Neuf Box uses an out-of-place beautiful blond on a horse on the beach ~ for laughs
This week, AdForum’s Top 5 ads of the week features two French commercials in a series of beach houses (available here dubbed in English for a limited time without a subscription). The ads mock the beautiful, the blond(e), and the beach in an attempt to shutter away the cliche. Here’s one with subtitles:
The ads make you laugh, and they get their point across. But making fun of a cliche is barely more original than where we started. It’s virtually indistinguishable from Ana Nicole’s Trim Spa image.
- - - -
Posted on March 14, 2008
Filed Under Advertising, Beaches, Commercials, Technology | Leave a Comment
Obama was born in Hawai’i ~ which a few argue was/is not part of the United States
According to The Honolulu Advertiser, a handful of people are arguing that Barack Obama, who was born in 1961 (three years after Hawai’i became a state), was not born in the United States.
This argument is similar to the nonsense that a very small number of people are spreading about John McCain. Can we please move beyond these petty ideas that they’re not citizens because of a technicality?
Both are natural citizens. Neither one had to take the citizenship test or the oath of citizenship. They both had at least one American parent who declared the intention to have the child take on their citizenship. They’re both good to go.
Next issue.
- - - -
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
Recessions in paradise
Paradise might not care about blackout dates, but businesses there are not immune from heading for the red zone. Hence this map:
It’s from the USA Today article "How’s the economy in your hometown?"
I’ve been staring at it a lot and have begun to ponder to what extent paradise marketing had an effect on the housing bubble. Four of the five big, red states there, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, have all been big "ideal" places for escapists’ homes, so much so that their housing values soared as builders and speculators flooded the markets.
If you go to the map and mouse over some of the states, you can see individual regions with real recession problems. There’s also the 2006 Business Week "The Map of Misery." It tells a story about new and refinanced mortgages into what became much riskier loans. The Moody’s/USA Today map follows almost directly the same pattern as the Business Week version, which showed California as the reddest state in the nation for once.
Are there any researchers out there that would care to take on finding the correlation between escape/paradise marketing and growth in those markets?
- - - -
Posted on March 11, 2008
Filed Under Business and Commerce, Real Estate, Society | Leave a Comment
workopolis vs. Phase 2 International ~ or ordinary job beach vs. sassy entrepreneurship bikini
Yahoo occasionally has really weird paradise ads. Here’s a new one from workopoplis and Yahoo Canada:
Can you think of a blander way to market your career site? Surely you’re something more than just a simple resume database? You seem to be marketing to women, so are you sure the things you show are what they’re really looking for?
The opposite of this Yahoo ad for employment-finding services, which also popped up today, is the nerd bikini ad for the IT business Phase 2 International, which rents out software and server space for entrepreneurs. Their line is "Now Anyone Can Be An I.T. Professional." They call their product "SaaS" (Software as a Service). The model you see below is animated to drop in so that you see her sass first and her nerdy glasses second:
As offensive as this ad might be to some people (nerds don’t always have tape on their glasses!), Phase 2 International knows their customer. She might even be the woman that took that Yahoo beach shot up there for her stock photo business.
- - - -
Posted on March 11, 2008
Filed Under Advertising, Beaches, Business and Commerce, Internet Advertising | Leave a Comment
South Park Imaginationland ~ the ideal of destructive creativity
People who create comedy from the worlds we live in are a good place to start when thinking about our ideas of ideal places. Enter the "new feature length DVD movie" called "South Park Imaginationland":
There are no weird palm trees, just architectural evidence in which Bavaria meets the Netherlands meets Yemen set in a large mountain range with a forest buffer with very large trees:
The DVD, with its March 11, 2008, should prove destructive if you feel like lashing out at all that has become cliche (all over again) in our lives.
- - - -
Posted on March 10, 2008
Filed Under Film, Society, Television, Utopia | Leave a Comment
Goomba lurking in Barlow Tyrie outdoor furniture
After seeing similar boring outdoor furniture posing in ads with all Seven Seas, your brain goes from seeing this:
To seeing Super Mario Bros. Goombas:
Right? Not to mention the Donald Trump wig he’s got on there:
- - - -
Posted on March 9, 2008
Filed Under Games, Household Goods | Leave a Comment
Hilton Hotels ~ Paradise doesn’t worry about blackout dates
Hilton gives us a new perspective on the beach:
It’s like the aerial shots by photographer Vincent Laforet (go to Index > Perspectives > Aerials 2), minus the interesting people everywhere. Not that people are a huge part of interesting images or anything. I love the layering of the waves from the palm trees, through the sand, and all the way out to the water. The beach has a shell look to it at a very different scale.
