A friend wonders if it's "wrong of the MTA to place a public announcement ad about sexual harassment next to an ad for silk boxer shorts with the subway map on them." And the Transit Museum Store's description of the boxers ($25) is pretty racy, too: "These days, finding your way on the MTA can be as easy as taking a peek down under, thanks to our silk boxer shorts featuring the official New York......

It's not easy maintaining a healthy relationship when you're fully immersed in the not-so-healthy restaurant and bar industry. So Time Out NY has come to the rescue this week, highlighting personal ads from local chefs, bartenders and club owners who are on the prowl. Anita Lo (pictured), chef and co-owner of Bar Q, is attracted "to pretty girls" and wants "someone who eats everything." Alex Day, a bartender at fussy cocktail lounge Death & Company,......

Photo by Jake Dobkin. If you see some graffiti around town declaring November 11th there will be "World Screaming," don't alert Homeland Security just yet. The Brooklyn Paper points out that the message is really part of a marketing campaign for graf legend Dumar Brown's book, The World Screaming Nov (the "11" in the tags were meant to be quotation marks--see the one in Paris). His last book was called Nov York. Brown told......

The utterly unnecessary return of 90210 to the small screen tomorrow means the arrival of giant billboards displaying the new cast. The Brooklyn Paper reports on one in which teens wear swimsuits and lounge in pools in the form of the 90210 numbers. The image can be seen from the BQE and hangs above Williamsburg--specifically in the Hasidic Jewish area. Rabbi David Niederman says, “In Jewish law, it is forbidden to see any part of......

Greenpoint ladies, there's a new doctor in town, or at least an old one with a new marketing campaign. Dr. Leon Nitkin has posted ads for his OB/GYN practice on some "of the newly-renovated buildings on the south side of Greenpoint Ave b/t Manhattan and Franklin. Everything about it says 'please don’t let this man touch your privates, even in a medical context.'" Well, not everyone can be as web-savvy as Dr. Parkinson or his......

Did you wake up this morning thinking you'd like to be a little more Kanye? In all likelihood the Be Kanye subway ad campaign has sunk in to your subconscious, but watch out--as learned from the video ad that circulated last month, being Kanye is really just being drunk...on Absolut Vodka. Or more accurately, on corporate sponsorship. Today the Daily News takes a look at the subway ads, which state: "For a few hours -......

Photo via Jay Parkinson. Yesterday there was some chatter about the Hello Health subway ad campaign, mainly how its empty word bubble design (unsurprisingly) acted as a magnet for vandals! AnimalNY mentioned that the MTA was responsible for pulling the ad campaign, which launched when Hello Health opened its doors in Williamsburg. Today, however, they uncovered that there was a little bit of finger pointing going on, and it was actually "CBS Outdoor, the......

The NY Sun reports on a 4-page parody ad for "Sucker City" that runs in the latest issue of MAD Magazine. Circuit City was displeased to find the spread, which "pokes fun at high prices, the breaking of promises found in advertisements, and the employees who save sold-out merchandise for friends." Reportedly a "humor-impaired" employee ordered that all magazines be removed from Circuit City newsstands...yeah, don't worry, MAD's editor-in-chief was equally confused, saying, "We at......

The CW has turned all of the criticisms of their last ad campaign, into pull quotes for their latest one. With a new season of Gossip Girl coming up soon, and their new posters proclaim the show is "Mind-blowingly Inappropriate." The quote isn't from an entertainment rag, but rather the Parents Television Council watchdog organization. The NY Post gets credit for another ad, which takes their quote that calls the show: "a nasty piece of......

The latest art project to be plopped into a public space is Zaha Hadid's Chanel Pavilion, a 7,500-square-foot temporary, traveling art gallery that has a number of stamps on its passport already. The spaceship-esque pod will land in Rumsey Playfield in Central Park by October 20th, and be open through November 9th -- housing artwork (including a piece by Yoko Ono) inspired by the Chanel handbag, of course. The NY Times took a look at......

Rapper 50 Cent has filed a federal lawsuit against Taco Bell, claiming the fast food chain used his name without permission in an ad campaign that asks him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent. The ad is part of their "Why Pay More?" campaign, and a Taco Bell rep addressed the debacle, saying, "We made a good faith, charitable offer to 50 Cent to change his name to either......

Photo via d.billy's flickr. Not too long ago there was a behind the scenes glimpse of the Times Square billboards that light up the "Crossroads of the World" day in and day out. Now it looks like the old fashioned painted ads are more reliable, as AndIAmNotLying points out a glitch from last night in one electronic billboard on 8th and 42nd. Oopsy! It's a snafu that could be costing someone as much as......

