The marketing mavens behind Mad Men are tapping into the golden age of air travel with their promos for the drama's upcoming final season, and now Air France too is trying to keep the dream of glamorous transatlantic transit alive. In a series of print ads gorgeous enough to frame, agency BETC has put a retro veneer on Air France's modern luxuries.
Advertising impresario Jane Trahey orchestrated successful campaigns for Olivetti typewriters and Hamilton wristwatches, but it took a bunch of mink ranchers trooping through her door before she created a legend. The trade group that came calling in 1968 bore a clunky acronym: GLMA, the Great Lakes Mink Association. An affiliation of 400 fur farmers from the Midwest, GLMA wanted a marketing upgrade for the signature, jet-black mink coats they made. Which actually wasn’t so easy.
Specs Who Co-partners Carol Han (l.) and Alexandra Weiss What Digitally focused branding agency Where New York In 2010, Carol Han and Alexandra Weiss, then working on the still-nascent digital side of fashion (Han at news site StyleCaster and Weiss at Ralph Lauren), were constantly being asked by brands for tips on how to navigate the online space.
The Expendables film series, helmed by Sylvester Stallone and cast to the verge of exploding with his fellow action stars, has never been all that approachable to casual fans who don't feel "in on the joke." But this new poster series teasing the summer sequel, third in the franchise, is surprisingly charming and does a good job highlighting a roster of stars so bizarrely diverse, you almost feel compelled to see what they're doing in the same movie. Kelsey Grammer? Mel Gibson? Harrison Ford? It's like if Robert Altman had decided to make a movie about biceps, shotguns and motorcycles.
Customer relationship management specialist Merkle has acquired New Control, a digital and direct marketing shop whose clients include Chase, PNC Bank, Visa, Gap and Sony. The terms of the deal--which was driven in part by the agencies' shared interest in financial services brands--were not disclosed. Negotiations between the Columbia, Md.-based Merkle and Chicago-based New Control took roughly four months. Mergers and acquisitions firm AdMedia Partners advised New Control, which had been looking to expand its capabilities.
Hiring celebrities to model for fashion ads and then rendering them unrecognizable is all the rage. Not long ago, we saw a very ambiguous Jennifer Lawrence pose for Dior. Now, Nicole Kidman stuns in her latest campaign for pricey shoe brand Jimmy Choo. But she could easily be mistaken for somebody who is not Nicole Kidman, what with her looking like a platinum blonde teen model rather the perfectly beautiful natural blonde 46-year-old she was last week. The video, meanwhile, is your run-of-the-mill, dripping-with-atmosphere fashion spot.
Looking a little plump in that vacation selfie? That's what a few too many poolside margaritas and a nasty sunburn can do. Care to slim that down before you share with the world? Sure, there's an app for that. SkinneePix, created by a female-led, Phoenix-based company called Pretty Smart Women, says it can shave five, 10 or 15 pounds off that bloated iPhone self-portrait with the tap of a finger. No cardio or Photoshop required!
You wouldn't think Jesus would be too concerned about his investment portfolio these days, but online trading service Kapitall has tapped Him as a spokesman anyway in a campaign featuring "revolutionary" historic figures. In a series of spots that went live today, Jesus cracks jokes about crucifixion while Che Guevara cooks frittatas and Genghis Khan showers himself with coins. Backed by a $1 million media spend, the online ads also include Leonardo da Vinci (with nude lounging boy toy) and Cleopatra (with frond-waving boy toy).
Barry the Biscuit Boy splashes onto the scene in a slam-dunk spot for British dairy Cravendale, a cautionary tale from Wieden + Kennedy in London and production house Blinkink. The heady mix of puppetry and computer animation milks every drop of self-conscious craziness from the script.
Thinking of storing your stuff in the cloud? Well, if you aren't sure what the cloud is, Public Storage would like a word. Want to hang on to the perfect scale dollhouse in your backyard? You'd better make sure an equally scale man isn't living in it. Moving back home? You should call ahead.
