As a company, once you find a marketing strategy that works, you usually stick with it. Nike had the swoosh, milk has the mustaches, and PETA? Well, they have naked women.

Over the years, PETA has used women celebs like Alicia Silverstone, Eva Mendes, and Cindy Crawford to encourage the masses not to wear fur or eat meat. And while they've gotten a lot of flak, they continue to pay women to drop trou for the good of the animals.

Today in Philadelphia, PETA's "lettuce ladies" (women wearing little more than lettuce-shaped undergarments) will be handing out soy turkey sandwiches to promote the company's "Turn over a new leaf: go vegetarian" campaign.

A few points that should be noted, here: PETA rarely uses men to advertise its messages. It did use MTV Jackass' Steve-O, who was nude, but the ad a) only showed his backside and b) was quite obviously in jest, poking fun at the typical oversexed PETA model and keeping in vein with the show's brand of humor. Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix have also done commercial spots for the organization - fully clothed. Somehow, I wonder if the effectiveness of the message is lost when we're too busy ogling Pam Anderson's generous chest to worry about what she's promoting.

Now, I'm all for soy products, either as meat replacements or as an addition to a healthy diet. Isn't it fascinating how, in campaigning to stop exploiting one living thing, another is exploited in its place? Maybe PETA should stop pointing its fingers at others for a second and turn the magnifying glass on itself.

Food for thought.

France is jumping onto the ad-restriction bandwagon, joining the US and the UK before them in making an attempt at using warnings to curb the climbing obesity rate in the country. Currently, about 30% of the French population is overweight and 10% is obese. The increasing size of the population is being blamed on processed foods and fast food, both of which encourage unhealth, on-the-go eating and are popular with the "youth" of the country. In an attempt to curb the climbing obesity rate in the country, France is jumping onto the ad-restriction bandwagon. Following in the footsteps of the US and the UK, France will be restricting what its viewers can and cannot see in food ads. All food ads are now required "carry cautions to stop snacking, keep active and eat fruits and vegetables." Specifically, the warning will have to include one of the following statements:

• "For your health, eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day."
• "For your health, undertake regular physical activity."
• "For your health, avoid eating too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt."
• "For your health, avoid snacking between meals."

The policy applies to "advertisements on television, radio and billboards and the Internet for processed, sweetened or salted food and drinks." Any advertiser who does not include the health-messages with their ads will be fined a percentage of the cost of the ad.

Restaurateurs have a love-hate relationship with food critics. They love them when they get a good review and hate them when they don't. A lot of seething goes on in the kitchen when the review is bad, but that is usually as far as it gets. Once in a while, however, a restaurant owner will be pushed over the edge, as Jeffrey Chodorow was when he read Frank Bruni's review of his Kobe Club. Chodorow took out a full-page ad (rumored to have cost around $40,000) in this week's NY Times Dining section blasting Bruni ("in crazy-person tiny type") and accusing him of being biased, unqualified and, essentially, of having a personal vendetta against him and/or his restaurants.

The letter was addressed to Pete Wells, who recently came to the NY Times as the editor of the Dining section, possibly in the hopes that Wells would take some sort of action against Bruni. Wells has since said that the Times will take no action and Bruni himself spoke to the NY Post, saying that he has no vendetta against Chodorow. Nor does New York magazine's Adam Platt or The NY Post's Steve Cuozzo - both of whom gave the restaurant less-than-flattering reviews at the same time as Bruni.

[thanks, alanna!]

We had a bit of a debate over whether the McDonald's ad that flashed on screen during an episode of Iron Chef America was the Food Network's attempt at subliminal advertising or simply a very poorly edited piece of filming. It turns out, according to a statement released by the network, that it was just a glitch.

A network spokesman said, "It was a technical error on our part and not a subliminal message as suggested by a Web site running the slow-motion playback. It has been corrected for all future airings [of that episode]." A McDonald's spokesman said, "We don't do subliminal advertising."

Those excuses are both weak. Every product placement in a movie or TV show is certainly near enough to subliminal advertising (a McD's cup in the hand of a background extra, etc) that denying it seems ridiculous. And for the Network to have aired a split-second clip in the middle of footage from another show is so unlikely that it is far easier to believe the network intended it to air. It's also possible that they just have a poorly trained staff, but an actual technical glitch? Probably not.

