Really! I can’t believe that we still don’t have a legal way of obtaining one of these butes… I mean come on Rogers, urghh!!! Not that I really need another iPhone but I would really love not having to Hackunlock it every time there’s a new update to the software.
Just get it here already! Apple will for sure cut down on the unlockers percentage on the market.
If you haven’t heard about this iPhone thingy-ma-gig then go here to find out more.
I was just about to go to bed when I got an email from a woman at Edelman, the PR firm that represents Unilever, maker of AXE body spray. She had read my post on the Frank Fairey DIY Obama poster (Barack Obama Has A Posse), and sent me a preview of 2 ads that will run in the major newspapers of Chicago and New York tomorrow, taking full advantage of the Super Tuesday media frenzy.
The ads aren’t great. They’re not overly clever or well art directed. But they’ll get some attention, and that’s really what AXE and Unilever want. I know that politicians are public domain when it comes to satire and comedy, but this is beyond controversial, using a politician-in-the-running to push a product. There will be many letters and emails for and against this (but mostly against), and of course confused voters who will believe Hillary Clinton is actually endorsing AXE (or Obama / McCain). I’ll be watching to see if any of the candidates mock Hillary for it. I’ll be even more interested to see if Hillary attacks Unilever for these ads. I’m not sure what good it will do for AXE, other than get people talking about the brand. But will the right people be talking, and will they buy the product? That remains to be seen.
What impresses me is that Edelman is digging a bit deeper to get this out there, and create an underlying buzz through the little bloggers, like me. Or maybe it just stroked my blogger’s ego to receive acknowledgment of readership. I feel so used, yet so happy! Let the controversy begin.
SIDEBAR: I talk a bit about Unilever’s split personality branding of both Dove and AXE in this Social Media Today podcast.
In one post I’m about to bring down the site’s integ a peg!
But before you go ape shit with me… I’m doing this cause our industry is so hot to produce the next big viral campaign and clients think that its going to help boost their presence online. Truth is most viral campaigns don’t get to their viral status cause it fails to do a lot of things.Such as, bringing out the brands true essence; so basically doing viral strategies that don’t fit the brand or the target they wish to communicate to. Then you have failure in offering relevant extensions to promote the campaign; sometimes executives push to promote the brand more than the campaign, forgetting that the campaign should do the job of promoting the brand.
And lastly and what I’m trying to show with this video… you have to have good viral content! Meaning, it would have to be something other people would like to pass around cause its meaningful, funny and relevant to them and they think other people would feel the same way about it, but also be proud that they spread it around.
Phenomenology designer Frank Shepard Fairey of ObeyGiant.com has created a wonderful propaganda-inspired poster in support of Barack Obama. Then Ed Alkema of PENTDAGO.com created an interactive version where you write your own Obama slogan. I can see kids on all ends of the political spectrum having fun with this.
An art director from the UK by the name of Luke created this fake viral ad for Wonderbra using a simple optical illusion, a stock photo of some cleavage and a quick upload to YouTube. Using clever tags like boobs,bangers,breasts,tits,tats,bazookas,jubblies and funbags he managed to get over 75,000 hits in 4 days and is quickly climbing the viral video charts. The Brits sure love their slang.
The execution is interesting, and there’s great potential for this technique, but the ad falls flat by saying nothing about the real benefit or value of the product. Oh… sorry, you weren’t even listening to me, were you?
I’m going to use the EXACT SAME tags as Luke for this post and see how long it takes me to get 75,000 hits.
UPDATE: In four days I managed to get a grand total of 66 hits on this sad story. It looks like Wordpress readers are a bit more high-brow than the viewers of YouTube.
The Cool Hunter found this Australian print campaign raising awareness of the dangers of crossing the street while listening to your iPod. Death never looked so trendy.
If you were a geek, or a budding geek, back in the 80s, then you knew about Max Headroom. He not only hawked C-c-c-coke in commercials, but in 1987, for one short year, he had his own dystopian television show that felt like a cyberpunk rendition of Brazil.
Channel 4 in the UK has brought Maximum Headroom back, sort of. He’s a rambling geriatric, being wheeled around in an old television set by a large, British caregiver. Max continuously babbles in stuttered samples as he is bathed, taken on slow-moving tours, and wheeled to the beach to stare at the sea.
The premise: Max Headroom was ready for all things digital 20 years ago, and now Channel 4 is going the same route. The ad is a bit jarring and abrasive, but then again, wasn’t Max Headroom always that way?
Toyota teams up with World of Warcraft to advertise the Tocoma truck. The results are unexpectedly good. The viral is short, funny, with memorable (and quotable) dialogue.
