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Seen in a subway station.

The folks at Tappening have released one of the funniest and smartest PSA-ish social education campaigns I’ve seen in a long time. Well, maybe since the New York Times Special Edition.

Reports are these cute single color posters with white lies about the bottled water industry will be hitting the streets of NYC soon, if they aren’t already up (I’m out of town for another week).

My favorite is “Bottled Water: 98% melted ice caps, 2% polar bear tears.” The small print at the bottom of the poster says: “If bottled water companies can lie, we can too.”

Their “Start a Lie” website is also killer. Anyone can add a lie about the bottled water industry, e.g.: “Bottled water makes me urinate fire.”

They also did these great ones during the Presidential election about McCain and Obama.

Awesome work!

Also, for any educators out there, this is practically a readymade course assignment for any art, design, social studies, activism course.

From Coolhunting, via Marisa Olson

See also: Charlie Brooker’s 10 Biggest Cocks in Advertising

Reporting from Paris — Over the centuries, the French have cultivated the fine art of rebellion. The list of targets encompasses tyrants, wars, colonialism and, above all, capitalism in its many manifestations. The latest enemy may seem unlikely: billboards.

The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren’t violent or loud or clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter’s flair, one of their slogans warns: “Attention Avert your eyes from ads: You risk being very strongly manipulated.” The goal of the Dismantlers is to get arrested, argue the righteousness of their cause in court and, you guessed it, gain publicity.
Read more: In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency – Los Angeles Times - thanks Chris

via TomorrowMusuem via via Cinema Blend

• New York Magazine on “Product integration, 30 Rock, and the trouble with using brands to write TV.”
• New York Magazine (again): “Slice and Dice – One man’s vandalism is another’s political art. Just ask Poster Boy, the Matisse of subway-ad mash-ups.”
• Art Vs. Advertising – compiling info you may have read here, other places, or not at all into one post.
• Hacking “Harassment by Advertising” – The French fight advertising with non-violent civil disobedience. They are bad asses. (they interviewed me for this one, but I didn’t pick up the paper in time. Finally got to read it courtesy of Mr. Skaggs.)
• Keepin’ It Realtor – a non-profit organization devoted to championing and promoting excellence in all forms of real estate advertising and design.
• Last, Jordan has been finding some great stuff at illegalbillboards.org. If you’re in NYC and want to get involved, get in touch.

“delete your facebook its the cool fucking thing to do” & “kill your TV” written in sharpie on the wall of a Dunkin Donuts in Spring Creek on the New Jersey shore. Oh Facebook, the rebel tweens are turning on you already.

YouTube – Dothegreenthing.com: Tears Of A Cloud

We still love the iPhone, but it’s good to see some sharp observers calling some of its advertising to task. This simple, clear video shows the ad side-by-side with the reality, plus some brief comments. And no, there is no iPhone on earth that works as quickly and smoothly as the one in those “Twice as Fast” ads, despite all the noise being made about how quick the thing is.

Conclusion: “I like Apple products, but I dislike being misled by deceptive advertising more.”

Today the New York Times reports on a “trend” of women bloggers as a target for advertising.

Advertisers are betting that the trust and intimacy that come from talking about sex after motherhood or reading about a blogger’s battle with postpartum depression will translate into sales of products discussed on a site or simply advertised alongside the personal stories.

Yes, of course, we’ll solve our relationship and emotional problems with knick-knacks and shampoo. A time-tested, advertiser approved solution!

While there are many disturbing quotes from this article, including the one I’ve used as the title to this post, I’ll leave you with an uplifting one. There is one group of women who are consistently foiling advertisers… the feminists!

“We tried pure news, and sometimes it doesn’t work,” said Brandon Holley, Shine’s editor in chief. Ms. Holley was most recently editor in chief of Jane, the Condé Nast women’s magazine that closed in July 2007. Jane struggled with the same problem — how to offer an irreverent, feminist take on women’s topics — and ultimately failed to attract advertisers.

Wait, are they meaning to tell us that women with insight into systems of oppression and a sense of self-worth aren’t into advertising? I wonder why that is.