YouthProjects: 'Nobody plans a life on the streets' - VIDEO

Did you see this ad before Christmas?

It is heartwrenching, raw and real... and very well done.

I meant to post it before Christmas... it's very moving.

Watch:



Sydney creative agency Grown-ups created this ad, and they have done so help raise money for YouthProjects.

The spot was created by Mick Hunter and Grant Booker, and directed by Paul Goldman via Playbig. The DoP was Russell Boyd ASC.

Incredible stuff.

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Australian Condom Ad Banned: Four Seasons - VIDEO

This Australian ad has been banned from radio, but I can't imagine it ever getting a run on telly.

Here is the ad - def Not Safe For Work (NSFW), at last count 1.2 million hits:



Says the YouTube description:

"The ad was barred from the airwaves, but Four Seasons has promoted it elsewhere. "Have you seen our BANNED FROM TELEVISION commercial yet?" the company asks on its Facebook page.

The video is a far better fit for the Internet anyway, and it's getting some action there.

Watch below as a couple inquires about condoms in a pharmacy and tries on a few sizes of Four Seasons' Naked line in several positions while the store observes. Note the cheesy but appropriate pun from the pharmacist at the end. Tee-hee!"

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Road Safety Campaigns Australia: Very Graphic. Don't Drink and Drive.

I saw this on my friend's Facebook page and very reluctantly clicked.

Thing is, I knew it would have a huge impact, I'd read the 'very graphic' warning, and knew I should watch it once, and once only... so I could post about it authentically here.

It affects me so deeply because my father was killed in a car accident when I was age 13, and I have never and will never recover from his death. A man killed him on a Sunday morning, on December 1, 1985. It was 7am. On our street. The man was fatigued. I believe he was still drunk and hungover. Our family was utterly torn apart and never put back together properly. Ever. Ever.

The scenes in this - many I recall from road safety campaigns over the years - are all too real.

The police coming to our door. Us going to the hospital and getting that dreaded news. And collapsing. And wailing. The identifying the body at the morgue. Attending my first funeral - my father's. The life-altering and deeply distressing aftermath. It all happened. In real life. In my life.

Watch the video, below:

Please share this post with everyone you are connected with on social media (and even those who are not on Facebook).

It's crucial viewing, with an urgent reminder: don't drink and drive, don't drive fatigued, don't text or talk on the mobile phone and drive.

Please share. And heed the warning. Thanks.

Says the YouTube video description:

"On December 10th 1989 the first TAC commercial went to air. In that year the road toll was 776; by last year 2008 it had fallen to 303.

A five minute retrospective of the road safety campaigns produced by the TAC over the last 20 years has been compiled. The montage features iconic scenes and images from commercials that have helped change they way we drive, all edited to the moving song Everybody Hurts by REM.

This campaign is a chance to revisit some of the images that have been engraved on our memories, remember the many thousands of people who have been affected by road trauma and remind us all that for everyones sake; please, drive safely. Transport Accident Commission Victoria."

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Honest Slogans: Clif Dickens

Clif Dickens - an American graphic designer - created 'Honest Slogans'. And it's brilliant.

The site - subtitled 'What People Really Think' - well-known brands and turns them on their head with his take on a suggested slogan. Often, the slogan alludes to what many of us are likely thinking about the brand.

Here are some of his best:

For more on Clif and his site, click right here.

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Ella Baché Campaign Banned: "Too Sexy"

Okay, let's play a spot the difference game:

Did you pick it?

Yep.

In one, the girls are not smiling.

In the other, they are not.

In one of the most curious decisions in recent advertising history, an Ella Baché outdoor advertising campaign has been banned because the models’ “serious facial expressions did increase the sexual overtones of the image”, according to industry self-regulator, the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) (see ruling below).

The advertising campaign was to be featured in 6m x 3m billboards in all major cities, showing three models with three serious expressions on their faces under the tagline “Skin solutions as individual as you are”.

Ella Baché also shot the three models smiling in the same pose – which was seen by the OMA as “acceptable as it is less sexualised and is relevant to the product” – and this shot will be used as a substitute following the ban.

The OMA cited the AANA Code of Ethic Sections for its inexplicable breach decision, referring to the treatment of “sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity”.

Creative director - and 40 year advertising veteran - Ms Faie Davis said “This bizarre decision is the epitome of political correctness, indicating that as a society we are becoming very fearful of putting a foot wrong, with the result that stymies creative thinking.

