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What would life be like without advertising?
It's hard to imagine a world without advertising, but a new site by the folks at Web dev shop Mindrally asks visitors to do just that. It's a simple app. The site begins the sentence "Without advertising," and users complete the thought. Some early answers suggest that such a place would have better products, companies that make real connections with consumers, and people who make eye contact with each other on the subway. One person said that in such a world, "no one would know anything." We're guessing that one came from an ad guy. Via Adrian Ho. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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OK, who wants the naked, hairy copywriter?
As the agency Web site is busy getting reimagined, Lawson Clarke, a newly unemployed copywriter, is busy reinventing the portfolio site. Clarke, as you can see above, decided to go with a natural look in his hunt for a new job. He's paying homage to Burt Reynolds, hero to all mustachioed and hirsute men—specifically, the April 1972 centerfold of Cosmopolitan magazine, which we wrote about previously when DirecTV used it for a print ad. Lawson worked at Arnold in Boston until recently. "With so many incredibly talented advertising creatives on the street right now, and so few jobs available, I figured I had to do something to get noticed," he wrote in an e-mail. Lawson also holds the claim to fame as being the first makeover contestant, back in 2004, on Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. "Somehow I think Carson would approve of the site," he wrote. |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Mercedes chases away your sleep monsters
This new Mercedes-Benz ad from German agency Jung Von Matt is shot in such a way—lit almost entirely from the car's headlights—that it has a cool, ethereal quality that separates it from most other lame, driving-up-a-mountain-road car ads. And chasing all the dream characters out of the vehicle is a cute way of demonstrating what the Attention Assist security feature does, even if the little person and the ogre are a sign that the driver should stop eating right before bed. It's also a little weird that he kicks the two nurses out of the car first, and only later relinquishes the sheep. What's really missing, though, is an actual demonstration of the Attention Assist feature. We have no idea how it really works, and we'd like to know whether it uses an alarm or a bright light or just drives the car itself until you wake up and then yells at you. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Google puts kodachrome in new Chrome ad
Motion Theory created this fun, stylistic spot for Google's Web browser, Chrome. Google doesn't put out much in the way of self-promotional advertising, so it's always nice to see what happens when they do. The spot is actually one of 11 short videos Google commissioned to advertise Chrome. The batch also includes the one below, by Christoph Niemann. The foot-tapping tune in the spot above is "The Lucky Ones" by Tim Myers. The song was also used in one of those Canadian Lay's spot from Juniper Park earlier this year, and featured in an Ugly Betty episode. Another track by Myers popped up last year in an ad for the Saturn Aura. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Cricket ad doesn't show Aretha any respect
Some songs should never be remade for commercials, or for any reason. "Respect" falls into that category. Yes, the famous version by Aretha Franklin is itself, technically, a remake. But let's not split hairs: The song belongs forever to the Queen of Soul. I'm sure Jessica Sanchez does the best she can with the vocals in this Element 79 spot for Cricket Wireless. But her effort sounds lacking to my ear. What's worse, she prances across the dinner table like a cast-off from America's Got Talent—which in fact she is. Get off the table! People eat off that table! And what's up with Dad? It looks like he's flashing back to Jimi playing Monterey. Snap out of it, Pops, and take that bratty kid's phone privileges away. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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SNY ad honors Keith Hernandez's mustache
Fans of Keith Hernandez—and, especially, fans of his mustache—will enjoy this new commercial from Ogilvy & Mather promoting the cable-sports network SNY, on which the former first-baseman is one of the announcers for New York Mets games. In the spot, Hernandez is signing autographs at a sports-gear store, and pretty much everyone in the place has donned a fake 'stache as a sign of respect, or something. If it seems extravagant to build a commercial around the guy's mustache, it's less elaborate than handing out 20,000 free fake mustaches to people who come to the ballpark—which, according to an old blog item on the SNY Web site, is what the network did a couple of years ago at Shea Stadium to celebrate the fact that Hernandez had won "Top Sports Mustache of All Time" honors from the American Mustache Institute. (In case you're not familiar with its work, the institute is dedicated to "protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached Americans by promoting the growth, care and culture of the mustache.") In the unlikely event that Keith ever shaves off his mustache, New Yorkers can mess with his mind by pretending that he never had one in the first place, thus recapitulating the premise of a weird French movie from a couple years ago called La Moustache. —Posted by Mark Dolliver |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Suburban moms hit streets in anti-drug ads
