins, hired a promising young puppeteer named Jim Henson to produce more than 150 short ads to air in the Washington, D.C. market. How do you get a marketing message across in eight seconds? The threat of violence. [More]
Tajazzle Bedazzles Your Intimate Areas
By 4.14.11
This is an incredible infomercial for “Tajazzle,” a “3-step system of personal confidence” whose third step is a crystal tattoo that you place in an area “only your lover can find.” Everything from the product itself, to the cheesy actors super committed to being super sensuous, is hilarious. [More]
Which Products Make You Feel Insecure About Things You Didn't Know You Should Worry About?
By 4.11.11
It’s a tried-and-true trick of advertisers to sell you a product by making you feel like you’d be somehow less pretty, manly, or intelligent if you don’t buy it. And then there’s what we like to call “insecurity innovation,” when companies introduce you to new ways to feel bad about how you look, mow much you earn or what your armpits look like. [More]
Concept Of Emerald Nuts Breakfast Pouches Fry Robots' Circuits
By 4.11.11
Emerald Nuts have a series of new ads pitching their pouches of breakfast nuts as more “human” than a traditional breakfast bar. To convey this message, “Cubebot,” “Mombot” and “Commuterbot” disdainfully decline the nut blends offered by their human counterparts, preferring instead to force a breakfast bar through their wood-chipper-like mouth-grinders. Pretty high concept for pre-packaged trail mix! [More]
Revolt Over GoDaddy CEO's Elephant Kill Video Makes 20,433 Domains Flee, Rival Claims
By 4.8.11
Rival domain name registrar Namecheap says they’ve raised over $20,000 for an elephant charity and poached thousands of customers who switched 20,433 domain names from GoDaddy following an uproar over a video their CEO posted of himself killing a pachyderm. Bob Parsons is unapologetic, saying he did it to feed the hungry villagers and save their crops. But that’s just a moral fig leaf. In another video, Bob hunts and kills a leopard. I don’t think it ended up as steaks for hungry villagers. [More]
Ecko Is Totally, 100% Serious About The Discounts-For-Tattoos Deal
By 4.6.11
Because of the timing, some people (including us) wondered whether Ecko’s widely publicized deal where customers can receive a 20% discount for life by having the company logo tattooed on their bodies was an April Fool’s prank. Marc Ecko Enterprises reached out to media outlets to assure us that no, it is not, and sent along some photos to prove their point.
[More]
Would You Turn Your House Into A Billboard If The Advertiser Paid Your Mortgage?
By 4.6.11
Having trouble making your mortgage payment? Think the paint job on your house could use some splash, color and branding? Then there’s an ad agency you might want to talk to. [More]
This Cigarette Ice Cream Truck Is Doing It Wrong
By 4.4.11
Pro tip: when you buy an old ice cream truck and turn it into a mobile cigarette dispensary, you should probably cover up all the old ads for Bombpops and Choco Tacos. Reader discounteggroll’s co-worker snapped this picture at a gas station on the NY-CT border in Greenwich, CT. (Perhaps the truck is parked on the CT side of the parking lot, to take advantage of CT’s lower cigarette tax?) If it doesn’t violate any regulations, like the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 which prohibits the sale, distribution, marketing and promotion of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to children under the age of 18, it’s in poor taste, even with the sign asking for ID. “One Big Vanilla ice cream sandwich, please.” “Sorry kid, we got Pall Malls.” [More]
Mash Up Gender-Targeted Toy Advertisements For Your Amusement
By 3.22.11
The average child watches thousands of television commercials every year. Ads geared to kids don’t just encourage purchases of mass-produced plastic toys and mass-produced junk food: they also enforce rigid gender stereotypes about who should be playing with which kind of toy. Girls want sparkly pink ponies that bake cupcakes and need to be fed bottles, and boys want loud, fast remote-controlled tanks that shoot lasers and green slime. But happens when you pair the audio to a “boy” ad with the video to a “girl” ad? [More]
