Photograph: Ads of the World

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest has analyzed 128 food and entertainment companies on how they market to children, and most came up way short. Though McDonald's only scored a C-, it did better than most companies in the study. Mars Inc. came out on top with a B+, mostly because of its policy of not advertising directly to children under the age of 12.

Despite these low marks, we can't help but think about those halcyon days of children's marketing, when Saturday-morning cartoons were packed to the gills with seizure-inducing commercials for toys and horrific-looking foods that we were supposed to beg our moms for. Surely there's been some improvement since then? Hit the jump to see a few of our favorites.

The Videos »

Logorama, an animated film that takes place in a Los Angeles composed entirely of corporate logos, was the big winner in the Best Animated Short Film category at last night's Academy Awards. Featuring a Quentin Tarantino-esque criminal plot, the film includes many food brands, including a Pringles man truck driver and an evil Ronald McDonald. (Slightly NSFW - lots of swearing.)

The Video »

These webisodes by Mason Street Creative for Finagle a Bagel, the Boston-based bagel chain and frozen bagel manufacturer, feature the guys working in the bakery, and they're surprisingly very funny. Standouts include "Action Figures" and "Inner Thoughts," in which the guys have silent, psychic arguments with each other over who exactly invented the bagel.

And then there's "Schmear," a riff on The Departed that makes a convincing argument regarding the proper bagel and cream cheese pairing: "What the f*ck is wrong with you, you dumb f*ck? If you want f*cking cream cheese on your chocolate f*cking chip bagel, you don't f*cking use scallion cream cheese... Otherwise you just confuse the f*cking palate."

Here's all of 'em:

The videos »

This ad for Camel cigarettes from the November 23, 1936 issue of Life Magazine takes a Thanksgiving theme, advising that "You enjoy food more and have a feeling of greater ease after eating when you smoke Camels between courses and after meals."

They quote Miss Dorothy Malone, a "food editor," who says "It's smart to have Camels on the table. My own personal experience is that smoking Camels with my meals and afterwards builds up a sense of well-being." They even suggest to take a smoke break before you dig in for a second helping of turkey.

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"Breakfast Burrito" is an ad that turned the Edmonton Sun into a McDonald's breakfast burrito — wrapper and all — with an “egg, sausage and cheese front page domination." By Cossette Toronto, which won the Best of Show award at the Canadian Newspaper Association’s 2009 Extra Awards. Couldn't tell if this was just a concept or actually executed.

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View larger. Photo via adsoftheworld.com

These food safety ads from the Beijing Women & Children's Development Foundation are nicely executed but super-creepy: Kids enjoying themselves in playgrounds built out of giant food, etc. But on closer inspection, the pizza slices are topped with shards of glass, the hamburger is a scorpion-burger, sushi is infested with bugs, the jello is spiked with thumbtacks, a beehive stands in for a lollipop, and a landmine is disguised as a melon. The tagline, as translated by Ads of the World, "Do you really know about his food?"

What the hell is going on? Is adulterated food such a problem in China that people need to be reminded to be careful that there might be poison in their food? Can someone please translate the text on these ads?

Update: Commenter realityindreams tells us:

the sushi one says, "is his world really safe?" the jelly one says "can you be so sure of her safety?" and the mine one says "have you seen clearly the world that your child is in?"

More photos »

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The Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy group funded by food corporations, released this ad decrying the New York City Department of Health's attitude towards junk food by asking "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" It's largely in response to the New York City DOH's recent demonizing of sugary drinks by running gruesome posters that depicted human fat pouring out of soda bottles.

It's part of a larger $1 million ad campaign to defend high fructose corn syrup called Sweet Scam — the website offers a myths/facts section — including this commercial that puts three sweeteners (sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and honey) on a police lineup, asking a man "Do you see the one responsible for you gaining the weight?"

The commercial »

Photos via adsoftheworld.com

Here are a couple of funny and well-made print ads in which the carrots and onions can't help but chop up their brethren. For Ristorante Cantina by Euro RSCG Zürich, Switzerland. Also, the googley eyes? Kind of creepy.

