P.S.A. (Penguin Suicide ADventures) Alert!

If you haven’t heard of Vincent J.F. Huang you wouldn’t be the only one, but this Chinese artist/activist has been creating some waves with his campaign against Global Warming featuring “suicidal penguins” in different parts of London.

 

His website also has a statement from the “Penguins Representative Bureau of London” explaining their “peaceful demonstration”. Now, I support this guy’s intentions wholeheartedly, but the problem for me is that it’s so hard to take it seriously. I mean all I could do when I first saw this was laugh uncontrollably and inexplicably, much to the amusement (well I say amusement, they say annoyance) of my coworkers.

I know that EVERY other global warming campaign out there has that preachy, self-righteous tone down to a tee, so the artist has to be commended for not smacking us across the face with a climatology overload (that’s the science of climate change, for those not familiar with the official terminology), but even then I just find the attack of the guerilla penguins a little too “cutesy” to really do anything about.

A closer look at the artist’s website also reveals a mildly disturbing obsession with penguins, with penguin paintings, sculptures, terracotta penguins, you name it. His stand against a global issue seems to fit in just a little too conveniently with his penguin-love. So could his campaign just be a not-so-cleverly guised attempt to extend his portfolio of penguin-themed artworks? Just saying.

Move over Band-AiD

My day just got a little bit brighter after seeing this one. From the, lets face it, purely ingenious makers of Bacon breath mints, Bacon air freshener and the lip-smacking Bacon lip balm comes this range of Bacon strips Adhesive bandages. And if your bacon’s getting a bit lonely there, you could always opt for the Bacon and Eggs Bandage Assortment –

This might just be the greatest thing since bacon-flavoured vodka (unless you’re a vegetarian. Or a non-cannibalistic pig.), but on a more serious note, this has to be a joke right? Not according to the website it aint. The website describes the product as 3″ x 1″ Bacon Strips cut to look like small slabs of bacon. Check out this crazy website for all sorts of novelty bacon items -http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Bacon-Bandages.html# - well worth a look.

ADage of the day: more than meets the eye

Just came across this site dedicated to an alternate comic universe called “Garfield minus Garfield” (just fyi, Garfield is my favourite comic strip of all time. I mean an acid-tongued, lasagne loving, Monday hating lazy cat? I basically AM Garfield). 

But back to what I was talking about, I came across this site where the author removes the Garfield character and all his dialogues from the strips to, in his own words, “reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle”. Check out some of the strips below, and if you like what you see you should really check out the website at – http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

 

I mean the strips are eerily funny in a way (in that I don’t know whether to smirk sympathetically at the dark alter meaning or laugh appreciatively at the wit of the guy who noticed it kind of way), but really, more interestingly, uncover a layer of the beloved cartoon which I don’t think a lot of people would’ve conciously comprehended. Even Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield and occasional reader of the G-G works, called the work, “an inspired thing to do”.

 The reason that I found this intriguing, apart from the fact that I’m sure there’s a crisis hotline ad hidden somewhere in there, is that it really addresses the subconcious. There are so many hidden messages in the media today, deliberate or otherwise, that consumers are so sure would never, ever be able to trick them. They might want to reevaluate that. Most things have a lot more layers and interpretations than you’d care to imagine

(PS. this is not meant to sound as scary and/or spooky as it’s probably coming off, I promise!)

Superbowl ADs!!!

The Superbowl might not inspire a wave of euphoria amongst a lot to us folks over on this side of the Atlantic, but we sure as hell like to wait out the weekend to get all the scoop on the American Holy Grail of advertising.

Anybody who wants their brand to be seen, and has the cash to back it up, will want a spot at the highly anticipated mega-event. To be perfectly honest I’m not the biggest fan of the slapstick humour that seems to be a mainstay of American advertising. I mean I understand that the ads at the Superbowl are going to be seen by a bunch of beer-guzzling, chip-downing football fans, but still some of these ads are simply unfunny (I am slightly embarrassed to say though that the Denny’s ad with the chickens screaming once they find out about the number of eggs that are going to be needed for the Grand Slam breakfast gets me every time…see it below here)

Anyway my favourite ad of the night was a spot for Google titled “Parisian Love”. Check it out below –

What was so great about this one was how it stood out so starkly through its sheer simplicity. No thrills, no frills and no loud men without pants (see Dockers Superbowl ad). It hit home at an emotional level. It gave Google a personality. It made them human.

Google don’t really advertise that much (which I don’t think you would particularly need to when your company name starts getting used as a common verb), but maybe this year they felt like they had to with the rise of Bing. Whatever their reasons, they’ve probably got the audiences right where they want them now – eating from the palm of their hands.

good day/bAD day

Saw this interesting trailer for a new documentary called Lemonade. The feature is made by a thrice laid off copywriter and is about recently laid off ad execs who found other creative and fulfilling ways to spend their lives. Take a look below –

Having only seen the trailer and not the actual film itself, which at 40 mins long seems like it should be quite short and sweet, I’m not reviewing it. Here’s what I do think of the topic – there are 2 ways of looking at it.

