16622: No Flowers For Anti-Violence Against Women Campaign.

 

This Brazilian campaign seeks to build awareness to combat violence against women. Yet it feels, well, too flowery to address the issue. Plus, the credits appear to reveal an all-male creative team.

 

16332: Jell-O Gets Jiggly With It.

 

Advertising Age reported Jell-O is rebranding to attract younger parents and kids. A press release announced:

 

“The new fruit and pudding imagery unleashes imaginations by shifting away from literal depictions of the product to re-imagining how the flavors can come to life in a playful, sensorial way, transporting customers into the Jell-O world of jiggly goodness.”

 

There are no plans to reconnect with Bill Cosby—while his spokesperson duties included hyping Jell-O Jigglers, his undoing arguably and allegedly resulted from an obsession with jiggly goodness.

 

16095: Standing At The Edge Of A Cliff (Huxtable, That Is).

Variety reported Bill Cosby plans to launch a comedy tour in 2023. With any luck, the scheme will fizzle out like a typical New Year’s resolution.

 

Most White advertising agencies, however, would not hesitate to create promotions for Cosby. Hell, it’s the perfect opportunity for the handful of admen who’ve been evicted from the field after facing accusations of behavior arguably less outrageous than Cosby’s alleged transgressions.

 

Bill Cosby Plans to Tour in 2023

 

By Zack Sharf

 

Bill Cosby is eyeing a return to touring in 2023. The controversial comedian said as much during a surprise Dec. 28 radio interview on “WGH Talk” with host Scott Spears. Cosby answered “yes” when asked if 2023 is the year he finally might be able to tour again.

 

Cosby, now 85, was convicted in Pennsylvania in April 2018 of a criminal sex assault charge. He was released in 2021 following nearly three years in prison after the conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court.

 

“When I come out of this, I feel that I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience knows me to be,” Cosby told Spears.

 

Responding to Spears’ question about whether 2023 might be a touring year, Cosby responded, “Yes. Yes, because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do. Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I found it was better to say it after I write it.”

 

Cosby’s rep, Andrew Wyatt, confirmed to Variety that the comedian is “looking at spring/summer to start touring.”

 

Earlier this month, five women filed a new sexual assault lawsuit against NBC and Bill Cosby under a New York state law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for older sexual assault claims. The women allege that Cosby either raped them or forced them into sexual acts. Four of the allegations date from the late 1980s or 1990, when the actor was at the height of his fame as the star of “The Cosby Show” on NBC. The fifth allegation involves Cindra Ladd, a former Hollywood executive who has accused Cosby of raping her in 1969.

 

Wyatt called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the five women were part of a “parade of accusers” who had come forward between 2014 and 2016.

15140: Rating Rapists…?

 

This digital campaign from Nigeria encourages potential rapists to take an online quiz to determine if they are indeed sex offenders. There’s a Gustavo Martinez joke here somewhere…

14665: Stalk Like An Egyptian.

This campaign from Egypt deserves to have poop flung at it.

14603: Revisionist History From Ancestry.com And Anomaly.

Adweek reported on a culturally clueless commercial for Ancestry.com from Anomaly that romanticizes why Blacks have White blood ties, ignoring the historical truths involving slavery and rape. Hey, it’s not the first time Ancestry.com has embraced revisionist history in its advertising. And Anomaly’s ignorance is, well, not an anomaly.

Ancestry.com Pulls Tone-Deaf Ad That Romanticizes Why Black Americans Have White Lineage

The spot doesn’t take enslavement and rape into account

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

It’s just another day in advertising and another example of a tone-deaf ad that likely would have never been approved had there been more people of color with significant sway on the matter.

Ancestry.com has pulled an ad that romanticized the reason why so many black Americans have white ancestry. (The biggest reason is rape.)

