One doesn’t associate Burger King with Public Service Announcements or positive social causes or things like that. But this is good stuff.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month.
[h/t +Rob Donoghue]
Category: Commercials & Branding
When drug companies want MORE side effects
When humans hears a long, laundry list of things, they tend to tune it out. The result?
- If you list a dozen possible serious side effects of a drug, people will be concerned.
- If you list a dozen possible serious side effects mixed in with a dozen minor side effects, people will be less concerned.
- Even if you emphasize the serious ones in larger, bolded red print, people will apparently mentally sum it up as “It side effects,” and be less concerned.
- (And, I suspect, if you rattle off three dozen side effects as fast as you can in a lower town of voice in the middle of the commercial, it has even less effect.)
I’m pretty sure the pharmaceutical companies are aware of this.
Whoops: Drug ads gloss over risks with a mind trick—that’s backed by the FDA
Drug makers are supposed to be forthcoming with health risks—and the more the better.
The "New" Most Interesting Man in the World
It's been interesting watching Dos Equis replace their old MIMitW (Jonathan Goldsmith) with a new, younger replacement (Augustin Legrand). Part of what's interesting is that the new guy isn't young — they've gone for someone who at least looks like he's been around the globe a few times.
Most of the jokes remain pretty clever hyperbole (the last in this segment is the weakest, but it's also the one left off most of the TV broadcasts I've seen).
We'll see how it goes.
The Super Bowl of Commercials
So as every other person has pointed out, the Super Bowl has become as noteworthy for Big Expensive Commercials as it has for the actual game played. So it's worth taking a look at the Best/Worst adverts. All of these are very much in my opinion, since I had disagreements with the consensus in the room during the game:
AMUSING / INTERESTING ADS:
– Death Wish Coffee — Created by Intuit for the winners of a contest, it's epic in appearance with a great twist at the end. Probably my favorite of the day. https://youtu.be/V_3H_Y5QUWw
– Kung Fu Panda and Wix — if only for the "Old Spice" homage. https://youtu.be/7jIA3eFtSOM
– Doritos "Ultrasound" — Of the various ads that pushed the bounds of good taste (so to speak), this one was the most amusing. https://youtu.be/ugn_qmQ0NFo
– Hulk, Ant-Man, Coke — Okay, this one won't win any awards, but it was still amusing. https://youtu.be/OlZqBR3yTiw
– Budweiser – Helen Mirren — While the idea of Mirren actually drinking Bud is disturbing, I'd watch her reciting pretty much anything, and this PSA is entertaining. https://youtu.be/Rb2VXVmUga4
– Pokemon 20th Anniversary — It was just sweet. https://youtu.be/2F46tGehnfo
– Colgate "Every Drop Counts" — Kudos to Colgate for a PSA about water wastage. https://youtu.be/z5Ar0eCp6uE
– Jeep — I found this a more sentimental and engaging car ad than the Audi one. https://youtu.be/wKn5K5V7tRo
– Heinz "Wiener Dogs" — Because every one loves wiener dogs. https://youtu.be/aNN9nL2vppM
DO NOT WANT:
– PuppyMonkeyBaby — This ad makes me positively loathe the idea of even drinking the product I won't name. https://youtu.be/ql7uY36-LwA
– Amazon.com and Alex Baldwin — Mildly humorous in places but … it did nothing to make me want to buy an Echo, only to slap Baldwin and everyone else in the ad. https://youtu.be/qTz5jAn-XX8
– Skittles "The Portrait" — Loud and dumb, and actually something that makes me less likely to buy their candy. https://youtu.be/21ivbtgqJkg
– Shocktop — When you find yourself in a stupid argument with a beer tap, you have been drinking something other than beer. https://youtu.be/D0AoauuOY2w
– Paypal "New Money" — Nobody in the room seemed inclined to rush right out and find out what the hell Paypal was actually advertising here. Though its incomprehensibility did make people watch it. https://youtu.be/1dF9t_xQGks
– "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" – How could someone invest so much money in something that looks so horribly awful? https://youtu.be/ikps-Af4q90
– "X-Men Apocalypse" — This movie has everything going for it except ads that make it look actually interesting. While it avoids spoilers by telling us nothing of interest from the plot, I really want more than just snapshots of super-types manifesting their powers. https://youtu.be/IT34AAaLVSo
– Taco Bell "Quesalupa" — Not even cameos by George Takei and Giorgio Tsoukalos can save this loud mish-mosh for a made-up piece of mass-produced Mexican fast food. https://youtu.be/V7BvpIPsWWU
– Kia "Walken Closet" — Aside from disappointment that Christopher Walken would sell out for something so uninspired, who was the ad exec who thought an advert that criticizes beige socks would turn out to be how exciting a plain white Kia sedan is? https://youtu.be/ZILIr1412wc
NOTABLE, BUT NOT NECESSARILY WINNERS:
– NFL Babies Singing — An amusing but somewhat squicky concept. https://youtu.be/9KqekigARfE
– Audi "Commander" — Car ads are so overblown that it takes something special to stand out. This one hit lots of sentimental tones (including David Bowie), but I just felt it was too much glurge combined with "Ooh, fast sporty car!" Everyone else liked it, though. https://youtu.be/yB8tgVqmKzw
– Honda Ridgeline and Sheep — Fun music and premise, but I'm eye-rolling too hard at the idea of pickup bed music speakers. https://youtu.be/kTaCT8ZmdJA
– Hyndai "First Date" — Very stereotype over-protective father humor, but still amusing as the father of a teen-aged girl. https://youtu.be/-R_483zeVF8
– Budweiser "Not Backing Down" — The Clydesdale ads are usually pretty cool, and this one had some interesting imagery, but its message was "We're a beer made by a monster company, and that's why you should chug it." Um, okay. https://youtu.be/rF711XAtrVg
– Toyota Prius "Longest Chase" — While there are cute moments, something about this ad just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe Grand Theft Auto and celebritizing of criminals aren't all that funny. https://youtu.be/rHzLUdd7kZ8
This doesn't include every ad during the game, obviously but they're the ones that a review of the list triggered some significant memory or impression.
