Win: City of  Venice

Image courtesy of New York Times

What’s clear, cheap and littered the city of Venice? Bottled Water.

As major consumers of bottled water, Venetians experienced a  pollution problem from clear plastic bottles. The city decided enough was enough and branded its own city water to compete with major bottled water brands.

Most environmental campaigns use the green crutch to sell a product or service. However, the Italians rose above cheap tactics and resorted to smart branding to get their point across.

Good for them! A definite win.

Fail: *sigh* GM

I realize it may be immoral to kick somebody while they’re down, but General Motors is just too easy of a target. Before they went bankrupt, they tried to position the Tahoe Hybrid SUV with the rest of Hybrid vehicles. Even though it gets worse gas mileage than an average sedan (about 22 mpg combined), they were trying to tout environmental consciousness. Major Fail. Watch the ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l60gbnpILEk&feature=player_embedded

Spotlight on Give Back Cincinnati

We all know it’s good to volunteer, but giving up your free time to do it can be pretty rough. Fortunately, Give Back Cincinnati gives the opportunity to get involved with no strings attached- no dues or weekly meetings. It’s also geared toward young professionals, so you can network while doing such fun things as painting a house, riding your bike or rehabbing a river boat.

Coming up for Give Back is the Hyde Park Blast, where volunteers perform a variety of tasks to make sure the day of partying, running, walking and riding goes smoothly. Meet some new people and bond while pouring beer, setting up tents and serving food. Check out Give Back’s website for details.

The series of races come complete with a Christian Moerlein afterparty with bands playing until midnight and Hyde Park food vendors galore. To register for any of the events, see Hyde Park Blast.

Next week: A Series on Networking!

WIN

This week’s winner is a fresh ad for Nike. It features the basketball superstars Lebron and Kobe. The ad drops the risk of asking an athlete to act by switching them with muppets. Good direction and copywriting give excellent entertainment value. I watched this a couple of times (despite the annoying kid). Click here for the win.

FAIL

This next one is a double, nay, triple failure. Although it’s not the newest advertisement, it has irked me for too long. I need to get this one off my chest.

First Failure: The advertisements asks Bill Gates to act and be funny.

Second Failure: Seinfeld tries to be a little too Seinfeldy.

Third Failure: This money was wasted during the Super Bowl.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here for the travesty.