In Indonesia, a culture of devout smokers (making Ramhadan all the more of a sacrifice--a subject for another post), the government recently made it illegal for cigarette advertisements to contain their product. This results in a pretty interesting culture (the wrong word, but I am running out of cash at the internet cafe) of cigarette advertisements. They have become one of my newest hobbies.
I want to introduce a few of my favorites:
the cleverest, with nothing more to say-
a brand called cappuccino, an ad that consists of a tower of those squat cups (the bottom two in the pillar being sand colored) crowned with a delicate curl of steam off the top. Belissimo.
the newport award for excellence in the use of white people to sell cigarettes to brown people-
a white man in cut offs with various virile looking animals around him (a tiger, monkey, a falcon perched on his shoulder), with the text (translated, by me, so proceed at your own risk): 'a man's taste'
tell the interns to bring pillows and cots to the office, we're issuing a fatwa-
a large table decked out with all sort of sumptuous food, text reading (translated by Rety, so breathe easy--and tar free): 'fast all day, party all night.'
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1 comment:
Ramadan or not - Muslims like to party. So, the last ad probably really sells for them. Are these like the early .com ads where you spend most of your time puzzling over what the product is?
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