In order to attract more tourists Empire State Building’s latest campaign highlights the real emotions and expressions of the people who visit this landmark building to take in the breathtaking view of New York City. The tagline of the campaign is “The Real Magic, The real New York”. The campaign will include print advertisements in local leading magazines and newspapers and billboard ads to attract more eyeballs.

This innovative campaign has been designed by New York based ad agency Avrett Free Ginsberg. Tourists from different countries throng top floor observatory of The Empire State Building so it really must have been easy to shoot real people and wide range of natural expressions and emotions on their faces as they soak in the spectacular view. These human expressions are truly magical and natural for they are not script written or follow any story board. It seems one of the ads show a mother and her child using binoculars to see the city.

Such out of box creative advertising ideas often brings down costs of production too which is crucial in the times of recession. There are no celebrity models posing here in the ads but these ads show real magical moments in different people’s life. There is unmatched magic in travelling and soaking in the beauty of the world!

Via Adweek

Cordaid has come up with a very hard hitting “People in Need” campaign and has put the hard truth of stark disparity existing on our planet right in front of our eyes. This ad campaign is a play on emotions, guilt conscience and will surely generate lots of aid essential to reach out to the most deprived and poor people living in poor nations around the globe.

We all know that what we splurge on can buy something very essential for the needy ones. This emotional appeal for little donation which is much less than what one usually spends on luxury is no doubt an effective tool but is it necessary to make big spenders very guilty with all these images?

These pictures of African people posing with expensive stuff seem very poignant, compelling but was it necessary to use actual ‘poor people in need’ to make an appeal? Do they need to ‘beg’ for donation from the rich? Maybe candid shots would have worked better. We cannot deny that affluent of the society also contribute to world’s economy in a big way. We live in a consumer centric capitalist era which runs on market economy after all.

Big spenders alone are not responsible for sorry state of the world. This disparity won’t be removed even if rich were to donate all their money to charity. We live a far messed up complicated world and this ad gives the most simplistic solution.

It is true that world needs organizations like Cordaid to build bridges between haves and have-nots. Hope the play on conscience works for the good cause. But more than aid poor of the world need to be empowered to improve their own conditions.

Via Advertt

If watching TV on the armchair disregarding your doc’s advices about sedentary lifestyles were not enough, Toshiba has created the Space Chair ad campaign in which it sent a chair, rather an armchair to the space and back in order to promote its latest TV and Laptop models.

Both Laptops and TVs are used from the armchair and the experience of the customer is central to the success of the products. Thus, Toshiba 2010 REGZA SV LCD TV was promoted through the Space Chair campaign and it follows the journey of an ordinary room chair to space. They used GPS and cameras to follow and film the journey of the space. The idea was to communicate the viewer’s experience of watching the Toshiba’s first TV with LED backlight and local dimming.

It seems to indicate that the experience would be akin to travelling in space and back to earth. It reached a height of 98,268 feet above sea level and it took 83 minutes to reach space and 24 minutes to fall back. It came under the purview of FAA and followed all the regulations and thus the rig had to be under 4 pounds. A truly innovative way to advertise I must say. Better than watching boring models delivering equally boring punch lines.

Via: Engadget

When you are the daughter of a celebrity couple, then limelight follows you wherever you go and if you happen to be a 17-year old hottie like Georgia Jagger, then it is only obvious that ad firms would just line up behind you hoping you would sign the dotted line. Well, Georgia just did and did so for the all too well-known Versace. With already having done an ad campaign for Hudson Jeans a couple of months ago, it only seems all too natural that shedding off those pair of jeans for a pair of Versace was all too easy for this bright and already famous teen icon.

Versace have signed her up to be the face that takes them forward and the move already paid off huge with her landing up on the cover of British Vogue. Jagger has just been photographed for the ad campaign by Mario Testino and the sublimely sexy result should have many grabbing the latest Vogue issue. While few have raised eyebrows about a 17-year old being portrayed in the way that she has been, both Versace and Georgia will be happy as controversy, if any, only creates more cash! So guess she is staying with Jeans ads till she turns 18…

Luxist

Microsoft has launched Windows 7 with much fanfare and is getting mixed and good reviews and it really seems that new OS version is better than the old but unfortunately one cannot say the same about their ad campaigns. For some strange reason Microsoft is sticking to old lines of ‘I am PC’ or ‘My PC’. This good old counter campaign against Apple’s ‘I am Mac’ is getting quite boring.

There can be a lot argument in favor of the new print campaign which clearly shows that Microsoft cares a lot about customer feedback and they incorporate the same in their products. All PC owners featured in these print ads clearly seem to be proud followers of the brand and identify with the brand. But these are all old storylines. These ads say nothing much about the new features of the Windows 7 which makes it a real winner. The competition between brands must be about improved features and services of the products.

Instead of using ‘I am PC’ lines Microsoft and ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky could have used this opportunity to step out of old shadows and launched a new intelligent and fresh campaign to challenge Apple and waited for its counter-move.

Via Ads of the World

In celebration of the World Chef Showcase Weekend, the Sydney International Food Festival has come up with a delicious and delectable ad campaign where the participating countries showcase their culinary fare and local cuisine through food spreads in the image of their respective flags.

