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So! Caesars is putting on a poker tournament* Saturday, March 13 and they want you to be there! Most people need to sign up and pay their own way but one Dealbreaker reader will get his or her buy-in/room/after party access paid for, provided you answer simple question:
Who is responsible for Dealbreaker/Breaking Media’s recent technology woes? Feel free to answer below but in the event you actually want to win this thing, send your answer here, as well. We’ll be picking a winner this Friday. (For those of you who are losers but still want to go, sign up here).
*Stuff you could win: (part of a) $30,000 prize pool, a seat at the World Series of Poker 2010 Main Event, a $7,500 XO JET airfare credit.
Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) drops the firebomb on its most recent ad campaign, from Reuters:
The ads for Bell Canada’s Solo discount service showed a young woman decked out in flashy punk rock attire, with a button that reads “Belsen was a gas” — the controversial title of a song by the Sex Pistols, and a reference to Nazi Germany’s Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
“It was inadvertent,” Bell Canada spokesman Mark Langton said on Friday, noting that the dozen ads were taken down as soon as the company realized its mistake. “Obviously, we would never depict such an offensive slogan in our advertising.”
We remember the first time we had a Diet Coke, when that stupid vending machine next to the baseball field was out of regular Coke. After one sip and some great expectorations, we threw the mostly full can away thinking two things: 1.) this tastes like someone added “ass” to water, 2.) girls will put anything in their mouths if they think it will help them lose weight. (Both insights have aided people throughout the years. The first helped Glaceau founder J. Darius Bikoff make millions. The second netted more than a few hummers from Kate Moss.)
As bottled water encroaches on soft-drink territory (the two are now comprable in size, with bottled water bringing in $50 billion a year to soda’s $68 billion), Diet Coke has employed a marketing team of budding Sartreans, who are embracing Coke’s nothingness as quintessential to its being.
A new Diet Coke print ad, pointed out by Freakonmics’ Steven Levitt, simply contains a picture of a can of Diet Coke and the tag-line “99 Percent Water.” (Next up, an abortion-clinic ad that shows a picture of a fetus in a bottle with the tagline “75 Percent Water” (keeping with the theme of the day))
Levitt notes how ridiculous this ad would have seemed in the 80s, and several of the commenters note that pointing out the water content of something is ridiculous in the first place, since everything we drink is mostly water. Starbucks – everything we serve is 98+% water. Even water is 99% water in most cases.
At DealBreaker, we’re starting a new marketing firm for consumer products that will up the post-existentialist ante, and just advertise our products as “99.9 Percent Nothing.” You can eat almost nothing, virtually guilt free. By eating almost nothing, you’re bound to lose weight. After all, everything is mostly nothing (look at an atom). Diet Coke is 99% Water (And That Is Now a Good Thing) [Freakonomics Blog]
Faced with a case of recurring ad-failure amidst tanking same-store sales, Gap is taking the crazy cool notion of shunning TV in a revolutionary new print-only campaign.
The Laird & Partners campaign is revolutionary because it features relatively obscure personalities wearing Gap clothing. Personalities as obscure as John Mayer, Lucy Liu, Forest Whitaker and Selma Blair. We’re confused. So the new print-only Gap ads will have really famous people wearing Gap clothing. Sounds like a revolution to me, or the most common clothing ad there is. Yes, people get paid big money to come up with these ideas.
One of these men, Trey Laird, president of the ad firm that bears his name, comments that the people in the new Gap ads “are not the most expected choices, they’re not in Us Weekly every week.” Rather, they are in Us Weekly every other week. It seems like Gap is spending more time marketing the fact that its new ads are edgy than its actual clothing, as we look for clues as to why the chain’s sales stink.
