Wellness is one of the new and emerging trends. Everyone is going natural and organic and adding Vitamins to just about everything that you can add Vitamins to - including Shampoo and Skin Cream and Deodorants. Not to be left out of this craze, where consumers will blindly buy anything that has ‘less of XXX,’ or ‘enriched with XXX’ Coke has entered the fray with a new product.

Coke recently introduced a new Coke product called the Diet Coke Plus. The product has added Vitamins and Minerals etc.. etc.. Yikes!

Is it just me or is this going too far?

I mean, if we accept Vitamin enhanced Breads and Juices, Vitamin enhanced Diet Coke should be OK too, I mean it is the same idea. Somehow this strikes me as just plain weird - but then for Coke fans out there, at least this will give them a good reason to feel good about as they chugg the flavored water down, along with their Big Macs.

Enjoy.

The next time you sit down to play your favorite your XBOX 360 or PC game, expect to see advertising - lots and lots of it, thanks to what some would describe as the unholy alliance between E.A (If it’s in the game) and Microsoft (The Wow starts now).

The guys at ars are bummed and so am I.

It goes like this, consumers put up with advertising on network TV because advertising makes it possible for them to see great shows like Haraldo, WWF or Nanny 911, not to mention the lesser know shows like 24 or LOST. People consider it a relatively fair trade off.

Games cost us anywhere from 40-60 US$. Will running ads in games help reduce the cost, will it, like network TV, help subsidize the entertainment? It’s not official yet, but I don’t think so, and I have a pretty good idea where this lucrative revenue stream will end up.

I work in advertising so I know that we ‘chase’ the consumers to reach them with ‘relevant,’ messages. But is this going too far? Personally I have yet to play a game with dynamic content on em, so I cannot judge how intrusive or not the ads will be. But the idea is simply annoying.

And I am not even touching the privacy issue. Unlike network TV, these advertisers will know exactly who you are, your age, your address, even your credit card number (which you used to pay for LIVE or whatever service you will use). They will know exactly the type of ads to serve to you - the ads that you get maybe different from the one I get although we are playing the same game! Are you going to be OK with that?

I do have a bit of a suggestion to those who will seek to place advertising in games. My suggestion is not a perfect one, but at least it is the lessor of the evils.

The key here is to let the consumer decide if they want an Advertising Enabled Version of the game or the Advertising Free Version. So those who opt for the Ad Enabled version gets to pay less - just like how some websites make money or ad supported software works. I mean we are used to this paradigm already on the internet.

Alternative is not to buy games that have this technology. In that case, everyone loses. Otherwise go get a Wii or a PS3.

Why does shining a light through a dog so it comes out of it’s ass, make a great ad? You heard that right - light, coming out of a dog’s ass.

Well these ads by JWT Australia won the Prestigious Lions award at the recent Cannes Awards, so someones at Canns must have thought they make for great ads. Far be it for me to dispute the choices made at the Cannes, but what happens when the idea isn’t even original?

The headline reads : For healthy digestion.

This is exactly what happened; whether the guys at JWT Australia knowingly borrowed the idea (hoping that they will never be caught) or just happen to come up the same idea, they are now being accused of stealing the idea of a student. Stealing is bad enough, but from a student? See the student’s ad at the bottom and believe it or not it won a Clio in 2005.

Is it too close and suspicious a coincidence?

I have no idea what actually happened so I will reserve judgment (ahem), but this type of thing happens more often than we think and actually get to hear about it. If the guys at JWT are innocent, this is a nightmare scenario for them - especially since all of their names are credited along with the award winning ad. But if they are guilty, then I question their taste in stealing - come on, have class and steal a better ad.

This is just me, but I don’t want my name associated with an ad that showed light coming out of a dog’s ass. Unless, of course, it wins a Lion at the Cannes.

Via the ever excellent Adrants

There is a long running argument in the advertising industry. Does advertising reflect the values of the society that it is in or is society trying to mimic advertising?

One point of view is that advertising portrays an ideal place of what we want our society to be. It’s all about fulfilling aspirations and dreams. Yes, our brands will make your dreams come true.

But there is a problem. We live in an imperfect world. Things happen, they go wrong – and the solution is never the quick fix that most advertising seems to promise. Specifically the portrayal of women in advertising has increasingly come under scrutiny and attack by groups who feel that the women are not accurately portrayed – especially when it comes to body size.

Unilever is one of the few companies that seem to be addressing the issue in it’s advertising.

First came the Campaign For Real Beauty for the Dove Brand. Instead of using slim and svelte models to promote the brand they used “real,” women of different body shapes and skin color. It has received wide coverage and praise from women’s groups. While other’s have complained that it is a cynical attempt to sell even more stuff, whatever the motivation, at least they are doing something about it.

Going a step further, the Anglo-Dutch company based in Amsterdam has recently issued further guidelines here to it’s marketers and advertising agencies. While not strict, it “expects,” that the models be between BMI (Body Mass Index) of 18.5 and 25. Anything below 17.5 is suspected to signal anorexia nervosa.

So now that someone is doing something about it, will others follow or continue to do what they have always done?

Or ultimately is it too big an issue for a single company or even and industry to overcome? Or, are we, as a society been brain-washed to expect the slim and svelte models in our advertising?