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Kids World
A new spot for Barclays Bank features a bevy of child actors giving marvellous performances as they capture nuances of adult life, aided in no small measure, by some splendid writing.
Dua Lipa for Porsche
The singer lets her imagination run wild in a new spot for the all-electric Porsche Macan, that she wrote, co-directed, and also stars in. To quote one reviewer:
[It’s] best described as a genre-bending mashup with zombies, elephants and doppelgängers (oh my!) plus race courses, moon landings and car chases.
It’s kind of bananas—in a thoroughly entertaining way.
Mini-Me, Reimagined
From Thailand: a couple of wacky spots for Roojai insurance that are supposedly intended to answer, in part, the matter of having a kangaroo as its corporate identity.
Spot 1: ‘Triangle of Accident’
Spot 2: ‘Uncle and Auntie’
Boneless Contention
In a split verdict, Ohio’s Supreme Court has ruled that labelling a menu item as ‘boneless’ is a reference to the “cooking style” and is not a guarantee of the absence of bones. To quote from the majority opinion:
[R]egarding the food item’s being called a “boneless wing,” it is common sense that that label was merely a description of the cooking style. A diner reading “boneless wings” on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating “chicken fingers” would know that he had not been served fingers. The food item’s label on the menu described a cooking style; it was not a guarantee.
But it is the dissenting opinion that is more noteworthy in the manner that it tears apart those assertions. To quote:
The absurdity of this result is accentuated by some of the majority’s explanation for it, which reads like a Lewis Carroll piece of fiction. The majority opinion states that “it is common sense that [the label ‘boneless wing’] was merely a description of the cooking style.” Jabberwocky. There is, of course, no authority for this assertion, because no sensible person has ever written such a thing. The majority opinion also states that “[a] diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers.” More utter jabberwocky. Still, you have to give the majority its due; it realizes that boneless wings are not actually wings and that chicken fingers are not actually fingers.
The majority’s burst of common sense was short-lived, however, because its opinion also says that no person would conclude that a restaurant’s use of the word “boneless” on a menu was the equivalent of the restaurant’s “warranting the absence of bones.” Actually, that is exactly what people think. It is, not surprisingly, also what dictionaries say. “Boneless” means “without a bone.” Cambridge English Dictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024). It means “without bones.” Collins Dictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024); YourDictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024). And it means “(of meat or fish) without any bones.” Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, (accessed June 6, 2024).
The question must be asked: Does anyone really believe that the parents in this country who feed their young children boneless wings or chicken tenders or chicken nuggets or chicken fingers expect bones to be in the chicken? Of course they don’t. When they read the word “boneless,” they think that it means “without bones,” as do all sensible people. That is among the reasons why they feed such items to young children. The reasonable expectation that a person has when someone sells or serves him or her boneless chicken wings is that the chicken does not have bones in it.
‘May We Haveth One’s Attention’
British Airways has a new safety briefing, inspired by period dramas.
Outage Advertising
From Canada: Decathlon and KitKat get creative around Microsoft’s ‘Blue Screen of Death’.
Uncle KFC
From Thailand: Colonel Sanders gets portrayed as a dignified version of a neighbourhood ‘uncle’ selling rice bowls (thankfully, without a physical makeover) in a spot that is embellished with the wackiness that one might expect from a Thai commercial.
Choose Uber: a campaign not by Uber
It wasn’t too long ago that the proudly-French ride-hailing service Heetch did a splendid bit of guerrilla marketing, using its bigger rival’s delivery service, Uber Eats, to push advertisements for itself. Now, as tourists descend upon France for Paris 2024, it has a cheeky campaign, again involving Uber—it is telling tourists to use Uber. The idea, we are told, is to endear itself to Parisians. To quote:
That way all Heetch cars will be available for you, the locals!
Pizza Hut: Official Sponsor of Dominoes
That’s Dominoes, not Dominos. To be more specific, the reference is to the 2024 World Championship Domino Tournament.
Deadpool, Wolverine, and Heinz
The Deadpool & Wolverine trailer—also starring Heinz Mustard and Ketchup—with a splendid voiceover by Ryan Reynolds.
Cross-Border Vending
A quirky, July 4 initiative by Nestlé to make its Canada-exclusive Coffee Crisp chocolate bars available to Americans via a vending machine placed at the border.
A ‘Smashing’ Tea Party
To quote from a post by one of the creative people behind the event:
We invited the New York elite to a tea party.
Then we asked them to destroy it.When you think of tea, a brand like Voodoo Ranger isn’t what usually comes to mind.
For the national launch of Voodoo Ranger Hardcharged Tea, we built a high-end tea house on a popular corner in SoHo, and invited NYC socialites to be the first to experience the opening of the new prestigious establishment. But what they were soon to find out is that Voodoo Ranger Hardcharged Tea isn't for the establishment.
