"We rarely utilize celebrities in our ads, but this was too good to ignore"

Dean Stelmaszek, Associate Creative Director at the Canadian American Corporation who thunk up the buffalo chicken gag for Subway got more than he bargained for as the star if the campaign, Steve Irwin was attacked and killed by a stingray just a few weeks after their campaign launched. The campaign began on August 15th , and is running in 27 markets, with over 2,700 Subway restaurants throughout the USA participating. I predict a lot of frenzied activity as Subway employees replace all the ad signs relating to Steve now - but the ad itself is still airing.

Super adgrunts see it in the archives.

Steve Irwin wasn't a stranger to advertising - the best ad he did was when he mocked himself wrestling the Florida Gators mascot in a sportscenter ad.

Update! link to that ESPN SportsCenter - Crocodile Hunter / Steve Irwin (2006) :30 (USA) and ESPN SportsCenter - Crocodile Hunter / Steve Irwin - short (2006) :15 (USA) and FedEx - Fierce Snake (2000) 0:30 (USA) in the commercial archive.

The San Francisco prankster group The Cacophony Society has for years been running against the Bay to Breakers run dressed as salmons.

Now RKCR/Y&R in London has come up with a completely unique concept of having people dressed as salmons run against a race in New York. OK, I was sarcastic. They have stolen the whole thing, including twists like one salmon ending up in a bar, available via YouTube.

And to give credit where credit is due (as opposed to RKCR) I found this story on Laughing Squid. Go there for the full story and all the links.

Like Tim over at Adfreak we too received an email from someone who said:

Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 19:51:01 -0700
From: Dan Mulder
To: hostmaster*ad-rag
Subject: News: Pop Secret Mountain user generated ads

Kids, don't mock me the resident sausage fingered typo-queen for posting this piece here, remember that I am an art director who has reserved space in my brain for important skills like identifying a font from 500 yards and the ability to see the CMYK and hex# of any color.
The globe and Mail reports in 'A basic rule of punctuation' that a single comma cost Rogers Communications Inc. $2.13-million more than expected.

Language buffs take note - Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement "shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party."

So, dear wordsmiths, the next time someone starts messing with your carefully crafted work, hand them a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with this Globe and Mail clipping attached while reminding them of the copywriters mantra: "Nobody changes anything!"

One ad in the press and billboard Coca Cola Zero campaign has been pulled. The "offending" ad contained the line "blind dates without the psychos" which caused The See Me campaign group to complain directly to Coke. They described the word as "extremely derogatory" and said it increased the stigma around mental illness. Coke said the offending advert would no longer be used. Read on to see the ad and the other ads from the campaign.

Before the Advertising Standards Complaints Board could consider complaints to Nissan's ad, featuring "Sex and the City" actress Kim Cattrall, they pulled it. The double entendre-laced ad was approved by New Zealand's Television Commercial Approvals Bureau before broadcast.

"We made this decision in the interest of self-regulation and in response to public feedback," Nissan said in a statement.

This applies only to NZ it seems as the ad appears to be still running in Australia. Also, there are apparently a couple versions of the spot. See one below, and if you dare try, there are two on Nissan's site (but use that Vivias or some such software which crashed my browser - so beware).

A Dutch McDonald's was forced to remove a pair of mouth shaped urinals after a US tourist complained. The urinals are titled "Kisses" designed by Bathroom Mania!. The store is going to sell off the lips.

Hot ad topic of the day - TBWA's billboards and imagery used in advertisements for Sony's PSP White. You can check them out here. The billboard is up in Amsterdam and the Dutch website for Sony PSP features elements from the campaign as well.

Scott G on something new in the media mix: caricature ads running as part of normal commercial breaks.

It is a brilliant concept, and very entertaining. Yet it is quite subversive, because if viewers are not certain whether they are watching a real ad or a spoof, then our work as marketers is made that much more difficult.

Still, I got a smile or a smirk from the following hilarious send-ups of typical bonehead marketing:

* A phony commercial for an automobile called the "Chevrolet Impala SS." Yes, I know that Chevy thinks SS stands for Super Sport, but, well, this is Spectacularly Stupid. While they’re a little late in capitalizing on Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler," this is still quite humorous. The tone of the spoof is relentlessly upbeat as they pound home the name of the model. I was not up on my Nazi history, but a quick use of Google took me to info about the Schutzstaffel (SS) module of the Third Reich, headed by Heinrich Himmler from 1929 to 1945, with all their personnel selected on strict ideological and racial lines. Suggested follow-up: the Ann Coulter Edition, or possibly Model 666.

Ok. We thought we had heard it all in the latest odd place to stick an ad. But who would have thought to put ads on prostitutes' thighs and cleavage? Apparently Dutch design student Raoul Balai. He got bored of conventional advertisements, so set up a fake online agency offering advertising space on prostitutes.

It doesn't end there for this cutting-edge thinking desinger. Oh no. On his website he also suggested painting zoo animals with brand names and foalting billboards off beaches. Slight problem there as an Amsterdam zoo threatened Balai with a defamation suit after he depicted fish from the zoo with the brand name of a frozen fish company.

