. . . . . For the past two years the tune “Sicko Mode” by rapper Travis Scott has occupied a prominent spot on a few of my Spotify playlists. This has meant that I’ve listened to the song almost every day, if not multiple times a day, for theContinue Reading
“And if you do, never stop” These were the searing copy lines from an iconic advertising campaign in the 1980s by the highly-influential Gotcha! surf brand. The company was started by Michael Tomson, a former South African pro surfer whose celebrity in the surfing world was due almost as muchContinue Reading
In case you missed it, one of the best — if not the best — TV commercial from the broadcast of last weekend’s 2018 Super Bowl was this ad for Tide laundry detergent. It’s already being talked about as one of the best ever and an “instant classic.” There areContinue Reading
AdWeek is reporting on a series of funny anti-Trump outdoor ads have been popping up on bus-stop billboards around New York City the past week. These cheeky, hilarious ads riff on well-known films and popular fiction such as Dr. Strangelove, Thelma and Louise, The Shining, Humpty Dumpy, and Dumb and Dumber. TheContinue Reading
We recently attended a small talk with the co-founder and editor of Apartamento magazine, Omar Sosa. The talk was at one of the creative marketing companies run by mega-global advertising agency TBWA in Los Angeles. Sosa (pictured at right in the photo above) with Emilien Crespo, the talk moderator at the agency,Continue Reading
Japan has a long-established, globally recognized and highly-developed sense of aesthetics, especially when it come to design and graphic communications like advertising. This large indoor billboard poster for Coca-Cola at Ark Hills Tokyo references the Japanese summer tradition of hanabi (massive fireworks displays) as beautiful flat, abstract graphics.
The second of two examples of recent ad placements in the Tokyo Metro. This one is part of a Tokyo tourism campaign. Clever stuff. In the “You & Tokyo” campaign ad pictured below, a random assortment of common non-Japanese — and mostly Western — names are lightly integrated into theContinue Reading
This recent indoor billboard ad (pictured below) in Tokyo subway stations is part of an integrated marketing campaign promoting the Tokyo Metro’s tourist information service. It ties in with a television commercial (see video below) that started airing in the Tokyo area earlier this year, and it coincides with aContinue Reading
So many uses of augmented reality (AR) in media and advertising have been too lame or to gimmicky or both, the novelty having worn off quickly and long ago. This Pesi Max bus stop billboard ad in London, however, is an example of the technology being used in a cool,Continue Reading
This short video titled “This is a Generic Brand Video” was created entirely from stock video to go with the words of Kendra Eash’s clever and funny McSweeney’s Internet Tendency piece of the same title. It’s an amusing, masterful break down of advertising semiotics and visual style. This Is aContinue Reading
Our favorite TV commercial of the past year is this little seen spot for Hennessey Cognac that was dreamt up by ad agency Droga5. Below is the extended cut version of the commercial.
Among these billboard postings on Broome Street in New York’s Lower East Side is an ad for local classical-music radio station WQXR’s “Month of Mozart” program. As in some of the station’s previous marketing campaigns, the ads make reference to contemporary popular culture and employ a clever pun. In thisContinue Reading
Check out these technology ads from the 1980s that Mashable has discovered. These are mostly magazine ads for companies like Apple and Sony that are amusing if not downright hilarious and in some cases surprisingly, accurately prescient about what the future would be like, such as this ad for Compuserve,Continue Reading
Brand-awareness ads in magazines rarely come as simple, bold and minimalist as this two-page spread for the Italian bicycle maker Bianchi in the Dutch cycling mag Soigneur. Aside from logotype and slogan on aquamarine-like blue, the pages are blank. Love love love the color.
Partner in crime Nick, a creative director at an influential downtown New York City advertising agency, took a moment on a recent night out in SoHo to show off and share the awesome three-star tattoo on his forearm. Love it.
We liked how the text was formatted and the colors in a presentation we attended Wednesday by trailblazing advertising executive and entrepreneur Cindy Gallop. The slide pictured here says “The new marketing reality is COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY.”