Playfully, På(fyll)
From Norway: a surreal spot for circular refill service På(fyll) imagines a supermarket where detergents literally cease to exist as off-the-shelf packaged c0ntainers.
F for Fake, Tasmania version
A new blog post by a museum curator in Australia’s island state calls to mind the critically-acclaimed Orson Welles docudrama. Like the latter, it finds inspiration in the Picasso quote about art being “a lie that makes us realise truth.” Also like the latter, we get an incredible story, marvellously told, with a glorious confession.
A quick recap: two weeks ago, there was the news that the curator of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) had shifted the works of art, that adorned its ladies-only lounge, to a ladies loo. This was in response to a court ruling against the legality of having a gender-specific lounge. Among the paintings moved were some that had been claimed to be by Picasso. To quote from an Instagram post by the curator:
A new exhibition at Mona. Just for ladies… We never had female toilets at Mona before, they were all unisex. But then the Ladies Lounge had to close thanks to a lawsuit brought on by a man. And I just didn’t know what to do with all those Picassos…
The curator has now put out the aforementioned blog post in which she admits, with a certain flourish, that the ‘Picassos’ and other ‘invaluable’ objects, formerly on display in the ladies-lounge, were anything but that.
This is some of what she has to say on how it all came to be:
[W]hen I began visualising the Ladies Lounge, I knew it had to be as opulent and sumptuous as possible. That meant handsome male butlers to wait on us, pour champagne and admire our beauty. Suck a toe or two. And if men were to feel as excluded as possible, the Lounge would need to display the most important artworks in the world—the very best.
There are New Guinean spears (brand new but presented as antiques collected by my grandfather on Pacific expeditions with Michael Rockefeller—you know, when he was ‘eaten by cannibals’), ‘precious’ pieces of jewellery (quite obviously new and in some cases plastic, purportedly belonging to my great-grandmother), and a ‘mink rug’ made by Princess Mary’s royal furrier (in fact a low-grade polyester).
Then there are the paintings. I knew they had to be ‘Picassos’. I am a tremendous fan of his work and hold it in the highest regard. He’s the great master, the pinnacle of modern art. And yes, his record with women is … intense. Women have been pulling him apart lately, questioning his supremacy. They question my selection of his art. And I like that. I liked that a misogynist would dominate the walls of the Ladies Lounge. Alongside a work by Sidney Nolan (another misogynist) depicting a rape scene, Leda and Swan.
I knew of a number of Picasso paintings I could borrow from friends, but none of them were green and I wished for the Lounge to be monochrome. I also had time working against me, not to mention the cost of insuring a Picasso—exorbitant!
A few days later I was having drinks with my friend Natalie. ‘Maybe I should just make the paintings myself,’ I said. We laughed—how absurd. But then, as with many absurd ideas, I decided it was a good one. So I made the artworks, quite painstakingly, with my own hands and the (perfectly shellacked) hands of my manicurist’s niece, who is far more competent in pen and ink and thus assisted with the etching. I chose the paintings for their colour palette and sensual depictions of the female form, exquisite against the green silk curtains of the Lounge.
Equally fascinating is how she describes what happened after that:
Three years ago I fantasised there would be a scandal: ‘Fake Picassos Exposed: Art Fraud!’ I imagined that a Picasso scholar, or maybe just a Picasso fan, or maybe just someone who googles things, would visit the Ladies Lounge and… expose me on social media. But instead:
Among artworks illuminated on the walls [in the Ladies Lounge is an] immediately recognisable Picasso.
—deliciousAcross the lounge I spy Picasso’s Luncheon on the Grass, After Manet (1961)—one of the cubist’s many subversive, fractured retellings of Manet’s scandalous Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe (1863).
—TravellerThe velvet-clad lounge … contains some of the museum's most-acclaimed works, from Picasso to Sidney Nolan …
—BBC News... plush green curtains, lavish surroundings, original works by Picasso …
—New York Times… a silk-curtain-partitioned private space in the gallery, with special artworks exhibited inside, including several priceless Picasso’s passed down to Kaechele from her great-grandmother.
—Women’s AgendaI’m flattered that people believed my great-grandmother summered with Picasso at her Swiss chateau where he and my grandmother were lovers when she threw a plate at him for indiscretions (of a kind) that bounced off his head and resulted in the crack you see inching through the gold ceramic plate in the Ladies Lounge. The real plate would have killed him—it was made of solid gold. Well, it would have dented his forehead because the real plate is actually a coin.
Flirting with Spritz
Liqueur brand St-Germain has a new spot to push interest in its cocktail, St-Germain Hugo Spritz. It stars actress Sophie Turner, with a dash of sly humour.
Get sprayed orange, win a flight to Majorca
That’s pretty much the essence of a recent promotion by soft drink brand Tango. To quote from the announcement post:
13:00 – 17:00 on 03/07/24.
