Geico’s Caleb Camel Reappears in New Ad

It appears that Geico may have found their newest superstar mascot. The famously ad-happy insurance company just unveiled a new commercial spot last week that features the return of Caleb, an obnoxious talking camel who went viral after his debut in the insurance company’s “Hump Day” spot earlier this year. That video racked up over 15 million views in a matter of days.

Now, Geico is bringing back Caleb the Camel in a variety of awkward situations. Their new spot, “Movie Day,” features Caleb harassing moviegoers (in typically absurd Geico fashion) to turn off their cell phones before the film starts.

Lest you think that the Gecko has been put into retirement, however, he makes an appearance in their other new ad, which is a send-up of the “Let’s all go to the lobby” concessions ads from the ‘50s.

Caleb the Camel is just the latest addition to what is now a sprawling list of recurring absurdist memes: they have the Portraits Gallery, the Piggy, the Cavemen (remember their ill-fated sitcom?), as well as the new “Did You Know?” series of spots. Geico’s silly, borderline Dadaist ads have been highly popular and cunningly effective ever since their notorious Gecko first appeared on TV in 1999. This latest effort proves that the folks at The Martin Agency are a long way from maxing out their roster of surreal mascots.

Posted By Howard davidson Arlington MA

Ray Liotta Says Nothing for 1800 Tequila

1800 Tequila is no stranger to invoking some mobster swagger in its ad campaigns, and their newest one is doubling down on the trend.  Legendary gangster-actor Ray Liotta has been enlisted for a series of new spots that will promote 1800 as being, in the words of the company itself, “The Tough Guy Tequila.”  However, Ray Liotta says nothing for 1800 Tequila.

These new ads by the VIA Agency show Liotta in a variety of situations, often surrounded by men drinking insufficiently masculine cocktails. Liotta barely has a word of dialogue, but that’s just how VIA’s chief creative officer Greg Smith wanted it. He believes that Liotta projects the silent, masculine type of cool that 1800 is trying to capture with its new “Enough Said” campaign.

Noting the marketing approaches of rival tequila brands, Smith further noted that it’s “not about velvet ropes and artisanal bottles and all that shit.” He wants tequila to recapture its old cowboy attitude and reputation for being “a guy’s guy’s drink.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that 1800 has flirted with Mafioso marketing. Their previous multi-year campaign featured actor Michael Imperioli, best known for his role as the drugged-out gangster Christopher on The Sopranos. This time, however, 1800’s ads will be cutting all the chatter and letting Liotta’s tough countenance – and his manly drink – do all the talking.

posted by Howard Davidson, Arlington, MA

Huffing at Starbucks in Arlington, MA

Last week police removed a man from the Arlington Center Starbucks  (in Arlington, MA) for alleged huffing.

Seemingly a venti mocha cappuccino wasn’t enough to get the anonymous Arlington man through the day. So instead of adding a couple of shots of espresso to his coffee he decided to sniff from two bottles of keyboard “dust off” (apparently he couldn’t get his hands on any glue).

Huffing is the colloquial term used to describe the sniffing of intoxicative inhalants.  The fumes cause a slew of side effects, including light-headedness, dizziness, incoherence and involuntary loss of muscle control. While some might find these symptoms reminiscent of a bad case of the flu, others actually enjoy the high.

However, if you’re planning on huffing you should probably do it within the privacy of your own home. As the Arlington Starbucks huffer has learned, sniffing from bottles in broad daylight in a crowded public place does, indeed, attract attention. A Starbucks manager noticed the man’s odd, erratic behavior and his bottles of dust off and promptly called the police. While the man was not arrested, the police did give the man a verbal no trespass order and encouraged him to seek out help for his problem.

I guess the huffer left the shop in a huff.

Posted by Howard Davidson in Arlington, MA

Gross Anorexic Costume for Halloween

Halloween is a tricky time for social mores, as the rules of what’s acceptable are rewritten.  It can be hard to find the boundaries.  It’s fine to have hellish skeletons in every Rite-Aid, for example, but a terrible idea for Julianne Hough to dress up in blackface.  So it should come as no surprise, then, that the “Anna Rexia” costume has shown up again with an online costume retailer, and that it’s caused some controversy.

