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.

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