Battle of Logos 50!
Go, my tribal sportsball team! Win against the evil sportsball team of that other tribe, with their garish colors and pagan symbology!
If you told me that both the Broncos and Panthers logo were from the same design hop (if not same designer), it would not at all surprise me. I think the clean lines and directionality of the Broncos logo is a bit better, but, despite having been in Denver for over a couple of decades, I confess I find the Carolina blue/black a more attractive color scheme than the Denver Orange/blue.
Neverthless, I'll be there rooting for my sportsball champions, and drinking much local beer for the cause.
Originally shared by +The Bruce, Mile High:
Battling Logos
Both are clean and modern, but I do prefer the Broncos logo, even if admittedly being slightly biased.
This made me laugh far more than it should have
Geico has been doing some really funny stuff of late.
Graphic design trends (and the articles that love them)
As the article hastens to point out, none of this is new, just on the upswing (to be followed by a downswing in future years). That said, for the most part, I approve of these "graphic design trends" for 2016
The 9 Graphic Design Trends You Need to Be Aware of In 2016 – Design School
Start your year off right with the graphic design trends that will help you win in 2016.
Posters of the Underground
There is something about London transit posters about the Tube, the buses, the trains and the like, and the wonderful artistic beauty to them. The article has a very nice collection of them.
The one below is actually fairly cluttered, but it's fun just because, of all the famous international advertising symbols of 1920 that it references, there's only one that I clearly recognize almost a century later.
Glorious Posters From the Golden Years of the London Tube
In 1908, the very first Underground logo, known as a roundel, was introduced at St James’ Park station. It consisted of a red disk intersected with a blue…
How McDonald's changed the English language
According to this article …
http://logophilius.blogspot.com/2015/10/how-mcdonalds-marketing-made-us-grimace.html
… until the early/mid-1970s, "grimace" was pronounced "grih-MAYS" (rhymes with "face"). But when McDonald's introduced "The Evil Grimace" to their McDonaldLand commercials, they chose to pronounce it "GRIM-miss" — which pronunciation stuck (probably given the fact that it's not a word that's spoken aloud very often).
[http://mcdonalds.wikia.com/wiki/Grimace]
And, yes, it was the "Evil Grimace" originally (for drink-stealing values of evil), and he had an extra set of arms. Just like the Hamburglar was scarier looking when first introduced, too.
Blocking Ads
I do the majority of my browsing from a desktop, not a mobile device. I've been using AdBlock and its kin for eons, and I find it shocking on those occasions when I browse things where I don't have an ad blocker how slow and how cluttered the experience is.
That's true in spades on a mobile device, as the article describes. Alas, one significant drawback to the Android universe is that Google is not jiggy with ad blocking; the solutions I've all seen involve at least partial rooting of the device, which is not my cuppa.
But I will say that the slowness and uneven nature of web page loading with ads on my Android devices is one reason I don't brows all that much from them. When it takes a minute or two to load up a page fully, and I can't read the page because it keeps jumping back to the top as new in-stream ads are loaded, then I'm not getting the functionality I need, and my conscience in avoiding that crap is pretty clear.
I recognize the need for sites to have a revenue stream. I welcome anything that efficiently lets me get around the screaming paparazzi of online ads.
Putting Mobile Ad Blockers to the Test
Two tests were carried out with ad blockers: one to measure how much loading times were improved and the second to study battery life.
Forget about it, Jake — it's Japanese commercials
"I's strong to da finish, cause I eats me spinach!"
