Dos Equis has announced that it has tapped legendary underground Ring Master, Jim Rose of the Jim Rose Circus for it's new "Most Entertaining Man" campaign. On the heels of Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man" ads, Jim Rose has signed on to perform a number of exclusive performances in bars and clubs around the country. Can the same man who brought us Mr. Lifto and Enigma (no pictures, this is a family blog) and who was a staple on the live music scene way back when Lalapalooza was still a rock festival, put the rebel back into beer? Lets hope so.
For the magazine's 75th Anniversary, Esquire took their limited addition covers to another level. Some of the Magazine's advertisers were more than happy to join in and experiment with the endless possibilities of the new technology.
DC Shoe company, has launched easily one of my favorite campaigns of the year. The campaign, "Progression" was kicked off with a $25 coffee table book, Agents of Changefeaturing photography chronicling the shoe company's rise to be one of the most influential athletic brands of all time. Says DC President Ken Block of the book,
"It puts it all in perspective...People involved in the sports can look at the book for the stories on the athletes and the photos, but its reach is huge beyond that."
The campaign is equally far reaching, a recent relaunch of the DC website matches the solemn black & White photography and elegant story telling of the book and sits in stark contrast to how the public viewed the alternative sports industry in the 1990's. In August the company aired the first commercial toting the progression tag line and an equally solemn yet elegant track "Figure 8" originally from the show, School House Rocks provides a surreal sound track. DC seems to have tapped into something amazing in that they have realized that their customers like the company itself, has grown up in the last couple years and that the 14 year-old year athlete in 1994, is now turning 28.
What do you get when one of the funniest shows on TV teams up with director and former child star, Fred Savage and hip-hop legend, Jeru The Damaja? The new Always Sunny In Philadelphia promos.
Droga5 and Sarah Silverman team up to tackle an important voter segment in one of our most definitive states. Called "The Great Schlep" the new campaign urges young Jewish voters to convince their grandparents down in Florida to get on board for Obama.
Big in Japan is a Swedish reality show featuring two ordinary Swedes that have one month to make it big in Japan. The bus stop shelter ads feature motion sensors that trigger a banshee cry of young female Japanese super fans (we have all seen them). I love the idea behind this show, the uber-Swedish theme song and a advertising campaign that is as equally annoying as it is funny. I have to imagine ridership at this bus stop must have dropped significantly but the idea behind it is great.
Agency: Rethink, Vancouver Creative Directors: Ian Grais, Chris Staples Art Director: David de Haas Copywriter: Katie Ainsworth
When I first saw this execution it made me smile because I thought it might have something to do with current financial bail outs/lending life lines etc. perhaps placed in key financial districts of major cities which would make the idea extremely timely and really impactful but unfortunately it turns out that it's just another global warming rising water idea. Bummer.
In a huge turn-around from the rather drab first attempts by Crispin to make the PC cool again, the new Microsoft spot flips the script so to say and goes after Apple's famously pretentious ads in a spot that, is actually effective and dare I say...good. A new ad war is a-brewing.
Not since Mercedes benz's 1995 commercial featuring Janis Joplin's anti-luxury war cry "Oh Lord Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes-Benz" has a work of art been so misinterpreted until of course the new BMW "On The Road" spot by SCPF. Congratulations, you have made a new generation squirm with advertising contempt.
www.designforobama.com allows users to Rate Obama inspired designs or submit their very own Obama art.
With the goal of supporting Barack Obama’s campaign for presidency, Design/ers for Obama will introduce new tools and opportunities to web-powered grass roots organizing that has already revolutionized campaigning. Design/ers for Obama is a community for Obama supporters, whether visually inclined or not, to aggregate and rate Obama poster art that is available for download in a variety of sizes that can be easily printed by any and everyone. At such a turbulent (yet exciting) time in our nation’s history, collaboration has never been more important.
OK, so I'm not a huge fan of Grind House era B-horror movies but I've seen a fair bit and I can appreciate the art direction of the new Agent Provocateur interactive web movie but to be interactive the users has to be interested enough to at least stick around. After about 10min of cackling and tomato eating I had had enough so I attempted to purposely fail at the interactive game of "saving the virgin" and get the hell out of there only to be asked the choose-your-own-adventure style question a second time. I appreciate the idea and the nod to kitsch horror but the payoff here seems to be an endless reel of tomato fetish.
Really digging the new mini docs from [city of others] currently running on vimeo. More specificlly the episodes dealing with small business owners giving insight into what they do and why they do it. Check them out here.
By now everyone has seen the new Microsoft spot staring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates from Crispin. And by now we can all agree that it is "Boresville".
Copy: "Daddy, if mommy still doesn't know of Vanish, you better wear this.Trust pink. Forget stains. Homage from Vanish to Father's Day."
Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG Worldwide, São Paulo, Brazil Creative Directors: Carlos Castelo, Rodrigo Corbari Art Director: Vitor Bomfim Illustrator: Edilson Bilal Copywriter: André Baldez
The future of street level marketing? The possibilities are endless and a hell of a lot better than dealing with clip board toting college students on summer break (no, I don't have a minute) oh yeah, and the GPS function would be pretty damn good too.
Just in time for the RNC, we would like to remind voters of our nation's great history of political infighting, guns and booze. Mark Gagliardi drinks an entire bottle of Scotch and pontificates on the legendary dual between Alexander Hamilton and Alan Burr. A reenactment from the likes of Michael Cera and Jake Johnson as the two dueling political rivals attempts to make sense of Gagliardi's lecture.
