September 30, 2009 by jenks

Fashion Flavors

Back in February, in the aftermath of the public outcry against Tropicana’s packaging redesign which ultimately led to the cartons reverting back to the original art, I suggested that Tropicana had the opportunity to do something completely different with orange juice:

Now that there’s a buzz about Tropicana’s openness to fan-feedback in general, and about its packaging design in particular, why not create a platform for people to submit their design ideas? How might Tropicana lovers re-envision what that OJ carton could look like given the chance? In fact, why pick just one new design? How about different winning carton designs printed in “limited editions”? Why not deliberately set out to discover and promote emerging artists, giving them their first break of mass exposure through orange juice cartons in grocery stores across the country? If it’s art, suddenly there’s a whole new reason for choosing one OJ brand over another. It’s not just about a “campaign,” it’s an opportunity to create culture.

And now I’m discovering that Evian has been onto something very similar for years already, (Thanks, John), giving a whole new meaning to the term “Designer Water.”

Partnering with famed designers, Evian has been creating special, limited edition “Prêt-à-Porter” bottles which sell for upwards of $13 a pop, designed by the likes of Christian Lacroix (2008):

Jean Paul Gaultier (2009):

And the latest, Paul Smith, 2010:

OJ, you listening?

September 28, 2009 by jenks

New Buick Campaign Makes Brand Sound Like An Asshole

Maybe this is a good idea if you’re deliberately trying to speak to that coveted douchebag demographic, but otherwise, this just comes off sounding like the advertising equivalent of thinking that knocking the popular kid will somehow earn you friends at school. You just end up sounding like a jerk.

Who Okay-ed this? If you don’t look closely you’d think this was an ad FOR Lexus. Comparing yourself to the competition (including reiterating their own messaging in your advertising) is NOT a branding strategy. Get your own identity, Buick.

Makes you want to sit at Lexus’s table at lunch just out of annoyance.

September 9, 2009 by jenks

Surrogate Advertising

Been meaning to post about this for a while, but been mad busy.

I’m super digging the ad campaign for the The Surrogates, due out September 25th. Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Robert Venditti, the world of the Surrogates is a future in which direct human interaction has all but ceased. Instead, people interact via surrogate androids, which they can design to manifest their most idealized form. If you’re balding you can have a surrogate with a full head of hair, f0r instance, or if you so desire, your surrogate could even be a different gender. It’s Second Life come to life: your perfect avatar, but in the flesh. Or ate least, flesh-like. These surrogate robots (which are owned much in the same way we own cars, with insurance and VIN numbers and whatnot) go out into the world to indulge in experiences without consequences, and through a sci-fi assortment of sensory inputs, their operators get to feel it all from the safety and privacy of their secluded homes. The movie stars Bruce Willis, but the ad campaign gives the star only a passing mention. Instead, the really clever thing about the Surrogates ads is how deftly they transpose the movie’s alternate reality into ours:

At first, glance, driving by, you think, from the poses of the models that the billboards they’re on are probably advertising some sort of industrial-themed new jeans brand or something. But after a few moments you begin to realize there’s something off here:

And the question the billboards keep asking starts to sink in:

The ads succeed not by ADVERTISING the movie, but by projecting the very vision of the future portrayed in the movie –beautiful, doomed– seamlessly onto our daily reality.

September 3, 2009 by jenks

Just a Little Bit of Circus History Repeating

In April 2007, Italian Vogue featured an editorial spread by photographer Steven Meisel, entitled “The Greatest Show On Earth,” which featured members of L.A. circus troupe, Lucent Dossier:

The current, September 2009, issue of Italian Vogue features an editorial spread by Steven Meisel entitled “Performance,” and involving a gaggle of cross-dressed models done up in decidedly Circus, and dare I say Lucent-like, styles and poses: