With the Black Friday shopping massacre just around the corner, many people are plotting ways to buy more stuff on the cheap — and sadly, many are willing to trample each other to get it. We felt inspired to share these vintage bicycle ads, which recall a simpler time — before people camped out in lines at stores for over 24-hours and were willing to strong-arm grandma in order to grab the last copy of Skyrim. Some bicycle marketing campaigns practically promised air travel and shapeshifting experiences. Other ads can simply be appreciated from a design perspective. Click through for more badass, vintage bike ads. Read More »
Like everything else, your favorite fright flicks have been watered-down and commercialized for consumer culture. Creepy imagery and horror cinema’s nastiest characters are an easy way to get the attention of boob tube drones that perk up when baddies and bloodthirsty villains slice and dice their way through product placement. Here are a few of the most ridiculous television commercials — horror cinema-inspired. Which ones are the saddest? Leave us your favorite picks below.
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Today marks the 60th anniversary of the color television. CBS is credited with making the first color broadcast on five East Coast stations in 1951, and on this day the company started selling their CBS-Columbia color television model. The product was discontinued just a few months later, but RCA picked up the slack a few years later in 1954. Today, it seems strange that companies had trouble selling color models, but back then buying a TV was as important of a choice as was buying a car (they were expensive!). Before we were warning about the dangers of too much TV, the color television represented a kind of sophistication and style. It was the best connection families had to the world around them and the new technology represented the dreamy possibilities of the future. We thought we’d take a peek back at some of the best color television print advertisements, which represented a time when the TV repairman was actually a lucrative career choice.
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Subway systems are a perfect location for advertisements for two reasons: one, commuters spend a lot of time within them; and two, potential customers are held captive, either waiting on the platform or squished on the train just looking for an excuse not to make eye contact with the person next to them.
We’ve found some advertisers who’ve thought of some pretty creative uses of this underground space. View all ten examples after the jump.
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Recent renovations to the Noting Hill Gate tube station in London unearthed a small passageway with advertisements from the late ’50s, when the section was originally sealed off. Mike Ashworth, the Design and Heritage Manager of London’s underground tube system, uploaded photographs of these posters onto his Flickr site to reconnect them with the viewing public.
Once novel, now vintage, the advertisements seem quite simple in comparison to our modern breed of words and images meant to persuade customers to depart with their money. Many of the posters feature nothing more than a pithy statement with a minimal, colorful cartoon image. How well would these adverts work if they were plastered on subway walls today?
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Earlier this week, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority released the most controversial advertisements of 2009. Coming in at number one was The Christian Party’s retaliation bus ad, which read: “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.” The message was a response to the British Humanist Association’s, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” ad, which was ranked number six on the list according to how many people called in to complain.
In the spirit of cross-cultural exploration, we thought we’d compare the UK’s most risky television commercials of this past year with some of America’s most controversial. We hope this exercise can teach us something about our neighbors overseas, and possibly ourselves. Are our commercials more disturbing? Less? Click after the jump and decide for yourself. Judge harshly.
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La Situación, la Situazione, Sytuacja (that’s Polish), the Situation. The Guidos and Guidettes that we’ve come to know, love, and in some sad cases, idolize, are going global in more than 30 countries this week. According to Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, who manages Southern Europe for MTV Networks International, Jersey Shore is actually easier to promote overseas than other recent exports, like A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, “because it has a more human element.” With international marketing slogans such as “Muscles + Gel + Tanning Bed = Sex,” we’re imagining future European tours where the GTL-clan will chow down on baguettes and kielbasas while being chased around like The Beatles.
Check out some of the video spots currently airing in the U.K., and let us know if you think The Jersey Shore — which, broke ratings records here in America — will translate to audiences outside of the U.S. Word is that production on Jersey Shore Season 2 starts this week in Miami. Are you as excited as we are?
