Take It Off! Oh God, Put It Back On.

It's not illegal if it's done in pencil! At least that's what American Apparal seams to think in their new campaign for cotton underwear.

 

For me, the work is downright creepy. The artist responsible for these... pieces... is known for his work in Hustler Magazine, among other less-than-conservative exploits. It looks like he pasted the head of a fourteen-year-old onto a nude adult body, and drew the resulting collage. Work on his personal website makes similarly disturbing use of unsuspecting actresses, such as Emma Roberts, Alexis Bledel and Taylor Swift. The small, chubby facial features are clearly meant to make the girl in each image look underage. At this point, I think American Apparel is simply pushing their advertising to be as controversial as possible, under the guise of misunderstanding and conservative bias. 

Here's a more interesting, modern, and appropriate take on current censorship standards:

 

 This subway campaign for Daffy's clothing provides a way for consumers to get involved that makes great use of the Twitterverse and social networking strategies, as opposed to simply presenting us with gratuitous sexuality. 

Come on American Apparel, overt nudity isn't impressing anyone - even in graphite.

Free Doritos, Not-So-Free Advertising

Agencies are always working on their Superbowl commercials to make them relate to their customers better. Doritos took their million-dollar spot a step further for Superbowl XLIII by holding a contest for the best fan made commercial, with top winners receiving six million dollars overall in cash prizes. The winning spot, full of pent-up work related frustration that everyone can relate to, features a crystal ball that grants it's owner a day of free Doritos:



It's hard not to see just how well this worked our for Doritos. Not only was it a great spot that went viral as soon as it was aired, but it cost far less than the company writing, casting and producing it themselves. Well, minus the millions of dollars on prizes and Superbowl air time.

They connected with their target audience by letting them sell the product - in a way that promotes current trends in home-made movie making, embraces the frustration we hold toward our jobs, and captures our desire for overly-processed cheese snacks.

Back Up, Romeo

American's hate advertising. It interferes with our lives so much that we complain about it almost as much as we're subjected to viewing it. With new methods of encroaching on our lives popping up every day, is amazing that our critique of the ad industry can keep up with its output.

Alfa Romeo has surpassed the human capacity for annoyance in their recent campaign that, quite literally, chases you.



The headline is cute, don't get me wrong. But good copy does not a happy consumer make. Time to ditch the gimmicks and go for something that will strike your target audience in a witty, I can't-believe-they-wrote-that kindof way, rather than taking the stalker approach. The used car salesman persona has been boiled down to a sandwich board and a remote control car - leaving sanity and our hope for future ad success in the dust for Alfa Romeo.

Calvin Covers Up

The only thing that gets between me and my Calvins is this pesky QR code.

In a witty little campaign by Calvin Klein, QR codes have replaced a few racy billboards in Los Angeles. Consumers can snap a photo of the fancy grid and they'll be guided to a not-so-conservative video of super model Lara Stone with her shirtless, Calvin-clad counterparts.



Out of context, the billboards are simple and make use of current technological trends in advertising. What makes this campaign stand out is the darker history that Calvin Klein has with having to censor their ads. They've heightened our desire to know more about their new line of jeans while giving the finger to existing censorship standards.

I Don't Need a Map

As consumers, we love putting the pieces together and finding solutions to little problems within ads. A quick visual story can provide the perfect opportunity for letting people fill in the gaps, and Nescafé has done a brilliantly minimal job in their recent coffee campaign.










These ads are clean and calm - but the narrative quality draws me in and let's me know that there's something more to understand besides looking at an attractive image. I move through the quick story and get lead straight to the logo and headline, where I get my final "ah-ha!" moment.










The coffee stain circle brings a tactile quality to the otherwise cold overall feeling of the piece and reminds us of the product being advertised. There are some negative connotations with coffee stain rings, but I think the benefits of the visual impact outweigh the negatives in this cases.

Without butchering the classic advertising commandments, Nescafé has created a modern narrative with an intriguing solution waiting to be discovered.