The Anti-Advertising Agency » humor

Logorama – Ronald Raygun McDonald gets his revenge

Michael Mandiberg — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:00:38 +0000

[Oscars 2010 Mejor Cortometraje] – Logorama

This is 16 minutes long animated film of logos and and advertising characters produced by a serious 3D house in France, and nominated for an Oscar, but yet in dire threat of lawsuits for use of corporate logos. At least this is according to the blogs, which, are… well… contradictory. But it is a hell of a great 13 minutes. Great villains, chase scenes, and a surreal vision of contemporary corporate life. It helps if you know Los Angeles.

Great fun. Sad truths. Fantastical visions.

New York Post – [Very] Special Edition

kelli — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:38:31 +0000

I was lucky to be involved with a great group of people (including the Yes Men) who produced a counterfeit — although 100% factually accurate — special edition New York Post for the kick-off of climate week.

Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Distributed yesterday morning to surprised NYC commuters, the paper replaced the oft frivolous Post content with imperative stories about climates change, while keeping all other elements equal. The idea was that Post readers do care about climate change (by virtue of their desire to remain both comfortable and alive), the paper just needs some assistance finding their greener voice. Generously, we were there to offer a helping hand — demonstrating how the Post could use their hallmark writing style and pun-ny headlines to tackle important environmental issues. Read all of the articles here.

The ads seek to remind consumers of the commonsense value of what they already have, rather than enticing them to buy anything new. Can you imagine the sheer brilliance of tap water — it is delicious, refreshing, and LITERALLY comes out of your faucet…and doesn’t cost $1.50 a pop! Can you think of a single earnestly advertised product that rivals tap water’s miraculousness??

A Funny Place to Advertise Pizza

kelli — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:00:57 +0000

Couldn’t resist…

No related posts.

Confusing on several levels…

kelli — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:01:50 +0000

Welcome Kelli Anderson, our newest latest on the Anti-Advertising Agency site. Kelli worked on the New York Times Special Edition designing ads for Dr. Zizmor among other things. Welcome Kelli!

“For sale” realty signs are a familiar sight in post-real-estate-bubble Williamsburg. It was only a matter of time until some super clever ad exec co-opted this ubiquitous format for some good ol’ guerilla marketing. Well folks, that time has come. And the product for sale (a tv show which features Courtney Cox as a predatory “older” woman ) looks pretty ill-considered as well:

In a neighborhood already awash in actual foreclosure signs and vacant luxury condos, this is almost certainly meant to be a sick joke, right? Or else, borne out of some new type of cynical, afflicted optimism (“in sadness/opportunity,” “if lemons/lemonade,” etc.)? What will the neighbors think, after all?

In an interesting twist of unintentional comedy (or postmodern self-realization?), the content of the show follows a similar thematic trend:

Courtney Cox’s needy female protagonist [Is To] Sadness^TM

Meaningless flings with young studs [Is To] Opportunity^TM

It is an “empowering!^TM ” analogy.

Very disappointing stuff, considering the dearth of middle-aged female characters on TV. I guess they were just waiting for the right demeaning stereotype to come along…

Will someone please call that 877 number and see if the place is really for sale?

Bonus: Funny banter on the subject of the confusing “pumas/cougars/mountain lions” thing by The Hater podcast.

Update: Following the recent Brownstoner post on the faux-real estate/faux-cougar ads, several commentators questioned the signs’ legality. The NYC Department of Buildings prohibits signs at residential addresses that advertise products unrelated to that address, but permits signs that “direct attention to a business at the same location as the sign.” In other words, a [legitimate] “For Sale, Call Realtor” sign is permissible, while leasing your yard to Verizon (so they can shave their logo into the grass) would be illegal. This-parody-of-the-real-thing is ultimately NOT the real thing would inevitably fall into the illegal advertising category. See NYC’s Outdoor Sign Guidelines and the city’s definition of “Advertising Signs” for more information.

Portland Summer Advertising Smorgasbord

Michael Mandiberg — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:43:19 +0000

This is a mixed up collection of funny advertising pictures from my 5 weeks in Portland. Some funny, some tragic, some WTR R U Serious?!!

The lamppost with all the flyers for music shows says “Dont Advertise” but… do they mean, don’t advertise anything other than indy rock. Or does no one care?

At first we thought that the Ginger Ale was listed as Sugar Free because it has Corn Syrup in it, not real Sugar. That would have been some amazing mislabling. Instead, they just ran out of the diet version, and slid everything over. Kind of a let down, but still funny.

The antique store has its new antiques, delivered in a new container from china. Oh, authenticity.

And the Mens Multi. So much for the rumors that it doesn’t exist.

And last but not least, this young woman was go-go dancing in her red-white-blue underwear on the street corner in NW Portland trying to get people to come into the lingerie shop for a big sale. Sex sells, but is that really how bad the economy is, that the company is that desperate, and the young woman is that willing to… dance near-naked on the street for money? I mean, I wholly approve dancing naked on the street for fun, but for money, its just a whole other thing.

DeBeers attempts sleazy take down of parody ad

Steve Lambert — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:58:44 +0000

As you probably heard, on November 12th a group of artists and activists unveiled a “Special Edition” of the New York Times dated “July 4th, 2009″ and outlining the end of the war in iraq, a national tax base for schools, and free public universities, among other things. In addition to the print paper, an online version has been posted at http://nytimes-se.com.

The South African Diamond conglomerate, DeBeers, has complained about the below ad (gif version) appearing on the nytimes-se.com website.

Certainly one wouldn’t expect DeBeers to be pleased; they’ve tried to separate themselves from the blood diamond problem for years (an angle the parody ad actually plays on).

However, the ad is, to quote the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Corynne McSherry “a clearly parodic ad on a clearly parodic website.” But in an attempt to sidestep the First Amendment and other legal protections for parody, DeBeers is trying to intimidate the domain name registrar into shutting down the nytimes-se.com domain name. It’s already a stretch, as DeBeers has no connection to the nytimes-se.com name, which may be why they didn’t use the standard protocol of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and went straight to bullying the registrar.

The nytimes-se.com domain has effectively been put at risk by DeBeers overreaching. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has stepped in and responded to DeBeers’ complaint, and informed the registrar of it’s rights. We’ll see what happens…

Steve Lambert at Versionfest 06

Obsessive Stephen Colbert Disorder

Anne Elizabeth Moore — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:00:19 +0000

We’re supposed to have viewed Stephen Colbert’s “Dr. Pepper Interview” with Lucas Conley, author of Obsessive Branding Disorder, as a hilarious detournement on the subject of Conley’s book, our nation’s ever-increasing need for brand mentions. But all I got out of the interview—yes, difficult to parse through all the hilarious jokes about brands, ha ha—was that Conley thinks companies should cease striving for lifestyle status and stick with branding only what they are also good at producing. And he gave several examples—by brand name, even without Colbert’s prompting—to back up his theory.

How is a call for proper branding actually going to change the supposed illness from which our nation suffers? If anyone can tell me, great, cause I have no interest in reading the book to find out.

World’s Worst Person Decides To Go Into Marketing

Michael Mandiberg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:00:21 +0000

Louis Deenan is the World’s Worst Person. He is going into marketing. He says,

“I think it’s the career path that will best utilize my networking skills and my ability to think outside the box,” said Deenan, whose smug, gloating tone and shit-eating smile just make you want to punch his goddamn teeth in. “So I’m definitely thinking marketing. Either that, or PR.”

From the Onion, Via Kottke