Beyond Urban Branding

Old Spice has a new set of ads with Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris/White Girls) for their new Odor Blocker shower gel. These ads are funny, crazy, silly and most of all- memorable. I have no idea what the ad team at Old Spice has been on. But they need to keep taking it. Because these ads are hilarious. I'd embed them, but I could not find the proper way to embed codes. So enjoy the link. http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice?feature=chclk -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

Another wack Mickey D ad Whats wrong with McDonalds? Seriously, what are they thinking. Am I supposed to see this guy freestyling with a mic in the back seat while old folks head-nod to the beat is cool? There is no context...Is he in a taxi? Why does he have a mic? Wheres the DJ? I really thought this ad lacked a lot of creativity. I also think Mickey D's make a lot of dry ads directed at the African-American/Hip-Hop community. They really need to get out of the "Different World" TV show vibe and step up their ad game. This Def Poetry meets car freestylin' with old folks is wick-wick-wack! -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

I forgot about this ad. Its from the Super Bowl. Very well done. They kept the pace of the ad moving, kept it funny and still hammered their core message home. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

Simply stated, this ad sucks from top to bottom. I have no idea what executives at Taco Bell were thinking when they gave the green light to this ad. Here you have two White guys, dressed super goofy trying to rap their order. One guys beatboxing horribly (making rap beats with his mouth). The rap sucks. Its not even funny. Unless White guys rapping is funny. This does not appeal to lovers of rap. It does not appeal to lovers of comedy. It was poorly shot from front to back and whoever wrote the ad, should have known better. For those that don't know about beatboxing, here is what it looks like when its done right. Nobody out there can convince me that if you teamed a guy like this up with some quality writers, that Taco Bell could could not have done a much better job. What is the moral of the story kids? Take your brand and your demographic seriously when you use Hip-Hop in your ads. I'm sure this will come up again. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

I forgot how much political pundit Bill O'reilly hated Luda for this ad. He went on a rampage and got Luda dropped from Pepsi. He said Luda was immoral and Pepsi bent to the pressure and the ad was banned. Then they went and got the drug induced Osbournes to take his place. I always thought that was weak. Even the super pacifist Russell Simmons lashed out at Pepsi for folding to Bill. Anyway, as we all know Luda used that friction to bring more attention to his skills and he's balling so hard right now, its not even funny. Thanks Bill!! -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

OK now, if you are a lover of the art of Hip-Hop , ads like this can make you angry. A lot of Hip-Hop purists get upset when they feel the culture is being mocked (see Heineken ad). However, I think its important to remember that this is an ad for kids! Kids is the key word here. Hip-Hop is youth culture. It could be argued that cereal is youth culture. I think this ad is fun and innovative and I know my kids love this cereal and they do indeed dig the rap. They think its fun...They don't get it confused with a real rap song. Its just a cool jingle that reminds kids to get Reeses Puffs Cereal. I think I might buy a bowl now, my mouth is watering. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

Here is an ad for Gap khakis. Its a few years old I think. I like it because there is such a diverse range of races getting their groove on. Makes you wanna go get some, eh? But seriously, Hip-Hop dance, DJ's and graffiti art are still underused in advertising. I feel like everybody thinks Hip-Hop is just rap. For those that don't know Hip-Hop is composed of a few elements: Rap or MC'ing, DJ'ing, Graffiti, B-boy'ing and other forms of Hip-Hop dance. The second ad is a cool holiday ad featuring Common. Gap knows how to use rappers right in advertising campaigns. Both Gap ads shows that someone inside Gap knows that. Great look!!

Just the other day we were talking about the cool Palm ad featuring music by Mos Def. I liked it for a lot of reasons. One was because of how they used an African American woman (looking stylish and in charge). I could not figure out what I like about it. Until I remembered this ad by AT&T featuring Mary J. Blige (I think its about 6 months old). I love this ad deeply. I mean, Mary is doing the style thing hard with new outfits every second. Meanwhile new phones pop up while her song "The One" just drives the ad from start to finish. As a father, I immediately wanted to get the LG Neon for my daughter. Then I remembered how young she is. But it was inspiring and it really did make me want the phone. As much as I like the Palm ad, it does not compare to AT&T's. AT&T had star power, Palm didn't. Palm didn't make versatility and style jump out at you, AT&T did. Nevertheless, both were hot. No doubt women of all backgrounds are attracted to both ads. I...

