Tag: Advertising
What do nearly all cereal box mascots have in common? Besides having catchy, alliterative names like Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula, and Cap’n Crunch, and shilling for high-sugar, low-nutritional value breakfast foods, they’re nearly always looking down. Think about it: there’s Tony, peering at you from on high; the Cap’n, eyes aimed at his spoon […]
In an effort to better equip advertisers for convincing you to buy products you don’t actually want or need, marketing researchers at North Carolina State University studied the lyrics to chart-topping songs over the past 50 years. If people respond to certain themes in lyrics, the thinking goes, they’ll respond to those same themes when […]
Today’s New York Times features a full-page ad from an organization affiliated with the Occupy Gezi protests commemorating the life of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was killed by a police teargas canister during a demonstration. The group, called Gezi Democracy Movement, funded the ad on Indiegogo. “Fifteen-year-old Berkin Elvan died after 269 days in a […]
On the heels of our parodies of Diet Coke’s accidentally drug-referencing new ads comes this shot-by-shot remake of one of the campaign’s Taylor Swift-featuring TV spot. In the remake, each of the clip’s scenes — the best man preparing for a wedding toast, a college student standing up in a lecture hall, and Swift at […]
Well, this is unusual. To promote the next season of smash-hit Game of Thrones, HBO will release a mixtape of hip hop and Latin artists making music about the show. Participating musicians include Wale, Big Boi, Daddy Yankee, Bodega Bamz, and Common. From the sound of things, it’s a pretty blatant ploy to attract a nonwhite audience. […]
The above minute-long spot for MarijuanaDoctors.com began airing yesterday on CNN, Comedy Central, The History Channel, and A&E in New Jersey, making it the first weed commercial to be shown on major U.S. TV networks. In it, a fast-talking faux drug dealer slings high quality raw fish in back alleys before a voice-over asks, “You wouldn’t […]
When it was first launched in the late 1800s, Coca-Cola used to have cocaine in it. The company eventually reduced the amount of coca leaf to trace levels and in 1903, when sentiment about the narcotic in the U.S. started changing for the worse, the substance was removed altogether. As the success of the soft […]
The cycle of Pharrell’s oversized, Vivienne Westwood-designed hat is complete, and Arby’s comes out of it with some very good PR. Yesterday, the roast beef purveyor ponied up $44,000 to buy the lid on eBay, which will benefit the producer’s charity From One Hand to Another. Here’s how the exchange between Arby’s and Pharrell went […]
Super Bowl Boulevard™ opens to the public today in anticipation of Super Bowl XLVIII™, and though cameras aren’t technically allowed on the Super Bowl Toboggan Run™, we brought a GoPro along to document the experience. The ride was fun, but probably not worth the 45 minute wait to get to the top, especially in the cold […]
Venmo is a very useful service with very strange advertising. It allows you to easily transfer money to your friends, even if you use different banks, right from your phone. It’s advertising allows you to wonder who the hell Lucas is, why he’s plastered all over the Bedford Avenue L stop, and what exactly he’s […]
