Top 10 'Badass' Brands of 2009

For our first Top 10 list, Emma has asked us to do a rundown of the best 'Badass' brands of the year. Prior to doing so, I had to look up what Badass actually meant and the always-accurate Urban dictionary has a good definition:

"1. adjective. having extremely favorable qualities 2. adjective. pertaining to a person or thing that is rugged, strong, and/or ready to show these qualities"

For the purposes of this list, I'm going to skew the above definitions and include brands who have 'Badass' stories, ideas, executions and work. While the definition is pretty broad, here is your list to the most 'Badass' brands of the year.

10. Tom Ford













Debatable I know (he probably could have been #1 on the arrogant list as well), but when you run ads that feature women putting lipstick on using a guys belt buckle as a mirror or showcasing your product in various 'positions', you've got an attitude and you're not afraid to stand out. Just look at one of his 2009 catalogs to get a sense of his 'style'. All in all, you can't ignore his style, ego or any of his ads. Hard to say that about other brands these days.

9. Harley Davidson
As I was putting this list together, I asked a few colleagues to think of one 'badass' brand and Harley was - by far - the one that was mentioned most. Whether it's their biker dude ads, their site which encourages you to be bad or the fact that a ton of hardcore guys actually have the logo tattooed on their arm, something about their story continues to resonate with (mostly) boomer guys. You might think this is a cop-out because the creative hasn't been stellar over the last few years (including this video showcasing the new 'Nightster') but if you asked anyone over 45 about what brands are 'badass', I guarantee you this would be one.

8. West Coast Chopper
Despite the fact that Jesse James has gone a bit mainstream with recent appearances on The Apprentice and this brutal T-Mobile spot, he still has a brand that is known for it's individuality, outlaw appeal and 'hardcore' guy image. I don't know a ton about Harley vs. West Coast but from a brand perspective, West Coast seems newer, cooler and different. A quick search on YouTube also proves that hundreds of thousands of dudes love nothing more than to watch Jesse take his new bikes out for a test ride.

7. AshleyMadison.com
Why would a website that encourages you to cheat on your partner be considered Badass? For starters, it's morally questionable and a pretty unique idea. But they get our #7 spot because of their sneaky advertising strategy. In Toronto, they tried to advertise on the TTC (our public transit system). The ownership of the TTC really didn't want the "Life is short, have an affair" slogan plastered on the subway system so they denied the ads. But AshleyMadison went further and told commuters that if the ads were allowed, anyone riding in car with an ad wouldn't have to pay the $0.25 rate hike (a controversial issue here). The government ended the debate and no ads were run but they still get a mention on our top 10 for trying.

6. Calvin Klein
CK has a history of running ads that push the envelope. Whether it's Marky Mark or some scantly clad model, they always seem to create executions that generate controversy. This year was no different. In the spring, CK put up this billboard in a popular center in LA (I actually saw this in April and was pretty surprised that it was located near a mall with hundreds of kids running around). Nothing like a topless teen girl sandwiched between two guys with another waiting for his turn on the floor. The ad was torn apart by CBS and various groups and was eventually taken down. That said, I'm sure the media generated from the billboard was valued way more than the actual cost to make the ad.

5. Rockstar Games
No explanation required but I'll give a brief one anyway. The company responsible for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne and Midnight club. Remember that GTA is the game that encourages car jacking, senseless street killing, drug deals, the gangster lifestyle and hookers. And even though it's not technically targeted to kids, we all know that the TV spots air during times when your 13 year old is going to be hanging out with his friends in the basement. And even if you keep the TV off, with over 10 million views on YouTube, the kids are going to find a way to watch.

4. Valleywag.com
If you want to know the gossip behind Silicon Valley's greatest tech billionaires, start-up nerds or just the latest on who made out with who at an industry party, look no further. For years, Gawker Media's Valleywag has provided readers with the low down on the most popular web companies out there. Want to see pics of Mark Zukerberg that he wouldn't want you to find? No problem. Interested in what young blond Google's Eric Schmidt is currently dating? Find it here. I can't imagine how many times the site has been sued but for tech nerds out there, it's the closest thing to being truly badass.

3. American Apparel

A clothing company that uses scantly clad (teen) models and adult film 'stars' to promote their products. If you're a mother with a teen girl and you've never seen these ads before, my guess is that you're going to change the settings on your daughters computer and make sure that she never leaves the house unaccompanied. If you've you've walked by one of the stores in the past few weeks you probably either felt sick after seeing one of their ads or compelled to go inside and actually confront someone who works there (and ask them how shit like this is OK to promote). I'm quite surprised that there hasn't been more of an uprising against this creative. It's not even isolated to 2009. This is what they do - all the time.

