Results tagged “ad”

Unbelievable: An anonymous donor is spending $25,000 to plaster the subway system with ads promoting atheism. Which seems like a waste of money, because didn't God give up on the subway system long ago? Starting next Monday, the monthlong advertising campaign will saturate a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan "A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?" Besides advertising Godlessness, the campaign is also promoting a new book called Good Without God, by Greg Epstein.

People are hungry for answers after word came out that size 4 model Filippa Hamilton was fired from Ralph Lauren for being too "fat," and then that company Photoshopping her to look like a bobblehead doll for an ad in Japan.

This Ralph Lauren model was fired earlier this year for being too fat. At 5' 10" and 120 lbs, Filippa Hamilton (who was with the company since 2002), tells the Daily News, "They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore."

Earlier this year we chatted with Dr. Zizmor, the "subway dermatologist," about the television ads he ran prior to taking his campaign underground and off-screen. Now he's gone and combined the two! Warning, this jingle will get stuck in your head.

The junk food industry is going to war against the Bloomberg administration's big public health push, spending $1 million on an ad campaign asking New Yorkers, "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" But Bloomberg isn't sweating the industry's measly million in ads, and defended his hands-on approach to health yesterday, telling reporters, "A little impetus from the government really does improve the public health of the average person. If you want to drink sugared drinks, you're going to have a weight problem, and maybe government should tax it to keep you from doing it." And if taxes don't persuade you to put down the Big Gulp, maybe a little trip to Room 101 will do the trick.

Unhealthy food purveyors are fed up with what they see as City Hall's scaremongering about their products, so they've gone on the offensive with a $1 million nationwide ad campaign. In New York, the Center for Consumer Freedom—a "consumer advocate" front for a collective of food corporations—is asking people, "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" We thought it started around the time Peter Stuyvesant imprisoned people harboring Quakers, but no; the answer to that rhetorical question is Mayor Bloomberg. His Health Department is behind a number of public health initiatives, including requiring chain restaurants to display calorie info, and, most recently, a public awareness campaign against soda.

Little Italy is fighting back against Tucker Max's controversial ad campaign. Yeah, that poster on the right says, "Blind Girls Never See You Coming." Va fan culo, indeed.

The Marijuana Policy Project [MPP] has produced two new TV ads for media markets in key New York Senate districts. The commercials feature patients who have benefited from medical marijuana, but you won't see them here in NYC, because uptight Eisenhower-era local affiliates of ABC, CBS and Fox have declined to broadcast them. Because reefer drives people into homicidal rages, or something! However, one local network, WNBC, has bravely accepted the group's money and is showing the spots, which includes testimonials from radical freaks like Conservative Party member Joel Peacock of Buffalo, who suffers from chronic pain as the result of an accident. In the ad, he says, "It took away the pain. It took away the nausea. I didn't have stomach cramps. I slept. It just did everything my medicine doesn't do. Please, ask your senator to have compassion." Whatever, hippie! In 2007, the state assembly passed a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but it never made it through the Senate. Watch the ads below:

The One Club, who awarded DDB Brazil a merit award for their September-11th-tastic ad for the WWF, has revoked that award and declared no more fake ads will be tolerated! Take that evildoers. Meanwhile, Jenny 8. Lee has penned a breathless piece over at CityRoom regarding these so-called fake/phantom/scam ads. She points out that the ads are created solely to win awards (an ad world prestige)—in the words of DDB Brazil's president Sergio Valente, upon winning one such award, "you show everybody, ‘Look how good, how clever I am; how at the top of the trend I am,’ and, of course, everybody wants that." Will the Mad Men of the world soon be scared to push the limits?

As the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) investigates how on earth a print ad and a commercial recreating 9/11 (with more planes) got through any stage of the approval process, AnimalNY points to a new ad that's just as tasteless. They report that another Omnicom agency (BBDO Moscow) created a "digital papercraft Twin Towers project for the Moscow News ... a free weekly English language paper founded in 1930 by American socialist Anna Louise Strong." C'mon Russia, it's not like we're over here hocking Diet Coke with some imagery of Moscow burning in 1812 (no matter how refreshing a cola would have been after Napoleon's invasion).

