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Category — Online Advertising

Fake Freak Out Rage Ads Are All The Rage

Freak out videos are big. People love to laugh at the misfortune of others, plus we can all relate with the one guy who just has too much one day and finally snaps. It could be one of us, if we were mentally unbalanced. Fortunately for society, most of us are at least partially balanced, so we keep that terrible rage bottled up deep inside, buried in our special place, where it can do no harm except for the gradual eating away of our soul and joy of living.

Yes, well, the videos: This unfortunate nutcase in the hotel lobby is a fictional character as you may have guessed from the website displayed at the end. That website, www.donthaveameltdown.com, is actually a front for Cisco’s Unified Communications Create Adaptive Workspaces service. You sold me, Cisco, hook it up in my living room. Wait, it costs how much?

Moving on, check out these past freak out viral video ads:
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November 14, 2008   Comments Off

Classmates.com Sued Over False Advertisement

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A former customer of Classmates.com has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, saying their claims are fraudulent and they tricked him into upgrading to a gold account. Sound like a simple false advertising case, but if the case progresses, it could force Classmates.com, and other websites like it, to change they way they advertise.

Anthony Michaels signed up for a free member of Classmates.com last year. However, with only a free membership, Michaels couldn’t interact with other members or do anything interesting at all. He said that he began receiving emails from Classmates.com claiming that old classmates of his had been looking at his profile and trying to get in touch with him through the site. The thing is, he had to sign up for a paid membership to gain access to any messages his old classmates were trying to send him.
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November 14, 2008   15 Comments

Daisy Lowe In Nipple Tassels: More Hotness From Luxe Label ‘Agent Provocateur’

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We’re big fans of Agent Provocateur here at AdSavvy. They’re hip, they have quality collections, and their advertising is top notch. Plus they always have the hottest models. We can’t get enough, and neither can consumers apparently. Even in economic tough times, AD is doing well.

The company is poised for some rapid expansion following last years’s $120 million dollar acquisition by the private equity firm, 3i Group. There are already 40 boutiques worldwide, including 8 in the US, and their planning on building even more: Boston, Chicago, Bahrain, Geneva, Puerto Barres, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Germany to name a few. AD also had a fragrance launch party in London recently where Daisy Lowe showed off the goods on the catwalk.
Check out Daisy Lowe’s near-naked hotness; plus more recent sexy adverts:
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November 7, 2008   Comments Off

All Three Episodes of Audi’s New “Meet The Beckers” Campaign: The Start of Attack Ads?


Episode III: Raising the Stakes

The final episode of the Audi’s Arrested Development inspired advertising campaign, Meet the Beckers, has been released, and I’m excited.

In a world without new episodes of Arrested Development, it doesn’t take much to excite me. Even a commercial that’s vaguely similar to the greatest show of all time can give me a reason to get up in the morning.

Anyway, in the first episode, we meet the whole family. Jason is the regular guy, and the Audi driver of course. He’s bringing his girlfriend to meet his dysfunctional family for the first time. His aggressive brother Billy drives a BWM cuts off a Prius. His drunken, country club-visiting father (The Commander) drives a Mercedes. And his doormat brother (or brother-in-law, maybe) Lewis, drives a Lexus. It’s hilariously accurate and has lots of subtle jokes you may miss if you’re not paying attention.
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November 4, 2008   1 Comment

Amazon.com’s New “Frustration-Free Packaging” Is Eco- And Customer-Friendly

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I still have a scar on my finger from when I sliced it up with a scalpel while trying to open the absurdly difficult packaging around a pair of Sennheiser headphones. Gadget packaging is notoriously difficult to open, especially headphones. In 2004, around 6,500 Americans went to hospital emergency rooms because of injuries they received while trying to open their newly bought gadgets and toys. Being a consumer can be dangerous business.

