Storage Firm Shakes Up Pro-Lifers

Over the last year, I've written a couple of times about Manhattan Mini-Storage's billboard campaigns, which comment amusingly on a broad range of social and pop culture issues, ranging from the government's wiretapping to Paris Hilton and the Queer Eye guys. Their latest series, which started a few months ago, is beginning to cause a lot of upset among pro-lifers, as evidenced by this CBS news story. I think the new campaign is both clever and sobering. After all, what's thought to be the third most common usage for a hanger, after hanging clothes and retrieving locked car keys? The Catholic League is complaining and asking New Yorkers to boycott the company. Makes me wish I had something to store, just so I could patronize Manhattan Mini-Storage.

Manhattan Mini-Storage Vs. Crazy Eyes

Manhattan Mini-Storage's ads have long been famously bitchy. (One chestnut said, "New York City has six professional sports teams. Plus the Mets.") But advertising critic Copyranter doesn't like this latest attempt.

Morning View - Manhattan Mini Storage

You might remember Manhattan Mini Storage's Queer Eye(ish) campaign, mentioned here last year. I love the new campaign too, Mike at Manhattan Chowder has more examples.

Manhattan Mini Storage: Still Made Of Teh Awesome

I've blogged several times about Manhattan Mini Storage's provocative ad campaigns, which tend to support progressive causes ranging from pro-choice to anti-Bush. Now, in an in-yer-face dig at conservative groups (such as the Catholic League who want Gothamites to boycott the company), they have unveiled a new "Save More Than Your Stuff" program in which they donate $25 (in the name of new customers) to one of five charities: Planned Parenthood, The Coalition To Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, Animal Haven, Citymeals-On-Wheels, and the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. This is how you win business, in my world at least.

(Via - Good As You)

Rumor Mill: Apple To Make iPad Mini

Tech sites have lit up on the rumor that Apple is planning an October release for the iPad Mini, which analysts say is meant to challenge the low prices of Google's Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire. Google's small tablet ships next week.

Claims from the Bloomberg news agency come about a week after Google launched a $200 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7. Apple's smaller iPad, nicknamed "the iPad Mini" by Apple watchers, will purportedly launch in October and sell for around $200 just like Google's new device and Amazon's Kindle Fire. To help it hit that low price, the purported iPad Mini would come without the current iPad's popular high definition Retina display, according to Bloomberg. It's not clear if the rumored iPad Mini will lack any other hardware features of the standard iPad such as an LTE radio or front- and rear-facing cameras. It's also unknown whether a smaller iPad might have less storage, say 8GB, compared to the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions of the current iPad.

Morning View - MiniStorage Poll

My buddy Carl was in town this weekend and snapped this pic on the subway. I've blogged about Manhattan Mini-Storage's provocative anti-Bush and pro-choice ad campaigns and the pressure they are feeling from conservatives to stop. Now the company has launched a poll asking if they should back down from the right-wing. You know what to do.

Children Of Men

Last night I saw Children Of Men starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine. It was bleak, grim, depressing, violent. I loved it. I've always dug the apocalyptic, dystopian sort of movies (The Stand, The Day After, Threads), and Children Of Men is the best of its sort that I've seen in ages. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También), Children depicts the 2028 world's descent into chaos after no child had been born in 18 years, due to all the world's women being struck infertile by a mysterious virus.

The flick opens with the terrorist bombing of a London cafe and the next two hours are a grim march of police beatings, refugee camps, and tank vs. bazooka battles. There's none of the gee-whiz gadgetry of typical futurist movies, technology seems to have stopped advancing when the babies stopped coming. There's a couple of annoyingly unanswered questions in Children Of Men, but I strongly recommend it.

Related: It's always bugged me that Threads was never released in the US. It was shown once on PBS in 1985 and that's the one time I've seen it. There's a Zone 2 (European-format) DVD, but of course that's useless to me.

For New Yorkers: The Clearview Cinemas, bizarrely located in the Manhattan Mini-Storage building on 1st Avenue and 62nd Street, is just about the crummiest place to see a movie in Manhattan. Not recommended.

Obey The Eyebrows

I found this billboard on 11th Avenue yesterday. I wonder if they had to photoshop the model's eyebrows or if he just lives in Chelsea? In any case, this is a good example of how the word "queer" has positively entered the public lexicon, to the point where even advertisers feel comfortable using it. Would this billboard have been just as funny or effective if they had used "gay" instead of "queer"? I think with Gay.com billboards around town, the usage of "queer" is still notable and memorable. Manhattan Mini Storage also has a subway campaign that plays off on Brokeback Mountain.