Signs of the Times.

Well yes, now that you ask, my thirst for signs I find to be comical and witty does indeed continue unabated. Innuendo? Check. Juvenile humour? Check. Snickers shared in a subtle glance with a partner? Check.

I liked this one. Really. It's also quite appropriate, I suppose, for a store laden with sweets, chocolates and sundry other sugar-laden hip, thigh and rear end enhancers to be called "Nuttin' Butt". Walking by a number of its patrons, however, I saw just how fine a line it is between wit and irony. A lot finer than many of them were.

Signs like this were affixed every five feet or so to a fence surrounding a mansion the size of a small town (we're talking tens of millions of dollars here). Never mind the ominous teeth of razor wire that lined the top of the fence (or the likelihood that the fence was itself was electrified). No, it was the 'Bad Dog' (with an exclamation mark, no less!) you had to be worried about should you have the misguided notion you should climb it. I thought it was trendy for rich folk to have teacup poodles and chihuahuas? No? I didn't test the theory. Or maybe this was just their way of shaming the family pet, who had recently misbehaved - stealing a pie from the window ledge?

Not sure what dope thought of this one, but it's certainly a clever (sharp, rather than blunt?) and snicker-worthy name for a burrito shop. Care for one? Take a flour tortilla, some rice, cheese and, for a vegetable, some grass? Great if you've got the munchies, I suppose. If it catches your attention, though, it's obviously a successful form of marketing, regardless of the insinuation.

Snicker. He said "Church". Yeah, yeah, okay, fine, I'll give you that the seamen joke is the oldest one going. Still, I think it was the part about the "Confident Captain" that made gffl and me laugh. That or we're really just twelve-year-olds. Tough to tell. Then again, it's hard to picture Blackbeard sailing the gnarly seas, pillaging from the masses and having to head back to shore for Sunday service. Confidently, of course.

Just a great name for a toy store. Period.

Cracks Me Up.

Granted, there may be a lot of eggheads on campus at The University of Western Ontario, but this piece of guerrilla marketing doesn't leave you having to walk on egg shells about it.

When I first saw the added drawings on the bike path, I thought it was all just a big yolk. But then I thought I might just poach the idea for another campaign.

Let's hope the modern-day Humpty Dumpty doesn't take a great fall. Because, of course, then he'd just be a shell of his former self.

Planted.

Nice. Much like some of the clever little plays on words you often see on signs outside churches ("Sign broken. Message inside this Sunday"; "Fight truth decay - study the Bible daily"; "Under same management for over 2,000 years"; "Stop, drop and roll doesn't work in hell"; "How will you spend eternity - Smoking or non-smoking?"), this garden nursery had some fun welcoming our later-than-normal warm weather. Well done.

H2No.

I saw this ad in a magazine and thought, shouldn't it really read: "An overly caffeinated world doesn't need caffeinated water"? We've already got chocolate, tea, coffee, soda, etc.; why the need for 'invigorated' water? Is there such thing as "sensibly caffeinated" agua? Really, I've seen enough people get bent out of shape over having fluoride flow through our taps, but an addictive substance like caffeine is okay?

I can only imagine people in the developing world seeing a product like this (as, in many places, they scoop their refreshment out of muddy puddles and polluted streams) and shaking their heads at the consumerism and overall pretentiousness of such a product. Maybe it's just me.

Hamburgler's Makeover.

No, really, whatever happened to Hamburgler? Or that bloated purple jube jube named Grimace?

I recognize I'm a little behind the times here as it has already been a couple years since McDonald's decided to overhaul its image, but as someone who very, very rarely frequents fast food establishments, I only saw for the first time today its new, grown-up look. Earth tones? Brushed steel? Leather upholstery? Flat screen televisions?

Whatever happened to the garish orange, browns and yellows that were supposed to tease your psyche into feeling hungry for greasy, mass-produced food? The moulded plastic seats that would stick to your legs on hot summer's days? The ball pits with unmentionable things crawling through them in search of wayward french fries? The plastic bibs with LSD trip-induced cartoons on them?

In some ways, I can see the company needing to adapt as demographics age, but this was one of the world's most iconic and established brands. An update, I can see, but the complete overhaul surprised me somewhat. And to make restaurateurs themselves absorb the costs of renovating ($300,000-$400,000) and destroying all that's been built up over 40 years of branding seems just criminal.