These new ads by Allen & Gerristen for the Partnership for a Drug Free America strive to empower parents to get the information they need to discuss drug use with their kids. The vignettes show what moms won't need to do: visit dealers and hang out in crack dens. (Where are the dads, tossing back a few at the local bar?) Actually, it's a reasonable strategy, but the execution is so odd, it muddles the message. Why portray the parents as bubble-headed suburbanites who can't identify crack even when they walk into a crack den? Actually, the teens in that spot look more like vampires than junkies, and the scene plays like a goofy outtake from Twilight. I know absurdity's the whole point here, but the "dealers" in the street-corner spot seem to be channeling Scott Baio's Chachi for their tough-guy/urban accents. I feel like I'm on drugs just watching it! |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Cheryl Hines' focus group for Vitaminwater
Cheryl Hines is one talented woman. Not only is she an accomplished star of stage and screen, she's a virtuoso when it comes to leading focus groups for Coca-Cola-owned non-carbonated beverages. This is gleaned from the video above, where she adroitly steers a Vitaminwater research session with a female consumer. Her inquiries about shirtless pilates instructors, in particular, reveal brand truths that would be inaccessible otherwise. The video was done on spec by marketing agency Ideocracy. And if Vitaminwater's not interested, maybe Hines has the makings of a sitcom character here. With the axe having fallen both on her show, ABC's In the Motherhood, and on TNT's ad drama Trust Me, the timing could be right. |
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Published on April 29, 2009 | Permalink
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The more musical way to order at Taco Bell
Rhett & Link, the musical comedy duo who worked on the Red House Furniture commercial below, have brought their Flight of the Conchords vibe to various other projects for brands like Alka-Seltzer, Baby Ruth, Starburst, Hummer and Cadillac. Above is their Taco Bell drive-thru song. The guys say they are "actively seeking to partner with agencies and brands to create high-quality branded content." Go here for more. |
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Published on April 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Furniture for black people and white people!
The people at Red House Furniture in High Point, N.C., care very deeply about race relations in this country, as their curious "Black and White Furniture" ad above illustrates. It comes across like they wanted to say something about race and only remembered halfway into it that they sell furniture. And the YouTube description of their video suggests they don't know what lit this particular fire under their feet, either. ("We thought something with a comical racial reconciliation theme would be fun, as well as a conversation starter.") But they're right—it clearly isn't a racist ad, and it does focus on inclusion. It just, you know, doesn't make any sense. UPDATE: Posted below is a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 29, 2009 | Permalink
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WongDoody improves penguins for zoo ads"We took a very simple, recognizable element, the penguin, and made it artful and unexpected. It's eye-catching for adults and children." So says WongDoody chairman and executive creative director Tracy Wong of his agency's "More colorful than ever" ads for an upcoming penguin exhibit at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Visually, the ads are imaginative and appealing, and perhaps they even evoke the sense of childlike wonder the shop says it was striving for. Still, they imply the birds' familiar monochrome color scheme wasn't quite up to snuff. And parents could be in for a long day at the zoo trying to explain that no matter what the posters suggest, penguins don't come in paisley. Except maybe in the gift shop. |
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Published on April 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Listen to the Big-Oil CEO on climate change
This anti-Big-Oil spot from environmental group Avaaz.org pushes all the right buttons and succeeds by being rather restrained and good-natured where others would go too far with the name-calling and hyperbole. The guy in the faux-oil-company commercial really does look like a smooth-talkin' corporate CEO as he reminisces about the good old days before the economic meltdown, when politicians followed the oil companies' lead and "we bought bigger and bigger corporate jets." Yet, he never seems crass and comes across as more self-serving than outright evil. He's a villain you can almost love, just like that real-life Sprint CEO who's been in his company's ads. Kidding. Consider: We should probably root for Mr. Phony Exec and his cronies to get their Learjets out of storage soon. When they do, that'll mean the recession's passed and we'll all be better off. |
