Ads of the Weird : Nonprofits

PETA pulls a lame stunt

Allison Linn — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:45:00 GMT

We have a lot of sympathy for the cause that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seeks to promote. We don’t have much sympathy for their increasingly goofy attention-seeking antics.

The latest dustup the animal rights nonprofit has created involves their attempt to get NBC to air a completely inappropriate ad during the Super Bowl, and then to complain when the network rejected the softcore porn.

The ad, featuring women in bras and panties getting extremely busy with some vegetables, was rejected after NBC deemed the content too racy, according to an e-mail from NBC that PETA made available to msnbc.com. A network spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

PETA

(Yes, msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, but that doesn’t influence our editorial decisions, about this ad or any other.)

Let’s face it: It’s extremely unlikely a network would air an ad like this during the Super Bowl, unless they wanted every mom and dad in America to blanket them with angry e-mails. Not only that, but most people who created an ad like this would understand that sex with vegetables, while perhaps acceptable for late night television, is not typical midday fodder, even on Super Bowl Sunday.

A spokesman for PETA, Michael McGraw, said the company was surprised the ad was rejected, and that they didn’t think it was more risqué than other commercials that have aired during the Super Bowl. The company has instead put the ad on its Web site, along with documentation about the rejection.

It’s true that Super Bowl advertisers have regularly tried to push the envelope on what is acceptable on Super Bowl Sunday, but this one strikes us as pushing further than most.

It’s one thing for PETA to shock people with videos of people blatantly mistreating animals, to draw attention to the very real cause of animal abuse. It’s another thing to create an extremely steamy video, and then complain about their supposedly unfair treatment.

Instead of making us think about the plight of animals, it made us think that some people will do anything to get attention.

Go to PETA's Web site to watch the ad.

Vote: A celebrity told you to

Allison Linn — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:00:00 GMT

We here at Ads of the Weird have generally tried to stay away from political ads during this seemingly endless election cycle, preferring instead to leave the good, the bad and the ugly to our friends in the Politics section.

But this being Ads of the Weird, Election edition, we’re making an exception. No, we don’t plan to jump into the minefield of speculating as to whose ad is more effective/negative/misleading. Instead, we’re going to focus on the one thing we hope everyone can agree on: The right to vote.

This year, as in years past, there are a plethora of public service announcements aimed at getting people to the voting booth. And this year, as in years past, they run the gamut from pretty good to pretty embarrassing.

declareyourself.com

The freakiest "get out the vote" ad award goes to this spot from Mobilize the Vote 2008, which seems to posit that if young people don’t vote they will end their days dressed like 19th-century peasants and living in some sort of abandoned warehouse. We do think voting is extremely important, but the cause and effect here strikes us as a tad overdramatic.

On the other hand, this "Rock the Vote" commercial, which plays out like a mini-police drama starring Adrian Grenier, keeps our attention and gets the point across: Voting is a personal responsibility, and it does make a difference.

It’s almost impossible these days to find a voting PSA that doesn’t rely on at least one high-profile celebrity urging Americans to vote, but famous faces don’t necessarily equal good commercials.

Declare Yourself’s "don’t vote by which we mean do vote" ad gets the award for the best misuse of a star-studded cast. A huge number of talented celebrities, ranging from Halle Berry to Dustin Hoffman, are packed into the five minute video, but the lame attempt to use reverse psychology ends up feeling forced, repetitive and a bit condescending. Even Sarah Silverman’s potty humor can’t save it. (Warning: This video contains some adult language.)

This more self-deprecating follow-up, featuring Steven Spielberg trying unsuccessfully to get celebrities to say "don’t vote," works much better.

Sometimes simple is best, though. While many people have accused us of being cynical, we were actually kind of touched by this Rock the Vote commercial featuring Christina Aguilera singing "America the Beautiful" to her infant. It’s effective and to the point.

It’s a measure of our times that Aguilera is using her vocal talents and her mommyhood to get out the vote. It seems like it was such as simpler, more innocent time when another pop icon, Madonna, was using a red bikini, and not much else in the talent department, to do the same.

Al Gore frees us from bad advertising

Allison Linn — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

For years, many people regarded environmentalists as earnest and well-intentioned, but more likely to plant a few trees than force Americans to make substantial changes.

That all changed with former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which mixed tough talk with just enough hope to leave people emboldened rather than defeated.

The most recent "we can solve it" ads, sponsored by Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, take the same tack, with the same results. Watching them, we couldn’t help but feel a little manipulated, a little scared and a little hopeful. But, they got us thinking every time.

wecansolveit.org

The ads mix an urgent musical score with big words that are meant to evoke big thoughts, such as "Free us from our addiction to oil" and "Save our economy." Meanwhile, the imagery flows from the bad guys (carbon-spewing energy producers) to the good guys (clean energy) and then the rest of us (tight shots of slightly worried-looking regular people).

The entire effect is both dramatic and arresting, and it catches our eye every time it appears on television.

The Alliance for Climate Protection also does a good job, in a simple way, of tying help for the environment to other issues many people care about, including the weak economy, high gas prices and concerns about our children’s future.

The effect is bold without being too overbearing. It’s also much more effective than the group's previous ads, which showed how would-be rivals had found common ground over saving the environment -- on a couch in the middle of nowhere. Instead of making us feel hopeful, those ads just made us wonder how many carbon emissions were wasted dragging a couch, a film crew and a bunch of overly cheerful opposites into nature.

Click here to watch the ad.

Snickers doesn't make everyone snicker

Allison Linn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:24:00 GMT

The makers of Snickers are pulling an ad after it failed to get laughs among gay rights activists who called it homophobic, according to an Associated Press report.

In the commercial, a man is speed-walking down the street when 1980s icon Mr. T comes barreling around the corner, firing candy bars at him and calling him a "disgrace to the man race."

The ad, which aired in the United Kingdom, ends with the tagline "get some nuts."

snickers.com

The AP says Mars Inc., which makes the candy bars, meant the ad to be funny, not offensive, and that's why they decided to pull it. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation said the ad used stereotypes of gay men.

Readers may recall that this is actually the second time Mars has pulled a Snickers ad because of accusations that it was homophobic. In 2007, a Super Bowl ad featuring two men accidentally kissing over a Snickers bar was yanked after similar complaints.

Click here to hear what MSNBC cable has to say about the latest controversy, or click here to watch the ad.

Update: Some readers noticed that a previous link to the ad had stopped working. We've posted an updated version.

The truth will set you humming

Allison Linn — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT

In an age when teens are inundated with images of sex and violence, one has to wonder, is anything shocking anymore?

The makers of the “truth” anti-smoking ads, who for years have been trying to scare would-be smokers straight with startling images such as masses of body bags and people posing as “dead” smokers, think they have hit on something: shocking the kids by not being so shocking at all.

The American Legacy Foundation’s latest anti-smoking campaign juxtaposes joyful cartoon characters and upbeat musical numbers with troubling anecdotes about smoking, in the hopes that a little sardonic humor will keep the attention of famously fickle 12- to 17-year-olds.

American Legacy Foundation

In the most recent installment, an announcer informs us that a tobacco executive once remarked, after being told that smoking can lead to underweight babies, that some people might prefer small babies. At that, the announcer breaks into a banjo ditty, sharing the stage with a cartoon stork and cartoon babies.

In keeping with the campaign’s trademark format, the ad is filmed in a public place, and it frequently cuts to flummoxed bystanders looking on. (In this case, they may be most puzzled because they can’t see the cartoon characters that are integral to the final product.)

The lyrics (“healthy babies are just no fun/eat too much and they weigh a ton”) are catchy but could be wittier. Still, The Disney musical-esque entreaty is so unlike anything viewers are used to seeing in a public service announcement that it just might capture the attention of the target teen demographic.

However, that also could be the campaign’s biggest drawback: The goofy song and characters are cute, but one wonders whether young viewers will be too distracted by cartoon babies and the like to understand the irony, and hear the anti-smoking message in the lyrics.

Also, let’s hope that most people between the ages of 12 and 17 don’t yet have to worry about whether their babies will be normal birth weight, but perhaps that’s an issue for the groups trying to stop teen pregnancy to tackle.

