“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

AS

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.

Related posts:

1. Advertising Scofflaw Assaults NYT Reporter
2. IllegalBillboards.org
3. Virgin America goes “street” – why?

Denial and commerce: it is the American way.

Related posts:

1. Advertising Age: “We Hate Ourselves”
2. “Montauk Monster” is a “Marketing Monster?”

Related posts:

1. NYT: Pay Phones Turned Mini-Billboards
2. Pay-for-Play, the Print Edition
3. No freedom of speech on billboards – even when you can pay.

“Michael Kraus saw the alert about the long taxi line. So he called his brother who lives nearby and got a ride home. Now he owes him a turkey sandwich.”

So advertising is about imagining potential futures. It is about hope, and aspirations and dreams. Is getting a ride home from the airport all those ad people could imagine using their service for? How about finding the subway station so they could take public transport. Now that would be something for the “community.”

Related posts:

1. So why can they sell the street?
2. Conflux Festival Accepting Submissions

“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

Related posts:

1. “Montauk Monster” is a “Marketing Monster?”
2. Who Hates Guerilla Marketing in Boston? (Updated again)
3. A Little Less Advertising in the World

The Workshops

1:00pm Redefining Your Skillset: Putting Together a Great Resume for the Non-Profit Sector In this 50 minute workshop, Anne and Steve provide tips and training on relanguaging your advertising skillset toward the needs of social justice organizations. Spent years designing cigarette campaigns? We’ll show you how to turn that into a valuable tool for the American Cancer Society. Please bring current resume and red pen.

2:00pm How to Find Good-Paying Jobs in Public Service Steve and Anne will lead you by hand through the most effective steps to locate, apply for—and get!—a sustainable job working for change. In just 50 minutes! Bring a pad of paper and a pencil.

3:00pm Telling Your Account Manager No: How To Refuse to Work On Ethically Bereft Ad Campaigns Want to stay in advertising for now? This 50 minute workshop will provide you with all the information you need to back away from the most damaging of commercial campaigns. Please note: we will still try to convince you to quit your job. Prepare to role play!

4:00pm Letter of Resignation Writing Seminar Write a clear, decisive, and hilarious letter of resignation to end your career in advertising without losing friends—Anne and Steve will show you how in just 50 minutes! Bring stamps and professional letterhead.

Applications for the 2008 AAAFFFA—the AAAFFFA Kit—will also be available for your convenience. As always, our workshops are free, but donations to the AAAFFF are encouraged. All workshops will be held at our oFFFice at Mess Hall: 6932 N Glenwood, Chicago, just across from the Morse stop on the Red Line. Please arrive ten minutes early and note each workshop requirement carefully, and feel free to sign up in advance by emailing FFF@antiadvertisingagency.com! We will also be making individual appointments with select ad pros—let us know when you’re available!

Related posts:

1. Why You Should Be In New York July 1st
2. oFFFice hours
3. Official Foundation for Freedom Press Release

Self-loathing has become all too commonplace in marketing, as Bridge Worldwide CEO Jay Woffington sees it, and not entirely without reason.

Young marketers or agency executives don’t take long to learn they’ve dedicated their lives to creating stuff people seek to avoid, and with increasing success.

“Consumers hate advertising,” Mr. Gilbreath wrote in a preamble for a WPP Digital-backed discussion group last year. “Meanwhile, consumers hate us — the marketers and advertisers who invent new ways to spam them online and offline. The result: CMO and agency turnover is rising dramatically, and advertisers are ranked below lawyers in terms of public respect.”

Of course, CEO Jay Woffington’s solution is “Marketing with Meaning.” Or, just a different type of more stealthy, manipulative message.

We think our solution is better: “Your Life with Meaning.”

Related posts:

1. 120+ years of hating advertising
2. Trojan Horse
3. Official Foundation for Freedom Press Release

I’ll plan to update these regularly, but for now, here are just a few of the comments that have come across my desk at the AAAFFF since taking over the ED position:

“I have worked for the past 4 years (since I graduated from a very prestigious culinary school) doing R&D for a food manufacturer . . . Boy, throwing away 5,000 pre-packaged hamburger buns when they don’t get used is even more egregious when you wake up to CNN telling you that people are rioting in Haiti and Egypt because they can’t afford a loaf of bread. Poor people are so silly. I’m all ready to quit my job so that I can devote my time to the theatre which is my true love . . .” .” —Midwestern Ad Man

“Today, after my job, I was walking to my apartment and felt sad, because, after a good weekend, my work today was a #%$# (censured). It’s not life to live, 10 hours and only business, business. Some people want to sell agriculture machines and technology and I spend my time on it?” —Brasilia Ad Man

“Throughout my studies I’ve found myself questioning if advertising is the right industry for me. I’m in love with the creative process, but not as interested in the products it’s being centered around.”—New York Ad Woman

“[The AAAFFF is] enough to make me wish I could leave advertising all over again. . . . I left advertising, but I never got a GIANT NOVELTY CHECK! I didn’t even get a normal-sized severance package. I guess I did get a pretty nice unemployment income for a while. Advertising is inherently evil, though, I am glad I am not doing that anymore. It is better to starve righteously.” —Minneapolis Painter

