Archive Category: Advertising
Anthropomorphic Foods
Which is better, a fresh apricot or a dried apricot? The way they argue, nothing will be settled. This is just one example of a series of talking food ads to promote the Supercooks program from the British Food Standards Agency. See sausages, potatoes, nuts, and more discuss their virtues at Eat Me Daily. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Paranormal Goat
How do you improve the runaway sleeper hit Paranormal Activity, which was made on a budget of $15,000 and has grossed nearly $90 million so far?
Add goats.
Yahoo’s Buzz Log has the clever mash-up of the movie’s ads with a few ungulates, which is a spoof trailer for The Men Who Stare At Goats: Link [embedded YouTube clip]
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TRAX STI Snow Car
Just in time for snow season! DC co-founder Ken Block teamed up with Subaru to design and produce the world’s fastest cat-track snow car. Primarily for reaching alpine backwoods to engage in some fresh boarding, the vehicle is also built for fun as a standalone toy.
Prepared by Vermont SportsCar, performance modifications include 400-hp and features Group N competition rally dampers made by EXE-TC and a KAPS 5-speed close-ratio dog-engagement gearbox. Under the hood sits a 2.5 liter, 4-cylinder, turbocharged and intercooled STI engine tuned with a MOTEC M800 ECU.
Not seen is a trailer that will haul up to four boarders and equipment. More info here.
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What Your Taste in Beer Says About You
The market research firm Mindset Media studied the cultural and economic behaviors of beer drinkers and discerned certain trends among buyers of particular beers. Among the brands studied are Budweiser, Bud Light, Corona, Heineken, and Blue Moon. Beth Snyder Bulik wrote about the study in Ad Age. Here’s what she wrote about Budweiser drinkers:
True to form, Bud drinkers are sensible, grounded and practical. They are the polar opposite of daydreamers and don’t easily get carried away. These beer drinkers also don’t like authority—can anyone say union?—and are emotionally steady people who live in the here and now. However, what may be a bit surprising is that people who prefer Bud can also be very spontaneous and tend not to do much advance planning.
Budweiser drinkers are 42% more likely to drive a truck than the average person, 68% more likely to choose a credit card with flexible payment terms and 42% more likely to use breath-freshening strips every day.
Link via The Presurfer | Photo: U.S. General Services Administration
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Bottle Bank Arcade
From The Fun Theory, a project by Volkswagen and the ones who brought us the piano staircase, comes bottle bank arcade. Again the question is posed, “If we make it fun, will people start doing it?” Yes, they will.
Thanks, Luna!
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Jell-O and the Kewpies
This post at The Future of the Cookbook tells how Jell-O became “America’s Most Famous Dessert,” before it was even familiar! Jell-O’s early promotional advertising included recipes, recommendations from doctors, and adorable kewpies. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Canal+: Wardrobe (The Closet)
This story has got everything: baddies with machine guns, log riding off a waterfall, heavy machinery, pretty lady in bed … totally plausible, too.
Here’s a short clip for Canal+ titled "Wardrobe (The Closet)" by BETC EURO RSCG advertising agency, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen.
You won’t guess the ending: Link [embedded YouTube]
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Que Sera Sera
This ad for the Thai Insurance Company features children from the Srisangwan School for the disabled, a project of the Princess Mother’s Volunteer Foundation. Link -via b3ta
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Vintage Ads: Translation, Sex Appeal, and Innuendo
You ought to wonder what a wind-blown skirt and cleavage have to do with shoeshine, but you know what was on the minds of the men who came up with this advertisement! See more hilarious and suggestive magazine ads from the 40’s-60’s at Divine Caroline.
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Human Tetris on Skateboards
This ad for Freebord skateboards has skateboarders flying down the streets of San Francisco in the dark to connect glowing Tetris shapes. I have to wonder where the awesome outtakes are!-via Digg
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30 Stupidest Inventions Ever
Life Magazine has a hilarious post up featuring what they consider to be the 30 dumbest inventions of all time. When you look through the list, filled with things like the shower hat to the right, you actually start to get an appreciation for things like the Snuggie.
Almost all of the inventions are from the sixties or before, so it’s not too shocking that many of them involve cigarettes, including a method for a couple to share a smoke and one for a person to smoke a whole pack at once -oh joy!
