Top 30 AdFreak Stories of 2013

Here are the 30 most read stories on AdFreak in 2013: 30. Intriguing Ads Tell Young Girls: 'You're Not a Princess' and 'Life's Not a Fairytale' By Rebecca Cullers A tiny, all-female Catholic college-prep academy in Kentucky has created a curious ad campaign, via agency Doe-Anderson, that tells young women, "You're not a princess" and "Life's not a fairytale," and advises them: "Don't wait for a prince." The tagline is: "Prepare for real life." Read the full story. 29. Low Self-Esteem Is Not a Problem in Dove's Real Beauty Sketches … for Men By Tim Nudd Ogilvy Brazil's "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign for Dove took the Internet by storm this week with its clever use of a forensics artist to show women that they're really more beautiful than they think. What would happen if you tried the same experiment on men? Read the full story. 28. Model From Famous Photoshop Video Gets More Drastic Makeover for the Holidays By Tim Nudd It's agency holiday-card season, and we're going to start posting some of the more interesting and amusing examples—beginning with this one from Victors & Spoils. Read the full story. 27. H&M Winning Raves for Having a Normal-Looking Woman Model Its Beachwear By David Griner It would be nice if we didn't live in a world where this is considered news, but for better or worse, it is. H&M has selected a swimwear model who actually has a normal human body. Read the full story. 26. It's 2013, and People Are Still Getting Worked Up About Interracial Couples in Ads By Tim Nudd It's another one of those things that shouldn't be a story but is—an ad from a major U.S. brand featuring an interracial couple and their daughter. Read the full story. 25. Did Lego Already Win Christmas With This Fantastic Father-Son Ad? By Tim Nudd Christmas ads are just around the corner, and Lego storms out of the gate with this wonderful TV spot from Amsterdam agency We Are Pi and director Joanna Bailey. Read the full story. 24. April Fools' Day 2013: Best of the Brand Hoaxes By Rebecca Cullers Ah, April Fools' Day. The Super Bowl of satire. The one day when brands are free to indulge in off-brand, often hilarious communications without catastrophic repercussions. Click below to see our list of this year's pranks. Read the full story. 23. Check Out the Trailer That Was Just Named the Best of the Year By David Kiefaber This is it: the best trailer of the year. Or at least that's the opinion of the top awards show for advertising in the cinema, TV and video game industries. Read the full story. 22. IAC's PR Chief Apparently Tweeted a Bizarrely Tasteless Joke About AIDS and Africa By David Griner If Justine Sacco is on a flight to Africa right now, I don't envy her the notifications that will be waiting for her when she lands. Read the full story. 21. Company's Amazing Reply to a Raging Customer Has Fans and Orders Pouring In By David Griner Every once in a while, giving a foul-tempered customer a public skewering can be good for business. At least that seems to be the lesson of Liberty Bottleworks, whose polite but eviscerating reply to a Facebook complaint has gone viral and generated vocal support for the small business. Read the full story. 20. How to Totally Freak People Out Simply With the Info They Share in Social Media By David Griner Every once in a while, it's good to be reminded just how much information we're giving to complete strangers every day, and I'm not talking about the NSA. Read the full story. 19. The Corporate States of America: A Map That Shows Each State's Most Famous Brand By David Gianatasio Artist and writer Steve Lovelace is getting some buzz for his "Corporate States of America" map, showing the most famous brand (as of 2012) that originated in each of the 50 states. Read the full story. 18. McDonald's Won't Be Lovin' This NYC Sidewalk Art Piece by Banksy By Tim Nudd Anti-Ronald McDonald art has a long, proud, often vomitous history. Banksy adds to that tradition today, unveiling a menacing Ronald having his giant shoes shined as part of his "Better Out Than In" artist residency on the streets of New York. Read the full story. 17. Mock Commercial for Beans Is Better Than Almost Any Real Commercial for Anything By Tim Nudd Visual effects studio Cinesite produced this crazy-good mock commercial as a way to show off its creature animation skills. Read the full story. 16. Chuck Norris Does His Own Epic Split in This Festively Insane Holiday Video By David Griner How do you one-up Jean-Claude Van Damme doing splits atop two Volvo trucks? With Chuck Norris doing splits on two airplane wings, of course. Read the full story. 