Comments on: Smirnoff advertisement with DJ rivals Newport cigarette ads for sheer WTFness

By: jimbeaux

jimbeaux — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:56:00 +0000

Isn’t that Julie Newmar?

By: noah django

noah django — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:20:00 +0000

maybe at the clubs YOU go to. square.

By: noah django

noah django — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:18:00 +0000

those white squares are the stickers applied to the platters of the industry standard Technics 1200 turntables at the factory (they’re actually mirrory silver.) makes it that much more obvious to anyone whose ever seen them. on the other hand, it’s not like they would ever be mistaken for a record label by *anyone*…

By: guest

guest — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:36:00 +0000

it was much more interesting when i misread
“There’s not a mat on the turntables.”
as
“There’s not a MAN on the turntables.”

By: UncaScrooge

UncaScrooge — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:18:00 +0000

That’s DJ Soused, the Human Deejay. He waves his hands over the decks while convincingly uttering ”Wicky Wicky Woo.” Takes human beatboxing to the next level.

By: TooGoodToCheck

TooGoodToCheck — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:13:00 +0000

the last 30+ years of music would like to have a word with you.

By: Antonio Carrasco

Antonio Carrasco — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:49:00 +0000

do women still swoon over DJ’s? Is that still a thing???

I thought it trickled down into the collective consciousness that they aren’t actually doing anything other than pressing play.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:31:00 +0000

There’s always one…..

By: sdnative1958

sdnative1958 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:58:00 +0000

Wow, did no one read Wilson Bryan Key’s books while growing up?

The tone-arm is missing its cartridge so the back-weight causes it to rise up, and towards the female. The turntables have no mats, or records, as they would hide more of the spindles. The record players themselves represent breasts.

Smirnoff is telling the viewer of the ad (target=males) that drinking their product will ensure the purchaser that they will score with a woman. The tone-arm is the males’ promised state of arousal; the platters, her breasts; the spindles, her erect nipples. Let the fondling ensue.

There is a great deal of thought and effort in advertising that goes beyond everyday thinking. It’s not a muliti-billion dollar business for nothing. There’s no mistakes or sloppiness going on here at all.

By: relawson

relawson — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:12:00 +0000

and the invisible beats sound like this _________________________

By: Robert Cruickshank

Robert Cruickshank — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:43:00 +0000

She built a system, using old turntables and a white square on the record as a fiducial for a motion-capture system that simulates record scratching, and now she’s using it to pick up attractive younger men. I see this sort of thing all the time.

By: Roose_Bolton

Roose_Bolton — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:08:00 +0000

Drop the invisible needle on the invisible record!

By: Oz Vinyljunkie

Oz Vinyljunkie — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:40:00 +0000

Or its a brilliant piece of guerrilla marketing. I find it hard to believe that photographer art director makeup hair people etc on a photo shoot wouldn’t point out the obvious. get posted on BB then reposted on numerous blogs and facebook has everyone talking about smirnoff

By: Stephen Anderson

Stephen Anderson — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:29:00 +0000

He is not a DJ, he’s a magician with a beautiful assistant for misdirection. Unfortunately, her eyes give away the actual location of the records.

By: Kristiyan

Kristiyan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:58:00 +0000

Normal people on their everyday routine don’t look at an ad for more than 3 seconds before their gaze moves away. Ad agencies know that and don’t focus on detail as much as “nerds, geeks and perfectionists” would do. They know the cattle doesn’t pay attention, and the sublime message is sold with the major cognitive image presented. Smirnoff pays, Ad agency delivers, transaction made.

I’ll have a shot of vodka!

By: noah django

noah django — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:57:00 +0000

Smirinov: ineptitude in distilling, ineptitude in advertising, and wack DJs.

By: Oliver Wang

Oliver Wang — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:37:00 +0000

In the actual piece, I note there’s no needle. I don’t say “cartridge” since that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to lay folk. But the summary above left that out.

By: Oliver Wang

Oliver Wang — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:36:00 +0000

This is what I get for cutting and pasting from google. Lesson learned!

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:18:00 +0000

Last night a DJ saved my life. This dude wasn’t the one.

By: plyx

plyx — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:11:00 +0000

It’s called play-pretend.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:02:00 +0000

Yeah, we get that ads are fake. But it’s nice when someone exerts a wee bit of effort to generate some verisimilitude.

I mean, if you can find a pair of turntables to use as a prop in your photoshoot, would it have been so very hard to include a coupla rekkids and maybe a needle, just to make it look even a little more convincing?

The joker at Smirnoff who signed off on the ad must have been moonlighting in Quality Assurance at the distillery. A picture of a guy actually spinning records while an attractive young lady looks on might seem like the kind of fun time a potential Smirnoff drinker would seek.

This looks like a picture of a goofball who has no idea what to do with that device beneath his flailing hands.

By: Philboyd Studge

Philboyd Studge — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:57:00 +0000

No, those are amplified conga drums. The ladies dig a rousing set of Babalu.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:42:00 +0000

I was thinking James Franco and Katherine Heigl.

By: Drew Stefani

Drew Stefani — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:12:00 +0000

The un-truncated version in the original article makes note of that stating that beat juggling is something not usually done in a club setting.

Roc Raida (RIP) was one of the best and would frequently use both hands on the records simultaneously as he worked the cross-fader with his body, which is on a mixer that is missing in the smirnoff add.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC-3PG9MBfc

By: blueelm

blueelm — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:03:00 +0000

Because of her awkward smile I can’t help but read the picture as “OMG this guy is a douche!” You know, it’s funny when ads aren’t designed for your people now that I think of it!

By: chris jimson

chris jimson — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:48:00 +0000

‘The gesture — hands posed over both turntables — doesn’t make sense.”

Oops, your goof: there IS, in fact, a hip hop DJ battle move that involves both hands on the turntables at almost the same time. If you notice, this phony-baloney DJ does not actually have his hand on the other platter yet, so (all the other anomalies excluded) he could be about to backspin the other record.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_OiKd3UfvU

By: therling

therling — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:16:00 +0000

I know it’s probably an artifact of foreshortening by the camera lens, but the left hand looks like it’s not attached to his arm.

By: feetleet

feetleet — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:14:00 +0000

Gotta keep that finger pointing.

By: flickerKuu

flickerKuu — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:14:00 +0000

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but ads, tv shows, movies aren’t real. Those buildings on the street are fake, no one lives in them. The milk on the cereal is actually glue. Point- I wouldn’t waste a lot of time looking for “reality” in staged pictures.

To the picture’s defense If it had a caption reading, “Hey babe tomorrow when I dj I’ll be all like *scratch sound* on the decks…” it would be ok right?

By: timquinn

timquinn — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:13:00 +0000

what I always think around drinkers is, “Man, these people would find anything funny.” Low threshold is the whole idea.

Yes, I am a wet blanket.