Just joined a flickr photo sharing group called “Weird Advertising Characters” (w/thanks to AdWeek and Laughing Squid). Some fascinating history of popular uncanny icons in here — living embodiments of products that should not be. Filed for future reference, added to my flickr account, posted on my delicious page…and shared with you here. Related flickr… Continue reading Weird Advertising Characters
Category: Advertising
Appearances of Das Unheimliche in popular advertising and marketing.
The Trophy Talks Back: Mike’s Hard Lemonade “House” Ads
The series of “House” party ads that Mike’s Hard Lemonade have started running are pretty effective and funny in the way that they domesticate tropes of the uncanny. In my favorite, the host of the party answers the door bell, and a headless deer simply stands on the doorstep, breathing. The mounted head in the… Continue reading The Trophy Talks Back: Mike’s Hard Lemonade “House” Ads
Thing Addams, Photographer
I was very excited to stumble on this TV commercial from 1985 for the Nikon One Touch instant camera. Their slogan? “It puts great photography at everybody’s fingertips.” Their mascot? A dismembered hand, of course! Thing (sometimes spelled “Thingg”) — the ambulatory hand that lives in a box and serves as a literal “handyman” to… Continue reading Thing Addams, Photographer
Animated Weeds and Supernatural Pesticides
Lawncare season is in full bloom, if the television is any indication. More and more, I’ve been noticing advertisements for riding mowers, hedge trimmers, and all sorts of products targeting the green thumb. But one popular subgenre of these gardening ads have been employing the medium in a way that is undeniably uncanny: commercials for… Continue reading Animated Weeds and Supernatural Pesticides
You Don’t Eat Your Own Kind
My favorite Bizarro comic of recent days involves Mr. Peanut — that dapper mascot of Planter’s nuts — in a scenario that makes plain the inherent contradiction of advertisements that employ cartoon mascots to represent the very same products they sell. What IS the appeal of these imaginary spokespeanuts and mascots and similar characters in… Continue reading You Don’t Eat Your Own Kind
JC Penney — Screaming For Retail
In their latest campaign, “Enough. Is. Enough,” JC Penney is running what is, to my mind, a hilarious television commercial, involving a serial montage of consumers shouting for outrageously loud and extended time periods at sales tags and other marketing tricks familiar to us all. What makes this commercial so great is all the horror… Continue reading JC Penney — Screaming For Retail
The Freakiest Ads of 2011
Thank you, Tim Nudd at AdWeek, for posting the 30 Freakiest Ads of 2011. Some of them were quite disturbing (I think the anti-child abuse PSA from Ireland hit me hardest (literally). And some are freaky in the way they just push the boundaries of what is taboo. But many are prime examples of the… Continue reading The Freakiest Ads of 2011
Eternal Moments and Smoking Billboards
The endless breath of smoke. The unexpected blink. The sudden nod. Visit the “Eternal Moments” gallery of cinemagraphs by Ana Pais for some stunning moments of the uncanny. The portfolio opens up with a citation from Barthes’ “Camera Lucida” that reads: “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats,… Continue reading Eternal Moments and Smoking Billboards
Kung Shoe
This Fall 2010 television commercial, Kung Shoe DSW (also archived on their corporate site), uses a clever pastiche of contemporary action and martial arts cinema to advertise Designer Shoe Warehouse‘s “Killer Boots.” It’s cute and funny and obviously an effective, eye-grabbing advertisement for the company, as artfully made as any Jan Svankmajer film. It is… Continue reading Kung Shoe
Living, Breathing…and the Autonomous Movement of Fur
“These adorable pets offer a real pet ownership experience without the hassles and expense. Say goodbye to feedings and vet bills. Say hello to lots of love and cuddles. Perfect Petzzz – the ultimate pet.” — Perfect Petzzz website “It is not a toy,” [VP of Marketing] Clarkson says, “but this is the closest you… Continue reading Living, Breathing…and the Autonomous Movement of Fur