Political signing events: they are a-changin’

Political “signing events” have always intrigued me… politics combined with blatant photo opportunities. They’ve been known to produce some famous photos. But others can be quite bizarre, and this one is no different:

This photo has been making the rounds on the interwebz, and popped up on The Daily Show last night. Originally via the New York Times. Now I just need to find a baby to arm myself the next time I venture to a political event.

The Right Ringtone for the Job

I’m always intrigued when I hear unique and bizarre cell phone ringtones. Some are impressive, and some are just weird. But regardless, there’s a time and a place for (almost) every ringtone. And then there are the times and places when it’s never the right time:

chose your ringtones carefully (and remember to silence your mobile devices when appropriate.

The Easter AIG Hunt

Happy Easter to all those celebrating today (and chag sameach to all those celebrating Passover as well… I don’t want any of my posts to seem exclusive!). This piece entitled “Easter AIG Hunt” from stencil artist Above seemed depressingly poignant, and made me smile a bit.

via the always fascinating WoosterCollective. If you want more close up shots, check out the video clip that goes with it over at Above’s Vimeo page.

When an Obama slogan appropriation can work

These days, there’s an appropriation of an Obama slogan juts about everywhere. And the “hope” Shepard Fairy poster appropriation seems to be multiplying faster than rabbits on viagra. But every now and then, there’s an appropriation done so well, it actually works. Like this one, for Berlitz Language School (in Israel):

For those that aren’t fluent in French or Hebrew, when read phonetically, it reads “yes we can.” And the biggest hook is both “oui” and the Hebrew “כן / Ken” literally translate to “yes.” In one fell swoop, this one makes up all the other horribly unfunny and unclever appropriations. In the spirit of disclosure, there’s a bit of discussion over at I Believe In Advertising regarding the copy being appropriated from another artist. Either way, it’s effective and well done.

Obama, Shepard Fairey, Hope, and the National Portrait Gallery

Shepard Fairey, the creator of the now famous “Hope” poster, has been getting a good deal of airtime lately. I first wrote about Fairey and the Hope poster almost a full year ago… I’m shocked how fast this past year has gone. Anyway, for a link clickfest on Fairey, Obey, etc., check out the other post.

So Fairey has been popping up everywhere now that inaugeration day is tomorrow. He was even on the Colbert Report. But this video piece from the LA Times seems to capture everything beautifully. It’s a fast-paced clip that’s only two minutes long – short enough for me to give it my full attention, while still getting all the info in there. Definitely worth watching. And it’s interesting to think about how fast Fairey went from a relative street artist into having a piece hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.

Guerilla advertising: War Veterans, a gas station, and plastic soldiers.

This is some interesting stuff… that sends a fairly powerful message when you take into account the actions of those actually sending the message (which is beautifully documented, of course). The Iraq Veterans Against the War put together this guerrilla piece which is pretty self explanatory, yet powerful.

Check out more photos of the event over at Osocio. definitely gets the guerrilla advertising mind rolling.

ABC flexes it’s network muscle, won’t air We Campaign ad

I’ve heard a fair bit about this ad, and the network controversy surrounding it. It’s no secret that big oil companies pour advertising budget into the major networks… but it’s still interesting that ABC won’t run this ad from the We Campaign.

The We Campaign has a petition to ABC going on over at WeCanSolveIt.org. It seems to be getting even more publicity now that ABC won’t air it. Interesting. And slightly odd.

CNN channels Star Trek and Star Wars and beams in Will.i.am via hologram. what?

Over the past few years, mega-multitouch screens have become the new big thing for election coverage (incase you missed the SNL parody the other week, check it out via engadget… thanks moT). And with an election as monumental as last nights, we could only expect the news media to go insane with technology this time around. Anne Curry appeared in a virtual rotunda, CNN superimposed a mini-Capital on the news desk, and most impressive of all, the beaming in of Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am via hologram to conduct a virtual interview with Anderson Cooper.

so how did they do it? well, 44 cameras, 20 computers, and some other crazy technology later, people were being “beamed in” left and right. Crazy stuff. Necessary? probably not. Crazy? most definitely. Check out the article at Wired for full coverage of the election technology. And to quote Jamiroquai’s now-12-years-old Virtual Insanity, “it’s a crazy world we’re livin’ in.”

Bringing back “wassup!” in the name of politics

I saw this the other day and have to say, it’s impressive. Released last week by 60Frames Entertainment, the short has been popping up all over the internet. A pretty impressive appropriation of the classic Budweiser “wassup!” guys.
And the most painfully ironic bit to go with the film: on Friday, 60Frames announced they had to cut jobs and and ended up laying off six of their employees. Kind of speaks to the film.

Obama ads are everywhere. No… seriously.

This is pretty bizarre, amazing, cool, genius, revolutionary, strange, unsettling, and overall interesting. Ads pushing a vote, and specifically a vote for Obama, have started appearing in some xBox Live games. According to an AP story, there are nine EA Sports games involved in the xBox Live ad buy, including Burnout:Paradise and Madden ‘09. I particularly enjoyed one of the comments from someone at EA Sports:

“Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

Gotta get those disclaimers in wherever you can. Espceially with this years presidential debate – or so it seems.

[story via AdLab, image source: rvb]