You want me to wear a condom to the casino?

I spotted this strange ad on the bus this morning. While I can understand the parallel of problem gambling with other kinds of “risky” behaviour, the condom package seemed like a very lazy bit of borrowed interest.

The safeorsorry.ca campaign site continues the condom theme.

This campaign could only be conceived in Ontario, where gambling and gaming are regulated (and often run) by government, and casinos aren’t associated with prostitution so much as retirees.

If you’re curious what the gambling equivalent of safe sex is, the campaign gives these six tips:

1.  Don’t think of gambling as a way to make money.
2.  Always gamble with money that you can afford to lose. 
3.  Set time and money limits. 
4.  Never chase your losses. 
5.  Don’t gamble when you’re depressed or upset. 
6.  Gambling and alcohol are not a good combination. 

I am very doubtful that any of this will help a gambling addict avoid trouble. There has to be a better way.

Merry Christmas!

Two great Christmas greetings from agencies in our world of cause marketing.

The video above is from Acart Communications, the agency where Osocio blogger Tom is working. I guess he is too shy to promote is here :-) I do it because it’s a great video.
Paranoël Activity: it takes a different perspective on that supernatural old guy who breaks into your house once a year while you and your children are asleep.

Written and Directed by Christopher Redmond
Director of Photography: Karl Roeder
Starring: Tim Coderre , Jack Megginson and Bridget Redmond (with a special appearance by Christopher Redmond as Old St. Nick)
Creative Directors: John Staresinic, Tom Megginson & Vernon Lai
Starring: Tim Coderre, Jack Megginson, Bridget Redmond, Christopher Redmond

Agency DETUSCH&LUBA from Copenhagen Danmark made the work below.
It is about food as a huge concern for humanity.

Eat, drink and be merry.
Eating disorder is rapidly reaching epidemic levels across the globe. Today, eating disorders account for more deaths than any other type of mental illness. Getting treated early is vital. The longer an eating disorder lasts, the greater and less reversible the damage becomes.
It can be scary to seek help for an eating disorder but gaining support from a friend, family member or nutritionist is for many people the first step on the road to recovery.

See the overweight version after the break.

Creative Director: Simon de Tusch-Lec
Chief strategist: Louis Paldrup
Photographer: Piotr Stopka

Forget about 2.0, it’s 0.0 what matters

For Osocio this is off topic but it is so remarkable that I want to share it with you. It is a media project from the tech brand Motorola based on the theme “The Future of Abundance”.
Remarkable because of it’s length. 13 minutes in total. But above all it isn’t about the brand itself. It is a vision on our future.

What’s going to emerge next when social media comes to an end? Key persons who lead the cultural context in Japan got together at the “Social Lab 0.0” to achieve an ambitious objective of finding out what’s beyond social and seeking a rich future. The social network can become vicious or at other times, become an innocent baby. What kind of future will it let us see?

Is abundance really our outlook? Hard to imagine.
The new technologies we face now will evolve into something else. Is social media an intermediate stop?
I saw these videos two weeks ago for the first time and since then I’m confused. More questions than answers. But above all a very important question:
“What does abundance mean to us these days?”

Google: Romanians are Stupid

Google live search can give terrible examples of discrimination and prejudices. That is what happens with Romanians too. The hate and prejudices towards the people of Romania are well known.
Agency McCann Erickson Romania made a campaign about this for ROM, the famous Romanian chocolate bar. A remarkable initiative from a commercial brand.

I just tried it myself started typing Romanians are ... It is exactly like the image above. It is based on search history. The idea behind the campaign is to change this with enormous amount of positives searches with “Romanians are smart”. These searches can also be done at the campaign website in many languages.
At this moment already over 150,000 positive searches are done.

The campaign has started last week in Romania generating an unprecedented grassroots movement, with bloggers and public personalities adopting the campaign theme and generating hundreds of blog posts that support the cause and come up with examples of “smart Romanians”.

I love this approach. It is positive action powered by a commercial brand. I’m curious how successful this would be when done by a NGO or protest group.

Gabriela Munteanu, Marketing Manager at Kandia Dulce (ROM): “ROM is a profoundly Romanian brand, that forces us to take a stance when we see Romania is the victim of some serious prejudgement. That is why we decided to assume a cause that honors us: to fight for Romanians’ image. Romanians image over the internet, the image of Romanians about themselves, the image of Romanians abroad. The campaign “Romanians are smart” is continuing the effort launched through “New ROM” campaign, aiming to reinvigorate the national pride.”

Love Every Drop 3D Light Show

This video shows a great 3D light show at Cathedral Square in Peterborough City Centre, East-England. The light show illustrate what happens when waste like fats, oils, wipes and sanitary products are thrown down sinks and toilets.

