Along with the discovery channel’s new branding, they have rolled out a really charming commercial.
I really like the new commercial (it gives me the warm & fuzzies), and I also really like the new typography of Discovery’s new logo, but I’m not crazy about the “D” and globe combination they have started using as a stand-alone component of the branding.
[rebranding via AdGoodness]
Whew, it feels good to get that off my chest. Now if only I could be a grammar nazi. [feel free to just ignore the thirty or so grammatical errors in this post]
Receding Hairline has a great post on the most common typographical errors.
For example, one of my pet peeves… the ever elusive en and em dashes.
A hyphen… should really only be used when linking words such as ready-made. It shouldn’t even be used mathematically to represent a minus, as there’s a dedicated character for that, too. Most other uses mandate an en dash – as here, for example – or when planning meetings from 1–2. Changing fashions mean the the long dash—this one, called an em dash—is rarely seen, but where it is, it’s usual to render it without the spaces on either side or with special hairline spaces instead.
[via lifehacker]
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty made quite a splash when it hit the interwebs in 2006 with their 1st viral video entitled “evolution.”
As a testament to Dove’s success, Foster Farms has just made a spot-on parody of the “evolution” ad entitled “transformation.”
While not exactly new, this is also another great example of culture jamming…
Unilever is the parent company of Dove as well as Axe, a men’s cologne who’s ads usually catch ire for being misogynistic.
As a response to the apparent hypocrisy coming from Unilever, an internet user re-mixed Dove’s second viral ad “onslaught” with clips from Axe’s commercials.
Honda wanted to raise the green credentials of its lawn and garden equipment and to remind avid gardeners that Honsa’s range of products its not only good for their garden, it’s also good for the environment. Their solution was a letter that grows. They printed the direct mail piece on specially made paper containing seeds that could be planted to grow flowers. When consumers planted the letter, it became a permanent (and lovely) part of their garden. In terms of a gardening message, “Honda” literally became part of their garden.
In terms of a green message, they went beyond “Carbon Neutral” and created an idea that would ultimately remove carbon from the atmosphere. Both the envelope and paper were 100% recycled, acid free and environmentally friendly. They even used green friendly inks.
Agency: Inferno London, United Kingdom
[via AdGoodness]
Those crafty advertising agencies (TBWA\Chiat\Day in this case) are at work on an ad campaign to play with the English language, and make an observer wonder what it is that they are trying to communicate to the public.
I am, of course, talking about the campaign for Snickers. More specifically about the made up words that replace the space where “Snickers” usually appears on its candy bar wrappers, buses, billboards, and other public spaces.
The Snickers ad campaign is using the concept of word coinage to invent new words that seek to gain observers’ attention. Really what they’ve done is to combine morphemes, or base elements of internal word structure from other words in an attempt to define their product in a new, robust way.
From this morphological breakdown, the linguist might determine that a Snickers 1) removes hunger, 2) is full of nougat to the nth degree, 3) makes you feel like you are in a city of peanuts, 4) satifies with excellence, and 5) is deliciously substantial.
I any case, Snickers is making up words to draw attention to itself. Similar marketing campaigns have used morpheme-play and word coinage to equal effect, e.g. Uncola (Un + cola). I doubt Snickers’ new words will be added to the lexicon, but one can only hope because they’re so fun and satisfying!
A few years ago my cousin Ashley, who is quite the fashion plate, tipped me off to the fact that men had started wearing girl jeans. Pockets were in strange places and there were frayed cuffs here and there, but that is nothing in comparison to the filigree that is happening these days. Although, I have to say, even back then I never thought I would see so many man muffin tops.
So I had to laugh when I picked up the current issue of Details magazine at a friend’s house this weekend and read the article It’s Time to Lose the Embellished Jeans by Katherine Wheelock. It is good to see a magazine like Details putting the breaks on this frightening trend of girlie jeans for men; bring back the good ol’ Wranglers and Levis!
Microsoft’s Zune, Jawbone cellphone headset, and Mountain Dew are just a few examples of corporate culture taking up the idea of viral marketing and running with it.
Zune Arts has been around for a little over two years, and has some really interesting videos, images, and music created by emerging artists all with the over-arching theme of “sharing is caring” an allusion to their “social” aspect of the Zune (being able to share songs with other Zune users for a few days).
Jawbone went a decidedly different direction, rather than having a group of different artists create their content, they hired director Sam Bayer to direct 4 different short films all with the same general principal: “Jawbone eliminates noise.” While these are much more cohesive they don’t have the same originality as the Zune Arts spots (in three out of the four shorts, “eliminate” equals the violent murder of the source of the noise). However, these shorts are generally much more edgy and unexpected, a big part of viral success.
Mountain Dew’s campaign is decidedly less viral than the other examples but I couldn’t leave it out because I think they are doing more innovative and provocative things. They rounded up 7 fringe artist and commissioned them to create art for 6 limited edition bottles (I believe this is the second set of 6). The thing that makes this campaign interesting to me is that they chose truly fringe artists not just safe “corporate” fringe like Marc Ecko but actual graffiti artists, tattooists, and skateboarders.
This showed up on digg.com recently and was too great to pass up. Surely this says something about the current state of marketing.
via Tweebiscuit.net
I really, really like this Advertisement for a ski resort in Québec.
It’s so simple, cheap, and effective, it looks like something that would come out of a company like Adidas.
via AdGoodness
…well not really, but there is potential an e-reader could one day. Personally, I don’t think Amazon’s Kindle will be the device to bring us into the next century. I haven’t played with it, but have been combing the tech blogs reading reviews and watching videos because I’ve been waiting for a viable e-reader to come out and Sony’s clunky reader, wrapped in digital rights management, was nothing that interested me.
The Kindle seems like it is actually really cool, but I don’t think that the interface is there yet. The e-paper display is awesome (no eye strain, long battery life) but that is part of the problem, the refresh rate is so bad you can’t create complex interactions/interfaces with it. What is real inciting is free wireless data.
Personally I think the real test of whether of not this will become a revolutionary device will be if Amazon opens it up. If some enterprising individual (read hacker) figures out how to make it so I can share the free wireless connection with my laptop, this will become strapped to my hip for life, and who knows I might actually read a book on it.
