Soccer for Newbs

In honour of the World Cup 2014, here's everything I know about the "Beautiful Game"......

Great Advertising

12 Most Embarrassing Ads

Published on Today 4/29/2012 under Cool Ads - by Gracie Murano

A little too close to reality. (Link)

No more living in denial about the size of your waist line, thanks to this fantastic, albeit terrifying, guerrilla marketing initiative from the health club chain, Fitness First. Unsuspecting commuters in the Netherlands are faced with viewing their body weight in bright lights - quite literally - when they take a seat at this Rotterdam bus stop. Scary, to say the very least, but extraordinarily clever, and likely to increase membership numbers at the local Fitness First. The brainchild of Netherlands' agency N=5, the initiative takes the concept of guerilla marketing to a whole new level. (Link)

The best helpers are ones that you don't have to pay. The Canadian ad agency Rethink makes good use of bald commuters on rapid transit trains by exposing their heads for all to see.

VIP Gym thought images of a flabby, cellulite-ridden butt topped with a pair of love handles would be enough to make people want to "get up and run." Glued to chairs in restaurants and cafes, the poster gives you the uncomfortable feeling that you're seeing way more of strangers than you would like. (Via)

When costumers bend to read the little text it says:

"At this moment, you bum is completely exposed. If it were in a sexy pair of jeans, it would attract attention all the time!"

Okay, it isn't a promotional product, but it is a clever way to make a poster interactive. The poster is purposely mounted so it droops over itself. When a curious passerby lifts it up, their personal smell is called into question. They get props for being funny, and for making a simple piece of paper into an interactive ad. (Link)

A Coca Cola Guerrilla Marketing Magnet Ad to promote Coca Cola's grip bottles. The ad places magnets behind the billboard so when passersby stand too close with metal in their pockets, they are magically attracted to the ad. (Link)

Condomi Erotic Shopping Bag. Advertising Agency: Draft FCB Kobza, Vienna, Austria (Link)

This guerrilla ad campaign wouldn't stand a chance of flying in the US.

This man doesn't look too happy to be in the ad. (Link)

A floating afro sits at head-level behind a bus stop seat, just at the right height to make it look like anyone who sits there has quite an impressive head of hair. This poster by ‘Real Hip Hop' is definitely an eye-catcher. (Link)

A huge interactive light box was mounted in the Seoul Sindorim Subway Station, the entrance way to a multiplex electronics shopping mall where various brands compete. Over 500,000 commuters use the station daily, making it the perfect place for an ad like this. Huddled together as if at a premiere, the paparazzi appear to be jostling and competing for the best celebrity shot. The celebrities, however, are the ones walking by; they automatically trigger a deluge of flashing camera lights. The accidental superstars then follow the red carpet all the way out of the station and into a mall, where there's a Nikon shop conveniently located inside.

If I were shy, I wouldn't be too happy about passing by this ad. (Link)

Wealthy, Un-Educated & Broke (but armed to the teeth...)

The USA is bemoaning it's lost status as a world power....and one of the reasons is

Farewell to an old friend over the years. Andy Rooney

First off, I'd like to express how deeply & truly sad I am at the death of Andy Rooney from CBS' 60 Minutes.

I grew up watching that show every Sunday night. If you knew me as a kid, it was playing in my home every Sunday when you were over for some of my mom's barely edible steaks, if you knew me as a young adult then it was playing every Sunday over Chinese/Pizza takeout AND if you had known me on Oct 6, 2011 when he did his last broadcast, I was there watching as well.

Andy represented to me a kindly, grumpy, wise and yet childish grandfather. He said some pretty pertinent shit, called it like he saw it and for all his faults, he was at least honest with himself and his audience.

I will miss him and his bushy eyebrows every Sunday from now on.

RIP Andy, you will be missed in my household.

Some quotes stolen from CNN (don't worry...they can afford it)


(CNN) -- Andy Rooney, who died Saturday at the age of 92, had the last word each week on the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes." Here are some of his great lines from those essays, along with a few others, that reveal his talent as a writer and the dry wit that made him famous.

"I try to look nice. I comb my hair, I tie my tie, I put on a jacket, but I draw the line when it comes to trimming my eyebrows. You work with what you got." -- from an essay on his eyebrows, Nov. 24, 1996

"We need people who can actually do things. We have too many bosses and too few workers. More college graduates ought to become plumbers or electricians, then go home at night and read Shakespeare." -- from an essay on finding a good job, March 21, 2010

"We didn't shock them, and we didn't awe them in Baghdad. The phrase makes us look like foolish braggarts. The president ought to fire whoever wrote that for him." -- on the start of the war in Iraq in 2003

"I recently bought this new laptop to use when I travel. Look at that. Fits right into my briefcase. It weighs less than three pounds. I lose that much getting mad, waiting to get on the plane through security at the airport." -- from an essay on computers, Feb. 11, 2009

"We can all be prouder to be human beings, because that's what they were. They make up for a lot of liars, cheats, and terrorists among us." -- on the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger after it exploded on takeoff in 1986

"Not many people in this world are as lucky as I've been. ... All this time I've been paid to say what is on my mind on television. You don't get any luckier in life than that." -- from Rooney's final "60 Minutes" essay, Oct. 2, 2011

"One of the things we can be sure of over the July 4th weekend is that news reports will keep telling us how many of us are going to die in automobile accidents." -- from Rooney's first "60 Minutes" essay, July 2, 1978

"The third rule of life is this: Everything you buy today is smaller, more expensive, and not as good as it was yesterday." -- from an essay on coffee cans, Oct. 23, 1988

"A lot of these products are actually pretty good. But why are they always trying to con us with the contrived pictures on the box that don't look anything like you get when you eat it?" -- from an essay on the pictures on food packages, Dec. 4, 1988

"I don't know anything offhand that mystifies Americans more than the cotton they put in pill bottles. Why do they do it? Are you supposed to put the cotton back in once you've taken a pill out?" -- from an essay on pill bottles, Oct. 12, 1986

"I understand shipping -- you have to expect to pay for the stamps or for the freight company -- but what's this handling they always have? How much does handling cost, anyway? I don't want a lot of people handling something I'm going to buy before I get it. How much would it cost if you didn't handle it before you sent it to me?" -- from an essay on fine print, March 12, 1989

"Dogs are nicer than people." -- from an essay on the true things in life, Dec. 5, 2007

"I did not believe in the war. I thought it was wrong to go into any war. And I got to the war, and saw the Germans, and I changed my mind. I decided we were right going into World War II." -- from a CBS interview with Morley Safer, Oct. 2, 2011

"I am interested in details. If you go into anything far enough, you get into the details of it, and people turn out to be interested in what makes things work." -- from a 2010 interview in The Colgate Scene

Slow the F*@K Down

Someone shared this with me today and I thought I'd pass it along.