2. DC Shoes
I've been a fan of DC for a long time. Their work has constantly pushed the limit and they've embraced their cool, skater target in a way that is authentic and different. Remember the video that they shot in 2008 with the Chairman of DC driving his Subaru in a snowboard park? They followed up the video with another on in 2009 that shows Ken Block (Chairman) and rally driver Gymkana driving a souped up Subaru through a port authority loading dock. The shots are unbelievable as are the stunts and track. Badass to the max.



1. Vivid Entertainment
Yes. A porn company. But Steve Hirsch (the owner and founder) isn't just any run-in-the-mill adult 'businessman'. He's the type of guy who signs deals with 'actresses' that he knows people (males mostly) will pay to see. Why is his brand #1 on our 2009 list?

You may have heard of Tiger Woods having some 'troubles' over the past few weeks. Well one of Tigers mistresses is the LA-based pornstar Holly Sampson. She's been all over the daily talk shows telling everyone about her 'experience' with Tiger. So what does Steve decide to do? He decides that he's going to write a script about her experiences, cast her in a new 'video' and have her re-live the experience live for everyone to see. He says the film is a 'docudrama' about Holly and Tiger; how they met, how they 'loved' and how they lived (I'm sure the dialog is going to be stellar).

Now, Tiger probably isn't very happy about this move and who knows if it will ever see the light of day but you can't argue that Vivid is pretty badass (and that there is no level that is too low for Vivid to try and make a buck).

Thanks to Emma for the first list idea and please feel free to add more in the comments.

What Top 10 Do Want to See?

It's the end of the year which means that every blog, social media 'guru', publication and creative group are putting together lists of everything. The top viral video's of the year, the top ads, the top experiences, magazines, podcasts, Facebook fan pages, Tweets, users...you name it. AdJoke has done some posts like this in the past but I'm going to throw it out there to you guys. Tell us the Top 10 and I'll put it together. Only condition is that it has to be advertising related. And yes, the Top 10 worst ads of 2009 is a category.

So comment, Tweet and tell us. We'll post and give you full creds for the idea.

Silence Speaks

A series of videos has been created for the Nova Scotia workers compensation board highlighting how being silent at the work place doesn't really help at all. In fact it makes the workplace more dangerous.

Well Silence is tired of being silent and he has finally began to speak.

Here is the latest video: Silence Speaks



A Gentleman Bear has been let on the grounds? ...hilarious.

Epson Projectors: Extreme Gamer

An interesting way to showcase the power, clarity, lightness and portability (kind-of) of an Epson projector.

The decade according to 9-year olds

The decade according to 9-year-olds from allison louie-garcia on Vimeo.

Found on The Curious Brain

Unbelievable quotes. A very interesting look at the world that 9-year olds are living in.

We've got that B-Roll and just having fun

This video is funny, looked like it was fun to make and for both those reasons kick-ass. Too often we forget that life should be about fun not stress, deadlines and being all serious and shit. So, what is going to be your "We've got that B-roll" video?

Google Goggles

It has been a long time coming. How long do you think it will take before retail store designers consider the ability of tools like this to recognize the store front in their design? Or what about font selection of your business cards, etc?

I am really excited to see this movie: The Babies

Amazing idea, especially at this time in our world where norms, cultures and traditions are beginning to transcend the lines of imaginary borders.

The Sun deliver Newspaper 4.0

Headline and post thanks to @martindelaney



I am not going to lie. I read a newspaper every 3 or 4 weeks and I also like this ad.

The Toronto Metro is a...Porn Mag?

In case you missed this morning's Toronto Metro, they decided that publishing a picture of a student with his 'member' sticking out would be a good thing. A colleague 'pointed' it out to me and the first thing I wondered was doesn't the Metro have at least a 3-stage approval for anything that goes to print?

For starters, a photographer took this shot and probably uploaded it, with a ton of others, up to a computer. Then an assistant editor picked from a few reco's and recommended to run it. Then the senior editor flipped through the whole issue and totally missed it.

Then it got printed. And went out to about 1 million people in Toronto. On their morning commute. For free.

Yes. This is a huge mistake. I just feel bad for the children.

Thanks to Mike and Jennifer for the update and link!

Just Remember...

For all that's going on in Tiger's life, he is one mentally tough guy.

Before You Text, Give it a Ponder

LG has just launched a new campaign featuring James Lipton from Inside the Actors Studio. The campaign is build around Lipton and his famous beard. It promotes the idea that teens need to think before they text. The 4 launch spots drive to a great microsite that pushes users to specific social destinations (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr) to 'experience the beard'. I'm sure that the irreverence and humour of this campaign will resonate with the youth target. Nice work, LG.

