io9: Advertising

Contagion's bacteria grown billboard is the perfect "viral" marketing

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:20:00 PDT

Warner Bros. created a giant billboard for Contagion, made entirely out of bacteria and fungi, to promote the film. What better way to promote a movie about germs with germs. Watch the creature grow before your eyes. More »

Doctor Who will take advertising to a whole new level

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:17:53 PDT

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If you're watching tomorrow's Doctor Who midseason premiere on BBC America, you'll get to see an extra 60-second sequence which was sponsored by AT&T. At one point in the episode, Amy and Rory take off on a motorcycle in pursuit of someone — and then they arrive, soon after. More »

A Splendid Reconstruction of Tron's Most Famous Scene, Using Duct Tape

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:12:06 PDT

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Have you ever wanted to Tron's famous lightcycle race recreated with duct tape? If so, then the internet is here for you, thanks to this creative/weird new ad for Duck Tape. More »

TARDIS Burritos and Twilight Spaz Bags: Comic-Con Radvertising

Meredith Woerner, Jonathan Wilkins & Annalee Newitz — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:00:00 PDT

Yesterday we showed you the biggest ad fails at Comic-Con. But now it's time to talk about the very best of the Comic-Con advertising onslaught. Check out our gallery. More »

Catwoman's Massage Booth and Playboy Supergirls: Comic-Con Badvertising

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:03:58 PDT

There's advertising — and then there's badvertising, promotions so awful they make you cringe. We saw a lot of the latter at Comic-Con 2011. We've rounded up the best of the worst advertisements, for your enjoyment. More »

Now you can buy groceries using augmented reality, in South Korean subway stations

Jonathan Wilkins — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:30:00 PDT

First South Korea decided to remove inefficient non-electronic textbooks by 2015. And now they have created the first successful augmented reality supermarket chains in subways. More »

Smurfette Fashion Show: Kill It With Fire

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:26:39 PDT

Harper's Bazaar has released a Smurfette fashion spread to promote the new Smurfs feature film. Which means we now have horrifying images of Smurfette, milking her status as the only female of her species, in a $1,720 Lanvin hat. More »

Captain America's Dunkin Donuts Super Soldier Slushy will turn you into the Red Skull

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:00:00 PDT

The X-Men have shilled for an insurance company, and Green Lantern did a campaign for Subway. But the most hideous movie tie-in of the summer may well be Captain America's collaboration with Dunkin Donuts. More »

The first advertising campaign aimed at monkeys — for science!

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:00:00 PDT

A group of brown capuchin monkeys will be the lucky targets of the world's first non-human targeted advertising campaign. Their responses will provide evidence as to whether humans are the only sickeningly suggestible primates in the world. More »

Watch "The Paperwork Explosion," Jim Henson's weirdly sinister IBM ad from 1967

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:00:00 PDT

In the 1960s, IBM tapped Jim Henson and composer Raymond Scott to create "The Paperwork Explosion," a four-minute advertisement for the MT/ST word-processing machine. The commercial was jarring brew of jargon and flashing images seemingly custom-made for an office-drone dystopia. More »

How skillful advertisers can word-jack your brain

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Wed, 25 May 2011 07:00:00 PDT

It's long been established that the mighty brain is nothing but a mound of putty. We don't see what we think we do, we don't remember what we think we do, and we don't like what we think we do. If we did, advertisers would be out of business. As it is, they're literally putting false thoughts inside our heads. More »

10 ridiculous moments from an ancient X-Men toy commercial

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:45:00 PDT

While scanning my news feed yesterday, I came across a TV spot for Toy Biz's 1991 line of X-Men action figures. The ad featured Wolverine (forever bearing a constipated, plastic rictus grimace) stopping Magneto from conquering a toll bridge. More »

You probably shouldn't advertise The Walking Dead on the side of your funeral home

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:20:48 PDT

The Co-operative Funeralcare funeral home in Consett, County Durham, England has been the subject of unwanted public scrutiny after a billboard company affixed an advertisement for The Walking Dead to side of their building. More »

