Science in Advertising

No, it's not how evolution really works, but it's awfully cool anyway. The Experiment from Colin Trenter on Vimeo. I love Photoshop, but am I the only one who thinks this resembles a cross between a Rorschach test and a SyFy Channel commercial?
I find this 1950s-era needle book cover fascinating, because it mixes the stereotypically female activity of sewing with the stereotypically male interest in space travel. What is the connection here? Are these young women sewing spacesuits? Are they inspired by/chatting about the excitement of rocket science? Is there any tenuously plausible connection that can be made between a space ship named "The Moon" and sewing needles, other than that they are both silver? View larger image Ha! It turns out we can't even make that connection, because a closer look at the packaging reveals that the…
Bora's comment on my previous post (Could beautiful design save newspapers?) got me thinking about the distinction between aesthetics and advertising. Here's one Twitter-worthy take on it: Available at the Grandburo online store. Via Kingdom of Style
Richard Avedon, The New Yorker, 1995 Via Haute Macabre, an unbelievable fashion editorial created by Richard Avedon for the New Yorker. I have no words. Richard Avedon, The New Yorker, 1995 See the complete editorial at Haute Macabre.
Here in DC, creative individuals appear to have revised Chevron ads in at least one Metro station to reflect a more, er, politically overt sentiment. The poster hack changes the promise "I will use less energy" in this ad (pdf) to "I will stop lobbying against climate legislation." The digitally executed revision (which looks pretty convincing in person) follows in the footsteps of Berlin graffiti artists and others who use graphic hacks to subtly shift, reverse, or critique advertising in public places. The question is, how many people have noticed? (Keep your eyes open, DC residents!)
San Francisco based company Cordarounds seems hell-bent on living up to every stereotype about that quirky city. Their store is online-only and features a trippy blog. Their catalog ads involve horizontal corduroy pants worn by attractive-and/or-grungy people drinking, eating, playing guitar, camping, reading The Satanic Verses in a reversible smoking jacket, that sort of mundane thing. They offer free shipping - but only to Greenland, of course. Best of all, they're not afraid to offend people with their uberedgy science: Okay, maybe that's actually pseudoscience. If it's not, I really don…
Okay, kids - I know you loved those robot photos from SFO's science fiction in popular culture exhibit. So before my flight out of SFO after New Year's, I snagged a few more snapshots! First up: Spaceman Air Freshener. Umm, that doesn't exactly instill confidence - I think the space station probably smells like a rusty latrine. Ahhhhhh! Attack of the space Mrs. Butterworths! Tom Corbett Space Academy. (It's just like a wild west fort - in space.) "Mr. Hustler?" Really? These are a few female space alien figurines. I'm not sure how powerful a blow they struck for feminism in Mr. Hustler's…
A biology-driven ad for the Oslo Gay Festival, via Sociological Images. Demerits for promulgating the tenacious myth of the sentient sperm, but kudos for production values - those are really nice flagella.
full-size ad Mercury 360, Bucharest, Romania Illustrator: Andrei Nedea, 2008 More anti-drug ads, this time from Romania. Note that these ads' message is a little less obvious than that of the last batch. There's also an optics problem with the perception of each object - its representation should be upside-down in the mind's eye, so to speak. I can see how that detail might have confused the layperson and detracted from the message, but it still bugs me. Also, I'm not quite sure why the ads need to look antiqued and da Vinci-esque. Via adsoftheworld full-size ad full-size ad
These anti-drug ads featuring risk-taking vermin, by Above the Influence, are rather clever, don't you think? I'm trying to figure out the aesthetic - the grungy clothes could be contemporary, 80s, or 90s, but the interiors seem older - like 60s. (Check out the rotary phone in the teenager's room!) Anyway, it's the sort of cultural/temporal mishmash you see on a sitcom set, where all the elements are so familiar, they fade into the background in a vague approximation of "American Life." It's kind of a neat effect.