The ad, which is called “Inseparable” and is from Anomaly, is set in the 1800s and imagines a white gentleman trying to convince a black woman he is supposedly in love with to run away with him to Canada (as if white men in America at the time weren’t enslaving and raping black women and trying to dismantle the Underground Railroad that freed thousands of slaves).

The ad ran online this month and was broadcast on cable networks in Utah, where the online genealogy company is based, before The Salt Lake Tribune reported on it, prompting the brand to pull it from YouTube.

“Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history,” an Ancestry.com spokeswoman said in a statement. “This ad was intended to represent one of those stories. We very much appreciate the feedback we have received and apologize for any offense that the ad may have caused. We are in the process of pulling the ad from television and have removed it from YouTube.”

The spokeswoman declined to say how many people of color were involved in making the ad, which was created by Anomaly’s Toronto office. The agency deferred comment to the client.

The ad garnered considerable backlash from viewers who pointed out how offensively unrealistic it is along with other insensitive aspects such as how the white male character interrupts the black woman when she tries to speak (arguably the only realistic part of the spot).

Others have noted how the ad parallels other white savior tales, from the recent controversial Academy Award-winning Green Book to To Kill a Mockingbird. Business Insider producer Manny Fidel explained the origin of white savior stories and detailed why they are so unrealistic and problematic in a video posted to his Twitter account in response to the Ancestry.com spot.

Here’s hoping change one day comes to the advertising industry.

14051: Holi Shit.

Ogilvy in India celebrates Holi with color commentary on sexual harassment and sexual assault…?

13989: When Harvey Met Marty.

AgencySpy published a post titled, “WPP Reportedly Preparing to Wash Its Hands of the Weinstein Company.” According to the blog, “WPP has been one of the Weinstein Company’s largest single investors since 2005.” This is not surprising at all, as the White holding company is no stranger to bad boy behavior in the workplace. WPP might represent the most obscene example of obscenity of any single organisation. Hell, WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell has experience with mistresses and $54 million divorce settlements.

13740: Droga5 Declaration Diversity Dreck.

Campaign reported on the inaugural advertising campaign created for Ancestry.com by Droga5—unveiled during the Fourth of July holiday—which was seemingly designed to spark a sense of patriotism, but ultimately feels patronizing. What’s more, the attempt to celebrate diversity actually underscores discrimination. The 60-second spot features a bunch of White and Black people reciting the Declaration of Independence, with a wrap-up line that reads, “Everyone we’ve assembled here is descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence.” Okay, that explains the apparent absence of Asians, Latinos and Native Americans, among other racial and ethnic groups. But all the Black people kinda highlight the domination and rape that enslaved Africans faced at the hands of our Founding Fathers. And it doesn’t help matters that Droga5 is probably less diverse than the commercial crowd assembled for Ancestry.com. Only in America.

Ancestry’s first work from Droga5 makes a bold statement about America’s diversity

By Kathryn Luttner

The genomics brand brings together 29 descendants of the founding fathers for an atypical July Fourth campaign.

Many marketers have tried to co-opt various social and political issues through their campaigns. Some have been successful, like Corona and 84 Lumber, which tackled immigration head-on by putting President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall front and center of their advertising. And others have whiffed, like Pepsi, which placed Kendall Jenner in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Today, the genomics brand Ancestry takes aim at America’s diversity conversation with its first work from Droga5.

The 60-second spot titled “Declaration Descendants” mimics the iconic “Declaration of Independence” painting by John Trumbull—but with a diverse twist. It starts with a voiceover, spoken by several people, reading the Declaration of Independence.

Eventually, 29 men and women recite words from the famous document aloud until they all talk in unison. Then, text appears on the screen revealing that everyone—black, white, red-haired, Latina, young and old—featured is a descendant of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who were all white males. Finally, Ancestry’s new tagline appears: “Unlock your past. Inspire your future.”

“This campaign is literally about speaking to America,” Ancestry CMO Vineet Mehra said. “We are just trying to show that through actual fact, through direct lineage, those founding fathers have left behind descendants that are so diverse, come from so many walks of life, that we hope that we can play a small role in shaping and showing America as it is today.”