Looks like everyone's coming clean. Yesterday the WWF admitted that the controversial 9/11-themed ad was probably cleared by someone at the organization, and now AdAge is reporting that "after initially lying about it, DDB Brasil now admits it created a video version of the Brazilian print ad 'Tsunami,' and entered both ads in the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June."

The World Wildlife Fund issued a new statement today regarding the video and advertisement linked to their organization that contained messages and images related to September 11th. The organization originally said the ad concept was rejected when brought to them by DDB Brazil, but was it authorized on some level? Their statement reads:

“WWF reiterates our strong condemnation and repudiation of this offensive and tasteless ad and reaffirms that no one in the US organization had any knowledge or any role in the ad’s creation and expresses its regret for any pain it may have caused 9-11 victims and their families.

Continue reading "Did The WWF Approve 9/11 Ad?"

While the WWF rejected DDB ad agency's terrible idea for a campaign, the spec design still made it to the One Show, won an award, and is now causing them about 100 times more problems than the Tsunami (which incidentally killed 100 times more people than 9/11).

Last night, Keith Olbermann jumped into the fake-WWF ad fray by declaring DDB Brazil, the ad agency that apparently pitched the 9/11-inspired concept (and never got the WWF's business) the "Worst Persons in the World" on Countdown. Olbermann also named all the creatives involved with making the ad and said of DDB Brazil CEO Sergio Valente, "Frankly, I hope he starves on the streets."

Advertisers have been fixated on hurtling planes at the Twin Towers long before 9/11 happened, but it's safe to say they held off on it after that tragic day. Now, it turns out that a Brazilian ad agency—DDB Brasil—tried to win the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)'s business with this ad concept: An image of lower Manhattan showing many, many planes aiming at Manhattan—and they even include the Towers. (What is it with Brazilian ad agencies?). The text urges us to protect the planet; it also reads: "The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11." Okay, so who wants to make a mock-up of 1,000 Nazi soldiers being catapulted into Thailand?

The American Beverage Association is more than a little defensive about the city's new public awareness campaign which depicts human fat pouring out of cola, energy drink, and sweetened ice tea bottles. The ads, which are intended to educate the public about the high caloric content of sugary beverages, debuted yesterday, and Kevin Keane, a senior vice president at the Association, was quick to run to the Post: "It's absurd and over the top and unfortunately is going to undermine efforts to educate about a serious and complex issue like obesity." Also, why does government keep picking on soda? Earlier this year Governor Paterson proposed a tax on soda, which was successfully shot down by the beverage industry. Keane wonders, "Why aren't they going after cake? Why single out soft drinks?" But Cathy Nonas at the Health Department says, "It's just horrifying to see how many preschoolers are drinking these sugar-sweetened beverages" and even abusing sports drinks: "In terms of physical activity... water is the most important thing before, during and after an event." Well, the American Beverage Association has got kids covered on that because according to their website "all BEVERAGES provide hydration." Your move, cake!

Do you enjoy soda and other delicious sugary beverages? If so, you may as well raise a cup of human fat to your lips and chug, according to a new public awareness campaign by the NYC Health Dept. The print ads depict, in graphic detail, human fat mottled with blood vessels being poured from a bottle of cola; a plastic "sports" drink bottle that looks like Gatorade; and a glass bottle of iced tea resembling Snapple, New York City's "official beverage."

Excuse us for not shedding a tear, but we thought the giant Sony PSP in the sky had been taken down from its Houston Street billboard last year, and even though it was just temporary, it prepared us. Now Bowery Boogie reports on the status of the ad space, and H&M has fully taken over. No more computer glitches, just a girl in a reasonably priced leather jacket. Such a much gazed upon spot should have at least gotten the controversial Calvin Klein kids draped all over it. Will you miss the gaming system?

The Conor Harrington piece that's been up on the corner of 13th and Washington has been covered with a brand new NPA City Outdoor advertising frame and some sweet ads for Steely Dan, and major motion pictures District 9 and 2012. Street artists be warned: when you mess with The Man, you get The Dan!

