Message from paradise...

van bisou

Veet For Men Hair Removal

Clearly Amazon is enjoying entirely more positive press coverage than Bic thanks to online reviews like this one:

 

But why does it take a stupid product like Bic For Her to remind people about Amazon reviews?

Amazon UK has had infamously hilarious reviews (like this one for men's hair removal creme) for ages.

Which, I guess, begs the question - why aren't Americans funnier?

feel-good marketing

It's human nature to enjoy a pleasant surprise. It's the nature of an advertising agency to try and capture that lightening in a bottle, and every now and then it works - brilliantly. Especially when the human reaction is live. It lends a whole new dimension of authenticity to the message.

Target's new work celebrating the college acceptance moment of truth is SO amazing to watch. I put it on my list of all-time best smile-inducing work along with IKEA, Coke and Carlsberg. Tell me you you don't want to watch these again and again!

 

 

poop jokes

Poop jokes are awfully tough to pull off in marketing. They're gratuitous, unecessary, tasteless.

Exhibit A.

Every now and then, though, a gem presents itself. Up until today, these were my all-time favorites. First, this one (which wasn't really advertising). And this one:

 

But like I said - up until today.

oh, wow.

Monday rants

If you've rented a car lately, you've been confronted with this appendage on the rental car's keychain.

Question: if the average key replacement is $250, why do they give you BOTH SETS of keys? 

Unrelated, noticed the preponderance of sexual innuendo popping up more frequently in marketing? Come on, people. Why stoop to the lowest common denominator?

Editor's note: I didn't lose the keys, nor did I take advantage of the Living Social deal. But yes, I did drink some Old English. 

me llamo llama

This could be one of the single best lines in advertising for 2012.

 

 

Makes me want to go buy this t-shirt.

 

butt wipes

I was really struck last week by a simple, often-overlooked item in my hotel room - the Do Not Disturb sign. Such a benign, throw-away item, right?

Yet this one was awesome. If I'd had more time, I certainly would've gone to the exhibit. Instead, I stuck the door tag in my bag to show to folks.

Shockingly, marketers so often forget that standing out rather than fitting in oftentimes has tremendous potential to actually get a consumer's attention (shocker). Automotive advertising is the worst, but it also extends to logos. Look at Food Lion's new My Essentials logo. Hmm.....kinda looks a lot like Walmart, eh?

My favorite thing, though, is when some smartass sneaks in something a little unexpected to grab attention. Something like this grocery store aisle sign. Brings a whole new entendre to "Clean up on aisle 10."

 

 

 

not exactly the discourse you'd expect on NPR

Click here and listen to a portion of NPR's "Wait, wait...don't tell me!" from yesterday.

You can imagine what a hard time I had explaining to my 4 year-old what they were talking about (in between my snickers).

it's a Van Damme cornucopia of a Friday