Advertising Is Good For You

I didn't know Massengill made air conditioners

Source: Davezilla

That's one freakin' strong paper towel

When Duval Guillaume, Antwerp, needed to communicate to restaurant owners the strength of Scott paper towels, the advertising agency came up with this great B2B direct mail idea: a mailing printed on a paper towel, folded, stamped and mailed to restaurant owners.

Source: Ads of the World

Milk and cookies are no longer enough. Today's Santa expects a comfortable place to...

Source: Accordion Guy   

Billboard product demo

In this outdoor advertising for Henkel Superglue, the white space is used to demonstrate the product benefit.

Advertising agency: DDB, Paris

Source: I Believe in Advertising

The opposite of product demonstration advertising

Source: Bits and Pieces   

An ad that focuses on the primary product benefit.

So simple. So great.

Source: Scary Ideas

This Heinz ad is hot stuff.

My husband loves hot, spicy food. So people are always giving him hot sauce. Our kitchen is cluttered with bottles of fiery red stuff with names like Widow Maker, Liquid Stoopid, Satan's Blood, Ass Blaster, and Slap Yo' Mama (I bought him that one during my last trip to New Orleans).

Surely by now I'd seen all the possible ways of conveying very hot hot sauce.

Wrong.

This ad for Heinz Hot Ketchup still managed to impress me.

Source: Scary Ideas

Charmin Tells New Yorkers Where to Go/Part II

Last week I told you how Proctor & Gamble was promoting Charmin Bathroom Tissue by constructing a 20-stall public restroom in Times Square.

The facilities opened Monday and Gothamist has provided photos...

P&G has hired workers to clean the bathrooms after each use; these toilets are cleaner than the ones at home!

Alas, these commodious restrooms will be open only until December 31st.

Playsafe Condom Ads: My mom won't let me enjoy these ads.

When I was very little, my mother made three things very clear: never talk to strangers; don't stick anything into the electrical sockets; and don't put plastic bags on your head.

As an adult, one must talk to strangers if one is to find out where the lavatory is or in what aisle to find the toothpicks, for example. But Mom's advice about electrical sockets and plastic bags still holds.

That's why I find these ads so disturbing. Their humor and edginess are totally obfuscated by my inner child screaming, "He's suffocating!"

Among other things, condoms are supposed to save lives not extinguish them. These images seem a very odd choice to me.

Agency: Leo Burnett Singapore

Source: Ads of the World

InSinkErator is suing NBC for "irreparably tarnishing" its product.

Let's say you have to buy a new garbage disposal. Can you imagine yourself thinking:

Any brand but InSinkErator. I think they're dangerous because I watched a young woman on a TV show show off her superhero powers by putting her hand down a drain and turning on the InSinkErator garbage disposal so it chopped her fingers off. Her fingers grew back. I don't think my fingers would grow back if I used an InSinkErator to chop them off. I'm staying away from that brand.

And yet the company that manufactures the InSinkErator presumes we're all just that dumb.

Emerson Electric has filed suit against NBC because a character on the show Heroes demonstrated her supernatural powers by purposefully mangling her fingers in a garbage disposal that just happened to bear the InSinkErator name. Emerson thinks the scene "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product."

If Emerson Electric had been my client, I would have suggested they ask NBC for permission to use the scene promotional purposes, with a  concept something like, "Strong enough to stand up to a superhero. Imagine what it does to potato peels." I bet NBC would have let them, too.  

Source: Media Post's Around the Net