HT: Susan Gertson

Got Milk? Was one of the most creative ad campaigns because of its simplicity and focus.

The first one:

My favorite was this:

Then the campaign went stupid with ridiculously over-produced with characters that seemed to come from German avant garde film. (I can’t find examples to post).

The latest isn’t as simple as the first, but still good.

An ad for the Atlanta Saint Patrick’s Day parade. From a compilation of Buzzfeed’s
The 8 Most Insane Ads Of 2012.

There’s also this:

Frankly, I won’t miss this. Or Twinkies.

…check out the other ads including sugar to help you diet, 7-Up for babies and Lysol (!) for feminine hygiene.

…because they’re smart, much smarter than the DNC’c cheering throng.

The Democratic National Convention had its share of mixed messages, but none quite as stark as during former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s cheerleading of President Obama’s $80 billion auto bailout gobbled up by General Motors and Chrysler, but sneered at by Ford which had taken measures years before avoid bankruptcy.

As she waved her arms Thursday night and declared that Obama’s “cavalry…saved the American auto industry,” some in the audience held up fans stamped with the Ford logo. Not Chevy, not Dodge, but Ford, ironically.

That’s because Ford made them and handed them out. Nice advertising.

Sarah Everts at Smithsonian.com

…In the 1910s deodorants and antiperspirants were relatively new inventions. The first deodorant, which kills odor-producing bacteria, was called Mum and had been trademarked in 1888, while the first antiperspirant, which thwarts both sweat-production and bacterial growth, was called Everdry and launched in 1903.

But many people—if they had even heard of the anti-sweat toiletries—thought they were unnecessary, unhealthy or both.

“This was still very much a Victorian society,” explains Juliann Silvulka, a 20th-century historian of American advertising at Waseda Univesity in Tokyo, Japan. “Nobody talked about perspiration, or any other bodily functions in public.”

Instead, most people’s solution to body odor was to wash regularly and then to overwhelm any emerging stink with perfume. Those concerned about sweat percolating through clothing wore dress shields, cotton or rubber pads placed in armpit areas which protected fabric from the floods of perspiration on a hot day.

Yet 100 years later, the deodorant and antiperspirant industry is worth $18 billion. The transformation from niche invention to a blockbuster product was in part kick-started by Murphey, whose nascent business was nearly a failure…

But they persevered and America soon smelled better. As for France, that took a lot longer.

Web site owners want to rank high in Google searches. Google wants its users to find relevant web sites. The two goals are often in opposition.

Now things are set to change.

Ken Krogue at Forbes.

…There is internal and external SEO. Internal makes up about 15% of the process (I’m told it may be much higher now) and it means to design your site so it follows the best practices proven to rank high on Google. External SEO used to mean to write articles, press releases, blogs, comments, and content with embedded keyword “backlinks” to your site. Now it is changing fast to include social media strategies.

SEO has been traditionally divided into “white hat” or “black hat.” Black Hat is the obvious villainous practice of gaming the system by doing things to raise rankings that Google doesn’t want, and White Hat is just more subtle.

But what does Google want? They want relevant, real content on the internet that people want to read and tell other people about. If Google doesn’t bring you the most relevant content when you search they aren’t doing their job.

So by definition even the word Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means to “game” the Google search engines (and others) to get your valuable content ranked higher than it would be if left alone to the forces of the Web.

Google proved Adam right one month later (to the day) with the “Penguin release” that is a code name for the algorithm that decreased search engine rankings of companies who were using schemes to artificially increase their rankings. Google decided to change the weight of their emphasis from “backlinks” more towards social media likes, shares, tweets, reddits, and 1+ (Googles obvious favorite.) In the world of digital media the emphasis is on follows, comments, and views as well. (Note: I have changed the wording slightly to clarify my meaning and make it more precise since I wrote it four days ago.)

What does that mean? Google used to think if you linked to someone on the Internet they must have valuable content. Now Google seems to believe that if you promote content with social media it is more indicative of relevant content and less likely to be faked. Though many point out social can be faked as well.

The bottom line is that all external SEO efforts are counterfeit other than one:

Writing, designing, recording, or videoing real and relevant content that benefits those who search…

That’s quite a slogan, no?

Maybe McDonald’s could say, “Why not enjoy a Big Mac, they’re better than kibble.”

