Embarrassment for Oscar!!

Yes, the biggest winner at Oscar tonight is The Departed. It won the Best Director, the Best Picture, and the Best Adapted Screenplay. I like The Departed because I already liked even before it was shot in America. The Departed is based on a Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, shot in 2002. It’s a story about crime and corrupt cops.

I felt extremely happy that The Departed, a movie adapted from a Hong Kong version, could be nominated for so many awards. However, the most embarrassed moment came when Helen Mirren, probably a background announcer, introduced the information about the movie, saying that The Departed is based on a Japanese movie!!! How came Oscar made such a blatant error? It is not based on a Japanese movie, BUT a Hong Kong movie. May I know who prepared and wrote the script? Have you done some background information check on that? How could such a reputable academy award make such stupid mistake?

I was glad later to hear director Martin Scorsese corrected the error by appreciating Andrew Lau's (the director) original film from Hong Kong, the wonderful Asian cinema. Thanks Martin Scorsese to make the right announcement.

Shame on Oscar!! So embarrassed! I think many people who know the truth have emailed Oscar to file complaints about the mistake tonight and Oscar definitely owes a big apology to Infernal Affairs, the original Hong Kong version. I will wait and see how Oscar will response tomorrow. Such an unbelievable night!

Let's Appreciate Dolce & Gabbana's Arts!

This is the recent advertisement that draws tremendous criticism on the Spanish market. According to the EiTB24 report, Italian fashion giant Dolce and Gabbana pulled off this print advertisement from Spain, after authorities and consumers alleged that it encouraged violence against women.

Spain's Labour and Social Affairs Ministry criticized that the campaign was illegal and humiliating to women, saying that the advertisement made it an acceptable way to use force as a way of impose on women.

Dolce & Gabbana defended the campaign as art being heavily stylized. We will only withdraw this photo from the Spanish market. They're a bit behind the times, "La Vanguardia newspaper quoted the Milan-based fashion house.

The news is actually not a surprise to me as D&G seems to be very consistent in the style and content of its advertisements. I have been paying attention to D&G’s ad campaign ever since I subscribed to ELLE magazine. Dolce & Gabbana has a bizarre compilation of advertisements with lifeless models in strange and vulnerable positions framed in weird background. Its advertisements promote gender-based violence by portraying women as lifeless and doll-like, with incredibly pale skin and emotionless expressions. Some critiques say that this condones violence against women by implying that women are dolls to be played with or that women are sexy when dead.







The pull-off advertisement not only happened in Spain, but also in Britain last month. The 2006-2007 winter campaign portrayed models brandishing knives. The British advertising watchdog has criticized Italian Fashion house, Dolce & Gabbana, for publishing these two advertisements in a leading newspaper, according to Balendu’s ads blog. The ASA promptly reacted after receiving complaints from groups such as Mothers Against Murder and Aggression and Media March by commenting that the company acted irresponsibly and breached standards of good taste in publishing the advertisements.

On the other hand, Dolce & Gabbana argued that the advertisements were published around the globe but complaints came only from people in Britain. The Milan based company said that the advertisements were highly stylized and intended to be an iconic representation of the Napoleonic period of art.

It’s an interesting phenomenon that when borrowing something elements from one field and applying them to another field one should be really cautious. The public normally can accept the elements of violence and war in arts, like paintings, sculpture because the art pieces were created against certain social and historic background aiming to present the concurrent situation of the society. Arts, in this sense, are a record of the history. When people view art pieces containing controversial elements, they know beforehand that they are arts which either try to record the past life or aim to express the authors’ thoughts or styles. The audience will appreciate the arts from the aesthetic and artistic perspective. However, when a real fashion company promotes violence in its ad campaign, it is not purely art at all. People who watch the ad probably will understand that violence is something we should advocate and follow with. Probably Dolce & Gabbana created the ads somewhat intending to follow the art style of Napoleonic period, but when the audience is different and social context changes, it’s getting difficult to let people just view those ads from a pure artistic perspective.

Are you RED ?

(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Following is the description of Red campaign on its official wesite:

What's the meaning of the parentheses or brackets? Well, we call them "the embrace." Each company that becomes (RED) places its logo in this embrace and is then elevated to the power of red. Thus the name -- (PRODUCT)RED.

You, the consumer, can take your purchase to the power of (RED) simply by upgrading your choice. Thus the proposition: (YOU)RED. Be embraced, take your own fine self to the power of (RED). What better way to become a good-looking samaritan?

Red Campaign is a recent example of cause-related marketing in nonprofit fundraising. The participating companies include Motorola, American Express, GAP, Emporio Armani, Converse, and Apple. Each company has products specifically designed for the Red campaign.

Cause-related marketing has gained attention as a viable marketing tool for improving corporate performance and helping worthy causes. Over the past two decades, cause-related marketing has evolved from a curious attempt in marketing strategy into an established and prevalent form of corporate philanthropy. With a considerable benefit, expenditures on cause campaigns in North America have soared up to approximately $911 million in 2004, a rise of 57% since 1999. Analysts attribute the continuing growth to the positive outcomes experienced by corporations, such as profits increase, brand building, and reputation enhancement.

Amateurs rock Super Bowl Ads

My Professor Matthews Kelli forwarded an interesting article to me, "Giving the People What They Want: Amateurs' Super Bowl Ad Ideas Prove To Be Big Winners".

According to an online poll by IAG Research of over 60,000 people, three consumer-conceived commercials - two for Doritos that were shot by amateurs and one for the National Football League that was professionally shot but based on a fan's idea- were among "the top-ranked ads for 'greatly' or 'somewhat' boosting viewers' positive feelings for the advertised products," reported by Luara Petrecca, USAT.

A Doritos ad showing a supermarket cashier with a shopper was ranked third, being 67% more effective than the average big name ad in improving the viewers' opinion of the advertised product. Another Doritos ad showing a young man flirting with a girl was 45% more effective and ranked sixth.

The consumer-generated ads, especially shot by consumers, are pretty fresh to me. Leaving the content of the commercials out first, the strategy of involving the ordinary people in the company's commercial production is very innovative. IAG co-founder Alan Gould told Petrecca that it's a good way to connect with the consumers. Furthermore, the idea collection process itself can generate a lot of publicity for the company. Publics are curious about how an amateur-produced commercial will look like.

Michael Solomon, a consumer behavior expert and author of Conquering Consumerspace, says that an ad "immediately gets a leg up in terms of credibility" if viewers know that the ad comes from a consumer, rather than a professional marketing department. For this comment, I do not quite agree with Mr. Solomon as I do not think this is an issue of credibility. Employing consumer-created ads does not mean the company is more credible. Those amateurs did not produce the commercials on a voluntary basis. Instead, they were motivated by companies' promotions. Therefore, people who created the ads for certain companies do not necessarily think highly of the companies. They did so probably just out of personal interests and the companies offered them the platform to show their talent and creativity.

The success of the best amateur, in my point of view, came from the fresh idea not been explored by professionals yet, and the "intimate" feeling of the viewers with the ads. Viewers tended to more appreciate the ads pulled off by amateurs because they would think they were much closer to the people who produced them. More, viewers felt that they were taken seriously by the companies because the companies would like to hear how ordinary people perceived them, and the companies respected the public’s opinions by airing the commercial. This strategy sounds like a two-way communication between a company and its customers. Customers will feel appreciated if they think the company value their feedbacks and suggestion.

No matter what, Doritos and NFL made a smart step to explore the new strategy to win over their customers.