By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Leave it to the French to be the inventors of the bidet. Invented by a French furniture maker in the late 17th hundreds, the bidet was kept in the bedroom beside the chamber pot. Since, at this time, there was no indoor plumbing or toilet paper, the bidet’s sole purpose was to use after the chamber pot to clean the perianal and genital area. Once indoor plumbing became the norm, the bidet was then used whenever one needed to, shall we say, freshen up.
As teenagers traveling through Europe with my parents, my sister and I [...]

I’m not a scotch drinker – and perhaps, neither are you – but I am an admirer of creative, brilliantly executed advertising. So, I thought I’d share this remarkable advertisement for Johnnie Walker Scotch Whiskey.
It stars Robert Carlyle who delivers an incredible six minutes monologue in a single take, while interacting with various props lined up along his (must be) mile-long walk as he recounts the history of the Johnnie Walker brand.
“The Man Who Walked Around The World” is truly a masterful production that demonstrates some agencies still know how to make a brilliant commercial with impeccable craftsmanship and storytelling [...]

With cyberbullying and sexting now a growing problem is schools (and tragically, a confirmed second sexting related suicide), LG Electronics has just launched a public service announcement campaign called “Give it a Ponder”.
“The webisodes feature a beardless James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio) who encourages teens to Give It A Ponder while caught up in the excitement of certain situations such as sexting, or texting a hurtful rumor… At the heart of the campaign is the iconic symbol of the Ponder Beard…”

Excellent, because most kids are not aware of the consequences of spreading harmful rumors and/or of sending sexually explicit [...]

This great ad spot by Method: “You deserve to know what chemicals are in your cleaners. Support the Household Product Labeling Acts”.  No kidding. Dirty and perverted cleaning residue.

Love the “You Can Shine” tie-in. Brilliant.

Financial institutions in the US has been battered and vilified. Better banking practices in Canada have prevented a meltdown over there. Even so, one institution up North, Servus, is still looking to build good will… and feel good ripples.
Indeed, this great campaign for Feel Good banking by Servus, a Canadian credit union “was developed to inspire everyone to make a positive impact in their community – today and into the future.  It’s the credit union way of creating harmonious communities and sharing our cooperative beliefs.”

They’re too modest. They are not mentioning anywhere on their website that, to get this process [...]

I love a good advertising campaign. The video that you see below is actually a “live performance advertisement”, which was performed in front of a live, unsuspecting movie-going audience.

The message is clear: so many inexpensive clothing pieces that you can afford to …Go a Little Crazy! This technique is called “marketing disruption”. If advertising was always this entertaining, I’d be ok with being disrupted at any time. Hear the audience cheer at the performance.
I think that Daffy’s brand was beautifully captured in this buzz-building “ad” and makes me greatly regret that Daffy’s doesn’t have a Chicago location (Yet?). Take a [...]

The Battle for Milkquarious is a new campaign from the California Milk Processor Board. It targets t(w)eenagers. I think that they totally nailed it. The online movie (don’t you dare call it a video) is kinda like a Rocky Horror Picture Show… for milk. I’m imagining the t(w)eens throwing around White Gold’s (the main character) lyrics or busting moves à la Strawberry Summers (the love interest) or Jug Life (the sidekick).
A fun pastiche that even had me cracking a smile every now and then. Too bad I keep seeing Ben Stiller in the starring role. The starring role is [...]

A French campaign helps us to visualize the amount of garbage that every person produces in a year. That’s approximately 390kg or just under 900 lbs per person. An illustration is worth a thousand words indeed.

Etsy, being in need of promotional videos, cleverly turned to its very own community of creatives to create 15 and 30 second spots around the theme of “handmade moments”. The contest accepted entries through August 31 and Etsy has since selected 10 finalists. The rest of us get to vote for a winner. We have until October 4.
I have delighted in watching every single one of the 25 semi-finalists‘ videos. True to the assigned theme “handmade moments” many of the clips feature handmade props of all sorts and a sort of naïve art execution that is absolutely endearing. Lots of [...]