The other ads in the cartoon series include a song-and-dance number about “the magical amount” of nicotine needed to keep smokers addicted, and another that ponders whether the annual worldwide death toll from tobacco, put at 5 million, is a “typo.”

As with previous “truth” ads, the series does a good job of resisting the urge to talk down to kids. Let’s just hope the kids are paying attention.

Click here to see the campaign.

Update: Our colleague Gael Fashingbauer Cooper over at msnbc.com's Test Pattern has launched her annual summer TV Commercial Contest. Click here to help her choose the best and worst ads of the year.

Walk different

Rob Neill — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:00:00 GMT

We’re not going to get into a PC vs. Mac debate with anyone. And it’s not just because of the “msn” part of the name of this site.

It’d be silly, though to not acknowledge that the iPod is about a ubiquitous as presidential debates. And, for the most part, about as pleasant.

Overpriced? Probably. Best-of-breed? Arguably. But dangerous … well, we never really thought of it until we saw this print ad for the New South Wales police department.

NSW police

The ad, by Australian agency DDB, is part of a series to show the dangers of listening to headphones while crossing the street. It’s an arresting image and probably one that the people in Cupertino aren’t very happy about.

And we thought that Apple products only hurt your wallet.

Thanks to adgoodness for pointing that one out. And while we’re on the subject of narcissistic obliviousness and the dangers thereof, we’re waiting for the next spot that will hopefully show a person talking on a cell phone in his/her car and creating a mile-long traffic jam all by their lonesomes.

(At this point the bosses require us to remind you that msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News – there, you’ve been told.)

The Dutch army’s basic training

Rob Neill — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT

We’re fond of the maxim “If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards.” (Actually, we’re not really, boss, on the outside chance you’re reading this.)

It’s unfortunate, however, that in the current geopolitical climate, some elements of our armed forces are being forced to do just that to meet recruitment goals.

And while we endeavor not to be impolitic with Ads of the Weird, or even political at all, we were struck by a recent e-mail pointing out a recruitment ad for the Royal Dutch Army.

Royal Dutch Army

The spot depicts a family sitting at the breakfast table (we’re guessing bananas aren’t dinner food in the Netherlands), when the son decides to go all Dirty Harry with the fruit. As much as we understand the boy popping a few shots off at sis (natural sibling rivalry and all), we were a little put off by his trying to blast mom.

If you didn’t know who ordered the ad, at this point you’d probably wonder what they’re hawking. Maybe a video game? Then two check boxes appear in the corner of the screen: “Qualified” and “Not qualified.” Then the latter gets penciled in.

The screen dissolves to members of the armed forces with the question “Who can handle the Army?” in the foreground. The soldiers are stoic and keeping the peace.

The implied message: If you’re a violent wingnut, we don’t need you. We have standards.

How fortunate a country can have that option.

You can watch the ad here.

Off topic: How the hell do you expense this?

Hepatitis how-to’s

Rob Neill — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:00:00 GMT

In general, offers that begin with a “Have you ever wondered?” or “Have you ever wanted to?” make us immediately go “no” and move on.

But we were more than a little intrigued with an ad we stumbled over on the Web asking, “Trying to catch hepatitis C? Not sure where to start?” Not particularly. Wait -- what?

The animated spot features a little doodle of a guy, who evidently is named Dennis. An onscreen narrator asks the question (at the time Dennis -- obviously highly-motivated -- is licking the jagged rim of a tin can) and offers some ... er ... helpful information on ways he could have already caught it. These include, but are not limited to, sharing a razor, getting a tattoo and spending a holiday doing drugs and listening to techno music. (We pause at this point to remind all our readers that if you or someone you care about listens to techno, get help immediately.)

hepatitisday.info

The message, of course is, that seemingly mundane things you’ve done may put you at risk for the disease. And since there aren’t any symptoms, get tested. In the end Dennis does, and a buzzer turns red for his test results. He looks happy, then dejected. We couldn’t figure out whether that meant he was happy he was positive, unhappy he was negative, happy he was positive until he considered the ramifications … or … well, we’re just sure we don’t want hepatitis. In addition to the severe medical implications, it could possibly lead to this.

The cartoon (and a game on the site featuring Dennis that we were too lame to finish) calls attention to the more serious matter of World Hepatitis Awareness Day. It’s Oct. 1. What, not on your Outlook calendar? Ours neither, we just checked. It obviously targets a non-U.S. audience, since understanding that silliness can drive home a serious message isn’t really the strong suit of a country where Jim Carrey is so overwhelmingly popular. (Yes, we know he’s actually Canadian.).

There is good information on the site. It’s worth a quick spin, if not more.

See the ad here.

World Hepatitis Awareness Day site is here.

When good music happens to bad ads

Allison Linn — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:30:00 GMT

We here at Ads of the Weird like Bob Mould a lot, and as business writers and editors we also are partial to financial news. But we know better than to mix the two.

Apparently the folks at TIAA-CREF don’t agree. The financial services company has decided to use alt-rock icon Mould’s “See A Little Light” as the cornerstone of an ad campaign touting the benefits “dot-orgs” over “dot-coms.”

TIAA-CREF

The problem here isn’t that good musicians are selling out by deciding to let their music be featured in an ad. It’s increasingly hard to begrudge a musician trying to eke out another paycheck in an era when album sales are faltering and radio play is harder to come by. And let’s face it, if you excluded all the musicians who have sold out commercially or had other shortcomings of character, your record/CD/MP3 collection would be pretty thin.

The issue is that advertisers think co-opting our favorite songs will get us to buy their products instead of just ruining the songs for us.

Listening to Mould, of Husker Du and Sugar fame, should evoke memories of that guitarist you had a crush on in high school, or the concert where you were crammed up against the stage, singing along as loud as you could and still unable to hear your own voice. It should not make you think of potential investment vehicles.

Advertisers claim to revel in being creative and original. How does repackaging someone else’s artistic efforts for their own sales pitches accomplish either of those goals?

Beyond the music, the other problem with TIAA-CREF’s new campaign is the insipid implication that using a “dot-org” Web address makes for a stand-up group of people who are, to quote the ad, “serving the greater good.”

For starters, although such Web addresses are often used by nonprofits, in reality anyone can create register as a “dot-org.”

Also, although, there’s unquestionably plenty of good in the nonprofit world, there are also more than enough people using their nonprofit status less responsibly. (You only have to deal with one fast-talking, contribution-soliciting telemarketer to know that.) Implying that a “dot-org” Web address makes an organization somehow more morally pure than a “dot-com” is simplistic at best, and irresponsible at worst.

Click here to see the TIAA-CREF ad.

Update! Need more ad fun? MSNBC.com's television editor, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, has posted the results of her best and worst ads contest. Click here to see the results.

Hurricane Katrina wake-up call

Allison Linn — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:01:00 GMT

It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the surrounding area, destroying houses and lives and capturing the world’s attention.

By now, however, there’s no question that most people’s thoughts have moved on. The Katrina Foundation for Recovery is hoping to shock people into turning their attention back to the storm-ravaged region.

“Bin Laden would be smart to hide where the U.S. pays the least attention -- New Orleans,” reads one of five advertisements prepared for the nonprofit, which raises money to supply clothing, shelter and other services in the area.

Katrina Foundation for Recovery

In another, the group plays on people’s obsession with celebrity news.

“Brad and Angelina bought a house in New Orleans (that’s a coastal city in Louisiana, in case you’ve forgotten).”

Others depict scenes of happy normalcy, such as a school bus full of kids or a church, held up against a scene of Katrina-wrought destruction.

Kathy Reeg, president of the Katrina Foundation for Recovery, admits she was a little hesitant when the advertising agency first approached her with the donated Osama Bin Laden ad.

“I’m very patriotic myself, and I just felt like it might be pretty controversial -- we live in the conservative South here,” she said.

But while she didn’t want to turn people off, Reeg did like the shock value.

“We have a bad habit of moving on with our lives and leaving something behind,” she said.

The ads, which have run in newspapers in the region, are virtually certain to grab people’s attention. But will they prompt people to reach for their wallets, or donate some of their time to the area? Well, that’s a tougher proposition.