Halloween costumes are legendary for getting more and more inappropriate (“Sexy Bert and Ernie”, really?), but the “Anna Rexia” costume takes the cake.  Designed by Dreamgirls International in 2007, it features a tight, sexy-cut black dress with a skeletal design and a measuring tape waist, not to mention the tagline, “You can never be too rich or too thin.”  Tasteful.

The costume was the focus of an online protest in 2011, which caused some online major costume retailers to yank the costume.  But this season, Halloweenparty13.com has been selling the discontinued costume again.

It’s not the only ghoulish thing that is upsetting to positive body image advocates.  Mattel has seen great success with its Monsters High line of dolls and multimedia, which focus on female offspring of famous monsters.  Many childhood welfare advocates worry that the ghoulish girls featured are designed to be so thin that they make Barbie look curvy by comparison.

While the stick-figure dolls of Monster High may be just wrong to market to impressionable young girls, there still is the question of where to draw the line for Halloween costumes.  “Anna Rexia” may be terrible, but the costume is just as gross as any number of zombie costumes that will be a popular sell this year.

Posted By Howard davidson Arlington MA

Nestle Cleans Up With Zero Waste

Nestlé has been on an absolute sustainability tear lately. The world’s largest food company has just announced its plans to achieve zero waste at 150 of its European factories by 2020.

The company is well-known as the largest food company in the world measured by revenues. not ambitious  Now Nestlé is expanding their 10-year old AAA sustainability project to Kenya and Ethiopia. To do this, the brand has enlisted the help of (who else?) superstar spokesman/actor/activist George Clooney. The company’s sustainability program involves buying coffee from 56,000 farmers in these two countries (as well as Colombia, Guatemala, India, and Mexico) and paying them a 30-40 percent premium to market prices in New York.

Starting in 2016, Nestlé plans on introducing enhanced nutrition labels, featuring guideline daily amount (GDA) statistics, on all of their food and beverage products.  So much for all that sodium-laced insta-food that Nestlé traffics.

Lest you think this is all talk, Nestlé has already reached the zero waste goal for all of its factories in the UK and Switzerland. Worldwide, the global food giant has achieved zero waste in 39 of its 468 factories as of 2012. A most recent Access to Nutrition Index places Nestlé in third place among companies trying to combat global trends of obesity and malnutrition. With this much effort being expended, it’s surprising they only ranked third.

 Posted By Howard davidson Arlington MA

Cheetos Rolls Out App with TP

Talk about playing to your audience, Cheetos seems to be lasering in on the junior high boys who love the cheese-flavored snack with its latest app.  Just in time for Halloween, Project TP allows you to virtually toilet paper your domicile or most every other public venue available using Google Earth and Google Streetview (Cheetos wisely chooses not to include 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, perhaps out of fear of getting a call from the Department of Homeland Security).

In their promo video, a wisecracking English-accent-like cheetah leads a toilet paper strafing run to the tune of “The Ride of the Valkyries.”  While the video copiously says one should not try this at home, you know damn well that millions of pimply-faced kids on October 31^st will be donning shades and talking low like the spokesanimal as they lob Charmin at the houses of school officials.  (One wonders if the Cheetos campaign can be held liable for the distress of having to clean up TP hung up in a tree after a rainstorm.)

Cheetos is declaring victory with its toilet paper campaign, claiming that 300,000 feet of virtual paper have been let loose in cyberspace.  I guess it’s good to have ad campaigns that try and spice up Halloween.  It is a time for tricks, as well as treats, after all, and we’ve been getting entirely too mild about a holiday dedicated to chasing away our demons in a night of debauchery.

posted by Howard Davidson

Post Foods Now Sings and Dances

Post Foods has struck gold (or maybe honey) with a new campaign that tastefully touts Honey Bunches of Oats.  The brand now sings and dances for oats, per say.