“In the past we have produced ads approved with nude men and women hugging and kissing, yet now we have an industry self-regulator now making judgments on the different sexual mores of a smile or serious expression of models”, she added.

Ella Baché is a premium skincare. The new campaign is designed to position the brand across the promise of “Skin Solutions As Individual As You Are” and the brand is centered on educating and working with women to achieve healthy and vibrant skin underpinned by the philosophy that “no two skins are alike”.

Ella Baché is also the largest salon network in Australia. The campaign was entirely developed and shot in Australia.

“Yet now we are seeing self-appointed regulators making sexual judgements about facial expressions, which borders on the laughable. This sort of thinking displays why Australian advertising is falling behind the rest of the world, as creativity is being squeezed out by political correctness”, said Ms Davis. “It has compromised the campaign which relied on multiple images to achieve what we want with the campaign”.

Ella Baché has featured nude models advertising of skin care products in Australia over the last 20 years - but this story is rather... unique. The banned ad featured no nudity and the only difference between the two ads below are the facial expressions.

What do you think of this whole hoo-ha?

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Gok Wan Target Australia: Ad Complaints

Really? Are we doing this?

Okay, maybe I am just blindly a Gok Wan fan from way back (see clips from his shows below), but Gok's Target Australia TV ads have been complained about, specifically his ad for the chain store's bras and bra fittings.

"Your bangers will never feel more loved," Gok says about the bra fittings.

According to an article in 'The Age' newspaper, people have complained to the Advertising Standards Bureau about his use of this term.

Here is the Target Australia ad being scrutinised:

"I find it distasteful that he uses the term 'bangers' to describe women's breasts," one wrote to the Bureau. "If a straight man were to use similar language during prime-time TV, there would be a huge outcry by women claiming sexist behaviour. There should be no different standards of acceptable language simply because a man appears to be gay."

Another complained: "Who on earth calls their breasts 'bangers' and why do we have to watch an obvious gay man talking about women in this way? It is insulting."

A small number were offended because of Wan's sexuality:

"It's an offence to any decent person to watch some queer guy advertising and blaspheming and using insulting descriptive words re a woman's body and to be prancing around half dressed guys," said one.

Target defended its star:

"Target strongly believes that a person's sexuality is irrelevant to their worth as a person. Target makes no apology for using a gay man in its advertising and we do not believe that this should be grounds for upholding a complaint."

As for the use of "bangers", they countered it was an "irreverent term of affection", used "in wry acceptance" that some women are unhappy with their breasts, adding that the word's colloquial British roots meant that "bangers" was another word for "boobs".

The complaints were dismissed by the Bureau, saying that the ad was positive and light-hearted, and that "bangers" was not deemed discriminatory - its use was part of Wan's persona.

To read more of The Age piece, click here.

Here are other fun Target ads:

Here are some Gok clips I adore:

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Keira Knightley Women's Aid UK domestic abuse: VIDEO

This video - first posted four years ago - has been doing the social media rounds recently. And it's as disturbing and confronting as ever.

Keira Knightley stars in this shocking short film, directed by Joe Wright and brought about by Women's Aid - the UK's domestic abuse charity.

Please be advised the video is graphic, and it may be a trigger for women who have experienced domestic violence:

For more on the producers of the movie, click here.

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Cheerios: Advertising Controvery Over TV Ad

This seemingly harmless TV ad about breakfast cereal has caused somewhat of a mini furore... for embarrassinly ridiculous reasons.

Watch the ad and see if you can spot the 'controversy':



Did you pick it?

Yeah, that's right a normal looking family.

Mum, dad, child.

Oh yes...

The child is dark-skinned.

The ad - for Cheerios - features a mixed race couple and in the US, it has stirred some per-etty ugly comments.

So much so, the ad YouTube now has comments disabled on the site.

"The comments that were made in our view were not family-friendly, and that was really the trigger for us, you know, to pull them off,'' Camille Gibson, VP marketing for Cheerios maker General Mills told the US 'Today' show.

Comments referring to "Nazis and racial genocide" and destructive words like "more like single parent in the making. Black dad will dip out soon".

Yes, really.

"Ultimately we were trying to portray an American family, and there are lots of multicultural families in America today,'' Camille said. Indeed, mixed race couples make up 14 per cent of couples in the US.

What do you think of this madness?

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