Checkmate

I can write in any style necessary, but from a personal standpoint, I'm bored of seeing all of these big companies take a passive aggressive approach. YOU ARE COMPETITORS. It irks me when a company actually has a concrete advantage over another and won't say it because "being negative" (aka this includes saying anything negative about your competitor) allegedly means people will stop buying their stuff. News flash: A negative for your competitor is a positive for you. A positive for you means you sell more stuff, and that's really the whole point.

Now that I've hopped off my soap box, I want to pass on to you one of the most ingenious media placements I've seen that embodies a spirit of clever competition that has been has largely been eschewed in favor of the kind of catty fake niceties normally found in teenage girls.

Thank you Audi, BMW and My Modern Metropolis.

Direction Proof

I see a veritable plethora of billboards on my way to and from work every day, and the importance of proofing never escapes my thoughts. The most recent offender is a huge billboard for Lone Star Ford.
The billboard says "exit Shepard," which is unfortunate, because to get to Lone Star Ford, you really have to exit Shepherd. I can see a confused driver or two saying, "Was that the exit?"

Location-specific billboards with directions on them are a great way to drive people to a location, and can be very effective, even devoid of creativity. However, you have to make sure to point your potential customers in the right direction, because two letters can be the difference between ka-ching and "Was that our exit?"

Condoms on your butt

When it comes to media, placement is everything, and while CondomDepot.com’s sponsorship of various UFC fighters may hit the right audience, the specific placement of the company’s logo might raise an eyebrow or two. So where did they put it?

Right across a UFC fighter’s butt. I know there’s not much space on a fighter to put an ad- you essentially have use of his shorts, unless you’re going to tattoo him (not unheard of) . But I think there are certain implications to slapping “CondomDepot.com” across the backside of a sweaty man who’s wrestling another sweaty man while neither of them are wearing many clothes. Always carefully consider your sponsorships.