Obama is about to make his mark on NYC. We have put together a fundraising effort to pay for a billboard congratulating the President-elect. We need your help to make it happen! Make a small contribution and spread the news to friends:
I had one of those New York moments last night. We were on our way home at around midnight on the last F train of the night (its one of those lovely closed for construction weekends). The train was crowded with tired people, many of whom had fallen asleep with their heads tilted in every which way. One very Wall Street looking dude was contorted and laying face down on the seat with his face in the magazine he was now reading by osmosis apparently. Typical NYC Subway experience. There really wasn’t much to do but stare at the ads. NYC subway ads tend to fall into 2 categories. There’s the big brand campaigns, often for liquor companies, with their close ups of cold sweaty bottles or with the unbelievably hot multi-culti girls that magically appear and hug a massive cold sweaty bottle. Then there’s the low brow “designed-on-Typestyler-by-my-nephew-who’s-a-freshman-in-high-school-but-is-on-his-way-to-art-school” ads for such interesting services as pimple treatments Dr. Zizmor is classic), bunion surgery, or accident law. These tend to be much more entertaining to look at due to their sheer ridiculousness and their extremely difficult to achieve levels of atrociousness. Well, last night I found a hybrid.
Image by Larry Splorch
I looked up at this ad and immediately thought, man, here’s another uber-cheesy one. Let’s see what it’s all about. And then I realized, Kanye West was the star of the ad. Huh??. The ad features the magical transformation of some unfortunate loser dude into the coolness of Kanye. A phone number, 1-877-BeKANYE is prominently displayed, dropped out of an emergency red stripe in extra-bold type. A small detail box of the fizzy little tablets with KW engraved in them give the ad the required scientific action shot. Kanye’s silly smile, holding a condom-wrapper-like package, nails the satisfied customer testimonial portrait. This is brilliant stuff! Best of all, there’s just one litle clue on the whole ad that indicates who it’s for. The first item in a list of features squeezed into a corner of the ad reads: “For a few hours or a lifetime, now anytime can be Kanye time in an absolut world.” And there it is. Absolut is missing its “e”. It’s a liquor ad! Sweet. The perfect hybrid. The ad is further paid off on the campaign’s mini-site with a hilarious video of pseudo Kanyes at a club.
I guess the advertisers have finally truly succeeded. It’s a sign when their concepts and messages begin appearing on bathroom stalls around the world, re-appropriated by the scribbly hands of the originally intended audience.
I found the image below in a men’s room stall of a movie theater last weekend. It pictures a grad-to-be and his Mom, a humble advertisement for Careers and Colleges. But much to my amusement, someone had artfully overlaid, in red and black Sharpie marker, the unmistakable smirk of The Joker. I find it interesting, due in large part to the fact that the lowly originator of the advertisement has been trumped, uninitiated, by the viewers (now participators) of a greater advertising campaign—and at no added cost to the latter. A reminder that the business of advertising is no laughing matter.
MTV Exit and Radiohead have teamed up to produce an awareness video about child slavery. It’s no Charlie Bit Me, but it’s worth a view.
Found on Coudal
Blame the ‘Artiste’ for the atrocities you see befall your fellow ‘human’ everyday, as you peruse advertising in magazines and newspapers; or even pass by on the street. There’s no telling where the next Photoshop horror might present itself, just long enough to ensure it will haunt your dreams with visions of super-long arms holding the newest in sony-gut technology. Thankfully, some dude named Eddie seems to have found a blogspot where we can convene and share these issues out in the open. It helps.
Click here to view.
A relic of my childhood slipped past me a couple weeks ago. At the end of November Britain’s channel 4 brought back Max Headroom, who brought me my first memory of Coca Cola advertising, and a good scare to the untouchable American institution that is the media mogul. True to form in many respects, Max is still his cocky, plasticine, loudmouth self. But because he is still played by the original actor, Matt Frewer, Max has also aged into an even creepier version of his already unsettling self. I’m personally glad to have him back.
View Channel 4’s new ad here
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Hyperakt is without a doubt full of visually critical participants in the world of advertising. And, as a short visit to our studio will inform you, we are also made up of happily opinionated music lovers. But we’re clearly not the only fans crapping our pants in light of the latest slap in the face to both music history and (what’s left of) creative culture.
As even those of us without television sets may have heard, The Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” has been newly bastardized — not merely by way of a sloppy remake — but as a TV spot for the diaper manufacturer, Luvs.
View the ad below, read the story from an advertising perspective, or read the ever trustworthy general media’s take.
I’ve often wondered our world would look like sans advertising. It’s pasted everywhere, from T-shirts to the grocery store check-out lane. Lame. Now we have a view of what it could really look like, thanks to a new law in South America’s largest city. Sao Paulo has recently passed a bill to fight the “visual pollution” of billboards city wide. View the Flickr photoset, or the full article.
