3 Ad Campaigns That Don’t Completely Suck
I’m going to be honest: I’ve been listening to the same Future Islands album (SINGLES) on repeat for three days. When it’s off, like someone tries to talk to me or something, I feel gross and naked. I just want those sparkly, sad/happy songs in reassuring key signatures in my brain at all times. The music has been putting a gloss of nostalgic positivity on everything I see, which means basically I haven’t been hating as much stuff as usual. One of the things I usually hate (one among, you know, every thing) are the blatant attempts to make me feel bad enough about myself to buy new things that pass for advertisements. Here, because I want to share that rosy feeling with you, are three examples of ads that came up this week that I don’t hate all the way. In fact, I find them a tiny bit charming. Just a tiny bit though. Don’t get crazy.
Reversible Chewbacca/Han Solo Hoodie
Here are some things even Future Islands can’t make me stop hating: Disney and Amazon. And yet…I want this officially merchandized hoodie so badly I can taste it. Congratulations Star Wars marketing team. Also: fuck you.
Chipotle’s Cups With Stories Written By Famous People
Also, fuck Jonathan Safran Foer–who is like a sort of-vegan who judges the shit out of people who deign to feed themselves with animal protein–for “coming up” with this idea to put cool words on cups at a fast food restaurant. I’m not going to lie: I love the idea of getting more stories in the world and getting them to people who might not read them otherwise. I even love the idea of putting them on cups at fast food restaurants. I love the design of these cups and the spirit too. However, none of that stops JSF from being the world’s top literary tool for selling out his principles so hard for what one imagines is a some cold, hard, animal protein created cash.
The Whacko Sprint “Framily” Ads
There is almost nothing as horrible to come out of advertising this year as the word “framily.” No. No. Nononononono. It’s worse than “hangry” in the category of fake words made up of two real words that make me want to puke and punch someone at the same time. So why is this ad campaign so GOD DAMN CHARMING? Is it the B plus-list actors and the girl who only speaks French? It absolutely cannot be the talking rodent because that is one of my least favorite things. Whatever it is, it kills me to say this, but the ad is working.
Of course, there’s no way I am switching to Sprint because of these ads. In fact, it’s doubtful that any of these campaigns will lead me to spend any money–unless I get a real windfall and have two glasses of wine and buy that hoodie online–but still, in this world of constant bombardment of ads from every single screen/flat surface, it’s nice to know that some marketing teams out there are still trying. It’s nice to know that in a cubicle, in some soulless building, two people are high-fiving, saying “WE DID IT!” and by “it” they are meaning “came up with something interesting and creative and weird and got it passed a million possible censors and it came off sort of right and not at all like a pander-y Geico commercial.” Small victories guys. Now, back to my music.
The Tusk 
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