Mini Clubman ~ Etch-A-Sketch Paradise

The Clubman in the Mini line of cars has at least two paradise ads floating around the Internet.  The scenes look like this:

You can see that  no dolphins, flamingoes, or hairy-chested men in Speedos were spared from these fantastic line-art displays.
Here is the speedboat/dolphin version:

 
And here’s the Speedo/airplane/flamingo/metal-detector version:

 
In spite of the everyday symbols of [...]

Court: whales are protected against Navy exercises

From The San Francisco Chronicle: "A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush’s attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws."  Read the whole article here.

Big Love ~ What are female whales really looking for in a mate?

Smithsonian magazine has an article called "Big Love," which seeks to understand what exactly female whales look for in a mate.  Check it out if you’re interested. (Photo above by Whit Welles)

Liz Claiborne Curve-ball

Oh, you clever Liz Claiborne advertisers.  You thought you’d be really creative with a vintage paradise ad that points out to Complex readers that paradise imagery is ubiquitous and cheesy (click to enlarge):

In the end you proved that there’s little creative about mocking a cliche even though you’re one step ahead in knowing that it [...]

What does naval security have to do with dolphins, bikini-clad women, and feminine products?

I pulled up an article from GlobalSecurity.org called "Navy Approves Raytheon’s Zumwalt Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure" when this ad popped up at me:

They use one of every Rapidsea-ready image.  Of course, it’s as weird as the second ad that showed up at the top of the screen when I returned to the article to [...]

Heroes Star Hayden Panettiere breaks down over the killing of baby dolphins

Click on the still above to watch a graphic newscast of a very controversial annual dolphin killing tradition in Japan.  Hayden Panettiere was one of the surfer protesters who went to try to stop this year’s slaughter.  She broke down talking about the experience.  Each year the tradition gains more attention.

Airbus A380 ~ a bigger, smarter flying dolphin?

This ad at Newsweek.com came as quite a surprise today:

It was a big web ad (coming in at 336 X 850 pixels), so I shrank it down to fit in the space here.  My first thoughts were, "What does a dolphin have to do with the biggest airplane ever made?"
I followed through to their [...]

Dubai’s Dolphins coming to you live from the Solomon Islands ~ We’re rich and we want dolphins!

In addition to the non-paradise Pacific article, there was another notable piece in The Age today about one of my favorite topics: Dubai.
The Gulf is an incredibly beautiful body of water with tons of wildlife.  It even has dolphins in it.  I was once invited to go out with some incredibly generous Emirati fishermen there [...]

The All Mighty Detergent Dolphin

The Rapidsea sanctioned laundry detergents are, of course, Tide within the United States and Ariel ("Lion of God" in Hebrew, but more like the Disney mermaid for us) everywhere else, but All brand detergent has made a showing recently with this little high-powered bottle:

Notice the cute little dolphin that is supposed to mean that [...]

Disappearing Dolphin Disaster

Lesson: Dolphins are cute. Therefore, you can’t eat them, and when they die it’s bad.
They are dying. This is bad.
Scientists ask: Where have all the dolphins gone? From the article: “Dolphins are sometimes trapped hundreds at a time, and are asphyxiated… .”
Are anchovies on your pizza to blame? Even though you’re not consuming the actual [...]