[ad_design] There Should Be A Word In The Dictionary For A Photo Like This …

3136.

You'll probably figure out the kind I mean.

Walking in a local grocery story, I looked up and was confronted by this on the back of an endcap display:

I don't know about anyone else, but I took one look at that and I knew, instantly, what that cute young tyke was going to look like when she was 35 years old. She would look equally at home as some high-powered executive as she would taking up your time on your front doorstep telling you about what her religion can do for you.

As it is, she seems just a little too thrilled at the presumable knowledge that she's got some Little Debbie to be munchin' on at lunch. I mean, that sort of smile is reserved for lottery winners.

I'm not sure what lottery you've won by turning up a Little Debbie snack in your lunchbox, but I'm pretty sure that it's not the kind where you win money.

[ad_design] When Words Fail, Just Tie A Woman Up And Throw Her In The Trunk

2906.In advertising, a joke can get too nuanced or dry betimes.

Today, in Our Conflicted Attitudes About Women, a Eurasian ad agency's (JWT) employees, showing off creative concepts for a notional campaign for the Ford Figo (a subcompact sold in the Indian market), created a worldwide furore. Why? Here's part of it:

That smiling figure in the front seat, flashing the satisfied peace-sign now that all his troubles are behind him (and appropriately silent), is ex-Italian PM Silvio Burlusconi, he of the 'bunga-bunga' parties and the sex scandals.

The idea is, of course, at the wheel of the Ford Figo, you can 'leave your worries behind', although I can't hear the tagline over abducting bound and gagged women and throwing them in your trunk. Sophisticated humor is like that, I suppose. But, hey, equal opportunity! There's also one of Paris Hilton with the three Kardashian sisters bound and gagged in the Figo's trunk. I showed a piece of one of them above, to see both in their full risible glory, check out the story at Businessweek Insider.

The ad concepts were apparently not circulated with the approval of JWT, but were uploaded by employees seeking a publication's award:

The ads hadn't been intended for publication, but were circulated widely after they were uploaded on an industry website by JWT employees over the weekend. The website, Ads of the World, gives monthly awards to ads submitted by users.
This had been done without JWT or Ford's authorization.

The depiction of assault on women is not only disturbing but inopportune, happening as it does during a time when the nation of India is fighting a battle with itself over the violence done to women that have made national and world headlines latterly.

We're hoping this becomes a teachable moment.

And, according to the Wall Street Journal, heads have rolled over it. So, there's that.

Ad Design FAIL: Apparently, They're Letting Any Tom, Dick, Or Harry Be Your Mom

2144.I've noticed that regardless of how people feel about the "stimulus", there's no shortage of people willing to try to make a few bucks off of being seen as somehow connected to the whole thing. I've seen "Obama's stimulus this" and "Obama's stimulus that" all over the place: phone poles, roadside signs, and banner ads:

You understand that the face of an African-American man is being used here to promote moms being encouraged to return to school?

Call me sexist if you want, but I think that, all else being equal, a mom is usually a lady-type person.

Or are they just thinking that they throw any black person's face in there and I'll think its President Obama?

Banner ads, my patience with you is rather short. I've learned to accept you because I have no choice. Don't lord it over me, yes?

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