Victoria's Secret, Christmas 2009 commercial, directed by Michael Bay

Has everyone seen the new Victoria's Secret, Christmas 2009 commercial, directed by Michael Bay? Originally played during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, if you missed it take a look at the commercial yourself!

'Sun-Maid Girl' Makeover Sparks Controversy

Had any raisins lately? Well next time you go to the store why don't you take a look at the new packaging on the 'Sun-Maid Girl'.  She's taken on a new look, but like any kind of change, her makeover has sparked some controversy.  Sun-Maid decided to join Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth's in giving the "female face of their product a substantial makeover from a young, early 20th-century girl into a buxom, modern young woman, leading some to say that the newly made-over raisin girl looks like a Barbie Doll in Amish attire."  The original face of Sun-Maid was Lorraine Collett Petersen, who was originally discovered "drying her black hair curls in the sunny backyard of her parents' home in Fresno, California."  


However, as any successful company, they always try to keep up with times, and are always willing to re-invent.  The new version, which isn't really all that different is a "computer-animated version of the Sun-Maid girl currently featured in television advertisements is a departure from the classic design that harkened back to a time when "life was much simpler, more rural, a lot less hectic."  


According to the article people have claimed that the new look looks like she has some implants haha.  What does everyone else think about the new design?  I think to be successful you need to be able to take risks and realize when it's time to make changes.  On the other hand when Tropicana decided to change the look of their orange juice there was huge backlash.  Take a look at the changes and see for yourself! What do you think of the change?

Original

New

Check out the original article right here on Yahoo!

Best Ad Friday

WIM is launching its newest feature called "Best Ad Friday". I've attached three Christmas related Ads in a web poll to see which one everyone likes and every Friday I will announce the winner.  Seeing that this is the first set of Ads, the winner will be announced next Friday! (December 4th)  So take a moment and look at the Ads below and vote on your favorite ones!  Keep an eye out for more in the future!!

Online Surveys & Market Research

If you can't quite see the Ads above, here are the larger versions:

Lynx Snow:

Advertising Agency:  BBH, London, UK
Creative Director:  Dominic Goldman
Art Director: Adam Thompson
Copywriter: Dan Glover-James
Photographer: Julian Wolkenstein
Agency producer: Jeremy Gleeson

McDonald's Christmas:

 
Advertising Agency: DDB Helsinki, Finland
Art Director: Jukka Mannio
Copywriter: Vesa Tujunen
Illustrator / Photographer: Pinata
Published: December 2008

Inbev: Merry Christmas:

Advertising Agency: Draft FCB Ulka, New Delhi, India
National Creative Director: Chax
Creative Director: Sanjay Sharma
Art Director: Shubhojit Sengupta
Copywriter: Vikram Sengupta
Client servicing directors: Akash Sharma, Piyush kumar
Published: December 2008

AT&T versus Verizon versus Apple? What a mess!

You must have heard all about this by now but if you don't remember I posted an article about Verizon making a commercial poking jabs at AT&Ts spotty coverage using the similar "there's an app for that" slogan and replacing it with "there's a map for that".  Well it didn't take too long for AT&T to get upset and they ended up in court and I believe are still there currently trying to sort out this mess.  I don't see anything wrong with Verizon's Ads, if anything...they were clever.  Anyways, the lawsuit didn't stop Verizon from rolling out some hilarious Christmas commercials around the same "map for that" campaign.  Here are just a few:

How did you like those? Well here is some more news! Apple took note of what was happening between AT&T and Verizon and rolled out a clever commercial themselves.  I hope this doesn't hurt the chances of the iPhone coming out on Verizon anytime soon though!  What these sneaky guys at Apple did was quite clever.  A BlackBerry Storm user myself, there are few things that you can't do while you're on the phone...well Apple took note of this and decided to put together a commercial around the things Verizon's phones don't do!  However what's interesting about the commercial if you haven't watched it already is that it never actually mentions Verizon at all, or any of Verizon's phones for that matter, the commercial closes with "Can your phone and your network do that?" 

So there you go...I leave you with that...DOES YOUR PHONE AND YOUR NETWORK DO THAT? Haha if so...please leave a comment and share some of your experiences!!

