It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

I'd like to bring to your attention two ads that I recently discovered (although neither of them were recently created) and which I think exemplify some of the best and worst of what marketing can be and do. The bad news first: this, which manages to offend on quite a few levels. The ad (hailing from Singapore) is apparently selling skin-whitening tablets. Aside from the, well, blatant sexism of the tagline, I find the obsession with skin-whitening very off-putting. Has this always existed, and it's just another of my blessed blind-spots? Anyway, this is an example of What Not To Do--market a bad product with worse copy.
Riding like a white knight to rescue advertising's reputation is the recent campaign by Ogilvy New York for Fage Total. You can read the New York Times' description of the situation here. Ogilvy has enlisted the help of some luxurious co-conspirators to make very effective ads: on one side of the magazine is a traditional ad featuring jewelry or a watch and the facing page is printed to give the impression that there is an impression made in yogurt! Simple, visceral, intriguing. Thank goodness someone is doing such work in a time where people are daily using the poor economic situation to justify lazy/cowardly creative. Bravissimo, Ogilvy.