Happy Thanksgiving

Before I write the compulsory "What I'm Thankful for" list or whatever else, does anyone remember the retailer Bradlees? I was looking for something topical to write about tonight, besides yams, pie, and turkey, and came across this gem:



Why am I sharing?

A) I thought the commercialization of holidays was only getting really bad recently. This shows I've just been paying more attention recently.
B) Thanksgiving Sales commercials have definitely gotten a lot more sophisticated, often using graphics, effects, etc. Let's compare.
C) The word "door-buster" has been around longer than I thought. I hate that word.

Seeing all of these frenetic ads, warnings about two and a half minute sales, etc, makes me stressed. I just want to enjoy a normal Thanksgiving, or what passes for Normal (ok, maybe not that odd) over here. In that pursuit, laptop's going off.

Till tomorrow-

Break time.

I'm on vacation for the next few days, but I guess I won't get any rest from NaBloPoMo. However, seeing how I've already done some community service and helped a neighborhood family out with some much needed firewood, I'm going to go take some Advil and lie down. (Three large pick-up trucks of unsplit oak. Fat unwieldy chunks the size of stools or night tables. With an unhelpful dog running around under foot. I've earned my Advil, thank you very much.)

It's kind of interesting coming home for the holidays or a long weekend. Co-workers and friends from Manhattan always look at pictures of my parent's log cabin in disbelief, while neighbors here upstate can't believe I spent my weekend writing on-air promos for the Lifetime Movie Network. The discrepancy between the girl who balances spreadsheets and makes deadlines to the girl who tools around in a red pick-up seems confusing to many. To them, I say pfffft. After my Advil, I'll maybe chop some firewood for my own woodstove and then bake a pie for tomorrow. Gender stereotypes, eat your heart out.

Readergirlz: A Follow-up to "Where's our Harriet Potter?"

So, my mom, being into books and things, passed along this site after hearing about my blog post bemoaning the lack of strong female characters in books. Readergirlz comes as a bit of a disappointment however.

Sure, it's a nifty concept: girls and women sharing books with their friends, and celebrating "strong girls in books who've got the guts to dream" and hopefully "inspiring girls to make history of their own." I guess I was picturing a great blog/forum where readers could weigh in about their favorite characters, discuss notable plots, etc. Instead, the main site seems to speak entirely in teen-girl chatter, what with their *way cool* bookmarks you can download, and their founding "divas" regularly write posts about how awesome things are going on the site. (If you take a look at their author bios and photos, I don't know if they strike me as the diva type.) Overall, it seems like a bunch of smart women had a good idea to start a teen-accessible book blog, but ended up pandering to them with things like MySpace author chats and "Best Books for BFF's."

The end result feels more like a bad attempt at under the radar marketing rather than a genuine effort to reach out to young women readers. I figure if they're as voracious a reader that would visit a site like "readergirlz," then they probably won't be into the whole BFF thing.

That said, how do you create an online community that doesn't feel schlocky? I think that online author chats sound neat, as does some of the sites other features. It's just a question of maturity: teens certainly don't want anything that seems like it's younger skewing (do you have to use so much pink in your design?)

Something tells me that the girls from 3iying could give readergirlz some good advice.

Here it Comes: More from Dove.

Holy crap, I don't think I blinked at all during this one.



Great follow-up to Evolution from Dove. We know we're bombarded with "health and beauty" imagery every day, but I don't think we ever get a true sense of how pervasive it is until seeing a project like this. Just watching "Onslaught" makes me feel tired. Dove's campaign continues to be one of the few I've seen that can successfully combine social responsibility and brand building.

As AdAge points out though, there's something darker here at work when you pull back the curtains of the Unilever family: Dove belongs to the same corporation that brings us the low-end wet dreams of high school boys everywhere: Axe/Lynx. While Dove itself might be a "responsible " brand, what of Axe? How much responsible advertising do you have to create to undo the crap that Axe elevates and celebrates? Is there a quantifiable amount?

Personally, I think it would mean more if Axe found a different approach to its campaign. I'm sure you notice that within "Onslaught," there wasn't any Axe footage being mocked. Hmm. Perhaps that's not a parallel they'd like us to focus on?

Yes! I'd love to see two women get married.

So, I remember oggling fine young men in the A&F Quarterly in high school. It was amazing- Erin brought a copy of the fall issue in during French class of my junior year. Strapping naked lads, expensive clothing with natural cotton, and recipes for strudel or some form of baked apples. Skinning dipping seemed to be a regular theme too. Not sure how it was selling clothes per se, as not many models featured were wearing them, but hey. I guess it worked since most of my friends wore it.

The catalog flew fast and loose with objectifying both sexes, but as this ad shows, they were also pretty progressive.


I'd like to think, that in the end, it evens out, and perhaps high schoolers remember not just the gratuitious nudity, but also the broad-minded acceptance of sexuality.

feeling a tad lazy.

advergirl found some great ads from women's magazines. I've got a headache, so go check them out over there on her site. I dug the ads and her analysis.

Blockbuster's "Christmas Dinner"

Blockbuster does a good job w/ this holiday spot, focusing on family rather than consumerism (except for the message to rent movies at the end).



Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Why am I posting it? Feminist ads don't have to be about in-your-face girl power. You can have a successful ad that captures someone's attention without defaulting to gender stereotypes or sexism.

via Adrants