Creative Skirts

P&G Does Something Different

I grew up on P&G detergent ads. You know the ones. Kid gets messy outside, Mom comes to the rescue of kid's white t-shirt and throws it in the laundry with Tide, cut to stainlifting demo, cut back to smiling Mom and kid wearing saved white shirt. YAY.

That was a long time ago and not much had changed as far as I could tell--until this week. P&G is finally doing something completely different with their launch of Tide Pods. Frankly, it's not something I'd expect to see on American television. It's simple, fun, and isn't hammering you with product specs, nor does it feature a smiling family. According to the New York Times, P&G and agency Saatchi and Saatchi wanted to go out on a limb (imagine that).

I get excited about these things, and wanted to mark this moment in time and see if it represents a potential shift in the future of detergent advertising.

We can only hope.

 

New and shockingly interesting Weight Watchers work

Weight Watchers UK is doing something I find fascinating. Check out this headline:

What? Really? Even Weight Watchers is going the "gamification" route. To position a weight loss program as a game is absolutely intriguing to me--of course there are tons of apps and games out there that do this, but this is a huge brand with a long history, and I think it shows they have some guts. They even changed their URL to be "playweightwatchers.co.uk." I'm curious to see if women will respond to this, or if they'll think it's gimmick-y.

The second interesting thing about the new work for WW UK is the creative. They shot a music video of a song written specifically for the brand, featuring only women who have participated in Weight Watchers. It's pretty well shot and impressive that they got Regular Janes to do a decent job dancing and lip-synching. But even better, when you watch the video online, each woman in the video is clickable and you can watch an interview with her about her Weight Watchers experience.

Check out the video and interactivity at http://www.playweightwatchers.co.uk/.

Summer's Eve took our advice!

Less than a year since this Summer's Eve debacle, the brand has embarked on a serious creative overhaul in partnership with The Richards Group.

First, there's a new ad campaign and packaging. I don't really know what to say about the launch spot; to me it's a cool idea but the execution comes off spoof-y (and I don't think it was intended that way). But the tag line is a nice change and opens the doors for better work in the future.

Then there's a blog, ThatsVaginal.com, positioned as "a rogue agent acting loosely on behalf of Summer's Eve." The blog is written by a cat--yes, a cat named Carlton--in the voice of Austin Powers (seriously). It's wacky, but I do enjoy the tone of this video and admire that it got sold in.

Finally, there's an educational website, dedicated to teaching you about all things vagina. I'm a fan of the "vagina owner's manual." That makes so much sense. However, inexplicably, there are no posts in the vagina forum yet. Hm.

 

"Shrink it and Pink it" no more, says Under Armour.

 

Steve Battista, Under Armour VP for Brands: 

“[In 2003,] We developed a women-specific line with seven pieces, including a couple of tops and bottoms and a sports bra. We had followed the industry rule, ‘Shrink it and pink it,’ We all realized that they didn’t work [and] pulled all the pieces. It was a tough pill to swallow.”

Since then, they've learned a bit. 

“Guys buy clothes to look cool or feel cool, women buy for different reasons. Women demand that the brand does what it promises.”

This year's campaign, "Protect This House. I Will." was made internally, and goes directly at what Under Armour calls the "team girl" (a female who is competitive and confident and who plays on high school or college sports teams, or who, after college, continues to work out regularly).

Job well done, I'd say, especially for a brand that started out by just making everything pink (see this old gem).

Sidenote: Battista said they had decided to show both men AND women in the spot saying, “Women said they did not want to be treated separately. They said, ‘We want to see ourselves up against men.’ ” Such women, he said, “don’t look at themselves as a female athlete but as an athlete.” But it seems the final cut included just women (unless I missed something).

NYTimes

 

A very curious creative project

Today via my Google alerts I stumbled on this most curious cragislist posting. [Click photo to enlarge.]

I had to read it twice to figure out that it was not a call to participate in a sketchy university health study or something--no, this is really legit. There is a movement going on. Or at least one that is attempting to be started. The craigslist post led me to girlapproved.us, which had the same underground-female-action-hero feel as the craigslist post, but proved to be a seriously polished site.

 

Girlapproved is a branding/communications shop that says what you know about marketing to females born after 1988 ("Post88s") is all wrong. They are "sophisticated and multi-dimensional" and marketers are not meeting their needs. Girlapproved claims it has the research and the talent pool--all Post88s--to "get the girl."

While this can only be proven by actually seeing their work and its results, I do agree wholeheartedly with where Girlapproved is coming from: "We recognized that when it comes to aesthetics, culture has historically operated under masculine standards and definitions: what is sexy, pretty, intelligent or fun has not been defined from a feminine perspective."

Amen. I would love to see a revolution in design for young women. I'm not sure what this will consist of, or how far the needle would actually move, but we'll see what Girlapproved does.

Girlapproved was founded by Heidi Dangelmaier, one of just 9% of computer technology patent owners who are female. She is considered a pioneer in the creation of girl video games, and according to her website is dedicated to answering the question: "What's she want that no one's making?"

Can't wait to see which brands jump on this and how they fare. Sadly, I was born pre-1988 so I guess I'll be watching from the sidelines.

 

Bluefly.com Closet Confessions

I've been meaning to post about this campaign I find just so darn charming.

It's a simple concept. Bluefly filming people inside their closets, sharing the best and worst with the world.

The spots aren't talking about how great the e-commerce site is or what kind of deals you get. They're simply sharing sweet moments from inside somebody's closet in the hopes that you'll share yours with the brand as well.

They're nicely edited and all have a sense of humor. Here's a peek. You can watch more on their site, Bluefly Closet Confessions, including videos starring skater Johnny Weir, Nicky Hilton and Christian Siriano.

 

Minivan hotness

I am so in love with this campaign for the Toyota Sienna. Mainly for the reasons I normally love campaigns, but this I find particularly splendid because it’s so unusual (yet long overdue) in the category.

Hooray for a minivan not taking itself so seriously. It’s about time, because America does not remotely take the minivan seriously. Of course safety is important and all, but consumers will check that out on their own.

I guess the VW van did the same thing with the Babymaker campaign, and I liked that too, but this one seems to have more legs. Props to Saatchi LA.

I will be curious to see, however, if this sells more Siennas. People seem to be loving the YouTube channel (although it isn’t getting crazy high numbers yet), but will that translate?

p.s. I admit I am easily won over by music video ads.

What will they think of next?

I can't decide if this product would have been a blast or a nightmare to work on. All I know is I'm still scratching my head over it.

Regardless, they could have done some outrageously fun stuff with the advertising. As it stands, I find it more Summer's Eve than crazy new experimental lady product. Although who wouldn't love the URL?

Check it out: loveyourvagina.com

Via Creativity

Take the P*nty Challenge

Hey ladies, check it--it's a campaign built entirely around your least favorite word.

Kotex wants you to "Take the 7-day Panty Challenge." The scary part is that I can't tell if they're asking us to wear the same pair 7 days in a row or not.

Don't take the panty personality quiz...it's depressing.

via BrandFreak.

Cash4Gold...for the newly single woman

I can't imagine this business will last, but it's an interesting concept.

OutOfYourLife.com buys back the jewelry you're left with after a break-up.

They're running ads like crazy (do a lot of people break up around Valentine's Day?), featuring talking dogs. Talk about a lost opportunity to do some awesome stuff. The human insights they could have pulled about break-ups could lead to all kinds of interesting, emotional places that women could rally behind. Instead, they went the canine route. Arf.