Advertising Student Ships His Pants to Kmart's Agency, Lands Internship Alf Zapata shows Draftfcb the goods
If you can ship your pants skillfully and creatively, you have a good chance of working at Kmart's ad agency, Draftfcb. The agency said today that it has brought in a new intern in large part because of his pants-shipping abilities. Alf Zapata shipped his actual pants and résumé to Draftfcb's recruiting department. That got him an interview; his "portfolio, witty humor and enthusiasm" got him the internship, the agency says. This raises the possibility that you could get an internship at Y&R in New York simply by apologizing and then acting superior. More images below.
May 20, 2013, 3:28 PM EDT
Girl Barfs Up Her Own Dad in Baffling Anti-Drinking Ad From Spain Something's making her sick
"Every time you get drunk, you separate yourself from the things that matter most. Like your family." That's the voiceover in this weird anti-drinking ad from Spain, aimed at young adults. The girl in the ad is seen vomiting up what is apparently her father. The sound effects are nasty, and the metaphor isn't much better. Second spot after the jump, in which a guy gets "separated" from his girlfriend—by upchucking her on a bathroom floor. Agency: Bungalow 25. Via Ads of the World.
May 20, 2013, 2:43 PM EDT
Even Home Intruders Get the Girl in Campaign for Axe's New Hair Products Quite the first impression
'Tis the season for male-grooming brand extensions. Old Spice introduced its shaving gel last week. And now, Axe has updated its range of hair products for men. It's advertising them with four new 20-second ads from BBH London that have launched in Europe and will reach North America this weekend. The creative idea is that well-styled hair is crucial when you meet someone for the first time. The spots present various quirky first-meeting scenarios—the most faux-provocative of which is probably the home-invasion scenario, in which burglar seduces buglee with his perfectly slicked 'do. "We wanted to capture a simple truth about guys and their grooming habits," says David Kolbusz, deputy executive creative director at BBH. "Whenever a man sees a woman he fancies, he tends to touch up his hair before making the initial approach. We dramatized this behavior by setting it in the most extreme of circumstances." More spots and credits below.
May 20, 2013, 12:55 PM EDT
Oily Bohunk Josh Button Makes Landfall in Ad for Diet Dr Pepper Yet another one-of-a-kind
Damn you, hot hunks of advertising! Damn you to hot, hunky hell! Your Grecian glutes mock me as I polish off another nacho platter, and your six-pack abs shame me as I knock back my six-pack of beer! Shirtless Josh Button is the latest addition to the ad-hunk trend, rising seductively from the sea in Deutsch L.A.'s new tongue-in-cheek commercial for Diet Dr Pepper. (They make diet soda now?) "Millions of guys are born good looking," Button's voiceover begins, as the number 70,611,600 flashes on screen. "But not many are really good looking." The number 64,891 appears. "Even fewer are really, really, really, really, really good looking. At least, that's what I'm told." The number 45 zips by. "I'm Josh Button, and I'm one of a kind." We then get a full-on view of his chiseled torso as the red number 1 appears, thrust like a dagger into my cholesterol-clogged heart. (Hey, I'm at least one of the 70 million fairly OK-looking dudes, right?!) "We're poking fun at ourselves and the trend of hot guys in advertising," Dr Pepper svp of marketing Jaxie Alt tells USA Today, alluding to hunk sightings in spots for brands like Kraft Zesty Italian dressing and Diet Coke. After decades of impossibly trim bikini babes making women feel insecure, I guess it's men's turn to suffer. At least one advertiser out there is providing a more realistic depiction of the male form. But when you consider the state of that beach bum's liver, and his life expectancy, it's cold comfort indeed. Credits below.
May 20, 2013, 12:10 PM EDT
Meet San Diego's Worst Rapper, Real Estate Agent Rafael A. Perez With initials like those, it was meant to be
Today, everyone does everything. You have actor-writer-rappers (Donald Glover, Jamie Foxx), dancers turned actors (Jennifer Lopez, Channing Tatum), pro athletes attempting to rap (Shaq, Allen Iverson), and so on. So, when Rafael A. Perez, a San Diego realtor, decided to produce a rap video to "express the state of real estate" there, who was going to stop him? Yes, the housing market in the U.S. collapsed a few years ago, but R.A.P. (Rafael A. Perez's emcee moniker) is here to tell you that it's BACK! Along with the American dream! At least in San Diego! The YouTube video, titled "Welcome to the 619," is a hopeful and amusing bid to get people excited about the area again. It's filled with bad lip-syncing, a barely conscious Perez, zooms of Google images, MLK Jr. quotes, and of course American flags. I don't know about you, but I think it's about to get real crowded in the 619.
May 20, 2013, 11:08 AM EDT
Charmin Welcomes Fans to Nascar Race With Billboard Potty Humor Important message from giant underwear
I love it when brands finally catch on to jokes the rest of us were making in fourth grade. This time it's Charmin, which treated fans at the Charlotte Motor Speedway's Sprint All-Star Race to an underwear-shaped billboard that said "Stop Skidmarks." That phrase also applies to cars, you see. Given the kinds of ostentatious crap we often see with billboard design, this idea was refreshingly concise and to the point, if a tad juvenile. And it's certainly less offensive than the "Back Got Back" commercial. Photo via @trippmickle.
May 20, 2013, 8:18 AM EDT
Goodby, Silverstein Brings the Funny for YouTube's First-Ever Comedy Week Ads and masthead hype Sunday's kickoff
To hype its inaugural Comedy Week, which begins Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET, YouTube turned to an ad agency known for generating its share of laughs: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The San Francisco-based shop's New York office whipped up a load of ads (many of them :15s) that have been airing in recent weeks starring the Comedy Week's actors and comedians. Check out a whole bunch of those spots below. (At the bottom is a longer promo with Arnold Schwartzenegger, which YouTube produced in-house, but we have to include because it's awkwardly hilarious.)
Goodby also designed a special YouTube masthead that will run all day Sunday to promote that night's kickoff. It shows a bathroom wall inside a comedy club. You can scroll around, click different doodles and find Easter eggs like Venn diagrams for classic jokes; a mounted moose head who doubts Comedy Week will be funny (he says things like "I have serious doubts about the funniness of this week" and "the humor is very subtle … and by subtle I mean unfunny"); and a phone number—(888) 303-3771—you can call for a good time (if you're not having one already).
The first two-hour live stream starts Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. New shows will air each night this week at midnight ET through Saturday. Guests will include Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Seth Rogen, Comedy Central's Tim and Eric, Conan O'Brien, Rainn Wilson, Ricky Gervais and Sarah Silverman, and YouTube stars The Gregory Brothers, Rhett & Link and Ryan Higa.
May 18, 2013, 1:16 PM EDT
Better Eyewear Means Fewer Dead Cats, Says Amusing Specsavers Ad Look closer
The best performance by a cat in a TV commercial this week goes to the fluffy mess in this new British spot for eyewear maker Specsavers. Not that the veterinarian here would know—he's not clear on what a cat is anymore. Specsavers, of course, has a long and proud history of offbeat commercials. The best mistaken-animal-identity spot, though, remains the brilliant raccoon commercial from Sears Optical.
May 17, 2013, 3:53 PM EDT
British Advertising Hits New Low With Commercial Starring Talking Butt Crack Seriously?
What a week it's been. As Friday draws to a close, I see your defecating man in the exercise video and your threesome-inducing Sexual Chocolate wine, and I raise you one talking butt crack in this British advert for something called Polycell. It's some sort of spray product that promises "No more unsightly cracks" in your walls. Unfortunately, there's one major unsightly crack in the commercial. And it talks. David Ogilvy would be proud. Agency: 18 Feet & Rising. Full list of perpetrators below.
May 17, 2013, 3:21 PM EDT
Dumb Ways to Die Is Now a Video Game for the iPhone and iPad McCann Australia extends beloved train-safety ad
There are now even more "Dumb Ways to Die"—and smart ways to live—as McCann Australia has made a video game out of its beloved, superviral train-safety ad from last year. "Starring all the characters from the viral hit Dumb Ways to Die for Metro Trains Melbourne, the game allows players to flick piranhas away from a character's private parts and defend another from a snake attack among other ways to avoid being dumb," the agency says. "Players can also pledge to 'not do dumb stuff around trains' at the click of a button." The game, developed by McCann in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia, said: "With the main Dumb Ways to Die video now close to 46 million views, we wanted to give young people another platform on which to enjoy the characters and, more importantly, to continue to remind them that being dumb around trains can and should be avoided."
May 17, 2013, 2:38 PM EDT
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