Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Better than Jesus on toast: Satan in your spaghetti!

From BBDO Dusseldorf comes the proof that in cuisine, presentation is indeed everything:

Sexy Gay Brazilian Men Vs. An Alien Female Predator

Okay, perhaps that's a little dramatic, but then, this ad, from MixBrasil, the lgbt film festival in Sao Paolo features a hot gay couple poolside, staring at a woman that is clearly not human. Now this could perhaps be seen as homosexual gynophobia projected out visually. But the campaign speaks to the sense many queer folk have of being seen as alien, other. Thus, the theme line: What is weird for you?

Obviously, to those of us who live very queer lives, suburban soccer moms can seem weird. It is all in who is doing the looking. And while that may be the point of the ad campaign, I am not sure how it works to get people to go to this film festival — or whether they are seeking an audience above and beyond the usual lgbt film fest crew. Perhaps some alients. Don't know. Or maybe Grace Jones, since I have to admit, the woman in this ad looks like Grace Jones to me, and I've always suspected she wasn't quite human. You can see the rest of this odd campaign at adsoftheworld.

Asses to asses, dust to dust (the gravedigger's motto is "dig we must")

Okay, last year there was a spate of print ads with visuals of gay sumo wrestlers — enough so that I ran three separate posts on the subject and found myself at the top of the Google list when people searched for the term "gay sumo." Now it seems there's a spate of print ads with ass play of one sort or another, and this is the third ad I'm posting that features some butt action. The product, a toilet seat cleaner that I suppose one should carry when leaving the house just in case, has advertising that plays/preys on the imagination and fear of who was on that seat before you were.

This ad is from Grey in Hong Kong. There are a couple of others in the series and I find it interesting that the design of the ad reminds me of the design of a playing card -- Jack or King. No? Well, anyway, I've seen couples who look like these two -- attraction of opposites.

Scrotalitarianism: Keeping your balls (not the german underwear) clean and fresh.

Yes, now men don't have to feel left out of when feminine hygiene ads run on TV. Manjunk promises fight odor causing bacteria that impede your sex life. Of course, you can be the auteur and create the TV commercial — Manjunk is sponsoring a video contest for the best ad, with winners getting a tropical vacation where no doubt, it will be hot and humid, so that product use will be essential. Unless of course, you are of the opinion that the fresh fragrance of a sweaty crotch is a turn on.

My favorite visual on the MJ website is the eye, looking through what can only be described as a gloryhole. You can't make this stuff up and if only for this reason alone I would include it in my ongoing Queer Product Watch. I imagine if you work for a client like this, you can sure have a lot of fun. Unless you use the product. 

Then there is the ad campaign for Balls underwear, which can be seen at their site. It features famous men, in scenes we recognize, except for the fact they are only wearing the undies. My favorite is the one of Errol Flynn, who was one of the sexiest men ever to grace the silver screen, in his signature role of Robin Hood. It's a very silly campaign, but I still love this ad. And I don't believe for a minute that Errol Flynn would be caught dead with Manjunk under those brief. He might be caught dead with an underage girl in a hotel room, which in fact he was, since when he died his girlfriend was 17. But Manjunk? I think not. 
 

Random drag in advertising: Renault

Please explain to me how this spot sells the car to its target market.

Sexy Underwear Advertising, Minus the Sexy Underwear: More Cute Butts

Somehow I don't think a straight guy will feel compelled to pull something out of this guy's butt crack, however cute it may be. That said, this "interactive" print ad for Styx underwear, with the USP that the fabric won't automatically give you a wedgie, is pretty attention getting. The question is for the media buy in Vogue, where one wonders if, as in perfume ads, there is an added fragrance to the card. Ahem.



