Every Sport a Bowling Ball
What if every sport was played with a bowling ball? That’s the quirky idea at the heart of this diverting 3 minute short, which the director described as “by far and away the silliest thing” he’s ever made.
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Wonder Volley
It’s an ad made for tennis fans. A new spot for DirectTV Stream stars Serena Williams as Wonder Woman, combatting evil ball-launcher robots. The highlight for me- John McEnroe, at the receiving end of a volley, incredulous and annoyed as ever.
The Value of a Porn Collection
From an AP report:
A judge has ordered a western Michigan couple to pay $30,441 to their son for getting rid of his pornography collection.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney’s decision this week came eight months after David Werking, 43, won a lawsuit against his parents.
He said they had no right to throw out his collection of films, magazines and other items. Werking had lived at their Grand Haven home for 10 months after a divorce before moving to Muncie, Indiana.
How was the amount determined? According to a local report:
Maloney said that a defense-hired expert in pornography valuation, Dr. Victoria Hartmann, determined the destroyed collection’s value to be $30,441.54, the amount he ordered the defendants to pay.
Hartmann could not provide a value for 107 titles on the son’s list.
“However, given the wide range of valuations for individual pieces and the inability of Dr. Hartmann to even estimate the value of these pieces, the Court declines to use an average value to award damages for these titles,” Maloney wrote.
Notably, the son had self-valued his collection at $25,000.
Elevators and Female Pleasure
From a tongue-in-cheek promotional video for India-based sexual wellness brand Skore:
Imagine if we got into elevators without knowing which buttons to press. That is literally how most straight men approach sex in relation to women’s pleasure.
The video is part of a “Cliteracy drive”- a campaign to spread awareness about female pleasure, launched on International Female Orgasm Day.
Blood-stained Birdman Skateboards
There’s no shortage of extreme marketing ideas at canned water brand Liquid Death. The latest: limited edition skateboards infused with the blood of legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk a.k.a. Birdman.
From the campaign website:
Feel Good Travel
A new campaign for Avanti West Coast trains has an inspired casting choice- a joyous, rollerblading turtle.
Billboard Biting Prank
Fast food, as shown on billboards, frequently comes off looking irresistibly tasty. A recent campaign for Sir Kensington’s condiments took that idea to another level by implying that someone had actually taken a bite- and continued to do so- off one of its billboards. What’s more, the issue was projected as being serious enough to warrant mafia protection.
Charming, much-needed, floating Cash Machine
From a tweet put out by India’s largest bank, State Bank of India, announcing that it had installed a “floating ATM” on a houseboat on a lake in the northern city of Srinagar.
The #FloatingATM in the popular Dal Lake fulfills a long-standing need & will be an added attraction to the charm of Srinagar.
The Bin Man Look
Over the past couple of months, a reversible parka from Balenciaga has been the subject of wonderment and amusement over its look and price. Excerpts from a report in The Sun:
A luxury fashion house is flogging a high-vis binman-style jacket for £2,890 a pop. The reversible bright yellow hooded workwear coat looks the spit of those worn by rubbish collectors. It comes with a council-type logo on the front and the letters BLNCG, for makers Balenciaga, on the back. The jacket is part of the Autumn/Winter 2021 collection from the Spanish brand — a favourite with Premiership footballers and Wags. Bog-standard hi-vis vests and jackets — ideal for dumping rubbish — can be had £1.99.
Digestive Woes of 14th Century Monks
Excerpts from a report in The Guardian:
Research by English Heritage sheds light on the day-to-day lives and digestive troubles of monks at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset – in particular the consequence of a change in papal law, in 1336, which permitted the twice-weekly consumption of meat from four-legged animals.
The monks already had, by modern standards, an unbalanced and calorie-rich diet. Adding meat as a luxury meant constipation and diarrhoea soon became a major problem, said the English Heritage historian Michael Carter.
Carter has been interested in monks and their digestion since visiting Kirkstall Abbey on the outskirts of Leeds and seeing the surviving latrines. “I remember being fascinated by the idea of it being a 900-year-old monastic toilet block,” he said.
Was he an odd child? “There wasn’t an awful lot to do on Sunday afternoons in the 1970s.”
His research has led to new interpretation at the abbey which is interesting on a wider level.
“I do think there is something about monastic latrines,” he said. “People have this idea of people in the middle ages being filthy and not caring about human waste, but when you look in to it you discover that is far from the case. They developed sophisticated architecture and plumbing. It is fascinating stuff.”
Visit Australia
A brilliant and savagely funny take on what an ad for Tourism Australia would look like amidst the current arrival restrictions and rigorous lockdown rules.
Cute Animals, Classic Lines
From New Zealand: the first spot in a new campaign for Sky features farm animals and others, mouthing memorable lines from the movies.
Extreme Pet Care Instructions
This is a new ad for pet sitting services platform Rover.com that is intended “to show the loving bond between pet and parent in all its authentic, relatable weirdness”.
As someone who doesn’t have a pet, I can’t comment on either the authenticity or the relatability, but some of the pet preferences/ tastes on display sure struck me as being both weird and specific. Furthermore, I wonder as to how those preferences/ tastes came about and what role the “parent” might have had in encouraging them.
Talking Butts
In a new campaign, event ticketing platform SeatGeek is sharing what its users have to say- except that it’s their butts that are doing the talking. And if that wasn’t odd enough, there’s the fine print about the model in the video: “Not a real SeatGeek user. Yes, a real butt.”
Here’s a link to one of the spots.
Doggy Dronecare
A side-splitting promotion for the IAA Mobility show in Munich that is nothing like what you might imagine an ad for such a conference to be.
Getting Creative about Killing Mosquitos
A new campaign for Lone Star beer- frequently marketed as “the national beer of Texas”- features a neon bar sign that doubles as a mosquito zapper. The promotion/ demonstration video claims that it is “the world’s first neon sign that kills mosquitos”.
According to one report, while the original goal was to keep customers “bite-free”, the sign has become a source of entertainment. One of the creative minds behind it, is quoted as saying this:
When we put it up, everyone in the bar is like moths to the flame. They all gather around and cheer every time [a mosquito] gets zapped. It’s weirdly mesmerizing.
It seems that the creative people working for the brand have a thing for neutralising mosquitos. A couple of years ago, they put out an ad in which a mosquito is joyfully squashed with a bottle of brew.
Inappropriate Medal Biting
Medal biting is in the news once again– for a pretty bizarre reason. As reported by AP:
A Japanese mayor apologized Thursday for biting the Olympic gold medal of a softball player who had paid a courtesy visit after Japan beat the United States in the final.
Nagoya mayor Takashi Kawamura had praised pitcher Miu Goto during the Aug. 4 visit, but his eyes were glued to her medal. He asked her to put it around his neck. Kawamura then pulled down his face mask and bit into it.
The scene broadcast on television prompted thousands of complaints to city hall. Some Olympians said they treat their medals as treasures and that it was outrageous for Kawamura to bite one.
“I would cry if that happened to me,” Naohisa Takato, who won gold for Japan in judo, said in a tweet. “I handle my own gold medal so gently not to scratch it.”
Yuki Ota, a silver-medal winning fencer, said the mayor’s action was disrespectful to athletes and was a bad idea for COVID-19 measures.
Cops and Robbers and Online Shopping
From Denmark: in a new Hollywood-inspired, big-budget campaign, online supermarket Nemlig.com finds a way to insert its usefulness in the middle of a high-speed chase and a pitched gun battle.
Spot 1: Robbers
Spot 2: Police
Happy Drivers, Happy Dogs
This is a new spot for Volvo Trucks that is supposedly about how its new fuel-saving technology makes both drivers, as well as their dog companions, happy. I am not sure I can see the connection- but the dogs in the ad do look contented, and make the ad worth watching.
Formal Resignation
As transcribed from the now-viral, hilarious video of the departing Tesco employee who, when asked to give a “formal” resignation letter, decided to go “all out” and not just draft one, but to make a spectacle of having it read out:
To Whomever It May Concern,
I write this letter from a place of sorrow and regret. These six, long, arduous years have caused me to grow quite weary. Whilst I have revelled and laboured with my subordinates, my knees have grown weak and the grease on my elbows hath depleted. It is not for every man to accept large packages into their backdoor. Nonetheless, it was my duty. I've wandered endless aisles, searching for sections incomplete. My gloves doth hold the sweat of many a toiled hour. But my shoulders carry the weight of the worker’s burden.
To Chris, you are the father I never had. To John, you recognised my true potential. A finer manager I could not request. My final thanks goes to Steve, the emperor of this fine establishment. You have raised the bar from your predecessor infinitely. To say his name shall be remembered is a grotesque overstatement. I finish this letter with many thanks to my former comrades and I hereby submit my formal resignation.
Viva la Tesco!
A-Z of things deadlier than AZ
From Australia: a PSA that mixes internet-sourced ‘facts’ with humour to make the case for taking the AstraZeneca jab.
A short selection, from the Instagram page:
Beer for All
Seen purely as a piece of commercial creativity, this new ad from BrewDog is marvellous. The longer version, with its cheeky ending, is even better. Coming in the wake of public accusations of hypocrisy and a toxic work culture in the company, though, makes you wonder about its motives.
