Life in the ad world

Find out which companies are sponsoring and supporting the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

A South African ad aiming to promote the importance of education was pulled off the air by the ASA. The ads were created by Saatchi & Saatchi. One spot begins with a young boy taking to the camera: "Hello my name is Thomas. In 10 years time we will meet at a stop street, I will walk up to your car and put a gun to your head, if you don't get out of your car I will shoot you." Another spot shows a boy saying that in a few years he'll be begging at a shop, and that he'll attack and stab the person who walks away from him when he asks for money. The ads end with the line: "With no education, this is a likely future. Educate. Educate. Educate." With almost twenty four complaints to the ASA, the complaints were upheld. The complaints said the ads promoted hijacking and justified criminal behaviour and showed insensitivity to victims of hijackings, making the ads distasteful. The ASA said that the public was "very sensitive to issues of crimes such as murder, rape and violence which are committed against the person". Hmmm. You think? Geez. It's not like the ads are trying to say that all kids will end up this way or that every person in dire straits will commit crimes like these. It's a powerful way to get the message across. And apparently it worked if people are cringing at it. No one wants to admit that these kinds of things happen and by pulling the ads off the air, it's just another example of society wanting to close their eyes to the situation. And that's not going to change anything. I'll get off my high horse now.

FlyTed- "United Airlines won't 'fess up, but its fingerprints are all over the quirky "Ted" advertising campaign saturating Denver this week. Chatters on airline message boards first made the connection Thursday after local news reports focused on the "teaser" campaign in Denver. The marketing scheme includes men riding human transporters wearing signs that say "I'm not Ted," orange-and-blue stickers, and even sod spelling the word "Ted" in a field in Eaton, but few clues as to who Ted is. But United (or Uni-Ted?), which unveils details of a new low-cost carrier later this month, left digital fingerprints. The airline can be traced to a site called www.flyted.com , claimed in September by an intellectual property law firm that works for United. The server that hosts the site, which hasn't yet been launched, is registered with United Loyalty Services, a division of United parent UAL Corp."
The new carrier - part of United's strategy to exit bankruptcy next year - will seek to wrest customers from Denver-based rival Frontier. It will match the lowest fares in the marketplace. There's some info at the Meet Ted website (flash). Plus check out their gallery which shows some of the teaser campaign bits that were, are being done.

Napster cat takes on "the man" in short flash animations. (found at boingboing.net)