Two personal trivia notes from when I was a wee tot:
1. I used to call spinach "Pop-Eye".
2. The first book I learned to read on my own was a Pop-Eye storybook.
Still love spinach to this day, propaganda and decimal misplacements or not.
Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:
Popeye and the Great Spinach Myth
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.Everyone knows Popeye the sailor. And everyone knows his secret. Whenever the cartoon sailor is on the verge of a fight, he squeezes open a can of spinach, pours the greens down his throat, and uses his muscles to pummel his opponent (almost inevitably fellow sailor Bluto, his arch-enemy.)As an interesting sidebar, in…
Who Blocks the Ad-Blockers?
This debate comes up every few years, and each time I feel conflicted.
On the one hand …
Stuff costs money. Online content costs money. Websites — including (or especially) major media / journalistic websites — get money from ads, sometimes for views, often for click-throughs. Block those ads, and the site doesn't get revenue. Turn off the revenue, eventually the site goes dark.
On the other hand …
Web page ads are obtrusive, obnoxious, distracting, and potentially dangerous. Having gotten used to not seeing them, having them pop up (sometimes literally) again is a horror show. Watching how they impact my Android experience tells me I don't want to go back to that on my desktop.
I could potentially subscribe to content — and in the cases of some specific creators, I do use Patreon to send a small amount monthly to them (in the "a dollar or two" range). That's only practical for so many locations, though. There are too many content sites out there to practically subscribe to. And too many subscription deals feel undermined by the publishers themselves, as they thrash around changing their models (pay wall! no pay wall! timed pay wall!).
What's the answer? I don't know. The current situation seems untenable, and increased nagging / bullying by sites seems unlikely to net a desirable result. We'll see what happens.
Websites know you’re using ad-blockers, and they’re coming for you
Some websites have resorted to appealing to their readers’ better nature or even haggling with them.
Truthiness in Advertising
Okay, this is pretty darned funny, and a nice in-your-face to The Guardian.
I know nothing about the movie, but I have to admire the hell out of the advertising agency.
Originally shared by +Sreek Menon:
Guess what rating did The Guardian give to the Tom Hardy movie "Legend"?
Via reddit.
The New Google (Logo)
I found the odd serifed logo for Google nicely idiosyncratic. The new logo is a scosh less quirky, but a lot classier — and a lot more flexible for various purposes.
I'd rather they'd announced this simultaneous with Alphabet, since it "feels" like a big change, and having too many of those come over a short time period makes people feel insecure.
Google Has a Brand New Logo, Here It Is
Google recently changed its logo a little. Now they’ve changed it a lot. And it’s actually a heck of a lot better, too. I kinda love it.
The New Zealand flag shortlist has been announced
I don't know that these are my favorite designs from the 40 pre-finalists, but they aren't my least favorite. I find it interesting that it's all fern-based stuff, and that kiwi birds didn't even make the final 40.
I do like the shout-out to the Southern Cross constellation on the current flag on the two of these. That said, I do like the rather unique starkness of the black and white ones, and would probably (were I eligible to vote) go for the koru in the upper right-hand corner, as both a reference to the fern frond it is, as well as (in the inverse) a reference to the sea which surrounds the NZ islands.
We'll see what the citizenry chooses, and then whether they actually choose to replace their current flag.
New Zealand’s new flag: final four designs announced
It’s a choice between three ferns and a black-and-white koru for New Zealand’s new flag as the government panel publishes its final shortlist
A Flag for Earth
A fun design school project, with seven interlocking rings, one for each continent. (Frankly, I think the world of Mortal Man, Doomed to Die, should have a flag of nine rings, but I wasn't consulted). The intent is to have a symbol for multinational endeavors, particularly beyond the confines of the planet.
(And, yes, we have the UN flag, but the UN is a multi-national political organization, and doesn't encompass all humanity. This, symbolically, is meant to. "We come in peace for all mankind," as the man once said.)
(h/t +Yonatan Zunger)
Originally shared by +Jesse Powell:
I support this flag.
Not sure who thought this would be a good marketing idea
While I have seen commenters unhappy over the backlash against these adverts ("Prudes!" is the most common), this goes a bit beyond just sexual content, and into shades of prostitution. I dunno.
Maybe if they were smiling it wouldn't seem so squicky.
Originally shared by +Boing Boing:
This topless bus ad for Cardiff-based New Adventure Travel lasted 3 hours before it was pulled.
Bus company pulls topless “Ride Me All Day for £3” posters
This bus ad for Cardiff-based New Adventure Travel lasted 3 hours before it was pulled.
There's no business like cameo business
Perhaps the lightest-weight (and funniest) car commercial ever.
An unfortunate byline
Given concerns over date rape and the bad decisions people make while drunk — it seems to me this takes the selling point of "this will help you have a good time" maybe a scosh too far.
Originally shared by +Chris Sewell:
"The perfect beer for removing "no" from your vocabulary for the night."
ಠ_ಠ
