Cashless Nightmare
Taking its inspiration from Hollywood horror movies, mobile banking app, Current, has a new spot to highlight “the hell of waiting for your bank to process your paycheck”.
Posts
Deported for eating bananas
Excerpts from a news report:
Turkey said that it was deporting at least seven Syrians for participating in a “provocative banana-eating campaign” after a wave of TikTok videos showing young Syrians munching the fruit as a way of mocking anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey and the battered Turkish economy.
The images and videos — posted by Syrians not only in Turkey but also in other countries — came after a Turkish man complained before cameras that he could no longer afford bananas, whereas the Syrians could buy loads. Bananas, which cost $1-2 per kilogram in Turkey, are traditionally seen as a symbol of a lavish lifestyle.
Burger King- Fall Collection
A treat for messy eaters: limited-edition unisex shirts, designed to hide burger spills.
Crap and Coffee
Sustainable toilet paper brand, Who Gives a Crap, has released a limited-edition blend of coffee. The founder has been quoted as saying:
We’ve heard from reliable sources that coffee makes some people need to go to the bathroom. As a toilet paper business, we found that pretty interesting.
Might that explain why the coffee has been branded as ‘Blend No.2’?
Going by the website, while the blend “plays well with colons”, customers shouldn’t expect this to make them “go” more than other coffees.
Phallic Reflections
A cheeky, pro-vax PSA that is ‘hard’-hitting in more ways than one might imagine.
Shell-shocker
Comedian Joe Lycett’s stomach-churning turn as the Shell CEO: link to spoof ad.
His open letter to the Shell CEO:
Stolen Manhood
Excerpts from an unverified report out of Ghana
A 33-year-old Zimbabwean man, Peter Runako has been fined for using another person’s manhood to impregnate three women.
Runako on Friday admitted before a village council of elders that, he used the phallic of a Harare businessman to service the three women at night. The businessman (name withheld) complained of sexual weakness a day after he returned from a holiday in Domboshava, a rural community where he visited his sick mother. Runako confessed being a wizard and said that he was contracted by a family member to mount spiritual attacks on the Harare businessman.
It seems that as part of making amends to the businessman, Runako made a sacrifice to the gods which resulted in an “astronomical” increase in his “appetite for sex”.
‘I am on fire. My wife now calls me the lion King’, the businessman told our correspondent.
Spiced up Kettle
A playful new spot for Kettle Chips that mixes libido references with a sports-commentary style voiceover.
Marketing to those who suck at Maths
In the 1980s, US fast food chain A&W decided to take on the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder by offering a bigger, 1/3 lb. burger at the same price. Unfortunately, the campaign flopped. It turned out that many consumers wrongly inferred that, because 3 is smaller than 4, that made 1/3 smaller than 1/4 .
Well, A&W is back, all these years later, determined to “claw its way back from this embarrassing episode” and to make a fresh pitch to those “geniuses” with- hold your breath- a 3/9 lb. burger.
A Bizarre Take on Problem Solving
From Sweden: imagination runs wild in this series of 15 second off-the-wall ads for Taxi Stockholm.
Nosey Reactions
What does it look like when you get advertising professionals to have a COVID-19 nasal swab test? That is what this 1 minute short, screened as a filler at the Greek advertising awards, seeks to portray. As one report put it, it’s “a fun festival of gurning”.
Mystery Apartment Girl
A fun new spot for Tik Tok perfectly captures the essence of how videos go viral.
Foresight
It goes to show how even a 1 minute short, with a pretty simple idea, can make quite an impact.
Vienna strips on OnlyFans
I’ll let this report do the explaining:
More than a century after the artists of the Vienna Secession declared “to every age its art; to art its freedom”, the Austrian capital has found a new site for artistic expression free from censorship: the adults-only platform OnlyFans.
Vienna’s tourism board has started an account on OnlyFans – the only social network that permits depictions of nudity – in protest against platforms’ ongoing censorship of its art museums and galleries.
In July, the Albertina Museum’s new TikTok account was suspended and then blocked for showing works by the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki that showed an obscured female breast, forcing the museum to start a new account. This followed a similar incident in 2019, when Instagram ruled that a painting by Peter Paul Rubens violated the platform’s community standards which prohibit any depictions of nudity – even those that are “artistic or creative in nature”.
