Post Advertising

Today, while surfing IGN.com for serious professional reasons, I made an important discovery: the best advertisement ever. Despite the fact that it’s a bit old, I think it’s important that we here at Intergalactic Post Advertising HQ give this ad a post because it’s unlikely that we will encounter another ad this fantastic. "But how amazing could a lowly web ad be?" you might ask.

0 COMMENTS

An anonymous tipster, who probably chose anonymity due to a severe case of the embarrassments, overheard the following monologue backstage at a Buckcherry concert. As best as we could decipher, it's about the leak of a featured track from their unreleased album. The irony? After all of the brouhaha* about the leak, it came out today that the band's manager leaked it as a marketing ploy. Oops! We have a little authenticity issue here, don't you think? Disappointingly, PostAdvertising.com couldn't reach the band or the manager for comment, so you'll have to settle for this transcript:

0 COMMENTS

While I usually avoid talking about traditional advertising (predominantly because I tend to ignore it), Toyota caught my eye with a series of simple yet arresting print ads for the 2008 Prius. Toyota also caught my eye because of the inherent irony of a company that makes the 4Runner (14 miles per gallon!) and the Sequoia (13 miles per gallon!) going for the jugular, so to speak, on the oil issue. Cars use oil. All cars.

The campaign itself is visually powerful, and more important, manages to tell the entire story of our addiction to oil with simple tricolor ads. Toyota also has managed to nail the timing of the campaign—summer gas prices are really impacting the 18-24-year-olds of suburban America, and college students are more concerned about the environment than ever.

The only problem? The ads are a total flop. (Scroll down after the jump to see the rest of them.)

8 COMMENTS

Since when is getting people sick a good thing? I’ve never wanted to spread a disease, but suddenly every company out there wants to release something viral.

Skype is one of those companies. Apparently unhappy about how few people know about their product’s videochat capabilities (which have existed a long time now), they proceeded to come up with an innovative idea to promote their poduct. It’s too bad that the results are so annoying.

1 COMMENTS

I hate to turn into Mr. Positive so shortly after joining the PostAdvertising.com crew, but companies seem to be getting more right than wrong recently. Either that, or I just keep tuning out those who mess up. Suckers.

The Foster’s Group, makers of the eponymous beer, has become one of those companies that gets it right. Even if Foster’s is more famous for its urinous flavor (yes, that’s a word, look it up) than good advertising, there are apparently some rather clever minds in the Foster’s ad department. Don’t buy it? Check out the Foster’s Scuba microsite. It features a game that lets you control a real live scuba device housed in a tank of Foster’s beer. It’s every 18- to 24-year-old male’s dream: a video game about beer. Now if only they could have thrown some tits in there...

0 COMMENTS

The 18–24 demographic hates cheap imitations. They reek of inauthenticity. Whether it’s the faux-blog American Dad or Microsoft’s Zune, the 18–24-year-olds of the world aren’t going to like what they see if it smells fake. Plus, we all know how to use a credit card, so we can afford to go the extra mile and get that iPod Touch we’ve been craving.

Russian music equipment suppliers My3topr understand the severe hatred of cheap crap that I and my generation suffer from. So when they received Mackie’s budget line of mixers in the mail, they knew that their target market wouldn’t be inclined to buy them. After all, even Russians know that “budget” is marketing-speak for “bad imitation that will break in three weeks.” So what did those clever fellas at My3topr do? They beat the ever-loving shit out of one of those mixers and proved that Tapco stuff isn’t so bad after all. This is an ad I can get behind.

2 COMMENTS

The 18–24 demographic has a message for the traditional advertisers in the audience: Please stop.

Sorry ad-man, but you’re dropping the ball big time. Come on, slipping Justice into a car commercial to catch my attention? Really? They’re cool and all, but that ad would have been a lot cooler if Justice hadn’t been nominated for three Grammys months ago. Besides, the electro house kids (if you’re a traditional advertising type you probably don’t know what electro house is, and it’s probably for the best if we just keep it that way) have long since moved on to the likes of SebastiAn and Danger. Plus, everyone knows that this summer belongs to Santogold.

7 COMMENTS