io9: ads

Terminate It Like Beckham

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:11:13 PDT

Soccer great David Beckham posed for this new Terminator-inspired Motorola ad, where he exposes his bare chest - and his skeleton, and a red cyber-eye. Click through to see the whole thing, plus a video.

The weird innards-revealing ad is supposed to show how cutting-edge the phone is, and highlight the fact that you can see the phone's inner workings. Says Beckham, "I love classic watches so a phone that exposes its mechanics while also being so stylish is really unique."

Here's a video of the ad campaign, which weirdly doesn't make me want to get this human-killing phone at all:

[Guardian]

Beer Commercials From The Future, Today

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:30:00 PDT

This ad for Australian beer Carlton Natural Blonde asks you to "taste the future." If the Australian future includes golden unitards, Geordi glasses, robot handshakes and pogo feet, then I'm drinking this beer.

Alien Versus Predator Game Night

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Hilarious ads have gone up in New Zealand, for Sky TV's Alien Versus Predator movie night. See the implacable extraterrestrial foes square off, at swing ball, chess and pool.

This are just superb, all I need now are Alien and Predator bathroom hijinks portrait and I'm set.

[DDB New Zealand via Superpunch]

When KFC Makes Frak Jokes We All Win

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:00:15 PST

There is nothing funnier than watching a major corporation pander to the geeks, especially when they don't have a frakkin' clue what they're talking about. Perfect example: I present the BSG Kentucky Fried Chicken ad.

First, a special thanks to Topless Robot for their tireless reporting of KFC's hilarious attempt to incorporate Battlestar Galactica fans into their marketing. While their idea to capitalize on the minds of BSG fanatics was smart, the execution was disastrous but hilarious to watch.

First KFC busted out a "Frak Pak" add for their chicken in a bucket. Which, as you all know, means Fuck Pak. Who wants a Fuck Pak of chicken? I know I do. Our noble leader even suggested calling it a Fuck Bucket, which is even more clever .

The Frak Pak is a prize pack that included BSG DVDs, autographed scripts and a YEAR'S WORTH OF KFC, which would kill you, I'm sure. So after what I'm assuming was a battery of emails from hungry-for-chicken BSG fans, the good folks over at KFC put it together that Frak= Fuck, and changed their ad to:

So the Fuck Pak has been changed to the Fuck Sweepstakes, which I'm way more interested in.

Thank you Topless Robot for finding this, and thank you KFC for the new sexy sweepstakes.

Faceless People Find Personality In A Crap Car

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:30:00 PDT

We were right. The creepy faceless droids stalking the wealthy at fancy tennis matches and store openings in the UK were all a giant ploy to get you to buy an overpriced and hideous Lotus. While I applaud the creepy scifi advertising technique of scaring people into buying your product, I fear the message is incredibly sad: you're nobody until you have an ugly car. [Faceless People]

Faceless Droids Stalk The Wealthy

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:20:00 PDT

Faceless droids have been popping up all over the UK. They've been chauffeured into Elton John's White Ball, spotted at the Harrod's sale and are enjoying a tennis match at Wimbledon. The latest addition to the scifi robot and alien advertising craze has begun to spill over into real life, thanks to the wonders of viral marketing. But this ad for a over-priced sports car, the Lotus, takes the alien cake on over-the-top ads. Apparently you're a faceless droid until you drop a few hundred thousand pounds to "buy" a personality in the form of a Lotus. Click through for more pictures of the faceless creatures including super creepy video of a faceless man in the crowd at the Harrod's sale.

After visiting the faceless website, we noticed the Lotus logo which directly links you to the cars website. All this for a car no one can afford?

[via dlisted]

The Creepiest Sex Robots In Mass Media Right Now

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:30:00 PDT

Ashton Kutcher posed as a robot being "tested" by his creator, in this photoshoot for vMan magazine with famous photographer Mario Testino. (See gallery below, completely with weirdly exaggerated robo-package in his briefs.) He says he got the idea from a Gatorade ad in which someone's being tested for their physical performance, and then he started thinking, what if God could test us, his creations, to see if we're fulfilling our function? And then somehow that led to him thinking about a robot being tested by his actual creator. Actually, his explanation is less cogent than that. But actually, Ashton's only the third creepiest and most inappropriately sexy robot in mass media at the moment. Want to see the two that are worse?

Another insanely creepy-yet-supposedly sexy robot is the Svedka vodka mascot, who's wheatpasted all over major cities right now. It's not just her weirdly exaggerated T&A, with the hydraulically tiny waist — we're used to that from superhero comics — but it's also the weirdly smug, yet unexpressive — face. She has a sort of mousey, dessicated smirk that makes her seem sort of unpleasant. Like a mean robot drunk, who puts robo-roofies in your glass when you're not looking.

The actual creepiest robot in mass media right now? Is the Burger King breakfast robot, part of a longstanding trend of the fast-food giant trying to make its mascot as alienating and scary as possible. (Which I sort of respect, since McDonald's also has a creepy mascot but tries to pretend otherwise.) In any case, someone went to a lot of trouble to find a Logan's Run-looking actor to play the guy who gets woken up rudely by the robo-King. As with Ashton and his robo-crotch, the Burger-bot gets in a moment of misplaced sexy-creepiness, when the purple-haired woman says he's so good with his hands, and he does a weird hand flutter. Ewwww! And yet, now I sort of want that breakfast thing. It's even ookier than the shaving robot ad.

[Ashton Kutcher from Trendhunter]
[Burger King robot from SuperPunch]