Mediacology

This year’s slate of Super Bowl ads indicate two trends: 1) a continued lack of imagination among the highest paid “creatives” in the world, and 2) a backlash against environmental activism. These Super Bowl ads were decidedly conservative by recycling standard demographic tropes to shore up the shrinking ego of the persecuted male species. [...]

The pith* theory of advertising.

* Pithing is when you stick a needle in the brain of a live frog. The goal is to scramble its brain in order to immobilize it for dissection while it is still alive. When applied to advertising a paradox or insult is used like a needle to confuse and conquer [...]

Apparently, even nothing can be commodified.

Via IdentityCampaigning.

Not to be a bummer on this great inauguration day (can’t believe it’s happening), but in perfect postironic, postmodern harmony, a presidential slogan and soda marketing campaign mash-up perfectly. Is Pepsi cashing in on Obama? Consider article 1) Pepsi’s Refresh Everything, and article 2) Obama’s campaign site. Hmmm.

(images from Instapundit)

Pepsi: “Every generation refreshes the [...]

This should come as no surprise but marketers are taking a perfectly great public theater tactic and turning it into a advertising technique. In the above ad T-Mobile takes the idea of flash mobs and Improve Everywhere to turn them into a hokey displays of corporate performance art. Why is this a problem? Obviously everyone [...]

Yet another chapter in which a major corporation postitions itself as the savior of culture against the oppressor. As I wrote previously about Snicker and its clever Webisodes that somehow tried to convince kids that Mars Inc. is the savior of hip hop and youth culture, another caffeinated sugar pusher, Mountain Dew, has created this [...]

Hmmm. Don’t copy me, but buy this T-shirt (like everyone else).

Is this reflecting an ironic posture in relationship to the fact that everything is copied now, or is this a legitimate protest against the proliferation of our digital identities? Or maybe this is just a dump marketing slogan.

This ad takes a systems approach to anxiety by showing the psychological impact of buying the wrong shoes. Though tongue and cheek, the ad makes visible its own persuasion technique. This should be considered a small victory for us viewers because we have become so cynical about advertising they need to show us that we’re [...]

UPDATE: Surprise, surprise the Daily Show is all over this one.

When satire isn’t enough, you can depend on the Republican to insert a little more comedy into the routine.

GOP’s New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant – Politics on The Huffington Post:

What the GOP doesn’t seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that [...]

File this one under WTF. Adidas finds a safe rebellion to latch onto to give it some street cred by creating a little action movie about rebel gardeners with GPS, night vision and an assortment of other TV crime show devices. Notice the quasi-’70s-era bongo suspense music. Thing is, gardens take nurturing, building and developing [...]

As evidence that cognitive dissonance permeate our culture, look no further than this specimin of the pop culture complex.
It’s not clear why Belgian’s Che Magazine took on as it’s namesake the Argentine revolutionary, but perhaps the transformation of the South American rebel into a pop icon made him game to become a cigar smoking, beard [...]

Converse: Pageantby hourigan
A fascinating specimen of antimarketing marketing. I don’t know what to make of this ad. It freaks me out, just a little.

It used to be that hoaxing was the province of pranksters and artists. But now Burger King? WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I suppose when Aqua Teen Hunger Force inadvertently hoaxed terrorism, the florescent light went off in the heads of a multitude of marketing geeks.
Hey, No Whopper on the Menu?! – WSJ.com:
The videotaped hoax was a twist on [...]

When I grow up I’d like to be a commodity fetish…
I was intrigued by the fashion brand Urban Decay because I thought it was strange how they appropriated gang typography (or is it Suicide Girls now?) to give the veneer of one of these bogus DIY operations like Hot Topic. Then I stumbled on their [...]

A clip from Honeyshed

A clip from Putney Swope
In case you haven’t been paying attention, “branded content” is an emerging marketing tactic to deal with the downfall of traditional media. Because people are rightly rebelling by editing out ads from their viewing, marketers are trying to create entertainment spaces that I call “product placement planets,” which [...]

Via Commercial Archive

Once again the fake news surfs the real, and gets down and dirty by reporting on the “real” Iraq. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant commentary how how news is staged.

Technorati Tags: Daily Show

America in a nutshell.
Via Crooks and Liars.

I don’t know about you, but I hate these damn things and refuse to use them at the store. I often joke with the cashier that when I refuse the bags I’m trying to save plastic trees (most don’t get it), but this is a deadly serious problem. It was a sad post-ironic moment when [...]

Apparently some Americans are not quite ready for rasquachismo, the Mexican practice of folk kitsch appropriation (I blogged a while back about it here). When NaCo, my favorite Mexican design outfit (I blogged about them here) offered T-Shirts at Macy’s proclaiming “Brown is the new white,” vociferous and scared anti-immigration activists pressured the retail [...]