Wednesday, April 15, 2009

¿No les gusta?

Take a joke, Mexico...



This ad, and the campaign to which it belongs, is being pulled and modified in Spain and the UK. The idea is the combination of "Texan" (the Lincoln-looking cowboy on the left), and "Mexican" (the Mexican wrestler on the right), together they form the Texican Whopper, which to me just sounds like what I leave in the toilet after eating at Taco Bell.

According to Reuters, Mexican officials were upset with the depiction of the flag, as it is a protected image and is being used inappropriately (draped over the wrestler's shoulders). If I'm Mexico, I'm a little more upset over the fact that my country is personified in, of all things, a midget wrestler named "El Cachito," which roughly translates to "little bit".



Then again, many of us recall when the U.S. was steamed over a certain Absolut ad, in which it was implied that in a perfect (read: Absolut) world, the southwestern US would still be part of Mexican territory:



Apparently, jokes about the boarder and surrounding areas still aren't kosher, 170+ years after the Texan War of Independence. The best part is that the campaign and the burger are in Spain, a country which in the last few centuries lost possession of both Texas AND Mexico. But hey, at least they got a burger with spicy mayonnaise out of it.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I love hamsters



Now, I understand the cute metaphor, but really I think they're just playing to people's love of fuzzy lil' rodents. Who DOESN'T love a hamster fiddling with an mp3 player? It's kind of funny how that's a feature that is compelling about the product, despite the fact that I can play my iPod in my 97 Mercury with a $5 gadget that goes into the tape deck...

"I know what'll make it sell...put another hamster in the passenger seat, picking a song on the iPod! And make the other hamsters bob their heads! Brilliant!"

I don't know why more agencies don't experiment with the hamster realm, they make it too adorable to look away:



This all being said, I grew up with two hamsters. One day, one of them escaped and my dad went to the pet store and bought a new one that looked like the first. My siblings and I were fooled. For 8 years.