Super Bowl is the most-watched television program of the year. Last year alone, over 141 million viewers tuned in. The top ten most watched TV programs in history are all Super Bowl games. As a result, advertisers go all-out for their game-day spots, making the commercial breaks nearly as entertaining as the game.

There is a lot of competition to stand out from the crowd and grab the viewer's attention, so even though Pepsi is one of the biggest sponsors of the game, they will be giving away a one-of-a-kind Pepsi can that is sure to make people sit up and take notice. It is worth $100,000.

The can is encrusted with diamonds and is made of sterling silver. Anyone interested in entering the sweepstakes for a chance to win it can get a code online and wait to see if it is announced during the halftime show.

These days, advertising tends to be on a very obvious (superliminal) level. By this, I mean that most broadcasters make no effort to conceal the fact that they're being paid (or compensated in some way) to promote a product. The show Top Chef, for example, frequently refers to the "Kenmore kitchen" provided by its sponsors and repeatedly uses brand names from other companies. This type of advertising really gets a brand name out into the public arena, but some still believe that sneakier tactics are in order to get the public to try their products and would prefer to use subliminal advertising than superliminal, believing that the subconscious mind has a greater impact on human behavior.

This YouTube video clip reveals an example of subliminal advertising that a viewer found on the Food Network during a broadcast of Iron Chef America. The ad, which is for McDonald's, is only about one frame of film long, but is still noticeable to the conscious mind as a red flash on the screen.

Of course, it could have been a broadcasting glitch and not a purposefully placed advertisement. But that might just be what they want you to think....

[via something awful - thanks, Berkana!]

Last year, Sun-Maid's iconic mascot, the Sun-Maid maid, got a makeover so the brand would have a new look. Her overall appearance remained very similar, but she was digitized. The newly three dimensional character talks, does yoga and promotes California raisins, but even though she was one of the first ad icons to undergo this overhaul, she isn't the only one. Orville Redenbacher has recently been digitized so that he can continue to convincingly promote his famous popcorn brand over ten years after his death. The first ad to use digital Orville will air during the Golden Gloves and will depict "Redenbacher [pitching] popcorn while jiving to his MP3 player." A preview clip can be seen here.

With the amount of technology that went into the ad, it is the company's most expensive ever, but as we have seen from the movie industry, an expensive venture doesn't always yield blockbuster results. Opinions vary on whether this was a good idea or a bad one. Some, including Redenbacher's grandson, see it as a way to remember the man and even feel that he would have loved the idea himself. Others think that there is "a certain creepiness" to the revival of a long-dead man.

Click past the jump for a vintage Orville Redenbacher commercial.

It's hard to believe that Burger King ads could get too much worse than the ones that featured The King, but they have gone from weird to weirder. This Eat Like a Snake ad features a man drawn to a triple Whopper that a friend has carelessly abandoned on the lunchroom table. He slithers snakelike across the floor, unhinges his jaw and swallows the sandwich whole.

Usually, even fast food restaurants try to make it seem like diners are savoring the flavor of their foods, but all this one seems to be doing is encouraging binge eating, as snake-man doesn't seem to have tasted the burger at all. It might even be encouraging bulimia on top of compulsive eating, as more than a few people expressed the desire to void their last meal - fast food or not - after watching that burger go down in one mouthful.

[via supersizedmeals]

If you thought that eating sugary cereal could be hazardous to your health, just try starring in a commercial for it. The star of this recent Frosties cereal ad (the name for Frosted Flakes in the UK), a 15-year old gymnast from Johannesburg, South Africa, has actually gotten death threats as a direct result of appearing in the ad. Apparently, people just find the jingle to be so irritating, that they have said things like "He's a revolting despicable child - he deserves to die." Kellogg's put a stop to just about all the interviews with the star, just to be on the safe side, but spokespeople say that the ad is actually quite popular with viewers.

Having seen the commercial in the video clip above, I have to say that the viewers of this ad must be a very lucky bunch because this is by no means the most irritating or disturbing ad on TV - Skittles and Burger King already have a head start in those departments, and the recent Folger's ad is in its own category of weirdness. Death threats? It's just breakfast.