In 2018, the Natural History Museum’s photograph of the 25,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine was deemed pornographic by Facebook and removed from the platform.
It seems that even putting links on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter wasn’t without its share of challenges. To quote from another report:
Twitter refused to approve a link to the Vienna Tourist Board because it contained a cross-link to OnlyFans. The approval process for the application took a total of two weeks. This ended with Twitter rejecting all subjects due to the OnlyFans reference on the landing page. Facebook and Instagram allowed the application with the Venus of Willendorf and a Modigliani painting, after the art background could be explained to the service team of the channels. The Schiele subject and the Rubens subject were rejected on the grounds of “excessive nudity” and “adult entertainment”.
(Not) Leaving on a Jet Plane
From Canada: a new spot for Toronto’s UP Express airport rail link transforms the John Denver classic into a song sung by those who risk missing their flights.
Perfectly Imperfect Parenting
A new campaign for baby care brand, Babyganics, is centered on an apology: for so far projecting a “sugarcoated fantasy” of blissful parenting. Following up on that, it has put out a spot that portrays a more realistic picture- of stressed parents coming to terms with bawling babies and vexatious toddlers, and finding enough joy to carry on.
Life insurance so good…
A darkly funny spot for insurance startup, Ladder. The icing on the cake is the disclaimer, so be sure to watch it till the end.
Swear Campaign
Swearing is a way of life in New Jersey and the right to swear may be under threat. That’s the message in a new spot put out by the local Democrats, attacking the Republican nominee for governor.
The Planet vs. Bolsonaro
It’s a campaign to support the requests/ cases filed in the International Criminal Court- to hold the Brazil President accountable, and to set a legal precedent for crimes against nature to be treated as crimes against humanity.
Pity Discount?
Swedish sportswear brand Craft has fashioned a line of clothing for Americans that is being called ‘Universal Health Wear’ and which comes with an automatic 10.7% discount. The company was motivated by the fact that Americans don’t have universal health care, and the discount represents the tax rate that Swedes pay for their universal health care. The discount will be available as long as Americans don’t get universal health care.
Children as Headhunters
That’s the secret- now revealed- behind how a Poland-based charity, dedicated to the transformation of pediatric hospitals, ‘recruited’ over 100 industry leaders and professionals over LinkedIn, to volunteer for it.
Burnout Melody
From Canada: a superbly-crafted PSA that mixes humour, honest concern, and a bit of swear words to convey the perils of workplace stress.
Deadpan Delight
From South Africa: a gently amusing spot for fast food chain, Chicken Licken, features a protagonist who is incapable of having feelings about anything… well, almost anything.
Anal Acupuncture Specialist
Thanks to news reports out of South Korea, I am now aware that such a profession exists. There is one report that makes for especially interesting reading. Excerpts:
Yoon Seok-youl, the leading opposition presidential candidate, has increasingly faced questions about superstitious or unscientific beliefs, this time over his alleged ties to an anal acupuncture specialist that he claims to have no knowledge of.
The allegation surfaced Tuesday during the sixth TV debate among presidential contenders of the main opposition People Power Party, when one of Yoon's competitors, former Rep. Yoo Seong-min, asked him if he has met someone “known to perform acupuncture on a strange and particular area.”
Yoon replied he had not.
The subject was likely a sore point for Yoon…
‘Cats’ Movie made Andrew Lloyd Webber buy a Therapy Dog
For the first time, we now know what Andrew Lloyd Webber really feels about the catastrophic Hollywood adaptation of his super-successful musical. To quote from an interview to Variety magazine:
‘Cats’ was off-the-scale all wrong. There wasn’t really any understanding of why the music ticked at all. I saw it and I just thought, ‘Oh, God, no.’ It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog. So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy.
He then goes on to narrate a priceless exchange he had with an airline, after he claimed this was a therapy dog.
I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I’m emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog. The airline wrote back and said, ‘Can you prove that you really need him?’ And I said ‘Yes, just see what Hollywood did to my musical “Cats”.’ Then the approval came back with a note saying, ‘No doctor’s report required.’
Pizza Chain’s Takedown of Greta Thunberg
New Zealand-based Hell Pizza has used its name to telling effect in a thinly-veiled message for the climate change activist, presumably as a response to disparaging remarks that she made against the country and its Prime Minister. What’s more, it bought up outdoor space in Thunberg’s home city of Stockholm to get its message across.
