The recent, cartoonish prospective print ads by Ford's agency in India—depicting Silvio Berlusconi and Paris Hilton as heartless kidnappers—turned out to be mere child's play in the modern universe of tin-eared automotive marketing. Hyundai has just set the bar at a new low with an online ad in Europe for its iX35 fuel-cell car, which depicts a suicide attempt in the car—which eventually fails because of the vehicles clean emissions.

The spot by Innocean, Hyundai's agency of record because it is owned by Hyundai, shows a man sitting in the driver's seat of a Hyundai in his garage, having made all the necessary preparations for offing himself by breathing in carbon monoxide. But, despite the foreboding music, it doesn't work. The commercial shows a tube—run into the passenger compartment from the exhaust pipe—emitting what looks like smoke but turns out to be vapor, as the car runs on "100-percent water emissions," a tagline informs the viewer. The guy is out of luck.

Hyundai today pulled the ad (which was posted last week) from YouTube, but it has gone wildly viral and enraged the brand's fans and non-fans the world over. "Hyundai understands the video has caused offense," Hyundai Europe said in a statement (update: scroll down for additional statements). "We apologize unreservedly. The video has been taken down and will not be used in any of our advertising or marketing."Continue reading...

Ford's Hello, Again project for the relaunched Lincoln brand and its new MKZ model was promoted with a new commercial, above, that premiered during the Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS Sunday evening. The description:

"We revisited our 90-year history of making automobiles to introduce the Lincoln Motor Company. We filtered our past greats through a fresh vision to say, 'Hello, Again' to the luxury motorcar. But we haven't stopped with automobiles. With 'Hello, Again' we'll commence a series of projects with artists who share our vision of reimagination. And along with you, watch as they explore familiar territory to return with original creations we’ve never met before."

Celebrating the art of sound, the Lincoln brand invited musician Beck (a master of reinvention himself) and director Chris Milk to reimagine the composition of David Bowie's classic tune, "Sound and Vision." The Feb. 6th recording session involved 167 musicians playing a set list from a series of rotating platforms, creating a 360-degree immersive event for a "new digital experience" as the audience (including Australian musician Sia) circled the performance.Continue reading...

Now that PepsiCo has begun marketing in its flagship Pepsi brand in a much more significant way this year, investors, analysts and other pundits are giving PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi the benefit of the doubt as she continues to unfold her strategy for making the company a major player in better-for-you markets rather than just a traditional purveyor of snack foods and soda beverages. From Australia to India, from vending machines to sweeteners to ad agencies, PepsiCo is pushing to innovate.

Case in point: PepsiCo just announced a pilot rollout of its Pepsi Interactive Vending machine pilot program, allowing consumers in a handful of U.S. locations to not only buy a beverage, but also send virtual gifts, play games and even charge their mobile devices. In addition to buying a Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist Natural, Aquafina or Lipton Green Tea, users can also gift a 20-ounce bottled beverage to a friend by entering the recipient's name and email along with a personalized message. That person, in turn, can send a gift back to the gift-giver — or pay it forward by sending their own gift to another friend.

The next-generation social vending machine is "part of a broader global platform of equipment innovation we're developing to engage consumers," stated Mikel Durham, PepsiCo's Global Growth officer. "The pilot launch of our Interactive Vending equipment is an exciting step in transforming the point-of-purchase experience," added Margery Schelling, the company's Global Innovation officer.Continue reading...

Remember Google's Agile Creativity Pitch to agencies? It's now amping up its own digital creativity to attract ad agencies to come and play in its Creative Sandbox, an "open platform to surface and celebrate" inspiring new campaigns and digital creative.

The name is no doubt familiar to digital types, as Creative Sandbox was the banner under which Google hosted events, dating back to San Francisco, Chicago in 2008, and more recently popping up as events to inspire creatives in Cannes, New York, London and Shanghai.

Now the party is moving online with the launch of a virtual gallery to share and showcase new creative work .Continue reading...

In a summer of shimmering heat, two high-end jewelry brands are offering royalty and art as artistic salve.

As you can see above, Tiffany & Co. is finally opening its Soho store in New York, and fêting the event with four artists’ renderings of true love — a recurring theme for the brand — “to trick out the hoarding around the façade” for two week stints each, each installation displayed on oversized wooden canvases in front of the Tiffany & Co. storefront as behind the scenes everything's getting ready for the opening.

Artist Danielle Dimstom kicked off the collaboration on July 16 with a stylized combination of text and drawings, followed by street artist Ellis Gallagher’s unique take on the colors of love on July 27. The current installation features a mural from Igor + Andre, which will be followed by the final artist in the series, Natasha Law. The installations can be viewed at 97 Greene Street.Continue reading...

Paris to Shanghai, by train. The concept alone dredges up an atmosphere of yesteryear, when Orient Express-style train travel was the luxury way to travel. And what two cities summon that fabulous yesteryear better than Paris and Shanghai, a city once hailed as "Paris of the East?"

That nostalgic sentiment is what Louis Vuitton is tapping into for its new campaign, "Louis Vuitton Express" — which kicked off this week with a teaser video, "Paris to Shanghai by Train by The Selby," — as the digital extension of an event marketing campaign that's rolling online, on YouTube and on Facebook from the brand's French HQ to its new China HQ.

But who or what, you might ask, is "The Selby?" And will "The Selby" be enough to get Vuitton back in the good graces of Chinese luxury buyers who have recently come to treat the the brand kind of like locomotive travel — a relic of the past?Continue reading...

At the top of the new year, Unilever’s Axe body spray and grooming product line (known as Lynx beyond the U.S.) announced a plan to create an interactive graphic novel (the grown up version of a comic book), crowdsourced via its social marketing channels. That project is now live on its YouTube channel, where you can see the storyline evolve, and on Facebook, where fans can participate in shaping the storyline.

The objective is to expand its target audience beyond just men because the brand is introducing Anarchy, a new fragrance that has a version for men and another for women. Axe already dominates the men’s body spray market with a 74 percent share in the U.S., according to market-search firm SymphonyIRI Group, the New York Times reports.

Axe has 2.3 million “likes” on Facebook and the company’s senior brand manager, says that about a quarter of them are from women, the Times notes.  “We’ve been hearing for some time that females have been asking for and looking for their very own scent of Axe,” said Roberts. That kind of double targeting can cause, yes, anarchy for a marketer.Continue reading...

Unilever's Axe brand is starting the new year with a digital marketing first — a crowdsourced graphic novel, to be called Anarchy, developed using fan feedback via its YouTube channel. The crowd-shaped comic book (watch the teaser below) kicks off online on January 10th.Continue reading...