From streakers to tattoos to crop circles, it seems in recent years there's been a big increase in using what was once considered non-mainstream art in advertising. Sometimes it's the whole concept. Sometimes it's the just media.

Recently Time had graffiti artist Cope2 create an outdoor ad for the magazine in Soho. (above)

Smucker's is merging with Folgers.

How many microseconds will it take you to figure out what we think the new brand name should be?

(Reuters) - Groups opposed to the U.S.-led campaign against Baghdad complain they have been blocked from airing anti-war advertisements on broadcast media increasingly dominated by giant corporations forbes.com reports.

The anti-war group Not In Our Name said MTV refused to air its spots in which young Americans in New York's Times Square talk of their opposition to war. The spots were shot by acclaimed documentary maker Barbara Kopple.

However the "be all you can be" army recruit advertisments run on MTV.

Seattle Times shows us an ad that is amazingly un-PC - the most offensive bit is the headline: It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell ... Consider it a gift from above.

The ad shows soldiers climbing from an Osprey helicopter onto the roof of a Mosque.

Some people believe that every ad that is similar in idea to another ad, is a rip-off. Others know that the idea God messes with our heads from time to time, and two people can come up with the same idea to solve the same problem.

After all, we are megaphones for the memes - we stand on the shoulders of giants. All artists borrow, get inspired and sometimes even steal. We also add ideas together in a classic 1+1=3, a winepress and metal type combined made Johannes Gutenberg famous as the inventor of the printing press.

Lets have a look at the amusing world of similarly designed record covers.

"Won't somebody think of the children!?"
Someone did - Ananova reports that a catholic college has complained about the new wrapper design for Haribo's Moaom fruit chews - the fruit on the wrapper seems to be copulating. If you have a dirty mind.

"We are shocked at the shameless presentation of sexual practices on the wrapping, which includes not only sexual intercourse but also fellatio and cunnilingus," wrote the St Blasien Jesuit College near Bonn.

(to see the wrappers read more...)

Two stories but a few mails apart in one in-box... I gather the industry is good for the city but massive celebration ain't.

first off, from Creativity:

ON THE WEB
As part of Advertising Week, the Advertising Tax Coalition -- a collection of trade organizations -- has unveiled a study that projects the ad industry will bring $151 billion into New York City's economy this year. So next year we want two Advertising Weeks, or we'll just up and move the whole operation to Knoxville.

ADVERTISING WEEK CELEBRATION FACES FINANCIAL LOSS
Organizers Will Have to Cover $300,000 Shortfall

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Advertising Week in New York City now expects to suffer a financial loss of about $300,000, according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, which has to pick up the tab. See full story at
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=41586 -- Bradley Johnson.

Ok, so this Hubba Bubba campaign which was released march 2007 seems to be piggy-backing on all other advertisers posters.... I have no idea how BBDO Düsseldorf pulled that off, but then again BBDO has triumpf and P&G (Ariel as seen below) so this might have been only running on their own clients thing, in which case - more power to ya! Well done. (the badland twist is inside folks)

Advertising Agency: BBDO Düsseldorf, Germany
Creative Directors: Ton Hollander, Marie-Theres Schwingeler, Toygar Bazarkaya, Ralf Zilligen
Art Director: Julia Furtmann
Copywriter: Kai Hoffmann
Photographer: Volker Nerlich
Released: March 2007

POSTER & OUTDOOR - AMBIENT INDOOR:

Entrant: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen
World Wildlife Foundation - "Save Paper, Save The Planet"
Client: World Wildlife Foundation
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen
Executive Creative Director: Simon Wooller
Copywriters/Art Directors: Silas Jansson/Cliff K. Holm

Remember East Bank Communications in Portland who made the site shifttheblame.com and the little booklet called it's not you, it's your ad agency?
Well, Jason over there send me one of those fab foam-fingers; "I noticed that your hand was lacking a calibrated blame-shifting device. Here ya go." and I've been pointing the finger on people, stuff and their little dogs too ever since. Now, I found the perfect use for it really. Wanna see?