“We’ve seen your website at http://antiadvertisingagency.com/projects/foundation-for-freedom and we love it! We see that your traffic rank is 602777 and your link popularity is 26. Also, you have been online since 19/06/2004. With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website. If you’re interested, read our terms from this page: [website deleted for privacy concerns].” — Internet Ad Man

Related posts:

1. AAAFFF up 35% in first 2 weeks
2. Foundation For Freedom announces grant program: The 2008 AAAFFFA
3. Official Foundation for Freedom Press Release

Let’s face it: everyone hates advertising. Be honest! Even you, Mr. or Ms. Man in the Grey Flannel Suit: when you go on vacation you prefer a remote locale, far away from the hustle and bustle of billboards, commercial radio, and buzzing neon. You TiVo right through commercials, or watch only DVDs. You think ads in books are a dumb idea. And when a street teamer approaches you in a bar with a free sample of some hot new liqueur, you prefer your 12-year old Scotch, thank you very much, and make a mental note to go someplace else next time.

So we here at the newly formed Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom (AAAFFF) propose a solution, Ms. or Mr. MGFS—and we think you’ll like it.

Stop making advertisements.

We’ll even pay you to do it.

That’s right, the AAAFFF is initiating the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom Award. This one-time grant will transition deserving individuals from the occupation we all hate. The 2008 AAAFFFA offers the gifts of freedom and cash to one of the most brilliant cultural producers alive.

We realize, Mr. or Ms. MGFS, that you and your colleagues offer some of the smartest and most creative output of today—that’s why we want you to make a real difference out in the real world. So we’re upping the ante on the bottom line.

Once you quit, we’ll provide tips, training, and networking opportunities for future careers in the arts, journalism, volunteerism, social work, anthropology, mentalism, or poetry. Deep down inside, we know you’ve always wanted to devote yourself solely to those pursuits. Now, thanks to the 2008 AAAFFFA, one lucky creative will be able to, without the horrible pressure to constantly sell, sell, sell.

Anyone can contribute to the 2008 AAAFFFA—and if you hate advertising, Mr. or Ms. MGFS, please consider a major donation. Try giving at the $5, $500, or $5,000 level. Why not let your economic stimulus package become a cultural stimulus package? Donations are 100% tax deductible and will help free a worthy creative, perhaps braver than yourself, from the advertising industry. The AAAFFF has been seeded with $500 from the pockets of the Anti-Advertising Agency’s very own Steve Lambert and Anne Elizabeth Moore, hard-earned exclusively from creative, non-commercial enterprises. Your additional contribution may fund such essentials as: fancy resume paper, canvas, skills-building workshops in a new career, food and rent while acquiring a new job, or colored pencils.

We will also accept non-monetary donations such as: frequent flyer miles, temporary housing, art and writing lessons, counseling, and apprenticeships. Anything that may help our lucky creative as they enter the world of the free.

The winner of the 2008 AAAFFFA will:

• Receive all accrued funds
• Be awarded a giant prize check made out in the winner’s name, with the words “For freeing your ass so your mind can follow” in the memo line
• Achieve personal freedom
• And be honored at The 2008 AAAFFF Award Ceremony and Reception in lovely New York City in late September—at the exact same time their former colleagues are celebrating Advertising Week.

While only one lucky creative will be honored with the giant check, rest assured that all applicants will be winners. Therefore, all applicants will be invited to The 2008 AAAFFF Award Ceremony and Reception in New York City to honor all the like-minded, brave colleagues who applied for our assistance in leaving the ad industry. There, applicants will mingle with other former marketing and PR professionals to plan creative, non-profit-making strategies for social change, civic improvement, and personal happiness. No industry professionals will be invited.

Applicants will also receive:

• Freedom
• Access to a network of like-minded peers in transitioning out of advertising, marketing, and PR
• A chance to win the cash prize and giant check
• A fancy reception with free food in lovely New York City

The AAAFFF couldn’t be more excited about out new initiative: we realize that you, Ms. or Mr. MGFS, tend to view the world strictly in commercial terms. The problem is that you’re forcing the rest of us to view it that way, too. Not to mention that you’re polluting the landscape, destroying the notion of public space, forcing people to place monetary value on friendship, education, health, and politics—things that used to be free—and violating several different bodies of law in the process. It’s damaging for us all.

So the 2008 AAAFFFA offers you a way out of this trap of a commercial lifestyle. Plus some cash money.

Please pick one:

1. I’m ready to quit! Download the application form.
2. I’m ready to donate! I’m in too deep and making too much money, but I’m ready to help the cause.

TO DONATE BY MAIL

Please send a check made out to “The Lab” to:
The Anti-Advertising Agency
c/o The Lab
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-3613

TO DONATE ONLINE

Donate online via PayPal. Please be sure to specify “Anti-Advertising Agency” as the item. Thanks!

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The Anti-Advertising Agency is fiscally sponsored by The Lab. The Lab is a project of The Art Re Grup, Inc., a non-profit organization operating within the meaning of section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions and in-kind donations are fully tax-deductible within the parameters established by current tax law.

Related posts:

1. You Don’t Need It – Stickers
2. G.R.L. Screening at MoMA – May 4th
3. Sound Unit Sound Files