VH1 is Bullying it's way to our Consciousness

If we would tell you we liked VH1's new anti-bullying campaign it would be a big fat lie. We didn't like it. We didn't love it, we didn't enjoy it, we didn't think it was funny, we didn't think anything good about it.

The whole idea of the commercial, showing a poor kid being bullied and planning his revenge at the kids bullying him by planning to be their boss when they are all grown up is not funny. Seeing this spot, the only conclusion is that the creative people who worked it out were never bullied. Far from it. We don't say that it is for certain, but they probably were the ones sticking a kid in his locker, too afraid to get out. If they ever were bullied, they would have known that a kid in this situation see only three options, each of them is worse than the other.

We are not saying the subject is a taboo, never to be touched. It is an important issue, which has to be dealt, but not like this. Telling the bullying kids that this "nerd" is going to be their boss one day is not very true, and will never work, for so many reasons. If you really want to make a change, there are many other ways.

But this is advertising we are talking about, not education, and I guess Saatchi & Saatchi did a good job. They did make VH1 seem relevant and up to date. They did get our attention.

We would have to disagree on this one.

Timeless love

AXE bodyspray is doing it again with an epic campaign by BBH London, demonstrating beautifully the "Don't rely on fate to help you find your soul mate".

The video starts in the ice age, where a nice caveman or whatever he is supposed to be, glances a beautiful woman and tries to reach her when the icebergs depart and he is taken away from her. Cut to the Roman days of Pompeii, where the same guy spots the same pretty girl, and walks towards her when a volcano erupts.

So it continues throughout the ages, when time after time some kind of a disaster is keeping them apart.

This, of course, until AXE bodyspray comes in to the equation...

HBO presents: Family moments

Have you ever tried watching Game of Thrones with you parents? Quit a challenging experience, isn't it? Especially when they are trying to remember which house is which, and who this king is, and those white thingies that come from across the wall. And let s not forget the sex scenes, when you sit uncomfortably at the end of your sit, wanting to burry yourself in the nearest grave.

Apparently, HBO are aware of the trouble young people have watching their series, so they produced HBO GO, where you can get all their bloody and sexy and violent content on your mobile devices, away from the TV in your living room, where your parents might embarrass you and ruin your will to live.

To promote the new service, HBO and SS+K New York came up with this hilarious campaign, showing the rough life parents can give their kids during their shows.

Heineken are playing games at the Milan Design Week

In the advertising world a week is a very long time, ages even. This is why we are determined to do our best and give you the freshest stories about the newest campaigns.

Alas, sometimes we miss a thing or two when we blink, and the moment we look back we are not sure as if we really did see what we thought was blured object running through our vision.

And why do we bother you with this long intro? Because we are here to talk today about a promotion stunt that took place during the Milan Design Week, that ended more than two (!!) weeks ago.

Yet, we couldn't stand still and ignore this great production by Publicis Milan for the widely known Dutch beer brand- Heineken.

In this wonderful campaign, the PR people designed a room remotely resembling a Pinball machine. Did we say remotely? We meant exactly. We stand corrected- it was a real live Pinball game.

This is one of those times that we regret not listening to the weird guy down the road that tried to convince us to decorate his house for free, just o get our feet at the door of home designing.

Driving up the hills of marketing

There places that you need help getting. Some of them you will have to rock climb, others you will need a different kind of transportation. Having the right wheels, you could get to places you once needed a carabiner, or at least this is what the people at Jeep wanted you to think in their brilliant campaign taken place recently in Russia.

During this campaign, led by Leo Burnett Moscow, shoppers at the local camping stores were given a carabiner shaped like the traditional Jeep with every purchase at the shops. Attached to the carabiner was an invitation to enjoy a special filed test drive in one of the company's vehicles.

Of course, there is no need to mention the responds to the invitations were very high.

The publicity stunt that shows - Mama knows best

In our share of days, we have seen a vending machine or two. Once in a while, we meet another outdoor promotion stunt taking advantage of technology, and the never ending longing of people for free stuff, in order to get viral on the web.

Here is one more creative vending machine stunt, coming from Greece. In this activity, executed by socialab agency for Lanes Health, the agency placed a vending machine in the Athens mall, one of the biggest malls in Greece. Passersby were surprised when the machine called them and started talking to them, or to be exact, giving them orders the way a Greek mother would do.

The ones who participated in this activity and obeyed the machine's orders got free vitamins to help them keep their health.

After all, Mama knows best…

Coca Cola's rainbow of freedom

After long years of Oppression and fight for freedom, 20 years ago, April 1994, the Apartheid government in South Africa gave away it's power. During the celebrations of the new democracy, Archbishop Desmond Tutu[ one of the known South African activists, referred to the country as a 'Rainbow nation', due to the vast variety of people in the country- each of them equal, with no regards to their color, religion or any other thing for all that matter. Since those days, every year the month of April is known as the month of freedom

Today, 20 years later, Coca Cola, with the people of FCB Johannesburg, has decided to celebrate the month of freedom in a special way. After a long preparation, they came up with a way to create a real Rainbow, which could accompany their billboards. The campaign came to life and succeeded to catch the attention of the customers, and the press.