Morning Update: AdWeek hammers Sofy BeFresh ad; Bloomberg’s business cover; Grey asks media for a party; O2’s rugby ad
Creativity: Carefully at Bloomberg Businessweek’s Apple Cover
On the heels of Apple’s 2015 keynote, Bloomberg Businessweek unveiled a cover stoy by editor Josh Tyrangiel about the making of 3D Touch, one of the key features of the 6S iteration of the iPhone. Along with it comes a simple cover showing the backside of the device. It looks pretty normal until you read the copy that sits in place of the usual “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China” text on the actual phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKdN3G4VyoM
AdWeek: Fat- and Period-Shaming Collide in Easily the Year’s Most Offensive Ad Aimed at Women
Fat-shaming and period-shaming in a single commercial? J. Walter Thompson Melbourne has managed it, with predictably bad results, in this spot for Unicharm’s SOFY BeFresh Pads. The ad is titled “Ugh Moments”—and it inspires just that reaction.
First, let’s talk about the fat-shaming. In the opening moments of the spot, we see a woman receive a calendar notification indicating that her period is about to start. Drama of dramas, she has chosen—poorly—to wear white shorts.Then the ad really rolls into the good stuff: A clearly disgruntled doppelganger, who is several sizes larger than our protagonist (because it’s her fat, angry, period-self!), grabs her handbag and derides her for failing to adequately plan for Period Day, given that it comes at the same time each month.
Digiday: Ad buyer to ad sellers: Please pay for our summer party
Agencies often get a lot of free stuff from ad sellers in return for nothing more than perhaps goodwill. (And hopefully some I/Os).
But there is a line, however thin, that most sellers will not cross. U.S. Open tickets, rounds of golf, even jeans-shopping is considered OK. After all, on some level, you are spending real networking time with the agency that you might be selling stuff to.
Sometimes, however, the line gets crossed. This week, WPP-owned Grey San Francisco sent out this missive that got partners particularly upset.
The Guardian: Austin Buetner: Los Angeles Times publisher fired abruptly
Tribune Publishing Company has fired the publisher of the Los Angeles Times after little more than a year on the job.
Tribune gave no public explanation for Austin Buetner’s abrupt departure, which took effect immediately. It appointed Timothy Ryan, publisher of the Baltimore Sun, to replace Buetner as head of the company’s California Newspaper Group, which includes the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Chicago Tribune, one of 11 major daily newspapers under Tribune Publishing, reported that company leaders were unhappy with the financial performance of the Los Angeles Times and with some of Beutner’s high-profile hires.
Campaign: O2 “make them giants” by VCCP
O2, which sponsors England Rugby, has released a rousing animated ad ahead of the World Cup.
Mumbrella Asia: Support builds for WWF’s ‘We breathe what we buy’ campaign as haze worsens in Singapore
WWF has seen a spike in pledges made by Singaporeans towards a campaign to combat the haze, poor air quality that results from forest burning in neighbouring Indonesia.
Just last night, 200 signatures were added to a number that initially started to build slowly when the campaign launched three months ago, WWF told Mumbrella. The number of pledges made on WWF’s campaign websitestands at 1,784 at the time of writing, up from around 800 at the end of August. Among those to have pledged to switch to brands that use sustainably sourced palm oil are K. Shanmugam, Singapore’s minister for foreign affairs.