Smirnoff is the latest company to join in the viral marketing trend, putting a video on YouTube to gain interest in their newest product. Since we all enjoyed the Folgers ad so much, it seemed only natural to put up new Smirnoff ad. The ad is a music video featuring the "New England gangsters" known as "Prep Unit" - in other words, three white guys rapping about Cape Cod, the Hamptons and Harvard while playing croquet and tennis. The ad promotes Smirnoff's new malt iced tea beverage, Smirnoff Raw Tea, which is in limited release on the East Coast at the moment (but can also be found online). It's a funny ad, but as far as raps about food go, nothing can beat the SNL Lazy Sunday cupcake rap.

DC blogger El Guapo recently pointed out an ad for McDonald's Australia's new El Maco, a Big Mac variation with taco sauce and sour cream. Salsa on a burger, no big deal, right? Well, it's all about the ad, which features a mustachioed man in mariachi garb emerging Ridley-Scott-style out of the torso of some office drone. The mariachi then hightails it over to McD's and scores an El Maco. A voice-over then encourages you to "feed your inner Mexican." To see the ad, go to the broadband section of the Australian site, go to "What's NEW" and then to "LATEST TV ADS." There's a similar ad for feeding your inner child where a little girl emerges from door in her mother's stomach, but it's tame compared to the El Maco ad.

Folgers Coffee is trying to increase its visibility with a younger generation of consumers, the generation that grew up with Starbucks and other coffee shops on every corner. The company's slogan has long been "the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup," but they perceive that their new target audience views the best part of waking up as going back to sleep. As such, their strategy is not only to develop ads - launched all over the internet in a viral campaign - that are hip, but that appeal to those who believe that caffeine exists to get the to work in the morning after staying out until 3am. The updated slogan is "tolerate mornings."

"Tolerate mornings" is far less catchy than the lyrical older slogan, but is the new ad format more effective than the old one? You be the judge, but somehow the implication that you should drink the product because it's there, and not necessarily because you like, it is a less-than-convincing sales pitch. The new ad features creepy yellow people who are meant to embody the morning while singing an irritating jingle: 

(video after the jump)

For the first time in roughly two years, Denny's will start a new frenzy of television, radio, print and online ads that, according to Restaurant News Resource, are a bit of a departure from their previous style of advertising. The new ads will feature actors playing diners talking about what makes Denny's relevant or useful. In one ad, a man admits his preference to Denny's over his own wife, saying he may never go home again because Denny's gives him bacon and sausage. Another apparently features a young man talking about how he likes to hit up America's largest full-service restaurant chain after a night of clubbing. If anything, at least Denny's has come to terms with the fact that they're a late-night last resort. Anybody else miss Lenny's?

Recognizing that television is not the sole media source that children are exposed to, British ministers are wondering whether a proposal that bans junk food ads on television will be effective. As a result, they are now considering whether to add restrictions to the ad content of websites, computer games, cinemas and packaging, as well as corporate school sponsorships. Such measures "could be voluntary or compulsory depending on the response of the food industry." Strict measures like these are being supported by the Labour Party and various parent groups.

The Food Standards Agency, backing the ban, has devised a "nutrient profiling system" to identify "junk foods" according to their nutritional information. It could be used to determine whether or not a food product could be advertised if a ban becomes legislation.

Ofcom, a television regular, thinks that measures like this seem too strict. A pre-9pm television ban alone would cost networks and advertisers at least £141 million, but there is not telling what the cost of essentially prohibiting "junk food" ads would be.

Giving junk food the same status as the TV programs that are deemed to be unsuitable for young audiences, the UK Food Standards Agency said that a ban on televised junk food ads before 9pm might be the most effective way to combat the childhood obesity epidemic. This was proposed as being a more feasible alternative than potential junk food ad regulations proposed by the television watchdog group Ofcom.

Ofcom offered three proposals. One was to ban all food and drink ads from children's programming and one only applied to ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt. Their final suggestion called for limits on the number of ads that could be shown. FSA felt that these would be difficult to enforce or, as in the case of the first suggestion, did not allow for ads featuring healthy foods to be shown.

The FSA's proposal seems more likely to have an effect, due to its rather drastic nature, and consumer health groups have already given it a lot of support. Whether it comes to pass remains to be seen, but it doesn't seem like they considered the most obvious way to combat childhood obesity: get kids away from the TV and encourage them to be more active.