Advertising Is Good For You

'Hey, mortgage company, thanks for scaring the crap out of me' said no one ever

A very official-looking envelope arrived in the mail yesterday. I knew it was probably junk mail but I opened it anyway. Just in case.

This is what was inside:

For a split second I thought the IRS was was after me.

But, no, this was an offer to refinance my mortgage. To an adjustable rate mortgage, no less.

The folks at Residential Finance designed their direct mail solicitation to look like something from the IRS.

Look at the box in the top right-hand corner of the blue letter, then look at this sample 1099 from the IRS:

The similarity was just close enough to fool me into a momentary panic. 

Once I realized what it really was, I scanned the solicitation to use in this post. And then I put it through the shredder.

Scaring people is not a good advertising strategy.

"How did they get this Dora ice cream to look so much like Dora?"

                                                                — Jim Gaffigan

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

Kinder Happy Hippos actually look as advertised

Unlike some other foods that look tragically different than what is advertised. Such as SpongeBob SquarePants Popsicles.

And Tweety Bird pops.

Source of Kinder images: lala-on-the-gogo

Every Day is April Fools in the World of Food Photography

Years ago, a canned soup company got in trouble because its advertising implied there were more vegetables in its vegetable soup than there really were. Specifically, the photo in its ad was considered deceptive. Turns out, the canned soup folks had put clear marbles into the bowl before filling it with soup; the vegetables sat on top of the marbles, peaking out of the liquid, giving the impression of soup brimming with vegetables.

Most food styling tricks are not meant to deceive but to simply make food appear appetizing. Most consumers know this and are okay with cake mix ads showing perfectly frosted cakes with nary a stray crumb -- like these gorgeous examples from Betty Crocker.

 

Food stylists are professionals whose job it is to make food look gorgeous despite hot studio lighting and photo shoots that often last all day. And their bag of tricks is fascinating.

For example, they use white glue instead of milk when photographing bowls of cereal. For one thing, the glue won't curdle. For another, it won't soak into the cereal. And it's easier to control -- no small thing to a food stylist who's spent Lord knows how much time sifting through boxes of corn flakes and picking out the most attractive flakes.

Photocritic has posted a great list of food styling tools (motor oil, spray deodorant, shoe polish, etc.) and their uses. It's a fun read.  To see the article, CLICK HERE.

 

Liar, liar, squarepants on fire!

See how Tweety lies, too. 

Source: Boing Boing

Clorox Stinks in More Ways Than One

Mouseprint reports on some sleazy tactics from Clorox bleach.

If you've wandered down your supermarket's laundry detergent aisle anytime recently you've probably noticed that Clorox bleach now comes in regular scent (that would be YMCA pool smell multiplied by 100) as well as Citrus Blend, Fresh Meadow, and Mountain Fresh.

What you probably didn't know is that the new, sweet-smelling Clorox bleaches contain only half the active ingredient that makes bleach do its job. And Clorox doesn't mention it on the label of the new scented bleaches.

Clorox does, however, mention it in a place where it's actually a selling point: on the label of regular, eye-burning, nose-stinging Clorox:

The scented bleaches contain a sodium hypochlorite concentration of 2.75%.  Clorox Bleach - Regular Scent has a sodium hypochlorite concentration of 6%.

As I said, it's sleazy.

Have you ever noticed that white athletic socks, white towels and pretty much anything else that you'd want to keep white with laundry bleach comes with a "No chlorine bleach" warning on the care tag? Why is that? And why do I sound like Andy Rooney?

Stella McCartney Care ad challenges the standard definitions of perfection. And it does so beautifully.

Generally speaking, I don't like cosmetic advertising. It's often misleading (e.g. artificial lash-wearing women selling mascara) and it typically conveys an artificial world peopled by men and women of unattainable beauty.

In most ads for cosmetics, every perceived imperfection is photoshopped. In the unforgiving eyes of most advertising creatives, no professional model's face is clear enough, no surface is clean enough, no flower is perfect enough to escape photoshopping.

And that is why this ad from Stella McCartney Care should be celebrated and revered by anyone who feels advertising contributes to the insecurities and unrealistic expectations of all of us.

From the looks of it, there's been very little photoshopping done to the two photos in this ad.

The product shot has the kind of shadows and reflections of light that are not typically not tolerated by professional photo retouchers.

The other photo features plain old weedy grass and bald patches of dirt. The model appears to be wearing very little makeup. And while it would be naive to think that a hairdresser hadn't worked on the model's hair, the style does provide an accurate impression of unstyled hair.

The effect? An ad that clearly communicates that this luxury cosmetic line is natural, organic and devoid of anything artificial.

More subtly, the ad also illustrates that perfection is not a necessary component of beauty.

Source: Notcot

Kids didn't know what 'illusory' meant. And they were too lazy to look it up.

Every baby boomer raised in the U.S. remembers the ad for X-ray glasses... The titillating promise of seeing people naked... And the I-should-have-known-better disappointment that accompanied our buyer's remorse.

For many more examples of vintage advertising, visit my other blog, Found in Mom's Basement.

Click image to enlarge.