The brand new Sydney International Food Festival will run from October 9 to 11. With a series of tastings and tipples, recipes, cooking wizardry, book signings and much more, the food fest is expected to be an exhilarating celebration of the global food scene where diners, gourmets, gourmands, food marketers, restaurateurs, and practically everyone engaged in the food business will come together to eat, feast their eyes, be satiated, conduct business, and celebrate the glory of food.

There will also be street festivals and open-air eating to further showcase the best regional produce and the finest of dining. It is guaranteed to excite everyone from professionals to serious home cooks. One of the most exciting events of the new Sydney International Food Festival is the World Chef Showcase, combining cooking demonstrations, as well as talks and tastings with top chefs from Sydney and around the world. Sydney’s biggest culinary stars as well as chefs from some of the best restaurants in the world will come together for a time of culinary celebration.

Amidst all the problems and confusion besetting the world today, people are assured that on October 9-11, at least, somewhere down south shall be a truly bright spot with many happy and well-fed people.

Via TheCoolist

In New York, there is a campaign war against soda and other sweetened drinks. The city’s health department has launched ‘a public-awareness campaign, which includes posters in the subway system and a multilingual Health Bulletin’ that began on the end of August and will run for three months.

The new campaign asks New Yorkers if they’re “Pouring On the Pounds.” Highlighting the health impact of sweetened drinks, this is the Health Department’s tactic ‘to encourage consumers to choose beverages with less sugar.’

Says New York City Health Commissioner Thomas A. Farley, “Sugary drinks shouldn’t be a part of our everyday diet. Drinking beverages loaded with sugars increases the risk of obesity and associated problems, particularly diabetes but also heart disease, stroke, arthritis and cancer.”

This war on soda is explosive since soft drinks are part of everyday life in metropolitan areas such as New York. The situation must be really bad for the city to slam head on against the soda industry. The health and diet statistics may have been enough reason to launch such a campaign: ‘On average, Americans now consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than we did 30 years ago. Nearly half of these extra calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. When Health Department researchers surveyed adult New Yorkers about their consumption of soda and other sweetened drinks, the findings showed that more than 2 million drink at least one sugar-sweetened soda or other sweetened beverage each day – at as much as 250 calories a pop. Daily consumption was highest among Bronx residents, followed by residents of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Sweetened-beverage consumption is higher among men than among women, and especially prevalent among 18- to 44-year-olds and among adult blacks and Hispanics.’

Desperate times need desperate measures, hence.

The citizens of New York are confronted with a visual of a soda, cola, sports and energy drink, or sweetened iced tea being poured into a glass. What gets poured are gooey, yucky blobs of fat, the kind that is suctioned off during a liposuction procedure, thereby evoking images of obesity. The cautionary reminder goes: “Don’t drink yourself fat” with these high-calorie beverages.

Via The New York Times

The Advertising Standards Authority, UK advertising watch dog has reacted to a complaint about offensive sexual content of American Apparel’s latest ad campaign. The ad campaign depicting a young partially clothed girl in fleece has been banned. Apparently the 23 year old model seems to be under 16 and candid images were suggestive of sexualizing a vulnerable ‘child’.

The decision to ban an ad that doesn’t seem all that revealing seems a bit weird. That too in an age where ads are much more revealing and children start aping adults much before their age thanks to the online and television content. The generation next is going to be more fashion conscious and may be that’s what the ad wanted to reveal but unfortunately it ended up revealing much more.

Moreover the ad appeared in Vice magazine which targets readers in the age group of 18 – 34 year old, so it really did not target under age children. Maybe next time American Apparel should rope in a model who looks her age and not younger. Of course the whole controversy is going to give American Apparel anti-publicity which will definitely create more buzz.

Via Guardian

Bernardo Velasco and Renato Ferreira are famous Brazilian models who have been sighted at various times on the Ipanema beach. The models were recently shot for the Junior magazine and the magazine is already on the newsstands in Brazil.

The editors of the magazine provided Made in Brazil with these pictures and some of these pictures did not make it to the magazine.

The pictures reveal them in a boxing ring and also in the locker room helping each other get ready for the fight in the ring. Bernardo Velasco and Renato Ferreira have bagged a number of advertising campaigns and with bodies like that; there is no reason why they should not!

Brazil lately has been at the forefront of print ad industry and you cannot but admit that they have some of the best models in the world.

Perhaps it is the genetic mix from all the continents of the world, which make its men look so hot. The modelling agencies in Sao Paulo and Rio never seem to be in dearth of work, even at the height of recession.

Meanwhile, models like Bernardo Velasco and Renato Ferreira have gone ahead and proved to the world that in the world of advertising and film, there is no question of recession when it comes to guys like them.

FedEx has painted the billboard with ‘Mud’. Well ‘Mud’ is FedEx’s rainy season campaign but it has literally splashed fake mud on the billboard to make its concept come alive. Well the message is clear that FedEx delivers in spite of rain, mud and other problems. It gives priority to the parcel and it keeps parcels away from all water and dirt.

FedEx has good credibility in the market. Yes, they do deliver without a scratch. This campaign by BBDO Guerrero Ortega, Philippines has gone too far to make it all appear realistic by splashing fake mud on the billboard. But aren’t roadside low billboard splashed with mud in rainy season anyways? Doesn’t this blur the message? The billboard seems more soiled than the FedEx’s delivery man.

Sometimes in good explicit pictures the good messages do get lost. Instead of mud maybe rains would have looked better and realistic given the intentions of the campaign. In fact this will be a good print ad instead of billboard one.

Via Coloribus