If this ad has anything going for it, it's that its message is a little hard to grasp at first glance. But once you get past the convoluted floor plan and into the meaning, it's all downhill. My reaction went something like this: "OK, your son is watching Brokeback Mountain with a friend. The drink is strong so you can be . . . oh! Oh. Ugh." Everything is open to interpretation, of course, but I Read more

For Sexual Health Week, the UK's Family Planning Association is targeting middle-age Brits after statistics revealed they're contracting STDs twice as often as they were a decade ago. I have to give the campaign credit. Depicting people our parents' age on sex benders is a dangerous pursuit, but these ads focus on their fashion prime rather than their sexual second wind. And we've seen a lot of Read more

First there was the Brawny man. Then the Old Spice guy. And now Stayfree wants to bring the Stayfree stud into the public consciousness. In the company's new viral ads, good-looking men (I hope they paid the actors well) invite you into their bachelor pads with hopes of selling you maxi pads. Brad, Trevor, and Ryan (see above) love Stayfree maxi pads so much that they'll demonstrate how well Read more

The blog Sex, Gender, Body pointed out today a trend spotted in Korean ads: women pose with their heads tilted. I didn't have to look hard to find the same thing in American advertising. On one hand, it's just logical. Models just can't stand there. They need to pose and look attractive, and the tilted head does both. We know body language is layered with meaning, which we've all tried to Read more

Wearing nothing more than her tiara, royal jewels, and lingerie, Princess Di plays the cello while what appears to be a ginger Prince Harry holds her sheet music. My first question when looking at this ad made by Chinese lingerie company Jealousy International: did Diana even play the cello? No, according to my research. In a way this absolutely surreal ad is genius. How could anyone even think Read more

France and England have reignited their rivalry over an unexpected subject: Diesel's "Be Stupid" ads. The UK banned the ads because they encouraged "antisocial behavior" and were unsuitable for children. Across the channel in more permissive Cannes, the ads won the top prize at the International Advertising Festival. Now the company has released a new batch: one depicting a woman pleasuring Read more

I hope your prom date wasn't as scandalous as the one in this new "dirty short" for Orbit Gum. In the hilarious if cringe-inducing ad — produced by Will Arnett and Jason Bateman's newly launched DumbDumb venture — Bateman stars as an overprotective dad helping his daughter (Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza) prepare for prom: "These boys, they know how to act all polite, then before you Read more

In some kind of Glee-like, everyone-is-welcome-here appeal, this French McDonald's commercial features a gay teen with his dad. We first meet the boy talking on his phone to his crush, while ogling his class picture. Dad walks over, tray in hand, and says it's a shame he goes to an all-boys school because he'd get all the girls. The boy smiles, a you're-so-clueless grin, and the ad says "Come as Read more

If I didn't know this commercial was for Marie Stopes, the reproductive health and abortion clinic, then I would assume it was for a pro-life organization trying to lure unsuspecting women into so-called options counseling only to vilify abortion. What is supposed to be a "clear, nonjudgmental" ad is vague and gratuitously emotional. Watching Read more