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7 Most Amazing One-Take Video Clips
What is it about one-take video clips that capture our imaginations? Perhaps it's because we've become so cynical about video editings that the pure, raw form of a single, uninterrupted shot truly stands out.
Well, whatever the reason, one-take video clips sure take the Interweb by storm. Here is Neatorama's list of the 7 Most Amazing One-Take Video Clips:
1. I Gotta Feeling Lip Dub
Let's start with one that's making the rounds on the Internet: a lip dub by the students of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). In this video clip, co-directed by Luc-Olivier Cloutier and Marie-Eve Hebert, 172 communications students lib-synched the song I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. The whole thing was shot in a little more than 2 hours.
In an interview with Canada AM, Cloutier gave a little background:
Cloutier says it was difficult to coordinate 172 students in one take. "The problem was we didn't know before how many people should be there for the dub so we cannot plan," he said.
Cloutier said the video was eventually shot in two takes. Despite some minor glitches, the pair is proud of the final product. "We decided to keep this take because (of) the vibe," said Cloutier.
2. Flagpole Sitta Lip Dub
If you like that, here's a clip done after work one day by the people of Connected Ventures (they're the bunch of geniuses behind College Humor, Busted Tees and Vimeo). Looks like a fun place to work! Oh, the song is Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger.
3. Nyle's Let The Beat Build
A lot of these one-take videos are music videos - and for good reason: one-take videos are hard to shoot, so those synchronized with music has got to be made by people with mad skillz.
This music video Let The Beat Build by rapper Nyle, directed by Chadd Harbold and produced by Last Pictures and 194 Recordings, even did one better: they recorded the audio simultaneously with the film. Mind = blown.
4. Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Austin Hall of Frecklestudios probably has the most watched hands ever. Since its debut two years ago, his YouTube clip Daft Hands has been watched over 33 million times!
In that video, Hall played Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger entirely with his two hands. Maybe it's easier for you to watch the clip above than for me to explain in words how he did t. (Previously on Neatorama here)
Since then, the song has spawned countless imitations, including Daft Bodies and the Daft Parodies (Erhm, the last one is kind of rude. You've been warned).
5. Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take
Let's take a break from music video clips. Last February, Joe Burgess, Rocco Sulkin and Will Tribble from the University Of York Filmmaking Society got friends to act out Forrest Gump in one minute, filming the whole thing in one take. (Previously on Neatorama here.)
From an interview with NewTeeVee Station:
The one-take angle would make you assume that there was a lot of rehearsal and coordination involved, but that wasn’t the case — according to Tribble, most of it was ab-libbed. “I didn’t know until the last minute that I was going to be in [Gump],” Tribble said, “but then they said, ‘OK, you’re Lieutenant Dan’ and there I was.”
Since then, the trio have sweded other films including Kill Bill, Star Wars, and their latest, 28 Days Later.
6. Here It Goes Again by OK Go
What's even better than a one-take music video? How about a one-take music video with treadmills! Here's the astounding clip Here It Goes Again from Ok Go, directed by Trish Sie of BigBadTrish.
7. Cog
Last on the list is the grand-daddy of all one-take videos. Titled Cog, the two-minute long Rube Goldbergian commercial for Honda Accord was produced by the London office of Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency and directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan back in 2003. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this may just be the best commercial of all time.
To the horrors of Honda engineers, Bardou-Jacquet took apart the seventh-generation Honda Accord, of which there were only 5 hand-assembled models in the world (at that time), and made an astonishing commercial out of its parts.
It took 606 takes to shoot Cog and when it was completed, the video clip was shown to the bigwigs at Honda who remarked that it was a very nice computer generated imagery. When they were told everything was real, they were floored - and if you see it, you would be, too.
More about Cog at Wikipedia
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Now That's a Well-Trained Dog!
Some dogs are well-trained, some dogs are really well-trained. In this Very Funny Ads video clip, Thailand’s Chaiphak Training Center shows just how well they can train dogs (unfortunately, making their masters look bad in comparison …)
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A Man Better Than Chocolate?
Picture this: a man and woman came back to his apartment after a date. The house is nice and clean, then he mixes a margarita … and when her neck is a little stiff, Mr. Man offers a little shiatsu massage to make her feel better.
Can this be it? Has she finally found a man better than chocolate?
