This Woman Is Obsessed With Dasani Sparkling’s Bubbles

I’ve been seeing this one on Hulu a lot lately, so I guess I’ll write a bit about it. I was expecting it to be unpopular…the woman doesn’t come across as the brightest bulb and advertising flavored, zero calorie sparkling water in a slim can blatantly to females is quite stereotypical and gender-normative. But man, on YouTube the ad has comments disabled (never a good sign), and 108 likes vs. a whopping 2,659 dislikes. Wow. That’s a 96% dislike rate…probably the worst I’ve ever seen. For those of you wondering, the bubble-obsessed woman is played by Brianne Davis.

 

Geico: If You’re A Parrot, You Repeat Things

Parrots are probably best known for their ability to imitate human speech. They of course don’t understand what they’re saying, but if you utter an unfortunate statement, you might be hearing it for a while. I remember parrots repeating a murder confession being used as a cliche in TV shows I saw as a kid, but apparently similar things have happened. So needless to say, you should watch your mouth around a parrot. That’s a lesson this pirate learns all too well in Geico’s newest “It’s What You Do” spot.

Stoli Tells Men To “Drink What You Want”

Being a man, it’s hard to escape gender norms when out drinking. There’s “manly” stuff, like whiskey and beer. Then there are stereotypically female drinks that tend to be sweet, brightly colored, and fruity. A lot of men like fruity drinks, but won’t order them when out to avoid ridicule from friends. Stoli wants to change this stigma, in their new “Drink What You Want” campaign. After watching the ads, I have to agree with the general consensus that the idea is great, but the execution is pretty awful. The main character is annoying, and what’s up with him making fun of whiskey/beer drinkers? It undermines the entire message.

Work I’ve Done: The Insect Cookbook…Strangely Delicious

The Insect Cookbook is a real cookbook which was published in 2014, and includes many recipes in which insects play a focal part. It makes a case for insects as a good source of protein and a sustainable staple of a human diet, requiring much less energy and resources than a Western meat-centric diet. Indeed, insects are eaten in many parts of the world. My campaign seeks to “de-grossify” the consumption of bugs. Our cultural mores instruct us against eating them, but if these habits change…this behavior will just become normal. The visuals in this campaign were created by art director Hayley Brearton.

 

Work I’ve Done: Orbit…Minty, Not Stinky

In addition to writing about ads, I’m also an aspiring copywriter myself. So I’m going to put up some work that I’ve created. Enjoy!

When your breath stinks, it doesn’t matter how smart, charming, or good-looking you are. Your breath stinks. End of story. Using exaggerated pictures of a mouth and notoriously odorific foods (fish, onions, pickles), this Orbit campaign conveys that bad breath is all that other people can see. And smell, obviously. Visuals were created by art director Hayley Brearton.

 

 

That Travelocity Commercial With The Accidentally Booked Flight To Athens, Georgia

I’ve seen this Travelocity ad so many times and it still amazes me how anyone could be so stupid to book a flight to Athens, Georgia instead of Athens, Greece. Like, assuming that you’re booking from the United States, wouldn’t you notice that the flight is a lot shorter than expected? Or is a lot cheaper than you’d think? Anyway, Athens, Georgia is a pretty cool place too.

Tuesday Throwback: This Kid Wants Lunchables Pizza

I was randomly thinking about Lunchables today. If a kid brought in a lunch of crackers, processed meat slices, and “cheese” (i.e. pasteurized prepared cheese product), that wouldn’t be cool. But add a little candy bar, a Capri-Sun pouch, and put it in a snazzy package, and suddenly you’ve got the lunch everyone wants. Advertising certainly made added to the demand for Lunchables , and some research showed that kids felt empowered eating them, because they could put together their own cracker sandwiches the way they wanted. As Lunchables became more popular, they branched out into other food items. In this 1995 commercial, we see a young boy clamoring for pizza lunch every day, only to be disappointed by a steady stream of brown bag sandwiches. When he finally gets Lunchables “pizza”…good times. The boy was played by Alex D. Linz, who starred in the crappy Home Alone 3 a few years later.

Pepsi Remakes Its Classic Cindy Crawford Commercial With Emojis

Cindy Crawford starred in this iconic 1992 Pepsi Super Bowl commercial, which further catapulted her into the supermodel and pop culture stratosphere. Now Pepsi has remade it with emojis. In their words, “it’s been Pepsi eMOLEjified”, which is a pun that’s part clever and part makes me want to throw something. As for the spot, I find it to be a big ehh. Maybe it’ll cause some nostalgia for people who remember the original, but it’s just reminding me that emojis and hashtags shouldn’t be used too much in advertising. It just makes it look like you’re trying too hard to appeal to the youth. And speaking of the youth, I doubt they’ll really get the reference to the original ad, unless they’ve seen the funny James Corden parody.

Raid Presents Roach Art

So what’s a good way to show off how well Raid kills roaches? Creating art that’s made entirely of dead roaches, of course. Raid’s Roach Art is a continuation of Ant Art, a video that has more than 4 million views, but that I must have missed.

The Song From Those Jim Gaffigan Chrysler Pacifica Commercials

Jim Gaffigan stars (with his own kids) in this campaign for the Chrysler Pacifica. They’re pretty nice, slice of life spots featuring Gaffigan’s insights about parenting and protecting his family. The campaign has a huge number of ads, so I’ve only included a few of them in this post. But what really struck me is that cool song in the background. It’s “A Real Hero” by College & Electric Youth from the soundtrack to Drive. And that great song became even better when I did a bit of research and found out that it was inspired by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot.