(Still) Declassified. "In January 2009, I had an idea; photograph people in their homes that have placed a wide variety of personal advertisements. Although I imagined most people wouldn’t want to give up their anonymity, I rightly imagined some would be willing to. " [more inside]
posted by availablelight on Jul 2, 2009 - 52 comments

A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him if married love begins to cool, she should question herself. Vintage sexist ads. (Disclaimer: posted by Neil Gaiman on Twitter and shamelessly stolen.)
posted by misha on May 27, 2009 - 60 comments

"How do black women fight crime? They have abortions." "How do you stop a poofter from drowning? You take your foot off his head." These and other 'jokes' featured in an advertisement on The Gruen Transfer, an Australian television program focusing on advertising. The ad, part of a segment called 'The Pitch' which usually produces humorous ads, was banned by the ABC, but the national broadcaster has still allowed it to be viewed online, and hundreds have now seen it. The ad was designed to sell "fat pride", with creator Adam Hunt explaining his motivation behind the ad being to say "if you discriminate against somebody on the basis of their shape then you are no different to someone who is racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic." Debate has raged online if the ad is offensive and discriminatory, as the ABC has declared, and whether or not it was effective. Watch the ad and judge for yourself.
posted by Effigy2000 on May 15, 2009 - 157 comments

Scrabble put these out for their 60th anniversary. [more inside]
posted by gman on Apr 24, 2009 - 32 comments

Times Square before Disney: Ads for 1970s "Leisure Spas" (SLYT)
posted by CunningLinguist on Mar 24, 2009 - 33 comments

Clever ads on the sides of city busses. That is all.
posted by maryh on Mar 9, 2009 - 44 comments

From the 70s version of a bad hair day to disco chart-toppers leaping out of cassette tape boxes to three-legged celebrities who are currently in jail to... well, you just gotta see this one, the Advertising Sillyness from the Seventies flickr group has the groovy images you'll recall (or may want to forget) if you were around in those halcyon days. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Feb 21, 2009 - 37 comments

Add-Art is a free FireFox add-on which replaces advertising on websites with curated art images. The art shows are updated every two weeks and feature contemporary artists and curators.
posted by Foci for Analysis on Feb 13, 2009 - 29 comments

Joe Sedelmaier showed us where the beef is, and in doing so, revolutionized television advertising (aside from spawning a Clara Peller 7" and influencing the 1984 US elections). Here are some of Sedelmaier's greatest moments: Wendy's: Soviet Fashion Show | "Parts is Parts" • FedEx: "You can't count on anything these days!" | The Classic Speed Talker (John Moschitta, previously) • Pearson's Salted Nut Roll (with Godwin effect) • Fibreglas Pink (Canada) • Kaypro Computers • Alaska Airlines • Clara Peller in Jartran Truck Rental • Hayworth Furniture Systems • GMAC Financing • And for those missing individually, Youtuber jerry7242 has posted a reel of 30 minutes' worth of Joe Sedelmaier's commercials in four parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (#4 includes an interview with Joe Sedelmaier) Enjoy! [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Feb 9, 2009 - 8 comments

Old Play-doh ads! Chop that mop. Excellent! What has been done cannot be undone. Arbeit Macht Frei! Oooooh...pretty sparkles.... Tasty! Bart Smit? Basa?
posted by GavinR on Jan 30, 2009 - 22 comments

It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when Winston, Salem, Camel, Tareyton, Pall Mall, and Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked? SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include: [more inside]
posted by taz on Jan 29, 2009 - 40 comments

Just imagine! Coming Super-Attractions features vintage DC comics in-house advertisements spanning the decades. Enjoy!
posted by kimota on Jan 13, 2009 - 4 comments

In a series of sixteen advertisements screened in Japan, Tommy Lee Jones plays extraterrestrial 'Alien Jones', who has taken the form of a man to check on the world of humans, all the while drinking a Japanese brand of coffee named BOSS. I have no idea how Tommy Lee Jones got talked into doing these advertisements, or why. And after watching them for yourself (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16), you probably won't either.
posted by Effigy2000 on Nov 23, 2008 - 85 comments