One of the first ads Beyond Urban Branding critiqued, was a horrible "swagger" ad by Old Spice featuring LL Cool J . I really was sad to see Cool J and Old Spice blow such an opportunity. Well, someone else on the ad team at Old Spice must have hated the Cool J campaign just as much. I think this one dropped during or right after the Super Bowl. Old Spice bounced back hard recently by releasing this ad with a fast talking, well built African American guy. "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign is just as funny as it is creative as it is psychologically playful. I'd love for someone to review all of the changing elements in the ad. He starts in a shower, then ends up on a boat and then on the beach on a horse. He holds an oyster that opens up and has concert tickets that morph into a handful of diamonds and then he's holding Old Spice. I bet Freud and Jung could write volumes about this ad. The thing I found most interesting about this campaign is that...

Here is a great ad by Lucent Technologies (now Acatel-Lucent). Its fast paced, very authentically themed for a classic kung-fu film and ends with a comedic punch. The only real critique I have is that, they don't convey what they do. For the record Alcatel-Lucent is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. . The thing you cannot deny is, they do hammer home the priceless edge of having a solid partner with you when things get tough. -Beyond Urban Branding

Sometimes, the way a brand can win with a rapper is to just let them do their thing.That is the case with Eminem on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ad. I remember as the holidays approached this ad got my blood boiling. Its a very exciting ad. All they had to do was let Em rip and do what he does best- rap. The way they edited this, it felt more like a movie trailer than an ad. I know thats the desired effect. They nailed it. Just let the artist do them, and slide your name on it. The rest will take care of itself. -Beyond Urban Branding

I remember being sent to detention my sophomore year. I don't even remember what I had done (this time). But I hated detention. It was quiet as a morgue. I had nothing to read and it looked like the clock was almost moving backwards. Sitting up ahead of me was Che.We did not really like one another too much, but, we both loved Hip-Hop. Che had his SF Giants starter jacket on and his immaculate jerri curl was dripping like a rain forest all down the back. He had a Sony Walkman (remember those) tucked up under the curl. He leaned over to me at one point when the teacher was dozing off and said "Have you heard he new Run DMC?" He put the thumping, greasy ear pieces in my hand. I reluctantly put 'em to my head and my mind was blown away. No rap song earth has had the brand impact of Run DMC's My Adidas . This is arguably the first rap song that doubled as an advertisement. If you were lucky enough to be a teenager when this song came out, you remember the frenzy over ...

In all my running around, I TOTALLY missed this ads existence. I actually kind of like Drake and I looked forward to seeing it. Clyde Smith at www.prohiphop.com posted it- so I had to check it out. My gut reaction, you ask? "Meh, its ok." On a lot of levels, I feel like an opportunity was blown. Drake is so large right now. Maybe they gave this to an old guy who just did not bother to try. Maybe they were convinced the special effects would "wow" people. Its kind of a shoulder shrugger to me. But at the end of the day, they got Drake drinking Sprite- and thats all they really need, I guess. I'm gonna watch it again. It just feels like yet another squandered moment in urban Brand history. While preparing to post this I found another Drake ad. Its for Strapped Condoms. This is moment number two, in squandered brand moment for Drake. Its just kinda boring. I'm 100% for safe sex. I think they did the right thing in using Drake (any brand that can get him should...

I knew when Old Spice dropped these ads, they would fail. I knew they would suck. The first issue is, the brand is Old Spice . The most obvious angle to me would be to frame LL Cool J the old school rap star as an old school artist who uses old school/traditional deodorant. The theme should have been on keeping tradition...Instead they tried to make something old (the positioning of the brand) mix with something new ("swagger") a new school term. They should have either went straight old school, or went with the new rapper like Souljah Boy or Plies (Lord knows he could use some deodorant) and pushed for a completely youth angle. They weakly mixed old and new and came up empty. I dont even know if they sell "swagger" anymore. Not sure I care either. For the record, I dont know ONE person who liked the ads, or bought Old Spice because of these ads. Anyway here it is: -Beyond Urban Branding P.S. I think using names like "swagger", "hyphy" (and i ...

The most authentic urban ads in the history o f the game, all come from alcohol companies. This saddens me greatly, because, I've always felt that many of these companies used their accurate knowledge of Hip-Hop and urban subculture to target underage kids . This is not something that you can prove, but, its hard not to believe that is the case. The truth is, whoever created these campaigns knew what they were doing. When these ads first hit, I was in love with them and tried to tape as many as I could of the air. These ads did not FEEL LIKE ADS. They felt like rap songs. Any brand that can master that, has a winning campaign. The bottom line is that Puffy and Ciroc Vodka could have never happened, Jay and Armand de Brignac would have never existed without St. Ides paving the way. These are just a few of the ads St. Ides have made. They've made many more than I can list but some of them include Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Geto Boys and many others. St. Ides also got major shouts out on ...