“The group that made a dream a reality” (click pic to engorge):

This horrific bit of in-store advertising is brought to you by Little Debbie Racing:

The ad, deemed by some moron as suitable for placement in supermarkets and drugstores, would have been declared too tasteless to exist even in the no holds barred world of Ricky Bobby.

Perhaps “tasteless” is Little Debbie’s new brand promise. Truth in advertising, savor it.

UPDATE 12.15.06: In response to the many questions we’ve gotten about this, the ad has NOT BEEN PHOTOSHOPPED! I took this photo as is at the Sausalito, CA, Long’s Drugstore on Donahue Street on December 13, 2006.

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From Oxford University, our wordplay of the day.

Via Presurfer

If you always had a hankerin’ to see Indiana, this could be the nudge that puts an end to your procrastinations. As if you needed another reason, Indiana now boasts more potential terrorist targets than any other state. We can see the Blandorian branding effort coming…“Indiana, Right on Target!”

Says Blandor the Imponderable: “It’s paramount that Indiana carpe diem while the fish is frying and the skillet is hot. As my putative father was fond of saying, ‘Wearing a merkin on your head is better than letting your bald spot reflect unwanted glare.’”

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If you are coming to the end of your own naming process and are having trouble choosing between a short list of leading name candidates, here are a couple of questions to ask yourself.

First, if you choose “Name A”, are you comfortable with leaving “Name B’ for a competitor to adopt as its name? If not, choose “Name B”.

Second, which name suggests the most and the best taglines, adlines and wordplay? Perform a tagline generating exercise for each of the names, as demonstrated here. This tells you which name will be the deepest well for your marketing, branding and advertising efforts.

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Do it now, because doing it late is too late. Personally, I’m going with:

“Nothing is carved in stone”

So you’ll have to think of something else. Or steal mine.

Here’s what is on the tombstones of people more famous than you.

From the Baltimore Business Journal:

Though they weren’t invited to “Get In On It” themselves, many Baltimore advertising experts are keen on the city’s new slogan to be unveiled on Wednesday at the Hippodrome.

“Get In On It” is the city’s new tagline developed by San Francisco’s Landor Associates on behalf of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. The nine-month, $500,000 branding campaign was met with resistance from some members of the Baltimore advertising community who thought a local agency ought to have been selected to craft the campaign.

Though some advertising executives said that a hasty reading of the tagline might make it easily confused with an invitation to “Get It On,” many thought the slogan was provocative.

Yes, “Get it on” would have been provocative, but then the slogan would have cost 167k per word, which was more than Baltimore had budgeted.

Says Blandor the Imponderable: “B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!, B’more!”

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There are those special items, when placed strategically ’round the pièce de l’amour, that help set the tone for a wild night.

And then there are these. From Wales with love, Christian marital wipes. Brought to you by a company called Whollylove who’s tagline reads, “Products and Advice celebrating God’s fantastic gift of sex within Christian marriage“.

They even have a section called “Lingerie for Him“. Yes, Him with a capital “H”. So if you’ve ever wondered, “What would He wear?”, the answer is…………………………………………………………………………..Calvin’s (boxers).

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Need to send someone the perfect new baby gift? It gets no better than a size 0 to 6 months shirt from these people, with this written on it:

All mommy wanted was a backrub

Genius.

Here is a great spoof, which like all great spoofs is spot on. It’s a look at what would happen to the iPod identity if Microsoft got a hold of it.

Via Wordlab.

Audi’s latest print ad campaign reads thusly:

The Audi A6, 2005 World Car of the Year, demonstrates progress through intelligent design and imaginative engineering.

I drive an A6. Does “intelligent design” mean that God is my copilot? Since mine is in the shop every two months, I may have missed that option on the contract. And the Audi tagline, “Never Follow”, would seem to contradict the religous implications of the pitch. Opposing messages like these are just bad branding.

The mystery intensifies with the claim of “2005 World Car of the Year”. Never heard of such a distinction? Neither had we, and for good reason. This is the first time the “independent award” has been bestowed. The World Car of the Year website resides here. You tell us if it looks like an ongoing concern, or if it will it quietly fade away when 2006 rolls around and Audi runs a new campaign. We’ll be watching.

Sprint’s new “Yes-man” campaign is effective because it’s taking a negative phrase, redefining it, taking ownership of it and getting you to pay attention. Verizon pulled a similar power play through its “Can you hear me now” campaign, embracing a phrase muttered by everyone who has had a bad cell phone connection.

Both companies understand that consumers are not literalists and appreciate a spin on the obvious. Any time a tagline, a name, an ad or a story contains both positive and negative qualities, they become more powerful.