Are your hand and your breast spending enough quality time together?

That seems to be the message of this rather whimsical breast health campaign from Mozambique, although the actual headline is a little less direct. Produced by DDB for Vodacom Fashion Week in that country, they have great illustration. Although the disembodied breasts and hands are really weird, they don’t appear to be sexualizing cancer. I’d love to see the original language version of these ads, however, to know if they lead to more useful breast self-exam information than the basics given on the “international” (English) posters that were shared on Ads of The World.

Durex wants you to share its brand, not HIV

In the run-up to World AIDS Day, Durex has joined the legion of other brands asking social media users asking slacktivists to share their brand in return for a tiny corporate donation. As I have written before, I don’t really like this tactic. But it must work, or people wouldn’t keep doing it.

Here’s what they want you to do: You choose an update from the campaign site, and click to share it through Twitter, Facebook, or Chinese social network renren.com. For each share, Durex will donate one condom to a “local charity” that helps prevent AIDS.

A moustache doesn’t make you creepy   #Movember

Movember is a popular charity for self-promotion use among ad agencies, as it’s an opportunity to show off creative ideas with a built-in interest base. Last year, I shared a video by Ottawa’s McMillan, who also made an awesome employee pin-up calendar from the previous year’s efforts.

This year, I’ll share something by Taxi Canada. It may be the creepiest Movember campaign yet:

The “Gitchhiker” is crossing Canada in his underwear for cancer research

First of all, a lesson in Canadian colloquial English:

Ginch/gonch/gitch/gotch: underwear (usually men’s or boys’ underwear, more specifically briefs; whereas women’s underwear are gotchies), probably of Eastern European or Ukrainian origin. Gitch and gotch are primarily used in Saskatchewan and Manitoba while the variants with an n are common in Alberta and British Columbia

The “Gitchhiker” is Mark McIntyre, a testicular cancer survivor. He is hitchhiking from Vancouver, British Columbia (on the Pacific coast) to Truro, Nova Scotia, clad only in underwear. But it’s not any destination, or any old underwear: Truro is home to Stanfield’s, a classic Canadian underwear brand. When Mr McIntyre arrives at their factory, Stanfield’s will give an additional $20,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society for “below-the-waist” (testicular, colorectal and prostate) cancer research. The campaign also asks Canadians for donations along the way.

An outdoor campaign that costs almost nothing

Campaigns like this I love a lot. Gorgeous images aren’t necessary. All you need is a good idea, a copier, scissors and glue.

It is a campaign made for the 6th edition of the human rights film festival Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
“We screen. You decide: The festival that puts as much emphasis on discussion (with directors, human rights specialists etc.) after the film as the screening itself.”

The campaign only cost $5. And it is interactive too!

Great work from the the Lithuanian agency Nomoshiti.
See more work for the festival from them at their blog.

Click images to enlarge.
See all items after the break.

How to grow a Movember moustache, with Nick Offerman

Actor Nick Offerman, who has attained online cult status as Ron Swanson in the American sitcom Parks and Recreation, has one of the most iconic moustaches of the moment. So it’s no surprise that someone asked him to get involved in the Movember cause. In this case, it was Mademan, an online male-oriented lifestyle magazine.

Enjoy:

One of the best long-form PSAs I’ve seen: Follow the frog

There’s a perfectly good reason most commercials used to be 15 or 30 seconds long: People have short attention spans. But with the advent of online video consumption, there are no artificial limits to how long a commercial message can be. You only have the natural limit of “how long will people watch this before clicking elsewhere?” And many advertisers — especially social and cause marketers — simply go on for too long before getting to the point.

This PSA is different. Written and directed by Max Joseph, it rambles on for the better part of three minutes before revealing its key message and sponsor.

Just watch, and see if you can turn away:

[more after the break]

Color Adds Depth: Celebrating diversity in marketing and media industries

As working in the European advertising and media industry with a lot of contacts in the similar Anglo American world I know that it is a predominantly white business.
That what this new campaign from the AdColor Awards is about. Their mission is to celebrate and champion diversity in the advertising, marketing, media and public relations industries.

Their statement:

ADCOLOR® strives to create a network of outstanding diverse professionals and champions of diversity and inclusion by honoring their accomplishments and leveraging their stories as a road map for others to follow. By highlighting the achievements of African-American, American Indian/Native American, Asian Pacific-American, Hispanic/Latino, LGBT and other diverse professionals, students and diversity and inclusion champions, ADCOLOR® aims to inspire the next generation of diverse professionals.

This year’s awards are October 18-20th in Las Vegas.

This is what you’re not going to do to save the rainforest

This new video from the Rainforest Alliance must be a world record used words in a 3-minute PSA. I am wondering if the voice-over suffer from hyperventilation while recording it.
And although I’m more into strong visuals this PSA held my attention for the full three minutes. And I played it again, and again.

And it’s fun too. Even the environmental movement is ridiculed. A little self-deprecating humor is always good.
As Co.EXIST writes: “Absurdist, sure. But we’ve all struggled with the idea that what we can actually manage to do to make the world better while still having jobs and lives can often seen minimal at best, and offensively meaningless at worse. Can you really say you’re working for change if that work just involves a few minor lifestyle choices?”

This film was written and directed by Max Joseph.
Produced by Aaron Weber from Wander.

Grindr hooks gay men up with democracy

Grindr is, in Wikipedia‘s words, ” a geosocial networking application geared towards gay, bisexual, and bi-curious men” that allows users to locate potential partners in the immediate vicinity using their smartphones.

It’s basically a hookup enabler, but as gay rights are a hot-button issue in United States politics. With the Presidential election coming up in a few weeks, the people behind Grindr have decided to use their app for political advocacy.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Today Grindr officially announces its plan to mobilize gay men as a political bloc in the 2012 elections by delivering geo-targeted messages about equality issues to its 1.5 million U.S. users — and to call those users to action. Grindr for Equality, a social effort developed by Grindr, is this call to action, informing gay men in the United States about the issues, urging them to vote for candidates based on those issues, and getting out their vote in order to have a decisive impact on this upcoming election.

Grindr for Equality will work to enhance GLBT rights this election season by doing the following:

- Creating awareness regarding GLBT equality issues being voted on in November;
- Encouraging Grindr users to register to vote, providing them with sources that’ll show them nearby poll locations, and prompting them to vote when the time comes; and
- Promoting knowledge of those presidential candidates and state and local candidates who support GLBT initiatives.

Grindr for Equality is about rallying Grindr’s mobile user base of gay men into a nationwide force of informed citizens who vote with equality as their unified goal. Grindr for Equality will utilize Grindr’s geo-location capabilities to deliver targeted in-app messages that spur users into action and produce noticeable change in November’s elections.

Joel Simkhai, founder and CEO of Grindr, hopes this app will be useful long after the Presidential election, to mobilize gay voters at all levels of government. “All elections are won or lost on the local level. There is no election or town too small to have a gay voice. We’ll use Grindr to unite gay men across the country, make that voice grow louder and have a nationwide impact.”

Huffington Post adds:

Details of how “Grindr for Equality” will exactly operate were scarce, but the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and BlackBerry app will reportedly alert Minnesota-based users to their state’s proposed constitutional ban on marriage equality while encouraging them to contact their local lawmakers. In addition, there are plans to assist Ohio and North Carolina advocates who are working to lift their states’ bans on same-sex marriage, according to the app’s official site.

Officials also ask that individuals email them [equality@grindr.com] with suggestions on local issues, including a brief description of how the issue relaties to the LGBT community.

Mobilizing niche voters with a mobile app? We must truly be living in the future.