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In response to President Obama's soon-to-be-signed anti-tobacco legislation, which includes the requirement that colorful cigarette ads be replaced with stark black & white only text, design mavens Pentagram have revealed several intriguing ways in which Big Tobacco can package smokes under the new marketing guidelines.

The mastermind behind these designs--subtle gems such as multiple stabbings and skull & bones--is Pentagram partner DJ Stout, who started the project after a proposal from the St. Petersburg Times to interpret how brands like Marlboro could comply with the new rules.

On Pentagram's site, Stout issues the following statement regarding the concept:

"Our marketing advice to cigarette companies in the new heavily regulated era is to fully accept the new aggressive anti-smoking restrictions and wallow in the government's apocalyptic health warnings. Don't make excuses or dance around the stepped-up marketing regulations, just transform the whole cigarette pack into a three-dimensional warning label."

Whether or not Marlboro and its embattled ilk will heed Pentagram's suggestions is uncertain. But Stout nevertheless has pulled off a notable faux-campaign that not only considers a smoker's awareness that cigs will likely kill them but one which doesn't alienate them anymore than they already are in society.

Via

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Sometimes you have to just come out and f*ck with people to get them to see your billboard. In this case, we're mildly happy with the execution pictured above — for ABC Australia's show, "The Chaser's War on Everything". Thanks to FishbowlLA editor Tine Dupuy for sharing.

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There seems to be more and more ads that are offending not their original country of display, but some other far flung nation. It's like people forget that the internet is a global tool. Even if you have a very nationalistic surfing pattern, consider that the rest of the world is running around cyberspace at full international tilt.

Consider a recent German safe sex commercial for Doc Morris Pharmacies created by Grey Worldwide Frankfurt. The print ad shows Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong as a sperm cell alongside Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. Naturally, many Chinese were upset considering the official party line is that Mao was "30% wrong and 70% right." He's a hero. For future reference, you don't mess with Mao. Other companies have been down this road with similar results. Peugeot Citroen had to apologize for using a cross eyed Mao in advert in Spain.

These days, it's best to consider that your ad is going to seen by everyone. Make a check list even - does it matter if I offend all of Australia by making a joke of Hugh Jackman? Probably not. The billion plus consumers of China? Might want to think that one through.

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If you haven't noticed, Adweek and Adage are in a fight to the death - for ad dollars, as well as for relevancy. Lately, bloggers and serious journalists alike have been taking the pair to task. Longtime advertising reporter Lewis Lazare of Chicago's Sun Times recently wrote:

"Too much of the online editorial in both Adweek and its principal competitor Advertising Age nowadays is devoted to issues peripheral to the real business of advertising, which presumably is what both magazines were created to cover."

AdPulp followed up with written:

"This year's Agency Report Card special report shows how little interest Adweek has in covering advertising agencies."

These are just two examples of a larger sentiment. Look through any of the ad blog's comments and you'll find readers poo-pooing the publications coverage. In some cases, each of these outlets have some sharp writers such as Adweek's Brian Morrissey and AdAge's Nick Parish, but over all - the people are disappointed. FAIL.

So... the question is - what do you want AdAge/Adweek to do? How they hell can they serve us all better? I'll kick off this list.

1. Look beyond the press release and write the real story. Damn the man!

2. Invest in investigative, long form journalism. Listen, AgencySpy is a blog. There's places we can't go because hell... lots of people don't take us seriously. But you guys? You guys are for reals. You're venerable. You have dedicated writers and budgets. Sure. Maybe it's a small budget, but at least you have one. Brian Morrissey is writing some of the best long form advertising editorials over on his personal blog. Not for Adweek. What's with that? Is it the fear of losing advertising dollars? Hell... Look at the NY Times. You're going to lose them anyway, so why not at least, serve your public with great editorial?

3. Get local. If the NY Times and the Huffington Post can cover news by locality, then why can't you guys get some bloggers together and just do the damn thing? We have one blogger full time on AgencySpy. We can't get to it all, but damn... we've got more regional than you guys. Sad.

Who's got number 4? Number 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9? The comments section awaits.

There's a new print campaign out created by New Message Amsterdam, which features a woman in bikini hovering oddly near their client Jonny Loco's product, a bicycle. As Adrants said: "Um, WTF?" We'd like to pick up where they left off.