With an increased concern about issues related to obesity - and with its reputation for contributing to them - it almost looks to me as though McDonald's is trying to disguise the wolf in sheep's clothing. One thing certainly hasn't changed: I still felt nauseous when I left.

Neither Jeep, Nor Jeans.

I can just picture the successful applicants now, running through fields of posies with tiny lassos, accompanied by a soundtrack of Puccini.

"I'm going to wrangle myself a blue one!" Wranglers? Really? I can't imagine the silken-winged critters putting up much of a fight as they flutter by. Of course, curious to see how common the term "Butterfly Wrangler" is, I punched it into Google. 38 hits.

Needless to say, I chuckled when I saw the sign while walking through the Biology & Geology building this morning. As advertising goes, it worked. I felt this was a position that should be added to the list of cool jobs on campus that sound comical, which also includes a bug chef for one of the larger research facilities (one who makes food for insects, not out of them).

It also reminded me of the all-time classic cat-herding commercial:

Supersize We.

A party sled for ten? Nope, just a fitness and promotion campaign (but my, wouldn't that be mighty fun!) Despite the debate they are apparently causing in parts of Switzerland, I thought these ads I found online today were actually quite clever. Designed as a guerrilla marketing campaign by Health Promotion Switzerland, each of these super-sized objects carries on it a sticker proclaiming, "Every Fifth Child is Overweight." Come on, they make some of the world's finest chocolate in Switzerland; how are you supposed to resist that?

Some Swiss are taking issue with the ads because they believe the constant bombardment of messages like these are also leading to a rising incidence of anorexia among children. In short, kids are being forced to worry about body image issues at too young an age. That said, part of the reason why is likely that many parents are seemingly unable or unwilling to take responsibility for ensuring children are provided with sufficient exercise and proper nutrition.

Every fifth? I can't imagine what the figure is in the United States. Actually, I can, because I just looked it up online (I'm like that); it's quite similar. Even more frightening are the statistics when you expand the cohort (co-horde?) to include adults: Only four states had obesity rates below 20 per cent in 2006. 22 states were over 25 per cent, of whom, 2 were over 30 - yes, 30 - per cent.

Good Ol' College Try.

Take a pill - it's just an ad! After a couple of weeks of buzz, the lid is off College Ontario's "Obay" viral ad campaign (how many puns can we get into one paragraph? Hmm?), which prominently ran advertisements featuring a faux pharmaceutical and had people scratching their heads.

With the unveiling came a shiny new web site and fresh ads with overlays ("Don't push your kids into doing what you want.") designed to get parents and students thinking about options beyond university. Options are good.

I think it was also a clever, cooperative way for the province's colleges to leverage economies of scale and generate a positive, proactive campaign. I can't imagine that getting 24 colleges on the same page in order to run something so different was easy (now that's collegial). Now that the curiosity factor has peaked (as opposed to the past couple of weeks when it was piqued), however, I'll be curious to see how effective the rebranding strategy is going forward. Given how many students do not end up going to university, it still offers an important message.

As much as I liked the campaign, I still find it a little odd that most of the advertising was done in and around public transit, yet seemed to be targeted toward parents. That might work in Toronto, where the TTC enjoys a broad demographic, but in some of the province's other college towns and cities, I think you'd find the majority of riders would be the students themselves.

Tough Pill to Swallow.

When I first saw this bus ad the other day, I wondered if it was the work of an enterprising culture jammer making a statement of some sort related to society's propensity to medicate, rather than parent, its children. That or, maybe, an elaborate advertising campaign teaser, but I couldn't think of what it would relate to. The ad contained no identifying information and I was left scratching my head.

I didn't realize at the time that this ad, along with a series of others ("My son used to have his own aspirations, now he has mine. Thanks Obay!"), had begun popping up all over Toronto and in other Ontario cities. So it wasn't the work of a lone wolf, particularly given the expense of the campaign (there is also a 1-800 number, bus shelter ads, etc.).

It turns out that this brilliant piece of marketing is for Colleges Ontario, an advocacy group for the province's colleges. Appropriately enough, an announcement will be made at The Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College tomorrow to give details about the campaign. I've only heard some rumours about what the ads' goals are, but in marketing terms, it's brilliant because people are talking and wondering. Kudos.