Advertising Is Good For You

$19.80 fares to Cartagena, Columbia, hookers not included

Spirit Airlines had to pull this ad alluding to the recent Secret Service agents and prostitutes scandal. 

People found the ad offensive.

And Spirit didn't see that coming?

Jessica Biel and Pharrell in new Revlon commercial

Revlon got Oscar-winning director Darren Aronofsky to work on the cosmetic company's most recent mascara commercial. The spot stars Jessica Biel and Pharrell Williams.

Click here to watch Darren Aronofsky's Revlon commercial starring Jessica Biel and Pharrell Williams.

The spot also features outrageously false eyelashes. To sell mascara. And, yes, apparently that's perfectly legal in the US.

Britain, on the other hand, doesn't allow deceptive cosmetic advertising. Click here to read how Britain deals with mascara ads that feature models wearing false eyelashes.

Kudos to Britain for pulling deceptive ads

British officials have banned a Rimmel mascara campaign for being misleading.

The TV spot features Georgia May Jagger (daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall) modeling three different lash looks supposedly created by Rimmel's 1-2-3 Looks Mascara.

Trouble is, the ad features tiny print that mentions the photos were "shot with lash inserts," double speak for false eyelashes.

The British Advertising Standards Authority thinks the campaign is cheating and ordered it pulled.

Good.

Too bad American companies aren't held to the same high standard.

As any woman familiar with American fashion magazines can tell you, mascara ads in this country typically feature models who are wearing false eyelashes or have had their lashes digitally lengthened to outrageous lengths.

To prove my point, here are cropped photos from all the mascara ads featured in the November 2010 issue of In Style magazine. Click the images to enlarge them and get a true sense of how ridiculous the eyelashes appear.

American women are used to this type of blatant deception in our cosmetic ads. But that doesn't make it right.

Via StyleList

Mean-spirited billboard

The "gender testing" line is an obvious swipe at Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was pressured into taking a gender test to prove she was female.

Surely the Teazers people could have found a way to promote their club without being assholes.

Ad that promotes "pornography and prostitution"

The Guard Dogs, a French and Swiss feminist organization, has named this ad for Sloggi underwear the most degrading ad of the year.

The headline, "On Special Offer," led the feminist organization to accuse the ad of promoting pornography and prostitution.

I wouldn't go so far as to defend this ad but, honestly, this is the most offensive advertising these feminists could find? They weren't looking very hard.

The Guard Dogs would probably get the vapors if they came across this ad.

Source: The Sun via Jezebel

22% of the world's spam comes from Russia

Source: The Consumerist        Image: Colour Lovers

Contextual advertising is mean to baby squirrels

I was watching a heartwarming video of a mama cat feeding the baby squirrels she had adopted when an ad for "Squirrel Removal Services" popped up.

Next, an ad for "Louisianna Cajun Foods, shipper of meats, seafood, sweets" appeared.

Contextual advertising can be scary.

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If you love animals even when they're not on your plate, you can watch the video HERE.

Hey, Johnny. Your dad just died. What are you going to do next?

A banner ad that caught my attention for all the wrong reasons:

Three more reasons to hate AIG

Click the images to enlarge and read the text that promises, among other things:

Put your mind at ease. With the AIG companies, you're tapping into more than 85 years of wisdom and expertise that can help make your retirement savings last."

And be sure not to miss the irony of the tag line, "The strength to be there."

From Kiplinger's, August 2008:

From Money, September 2008:

From Kiplinger's, November 2008:

Did AIG know it was going under when these ads ran? I don't know, but I can make some educated guesses.

First of all, AIG probably reserved advertising space in the magazines at least six months in advance, even more if they wanted to negotiate a really good price.

Second, the finished ads were probably delivered to the publications electronically at least three months before the date on the publication. So the ad in the November Fortune was probably a done deal back in July/August.

Third, if an advertising and/or media agency were involved, they didn't have a clue. Advertising agencies don't get paid in advance. So even if you think advertising people are scum you can understand that an advertising agency would not do work for a company that was not likely to be able to pay its bills.

Fourth, I bet the advertising/marketing department at AIG was one of this first departments to lay off a lot of people.

Ironically, most business books, marketing classes and MBA programs advise that when your company is struggling you should INCREASE your advertising/marketing budget. Well, duh. When you need to increase sales just to stay in business, of course you should step up your promotional efforts. Yet, in practice, when most companies hit tough times the first cut they make is to their advertising/marketing budget.

The Brother Project Runway Limited Edition sewing machine isn't actually used on the show

I was at an online fabric store today when I discovered that Brother makes a special Project Runway Limited Edition sewing machine. The TV reality show, in which aspiring fashion designers compete against one another, is wildly popular with creative types who like to make stuff.

There's just one catch. This sewing machine is computerized. And as any Project Runway viewer knows, the machines the designers use on the show are famously not computerized. This was made obvious in the first episode of season three when contestant Stacey Estrella was eliminated in the first round because she had never before sewed with a non-computerized machine and it showed in the construction of her garment.

Apparently, the only connection this machine has to Project Runway is that it is endorsed and promoted by Jillian Lewis, one of the three finalists in season four of Project Runway.

Seems to me, calling this the Project Runway Limited Edition machine is rather misleading.

 

One man's revenge on a spammer

Yesterday's Boston Globe Magazine recounts an exchange in which writer Mark Pothier cons a spammer. It's very funny.

CLICK HERE to read The Spam Victim Strikes Back!

I thought kindergarten dress codes prohibited high heels and feather boas

Beyonce and her mother Tina Knowles have released the ads for their latest collection of little girl clothes under their House of Dereon brand.

Source: Style Dash

Happy 30th Birthday, Spam Email

According to Wired, as of 1 May 1978, Spam was no longer just a suspicious lunch meat. On that day, the first spam message was written -- although it wasn't sent until two days later via email to 400 unsuspecting poor bastards people. That particular spam was a promotional message sent by Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation.

Don't you wish you had Gary's email address so you could send him a spam message of your own?

Image: Liesel Elliott