Advertising Is Good For You

American Apparel's dressing and grooming policies

Jezebel has posted two emails it claims are from American Apparel's management advising employees on how to dress and groom.

In a nutshell, if you're a woman and you want to work at American Apparel, you have to be naturally beautiful.

If you're a man, any preppy look will do.

Individuality seems to be "advised against" for both sexes.

That's my take on it, anyway.

Judge for yourself. Click here to read American Apparel's dressing and grooming policies. 

For another good laugh, click here to read the dress code for women who hope to get into Cornell's Pi Phi sorority.

Image: Ellena Sanford

NSFW

StyleCrave has posted The 50 Sluttiest American Apparel Ads of all Time.

Oh. My. God.

Even though StyleCrave excluded nude photos and any photos that showed "nipples, bush or booty holes," some of the images are still jawdropping.

Like (and don't even think of opening this if your boss or Human Resources is in the building) this photo.

Making matters worse, American Apparel is using these images to target high school and college students.

Above is one of the tamer ads to make StyleCrave's list. The model is a high-profile porn star.

Parents, do you know about this stuff?

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

Ad campaign from Romania for Eastpak backpacks

I like that this campaign is a little dark. It's appropriate for the young audience the ads are targeting.

"Safe inside; 30-years warranty."

Advertising Agency: Grey Bucharest

Source: Ads of the World and Scary Ideas

The most popular inducements used by credit card companies to sign up college students

According to a survey of college students conducted by the Public Interest Research Group, here are the most popular "free gifts" used to entice college students to sign up for credit cards.

Source: The Consumerist

Top 15 Most Trusted Brands Among Consumers Aged 21 - 27

Outlaw Consulting recently surveyed 100 Generation Y "most forward trendsetter panelists" to learn, among other things, what brands they trusted most. The top 15 brands were:

Apple
Trader Joe's
Jet Blue
In-N-Out Burger
Ben & Jerry's
Whole Foods
Adidas
American Apparel
Target
H & M clothing stores
Levi's
Volkswagen
Converse
Vitamin Water
Red Stripe Jamaican beer

Outlaw Consulting also concluded that these trendsetting 21 - 27 year-olds prefer brands that speak to them in a "straightforward and stripped-down way, use plain packaging, and avoid excess."

Amen to that.

Source: MediaPost's Marketing Daily

Ah, heck, let's just make this whole day NC-17.

The advertising for Axe men's grooming products has done a great job of branding the stuff as the choice of young male hipsters by using over-the-top, sexually charged creative concepts, like this one...

To my surprise, this ad comes from the Arab world where I'd always assumed the advertising was even more conservative than the Puritan-appropriate stuff we have here in the U.S.

This ad is the work of Lowe MENA, United Arab Emirates.

Source: Ads of the World

Repeat after me, "Just because it's new and shiny and young people love it doesn't mean EVERYBODY should be using it."

Social networking site Facebook co-sponsored a conference over the weekend called 'Authentic Communications -- Examining Social Media & The Online Conversation.' The keynote speaker was FaceBook's VP of Corporate Development and Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Kelly.

I don't know for sure what was said at the conference but I'm betting it was something along the lines of... Social networking sites present a marketing innovation that will revolutionize the advertising industry, change the way companies talk to their customers, blah, blah, blah...

Before you start wondering, "What exactly is a paradigm shift, anyway?" take a deep breath.

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have been made popular largely by the exhibitionist tendencies of the young. These sites do indeed present an exciting, new way to talk to young people. But that hardly means EVERYBODY should start advertising on one of these sites.

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It's become a popular trend to give a brand its own MySpace profile. Which makes sense if your brand is one that young people care about, such as Rocky skateboards, retailer Abercrombie & Fitch or rapper Akon.

But brands like Girl Scout cookies and the Multiple Sclerosis Society now have their own MySpace profiles. Why? Who but a bunch of advertising/marketing geeks will actually go looking for these profiles? Because Facebook and MySpace are websites, my friend. One doesn't accidentally come across a MySpace profile the way one does a magazine ad.

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Remember the dot com crash? Actually, all that crashed were the dumbass ideas that rejected basic marketing principles. Don't forget that the next time someone tries to tell you that your company will be obsolete if you don't slap something up onto Facebook right now.

Addendum (posted 2 April 2007)

The conference, 'Authentic Communications -- Examining Social Media & The Online Conversation,' hasn't happened yet. It will be held on April 24th. Sorry for the misinformation and thanks to Steve for pointing it out!

Source: Wikipedia

 

Pepsi: You have to admire a company that can get its customers to pay for the privilege of advertising its products.

Pepsi is doing some interesting branding. They have a website called Pepsi Style where today's Pepsi generation can purchase Pepsi-themed T-shirts, jeans, dresses and fashion accessories.

Prices range from $15.99 - $75 per item.

Pepsi Style is a continuation of a similar and wildly successful promotion called Pepsi Stuff.

More Edgy Branding: Introducing Meth Coffee

Blah blah blah blah Meth Coffee. Blah blah blah blah extra caffeine blah blah. Blah blah blah branding blah blah blah young people blah blah blah. Parents blah blah angry blah blah blah protesting blah blah blah.

Source: Trend Hunter

You've got to wonder how many kids got the crap kicked out of them for trying to slap one of these stickers on the wrong person.

To make young people more aware that they may be carriers of HIV without even knowing it, volunteers canvassed the streets of Lima discreetly tagging these stickers on unknowing pedestrians.



In the first month of the campaign, there was an 80% increase in phone calls to the clinic; the calls resulted in a 70% increase in HIV tests.

Source: Scary Ideas

Do I smell college students?

Young people stink. And they know it.

Proctor & Gamble's Febreze, for example, is very popular with barhopping young people who come home with smelly clothes they'd rather wear again than have to do laundry.

Teenage girls are an especially big market for air fresheners.

"You can’t have enough scent with teenage girls,” says John Paquin, executive vice president and global account director for Febreze at Grey Worldwide, a WPP Group agency.

In fact, sales of air freshening products have increased 50% in the past three years alone.

That's according to an article in the New York Times that reports on the growing number of young people who are redefining and increasing the market for air fresheners.