I'm dancing with myself

Watch the French 'the gimp' ad Rossignol. (Via Dab.)

Good gift suggestions from CreativePro (Via Tracy) and a nifty magazine/CD box set. (Via Steve.)

Legacy of the Bernbach curse? - "Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula." For a man who so cautioned against prescription, Bill Bernbach turns out to have been responsible for one of the ad industry's most enshrined dictates: that of the art director/copywriter team. Some say it's become the Bernbach Curse.

The impotence of being Santa. Stupid PETA. But, CCF TV Ads Expose PETA. Serves um right.

Louis Vuitton dumps J-Lo as the face of its advertising.

Advanced Results Marketing, a direct response agency, will break a $4 million TV ad effort for itself in January and will run during early morning news programs on Bloomberg News, CNBC, CNN, Headline News and Fox News Channel in hopes to get at least five blue chip clients and $50 million in direct response advertising assignments.

Metronomy Desktop Marketing is signing up UK users who will receive a free IBM PC if they agree to watch three minutes of advertising for each hour they are online. Users are required to maintain an account with an Internet service provider and use the computer for at least 30 hours a month. Metronomy will send users a CD-ROM with new advertisements that must be uploaded each month or the PC will not work, the company said on its Web site. It will only monitor the number of advertisements that the user watches, not any other online activity unrelated to the ads, it said. Sounds like a bad idea. If this didn't work the first time, when PCs were even more expensive, I doubt it would work now. Plus it'd be another thing if they were giving away Macs or something. ;)

A brilliant rant on McDonalds ad campaign- "By now everyone is probably aware of McDonald's new ad campaign: "i'm lovin' it," which is really a contraction of the phrase "i am loving it,"
that happens to be an anagram for the phrase: "ailing vomit." Ah the irony." (Via Dab.)

Advertising watchdogs have banned a poster campaign in the UK for a popular energy drink after upholding complaints that it made "offensive" references to anal sex. The poster adverts, for Red Devil, carried the innuendo-laden slogans "He was going so fast he went for the wrong entrance" and "Once he'd found the right zone, she was raring to go". Soft drinks giant Britvic, which makes Red Devil, agreed the wording in the adverts was "suggestive" but argued they were "playful and cheeky". Although only two people complained, the Advertising Standards Authority said the wording on the posters "was not suitable for poster medium" and "likely to cause serious and widespread offence". It ordered the company to change the wording. Ads were up in the London Underground.

Via Boing Boing this morn, a link to an advertisement designed to curb the litter of human waste in Washington. Seems a lot of truckers relieve themselves in bottles and toss them out the window during long hauls (Nasty!!).
The newspaper ad works as a piece of shock advertising. (Via Brandon.)

Australia is Promoting "Reproductive Tourism"- "Wanted: sperm donors.
Salary: a two-week holiday to Australia. All expenses paid, including a medical.
An Australian fertility clinic is making waves in Calgary by advertising the holiday to men in exchange for their sperm. The unusual deal includes airfare, accommodation and expenses for healthy donors, who must be between 18 and 40. Alrighty then.

Food peers skewer Rick Bayless for endorsing BK sandwich- "New York restaurant consultant Clark Wolf, who has advised chefs on endorsement deals, is more tempered in his reaction. On one hand, he says, "it's good to focus on more healthful food, and the sandwich is better than most of the stuff at Burger King." But Bayless has created a credibility gap, Clark adds. "Emeril can endorse Crest toothpaste because Emeril never claims to know a lot about food. But Rick has been respected for many years as a food historian, a culinary anthropologist and a passionate purist. If he's going to shock us, it better be for a good reason and done well. And these commercials are cheesy. He's just being a shill."" A very interesting read, especially as a foodie.

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