One is that it provides a much needed and appreciated glimmer of hope in bleak economic times. Murmurs of things getting better have been going around for a while, but I’ve got to see it to believe it.

Another, however, is that it’s glamourizing the idea of getting laid off. I mean life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for people who lose their jobs. Sorry to put a dampener on things but take for example the guy who now has time to plan his daughter’s wedding – sounds great but is he really going to now, realistically, be able to afford that dream wedding??

I mean it’s awesome to think that getting laid off can be the best thing that could happen to a person and everybody gets a fairytale ending but unfortunately things don’t turn out like that in most cases.

ADdressing the issue

Here in Singapore you don’t really see a lot of very interesting commercial advertising work (no offence). After a while the hordes of advertising messages start to blur into one another. So it’s interesting once in a while to come across something different, not mind-blowingly fabulous, just different – something that stands out.

Like the recent Singpost campaign – to show their support for the Youth Olympic Games they were organizing this competition where people where gonna be painting 40 mailboxes island-wide. Now to promote the competition they set out to create a viral frenzy by spray painting a few mailboxes in the city area to signify free expression.

Now this post is not about how good, bad or ugly the campaign is – it’s been generating a bit of hype on the mother-ship that is youtube, but today I come across this article – http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_474487.html - which basically reports that Singpost has had to apologize to the police for their “act of vandalism”.

What I don’t get is that is it really vandalism when you spray paint a bunch of mailboxes THAT BELONG TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?? I’ve been living in this country for the last 3 years and have never completely bought the whole Stepford wifesque perfection which it portrays. Don’t get me wrong, I like living in this place, but there’s something to say about a nation of people who live in constant fear of governmental reprimand.

2010 A.D.

Yeah, I know, I know I haven’t been too diligent in updating this blog but I’ve been back home in India for the last 3 weeks or so. And before the haughty sniggers of “third-world country without Internet” drown me out, I’d like to add that I was handling a jam-packed schedule of 3 weddings (none mine, thank god) and didn’t even have time to breathe, let alone get to my laptop and type in any new entries. So this is just a short message to say a big cyber HAPPY NEW YEAR to the blogerazzi folk out there!!! Have an ADventurous 2010!!

A Dilemma

What’s the only thing worse than sitting amid the ruins of crumpled paper that are evidence of an ongoing creative block? Having an idea you think is positively brilliant and then finding out its been done before.

Here’s where my story begins. In college (which was just a couple of months ago, by the way), I had designed an online campaign for ebay Singapore. It was basically a microsite where people could sell or buy each other’s unwanted gifts. The idea was to promote ebay amongst the Singaporean youth, based on the insight that on ebay you can make money off things you don’t want or need. (See “evidence” section for what I’m talking about.)

Today I came across this site – http://badgiftemporium.com/ - it’s an agency Christmas greeting from Missouri based agency, Barkley. The ideas are for two completely different products, but are uncannily similar. At this point I’m faced with a dilemma – I’m really proud of the idea and think it answers the brief really well. But do I continue to keep it in my book knowing that there’s something similar to it already out there. I mean it is possible for two completely unrelated people to come upon the same solution independently, but are people generous enough to give a junior copywriter trying to make it in the industry the benefit of the doubt???

ADDICTIONARY#1 : BUGGING INTO BUYING

My last post about the Coca-Cola Velcro poster included one of my several personally coined terms which “normal” people may or may not understand. So for the benefit of everyone I’m starting a dictionary of terms which I use, starting with -

Bugging into buying :

Ads that are so bad they’e good. They make you cringe or annoy you to the point where you want to shoot yourself. But the irony lies herein, these are the ones you’ll be telling your friends about, the ones you’ll be posting on Facebook and discussing over drinks. These are the ones that you remember. These are the ones that bug you into buying.

ADhesives in advertising?hmmm…

Check out this outdoor poster for Coca-Cola (Paris) to demonstrate the selling point of their new bottles equipped with a better grip for holding. It’s printed entirely on Velcro and preys on innocent passersby to literally “hook them onto the campaign.”

I get the idea. It is an interesting use of the medium, if not a bit of an obvious one. My problem is more with coke’s demonstration video, which seems like one hell of an editing job. I give them credit for, “most innovative use of Velcro in an ad,” but honestly I’m harried enough as it is at the bus stop without having posters tug at my clothes. The people in the video seem totally nonplussed, mildly curious at best, when the Velcro, rather annoyingly, sticks to their expensive looking sweaters and scarves. I would love to see the original, unedited footage, sure to contain some language that might not be suitable for children below 18.

For me the novelty factor is slightly outweighed by the annoyance factor, (unlike Volkswagen’s piano stairs, which was pure perfection). But in all honesty, that might not be the worst thing. If the only aim of this poster was to put the product onto the consumer’s radar, then job done. Even if you were annoyed by it, you probably wouldn’t forget it or the message it was selling, so even though I’m not a fan of the “bugging into buying” technique (that term is going to be copyrighted by me soon, by the way) – I have to begrudgingly admit that it probably did do its bit in this case. All in all didn’t give me all that much of a buzz – pity since I’ve been craving one for sometime now.