As it is so often, courtesy of Adsoftheworld.com

WaMu, Obama & McCain, Bailouts and the Depression

Okay, this has been on my mind for months. Those WaMu ads with the cool black guy who isn't at all like those old white guy bankers who are out to take your money. I remember watching them and thinking about the demographic shift in the country. How all these Mr. Monopoly type bankers look like the Republican convention — old, rich and out of touch. And how the WaMu guy looked like "us" -- the average guy. Not so different from the Apple ads of Mac vs. PC really, young, hip, relaxed and oh, if you didn't notice, black. A brilliant execution of a common strategy to differentiate the product.

And then, as the primary season ended it looked like the election was in fact cast by the WaMu ad agency, with Obama as WaMu and McCain as those Mr. Monopoly old white bankers. Well, in some ways, McCain is Mr. Monopoly -- regulation be damned, the little guy be damned, let's take care of Keating, the S&Ls and oh by the way let's not regulate this bailout. Except in the real world, WaMu is a bank like all the others that has jumped off the edge of the building like a lemming following its greed. The campaign was just an advertiser's way of creating a non-bank image for another institution that didn't handle our money well. Still it was a good campaign, and now, both sociologically and historically interesting.

Citi tried to do something similar with their Live Richly campaign, which quite to the contrary of its critics, ran headlines that demonstrated Citi understood that the rich life was not about money, but about love, creativity, connection. They did it with words more than image though, it was an intellectual campaign, a cool campaign, like the client who bought it. I know the agency understood the message of connection and creativity as true wealth. And maybe even the marketing client understood it, but certainly what they also understood was that the creative strategy was a way to say something that differentiated the perception of the bank. However it didn't make a whit of difference to the behavior of the bank as we all know. 

So don't read anything into today's worst bailout of a bank since the last Depression (note I say last Depression because if you don't think we're headed for some seriously bad times, you should get off the Zoloft) with regard to their advertising and the outcome of either the bailout or the election. I simply point out the way race and age were used in the WaMu ads to define a difference. I'm curious to know the demographic of most of the customers those ads brought in as WaMu expanded like so many Duane Reades throughout Manhattan.

Tangentially, Duane Reade is also in trouble and has been for months. Like Starbucks, they have too many locations, paying too much rent, so they cut back service which makes people want to go to them even less. However, we have to go since they killed the small pharmacists. Grumble. Grouse. Curmudge.

I'm an Obama supporter, and a serious Democrat -- after all, I'm a queer Jewish Buddhist, which in Pastor Muthee's eyes makes me a witch and an agent of Satan. Truth is I worry for the country no matter who wins, since après Bush le déluge.

Suck on this: Student ad portfolios...

Peter Kehr and Dan Kelly at the Creative Circus created a campaign for DumDums, the lollipops that are not marketed to adults. Except this campaign almost suggests they should be selling the suckers in some adult toy stores. Visually witty work that will never run. But that's not what is important here. It shows the sense of play that is so important in this business. Hat's off. Or Jump suits unzipped.

W.H.Auden, Cute Butts and Bicycle Seats

This TV Spot from the ever amazing team at Euro RSCG Paris brings to mind the couplet by W. H. Auden:

I've often thought that I should like
to be the saddle of a bike.

Exactly.

How to compute your age in ad-years: new site

I am horrified, and not surprised at all, to discover that according to this site I am 133 years old. This very funny quiz is a snobbish look at what makes a career. So that by adding years in direct marketing or in pharma advertising you add on decades to your age. I remember an old colleague saying that pharma is where you go in your career to die. Of course, this was from someone in direct, who hated being looked down on by the snotty boys in brand advertising. Go ahead if you dare, learn you age in ad years.It's the self promotion brainchild of a writer/art director team. Of course. It could only be an inside job.

When I started years ago at Compton (swallowed up by a boutique firm they owned a share in called Saatchi) there was a story about an account guy who had worked on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth cruise ship advertising for 10 years. Then he was transferred to Alpo. When asked how he felt about the switch to dog food, he replied "It's all dog food."

A funny and sad story. But for this copywriter, it's all about play. If you can't approach a creative assignment as a puzzle that's fun to solve, you don't belong in the business. Or that particular piece of business. No matter the discipline or the channel.