Companies design their packaging that way to deter shoplifters from just popping open the box and making off with the goods. But with more and more commerce happening online as opposed to in an actual brick and mortar establishment, shoplifting is becoming irrelevant. Amazon.com has realized this and started a new packaging initiative that they hope will not only please customers, but also help the environment.
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November 3, 2008   1 Comment

Obama Wins Ad Age’s ‘Marketer Of The Year’

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Every year hundreds of the biggest marketers, agency heads, and all manner of people involved in advertising get together at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference. And every year, they vote on the best advertiser of that particular year. This year Barack Obama won with a pretty substantial 36% of the vote, beating out the two runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. Nike, Coors and Sen. John McCain filled out the bottom of the vote.

“I honestly look at [Obama's] campaign and I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers,” said Angus Macaulay, VP-Rodale marketing solutions “To see what he’s done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it’s created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It’s very easy for people to participate.”
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October 23, 2008   1 Comment

The Psychology of Magic, Mediums, Politics, and Advertising

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Magic and advertising are both deeply rooted in manipulation, and exploiting knowledge of human psychology. One of the most important aspects of the magician’s trade is manipulating the spectators choice while at the same time tricking that spectator into thinking they willingly made the choice. Derren Brown is a master of that particular trick. Check out some Derren Brown videos at the bottom of this post.

Ironically, that type of manipulation plays a huge part in advertising as well. In fact, magicians, politicians, advertisers and mediums are all essentially doing the same thing, the difference lies in their levels of honesty. The magician is usually the only honest one.
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October 22, 2008   1 Comment

Adam Pacitti and The Girl Of MY Dreams

Adam Pacitti started the website TheGirlOfMyDreams after he supposedly had a dream of a girl of such amazing beauty, that he felt he had to find her in real life. So he drew her, and he posted the drawing online along with a video. Fortunately for us and everyone who loves hilarious things, Adam draws like a 5 year old. Yes, you saw it correctly in the video. Here is the girl of his dreams:
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I’m still torn over whether Mr. Pacitti is a genius or slow-witted goon. If this is fake, he’s a genius, and he’s found a way to bring hundreds of thousands of people to his website and get exposure in the national media. But his website doesn’t have any ads, so it looks like he’s not making any money from whole thing. That means it may not be fake, and that’s a disturbing concept for me.
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October 22, 2008   10 Comments

Obama Ads Appear In Xbox Live Video Games

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Barack Obama has become the first presidential candidate to advertise in a video game. The Obama campaign purchased ad space in the Xbox live versions of 18 different video games. The ads will run up until Nov. 3, and only be displayed in 10 major swing states.

The ads show that Obama is willing to embrace new technology, and that may be the most important aspect of this whole video game campaign.

Obama’s face and name will be on billboards and signs in “NBA Live ’08″, “Burnout Paradise”, “Nascar 09″, “Need For Speed Carbon”, “Need For Speed Pro Street”, “NFL on Tour”, “NHL ’09″, “Skate”, and “Guitar Hero”, among some others. And the 10 states that are targeted include some major battleground states: Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, and Colorado.
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October 15, 2008   Comments Off

New Audi Ad: Meet The Family – Meet the Beckers Episode 1

Audi’s new ad campaign, Meet the Beckers, is the story of a wealthy, dysfunctional family, each of whom drives a different car. It’s slightly reminiscent of the show Arrested Development, if only because I have that show seared into the hilarity centers of my brain.

Audi driver and regular guy, Jason, is bringing his girlfriend to meet his family for the first time, for Thanksgiving. As he describes each new family member, we see them in their particular vehicle. Obnoxious brother Billy drives a BWM and has a bluetooth headset in his ear while he cuts off a Prius. His drunken, country club-visiting father (The Commander) drives a Mercedes and has a young trophy wife in the passenger seat, browsing a catalog of adoptable little foreign children. He pulls away with the wipers on and turn signal blinking. And, the effeminate, henpecked yuppie Lewis, with his insane twin daughters (who call him “Lewis”), drives a Lexus. It’s spot on.
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October 10, 2008   Comments Off