Volkswagen Highlights Obsession with Death in New Ads

I'm weirded out by Volkswagen's demonstrated fascination with killing its customers or at least subjecting them to all sorts of traumatic accidents in order to hawk the safety of their vehicles, but that's the tune they've chosen to keep humming with their latest Polo campaign.

The only difference is this time people aren't having accidents midway through conversation. In this ad the Polo is apparently so safe that it acts as a kind of "I'm invincible - seriously!" hallucinogenic, kind of like 'shrooms. Here a driver simply blows himself up, and here a tame enough afterlife fixation ad.

Who the hell is doing VW's marketing? A troupe of existentialists? Or is that just the demo they've chosen to target? It's hard to tell.

Dove Evolution Spot Gets Parodied

I'm not too sure what MWeeting 14 is (according to AdFreak it's some private Halloween party in Italy) but I'm amused by the spoof they've done on the compelling Dove Evolution ad. Check it out:



The word odalisque is conventionally used to refer to a chamber maid or harem girl but that's probably not quite the reference here. I'd appreciate more info if you have it. It's interesting shit.

Berlin Anti-Graffiti Ad

I haven't seen much marketing enacted against graffiti and vandalism. This ad plays in the Berlin metro stations.



I suppose if my kid had some sort of compulsive wall-scribbling problem I might try my hand at some similar action. But hey, some graffiti is beautiful and vandalism effectively betrays certain dangerous sentiments floating around in the public sphere. They merit attention. Although I guess one could argue that if one riled up enough emotional attachment to one's city, its utter cleanliness would betray common sentiment too.

It's the classic "What if it happened to you?" stance. Still provokes some thought. Imagine coming home to a bedroom that looked like a public latrine.

And Now for Some Deeply Relevant World News.

Mayor Gavin Newsom Pushes 40, Still Lands Hot Ass



Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco (nicknamed Mayor McHottie by some), fresh off the stench of his divorce to the already incomparably hot Kim Newsom, nailed a just-turned-twenty model/hostess who, for his sake, initially lied about her age (on MySpace of all things) but the press was too smart for her. Or else they just opened her college yearbook.

Honey is cute but, to the consternation of Newsom's otherwise-tolerant constituency, also a registered Republican. "How dare he?" demands a bummed-out city official. "He knows how to pick 'em. You can count the young female Republicans in this town on one hand."

The warped Patrick Bateman-looking bastard. Dating young girls, mixing parties - what will he think of next?

N. Korea Says "Sorry We Set Off All Those Bombs the Other Day. Shake Hands?"



North Korean leader Kim Jong Il says "sorry about the nuclear test" to the Chinese delegation. He adds that he's willing to make concessions if the US is willing to make concessions too.

That's really sweet. I hope the US is sympathetic. My parents almost always were every time I detonated a complex series of explosives and felt bad about it later.

My Attempt to Do Penance

Sorry about the silence. My roomie moved out so I've been on a mad hunt to replace her. Still haven't. Kind of bummed. I'll get over it though.

By the way - what's up with Blogger? It's slow as all hell, plagued with spotty connections, a royal pain in the ass.

Gap Remodels with "Pardon Our Dust"

Check out the slow slide into gleeful destruction:







I like the ad in particular because it speaks to a deep desire within me to do this very same thing when I walk into a Gap store. You have to admit all those khakis and button-downs year after year is a fucking frustrating sight. Bravo, I'm anticipating what the new store will bring.

Some People Just Can't Resist Torching a Bridge

A letter to Mark Zuckerberg from Aaron Greenspan, CEO of Think Computer Corp.

I have my own opinion about the ethical implications of ripping your buddy's idea, but hey, if it's easy to rip and it's not patented either then somebody would've done it anyway. Might as well be the cat who can turn it into a billion-dollar idea. And don't you think this is sort of pricky and bitter? Because, well, I do.

I didn't initially think that Facebook.com was worth a $900 million offer from Yahoo but a friend made a good point earlier this morning:

"Can Yahoo serve $100 worth of ads to 9 million users? Easily," he said. He's right. And with the suite of Web 2.0 yummies, including Flickr.com, that Yahoo's swooping up like candy, they're going to have quite the marketing-rich arsenal when it's all said and done.

Cheers to Yahoo and Facebook and maybe a beautiful future. Sucks about Greenspan and Facebook's users, who aren't terribly thrilled with the company of late. But hey, such is life.