The ad wizards mulled it over and realized that maybe they do have a tired, generic concept. That’s why the pictures will be in black and white and shot by Annie Leibovitz, best known lately for making Queen Elizabeth II look like she was in the Matrix. Sprinkle in a few people who aren’t as famous as the dude dating Jessica Simpson, like the director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” and you get your revolution… or a dressed up offshoot of 90% of clothing ads. Gap Tries a Somewhat Old-Fashioned Campaign [New York Times]
The latest Intel print ad for the Core 2 Duo processor features several large black guys posed in pre-prostration to a nerdy white overlord who looks like an extra from a bad Dockers commercial. Is the ad racist or are people reading into this too much? A common misreading of ‘bent over black guys overseen by complacent white dude’ imagery is to think that it’s racist. Would the ad have made more sense if Intel used Chinese swimmers?
Also, any ideas on where this ad was focus tested (Intel’s Andersonville HQ)? Intel probably just figured that only one of the people in the picture would be buying products with its new high-end chips anyway. That person of course, is the guy who finishes first in the race.
Enter your caption below!
The Union and Confederacy have been uncivilly vying over Intel’s share price (Nasdaq: INTC) which has ranged in daily trading to up over 1% to down 1.5%. Intel Ad Might be Racist, but Boy Does It Make Me Want a Core 2 Duo [Gizmondo via Fark] Intel under fire for ‘racist’ ad [The Inquirer]
With all the controversy surrounding Michael Vick’s dogfighting proclivities Chrysler Group’s Dodge division decided now was a perfect time to release a viral video of a Dodge Nitro electrocuting a puppy to death. Note to Dodge, using force lightning against Mark Hamill, good, using it against a puppy, bad. The ad was created by the BBDO Netherlands division of Omnicrom, and carries the tagline, “charged with adrenaline,” followed by that EXTREME Dodge guitar riff.
Chrysler is backpedaling faster than a pit-bull in Blacksburg and has pulled the ad from YouTube (although you can watch it in the Jallopnik link below), apologizing for the “fictional yet inappropriate treatment of an animal.” Chrysler is also pulling the “come on, those crazy Europeans are morally bankrupt anyway,” excuse, while “investigating the origins of the commercial.” Dodge Nitro Kills Dog, Makes Us Cry A Little [Jallopnik] Chrysler pulls SUV ad with electrocuted dog [Reuters via CNN]
Epuron, a German green tech company, won the Golden Lion for best advertising spot at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes (the Palme d’Or of adverts?). Not to spoil it, here’s the spot, created by Nordpol+ Hamburg (see how early you can catch on before the punchline):
Contrast this with the “Say Hey” BP ads, that try a little too hard to reinforce the fact that giant oil companies are eco-friendly in that “when I drive up to a gas station I open up my mouth so that the gas nozzle can rain golden helios on me while whistling a catchy tune” sort of way.
Epuron is a subsidiary of the European renewable energy company Conergy, and specializes in photovoltaics, wind and bioenergy. “Power of Wind” from EPURON wins Golden Lion in Cannes [Epuron]
Fox and CBS rejected a new Trojan commercial that has the audacity to suggest that people have sex with condoms in order to avoid pregnancy rather than die of Super AIDS. When you’re doing as well as the big networks, you can certainly afford to turn down those revenue streams. Fox actually admitted rejecting the ad for the aforementioned reason, while CBS was more vague about how the ad was inappropriate “even with late-night-only restrictions.” Here’s the ad, created by the Kaplan Thaler Group:
For those of you on networks with firewalls tighter than CBS margins, the commercial features anthropomorphic pigs hitting on girls at a bar. One little piggy goes to a bathroom machine to procure a Trojan condom and turns into humanized hot stuff that blondes want to have sex with. The tagline is “Evolve. Use a condom every time.” Fox and CBS disagree. One Fox exec commented:
We simply did not want this ad to air because of insurmountable logistical problems. For starters, pigs have these really long corkscrew shaped members, which no Trojan condom is equipped to sheath. No, not even a Magnum. Also, female pigs can have up to 30 minute orgasms, which is a completely unrealistic expectation for any male. Besides, have you seen Knocked Up? When you’re not disease-ridden, there’s no reason to use a condom. Babies are precious.