The subway ad mash-up artist has been hard at work underground. Here's some of the latest creations, including a shot of a poster he was still working on when someone snapped a picture.......

Toronto street artist, Posterchild, sent us the above photo of a piece he recently installed with the help of Jason Eppink (he of the Pixelator). He'll be installing three more ("tonight or soon!"), which will say "Fast," "Sell" and "Out". (The pictured one may look like it says "Bold" but it actually says "Hold.") No word on whether or not they'll be in the vicinity of the 14th and 8th station. If you aren't......

Heads up, hipsters: Those keffiyeh scarves, long associated with Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian resistance, are officially ‘so over.’ While the choice of keffiyeh as fashion accessory – at least when sported by sweaty, coked-up white kids mincing for Cobra Snake – has about as much political heft as a neon Che Guevara thong, the trend’s death knell has been rung not by a sudden surge in good taste but by divisive food celebrity Rachael......

The image below isn’t a rejected Rage Against the Machine album cover, but rather an ad campaign for a leading Brazilian business newspaper, Gazeta Mercantil. Designed by illustrator Pedro Izique for the São Paulo office of ad agency JWT, the print ad redesigns the Dollar, Euro and Yen with images of “some of the most important events of the last century.” For the U.S., that means 9/11, pot, oil, war and Arlington Cemetery. The slogan?......

Aspiring actors, look now further than the Morgan L stop in Williamsburg for your big break! This flier advertises casting for a little film called: "Niki Gets Lost In BushDick." The plot is pretty simple: Niki stumbles upon a band whilst wandering around "BushDick" and (to put it mildly) ends up "sleeping with" them, all, at once. Copyranter guesses that the band must be indie rock; perhaps some real life Brooklyn band porn names......

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is looking for a new driver, and The Daily News reports that he's resorted to the classifieds to find the perfect person for the job. The ad, which ran in Sunday's Daily News, stressed that the driver must be discreet, "a prerequisite ever since a former driver claimed Markowitz stashed wine in his black SUV and used emergency sirens to bypass traffic, among other abuses." The ad reads:The office of......

Staring down the barrel of a $10 million lawsuit, American Apparel has spoken out about their billboard displaying Woody Allen's image (circa Annie Hall). Chances are the law will find them about as innocent as their barely-dressed teen models. The company says it “was meant strictly as a social parody," and even though those two billboards are normally used for commercial reasons, they're selling the idea that they "also use them as a vehicle for......

Woody Allen on Allen Street via Susan NYC's Flickr. Last year Woody Allen kicked off the scantily clad teen models usually draped over American Apparel billboards, and seemingly made himself the new face of Dov Charney's clothing empire. In both LA and NYC, his image (taken from Annie Hall) hung above city streets along with Yiddish writing paired up with their logo. Now it's being reported that Allen (despite his fondness of young ladies)......

The new NYC Condom campaign carries a secret Canadian tourism message: One of the ads features Toronto's Flatiron Building. Darn those confusing stock image searches using "Flatiron Building"! Toronto’s Gooderham Building (photo at right) makes an appearance in the ad entitled “The Village” (image below, highlighted on the right). This landmark Toronto building, often called the “Flatiron Building” by those in the Greater Toronto Area, predates Manhattan’s (properly known as the Fuller Building) by ten......

The long delayed Grand Theft Auto IV is finally coming out soon, and it seems the marketing campaign has come off the screen and into the 3rd dimension. Where best to bring the faux Liberty City (based on New York) than to the streets than Williamsburg. Kotaku spotted a Wanted poster on the corner of Lorimer and Grand suggesting one Niko Bellic be shot on sight. Bellic, the game's main character, is "wanted for questioning......

This ad for Pakistan Airlines is real. And in the history of advertising, it really takes the creepy cake. Even worse than babies endorsing cigarettes! Seriously, if Nostradamus ran an ad firm to warn the world about blowback, this would have been in his portfolio. It appeared in the March 19th, 1979 issue of Le Point (and surely countless other publications). Yes, the shadow is in pretty much in the same place as where......

Remember when one of the many American Apparel ads on Allen and Houston was defaced with the words "Gee, I wonder why women get raped"? The ad was replaced with a new one soon after, and not much more was heard about the mystery messenger. Until now. Yesterday Jezebel received an email from someone purporting to be the one who held the spray can. He stated:First off, i'm not a graf writer. Honestly, I was......

Four thousand subway passengers had to be evacuated from subway cars when a track fire on the B/D lines disrupted service during the evening rush hour. And many of the passengers were stuck on the Manhattan Bridge, clueless as the MTA waited 20 minutes before explaining what had happened and sweltering as train cars lost air-conditioning. When we watched news coverage, passengers were glad to be out and noted that fellow straphangers were helping......