Anglian Water - the water and wastewater company serving the largest part of England and Wales – were behind this campaign with the name ‘Keep it Clear’. The light show was launched on Thursday 13th October 2011 before rolling it out to other trouble spots around the region. The projection was done by Drive Productions. They call it a 4D projection-mapping show.

The Anglian Water’s 6.1 million customers will be targeted with a campaign to challenge the way they dispose of waste – currently a £7million problem.

Paul Gibbs, Director of Wastewater Services: “This event shows, in all its technicolour glory, the scale of the problem we face when our sewers are clogged up with rubbish that shouldn’t be in them. These ‘unflushables’ – things like wipes and other sanitary waste – simply shouldn’t be flushed away in the first place. But when they are dumped into the sewer, they stick to the fats and oils that have set hard in the cold depths of our sewers, and they cause blockages. Bad smells are just the tip of the iceberg. Sewer flooding, and environmental damage are very real possibilities when this happens.”

Shopping for the cure

This is part of a month-long series of posts examining the cause marketing phenomenon that is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Yesterday, we looked into Estée Lauder‘s Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign, which includes a retail sales fundraising component. One example was a $30 scented candle that offered $5 from every purchase going to the cause.

This is another issue that bears examination during October’s pink marketing blitz: The sometimes laughable amounts of donation money used to spur for-profit sales.

Here’s a typical example from the fashion industry, Bare Necessities intimate wear:

Here’s the fine print:

Bare Necessities is proud to support The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® to help find a cure for one of the most common cancers affecting women. With every bra you buy throughout the month of October, we’ll donate 25 cents to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, with a minimum donation of $10,000.

So basically, they have committed $10,000 to breast cancer research. Good for them. But why tie it to a piddly amount like 25¢ per bra?

(More after the break)

Estée Lauder pinkwashes in style

As part of Osocio’s month-long examination of the explosion of “pink” campaigns for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here is an ad for Estée Lauder that adds the unfortunate trend of sexualizing breast cancer to their pink-branded CSR as only a fashion brand can:

They have also entered into a partnership with Philips to bathe worldwide landmarks in pink light.

(Read more after the break)

Playboy shows us some pink(washing)

After almost 60 years of profiting from women’s breasts, Playboy is finally giving them something back… sort of.

It might be one of the most overt cases of pinkwashing you’ll see this October. (Correction: The common definition of pinkwashing implies that the advertiser’s goods are harmful to women’s health. The connection here is up to you.)

For every new Twitter follower he gets @playboy, the Hef is offering to sponsor his own team of Bunnies in LA’s Race for the Cure this March — to the tune of 10¢ per human being. A whole dime! (Up to $10,000.)

To put that in context, the going rate for an un-engaged follower from social media mercenary services is about 1.7¢ per name. Playboy is paying a premium price of $10 per 100 interested opt-in followers. Can you even buy a social media list that good for such a great price? Plus, Playboy gets to wrap itself in woman-friendly corporate social responsibility from now until next spring. Brilliant! But will they get away with it?

The New George Clooney Nespresso Ad… Sort Of

Great new campaign launched today in Switzerland from Solidar, the fair trade organization. They want George Clooney to take his role as UN ambassador serious. He is also the face in all recent Nespresso marketing.
With this campaign Solidar ask people the sign the petition asking Nespresso to stop the exploitation of coffee pickers.

The petition text:

Dear George,
... you campaign as a UN ambassador as well as a champion of peace and justice. That is truly fantastic. But promoting a company that does nothing to stop the exploitation of coffee pickers is really not right.
I would therefore like to ask you make Nestlé choose:
either fair trade coffee or no more George Clooney in the Nespresso commercials.

More at the campaign website.

Is it time to go home?

Above two scenes from a technically perfect interactive video. In the video just ordinary scenes from a nice evening in a bar with friends. Until you move your mouse pointer over the video.

The mouseover effect bring scenes with the same people in unlimited drunkenness. In a state of being where it is impossible to behave responsible on the way home.

No it isn’t a campaign about alcohol abuse. It is a promo from Movia, the bus company from Copenhagen in Denmark. At the end in the video Movia asks you: Er det på tide at komme hjem? - Is it time to go home? Take the night bus.

The campaign landing page points visitors also to an iPhone or Android app with a route planner and a Movia timetable.

I love the mouseover effect. It is interactive and nice to play more than once.

But we also know about the problems with drunkenness on public transport. There is no difference with irresponsible behavior in a bus or in a bar.

My second complaint is that public transport is recommended for everyone after a night out, not only for barflies.