Frying Eggs with Fanta
From India: a street food vendor in the state of Gujarat is in the news for his unusual recipe. What made him come up with the idea? “Public demand”.
Rapunzel Reimagined
A new ad for Amazon Prime places the fairy tale in a world of mobile phones and online shopping.
What not to ask a woman shot putter
A Chinese state media interview with the country’s Olympic gold-medal-winning shot putter Gong Lijiao has triggered a backlash online.
As reported in The Independent:
On Sunday, the 32-year-old athlete, who had won the gold medal in women’s shot put final, was being interviewed by the sports correspondent of CCTV, who, before asking her anything about her event, described her as a “masculine woman”, reported SupChina.
Gong Lijiao, who had previously won the Olympic medal twice in shot put, but not gold, secured it this time with her personal best of 20.58 metres.
The two-time world champion, however, politely replied: “I might look like a manly woman from outside, but I still feel like a little girl inside.” The reporter, however, was relentless and continued with the same line of questioning.
The questions steadily got more bizarre. She asked Lijiao what her next step was “as a girl.”
She asked: “You used to be a masculine woman for the sake of shot put. Going forward, can you finally be yourself?”
The gold medal winner, who was not comfortable with the question, maintained her composure and said: “It really depends on my future plan. If I eventually quit shot put, then I will probably lose some weight, get married, and have children. The path that everyone has to take in life.”
Even after that, the reporter continued with the strange line of questioning and asked the Olympic medallist about the kind of partner she was looking for and whether they would be intimidated by her in arm wrestling.
Fried Chicken-Themed Staycation
I’ll let this witty report do the explaining:
Just when you thought Shoreditch couldn't get any more outlandish, we give you more. In today's edition of weird and wonderful news, a themed hotel is coming to London... and it's finger-licking good.
Brought to you by the chicken connoisseurs at KFC, House of Harland is the staycation spot that's promising 40 winks with a side of fried food. Inspired by the 11 herbs and spices that make up the Colonel's secret recipe, the hotel will cost £111 a night and open for only 11 days, with bookings launching on 11th August at 11am.
The ultimate destination for die-hard poultry lovers, this unusual sleepover space will be home to an arcade machine, a cinema room with 'chick-flicks,' and, of course, a press for chicken button.
Make your business oOOoofficial
Mobile payments company, SumUp, makes its pitch to small businesses in a campaign that is infused with goofy humour.
Spot 1: Hairdresser
Spot 2: Mechanic shop
Two-Timing Dentures and a Conflicted Body
From the rapidly expanding body of distinctive and remarkably weird work by Philippines-based creative agency Gigil, a selection of recent commercials:
Mega Tuna- Half (for version with English subtitles and context, click here or here)
Drink More
That’s not quite the message one would expect from a PSA for responsible drinking… until you get to the end of the campaign video.
One the other hand, the print campaign doesn’t keep you guessing but it makes you ponder a bit longer on its vivid, sobering imagery.
Poseidon Awakened
From Brazil: a new ad for Bradesco Bank featuring surfer Gabriel Medina that is, quite literally, about making waves.
Beating Chickenflation
Meat alternative brand, Alpha Foods, has launched a week-long campaign to combat what it is describing as “chickenflation” or the surging costs of chicken wing prices. To that end, it is offering discount coupons on its products, linked to the price rise. Perhaps more striking is its strategy to communicate this via the NASDAQ digital billboard in New York City, and a full page ad in The Wall Street Journal with this eye-catching headline and tongue-in-cheek copy:
UNDERPERFORMING MALES CRASH THE MARKET ONCE AGAIN.
Only this time when we say “underperforming males,” we’re referring to a group of roosters. And when we say “crash the market,” naturally we do mean the chicken market. That’s correct, chicken prices have skyrocketed causing a critical spike in Chickenflation.
And while we may not know exactly how “the economy” or “the stock market” or “anything else” works, we do know that the word “chicken” plus the word “inflation” makes the word “Chickenflation.” And apparently that’s all it takes to place an ad in here.
So at Alpha Foods, we are working hard to restore the balance in the flock market. That’s flock market. Like stock market. But for chickens. You get it.
And just in case someone doesn’t get the reasons for the price rise or the reference to underperformance, the campaign website makes that explicitly clear.
We’re talking about a group of roosters who, to put it in strictly medical terms, won’t get it on with their lady chickens. And chicken wing prices have skyrocketed because of it.
Approved by Carnivores
A new commercial from Pizza Hut to promote its tie-up with meat alternative brand, Beyond Meat.
RIP Carl Levin
I can’t say that I knew much about him but his exchanges with the Goldman Sachs guys at the Senate hearings, after the financial crisis are unforgettable.