The Advertising Standards Authority in Great Britain is calling for the creation of new standards when it comes to ads that feature harmful gender stereotypes.
advertising
Posted inIn Brief
Pepsi’s Tasteless Protest Commercial Gets Memed
Pepsi’s recent and risible “protest” ad has birthed memes that liken it to everything from Tiananmen Square’s “Tank Man” to Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother.”
Posted inIn Brief
Meta-Corporate Ad Torches Burning Man
David Foster Wallace was right, meta-television is the future, but a new meta-corporate ad by Quiznos may be one of the best examples of how corporations will serve up anti-corporate humor for the masses in an attempt to advance their own toasty agenda.
Posted inBooks
The Promise of Glamor and Adventure in Mid-Century Airline Advertising
From the end of World War II to the 1970s, airline travel experienced a revolution in extended routes and better aircrafts.
Posted inArt
The Man Who Harmonized Form, Function, and Friendliness in Corporate Design
Before the 1950s, most advertising was just copywriting paired with an image with little thought to the overall company or visual identity.
Posted inArt
The (Un)Changing Portrayal of White Women in 100 Years of Advertisements
The idea is so ingenious, it almost seems obvious: take advertisements and remove the text that makes them so, leaving only a string of images behind.
Posted inArt
An Avant-Garde Map that Enticed Fearful Customers to Air Travel
When aviation took off in the early 20th century, safety was still shaky and the public needed some convincing to get them soaring among the clouds in the noisy metal contraptions.
Posted inNews
Artist Ticked Off at Watchmaker’s Unauthorized Use of His Work
The Saudi artist Ahmed Mater is suing watchmaker Swatch for using one of his works to sell a luxury timepiece.
Posted inArt
The Design Battle to Sell, and to Stop, Smoking
In terms of breadth and controversy, two 20th-century advertising campaigns are almost unrivaled: the drive to sell cigarettes and the backlash to get people to stop smoking. Selling Smoke: Tobacco Advertising and Anti-smoking Campaigns at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University presents these dual crusades side-by-side.
Posted inOpinion
Every Advertising Cliché in One Video
Oh, generic, you are so meh … but what diversity of skin colors!
Posted inOpinion
A Fusion of Facebook, Advertising, and Design Redefines the Creepy Birthday Hug
In what can be optimistically described as a case of something lost in cultural translation, Brazil’s Outback Steakhouse franchise had their American-owned ad agency design an anthropomorphized chair that “hugs” you when you are wished a happy birthday via Facebook. Yes, This is The Way We Live Today (or, rather, Esta é a maneira como vivemos hoje).
Posted inOpinion
Form Is Function: Billboards Offer a Place to Rest or Escape the Rain
Some ideas are so simple it’s kind of crazy they haven’t been thought of before, especially given the constant exhaustion of creativity in advertising. But these billboards from IBM — which act as ramps, benches, or rain shelters — represent a particular triumph of form and function.
