This American Apparel ad gives me the creeps. Big time. That bathing suit looks like something an 8 year old would wear. And there’s something about that chick’s face (and eyebrows) that makes me want to punch her. I wish this ad were tucked away in Williamsburg where it belongs, and not up at my train stop in the Upper East Side/Harlem.
One of my favorite things about this city are the random sightings of the gigantic paintings & ads that adorn the sides of buildings. Spotted this blatantly obvious one last night walking to the 6 train on Spring Street.
Oh, crappy first generation iPhone photo!* I passed this ad in the 40th Street/B’way Times Square subway entrance on my way home from work today. They must’ve known that I was heading home to smash on some mac n cheese myself. Except I wasn’t going for the blue box blues. I ordered a single-serve dish of gourmet mac n cheese, baked with a layer of gruyère cheese and bread crumbs on top from Fresh Direct. It was pretty good, but not as good as some of the restaurants I’ve been ordering from lately!
*Since last Tuesday, my laptop, desktop, iPhone and iPod have all broken. Apple conspiracy theory? I think so! I’m using an old first generation iPhone until my iPhone 4 comes in next week. My 3G will no longer turn on at all. The headset jack on the first gen. is of course, broken, so I don’t have any music for the commute to and from work. My keyboard on my laptop only works if you type a bunch, and then click the screen— then it appears. The trackpad also thinks that it’s constantly pressed down, so it clicks and drags and highlights EVERYTHING with every move. My desktop works for the most part, but the internet doesn’t work for more than 1 minute at a time. I have to keep disconnecting and reconnecting, even though I just bought a $100 external USB internet adapter. But if I buy a new laptop before September, I can get a free iPod! I’m still accepting donations, and my birthday is coming up! Ha!
Did anybody see these Durex Father’s Day ads? Clever, but I feel like I’ve seen them before a long time ago. Maybe it’s an annual thing? Or maybe I’m just on crack.
Wednesday night was the fourth annual Wrath of Cannes competition/award show. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to strap an [expensive] camera on me and let me run amok consuming 2-for-1 PBRs, but it happened nonetheless. It’s pretty obvious that I didn’t get too many outstanding photos, but there were a handful that turned out “good enough.”
By the time I made it down to Kabin to get my party on, I was dripping in sweat (as always), so I decided to take a mini shower in the sink at the bar before heading to the back room for WOC. Thankfully they were pumping the AC, so it wasn’t long until I noticed not only had my sweating problem gone away, but my skin now smelled like stank bathroom water. Or maybe it was just the room, I never really figured that out. I opened a tab and tried to take advantage of the last 30 minutes of 2 for $2 PBRs, and that’s about all I can really tell you about the evening. True to form, my memory has failed me once again.
Thankfully I was able to relive the evening through the blurry photos and stories my coworkers told me on Thursday. That was, of course, after I forced myself out of bed and peeled my hand off the greasy paper plate I had passed out with while inhaling pizza at 2am. I remember running into Kelly Samardak from MediaPost several times, whom I’m pretty sure I’ve met once before at another WWD&S event. She was taking photos and documenting the event as usual for her column, Just an Online Minute (which if you haven’t checked it out, I recommend you do so. Right after you finish reading this post, of course.) I came home with a few business cards, and yesterday I spent a good portion of the day with my friend Google, playing a game of “try and remember who the hell they were.”
Congrats to Vinny Garbellano and Mark Forsman from SVA, the crowd’s choice winners for their Jack Daniel’s “Walk the Line” app for the iPhone. Second place went to Hez Kim and Jang Cho with their “Lift This Up” campaign for Comedy Central. Best of luck to both teams in whatever it is they pursue next!
Check out the photos I took on my Flickr, or for a complete set, WWD&S Flickr.
This weekend the industry’s elite swarm to the French Riviera, leaving the rest of us here to battle their clients and revise their mistakes. Sure, if your hard work is up for a lion, I guess I can understand your need justification for traveling halfway across the globe to celebrate and network for a week. But what’s the excuse for those kids who booked their first-class flights and luxury hotel rooms with their dad’s credit card in order to binge drink and OD on narcotics learn, network, and begin their career? I wouldn’t know, but apparently having filthy rich parents is the first step to success. Those kids have always been able to afford to attend every industry event no matter the price or location. They can afford to submit 10 ads to each competition at $250 a pop. And since they don’t have to work to put themselves through college or avoid eviction, they can devote all of their time to homework and ass-kissing (outside of the wild, coke-infused parties of course). So if you’re a youngin’, and your trust-fund classmates are heading off to Cannes this weekend, you’re probably thinking the same thing as me: “Karma will catch up with them. When they graduate, they’ll have no work ethic or experience. Nobody will want to hire them.” Well I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but you’re wrong. These trust-fund babies have a way of effortlessly graduating right into your dream job.
So while those kids are partying on a yacht in Cannes, slurring the eight French words they remember from high school, and passing out in their own vomit somewhere on the beach, now is your chance to show the advertising world that a little bit of elbow grease can pay off (and I’m not talking about tanning oil). Wednesday is the fourth annual Wrath of Cannes competition, a “bitter response to the self-congratulating, glad-handing, marblebag-wearing, Dom-swilling, bronzer-slathered soirees that fester up on the beach in Cannes.” In other words, it’s an excellent opportunity for all of you unpretentious juniors to make a name for yourselves with something that really matters— your work.
So let those kids in Cannes come home with a couple of business cards, a few people to follow on Twitter, and maybe even an STD or two. What they won’t have is their name engraved into the Grand Coney for eternity, or a brand new iPad (okay, their parents probably gave them an iPad just for taking out the trash last week. But still, it’ll feel better to win one).
Apparently there has been a huge game involving Smirnoff Ice going on across US colleges for the past several weeks. It’s a game where douchebags bros (can we just call them brobags, please?) run around trying to “ice” each other. I’m not entirely sure of the rules, but from the sounds of it, a brobag can present a Smirnoff Ice to a fellow brobag at any time, requiring them to get down on one knee and chug the sugary, alcoholic beverage. However, a brobag can “ice-block” the initial brobag by busting out a Smirnoff Ice that he was carrying on hand. In that case, the challenging brobag must chug both drinks.
From my experience with Smirnoff (before I was smart enough to realize that whiskey is the answer) that sounds like a whole lot of heartburn, and even more vomitting. Smirnoff is disgusting. The only time a guy would ever buy this stuff before was if he planned on hooking up with an underage mess of a girl. But Bros Icing Bros managed to reach these same frat boys in an entirely new way, and in response, Smirnoff shut the website down. I can’t decide if pulling the website was a good or bad idea, because at the end of the day it’s their brand that has to deal with this image of frat boy binge drinking. But I would put money on it that their 2nd quarter sales have gone up tremendously. I’m curious to see some numbers.
Emwow! Retarded? Brilliant? Hilarious? I love it! Especially the part that says “you can put it on your hose (hoes).” Who cares if the parodies of Shamwow commercials are super cliche, and that we’ve all thought about making one for about 8 million products? After all of the rave reviews I’ve been hearing, I’m excited to hear Eminem’s new CD Recovery. The first time I heard I’m Not Afraid I didn’t like it, but it’s slightly grown on me since then. Not much though, so I hope the rest of the album is 10x better!
Hey junior advertising creatives! Did you miss out on your chance to go to Cannes by losing the Young Lions competition to someone who is obviously an idiot? Or maybe you were too lazy to even enter in the first place? Are Mom and Dad too deep into their 2nd mortgage to give you another $5,000 just to relocate your alcohol addiction to a place far nicer than the beach they spent their honeymoon on (the Jersey Shore)? Or maybe you never stood a chance at winning a lion in the first place because Gerry Graf and Alex Bogusky clearly don’t know what they’re missing out on by not giving you a chance?
Whatever your bitter reasons are for not attending the Cannes Lions Festival this year, fear not. You can still get just as drunk right here in New York City with $1 beers at Wrath of Cannes. Now I know you’re a creative so you’re probably not that good at math, but for the same $5,000 you’d spend in Cannes, you can spend $5,000 at Wrath of Cannes and get 5,000 beers— or 4,000 beers if you tip well.
The Wrath of Cannes competition is open to all juniors with less than 2 years of paid experience in the industry. You know what that means— you can get as drunk as you want and the photos won’t end up on the front page of AdAge the next day. Nobody cares knows who you are! Check out Wrath of Cannes on YouTube for details, but basically the cost to enter is $0, and we won’t extend the deadline 17 times before the show. Just show up at Kabin at 7pm on June 23 with your best work on a thumb drive and let the judging begin.
Of course, you don’t have to be a junior to attend Wrath of Cannes. Maybe you’re a seasoned pro just looking for the next big idea that will send you to Cannes next year. Come on by and meet the juniors who will be accusing you for stealing their work next spring. At the very least, come get to know the brilliant minds that will be setting up their Twilight collection in your cubicle next month as you’re forced into early retirement.
After all, who wants to carry a faux-gold trophy 4,000 miles back home when you can stumble just a few blocks home with an iPad?
A blog about advertising & my general enthusiasm for life