And, yes, we agree that paradise doesn’t worry about blackout dates.
- - - -
Posted on March 8, 2008
Filed Under Beaches, Real Estate, Travel | 2 Comments
‘Paradise’ Ana Serrano van Der Laan (Ana Laan) ~ iTunes Single of the Week
The iTunes free song of the week is called by "Paradise" Ana Serrano van der Laan. Here’s the album artwork displaying an apparent internal paradise she’s magically in:
It’s from her album called Chocolate and Roses. That picture looks like it’s somewhere in Arizona maybe (probably not Palm Springs).
The song "Paradise" itself deserves not a long review. Its sound is plump and pretty fun, but it has a hard time breaking away. It actually comes across as a little trite, like Paris Hilton’s "reggae" song "Stars Are Blind," but with an almost sexy accent. I will probably listen to both on occasion. I like feeling mindless aural sensations sometimes.
The song essentially is about how she’d love to be in paradise, but being there with her lover pretty much tops any other place. I have a feeling that we’re going to be bombarded for many years to come by young artists who can’t break out of the paradise trap. It doesn’t mean that their work can’t be fun and inspired.
Take MGMT for example. Their song "Time to Pretend" has cliche anti-cliche lyrics (striking out against the excess and glamour of rockdom) and lots of beaches/surfboarding in the video, but the underpinnings of musical creativity are there. I’ve put the album on repeat more than once. There’s hope for at least some of the artists. As for Ana, get "Paradise" while it’s free.
Here are the lyrics [comments in brackets]:
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Baaaaaaaa
[This part seems like it's coming from a sheep, but it's actually quite fun with the accompanying music.]
Please don’t talk
My mind is out for a walk
Just go on touching me
[Please don't sing. We're all too busy looking at those things. Just keep on showing your legs.]
Feel your way
Baby make my day
Just go on touching me
[A lot of people would take her up on this offer.]
Paradise sounds pretty nice
But nothing could be better than this
Nothing could be better than this
[This song? Or the sex act you're describing to us?]
Hold me tight
Honey you’re getting it right
Just keep on loving me
[This is actually getting a little graphic. Either that or I have a sick imagination.]
Don’t be shy
Your clever hands don’t lie
Please please keep on loving me
[Nope. Not my imagination.]
Istanbul sounds wonderful
But nothing could be better than this
Nothing could be better than this
[Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul. It's still a great city too.]
[Here comes an incomprehensible but lovely romance language. Something about knees, cash and Costa Rica.]
Money my knee
Costa Rica esta bueno money ma knee
[This part sounds a lot like the Camerounaise named Sally Nyolo. If you like the multi-lingual sound of this part of the song, check her out.]
Bup bup ba bud budda bup
Bup bup ba bud budda bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Ba ba ba bup bup ba da ba bup
Baaaaaaaaaaaa
[I promise this part sounds better to music. No farm animals.]
Take your time
Hot and slow is fine
Lay your hands all over me
[She might actually say "hard and slow" here, but I can't tell. It's the accent.]
Make it last
There’s no need to go fast
Just lay your hands on me
[I'm guessing that she likes to tell her partners what to do in bed.]
Hollywood sounds pretty good
But nothing could be better than this
Oh no, baby
Nothing could be better this
[Hollywood is actually probably not a great place for a woman like you.]
Your clever hands never lie
Nothing could be better than this
Don’t stop now
Nothing could be better than this
[Actually, well, there are a few things I can think of that might be better.]
Surprise! You endured reading that, but there’s also a YouTube video:
See. It’s fun.
- - - -
Posted on March 5, 2008
Filed Under Music | 12 Comments
Man pulls palm tree down onto his pick up truck
Enough said:
Aie. So much for that bakkie. This one is from South Africa.
If this were real, I can only imagine that SOMEBODY would want to know if he was all right.
- - - -
Posted on March 5, 2008
Filed Under Automobiles, Palm Trees | Leave a Comment
J.Crew Spring in a Modernist Neutra Setting
J.Crew has taken a strong visual turn with the spring March 2008 catalog:
It’s distinct for its use of landscape architecture and architecture to contrast just a hint of what the model is wearing. There are no happy, jumpy groups of people (at least on the cover) with white linen jackets in stupid little row boats. Inside, people are trying to pose without appearing posed, going about their daily lives as privileged desert dwellers.
Modernism is contemporary again. But don’t worry. There is still one or two lingering ugly items in an otherwise delicious turn of 08 ephemera.
The 1946 Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs was designed by Richard Neutra. As for dealing with the desert as paradise, well, that’s for another day.
- - - -
Posted on March 4, 2008
Filed Under Deserts, Fasion, Pools | 3 Comments
-
Home