First of all, what kind of godforsaken outfit is that? We got some love for goth, but this is just way to Fredrick's Of Hollywood (read: cheap) for us to handle. Second of all, you're selling sex right? We know that it works, but couldn't you have made the ad actually sexy? Another thing - This ad is totally disconnected - the woman is removed from the bike itself. Her sexuality is a separate entity and a very aggressive, sci-fi one at that. Last but not least - please, if you're going to use sex then create some sort of viewpoint on it. Are you going to go for seduction or go all the way? Seriously. Make the woman more than just a one-dimensional object. It's not that hard. Sorry guys, but this is just sloppy work.

So, below and after the jump please find some inspiring images for your ad campaign. Take a look. Reflect. Figure out your client's brand and then come back to us with something that makes a little more sense, yeah? Thanks.

[image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

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Creativity Magazine is going from ten issues a year to a quarterly. Meanwhile, their digital hub will remain the resource that it is. The magazine said in an editorial that: "- current economic circumstances have only hastened changes that were already well underway, in our business and yours."

Ain't that the truth. Creativity has shuffled some staffers around including Managing Editor Nick Parish heading over to sister publication AdAge as Events Content Manager. Sounds fishy, but it really means that AdAge is going to start throwing conferences that you know, are interesting and give you way more opportunities to get drunk with your cohorts. I'm game. This recession thing is bollocks.

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AdAge published their agency a-list today, and with it came a never-ending onslaught of cartoon super-heroes (drawn by Pete McDonell) that seem to say, "the agencies that worked on these brands are not the superheroes that save the day, but the gods who pointed at the embryonic brands and said, "let there be consumerism, and really cool ads, oh and loads of mmmmmmoooonnnneeeeey." Do you agree with the a-list?

Oh, and does anyone else think it's funny that Titt...erm, Twitter's logo is on the sauperlady's breast? Anywhere else would have been fine.

Click continued to see this week's cover.

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Publishers are trying to keep their printy goodness alive these days, in whatever ways they can. For magaziners that's driven the sales and editorial realm ever closer together. Case in point, today ESPN is "guilty" of publishing ad content for Gatorade on their cover, including a line of print. Ha, ESPN doesn't obey the laws of man, silly, silly ASME.

ESPN belongs to the the American Society of Magazine Editors, which says this kind of thing is a no-no. But for employees who want to keep their jobs, it's a resounding hell yes. Well, that's our guess.

A few other mags have done stuff like this, including Esquire, As One, Scholastic, and Parent & Child.

We'd like to point something out. Standards aren't standards until something of value is sacrificed to maintain them. You know, like in the movies when the hero has to choose between the woman he loves and um, not letting the world blow up or whatever. But in those cases the jackass always finds a way to save both woman and world, and then gets laid. Somehow we don't think ESPN is getting any nookie out of their deal, though they will get to print for another day. That's gotta be worth something, ASME, so shove it!

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Who among us could resist seeing this movie? No one, we dare say.

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In their new book, "The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference" Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval (of famed super agency The Kaplan Thaler Group) make some good points about paying attention to detail, why it's important to do so, and how it's made them who they are (etc) — but, we're not sure they needed to write an entire book to send the message home.

Most of us grew up listening to adults tell us that the devil is in the details; it's the little things that matter; stop screwing up you idiot. Wait, maybe that last one was a little harsh. Anyway, Kaplan Thaler and Koval took 133 smallish pages to ask, "why not embrace the power of small in your life?" You know, remembering to say please and thank you, and putting your change in a jar and when it's full, buy a house with it! Erm.

These are all good points — and Kaplan Thaler/Koval are sure to do well with this piece. Their last, "The Power of Nice" was a New York Times bestseller, so we imagine they're hoping for the same result with Small. But this one just wasn't for us. It's a little like "Chicken Soup for the Soul" without the chicken, meaning it didn't feel as good as we wanted it to.

An aspect we found irksome — the constant references to their agency. We don't know why this bothered us, but it got old really fast. You'll say — they're so successful that they have every right to make mention of their accomplishments. Fine, true. But we felt propagandized — like that publicist who keeps calling and calling to remind us why their Kool-aid is so great, even though we just had a big glass.

All in all, if you want a little carry-along piece full of little instructional tips on small improvements you can make (check the presentation one more time!) this is the book for you. But for $17.95, we'd recommend you call up your mom and ask some inane question about how she thinks you could improve your life — she'll have more than 133 pages of commentary geared just for you, and you'll have an extra $18 in your pocket. There's a recession on, people!

The book isn't out til April.

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