John Gerzema: The post-crisis consumer

Here is an interesting video brought to you by TED. John Gerzema says there's an upside to the recent financial crisis -- the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.

Universal's UK 'Couples Retreat' Poster Brings Cries of Racism by Removing Black Actors

No idea who decided to spear head this idea but the movie "Couples Retreat" has two very different promotional posters in the US and the UK. The major difference between the two promotional posters if you can't tell already is that black actors Faizon Love and Kali Hawk are missing from the poster that was used in the UK. However, if you take a look at the US poster, all four couples are present. I can only imagine the backlash this move had around the world, but to be fully honest, I'm sure people didn't notice it at first, and would have seen the movie regardless. A Universal spokesman said the poster that was used in the UK was aimed "to simplify the poster to actors who are most [recognizable] in international markets." Clearly Universal made a mistake not using all the characters on their promotional posters overseas and I don't see them making this mistake again in the future but who knows! Take a look at posters and remember to comment! Or just go to Yahoo! to view the original article!

U.S. Version:


U.K. Version:


I actually watched the movie last weekend and thought it was pretty funny, here is a small clip for everyone to enjoy!

Tactful Touch

How many times do we let our perspective be guided by just one of our senses? For a society whose notion of experience is tightly fashioned to exploration via all of our 5 senses; developing a perspective based off the limitations of one sense is a tough concept to fathom.

Enter Volvo, a company that has managed to capture the magic of discovery via an artist's touch that ties into their product and vision in the inspiring ad below. The power behind Volvo's message lies in their collaboration with Esref Armagan, an artist who transcends the conventional notions of art given his ability to render objects in perspective despite being blind. Thus Volvo asked Armagan to use his touch to envision their new S60 concept car due to come out in March 2010.

The use of touch is both interesting and compelling, it compels drivers to imagine the design and beauty of their cars through the sense of touch alone. Its a curious approach to establishing what beauty should feel like. I believe the commercial manages to pique interest for the car and what Volvo stands for in a way that's truly distinctive. Well done Volvo!

I leave you all with this thought. How remarkable could the communication of our products and services be if we learned to market them the way one would describe a color or shape to someone we love?

Diabetes: The Other Sinful Pleasure

Hello All! I'll introduce myself as a contributor of WIM with this post on poor eating habits. The ad is both funny and serious. It exonerates the consequences of one guilty pleasure with those of a more serious nature. I find it to be a step forward in raising awareness about the potential risks of diabetes.

The video even brings a comedic edge that we all know to be familiar of Crispin's Burger King spots. So put down that chicken sub and enjoy this clip!





Makes you think, what truly are your guilty pleasures?

New York Times features Mac vs. PC

The Mac vs. PC has hit the New York Times! I hope everyone else saw this...actually it might still be there so it's worth a look! This is just part of the ongoing battle between the all powerful Mac and the PC. I thought it was a pretty good Ad. It started off with the Mac and PC character pictured below, watching people going into the Apple store to buy a new Mac.

But as you can see in the second photo, the PC caught up and decided to jump into the frame and tried to stop these people from going in! Anyways, this is just a series of creative ads that Mac has come out within recent weeks as Windows launches their new Windows 7. I'll make sure to post some of the other ads in the next few days!

Ten Golden Rules and I Wear Your Shirt

Helllooooooo. So...a few weeks ago I posted about a website called IWearYourShirt. One day I was looking at their Twitter and I noticed they were giving out a limited edition Roger Federer shirt from Ten Golden Rules. The deal was that I needed to find ten different things and take a photo of it. Being a huge Federer fan, I really wanted this shirt! Anyhow, I tried to think of something I could do, and oddly enough I have a very large collection of hats so I thought it would be funny if I wore 10 different hats? Surprise, surprise! It worked! I ended up winning the limited edition shirt! I even made the website!

Here is my winning photo taken with my BlackBerry Storm:


Anyhow...that was then, and this is now with the shirt!



Thanks again to the Ten Golden Rules & IWearYourShirt for giving me the limited edition Roger Federer shirt! Looking forward to more prizes in the future!