Not all television execs had the same reaction, and the new ad will air on ABC, NBC, MTV, Comedy Central, Adult Swim and other cable networks. Fox and CBS did not reject Trojan’s prior campaign, which took a “people who have sex outside of wedlock probably have HIV unknowingly so you should wrap it up” angle.
Ads that suggest that people occasionally have sex in non-missionary positions for non-procreative purposes are having a tough time airing, unlike shows that encourage infidelity and promiscuity like Fox’s “Temptation Island.” The 2004 Viagra campaign that featured the tagline “Remember when you used to be called Wild Thing?” was pulled by Pfizer after criticism from the FDA. The FDA said the ads were misleading consumers into thinking that Viagra gives you super huge rock hard erections instead of helping the balance of old men.
Trojan commands 75% of the $416mm annual condom market. Yes, sadly (especially given how expensive the things are!) the condom market is only $416mm and only 1 in 4 sex acts involve one. Pigs With Cellphones, but No Condoms [New York Times]
What is your first reaction when driving up to a gas station?
a.) poke your head out the window, open your mouth, and wait for the gas nozzle to turn into a shower, raining down golden helios (little flowery sun-symbol-like things)
b.) wait for someone to fly down with a toilet (you read that correctly) and giant sandwich
c.) nothing, because you are letting your toddler and his three friends fill up the tank before running some errands, and your toddler knows to only use gas pumps that whistle catchy jingles
The answer is all of the above, if you’re at a BP gas station.
Not since Britney Spears sans flip flops have gas stations been this infectious. Fueled by the tune (“Say Hey,” by Message of the Blues), BP’s new $35mm US ad campaign (designed by Ogilvy & Mather) goes to great lengths to convince your children that PowerPuff Girl type creatures will dance for you (and maybe tap you off if you’re lucky) at its gas stations. BP isn’t a stop, it’s a destination. Let’s get it done.
You will quickly forget about refinery explosions and ex-CEO liaisons when you see the little men dancing near your engine cylinders. Is BP’s child-focused, dolphin-friendly effort a bit much? From Slate:
Finally, BP hopes to cement itself as the most “green” of the massive oil companies. To this end, the ad shows little windmills in the background. Also, BP service stations (there are more than 11,000 in the United States alone) have switched from plastic to paper bags at their convenience stores, and hand out trading cards with environmentally sensitive tips for kids (for instance: Use both sides of the paper when you color).
Watch the commercials, and plant a tree next time you fill up your tank, after the jump… Baby, You Can Fuel My Car – [Slate]
Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) drops the firebomb on its most recent ad campaign, from Reuters:
We remember the first time we had a Diet Coke, when that stupid vending machine next to the baseball field was out of regular Coke. After one sip and some great expectorations, we threw the mostly full can away thinking two things: 1.) this tastes like someone added “ass” to water, 2.) girls will put anything in their mouths if they think it will help them lose weight. (Both insights have aided people throughout the years. The first helped Glaceau founder J. Darius Bikoff make millions. The second netted more than a few hummers from Kate Moss.)
From 
Faced with a case of recurring ad-failure amidst tanking same-store sales, Gap is taking the crazy cool notion of shunning TV in a revolutionary new print-only campaign.
With all the controversy surrounding Michael Vick’s dogfighting proclivities Chrysler Group’s Dodge division decided now was a perfect time to release a viral video of a Dodge Nitro electrocuting a puppy to death. Note to Dodge, using force lightning against Mark Hamill, good, using it against a puppy, bad. The ad was created by the BBDO Netherlands division of Omnicrom, and carries the tagline, “charged with adrenaline,” followed by that EXTREME Dodge guitar riff.
For those of you on networks with firewalls tighter than CBS margins, the commercial features anthropomorphic pigs hitting on girls at a bar. One little piggy goes to a bathroom machine to procure a Trojan condom and turns into humanized hot stuff that blondes want to have sex with. The tagline is “Evolve. Use a condom every time.” Fox and CBS disagree. One Fox exec commented:
What is your first reaction when driving up to a gas station?