503 - Collab: Monotype - GD Examples

Tattoos in Advertising

- The best ad from a 2010 award-winning campaign for Pilot extra fine pens.
By Grey, Barcelona.

- One of a series of 2010 ads for a French organ donor organisation

- Not so much focusing on the content, but more the presentation technique.

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- Ad via Canada was produced just two months before bin Laden was killed. - uses humour

- Best ad from a 2008 campaign for the Schick Quattro.
Ad agency: JWT, NYC.

This concept of tattoos in gangs was most recently portrayed in the media through an advert for a coffee project..

Mondelēz International-owned Kenco coffee is launching an innovative new multimedia campaign to raise awareness of its Coffee vs Gangs pilot project in Honduras.

Honduras produces some of the world’s best coffee but is also home to many dangerous gangs. The ‘Coffee vs Gangs’ project will target 20 young people who are at a crossroads in their life and at risk of entering a gang, creating opportunities for them to choose a positive future through education and training. This enable them to be coffee entrepreneurs and enjoy a sustainable future. By supporting the young people with the skills and support they need to become successful entrepreneurs, Kenco is hoping to help develop the next generation of coffee growers.

JWT London devised the creative for this hard-hitting campaign. The advert tells the story of life in Honduras through a mix of live action and animation via the medium of tattoos, the central representation of gang culture in Central America. A young man on the brink of becoming involved in violent gang activity changes his path, thanks to the Coffee vs Gangs project. Animation and post-production by Absolute & Blind Pig.

The moving tattoos - used to portray the story-telling used by gangs of their criminal and life activities - is a very strong and considered technique used which we can be inspired by (obviously need to adapt this more towards typography-based designs), the advert does still have negative connotations of tattoos, but maybe the aim could be separating / celebrating the two sides of modern day tattoo culture 

1 - celebrates the story-telling used by people trapped in gangs

2 - even though this can have negative affiliations, tattooing in the modern day has excelled into an art form, used to express personal circumstance and it should not be frowned upon.

Blind Pig were also part of this project..

UNICEF has today released a powerful new film featuring UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham that calls for an end to violence against children.

Creatively executed by BlindPig, the new 60-second film shows scenes of violence against children that appear as animated tattoos on David Beckham’s body. While Beckham’s own tattoos were marks chosen to represent happy or important memories, millions of children bear marks they have not chosen: the long-lasting scars of violence and abuse.

The animations in the film depict all-too-common forms of violence that boys and girls endure in spaces where they should be safe – their homes, schools, online and in their communities.

“It was important for us to not hold back, and expose the horrific realities of violence against children. The tattoos were designed to tell these stories and yet remain honest to both classic and contemporary tattoo designs.”

“It’s different from most campaigns in the fact that it lets the stories come to the forefront, instead of the celebrity. In the film, David’s body becomes a canvas to highlight the issue of violence against children and deliver the campaign’s powerful message; violence against children marks them forever. To me, the final product speaks for itself. It’s a remarkable example of how powerful and compelling stories can be communicated in a non-conventional way.