For two weeks, Ancestry will air the minute-long ad through digital channels, including a YouTube homepage takeover, and on television. The brand will also erect a digital billboard in Times Square in addition to tapping PR agency Weber Shandwick to direct its influencer strategy, which is still in the works. For those who want to learn more, Droga5 produced video testimonials from those featured in the commercial, like an African American Rev. W. Douglas Banks, whose grandfather is Thomas Jefferson.

“The idea here is to create a system of work where you can watch the film and take it at face value, or you can dig deeper to the individual stories of the descendants featured in the film,” said Droga5’s Co-Head of Strategy Colm Murphy. “That’s supposed to reflect exactly how the product works, which is the deeper you dig into it, the more rewarding it is.”

Ancestry, which first launched in 1983, offers two products: one that maps family trees and another that connects customers to “Genetic Communities” through a DNA sample. Although both are not mentioned in the ad, Mehra said the company’s genealogists used the family tree mapping to find the signers’ descendants. This shift from product-focused to brand awareness marketing is part of the new direction that Mehra—who started in January—is taking the business.

“Number one, we are trying to solidify our role in American culture. We are a well-known brand, but” Ancestry is trying to reach “that iconic brand status,” he said. “Trying to live as a brand that shapes culture, doesn’t just sort of live within it, is something we are really aiming to do here.”

And that’s why Droga5 and Ancestry timed this ad with the July Fourth holiday.

“A lot of brands try to own cultural moments,” Mehra continued. “But I think very few can own a moment like this the way we can because our product directly connects people to these folks that actually signed the Declaration of Independence.”

“What separates our sort of ability to do advertising like this is the notion that these are facts,” he said. “This is not opinion. We are not kind of aggregating diverse groups of people together to just sort of make a point.”

Instead, Mehra claims Ancestry’s goal is to connect people literally through its genealogy tools and metaphorically by showing the founding fathers’ descendants reflect America’s melting pot. Another hope is to create a sense of urgency to sign up for its products.

“We are a brand that’s seeking to not just understand your past—but you saw the tagline—we are really shifting our focus to understand your past to inspire your future,” Mehra said. “We really feel like there is this notion of urgency that we can drive in people. A lot of people say the past is not going anywhere, I’ll do it anytime I want. But if we can reframe the past as a key way to change what you may do tomorrow, I think that’s a big part of what we are trying to do in this campaign.”

13594: Chilliguard Ad Is Weak.

Given how women in India face so much domestic violence and sexual assault, is ChilliGuard offering enough protection? Shouldn’t the spray figure be packing a bazooka and driving a tank?

13330: Miami Ad School’s Diverted Diversity.

This patronizing pap from Miami Ad School in India is messed up on so many levels. First, it appears that the students are being taught to embrace diverted diversity versus true diversity, which is downright criminal. Plus, it’s obscenely ironic that the White women being defended in the video will land advertising agency jobs more easily than the student creators—at least in the U.K. and U.S. Second, why are students in India working on projects for American products with imagery like the New York City Marathon? Are the students being told that White advertising is the gold standard? Third, it’s pathetic for folks from India to be lecturing on gender equality when the country struggles with skin-tone bias, domestic violence and rape. Oh, and the overwhelming majority of the idiots responsible for the Always video are men.

12750: Samsung’s Sexual Assault…?

Is this Samsung campaign implying women in India face greater dangers than normal?

From Ads of the World.

12295: Kidding With Condoms.

This Durex campaign was allegedly created by a student in India. Here’s some advice for the wannabe adman:

Tip 1: Don’t produce spec ads for condoms, as it’s a clichéd and contrived tactic to gain attention.

Tip 2: Definitely follow Tip 1 if you’re living in a country where misogyny and rape are big problems.

From Ads of the World.