Then she turns on some music …
You’ll never guess the ending of this video clip – see for yourself at our partner Very Funny Ads: Link
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Coffee Lamp Post
This lamp post is an ad for McDonalds in Vancouver. You have to wonder 1. how much light does it really emit, and b. is the coffee still free? -via Gizmodo
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Unfortunate Advertisement Placement
Here is a list 15 ordinary advertisements that likely wouldn’t be neat if it weren’t for the poor placement. Personally, I ignore ads for the most part so I don’t think i would be the one to notice the Folgers ad placed on a webpage next to an article linking coffee to heart attacks.
I enjoy the McDonald’s bill board next to the child obesity one. I like to think that placement was intentional!
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National Flags Made Out of Food
These flags made out of food were created to promote the Sydney International Food Festival. Each national flag is illustrated with food associated with that country: Greece has black olives, India features curry, South Korea has kimbap, etc. Guess which country is represented by the flag pictured. Link -via b3ta
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McDonald's Prison Visit
A woman arrived in prison to visit her husband – cue the ominous music – then was led by a leering guard down a dreary hall to the visitor’s room. As soon as she sat down, her jailed husband ratcheted up the pressure: did she bring it? Would she do it right then and there for him? Curious inmates began to stare …
You’ve won’t see an advertisement quite like this on US television (and for McDonald’s no less!), but thankfully our partner Very Funny Ads got it: Link
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Blackcurrant Tango Ad
We posted about The Man Who Walked Around The World (link to clip here at the Zeray Gazette), a fantastic ad for Johnny Walker whiskey starring Robert Carlyle, directed by Jamie Rafn and produced by ad agency BBH London. It was all shot in one continuous take and was simple yet with a very engaging narrative (thus showing us that you don’t need no CGI to be good).
Well, if you thought that was good, this one out for Blackcurrant Tango, with a little added humor to the one continuous take idea: Link [YouTube Link]
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The Man Who Walked Around The World
You don’t need a lot of special effect magic to make a brilliant ad. As this short commercial for Johnny Walker whiskey from ad agency BBH London shows, sometimes all you need is a good narrative. That, and Robert Carlyle:
AdFreak suggests that this commercial might be the best of the year so far. It’s for Johnnie Walker brand whiskey, and traces the history of that brand in one long, continuous take for six minutes. Unless there clever and hidden special effects, actor Robert Carlyle had to have, and did, flawless timing.
Check out the clip: Link | Interview with director Jamie Rafn
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School for Nervous and Backward Children
The Reed School for Nervous and Backward Children (1906)
The University of Washington Libraries has a very interesting collection of over 450 print advertisements in local magazines, city directories, and theater pamphlets of the Pacific Northwest from 1867 – 1918.
I’m particularly intrigued with this one: The Reed School of Nervous and Backward Children (1906). The ad noted:
The "family physician" notes that this school is not for the exploitation of any "fad" in child training, but is open to the acceptance of the latest developments in its line of work which have received scientific approval.
The parent notes the truly "homelike" atmosphere which is present, as indicated by the entire absence of anything "institutional."
The school was in Detroit, Michigan, and was conducted by Mrs. Frank A. Reed. According to The Handbook of Private Schools (1920) by Porter Sargent:
"Instruction is given in manual and physical training, vocal and instrumental music, drawing, painting, and the usual school subjects. The School for Stuttering and Stammering at the same address is entirely separate"
Link – via Information Junk
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Very Funny Ads: "Clap" by Good Knight
I’m happy to announce that we’ve started a new collaboration with Very Funny Ads, a website by Turner Broadcasting System that aims to bring you the world’s funniest commercials (motto: "ads that were too hot for tv").
We’ll do a regular weekly round of the best of the best funny ads (though you can easily lose hours watching every single clip over at VFA) – and you can see the Neatorama-branded Out There Ads on VFA.
This one is by "Clap" by Good Knight, which shows that even one mosquito can be deadly … Link
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Squirrel Lamp
Brett & Kate McKay of the Art of Manliness Blog wrote a neat post about some of the worst products ever created for men, which included dubious products like hair in a can, chest hair toupee, prostate warmer and so on. The popularity of the post got them to write a sequel, listing gems like glow-in-the-dark neckties, paste-on facial hair, and swim trunks that act like floaties.
Photo: Sep 1933 Modern Mechanix
But for reasons unknown, though I assume alcohol was involved, they included this incredibly awesome squirrel lamp – so I am duly forced to rename their post "12 More of the Worst Products For Men Ever Created and One Really, Really Awesome Squirrel Lamp." So there I fixed it.
Link – Thanks Mu!
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Printer Choreography
(vimeo link)
Who knows how much is paper and how much is special effects in this ad made in response to a challenge from Hewlett-Packard. The finished product, named “Invent” is impressive! Created by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth. Music by Round Table Knights. -via I Am Bored
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One-Cent Hotel Rooms in Venice
An advertising mistake will costs thousands of euros for the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Venice, Italy. An online advertisement posted a room price as one-hundredth of a euro per night instead of 150 euros ($213). Before the ad was changed, 230 people booked 1,400 room nights at that price.
The company say the mistake was made at the offices of IHG in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.
“Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honouring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation,” the hotel group’s Monica Smith said.
The total cost of the mistake could be 90,000 euros (or $128,000). Link -via Digg
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Navy Sends Officer Uniform in Letter
Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore has come up with a clever new marketing campaign in a search for new recruits for the Singapore Navy. They sent over 6,000 letters containing a fold out uniform to help the students better imagine themselves as Navy officers.
The mock uniforms are to help the students better imagine themselves dressed for success. 6,000 direct mailers were mailed to graduating ‘A’ level students in December 2008. 4.7% of them responded, considered a higher than average response rate compared to previous direct mailers sent out.
“We sent out direct mailer packs, which opened out to be the ultimate uniform – a crisp, white Naval Officer’s jacket, complete with medals and decorations. A business reply card was placed in the breast pocket.”
Link – via campaignbrief
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Billboards that Don't Belong Next to Each Other
Our web BFF BuzzFeed has a hilarious post about 15 billboards that really don’t belong next to each other. We’re kind of late of posting this one, but it’s too precious too miss: Link – Thanks Eric!
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designboom's Nissan Challenge: How Would You Beat Urban Parking Problems?
Calling all photoshoppers! Our web pal designboom has just launched a design competition in collaboration with Nissan, called "Think Outside the Parking Box."
Challenge conventional urban parking! playful enhanced parking technology, robotic facilities, safety, dynamic services, green parking … creative solutions that address urban parking problems, statements of objections, creative-innovative-and-hilarious ideas in form of videos, art- design objects and illustrations can be submitted.
First prize is a cool €5000 euro, so make it good: Link – Thanks Andy Butler! (You know the competition is pretty cool when designboom actually uses capital letters …)
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Stories Behind 7 Famous Beer Logos
The next time you open a bottle of beer, don't just chug the brew - take a look at the logo on the label. Ever wonder who St. Pauli Girl actually is? Or why there's the mysterious number "33" on Rolling Rock beer bottles? Read on. Neatorama takes a look at the Stories Behind 7 Famous Beer Logos:
St. Pauli Girl: Probably Not Just a Waitress
Photo: safoocat
[Flickr]
What's not to like about the St. Pauli Girl? She's blonde, big bosomed, and brings us big frothy mugs of beer! But what most people don't realize is that she's not exactly just a waitress. Yep, St. Pauli is the famous red light district of Hamburg, Germany.
In 1977, St. Pauli Girl Beer started to choose a spokesmodel to represent the beer brand and appear on the popular St. Pauli Girl poster. In 1999, they started using Playboy magazine playmates as the girl (the 2008 St. Pauli Girl is Irina Voronina). Here's the gallery of St. Pauli Girls from 1977 to 2007: Link
Pabst Blue Ribbon
This one's pretty straightforward. PBR was originally named Best Select, then Pabst Select and finally Pabst Blue Ribbon, named because the practice of tying blue ribbons around the beer bottleneck from 1882 until 1916.
Pabst advertisement from 1911 (Source)
Rolling Rock 33
The
mysterious '33' has been on the label of Rolling Rock since the Latrobe
Brewing Company brewed its first batch in 1939, but what does it actually
stand for? Theories about the origin of the cryptic '33', some undoubtedly
hatched in bar arguments, range from the year 1933 (the year Prohibition
was repealed), how many steps it took to walk from the brewmaster's office
to the brewing floor, the number of the racing horse on the label, and
even the highest level of Freemasonry (33rd degree).
