Pro-girl propaganda

"Fast Company asked several of the most creative ad agencies in the world to rebrand baby girls. Their mock campaigns recast girls as the No. 1 choice for consumers from China to the U.S." Below are just a few:


You Are by AKQA.



Born to Rule by Everybody Shout.



Accidental Daughters by Leo Burnett.



Hope It's a Girl by Cramer-Krasselt.

*Buy propaganda posters at Amazon.

New Avengers promo image shows off the men's assets

Kevin Bolk remasters the Avengers promo image. Via.

Link roundup

1. I always wondered why you never see a view of all 22 players on the field when watching football on tv - - the NFL guards the footage as "proprietary NFL coaching information." (It's thanks to John Madden football that I actually learned how offense and defense work.)

2. From an article on women running marathons and ultramarathons:

If seeing athletes later described as "pretty little dedicated things" compete in that race took some getting used to, imagine the reaction a few months earlier in 1966, when, to quote another SI piece, a "shapely blonde housewife" named Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb Bingay snuck onto the course of the venerated Boston Marathon and not only finished the whole damn thing, but did so ahead of nearly 70 percent of the field. Not officially, of course. "Mrs. Bingay did not run in the Boston Marathon," SI quoted the event's organizer as asserting. "She merely covered the same route as the official race while it was in progress."

The next year, a Syracuse student named Kathrine Switzer officially registered for Boston by filling out her entrant form as "K.V. Switzer." When race officials realized what was going on, they tried to tackle her, a move they later defended as a valiant attempt to enforce AAU rules that banned women — for their own good, of course — from competing in any race of more than those 1.5 miles.

3. Destructoid on Super Mario 3D Land:

The biggest issue with Super Mario 3D Land is that, as fun as it is, it feels more like the beginning of something more rather than a full experience. One feels like they're merely getting a taste of what Nintendo can do -- an admittedly delicious taste, but one that still leaves a bit of a gap once finished. It feels like it was prepared to tantalize 3DS owners without giving them lasting satisfaction, to demonstrate that good things are in the handheld's future and that more games like this will come if they stay loyal. I would not go so far as to call the game a tech demo, but it certainly acts like a whirlwind tour of Mario's new 3D world, rather than a full vacation.

Three cents off at Amazon if you act now.

4. Let me save you some time and money - - the Adventure Time toys look terrible (videos at the bottom of the post).

Illustration roundup

Part of one heck of a comic by Kate Beaton.



Marshal Lee by Tami Wicinas.



Agent of the Empire #1 cover by Stephane Roux.

*Buy Adventure Time toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Gawker on Newt Gingrich's 1.3 million Twitter followers:

About 80 percent of those accountsare inactive or are dummy accounts created by various "follow agencies," another 10 percent are real people who are part of a network of folks who follow others back and are paying for followers themselves (Newt's profile just happens to be a part of these networks because he uses them, although he doesn't follow back), and the remaining 10 percent may, in fact, be real, sentient people who happen to like Newt Gingrich.

2. NBC is claiming that its new show The Playboy Club is about female empowerment.

3. A little less corporate-funded propaganda in schools:

In response to pressure from parents, educators and grassroots advocates, Scholastic Inc. will drastically limit its practice of partnering with corporations to produce classroom material, the company announced last week.

The publisher had been under fire since May, when it was forced to stop distributing a fourth-grade curriculum called “The United States of Energy” that had been paid for by the coal industry and distributed to classrooms across the country.

Via.

Illustration roundup

Panel from the story "Love Wears No Uniform!"




Jason Chalker turned his Big Trouble in Little China illustration into a t-shirt up for vote.





Pet food and Max Max DVD packaging concepts by Matt Smiroldo. Via.





From Mike Maxwell's show at Subtext Gallery. Via.




Last Exit to Nowhere's new True Romance t-shirt (illustrated by by Matt Haley) is now on sale.

Dead Space and Final Fantasy toys (link roundup)

Available at Play-Asia, Dead Space Action Figure: Issac (Plasma Cutter Version), and Final Fantasy Miniature Trading Figures Vol. 4.

And a few more links:

1. 86-year-old serial shoplifter showed up in court with fake neck brace, wheelchair. Via.

2. Federal judge currently deciding whether prison must pay for convicted wife-killer's electrolysis and other sex change-related procedures.

3. What do you do when Reggie Miller makes a move on your girlfriend? Pay for a banner warning Reggie Miller off of married women to be flown over southern California beaches.

*Previously: Dead Space costume for Tiger Woods Golf.

*Buy Final Fantasy toys at eBay.

Fantastic "Here I Am" ad campaign for Nike Women

Here's five fantastic ads by Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam for Nike Women. Each ad has a very different visual look and I posted my favorite last.

Here, we get to see what's Nicola Sanders' organs are up to before and during a race:





This one features Simona La Mantia and her very long legs:





Maria Sharapova overcomes the haters:





Judo expert Delphine Delsalle takes on all comers, including someone who looks suspiciously like California's governor:





And my favorite in the series, Nicola Spirig takes on Poseidon, giant rock spiders, and smog monsters:



*Previously: Beautiful ads for United Airlines.

*Buy Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh at Amazon.

Coming soon to Sears: US Army-branded clothing

Starting in October, Sears will sell the "All American Army Brand's First Infantry Division clothing collection." T-shirts, jeans, and outerwear for men, women, and boys. (Girls need not apply?) A bit more information here. Via.

*Previously: Cute tank papercraft.

*Buy Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines at Amazon.

Orson Scott Card sure is angry about gay marriage

Here's just a taste of his op-ed criticizing the legalization of gay marriage:

Already in several states, there are textbooks for children in the earliest grades that show "gay marriages" as normal. How long do you think it will be before such textbooks become mandatory -- and parents have no way to opt out of having their children taught from them?

It's a badly written opinion piece, full of lots of empty words like "obvious" and "absurd." But it reminded me of something I wrote last year: The little boys sure do take their clothes off a lot in Ender's Game.

Los Angeles's police chief charmingly explains the paparazzi problem in LA

or actually describes why the paparazzi hasn't been much of a problem lately:

If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank god; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue.

Video here. (Bratton's already responded to criticism by pointing out his support for gay rights and the fact that his sister is gay.)

Is this ad homophobic?

This ad by Wieden+Kennedy for the new Nike Hyperdunks seems unobjectionable to me, but Nike has abandoned the billboard campaign due to assertions that it was insensitive to gay men and African-Americans. Via.

Meanwhile, here's Wieden+Kennedy's new commercial for Coca-Cola (and the Olympics) featuring Lebron James and Yao Ming. Looks cool to me, but with a little imagination, I'm sure someone can work up some mock outrage. I mean, just look at all these stereotypes:



*Find Nike posters at eBay.