Want to sell your pain reliever to mothers? Rule #1: Don't make an ad that pisses off the "Mommy Bloggers". Twitter is currently "Motrin Moms" central- but that's not good news for Motrin.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Nov 16, 2008 - 119 comments

Who's Gonna Save My Soul directed by Chris Milk
posted by gwint on Nov 5, 2008 - 37 comments

From The Atlantic, a fun bunch of montages of interesting people answering questions like "What is the cost of being a nerd?", "When is evil cool?" and "Are good books bad for you?" (Accompanies a redesign of magazine as well as of the web site. In seeking readers and advertisers, publications like The Atlantic and The Economist, known as thought-leader magazines, have long tried to make up in cleverness what they lack in wallet power.)
posted by Non Prosequitur on Oct 25, 2008 - 27 comments

Remember the days of ACME products and cans that simply said BEER? Product placement in television and film is so commonplace that "product integration" is where the money is now. Some writers are getting very good at it while others wonder if it will be possible to survive without it.
posted by kyleg on Oct 10, 2008 - 43 comments

Ever secretly harbor a dream to create slick promos for pharmaceutical companies? Have at it, both in TV and print form. (Via Adfreaks)
posted by Weebot on Aug 14, 2008 - 25 comments

Vintage ads galore.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 12, 2008 - 25 comments

We have heard the PCR song. Now we have the epMotion song. "Yeah girl, it is time to automate." Even Nature has an article about it.
posted by dov3 on Jul 9, 2008 - 12 comments

Beware the San Francisco values! [more inside]
posted by serazin on May 24, 2008 - 46 comments

Horror movie or pasta sauce commercials? (The company web site is a little odd, too.) [via]
posted by Armitage Shanks on Apr 17, 2008 - 14 comments

Duke University has three image collections of old U.S. and Canadian advertisements. Ad*Access a database of over 7000 print ads from 1911 to 1956. Emergence of Advertising in America has 9000 images of ads from 1850-1920. Medicine and Madison Avenue has 600 medical ads and documents from 1911 to 1958. You can browse the collections by product, company, subject, year and categories or you can use the search function. Here are some of my favorites: Miss Clairol, They're Both in the Swim Today, Fancy Goods and Toy Bazaar, Sky Blue Pink, SAS Makes Airline History, A Montgomery Ward Hat that Becomes Nearly Every Woman, Radiant Peony and Hitler's Death Warrant.
posted by Kattullus on Apr 14, 2008 - 11 comments

Gun for the whole family. A Scanning Around With Gene article about historic gun ads. More fun with Gene Gable: Cigarettes, diving, winter fonts, red white and blue, and so much more.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 10, 2008 - 12 comments

Osocio is a blog that covers some of the best social marketing and non-profit advertising worldwide - whether it be through a careers fair, a "beauty" ad, or even through sex education.
posted by divabat on Dec 4, 2007 - 9 comments

Fashion ads from Ebony Magazine, 1970 - '76
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Nov 29, 2007 - 88 comments

Make your own attack ad. The Democratic party is uploading all its "tracker" videos of the top Republican candidates out on the campaign trail, for use by anyone for anything. "The party hopes that thousands of eyes might find something the mainstream media has missed, or that a new way of juxtaposing the video with something else will be revealing about the candidates," says the NYT. Gimmick or political sea change?
posted by CunningLinguist on Nov 28, 2007 - 60 comments

Please enjoy vintage video propaganda:
Don't Be A Sucker
The Enemy Agent & You
Your Job in Germany
So They Tell Me and
Propaganda Techniques
[more inside]
posted by carsonb on Nov 20, 2007 - 19 comments

The latest All-Bran commercial really pushes out the product's virtues, although not without making a stink. Personally, I still prefer a heaping bowl of Colon Blow.
posted by brain_drain on Nov 12, 2007 - 53 comments

The Condom Song is a charmingly bizarre safe-sex message from India. Music and humor are often used to promote safe sex and pregnancy prevention, alternatives to shock tactics. Bangkok's safe sex theme restaurants represent a slightly more novel approach, a chain called Cabbages and Condoms. Whatever the style, condom promotion is much more mainstream than when the Golden Girls' had their first awkward encounter and British comedians tackled uncomfortable condom language. NSFW
posted by madamjujujive on Oct 28, 2007 - 30 comments

drawnline: The commercial and personal work of Andrew Bell.
posted by gwint on Oct 14, 2007 - 4 comments

"My dad started crying, I started crying, my brother started crying," says Carl Nolet Jr., who sounds on the phone like he's not kidding. "It was exactly what we wanted to say. It was simple, it was black and white, it was genuine."

Dear Ketel One Drinker
Don't You Like Our New Oh So Minimalist Ads?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Oct 3, 2007 - 89 comments

"You've reached this page because the site you were trying to visit now blocks the FireFox browser". Because Firefox has endorsed and allowed the Ad Block Plus plug-in, which is "is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers," some folks aren't too happy. With links to How to Block Firefox, Firefox Myths, and The Firefox Cult.
posted by zardoz on Aug 16, 2007 - 181 comments

Ad juxipositions. Just a very quickie link to oddly placed ads.
posted by edgeways on Jul 19, 2007 - 39 comments

These women are supposed to disgust you into buying low-fat yogurt.
posted by brittney on Jun 19, 2007 - 106 comments

An amazing collection of classic American television commercials. Sorted by category: Eat, Drink, Smoke, Clean, Groom, Shop and Travel. Includes descriptions and historical background. The commercials can be viewed in either RealPlayer or MediaPlayer format, and newer ones will work in both IE and Firefox.
posted by amyms on Apr 10, 2007 - 7 comments

2007 Super Bowl ads (note the multiple pages). And be sure to post your fav (mine = the Coke GTA spot).
posted by JPowers on Feb 4, 2007 - 159 comments

Light Criticism is the newest project by Graffiti Research Lab and the Anti-Advertising Agency.
posted by fandango_matt on Jan 25, 2007 - 23 comments

Advertising in India (thanks to this post by NickySkye) More ads here and here
posted by hadjiboy on Jan 24, 2007 - 12 comments

BestAdsonTV.com Browse TV spots from around the world at this industry site highlighting new creative work. Highly rated ads include this one for Carlton beer, this sober PSA, this lovely one for the California lottery and a fun take on evolution for Guinness. And then there's this, um, sausage ad. Browse the controversies (mostly complaints about copycats), ads from Romania and Iceland and Belgium, or last year's best ads. Many of the most amusing seem to be for beer.
posted by CunningLinguist on Dec 23, 2006 - 8 comments

Suddenly, you feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. According to Wired, the Active Denial System has been certified for use in Iraq.
posted by alms on Dec 8, 2006 - 100 comments

PermaPuppies - they never get big. Spoof commercial biotech site is just viral advertizing for Michael Crichton's new book, but some of the ads are fun.
posted by CunningLinguist on Nov 30, 2006 - 27 comments

How Advertising Spoiled Me is a blog showcasing mainly magazine & billboard advertising from around the world, with pieces selected based on their inventiveness/cleverness. If you're offended by advertising, you might want to skip this post.
posted by jonson on Oct 20, 2006 - 34 comments

Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo’s train stations
posted by Tlogmer on Oct 20, 2006 - 32 comments

1950's US Print Advertisements Click thumbnails for larger versions. via.
posted by jonson on Oct 13, 2006 - 22 comments

With nothing to lose but more of his own money, former convenience store magnate (kinda), local businessman, and independent candidate Christy Mihos has produced the 'cheekiest' political ad (so far) in the current Massachusetts gubernatorial race.
posted by scblackman on Sep 25, 2006 - 10 comments

1970s toy commercials. From an era when things were more fun, cool, and fresh. Whether you were a hipster or a genius type, there was some creative and smart toy to be had. Many toys were educational and prepared you for the vicissitudes of adulthood. (YouTube alert!)
posted by madamjujujive on Sep 10, 2006 - 44 comments

Artist Dan Bergeron likes to muck around with billboard adverts. His recent doctoring of a billboard featuring Bush in Toronto has earned him some press in the Globe and Mail.
posted by chunking express on Aug 11, 2006 - 43 comments

Ad Supported Software It started with email, and now it's everything from IM, maps and photo galleries. But, free network management software? Can this work?
posted by tboz on Jul 28, 2006 - 8 comments

craigslist could make $500 million a year. Why not?
posted by mr_crash_davis on Jun 17, 2006 - 65 comments