According to James Tito, the former CEO of Latrobe Brewing, the number '33' may actually be an accident. When the founders of the company came up with the slogan
Rolling Rock - From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you.
someone wrote '33' at the end to indicate the number of words, but the bottle printer mistakenly incorporated it into the label graphic. They decided to keep the 33 instead of having to scrap and replace the bottles. Even though the slogan had been changed several times in the history of Rolling Rock, the company had made sure to use the same number of words. (Source - see argument against this reasoning within)
(Image: Gravy Bread)
Heineken: the Friendly 'e'
The logo of Heineken is rather simple: it consists of the five-pointed red star and the word "Heineken" in green, but there's something remarkable about it: Alfred Henry (Freddy) Heineken, the grandson of the founder of the company, Gerard Heineken, helped develop the company's own typeface (common today, but rare back then). He insisted that the 'e' in the logo should look friendlier. Indeed, the three letters 'e' in the logo are slightly tilted backwards to make it seem that they are smiling.
Guinness: Harp of Brian Boru
Arthur
Guinness brewed his first stout in 1759, it took Guinness over 100 years
later to select its logo - the harp of Brian Boru - a gaelic harp in Ireland's
heraldic emblem and a symbol of Irish unity, not to mention the Euro coin.
By the way, Ireland is the only country in the world with a musical instrument
as a national emblem.
Brian Boru was the king of Ireland that ruled from 1002 to 1014 and protected and/or freed - depending on who you ask - the Irish people from the Vikings. The harp named after him, however, was actually much, much older. According to Celtic myth, the gaelic harp was owned by the Dagda, a king/god/father-figure, that can summon the seasons.
There's actually a real instrument named the harp of Brian Boru. It's one of three surviving medieval harps dating from the 14th or 15th century and is on display at Trinity College Dublin.
By the way, if you are named O'Brien or O'Brian, then you're a descendant of King Brian Boru - so a toast (Guinness, of course) is in order!
Stella Artois: the Horn
Stella Artois was launched as a Christmas beer in 1926 - its name is a combination of the latin word for "star" and Sebastian Artois, a brewmaster in the Den Hoorn Brewery (founded 1366) in Louvain, Belgium.
The logo of Stella Artois beer reflects the beer's origin - Den Hoorn is Dutch for "The Horn," and the now-defunct brewery lives on as the horn prominently displayed on the top of the label of every bottle of Stella Artois beer. The fancy frame around the name is also in the style of Flemish architecture in the city.
Bass Red Triangle
(L) Bass & Co's Pale Ale, the very first trademark registered in the
UK (1876) at the Intellectual
Property Office; (R) current logo
Bass Pale Ale's Red Triangle logo may be simple, but it's pretty darned special: it's the very first trademark registered in Britain. When trademark registration law took effect on January 1, 1876, a Bass employee was sent to wait overnight outside the registrar's office in order to be the first in line to register a trademark the next morning. Bass & Co. Brewery got the first two trademarks, the first being the Bass Red Triangle for their pale ale and the second the Bass Red Diamond for their strong ale.
Bass is also the most frequently featured beer in fine arts. Bottles of Bass beer can be seen in Manet's 1882 painting Bar at the Folies-Bergère.
Bar in den Folies-Bergère by Edouard Manet (1882)
Bonus: Old Milwaukee's Swedish Bikini Team
Okay, so this isn't exactly about beer logos - but brewers often advertise their beers in outrageous manners, and there's nothing quite as outrageous as the notorious Old Milwaukee's Swedish Bikini Team:
Ironically, there's nothing Swedish about the Swedish Bikini Team - the women were all played by American actresses wearing platinum blonde wigs!
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Obviously we haven't talked about many other beer logos. So if your favorite beer isn't listed here, why not tell us all about it in the comment section?
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If you like the article above, take a look at the rest of Neatorama's Logo series:
- Evolution
of Tech Logos
- Evolution
of Car Logos
- Stories
Behind 10 Famous Food Logos
- Stories
Behind Hollywood Studio Logos
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All the Ads in Times Square, New York City
Think that websites and blogs are so laden with ads? Well, the virtual page is nothing compared to the physical space when it comes to ads – take Times Square, for instance. Back in 2007, David Friedman of Ironic Sans blog decided to take a photo of every single ad in Times Square. It took him 20 minutes, and he came up with 183 ads total.
Link [Flickr] | David’s post: Every ad in Times Square
Lest you think that this ad business is a recent invention, check out this photo of Times Square back at the turn of the century:
Photo via The Dust Congress
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