Shiny Suds for Method

Droga 5 kills another brief.



Thank you Christopher Hirst for tweeting this one.

Reebok EasyTone

I don't know what to say.

"Ads! Gross" - Wikipedia

A colleague recently tipped me off to a permanent 'ad' that Wikipedia is running on their site. The leaderboard asks Wikipedia users to to donate money to help keep the site going. I've read that Wikipedia is only staffed by about 30 people and costs approximately $8-10 million to operate annually (most likely due to hosting / server costs for the billions of articles up there).

I like the approach of this message. Help us keep the doors to the site open and we'll reward you by not advertising - ever.

It is Grey Cup Sunday

I am not the biggest fan of the CFL or montages but I have always enjoyed the writing in this spot.



May the best team win. Whoever is playing in the game.

Football is Hardcore

I've got an unhealthy obsession with football and, as a result, love pretty much any football work that contains a good track and voice-over. This spot for the Dallas Cowboys is no different. Shot, cut and edited in less than a week, the spot is meant to capture the work that the team goes through when they aren't playing on Sunday's. Nice stuff.

Guiness Slider: Just slide other peoples ideas into a spot

Ok. Here is the idea. We are going to take inspiration from Cog, and the movie Baby's Day out but then change the ending to show how cool and bold Guinness drinkers are.

You are Incredibly lucky: Quit Smoking

Intriguing and excellent. Why would anyone waste such an amazing and lucky opportunity... to live?

Contextual Advertising Fail

Here is my guess. Because this song is titled 'Rain Dogs' the contextual media buy purchased for Cesar decided that people viewing the whisky fueled genius that is Tom Waits probably have tiny little manicured and well groomed pets hungry for a little nibble of 26 essential nutrients.

Normally I would write a paragraph rant about how this is bullshit but I think everyone would agree with me. Another online contextual advertising fail.

Kettle Chips utilizes the thematic Narrative

The copywriting in this spot is pure genius. Congratulations to the client who bought the script. Three cheers to the director.

Life

I am happy my life doesn't look like this. I have been working for a while but I still see it as playing. That being said rejection shows up a lot more often in my life.

This is digital strategy...

A simple idea, based on a popular platform using the most common user behaviour usually creates great results. I've always been a big fan of 'tagging' and have constantly tried to apply the behaviour to brands that I work with. That said, you've got to fit the behaviour with the product or brand and you can't force-fit a strategy just because you like it (believe me, I've tried).

But for IKEA, this is the perfect fit with a great, creative, promotional idea. So simple.

I'd be interested in understanding the media support they had behind this campaign and whether it truly was all viral (which I doubt). That said, the 'first tag, first win' approach creates a rapid fanbase who is always waiting for your next photo upload.



Excellent work. Found via Mashable.

Where Books Come to Life

This video created by BBDO for the New Zealand Book Council is phenomenal. It pulls you in immediately and while entertaining you delivers the message. You get the message long before the last 10 seconds of the spot. This is the type of advertising people want to see and share.




Thanks to Mary for sharing this on Facebook.

Another case of advertisers spending and not thinking

I've been watching the American Music Awards tonight and although the performances have been mediocre at best, the missed opportunities by the advertisers have been the biggest story for me.

Currently the search term "American Music Awards 2009" is the 10th most searched term on Google. Guess how many advertisers have paid to have sponsored search ads appear? None. Dozens of brands see an opportunity to connect with consumers on TV during the broadcast but no one saw the opportunity to connect with these same consumers (even days) before, during or after online.

Not only is there a big missed opportunity within aligning their search keywords with the major Television event but the brands themselves are not buying search aligned to their TV spots.

One example is Maple Leaf Prime Gourmet Chicken product launch . They actually have a good commercial but that is where my praise for them ends.

The first time I saw the spot I immediately went online and performed a video search for the commercial (which isn't posted), then searched the product name and was hit with a sponsored search ad that takes me to their homepage where oddly enough the product that they are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars (probably) for multiple spots on the AMAs is not even showcased. Really Maple Leaf? Please call me - your ad agency isn't doing their job.

They should have sponsored search driving directly to the product page, as a secondary tactic feature it on your home page and post your TV spot so that people like me can post it to our blogs, share it on twitter and help you out for free.

In February I wrote a rant about the Oscars and all of their missed opportunities for increased engagement and revenue. Obviously the American Music Awards didn't read it...but you can check it out here.