Visit the “Get Tango’d” activation located in Boxpark Shoreditch, London, provide your details to a brand ambassador, sign a consent form and get one eligible area of your body spray painted orange plus a “Get Tango’d” outline to enter the Prize Draw.
Promoter not liable for any allergic reactions or damage to personal belongings.
No purchase necessary.
Prizes: 5 winners will each win 2 x standard economy return flights from an international airport situated in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland to Majorca for the winner and one guest.
Fast food App Helps Track Hurricane Power Outages
To quote from a news report out of Texas:
Texas fast-food staple Whataburger is serving more than burgers in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.
Instead of ordering food, folks are using the San Antonio-based burger chain's app to track power outages in the Houston area.
On Monday, Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast as a strong Category 1 storm, flooding Houston-area highways and knocking out power to nearly 3 million residents, according to the Associated Press.
Although the website of Houston-based utility CenterPoint Energy includes data on the number of customers without power — 1.7 million as of press time — the site doesn't provide a map showing which service areas are affected by the outage.
That's where the Whataburger app comes in. Using the app, users can tell which parts of Houston have power and which neighborhoods are in the dark by checking out what Whataburger locations are open for business. Assuming they have power, the chain's restaurants run 24 hours.
The clever hack was discovered by X user @BBQBryan, who shared it Monday evening with other users of the social media platform.
Ketchup Heroes
Ahead of Paris 2024, Heinz wants to recognise those who squeeze ketchup with a medal-worthy prowess.
Pay with your shopping
From Ireland: Tesco finds a fun way to show how Clubcard points can be converted to vouchers.
Flexible as a Cat
From Singapore: Insurance firm, Income, takes a baffling approach to pitching its investment-linked plans.
Cats are incredibly flexible. They can contort their bodies to fit through small gaps and take the shape of anything they lie in. If Income’s Investment-Linked Plans (ILPs) were an animal, it would probably be a cat.
The Extra Mile
From France: In the run-up to Paris 2024, Accor—a Premium Partner—makes an Olympics-worthy case for enjoying the brand’s hospitality.
Orange Marmalade Cologne
It’s a limited-edition offering from Jo Malone. Why marmalade? To quote one of the people behind the idea:
Marmalade is quintessentially British. After all, what is a traditional breakfast without a good marmalade? What a great inspiration for a scent, to have the bitterness of the orange rind blended with the sweetness of the marmalade.
To promote the fragrance, the brand found, arguably, the perfect mascot—Paddington Bear. But for reasons that I’m not sure about, the promotion video is more in line with Wes Anderson’s movies than any of the Paddington movies.
RIP Robert Towne
While there is good reason to remember him for the many screenplays he penned, most notably that of Chinatown, for me, probably nothing surpasses the pleasure of listening to the lines that he wrote for Raul Julia’s character in Tequila Sunrise (which he also directed)—especially the monologue on friendship.
It’s not Parkinson’s. It’s Swagger.
From Canada: a campaign that may be best understood from these words, by one of the creative people behind it:
First and foremost, we created this campaign for people living with Parkinson’s, not the general public. By reframing the involuntary movements of Parkinson’s as 'swagger' our intent was to boost confidence, hoping that a shift in mindset would encourage people with Parkinson’s to worry less about hiding their symptoms or retreating from life, and get out there and live boldly.
Link to video (Note: the ad stars Robert Kastelic, a Toronto resident with Parkinson’s.)
What the Fast?
From Thailand: A series of rapid-fire spots for Krungsri First Choice credit card to show how speedy the approval process is.
Flush with Excitement… literally
From Ohio: A minor league baseball team has announced an unusual “VIP seating experience” at its home stadium—a row of toilet seats that are placed right behind the home plate. To quote from the press release:
In a bid to combine comfort with a splash of fun, the Lake County Captains, in partnership with Roto-Rooter, are excited to unveil the first-ever “Roto-Rooter Toilet Row” at Classic Auto Group Park. This unique seating experience, a groundbreaking first in Minor League Baseball, will offer fans the opportunity to enjoy the game from the comfort of deluxe, high-end toilets positioned right behind home plate.
Starting today, fans can snag one of these eight exclusive “throne seats” and watch the game seated in style. These aren’t just any seats; they're super comfortable, elegantly designed, and offer unparalleled views of the action. Each ticket holder in Toilet Row will also enjoy personalized attention from Horatio, our dedicated bathroom attendant, who will ensure that your needs are met with mouthwash, combs, and gum — keeping you fresh throughout the game.
“Everyone deserves a VIP experience, and with Toilet Row, we’re taking that to a whole new level,” said Jen Yorko, General Manager of the Lake County Captains. “Thanks to Roto-Rooter, fans can now enjoy the game from the best ‘seat’ in the house.”