I predict this ad will launch dozens of parodies.

Warning: she speaks Canadian.

From a gallery of a couple hundred tobacco ads, here.

David Lynch directed this anti-littering spot in 1991. Who knew rats ate paper?

Clint Eastwood shilled for Chrysler in a long-winded Superbowl ad (below). Nothing like wrapping yourself in the flag.

But which flag?

Obama intervened in Chrysler to supposedly save the company. But the company is now majority owned by Fiat, an Italian company. Buy American!

The cost to US taxpayers was $1.3 billion or about $25 per job saved. Had Obama kept his hands off and let bankruptcy proceedings take their legal course, the company would probably still exist — without subverting the equity rights of shareholders and without spending tax dollars.

Furthermore, the ad can be taken as promotion for Obama — halftime in his term(s) as president?

In a review for “Work It” — a lame new sitcom about two guys who pass themselves off as women to land work (how fresh!) finds resistance from an unsuspected front:

In December, the LGBT advocacy groups GLAAD and HRC took out a full-page ad in Variety that, under the headline “‘Work It’ will harm transgender people,” suggested that “by encouraging the audience to laugh at the characters’ attempts at womanhood, the show condones similar treatment of transgender women.”

Is thin skin a side-effect of switcheroo hormones?

Could be, given the fuss over a TV commercial from down under:

…Both women sneak glances at each other while they get competitive about putting on their mascara in a mirror, lipgloss and adjusting their bras.

In an apparent coup de grace the blonde pulls out a tampon and the drag queen walks out of the bathroom.

Agender NZ president Cherise Witehira, said many in the transgender community were outraged at the ads which were “blatantly transphobic”.

“It’s extremely offensive because it’s pretty much saying the only way you can be a woman is to get your period.

“That’s where a lot of the anger in the community is coming from – it’s saying you are not a woman unless you can get your period.

HT: Elena Trevino

Nick Searcy, for those who don’t recognize him, plays Timothy Olyphant’s boss on the terrific show, Justified.

Copyranter:
Created by Masato Takahashi, a researcher at Keio University, who crafted them from molds of his own arms. He believes that they can be used at concerts to enhance the sound of real clapping or as clapping avatars which allow online viewers to applaud via robots installed onsite at the performance. He’s even said they would make good “spanking machines”.

You think they’re creepy now? Wait ten years, when arenas all over the world are filled with them as our machine overlords stage one-sided death matches between human slaves and indestructible killer robots. Their perfect clapping will be the last sound we hear.

Theatre Full Of Bikers And Only 2 Seats Left brought to you by Free Videos

James Lileks take Diesel jeans apart for it’s utterly stupid ad campaign.

HT: Susan Gertson

Dirt Devil-The Exorcist from MrPrice2U on Vimeo.

This billboard from Amnesty International (click it to see it large) wants us to believe that executing murderers is doing them a favor. Unless their vision of cupcakes, Ferris wheels and rabbits playing piano is their vision of hell.

Where’s H. Bosch when we need him?

A bit too gentle in my opinion for the company that most resembles Big Brother.

Jim Edwards at BNET:

It appears to be a mere evolution of the chain’s existing identity but is actually a representative of Starbucks’ abandonment of its core equity.

On its face, the new logo is yet another tweaking, or simplification, of the original. (The images, top to bottom, represent Starbucks’ logos since 1971. The company merged with Il Giornale in 1986.)

This time the circle has been removed and the words “Starbucks Coffee” are gone. The new marque appears in only one color: green. (And yes, the “siren” mermaid still has no nipples. Go figure.)

The Gap, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tropicana all recently learned to their cost that giving your brand icon a whole-scale makeover invites backlash from loyal consumers. A mere haircut is the correct way to go.

That’s what Starbucks has done here, but the stakes are still high as the company — a daily ritual that’s close to an addiction to many — inspires a unique level of loyalty (and hostility) from its audience. Do you know anyone who does not have something to say about Starbucks?

Shades of George Costanza.

…when he said there’s was “nothing sadder than an aging hipster.”

Who knew the E.D. fellas got together to pop pills, then jam?

Like other ads, it includes text telling us to see their ad in Golf Magazine. Does anyone on planet earth look for ads in magazines because an ad on TV suggested it?

Just wondering.

This ad is from Down Under, where naturally there’s an obesity “epidemic.”