At Last, A Superheroine Who Fights Against Herpes

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:30:00 PDT

This blonde woman is just a mild-mannered lady, until herpes strikes... and then she becomes the superheroine you see here. This new advertising campaign for cold-sore medication Herpotherm was filming in a German parking garage over the weekend. More »

How to advertise your business: trap thousands of cockroaches in a sign that says E. Coli

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:55:12 PDT

Well, this tactic only works if you're an exterminator. On Monday in Dallas, Terminix filled a billboard emblazoned with the words "E. COLI" with several thousand roaches (the roaches got 15-minute breaks as a reprieve from the heat). More »

A beautiful but creepy vision of the "smart glass" future

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:30:00 PDT

Materials mnufacturer Corning put together a futurist video last month called "A Day Made Of Glass," which has spiraled into stratospheric popularity on YouTube. The premise of the video is that we're about to live in an era of ubiquitous touchscreens (made with glass) and smart windows (made of glass) as well as appliances like stoves which are also made with glass. More »

New study reveals how Tony the Tiger is controlling children's minds

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:00:00 PST

If you give a kid a choice between a healthy and a sugary cereal, the kid will tend to choose the healthy option. But what if you stick a beloved cartoon character on the box? Then all bets are off. More »

A map of Chicago's phantom signs for vanished businesses

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:30:05 PST

Nicole Donohoe of Chicago's School of the Art Institute has created an interactive neighborhood map where you can search for the city's "ghost signs," or ancient advertisements for goods and services that may not exist anymore. You can also check out her links for more pages about ghost signs that might be in your neck of the woods. More »

What happens when advertisers try to control your mind

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:33:39 PST

Yesterday Facebook rolled out a new ad system where people's updates get converted into "sponsored story" ads fed to their friends. But this is hardly the first time advertisers have tried to feed us ads stealth-style. More »

Watch Vampire Diaries and get the clap!

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:26:05 PST

Vampire Diaries is getting creative with its marketing campaign. New billboards are popping up across the nation encouraging people to "Catch VD." GET IT? Nothing says super fun TV like "burning sensation" or "oozing sores." [EW] More »

With flying shoes, Chinese martial artists will be unstoppable

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:35:41 PST

Feiyues are the sneakers favored by generations of Chinese martial artists — but did you know they could levitate as well? This awesome ad features an American in a flickery-lit basement putting together his own hover-shoes. [GearFuse] More »

Completely ridiculous 1960s sweepstakes offered Gemini spacecraft as grand prize

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:30:00 PST

In 1967, model-making kit manufacturers Revell ran advertisements for "the wildest, way out prize ever awarded in any contest." What was the prize? Your own 19-foot-long prototype of a Gemini capsule. The winner also got a guitar! More »

Watch Guillermo Del Toro's wolfish Alka-Seltzer commercial from 1991

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 09:30:00 PST

One doesn't direct Pan's Labyrinth right out the gate. In this piece of video ephemera helmed by Guillermo Del Toro, the director's gastric problems turn him into a werewolf. Mexican antacid commercials need more lycanthropic body horror. [Via Worst Previews] More »

Back in the day, you could buy a fallout shelter in the Yellow Pages

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 09:35:00 PST

In the early Sixties, you could thumb through the Yellow Pages to find a plumber, exterminator, or nuclear defense vault. Here's one such ad from the 1962 Philadelphia Yellow Pages. "Increase your chances of survival by 4,000 percent!" More »

This Green Hornet fast food tie-in is deeply disturbing

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:44:53 PST

I keep spotting this Green Hornet-themed ad for fast-food chain Carl's Jr. when I'm fast-forwarding through commercials, and thinking it's a new trailer for the Michel Gondry-directed superhero romp. And then I see the fast-foody horribleness, and my heart sinks. More »

In the 1930s, cigarette packs predicted the future

Matt Novak -- Paleo-Future Blog — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:00:00 PST

In the 1930s, This Age of Power and Wonder was a collection of scifi prophecies that could be found in the curiousest of places — cigarette boxes. More »

Criminally misleading comic book ad shilled a precognitive robot brain for $5

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:10:34 PST

In 1968's Silver Surfer 3, this advertisement for the Digi Comp I Electronic Computer Brain, hawked a psychic computer that used for telling the future and "studying space age miracles." Oh, 1960s copywriters, unencumbered the laws of reality. More »

