Hot Wheels in Hungary

Check out these great print ads for Hot Wheels designed by Ogilvy and Mathers. It certainly gets my attention and interest.

Commercials My Mom Likes

It’s May 2009 so it’s really old. I haven't seen it before and my mom was forwarding it to everyone in her address book. Thought I'd share.

Here is one I like. 

Who has better taste in advertising? (I'll admit the Coke one is clever)

Twitter Tell All

The Conservatives wanted to enact a bill that would allow law enforcement to get access to your IP address, your phone number, your physical address and your name all without a warrant. They went so far as to say “If you are not with us [in supporting this bill] you are with the child pornographers”. In protest Canadians took to twitter and tweeted Public Safety Minister Vic Toews their secrets. Including:

“Hey @ToewsVic, I lost an email from my work account yesterday. Can I get your copy? #TellVicEverything #VicsBackupService”

“@ToewsVic i bought my glasses online. #tellviceverything”

See more tweets on CBC newsworld.

Now the Conservative government is backing off this bill and want to look at re-writing it, to include a warrant component. I’m glad the Conservatives have seen reason. The only thing that lets me sleep at night while knowing how much information Google has on me is that Google is not the government, yet.

But I’m rather sad I didn’t get to tweet Vic Toews about my licit reading of marketing websites, or about my countless hours spent on Workopolis. Or perhaps, the most scandalous yet, me searching for the themes of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at 2:00 o’clock in the morning. I wanted to see if I was the only one who read misogynistic undertones in the novel: I wasn’t.    

Would you do this to your house for $2,000 a month?

Marketing company Brainiacs From Mars have been paying these homeowners $2,000.00 a month to make their home into a billboard. $2,000.00 a month goes a long way to paying down the mortgage. According to Adfreak, the company wants to do this to another 1000 homes. The marketing company Brainiacs  From Mars used this strategy for Adzookie.com back in April 2011. See below:

 According to Brainiacs From Mars’s case study the Adzookie.com house campaign had really good metrics  generated a lot of impressions. 

Sometimes I wish I was American...

Because they get giant Kraft Dinner Noodle Statues! Canada always gets shafted when it comes to cool marketing! But then I remember Rick Santorum could be president soon and I feel better about my lack of KD installations.

CP + B the marketing agency responsible for this statue just took over the Canadian Zig marketing agency, so hopefully we can see some noodles on Parliament Hill, At the CN Tower and whatever is iconic in Vancouver. 
 

Can we please have the point of the CN tower impaling a giant Kraft Dinner noodle?

Dear Marketing Agencies,

Please retire the overuse of iconic paintings! While I am in fact a marketing major graduate, I have a firm grounding in visual culture. And if I see one more commercial using Creation of Adam I will scream.

Creation of Adam by Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, part of the Sistine Chapel

 

Milk, you are currently guilty of this infringement. Luckily if a person is only paying attention to the first half of the commercial they will likely think it’s a Red Bull commercial because the cartooning looks so similar to Red Bull’s past ads. 

 

Gross.

The creators of this video, not affiliated with Skittles, the Cousins have brought you another masterpiece?  video. The one above got 7 million views and now their newest video may top it. This new video features the couple from the original video entering a new stage in their life: Parenthood. Check it out. (Warning it is actually more distributing than the Skittles commercial).

"Don't be that Guy"

When looking for another campaign I stumbled upon these crime prevention posters. They were launched in May 2011 and have got a lot of press coverage in Canada. While its not super current I think its a good message so here they are.

 

Potatoes, Viruses and Tic Tacs (Outdoor Ads)

I have decided to highlight three extremely innovative outdoor advertisements: 1) a billboard 2) a bus shelter 3) a store front.

1) Coming to Times Square February 14, will be a 300-foot empty Tic Tac container. When people scan the QR code with their cellphones they will appear in the giant Tic Tac container using augmented reality. To increase the stickiness of this outdoor location, people can then share their pictures via Facebook or Twitter thus extending the reach of this billboard.This is all part of Tic Tac’s “shake up your life” campaign which features many billboards that all unlock something different when you scan the QR code, including games. Looks like Heather has created a refreshing way to captures us all. 

Image above is my creation, I have no idea what the actual billboard will look like. Pipilotti Rist eat your heart out!

 2) Over in England McCain Foods is getting inventive. Their bus shelter features a jutting potato and when you press a button the shelter smells like a bake potato and chives. In theory this sounds great, but I’m always in a terrible mood when I’m waiting at the bus shelter so I’m not sure how good it will be to associate McCain’s Bake Potatoes with this negative experience but kudos for creativity.