More about advertising

I "couldn't help myself." I went back to The Gruen Transfer site (see yesterday's post) and did some more looking.

Perhaps you've seen one or more of the Unilever/Dove commercials--"Evolution" and "Onslaught." The Gruen Transfer gives some background and insightful commentary on the two commercials as well as access to full clips. (Scroll about halfway down the page to view "Evolution." "Onslaught" comes just beyond.)

My sense, Unilever/Dove presented some really worthwhile cautionary messages in both ads. "Parents: your children--daughters, especially--are having their views of the world and, most especially and sadly, themselves, twisted . . . by the advertising they see."

Of course, these warnings are all about the very advertising that Unilever/Dove is most involved in. And so the parody backlash they experienced was probably well deserved.

Once more, The Gruen Transfer provides some thoughtful commentary and two such parodies: a direct remake, if you will, of "Onslaught" in which Rye Clifton, a 27-year old "senior strategic planner," replaces all the beauty images in the original ad with actual footage from ads by Unilever products . . . and then alters the final message. Instead of concluding, as Unilever/Dove does, with the message, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does," Clifton says, "Talk to your daughter before Unilever does."

Why this latter message? As The Gruen Transfer notes, Unilever/Dove is the world's second largest advertiser--right behind Procter & Gamble. And what does it advertise? Among others, beauty products like Slim-Fast diet drinks, Fair & Lovely skin whitener (huge demand in Asia), Axe deodorant, and, of course, the entire line of Dove beauty products.

And then, at the bottom of the The Gruen Transfer Ad Critiques page, there is an absolutely hilarious "Evolution" Parody: "Slob Evolution." . . . Should it have been titled "Devolution," instead? --A strange and perfect contrast to Unilever/Dove's original--all the way down to the multi-layered messages in the final screens.

Unilever/Dove concluded its original "Evolution" with "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted. Take part in the Dove Real Beauty Workshops for Girls. the dove self esteem fund." "Slob Evolution" concludes, "Thank God our perception of real life is distorted. No one wants to look at ugly people. www.CampaignAgainstRealLife.com."

The humorous side of global warming

I figure I'll follow my brief "global warming" theme, even though this post is more about a few short humorous videos.

The Gruen Transfer was an Australian TV show focused on advertising and the advertising industry. It lasted--and maybe was designed to last--only 10 weeks--from May 28 till July 30 this year.

One of the features in each week's episode was a friendly competition between major ad agencies to create commercials designed to "sell the unsellable."

So one week, the agencies created ads designed to sell people on the benefits of global warming. Another: why Australia should invade New Zealand.

The ads about global warming, I thought, did a great job. And why Australia ought to invade New Zealand: hilarious. I think. [It is actually terrifying to imagine someone taking the invasion ads seriously. But when perceived as spoofs . . .]

I wish I could have figured out how to capture the specific videos themselves.

I couldn't.

And, sadly, while the two campaigns I've mentioned appear all in good, clean fun, many of the other ad campaigns featured on the same page are, as the show's producers themselves warn, rather coarse--grotesque in language and/or imagery.

I think, however, you should be able to enjoy the two campaigns I've referenced. Simply ignore the others. [NOTE: The page to which I link, below, contains no offensive language or images. All links are text only. I merely want to avoid having one of my readers complain about my bad taste in television programming if you go to links other than those I specifically reference.]

So. If you're willing to stick to the links I mention, please check out the "fossil fuel company climate change messages" and the "ad[s intended to] convince [Australians] that [they] need to invade New Zealand" . . . at The Gruen Transfer Past Pitch Results page.

I expect you'll view them several times each. They are really creative and--in my opinion--very funny.