Awesome Advertising

(PG-13: Language) 80s and 90s kids might recall McDonald’s weirdly entrancing Mac Tonight ad campaign. Portrayed by award-winning actor Doug Jones, the moon-headed crooner made several comebacks over the years before becoming an internet meme and an odd symbol of hate. Doplex and ManyKudos teamed up to recap Mac Tonight’s strange history.

There are some pretty cool backpacks on the market with LED screens, but this one from Yihong Technology works its visual magic differently. It uses a spinning fan blade with 510 flickering LEDs that display moving images using a persistence of vision illusion. It’s just for advertising and not carrying things, though.

Whether you played with Slinkies, Silly Putty, or Sea Monkeys when you were a kid, you’ll find some wonderful nostalgia in Steven Heller and Jim Heimann’s catalog of American toy advertising. The 528-page book features hundreds of vintage ads that sold dreams to kids and often served as a reflection of their time.

These days, product placement is all over movies, TV shows, sporting events, and even video games. Cheddar looks back at some of the earliest examples of products being featured in entertainment media, how important it’s become a crucial marketing tactic, and how it’s only going to become more prominent in the future.

From Chiquita to Count Chocula, from the Geico Gecko to the Jolly Green Giant, mascots have long been a staple of the advertising industry. Author Warren Dotz’s two-volume series is filled with characters from the iconic to the obscure, from the lovable to the downright weird.

A hilarious short film about the “important” work that goes into commercial production, as a duo of micromanaging marketing execs try to coax exactly the right mood from a voice actor. It’ll hit close to home for anyone creative who has to pay the bills with a “real job.”

Studio Smack envisions a future in which advertising goes beyond billboards, banner ads, and product placement, and brands devise a technology to invade our dreams with not so subtle promotions for their products. For some reason, we’re craving a can of Coke now.

Zulu Alpha Kilo shines a light on the ridiculous process that many creative folks have to endure – the creation of free sample work on “spec” during the RFP process, which seems completely ridiculous when seen in the context of other professions. (Thanks Greg!)

British Airways is getting creative with their ‘Look Up’ campaign to promote the airline. They have installed digital billboards that show footage of cute kids who recognize, point out and announce their arriving flights.