15. The Most Stunning Ad Ever Made for a Used Car With 128,000 Miles That's Been Puked In Twice By Tim Nudd "You're going to need an abacus to keep track of all the ass you'll be getting in this thing!" That's one of dozens of stellar lines in this homemade ad—a truly astonishing collage posted to Craigslist by one Nate Walsh. Read the full story. 14. Star Wars Imperial Forces Invade Thomas Kinkade Paintings By David Griner Artist Jeff Bennett has invaded the cloying world of Thomas Kinkade with the full might of the Galactic Empire. Read the full story. 13. Jesus, Gandhi and Mother Teresa Stump for Unicef in Extremely Virtuous Holiday Ads By David Gianatasio Forget about those famous Internet felines in Friskies' Christmas spot. The real holiday supergroup is in this campaign from Forsman & Bodenfors for Unicef Sweden. Read the full story. 12. The 25 Biggest Brand Fails of 2013 By Tim Nudd Arrogant, intolerant, sexist, disgusting, cheesy, tasteless, just plain stupid. Brand fails come in all kinds of off-putting shapes and sizes, though one thing remains constant—the guilty adrenaline rush of ad-enfreude that onlookers feel while watching brands implode for everyone to see. Read the full story. 11. 3 Girls Smash Gender Roles to Smithereens in Toy Company's Glorious Debut Ad By David Griner One of the most anti-feminist songs of the 1980s, "Girls" by the Beastie Boys, is recast as an empowering theme for young women in a new toy ad looking to break gender stereotypes. Read the full story. 10. Famous Photos Reimagined as Selfies in Newspaper's Wonderful Print Ads By David Kiefaber Lowe South Africa developed a campaign for the Cape Times newspaper last spring in which famous photographs—the wartime kiss, Beyers Naude and Desmond Tutu, Winston Churchill smoking, etc.—were reimagined as selfies. Read the full story. 9. Ron Burgundy's Hilariously Stupid Dodge Durango Campaign Is Destined for Greatness By Tim Nudd The only thing better than Will Ferrell doing brilliantly stupid ads as Will Ferrell? Will Ferrell doing brilliantly stupid ads as Ron Burgundy. Read the full story. 8. Burger King's Name Change to Fries King Is Making People Hungry and Confused By Tim Nudd Between the French Fry Burger and the new Satisfries, Burger King has been really into fries lately. Now, the chain is taking this obsession a step further by pretending to change its name to Fries King—and posting a load of photos to Facebook showing the unveiling of a new corporate identity. Read the full story. 7. Watch the Thai Commercial That Has Half the World Sobbing Uncontrollably By Rebecca Cullers Looking for a tear-jerker today? Thai mobile company TrueMove has got you covered with this story of a noodle seller whose generous act toward a young boy with a sick mother brings unexpected rewards 30 years later. Read the full story. 6. Amazing Pantene Ad Defiantly Tackles How Women in the Workplace Are Labeled By Roo Ciambriello Pantene Philippines has launched a powerful campaign pointing out how identical behavior often earns men and women different labels in the workplace. Read the full story. 5. Bertolli Makes the Most of Barilla Chairman's Anti-Gay Comments By Tim Nudd Barilla is struggling enough this week without its competitors piling on. But Bertolli doesn't care. Read the full story. 4. Watch the Most Bafflingly Awesome New-Product Demo of 2013 So Far By David Kiefaber Everyone is raving about NeverWet, a spray-on waterproof coating that Rust-Oleum is manufacturing and distributing in North America in return for royalty payments. I didn't get what all the fuss was about, but then I saw this product demonstration video. Read the full story. 3. Dove Hires Criminal Sketch Artist to Draw Women as They See Themselves and as Others See Them By Rebecca Cullers Gil Zamora is an FBI-trained forensics artist with over 3,000 criminal sketches under his belt. Dove (through Unilever's U.K. office) and Ogilvy Brazil hired him to interview and draw seven different women—two sketches of each. Read the full story. 2. Powerful Ads Use Real Google Searches to Show the Scope of Sexism Worldwide By David Griner Here's a simple and powerful campaign idea from UN Women using real suggested search terms from Google's autocomplete feature. Read the full story. 1. Kmart Hunks Play 'Jingle Bells' With Their Junk in Crazy Christmas Ad By Tim Nudd Check out the Kmart studs in the retailer's crazy Christmas cross-promotion with Joe Boxer via Draftfcb in Chicago—swaying their sacks to chime out their own impressive version of the holiday standard. Read the full story.

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Top 30 AdFreak Stories of 2013

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