Online Banking Love
A new spot for Union Bank of the Philippines gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘banking relationship’.
Chocolate-scented Flip-Flops
From Brazil: Havaianas and Oreo have joined hands (or should I say feet?) for a baffling product mashup. I’m not sure what is the appeal for a buyer but a part of me wonders if it might be seen as a solution for smelly feet or perhaps just attractive for someone with a sort of foot fetish.
From the promotion description:
Havaianas and Oreo have a lot in common: a legion of passionate fans, unbridled success everywhere they go, and everybody wants them. So they came together to create a one-of-a-kind, super-special, limited capsule collection. Have you ever imagined a flip-flop with a chocolate aroma? Well, that's what Havaianas and Oreo – a Mondelēz Brazil brand – created together. The collection's Havaianas + Oreo TOP model not only has straps that smell like chocolate, but features a super-fun print on top of a sole that replicates the layers of the Oreo cookie.
Kissing with Confidence
Chewing gum brand, Extra, recently launched what it describes as a “Covid-19-safe kissing experiment”. It set up a ‘Kissing Booth’ in Central London in which 40 singles signed up to lock lips with a stranger. The initiative was reportedly triggered by a survey in which 57% of those surveyed, admitted that post-lockdown, they had lost confidence in their kissing skills. To quote a company spokesperson:
Whether you are a nervous giggler, confident canary or anything in-between, Extra gum is here to help British singletons dust off their kissing cobwebs this Autumn and kiss with confidence! And, for the 9 in ten Brits worried about their breath when locking lips, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered too!
Bad Movie Index
From Sweden: arthouse movie streaming service Draken Film has introduced variable monthly pricing linked to the number of “bad movies” being watched on other, more popular platforms. For that, it has come up with a ‘bad movie index’ that looks at the most watched movies on the biggest streaming sites, and their ratings on the biggest movie review sites. The lower the average rating, the lower is its subscription fee.
Fart Pedal
From the description on the Kickstarter page:
The Fart Pedal turns your guitar noises into fart noises!
Since the beginning of time, guitar players have been enhancing their guitar sounds through the use of guitar pedals. Whether it's to achieve classic distortion, chorus, wah, or phaser noises, most guitarists plug in to a variety of pedals to produce their signature sound.
Now you can lace your signature sound with some truly epic farts.
The fart noises generated by The Fart Pedal aren't your run of the mill Spencer Gifts fart machine toots. I worked with an award-winning sound design company in Chicago to develop bespoke, custom fart noises, for which I hold the exclusive license. These fart noises have been tailored specifically for a guitar amplifier, and tuned for exceptional live or studio performance.
When an Investment Banker is Offered a Lorry Driver’s Job
As has been reported, in a move to resolve the shortage of lorry drivers, the UK Government has shot off letters to almost one million people with lorry licences. This includes German residents who had driving licences issued before 1999, which allow them to drive medium-sized lorries of up to 7.5 tonnes, even if they have never been behind the wheel of one.
What stood out for me was the reaction of one German, who received a copy of that letter, as did his wife. To quote from The Independent:
We were quite surprised. I’m sure pay and conditions for HGV drivers have improved, but ultimately I have decided to carry on in my role at an investment bank. My wife has never driven anything larger than a Volvo, so she is also intending to decline the exciting opportunity.
It is nice to know there are specialist jobs available here for us though after Brexit. We would never have been headhunted to drive a lorry if we’d gone back to Germany.
Gaming to Success
Some years ago, there was a study that suggested that surgeons with a history of playing video games tended to have better surgical skills than surgeons who hadn’t gamed before. It would seem to be part of the inspiration behind an amusing new spot for gaming laptop brand Omen.
The cheeky campaign also lays the case for gamers being better pilots and leaders. Adding to that, the campaign website is packed with absurd inferences and fictitious testimonials. A sample:
In real life, there are no respawns. So before you or your loved one undergoes invasive surgery, make sure to ask if your surgeon is a hardcore gamer.
According to scientific studies, gaming improves everything from focus and hand-eye coordination to problem solving and leadership skills.
That means every hour you spend gaming is technically making you a more effective manager, a safer driver on the road and a better parent to your children.
Around the world, selfless and community-minded citizens are hard at work, logging hours of gameplay for the good of others. If you ask us, they’re not just gamers. They’re modern day saints.