advertising/marketing

Evel Knievel’s Kids Bikes

by steve casimiro on March 15, 2012 · 1 comment

one response

You kids today only have the vaguest conception of Evel Knievel, if any at all, but back in the day he was the Muhammad Ali-meets-Elvis of extreme action two-wheeling. Bold, brash, and fearless, he was a redneck daredevil who broke every damn bone in his body trying to shake the dimes out of rube’s pockets. [...]

Public Freaks Over Citibank Climbing Ad, Outdoor Folk Stoked

by michael frank on January 9, 2012 · 7 comments

7 responses

UPDATED: The CNN segment has disappeared from the company’s site. We’ve replaced it with the original Citibank commercial. It’s never a very big surprise to us when mainstream media gets hold of “extreme” sports coverage and totally screws the pooch on it. But CNN actually nailed the basics in this clip on the kerfuffle surrounding [...]

It’s the Holidays. Be a Sucker for the Planet

by michael frank on December 23, 2011 · 0 comments

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We couldn’t have made this ad any better. Well, maybe with some skiers and surfers and mountain bikers and climbers we could have, save that this two-minute spot from the BBC, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is filled with athletes of every stripe, all more amazing and talented than any human could ever hope to [...]

Hiking Boots, Birthed by Mad Scientists!

by michael frank on December 21, 2011 · 0 comments

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We don’t know a whole lot about Native Shoes, save that they’re, uh, unique. And they’re big in Japan, which you shouldn’t scoff at, because lots of nifty, niche brands here exist by charging mega yen over there. Still, even their “boot,” the Fitzsimmons, strikes us as strictly urban wear, what with its unbreathable rubber [...]

GM Puts Your Tax Dollars to Work…Dissing Cycling

by steve casimiro on October 12, 2011 · 12 comments

12 responses

This is what $50 billion in federal CPR gets you: General Motors is attempting to sell its vehicles to college students by suggesting the cycling is for losers. “Stop pedaling…start driving” says the ad promoting GM’s college discount program. It’s an absolutely brilliant marketing campaign — if your goal is to alienate the millions of [...]

Bizarre Truck Commercial of the Year? We Have a Winner

by steve casimiro on October 12, 2011 · 0 comments

no responses

Now, this is a four-wheel-drive commercial. It starts out full-on macho, with an erupting volcano and dangerous tornado, then gets weird, with a giant boat and a chimpanzee, and then it gets surreal. And it’s all tinged with an underlying Mad Maxian humor. Buy a Toyota Hilux? If it leads to adventures like this, sign [...]

Could You Climb Before Coffee? What About to Get Your Coffee?

by michael frank on October 5, 2011 · 0 comments

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In this gravity-bending Ikea commercial (we know which outdoor superpowers they’d want), a dude wakes up and has to scale a sheer wall in order to have breakfast, just like in the old days when you have to climb the cliffs of Mordor to steal velociraptor eggs for your omelette. But even with holds this [...]

“We’ll Come Before You Do”

Is there anything bikes can’t do? This Swiss public service spot promotes the use of condoms to prevent AIDS/HIV (and bike delivery services). And yes, they’re about to totally do it, so if you don’t want your kids to learn about how birds and bees practice safe sexual relations, don’t let them watch it. And [...]

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Big Lie Country? Montana Promotes Itself — With Images of Wyoming

Montana has been lauded this year for its tourism campaign, which consists largely of plastering photos, buffalo-sized and beautiful, on things that are decidedly not beautiful: buses in New York City, trains in Chicago. This spring, the American Marketing Association awarded the Bozeman, Montana, company that developed the campaign an “Effie” – “Effie” being short [...]

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Kenny Powers Is the MFCEO of K-Swiss

A friend of mine sent me this video and wrote, “Do you wish, as badly as we do, that you could post this to your site?” Well, um, who’s going to tell me I can’t? Bloody brilliant. All sneaker companies should be run this way. Maybe Kenny could take over Nike, Montrail, Vibram, too. And, [...]

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Links We Like, June 27, 2011

THE CROWDS AT MACHU PICCHU ARE ENOUGH to knock the Incan treasure way down on the life list, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Mark Adams walked the back way to Machu Picchu and among the gems he found was Choquequirao, the sister site to the more famous ruin. At Choquequirao, he counted [...]

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Watching the Sun Rise from 100 Points of View

Here’s betting dollars to donuts that you’ve found yourself watching a full moon or dramatic sunrise or sunset and thought about sharing it with someone elsewhere on the planet. Or maybe you were on the phone or Skype or IM or text and watched the same extraplanetary event “together” while contemplating coincidental phenomenon of time [...]

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Marketing on the World’s Most Dangerous Road

Short of a some nasty section of IED-blasted highway in Afghanistan, it’s easy to believe that Bolivia’s North Yungas Road is the world’s most dangerous drivable stretch. Some 200 to 300 people die on this 43-mile dirt ribbon connecting La Paz to Coroico, an impressively large number that surely justifies the label. That figure also [...]

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Surfers Cover Themselves in Trash to Fight Sewage

Surfers Against Sewage is a U.K. organization with some muscle — and some whimsy. Founded in 1990 by a group of British surfers who were, as they put it, “Literally ‘sick of getting sick’ through repeated ear, nose, throat and gastric infections after going in the sea,” they created an action plan to stop sewage [...]

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The Romance of Classic Land Rovers

As a young lad growing up in Montana I would sit glued to the idiot box watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom as they traveled the dark continent in search of adventure. They never seemed to head north to the tundra — it all looked as though it took place near the equator, mainly Africa…I [...]

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