His website (Flash and slow to load, be patient) instoresnow.nl
If you call the "agencies" phone number, you'll be bombarded with sales messages while on hold until you finally give up. ;)

W+K London have created this advert for Nike. It is up as a poster along the M4 and has also run in a few UK newspapers. Brand Republic reports that MPs and religious groups are not amused.

If you thought fit sliq was kinky, you'll love Dong Energy. Oh yes its real, Dansk Olie & Naturgas, or DONG for short, have decided to expand and in order to internationalize their brand the spent a bundle on a new name and logo, and ended up with this:

Seriously. Its for real. Those innocent Danes don't know what a dong is.

Thanks to Nuxx for the laughs.

Work in promotions? Getting hitched? Here's one way to pay for a $100,000 wedding without having to put in too much cash yourself. One has to wonder, will they work brand names into the vows? Or will the bride, groom and attendants be adorned in logos?

DDB Canada's new campaign for Brita has caused a rukous. Why? The advertising campaign implies tap water is not fit for drinking and associates it with sewage. Drinking water providers throughout North America, including the Greater Vancouver Regional District are less than pleased.

The GVRD, the Canadian and American water utility associations and John Blatherwick, chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, have all complained about the campaign and asked Brita to withdraw the TV commercial that provoked their anger. Brita has refused.

The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association has filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council.

The tv spot, "Glass", shows a woman in a kitchen with a glass of water on the table. She leaves the room and you hear the sound of a toilet flushing. In time with the sound, the water in the glass drains away, then fills again like a toilet tank would. An announcer says the toilet water is the same as the tap water, and asks, "Don't you deserve a better quality to drink?" There is also a print campaign with ads "Mop Head" and "Grass Beard" demonstrating the difference between drinking water, hose water and dirty mop water. All ad components direct traffic to a microsite "You Deserve Better", created by Tribal DDB. The campaign is set to run throughout the end of the year.

H&M named their new cityslickers sleek mens jeans a name that described the product - perhaps all too well.

While "Fit sliq" sounds like perfectly a harmless description of tight jeans to anglo ears - it's quite raunchy when read out loud in Swedish. It means cunnilingus. Pineapple lick. Sesame seed lick. I'm out of euphemisms, fit is a lot more than that in Swedish, it's the c-word. So the city slicker is now a [blank] licker. Okaaaay..... I'm sure H&M are laughing all the way to the bank as Swedish men and the occasional lesbian raid the stores for a pair of these naughty naughty jeans.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority is investigating complaints that the new advertising campaign "Fuel for Britain. Isn't it?" by Mother for Pot Noodle, featuring Welsh miners is racist. The main complaint is that the ads play up on Welsh stereotypes and mock the country's culture and heritage.

A spokesperson for Unilever/Pot Noodle has said, "To use the word 'racist' to describe this tongue-in-cheek advert is ludicrous, given Pot Noodle is made in Wales and our employees, some of whom are ex-miners, were delighted to appear in it."

More on the campaign here and super adgrunts view one of the spots below.

Typically, you can expect your local automotive dealer's ads to be pretty low budget and less interesting than the proverbial watching paint dry. In the recent wedding issue of The Improper Bostonian, Boston area dealership, Boch Automotive, ran an ad that still went down the still low budget route but is perhaps a bit more interesting than ususal. What the hell is going on? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps it was an internal joke? Or maybe social commentary? Should this go under "advertising jokes"?

Oh Noes! The Los Angeles Times reports that the 76 ball logo is being 86ed. The round orange cult icon can't die without a fight say savethe76ball.com - and I agree. I've loved that thing since I was a kid and even have it here as a choice among the user avatars. Don't let the 76 ball join the other classics in Logo R.I.P..
Save the !

Sad news today in the seedy underbelly of the advertising business - I know you don't like it folks but you have to admit that spam is the ugly acnescarred bucktoothed cowlegged smelly ADD suffering stepchild of advertising who spits on the table and brings shame on the family. Name "advertising" and people think "spam!". It's like when you mention Hilton these days, nobody thinks of a posh hotel chain, but of nightvision and skank-daughter Paris performing robotic fellatio - I keep wondering when the Hilton hotel chain has to get a new name and an image elevating ad campaign. Call me.

Blue Security had a new idea to fight spam, all their customers would send opt-out emails (automagically) simultaneously to spammers for every spam received. Not only would the spammers on US Soil have to comply according to the can-spam act, but also getting half a million opt-outs for every spam you sent would be quite the headache. If you sent it from your own servers and adresses that is. Well, last week spammers attacked Blue Frog security and DDoS:ed them off the web. After all that downtime and no end in sight, Blue Frog waves the white flag and have announced that they are quitting the spam fighting game. On their way down, they dragged Six Apart blogs with them. Oops. (more inside)

It's one way to announce a new store. Created by Leo Burnett, New Delhi.

(Via adfreak via adsoftheworld)