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Photos via adsoftheworld.com

Out of France come these ads for McDonalds' McCafe's macarons by TBWA, Paris, France in which they look just like mini-burgers. Sort of a reminder to the public, saying, "Hey, even if you're not a fan of the burgers, you could always stop in for a pretty good macaron." But before everyone goes "yuck!," apparently the macarons from McDonalds are not entirely bad. In Michael Steinberger's Au Revoir to All That (buy at Amazon) — see the related excerpt on Slate — he finds out that McDonalds gets their macarons "from Holder, the company that owns Ladurée," the renowned luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris that's famous for their macarons.

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Here's a new commercial for Bud Light Lime by Omnicom Group’s DDB Chicago. "I never thought I'd enjoy getting it in the can as much as I do. I was wrong," says a suburban housewife. "I gave it to my boss in the can," says a working stiff. Nothing like innuendo about anal sex to sell some canned light beer flavored with lime. AdAge called it "juvenile," but that's sort of the point. It's attention-getting for sure, but the joke, repeated over and over, gets old quick.

The video »

Spotted on Ads of the World was this genius series of advertisements promoting the Sydney International Food Festival in which flags are made out of the countries' iconic foodstuffs. By WHYBIN/TBWA out of Sydney, Australia.

If you know your nations' flags, you should be able to identify them pretty quickly, otherwise just look at the food. All of the ads are below — hover over the images to see if you can guess which is which.

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From a German ad agency, these ads for IKEA cleverly shift a recipe's focus from ingredients to tools. Who cares what kind of pasta you use? Or, for that matter, how much? Just make sure you're cooking it in an IKEA 365+ pot and straining it with a STABIL pasta insert.

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View larger. Via adsoftheworld.com.

These brilliant print ads by Saatchi & Saatchi in China for Ariel laundry detergent show food bravely fighting back. And it will not go quietly... right before execution, the least it can do is ruin your clothes.

More ads: a crab, a hot dog, and spaghetti fight back »

McDonald's is running an ad campaign in Japan that uses Mr. James, a bumbling white guy who speaks broken katakana (i.e. accented) Japanese. Basically a gaijin, a derogatory term for a foreigner in Japan, he's even got his own blog while he tours McDonald's locations across Japan. People are upset because he's perpetuating racist stereotypes, and comparisons to Stepin Fetchit being made. Even stern letters are being written to McDonald's by FRANCA, a human rights group concerned with the rights of non-Japanese residents in Japan.

Here are a couple of commercials we dug up:

The videos »

The copy on the ad reads: "I created my jewelry to become a part of a woman, to adorn her, to dance on her skin." [ad via WWD]

The whole ad »

Photo: Raphael Brion

The intrusion of advertising on every possible surface is relentless, and more or less inevitable. First it was coffee cups and sleeves, then seat-back trays in airplanes, then pizza boxes, and now even the lowly Chinese food take-out box is a vehicle for companies to pimp their products.

Getting this delivered to my apartment in Brooklyn (from New King Food in Park Slope) the other night wasn't all that surprising, but still, shades of Idiocracy. Apparently, advertising on Chinese take-out boxes is nothing new — the New York Times wrote about Cingular doing it back in 2002. But as a somewhat frequent consumer of junky Chinese food, this is the first time I've come across it.

Keep reading »

Gidget, the chihuahua known as the iconic "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" dog has passed away. People reports:

"She made so many people happy," says Gidget's trainer, Sue Chipperton.... The mostly retired actor lived out her days laying in the sun – "I like to joke that it's like looking after a plant," says Chipperton – and entertaining at shoots when her trainer brought her along. "Gidget," says Chipperton, "always knew where the camera was."

Of course the whole campaign traded in stereotypes — imagine the pitch: "Like Speedy Gonzalez but a dog! Who talks!" — see the commercials that promote a "taco revolución" or the one that presents the chihuahua as a Latin American revolutionary figure in "Viva Gorditas." Although the campaign was sort of a failure, in that "[d]uring the Chihuahua era, 1997 to 2000, Taco Bell sales slipped," nevertheless it was a pop culture phenomenon, with a catchphrase up there with "Wazzup!" and "Where's the Beef?"

Here are all the Taco Bell chihuahua commercials we could find:

The commercials »

Photo via blog.oldeenglish.org

The sketch comedy group Olde English posted a series of brilliant parodies of Snickers ads. Photoshopped or real-life vandalism, doesn't really matter.

[via The Daily What]