advertising news

Here's a little update to the Vällingby City "Donate your old clothes before buying new ones" campaign created by Ruth advertising in Stockholm. Check out the film of the clothes donation-boxes in action inside.

The Daily Mail reports that Nick Park of Aardman Films was approached by Harvey Nichols because they wanted a worldwide icon from the Bristol area to promote the opening of the new Harvey Nichols Bristol store. Posters and magazine ads feature Wallace, Gromit and Lady Campanula Tottington sporting designer-wear from the likes of Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Ray-Ban Wayfarer, Duchamp, Christian Louboutin and Zagliani.

There's also a making-of video that can be found here.

You can check out the two minute film about this here.
The final two stages of the adidas Impossible is Nothing Sport in Art project are taking place at the Beijing Olympic Games in a major art exhibition right now and at an auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October.

The original paintings, the creations of some of the world’s greatest athletes and sports stars including: David Beckham, Tyson Gay, Ian Thorpe and 2008 Olympic Gold medalists Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix and Yelena Isinbayeva, are part of the Sport in Art exhibition that has already toured China to great critical acclaim his year.

Gold medal favorite Liu Xiang's withdrawal from the 110-meter hurdles in Beijing due to Achilles tendon injury crushed a lot of his fans and left corporate sponsors in an unfortunate position. How did they react? According to the Wall Street Journal, with "sympathy and support:"

On Tuesday, Nike took out full-page ads in China Daily and some other publications meant to address Mr. Liu's misfortune. The ad features a tight closeup of Mr. Liu with text that includes among other sentiments: "Love sport even when it breaks your heart." At the bottom was Nike's customary "Just Do It" tagline. "We see it as a real 'Just Do It' moment," a Nike spokesman said.

The WSJ's China Journal reproduces the ad with its translation:

Love Competition
Love risking your pride
Love winning it back
Love giving it everything you’ve got
Love the glory
Love the pain
Love sport even when it breaks your heart

Sports company advertising places an emphasis on victories with good reason, because winning sells. But to turn it around and acknowledge that defeats (or setbacks) are also part of sport, something to work through, makes an awful lot of sense to me — as it's something we can all relate to. Well, all of you. Not me.

Via PSFK. Image from the WSJ by Andrew Lih.

Last night when I was reading the news about Jessica Simpson becoming the new spokesperson for "smarter beer" -
Stampede Beer - I had a feeling it would be quite the opposite. I can't even find what minerals and vitamins make up the + in this 'smart' beer on that site.
Dallas News:

She's the face of the brand now," said Lawrence Schwartz, Stampede's president and chief executive, who says sales have more than doubled in the past year.
Stampede's marketing is focused on its vitamin content, which it describes as "functional additives."
"As an entrepreneur, I am always looking for ways to diversify my portfolio with good ideas and good people," Ms. Simpson said in a statement. "Yes, I work out and take care of myself, but I also like a cold beer once in a while.".

On the left, exhibit A. See the smart in the ad?
See it? Look carefully.
Isn't she just the picture of smart? The droopy eyes, the mouth breathing, the horrendously photoshopped cleavage-line, the props such as Italian restaurant table-cloth skirt and bales of hay like she never left the farm. You have to click on the image here to see the larger version, trust me. So yes, there's the smart - all of teh intarwebs will now either be gawking at or mocking this ad. Well played Stampede beer, well played.

Stella Artois recently revived their sales team with the help of Rivet down under. Being the #1 international draught beer might sound like a nice chunk of market share, but In Australia this means that you have a long way to go before you catch up with the local giants, like Crown Lager or Victoria Bitter.

After 26 years of reassuringly expensive, Stelle and low split up reports the Guardian.

The decision, which affects the Lowe Worldwide network, ends a relationship begun by Sir Frank Lowe when he started the agency in the 1980s.
***
The beer brand's parent company InBev, which recently handed the advertising business for the launch of its new 4% Stella Artois variant to rival agency Mother, is understood to be set to hold a pitch to handle the business.

Lowe, which runs the Stella business from its London headquarters, will not be taking part in the pitch.

Where will Stella go with their new agency? While the commercials were always epic, Stella Artois has suffered a tarnished image in the UK, being blamed by health campaigners for the culture of binge drinking. While the ads showed a gentler time - albeit one where people would give up allied war pilots to save their beer, rather ungentle if you ask me - in reality Stella has a "wife beater" image together with cheap lagers. What tactic would you recommend dear adgrunt?

Still, it's one of the most famous brand and ad agency pairings - inside you can revisit some of the classic commercials.

A new commercial for Direct Insurance Catastrophe coverage, which as teh name implies is meant to cover unpredictable damage, began airing in Israel two weeks ago. The star of the commercial was none other than "Murphy", the mastermind behind "Murphy's Law" renowned for bringing on catastrophe wherever he goes - as popular opinion knows Murphy's law.

The ad shows clips from Murphy's life, and all the disasters that follow him around as he is born, growing and finally visiting Israel. Check the 45 seconds here:

This Saturday night, Murphy's "bad luck" spread to the commercial itself - see that much shorter version here:

Aired during a commercial break on the "A star is born" show, (no.1 TV show in Israel), the Direct Insurance commercial broke out in flames and burnt Live. The commercial, which could not be broadcast in its entirety, boasted a surprising ending as a slide appeared with the following title:

"We apologize for the technical difficulties but catastrophes can happen to anyone"
Ad agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay / Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv

The left boot is from H&M, and the skull pattern on it is created by Helena Lindholm och Nini Andersson and has been used on various items during 2006 & 2007. The boot on the right is from Wedins and showed up in their shops this April. H&M thinks that Wedins pattern is a direct copy of their own and sent warning letters to Wedins already back in April. Since they got no response on that, they went ahead and filed suit the 28th of July demanding among other things that all of the boots shall be destroyed.
Wedins response?: "It is not a copy. I think it's a bit stomach turning that H&M are filing suit when they are world famous for plagiarizing." said Mats Björkenfeldt, Wedins lawyer, to Resume.

Wonderbra has found Britain's best breasts and completed the billboard idea we reported on earlier in: Wonderbra wants your breasts, melons, knockers, puppies and jugs. They shot the lucky Eva-wannabees and added the line; “D – G; Because we’re more than a handful” for the poster which was erected (teehee) in London august 11. The full poster can be seen at wonderbra.co.uk where you can zoom in on the poster to see each individual image.

Utalk marketing.com reports that the ad might even stop traffic.

Julia Nolan, Marketing Manager for Wonderbra, said “The campaign iris created has engaged with our audience and got them involved directly with the brand. The average UK cup size is getting bigger and we know that Wonderbra girls are proud of their cleavage whatever their size – this campaign has given them the chance to be confident, playful and sexy be they an A cup or an G cup.”

closeup:

Full billboard:

I think I prefer the scary boobs that shatter glass poster.