"Please Hug Me" artist: J. Keeler, 1987 Today is the 20th annual World AIDS Day. I can still remember when I first learned about AIDS, in the late eighties - it was an extremely scary and mysterious thing that the media seemed very uncomfortable covering. No one I knew was talking about it openly - family, friends, or teachers. That's why posters like this were so important. AIDS awareness advertisements represent a history of creative and controversial images - largely because of their sometimes explicit* sexual content, but also because of the stigmas attached to STDs, casual sex, and…
This peculiar little dude is a paper toy for children - and a great example of vintage advertising. "Le Pere Savon" is built of cubes of soap with "72%" embossed on them, indicating a composition of 72% olive oil - which is typical of the French soap savon de Marseille. I believe he is blowing a bubble out of a pipe. "Le Pere Savon" was later rebranded "Persavon," and I don't find any recent examples of this character in advertising. But you can still build your own personal creepy soap-man using this pattern from Agence Eureka. They've helpfully split the full-size original pattern pieces…
Chesterfields ad, 1952 Today, November 20, is the American Cancer Society's 33rd Great American Smokeout. Now, be honest: did you even know? The Smokeout doesn't seem to get as much attention as it used to, perhaps because the link between cigarette smoke and cancer is no longer surprising or controversial. After decades of anti-tobacco campaigns hammering the research home, no media-conscious American could plausibly believe that cigarettes are actually good for his or her health. Yet this is a sea change from attitudes in the first half of the 20th century, when cigarettes' health benefits…
One of the odder perks of living in DC is viewing the strange Metro ads purchased by various lobbying blocs. Here, a rosy-cheeked child sucks down pasta, while the ad proudly tells us the main ingredient is fertilizer. Yum, yum.
Images from a Thai ad campaign for Black & Decker lawnmowers! Yikes. While I appreciate the sharpness of any blade that could slice such a clean, anatomically elegant cross-section through a living snake, I have to also say "eeeuw." Poor critters! Unfortunately, industrial harvesters do chop up lizards and snakes, although less surgically than this. Many years ago, when I was working the night shift at a produce freezing plant, we had to pick bits of reptile, insect, and amphibian out of the frozen vegetables. Fun job, that. Anyway, the strangest thing (besides the idea that this…
Treehugger (detail) Alex Pardee They're partying it up in SF tonight to celebrate the release of Alex Pardee's new "cinematic clothing" line, Night of the Treeple. Check out the preview gallery of sinister forest brethren at Juxtapoz. Note: the mythology Pardee created for this line is yet another typical scenario involving faceless government scientists (in this case, "Project Armadillo") and their vats of inconvenient toxic waste. Come on! I mean, unscrupulous government researchers can hardly be to blame for EVERY fictitious race of carnivorous angiosperms. Cut 'em some slack, and blame…
A new conservation international ad for the "lost there, felt here" campaign pays visual tribute to the Amazon's nickname "lungs of the world."
This is one of the most bizarre commercials I've ever seen (and yes, I'm including the Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld spot in that sample). It's a French ad for Orangina, which I discovered via Stephanie at almostdiamonds. It appears to be an innuendo-drenched Technicolor musical extravaganza set in a baroque painting peopled by anthropomorphized woodland creatures. There's even a cephalopod bartender reminiscent of Carmen Miranda! And a lot of exotic dancing. What does any of this have to do with my favorite carbonated orange beverage? According to the Independent, "The adverts were said to be…
I love egregious examples of faux-scientific jargon and weird portrayals of the research process in advertising. I just noticed that Rembrandt, the company that makes tooth whitening systems, has a couple of doozies. From their "Brilliant Science" website: At REMBRANDT®, we believe if you want to make something different, you have to do things a little differently. That's why we like to think outside the lab (which is, in actuality, a giant box). Who knows when a cloud in the sky or guitar playing in the park will lead to the next bit of amazingness. It's this novel, creative approach to…