Okay so we're all familiar with the Verizon eyesore on the banks of the East River, and the fact that it's hate-fuel for those who have to look at it from Brooklyn, but now the company is taking it to the streets, and likely annoying even more of the city. Their never-ending "network is always with you" campaign was filming earlier over near 7th Street and 1st Avenue. Did you see hundreds of red shirts clogging up the East Village today? Can you see them now?

     

Looks like Calvin Klein succumbed to the prudes in SoHo who just couldn't handle an all-American denim-clad orgy billboard. The Daily News reports that the ad has now been replaced with one featuring a female, alone, in her soaking wet string bikini. Even though a lot more skin is being shown (and there are no jeans in sight!), some locals like the change. One old maid said, "The old one bothered people. It was a little too explicit with the threesome. You didn't even notice the jeans as much as what was going on with the people." Yes, in this new one onlookers will clearly only notice the product, and not that lady wearing it.

C'mon New York, are we such prudes that we can't handle a little denim clad foursome? People are reportedly up in arms over the latest Calvin Klein billboard that the Daily News says "seems to show a teenage girl in a threesome—with suggestions of a foursome."

Some residents on Broadway will finally see the light! The NY Times reports that after several years of illegal wrap-around billboards that have covered windows in the19th-century Cushman Building at 174 Broadway, the Dept. of Building has finally removed the ads. The agency told the paper, “This is the first time the Department of Buildings has physically removed an illegal sign from a building." The OTR Media Group, who put up the sign, was repeatedly sent violation notices that have been ignored; "The department said that 517 violation notices had been issued to OTR-controlled locations citywide." Now, what about that illegal Snickers storefront ad?

       

Over the weekend the Public Ad Campaign organized a massive takeover of some billboard space around Manhattan, where only one whitewashing team was arrested. While the new non-commercial public canvases looked vibrant throughout the day, by the next they were reclaimed by The Man. Luckily it was all well documented. You can check out further images at AnimalNY, Wooster Collective, cronicasbarbaras and Flickr.

The NYC Department of Health has taken an aggressive approach to promoting the benefits of not smoking. This week, it focused on how a pack of cigarettes will now cost over $9, thanks to a federal excise tax, and offered free nicotine patches for the day to help encourage smokers to break the habit.

Is an unlikely bromance in the air? Has Paul Rudd reached out to Poster Boy with specifics about how he wants the I Love You, Man ad campaign altered? This letter was spotted on the downtown 6 platform at 51st Street. The actor does like to take on fake names (at a recent Virgin Megastore appearance he went under "Fred Rudd"), so giving himself a musical moniker of "Raul" does fit his M.O. However, this is probably just the work of a crazy Rudd fan, or some sort of plan by Dreamworks to enliven their boring posters.

A reader sent along these photos from the E train, saying, "I am sure that they are fakes and that they are making fun of the current Keep it Going NYC campaign." We asked an NYC Transit spokesman if they were fakes, to which he replied, "I have no idea." Smells like a renegade campaign to us! And unlike the KeepNewYorkMoving ad campaign, it's not asking Albany for funding, but criticizing both Governor Paterson for his budget cuts and the MTA for its proposed fare hikes and service cuts.

Someone has been spray painting a catchphrase from Alan Moore's graphic novel around town, in places like Union Square and SoHo. You may have heard that a little art house movie adaptation of the book opens this weekend, so there's considerable speculation that this is part of a viral marketing campaign on behalf of Warner Bros. entertainment. If so, it's working, as this website and others are now happily demonstrating. Still, we have our doubts; the graffiti pictured here looks more like ye olde semi-illiterate fan boy FAILE. Who spell-checks the Watchmen? [Via Slashfilm.]

Reader Neil spotted a MoMA "installation" going up at the Atlantic stop in Brooklyn yesterday, saying posters like the above are filling up "every space in the station." It turns out that the museum is pulling all the stops for the expected plummet in tourism this year, and are targeting locals to come visit instead.

Of all the ads to be blocked from running during the Superbowl, who would have thought it would be PETA's? The organization submitted the below commercial, "which features a bevy of beauties who are powerless to resist the temptation of veggie love"—but NBC came up with a laundry list of edits that would need to be made before they considered airing it. Some of their cuts included: "touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli, rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin, asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina"...PETA is making us redder than a rare steak! Here's the commercial that was deeemed too hot for TV: