It is time to clean up Boys!

Recently, there has been a massive push to get men down the grooming isle.

Next time you're in a Shoppers, PharmaPlus, Loblaws, Walmart... etc. Check where the men's bath products are. I'll bet you (a hypothetical) 10 bucks that the men's products are mostly likely at the end of the isle close to the main thoroughfares.

Why? Because men are MEN. They don't buy body wash! They don't smell "pretty" and what the heck is a LOOFA?!

Well.... not so much anymore, maybe.

Take a look at what Axe and Old Spice have done to the men's grooming business... and Dove is taking a shot at it now too.

The emphasis is on still being a man, smelling good and still getting the ladies. Welcome to "Man 2.0" And I think it's working.Men are conscious of how they look and present themselves. They look good, smell good and I like it!

You can clearly see the different age targets at work: Axe: the young blossoming man that is into Sex, Sex, Sex humour; Old Spice the 25 - 40 range guy that likes the more subtle random humour that a bit more sophisticated and Finally the Dove man - the family man. However, the message is always the same BECAUSE YOU ARE A MAN.

I love the Old Spice work (and scent). Talk about taking a old brand and making it relevant and .... awesome.

Old Spice website
The man your man could smell like (my favourite)


I'm a Man


Axe - they've always pushed the boundaries - taking more of a shock value than the kind of humour seen in Old Spice


Balls (this spot makes me awkward)


Dove for Men

Re-branding to BORING.

Taking the fun out of the Internet isn't really all that much fun....

Ebay, the auction giant and PayPal pusher, has decided to re-brand their Kijiji classified site to ebayclassifieds.com

and all I can think of is.... barf, how boring!

The success of Google has sometimes been attributed to its funny, goofy and random name. The name "google", as far as I know was made up as something that was fun and people wouldn't know. Of course now it's a verb and a noun and adjective and.... you get the idea, its fun.

Ebay claims that though Canadians love the Kijiji site, it wasn't catching on in the US - and so they decided to dumb it down to Who made it: ebay and what is it for: classifieds.

Here is the GlobeandMail article.

PS the name Kijiji comes from:
The word "kijiji" (pronounced like key-gee-gee) means "village" in Swahili. This name was chosen because it captures the essence of what we are creating - a site where people can connect with others in their local community.

It's no accident: If you look down at your keyboard you'll noticed that the letters k, i and j are located next to each other. So you see, it's all about local for us.

PPS. apparently Google comes from Googol
1 googol = 10100 = 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
It is equal to ten duotrigintillion and a hundredth of a tretrigintillion.

YIKES!! Check out the explanation here.

The disappearing act

I stumbled across this SunChips ad (creative agency: Juniper Park) and I really liked it! The simplicity is really nice, the music reinforces the emotional feeling really well and though I often scoff at the realistic-ness of the claims - I actually believe SunChips.

Maybe I'm just searching for a warm fuzzy feeling but I do think they've done a great job here. I also think it was a better execution than "T-Shirt" only because it was easier to read and understand the point.

One more - this time they have an interesting use of an Aussie accent when talking about American chips and California....

I hope more brands will start heavily pushing R&D to make sure that what SunChips has started and broken through with becomes "old news" and the norm.... but is that too much of a warm fuzzy feeling again?

SunChips has taken the campaign to really really creative levels that perfectly ladder up to the essence of the brand, check out this super simple billboard ad, talk about using something seemingly mundane and often ignored to do something truly interesting

To each their own?

My inital thought when i read the article in the globe and mail about the guy who got Ray-Ban glasses tattooed to his face was "what an idiot..." but soon after shrugged and thought "to each their own, it's not my face, doesn't bother me"

The article mentions about how far companies should go to promote their brand - it's unknown if Ray-Ban has any involvement (if you know, fill us in!) but they are for sure reaping some viral attention. In my opinion, if someone is dumb enough to get a tattoo on their face for some fast cash - then go for it. They weren't forced into it, they made the decision.

Here is the viral Ray-Ban video



For us Canadian, did it not make you think of the recent Excel Gum commercial for the 2010 Olympics?

Print is not a dead medium

Using the printed page to some advertisers is considered to be archaic. Brand managers are pushing their ad guys to push for more interactive online channels, flashy banners and new social networking site features. However, there is a growing trend for brands to go back to the printed page to draw consumers back online - through their phones.

A little while ago, ecommbyablonde brought you a couple posts about interactive magazine pages: one from Nike and another from an article in the globe and mail.

Now the New York Times is running an article about the progression of using smartphones and magazine pages to drive sales. It is incredibly interesting to read about the technology, how it is being used and even where it started from. Check it out here.

Have you purchased anything online or used your smartphone to access more information from a magazine?

Heineken is keeping it real

Perhaps a little like Dave Chappell's sketch "When keeping it real goes wrong", this holiday season Heineken is taking a different approach to draw attention to it's brand.

Heineken is highlighting the social dangers of drinking too much; however instead of going for a tear inducing, heart-aching story/warning, Heineken is keeping it light and humourous and (in my opinion) doing a pretty good job.



They've created a TV ad that drives drinkers online to a micro-site knowthesigns.com where they can play a game of spotting the people who drank too much. The object of the game is to spot the typical characteristics that all of us have had to deal with when we've gone out with friends including: the crier, the flirt, the fighter and the groper. All the kinds of people that we really don't want to deal with and will/have ruined our nights.

Beyond the game Heineken is leveraging this other media as well. They have an iPhone breathalyzer app and a "tag of shame" app that users can download to their social media site and actually tag pictures of their friends being TG (That guy or That girl)

Launching during the prime holiday season, at a time when office parties, friends are celebrating and family is getting together Heineken is offering an interesting spin on marketing of one of the worlds favourite beers. They are keeping the fun, lighthearted and interest while maintaining a drink responsibly message.


Warning: No heartstrings were pull in this campaign.