The famous cereal maker has enlisted pop duo Domino Saints for its latest ad campaign geared toward Hispanic markets. The pop duo from San Juan, Puerto Rico, collaborated in the exclusive “Smile While You Shake It” music video.

Post Food is banking on Domino Saints in hopes that their song helps secure the brand as the go-to cereal amongst Hispanics as they integrate Spanish lyrics into the primarily English song.

The campaign calls on customers to record their own dance moves to the song in order to win weekly prizes. Honey Bunches of Oats has optimism that this campaign will furry a nation-wide dance competition. You don’t have to know the Harlem Shake or know dance moves to win the competition.  There’s a micro-site with some pointers that tell you how to smile while you shake to win it.

As for me, I’ll sit quietly with a cup of coffee in the morning.  I’m having no booty shaking before dusk.  You?

ESPN Wants Your Nipples For Ad Space

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ESPN is taking the needs of its viewing audience to an intimate level with a new promotional event and ad.  During a pasta dinner in preparation for the New York City Marathon, reps from the sports-channel were handing out nipple guards, while a sign proclaimed, “It’s Not Crazy to Love Running More Than Your Nipples, It’s Sports.”

This is part of a new way advertisers are trying to connect with sports fans by siding with their obsessive-compulsive behaviors.  The ESPN spot is reminiscent of Bud Light’s recent campaign celebrating and encouraging the superstitious rituals fans employ to “help” their team win.  Their campaign is similarly titled “It’s Only Weird if it Doesn’t Work.”

Nipples have long been used as a draw with advertisers since the 70’s, when Farrah Fawcett alerted the country that women had them.  But this may be one of the first mass ad campaigns that focuses on nipples as something other than an object of sexual fascination.

Maybe someday breastfeeding will work its way into advertising as well; marathon runners have nothing to worry about when it comes to chaffing in comparison to new moms.

Posted By Howard davidson Arlington MA

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Huffing at Starbucks in Arlington, MA By Howard Davidson Arlington MA

Last week police removed a man from the Arlington Center Starbucks  (in Arlington, MA) for alleged huffing.

Seemingly a venti mocha cappuccino wasn’t enough to get the anonymous Arlington man through the day. So instead of adding a couple of shots of espresso to his coffee he decided to sniff from two bottles of keyboard “dust off” (apparently he couldn’t get his hands on any glue).

Huffing is the colloquial term used to describe the sniffing of intoxicative inhalants.  The fumes cause a slew of side effects, including light-headedness, dizziness, incoherence and involuntary loss of muscle control. While some might find these symptoms reminiscent of a bad case of the flu, others actually enjoy the high.

However, if you’re planning on huffing you should probably do it within the privacy of your own home. As the Arlington Starbucks huffer has learned, sniffing from bottles in broad daylight in a crowded public place does, indeed, attract attention. A Starbucks manager noticed the man’s odd, erratic behavior and his bottles of dust off and promptly called the police. While the man was not arrested, the police did give the man a verbal no trespass order and encouraged him to seek out help for his problem.

I guess the huffer left the shop in a huff.

Posted by Howard Davidson in Arlington, MA

Post Foods Now Sings and Dances

Post Foods has struck gold (or maybe honey) with a new campaign that tastefully touts Honey Bunches of Oats.  The brand now sings and dances for oats, per say.

The famous cereal maker has enlisted pop duo Domino Saints for its latest ad campaign geared toward Hispanic markets. The pop duo from San Juan, Puerto Rico, collaborated in the exclusive “Smile While You Shake It” music video.

Post Food is banking on Domino Saints in hopes that their song helps secure the brand as the go-to cereal amongst Hispanics as they integrate Spanish lyrics into the primarily English song.

The campaign calls on customers to record their own dance moves to the song in order to win weekly prizes. Honey Bunches of Oats has optimism that this campaign will furry a nation-wide dance competition. You don’t have to know the Harlem Shake or know dance moves to win the competition.  There’s a micro-site with some pointers that tell you how to smile while you shake to win it.

As for me, I’ll sit quietly with a cup of coffee in the morning.  I’m having no booty shaking before dusk.  You?

Posted By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA