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Wednesday 31 July 2013

I do believe he's making off with my Grey Poupon!!

When I tried to write the title of this post spellcheck turned the word "Poupon" into pompom three times. And that my friends would have been a whole 'nother story.

This advert by Crispin Porter and Bogusky is for Grey Poupon mustard which is so tres posh that it is made with white wine. The advert imagines what happened after the cameras stopped rolling on their old 1981 posh guy in a car advert. It really also shows how the times, tastes and the expectations of the buying public have changed. Once audiences could be impressed into buying a mustard just by seeing a toff eating it in a car. Now the toffs are comedy characters and a James Bond-esque car chase is required. Oh we are so demanding these days.

As a little bonus there is also another insider mustard fan joke - one of the guys from the original ad appears in a cameo role jumping out of the way on the golf course.

The ad has been nominated for Most Outstanding Commercial at the Emmy Awards.

Part 1 - the 1981 original.


Part 2 - The lost footage!





“It’s like, I’m Joan, and their vag is the ark.”

Tampon adverts have come a long way since rollerskating and riding ponies whilst enjoying a happy period. First we had the Bodyform advert taking the piss out of their own older advertising. Now we have this extremely funny advert for Hello Flo - a company who produce period packages.

In it we see a young teenage girl who is at summer camp when she gets her period. Since she is first she becomes Camp Gyno dealing tampons like they are drugs and bullying the other girls by controlling the supply chain.

This advert is not only surprising because it is really funny. But also because it's the first advert that features young girls who have just got their periods rather than beautiful model-like adults of about 25. It also has them using words like "vagina". Hooray! Why shouldn't girls talk about their bodies and tell it like it is? I am very impressed. What a step forward.

The advert was shot by marquis and Mccelland and produced at Hayden 5.



And here, if you still haven't seen it is the Bodyform advert.



Seen any other impressive modern tampon adverts? Send em my way. 

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Amanda Palmer my new feminist hero.

I am a girl who has always picked feminist idols to look up to. Over the years I've collected a few. Here they are for mutual admiration.

1. Jane Austen, Author

Damn she was a clever woman our Jane. And she has just been recognised as one of our greatest national figures by the sexist Royal Mint. She will be the new face of £10 notes. Austen's writing poked fun at the establishment and the precarious role of women who's futures hung at the mercy of often very stupid or roguish men. Not only that, she actually turned down an offer of marriage, just like her heroine Elizabeth Bennet. Girl had balls.

2. Madonna, Singer

Madonna is a bitch and a diva isn't she? She's also pretty demanding and extreme. But fuck what people say about her, she knows how to do the showbiz thing. She's the master of reinvention and she's battled to stay at the top for three decades. She's strong. She does things her way and isn't scared of criticism. She never apologises and she loves sex and her body and has hot toy boys. Go Madge!

2. Lady Gaga, Singer
Lady Gaga says she is a feminist. She doesn't dress for men to gawp at like most female singers. She dresses for the theatre and spectacle, to show off her creativity and to push boundaries. She hasn't used her looks to get where she is, she has used her brain. She's also a champion for gay rights and someone who gives those who don't fit the mould someone to relate to.

3. Caitlin Moran, Journalist and Author
Moran's book "How to be a Woman" is extremely funny, self depreciating and charming. At the same time it is also a book which tells women to embrace who they are, to accept the fact they are natural women with faults and quirks. She argues that we shouldn't look like barbie dolls with no public hair, we are women not children! Plus she shares my instinctive love for Lady Gaga.

4. NEW ENTRY Amanda Palmer, Singer.
Amanda Palmer's songs are clever and funny and about true life. What US rapper, X factor contestant or Pussy cat doll can say that? She has also spoken out in response to the Daily Mail's coverage of her performance at Glastonbury which failed to mention the music or her performance and solely concentrated on the fact that one of her boobs escaped her bra on stage. In a performance at the Round House she mocks The Daily Mail in a song called "Dear Daily Mail" in which she criticises them for objectifying women and reducing them to body parts. And in order to show how little she cares whether "shock horror" her boob escapes she drops her robe half way through the song. Look she says, come fight me now. Respect.






Friday 19 July 2013

Detroit: Beautiful and Bust

So today came the news that the city of Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. It will mean that in future the stricken state will have difficulty raising cash, presumably much needed to stimulate economic growth in the area.

I have never visited Detroit but it sounds and looks like a place with a heart and a soul. It's no shiny metropolis or picture postcard. It has seen things, and it has endured suffering. I think I am partly drawn to it because I am from Swansea in South Wales. Swansea was once an important shipping port and at the heart of tin and copper mining. In fact it earned the nicknamed "Copperopolis". Now it is a city trying to reinvent itself as a tourist town. Its people, the great majority, are not wealthy and jobs are scarce. I imagine this is the case in Detroit too, once the proud centre of the nation's automobile industries.

There was a great advert by Chrysler which really should go back on the air following this news. It is a defiant rallying cry - we are not beaten, we will fight on.



The great thing about towns and cities that have suffered is the art that comes out of them - music, poetry, paintings, photography. Perhaps this is because artists are often said to produce their best work when they are anguished or have dark subject matters. There have been some beautiful art projects focusing on empty and abandoned homes in the suburbs of Detroit. Kevin Bauman's photography project entitled 100 Abandoned Houses was his attempt to document the forgotten areas of the city - often areas which were once inhabited by the wealthy, now in sad states of disrepair. Dreams that once were.






Another interesting project focusing on abandoned houses is Ice House Detroit. Artist Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune sprayed an abandoned house with gallons of water so that the entire house froze. The house is meant to symbolise the contemporary state of Detroit. Read their blog about the project here


Bankrupcy seems to be when a person/state/country reaches rock bottom. So Detroit, the only way is up. Maybe this is an exciting time. A time of crisis and change. Certainly it should make the US government sit up and take notice.

So Detroit, good luck. I look forward to seeing what you give the world next.

Adgirl. 

Friday 12 July 2013

Ikea you are crazy like a coconut.

Awww so sad, look at this lamp. Tell me you don't feel sorry for it...



But you feel silly now huh? This advert was from 2002 and directed by Spike Jonze. Thank you to the Production department at work for reminding me of this one.

And while we are about it, here are some other really nice Ikea ads. Those crazy Scandinavians!

In this one its a poor naked man I am feeling sorry for. Get thee to Ikea naked homeless man!



In this Swedish one, you have to feel sorry for the man in the thong at the end. Poor man, he's gonna have to stay in that draw for a really long time.




In this one I am feeling sorry for myself. WHHHHYYY couldn't I have made this advert??? It's cool and I LOVE cats.



In this one there is simply no way to feel sorry for anyone. It's so happy!




Happy Friday xxx