Today in More Canadian News, it’s not just Zulu Alpha Kilo.
Toronto/Quebec shop john st. has a history of offering its own annual #hottakes on just how nutty the ad industry can be. In the past, the company’s targets have ranged from “prankvertising” to Facebook-powered “catvertising” and birthday “pink ponies” (not a real trend) in addition to all the attention its hometown received thanks to a certain crack-friendly mayor (“More Than Ford“).
This year the video is even longer and the target even more obvious: it’s “femvertising,” or the female empowerment genre popularized by Dove, Always and pretty much every other CPG brand.
The shop even renamed itself “jane st.,” which is “an advertising agency that specializes in creating unique, authentic female empowerment messaging for any brand.” Ha ha.
(We liked the female Power Rangers and the “women!” whoop at the end there.)
The project’s website is a bit more direct with its critiques, from the tagline “powering empowerment through the power of brands” to this picture.
There’s also a fake shoe spot mocking both Tom’s and the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign. Copy: “beautiful soles start with a beautiful soul.”
You may not be surprised to learn that john st. is diverse enough to avoid appearing on the toomanyguysonegirl tumblr that people have been sharing this week. On a side note, its creator sort of explained his motivation to us yesterday.
@PatrickCoffee Ha! Too many guys make porn, too many guys make adverts. S’why i did it.
— Samuel Craven (@samtomtony) November 4, 2015
That’s not really why he did it.
Now let’s see john st. take on “sadvertising.”