US Bans Kanye West’s Naked Album Cover
After the MTV Music Awards this year, it seems like any appearance by @kanyewest should be banned. The good ol’ U.S. of A. tends to agree. The singer recently tweeted, ‘Banned in the USA!! They don’t want me chilling on the couch with my phoenix!’
And after seeing the (ugly-ass) ‘artwork’ on the new album shown here, it’s not hard to see why America’s deemed the cover ‘forbidden’.
The watercolor features a naked man resembling Kanye, straddled by a naked female, both of whom have demonic faces (in the image as well as in real life?). Kanye’s label, Island Def Jam, ‘strongly urged’ him to change the design, but Kanye defended the piece stating,
‘In the 70s album covers had actual nudity… He continued, ‘So Nirvana can have a naked human being on their cover but I can’t have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings.’
Despite the US having banned the cover, the new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, (NOT RuPaul, as it turns out) will be released on November 22.
Refresh Everything (Including Your Campaign)
I had seen the campaign everywhere: outdoor postings, subways, posters, etc. It was weeks until I finally figured out what the hell was being promoted: Pepsi. I thought the logo looked familiar, but I also thought it had something to do with the inauguration since this campaign features a re-designed corporate logo that mimics the distinctive Obama “O” campaign logo, and refers to the president-elect as “the man who is about to refresh our nation.”
The ads also feature single words or phrases such as “Optimism,” “Yes You Can,” “Together,” and “One for All.” The re-designed Pepsi logo replaces the “O’s” in the words on the ads, shares similarities to Obama’s 
presidential campaign logo. For a second I thought maybe Obama was doing Pepsi ads…
This was a major mistake in my opinion and one that happens a lot: marketers relying too much on brand recognition and getting the message lost in translation.
Another example: Who can forget the “Be Kanye” campaign, when taking just two pills turns you from a white honky into a cool black rapper? I really wondered how many people knew that was an Absolute Vodka campaign?
$@bs