Olivia Wilde's desperate plea from the year 2050

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:41:00 PDT

This is our new favorite dystopian political advertisement. It starts with a fake news report about The Situation marrying Pamela Anderson... but then Olivia Wilde breaks in, from the year 2050, to warn us what'll happen if we don't vote. More »

Watch a confused C-3PO and R2-D2 trespass in an UK electronics store

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:45:14 PDT

Today a new TV spot debuted in the UK showcasing C-3PO and R2-D2 going absolutely bonkers in a Currys/PC World department store. The droids encounter a rude vacuuming robot, and yes, that is Anthony Daniels doing Threepio's voice. More »

Kaiju woman maintains civilian surveillance in Tokyo

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 07:00:00 PDT

Tokyo officials have devised a novel approach to crime prevention: a giant unblinking she-golem that discreetly records citizen's activities. Street crime in the Shinjuku has dropped 1000%, as the threat of Big Sister coming to life has scared away ne'er-do-wells. More »

Vintage ads from science fictional futures

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:45:05 PDT

Marvellous Hairy author Mark A. Rayner is holding a Photoshop contest to create vintage advertisements for futures that don't exist yet. Here's a small sampling of these retrofuturistic print pieces from both the current and past contests. More »

Cthulhu: Great Old One, unspeakable horror, deodorant pitchman

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:50:00 PDT

Sleeping in R'lyeh under the sea for millennia is no excuse for smelling like mackerel and elements that don't exist in our star system. Allow the ever-debonair Cthulhu to shill you some shower goop that will leave you smelling Shoggoth-fresh. More »

This three-breasted Russian woman wants to sell you a dishwasher

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 13:30:00 PDT

Great shades of Total Recall! This Russian advertisement for the German electronics chain Media Markt roughly translates as "You will find more than you expect." Check out some more photos of this tripartite ad campaign. Slightly NSFW. More »

Tom Carvel, outsider video artist

AD Jameson - Big Other — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:45:00 PDT

Most folks remember Tom Carvel (1906-1990) as the frozen dessert magnate behind Carvel Ice Cream empire, but what a lot of people forget is that Tom Carvel created some of the most phantasmagorically confusing commercials ever to air on television. More »

The only post-apocalyptic condom ad you're ever likely to see [NSFW]

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:00 PDT

For some reason, the Buenos Aires branch of elite ad company Young & Rubicam figured that the best way to advertise condoms . . . is with images of a burning apocalypse? We've got the full (mildly NSFW) ad below. More »

Zombie Queen Mary ad banned for terrifying children all over London

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:30:00 PDT

The London Dungeon had to pull its digital ads from the Underground, due to a legion of terrified children. What was the big commotion? Apparently the painting came morphed into a full-fledged bloody, howling Queen Mary zombie. Check it out! More »

Tokyo billboards can instantly deduce your age and gender in the name of better marketing

Alasdair Wilkins — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:00:00 PDT

Are you sick and tired of walking past billboards that offer generic pitches to buy their products that aren't specifically tailored to your gender and age group? Well, fear not, because high-tech Japanese billboards are here to save the day. More »

The 1977 print ads of an unscrupulous time-traveler from 2010

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:00:00 PDT

If digital artist Alex Varanese had a time machine, he'd go back to 1977 with a suitcase full of modern electronics and make zillions. Plus, the cheeky print campaign for Varanese's wood-paneled laptops and cellphones guarantees consumers that he's not a time-traveler! More »

Unearthing the lost advertising of the sealed-off London Underground

Marc Bernardin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:00:00 PDT

A sealed-off corridor of the Notting Hill Gate tube station reveals a hallway untouched since 1959 — complete with the posters that were hanging on the turn-of-the-century walls. More »

Snoop Dogg shot first! Star Wars' Cantina scene reimagined with some new additions...

Charlie Jane Anders — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 11:30:00 PDT

You have to love this new Adidas ad, featuring Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Daft Punk and Oasis' Noel Gallagher in the classic cantina scene. Mostly for Snoop Dogg's response to the classic "My friend doesn't like you" line. More »