Advertising Is Good For You

Ad campaign for Amtrak

Amtrak now has a sleepers available on its Boston/Chicago route.

I haven't spent the night in a sleeper car since the summer I bummed around Europe with five other high school girls and a nun. (Someday I'll tell you all about that. Don't let me forget to include the story of how we ended up in the middle of the red light district Amsterdam with the nun in tow.)

I sooooo want to take that Amtrak sleeper car the next time my husband and I visit my inlaws in Chicago. Look at this campaign and you'll probably understand why.

Advertising Agency: Arnold Worldwide, Washington DC

Source: Ads of the World

Green toilet paper

Green and very creative.

Package design by Studio Blackburn.

Source: The Dieline

Racial harmony + furniture = viral TV commercial

I love this wonderfully quirky TV spot for a furniture store in North Carolina.

Some, though, find it offensive.

Watch it and judge for yourself.

CLICK HERE to see the spot.

The spot was created by Rhett and Link.

Advertising Arts & Crafts: credit card bracelet

Now that banks are showing us their gratitude for bailing them out by raising our credit card rates, lowering credit lines and threatening to bring back annual fees, you may be tempted to throw out your cards. Don't. Make jewelry out of them instead.

Complete directions for making credit card bracelets are at Scavenging.

If you're not the jewelry-wearing type, you can make a credit card mosaic mirror.

Ads for DIRECTV in Colombia

"Watch it when you want to."

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Colombia, Bogota

Source: Ads of the World

Are bank ads really kidding anybody?

Since September 2007, the number of bank teller jobs has decreased by 56%.



That statistic shouldn't be surprising. Unless, of course, you believe everything you read in bank advertisements -- especially the parts about "personal service."

Source: Simply Hired

Who can resist a Jell-O mold competition?

Look at this poster. You just KNOW this event will be fun. The Jell-O shots and Kelso beer won't hurt things, either.

More information about the Jell-O mold competition HERE.

The $5-million billboard. Was it worth it?

This is the billboard behind Woody Allen's lawsuit against American Apparel. The line in Hebrew across the top says, "The Holy Rabbi."

Allen filed the suit last year, claiming the clothing retailer had used this photo from "Annie Hall" without his permission.

American Apparel used the First Amendment argument -- and suggested that Allen's worth as a celebrity endorser wasn't much given the child molesting allegations and all. (The judge decided the evidence regarding the child molestation accusation was "inconclusive.")

Allen and American Apparel settled out of court when American Apparel agreed to pay Allen $5 million -- a settlement American Apparel claims was insisted upon by the retailer's insurance company.

American Apparel obviously wanted controversy, but they didn't get the kind they wanted.

Woody Allen is in his 70s. "Annie Hall" was released in the 1970s. If the young hipsters American Apparel is after had any reaction at all to the billboard and ensuing lawsuit, it was likely a yawn. 

Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Wikipedia

Celebrity Saturday: celebs "design" fashion for charity

Department store H&M recruited celebrities to volunteer their design skills for a good cause. Dita Von Teese, Katy Perry and Cyndi Lauper among others designed T-shirts to benefit the fight against AIDS.

The T-shirts will go on sale at H&M, proceeds will be donated to HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns.

How much actual design work these celebs did -- as opposed to, say, approving designs and agreeing to take credit for them -- is anybody's guess. When it's for a good cause, I think most people are willing to to suspend disbelief. 

Source: Daily Mail 

Roll your eyes and think about how much you've come to hate the word 'edgy'

A five-story billboard in Manhattan:

Source: copyranter

Ads for Vancouver Convention Center

The last time I went to a conference, I left immediately after it was announced that lunch would be followed by team-building exercises and role-playing games.

Advertising Agency: DDB Canada

Source: Ads of the World

Pfizer does something nice

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced a new program that I hope will be copied by other pharmaceutical companies.

People who have lost their jobs and their health insurance will be able to continue to take their Pfizer medications for FREE, for up to a year.

 

As of now, there's no cap on how much Pfizer is willing to spend on this program.

Read more about this program, including how to sign up for it, at Huffington Post.

Women were first portrayed as busty airheads 35,000 years ago

A team of archeologists made an incredible discovery in a German cave. They found what is believed to be one of the oldest examples of figurative art.

It's an ivory carving of a woman. A woman whose most marked features are really big boobs and a tiny head.

The second I saw the carving, my heart sank.

I mean, look at her.

It's not much of a stretch to assume the carver thought the woman's most important asset was her voluptuous body. Which by itself wouldn't be as bad. But factor in the pinhead and it's hard not to think the carver was making a sexist statement.

On the bright side, it kind of vindicates advertising. At least my industry didn't start the woman-as-bimbo image.

Sources: Dallas News, New York Times