Advertising Is Good For You

My favorite e-holiday card

CLICK HERE to watch the e-holiday card created by TVM Studio and 4 Real Dough and brought to my attention by Copyranter.

My favorite holiday card from an advertising agency

This Instant New Year's Party Kit was developed by McCabe, Duval + Associates in Portland, Maine, and sent out as the advertising agency's holiday card. It includes a series of five 5" x 5" cards.

Card #1:

Card #2 is a cocktail recipe:

Card #3 lists New Year's Eve party music suggestions:

Card #4 illustrates how to dance the Salsa:

Card #5 provides hangover cures:

And the back of each card is a drink coaster:

Nordstrom: winner of this year's holiday gift card beauty pageant

By far the most beautiful retail gift card designs I could find are from Nordstrom:

All I want for Christmas is a mullet

LA digital agency Union Studio has created a fun holiday site called pHo-Ho-Hoto-Booth where you can upload a photo of yourself or a friend to create a Sears Portrait Studio-style image, complete with mullet and Christmas sweater options.

Glade should know that 'smells' are never a good thing

The ad that was produced:

The lyrics that inspired it:

CLICK HERE for the rest of the lyrics.

More on the importance of cleanliness

Advertising Agency: AW Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Caracas

Source: Ads of the World

Fresh approach to self-promotion from a freelance art director

Auckland freelance art director, Mari Pettersson, came up with this clever self-promotion piece. She explains:

As a fresh newcomer in freelancing, I wanted to approach some creative directors by delivering them a small poly-wrapped meat tray containing 'a fresh brain' = my business card. The label was personalized for each person. Number under the barcode is my phone number."

Looks a lot like the campaign from yesterday's post yet it's a completely different concept.

Source: Ads of the World

Lamborghini ads good-naturedly poke fun at Italian stereotypes

Source: Eternally Cool

Happy Chinese New Year

To celebrate the Chinese New Year last year, DDB International, Kuala Lumpur mailed the following greeting to its clients...

The mailing contained four pairs of chopsticks; the headline said: Great strength lies in numbers. With unity comes the belief that nothing can easily break us.

Source: ads of the world

A previous example of ad agency self-promotion: Guerrilla Hookers
 

Hal Riney's poo stinks

Political correctness has reached obnoxious levels. Normally, I thoroughly enjoy tipping sacred cows. But there's something unseemly about celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa with piles of excrement.

I'm referring to Publicis & Hal Riney's holiday e-card. Under the pretext of Warmest Holiday Greetings, the advertising agency's e-card is filled with images of boys squatting over the "warm present" each has just dropped. The e-card tells of the fictitious custom of placing a figurine of a pooping boy in the nativity scene. At the end of the card, the recipient is invited to send his or her own greeting written in excrement.

Tattooing a holiday greeting on Santa's butt is one thing, but bringing a pile of poo into the manger crosses the line.

Addendum

Once again, Saurio is right. (See comment.) The pooping kid in the manger is not a fictitious custom.

Saurio is also right that this whole thing looks very strange, indeed, to USAmerican eyes. I still don't think it's appropriate for a B2B holiday greeting in the States.