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Published on April 29, 2009 | Permalink
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The greatest, most heroic shampoo ad ever
This commercial from Lowe Bangkok for Clear shampoo gets to the very heart of the age-old human-vs.-dandruff struggle: It's an epic, poetic, otherworldly battle between ice-arrow-wielding brunette warrior-hairs and freaky white exploding dandruff fairies. This is the kind of stuff that makes Gillette's space-age razor ads look folksy. If it's intentionally campy, it's great. If it's meant to be serious, it's even better. And just try to make sense of the voiceover: "From black into darkness, shadows see follicles bent and broke and slivers of sparks as dark and dandruff collide. Rage, rage against her breath of fear! Now frozen, silence marks the danse macabre. And into the dark, the icy blackness follows." |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Magazines are dying, and so are the readers
Vermont agency Kelliher Samets Volk has launched an online magazine, Nikoteen, to help the Vermont Department of Health skewer Big Tobacco's marketing practices. The site is designed to mimic youth-focused Web venues that deal with music, celebs, sports and horoscopes. For example, there's a fictitious review of the fictitious band Smoke N Mirrerz's fictitious CD Ashes to Ashes. It merited 5.5 cigarette butts, with a perfect 6.0 no doubt reserved for Bowie's original. There's also a poll asking which band member is hottest: the shy one, the dead one or one of two other disfigured ones. I'm not sure how this skewers tobacco ads, most of which use luxe/sexy imagery rather than faux-rockers to entice teens. In fact, since it's somewhat more entertaining and considerably edgier than actual youth/celeb sites, Nikoteen's intense focus on tobacco products tends to cast smoking in an oddly compelling light, albeit a negative one—but negative in a good way, like dangerous and cool. Besides, we all know that sweet, soothing haze rolling over the audience at the Smoke N Mirrerz shows isn't from cigarettes. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Q&A: Alex Bogusky on his return to Twitter
Alex Bogusky began using Twitter again last night after almost two months away. He spoke with Adweek's Brian Morrissey about his return. |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Will the mouse survive this pest-control ad?
DeVito/Verdi produced this Ehrlich Pest Control spot, which, according to press materials, began its life as a regular old unbranded personal YouTube video. Of course, that would only be novel if this were 2006. What's notable here is how effectively the clip creates palpable tension and makes its point using just a cute (to some) yet menacing (to others, like me) creature, a familiar tune and a payoff that doesn't suck—if only because many of us have played out this same frustrating scene in real life. The tagline, "Let us do it," refers to the extermination of rodents. I gladly will. Just make sure every one of those furry cheese-addicts is dead! As for the pro-vermin crowd that talks up useless catch-and-release traps and sonic deterrents that only give headaches to humans, I wonder if they'd find AdFreak's other recent rodent-related clip more ... palatable. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Canadian ads seek younger organ recyclers
Forget bottles and cans (and clapping your hands), the real cutting-edge area of recycling is organ donation. The Trillium Gift of Life Network of Ontario, Canada, has souped up its marketing efforts with an edgy new campaign to attract younger donors. It includes ads with a recycling symbol dripping with blood and fake sales fliers for internal organs. There's also an interactive Web site, RecycleMe.org, where a fit young person splays himself open like a Carcass album cover to give us a tour of his innards. There's something very dehumanizing about all this, which is perhaps the point, but the delivery risks overshadowing the message here. Plus, they're basing their visuals on the "spare parts bin" preconception about organ donation that dissuades people from donating in the first place. But at least there are no giant singing maggots, unlike some organ-donation campaigns were could name. And hell, if they want my corneas that badly, they can have 'em. I have keratoconus, so it's not like they're doing me any good. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Novak Djokovic irresistible in Head.com ad
Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, the world's third-ranked player behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, gets extremely loose in his first major outing for sports brand Head since the equipment and apparel company signed him in January. His nickname's Djoko, with a silent "D," and he's certainly more fun on camera than Federer, whose performance in that '70s-themed Gillette ad with Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter was as wooden as an antique racquet. In the Head spot, there's a cute set-up with Djoko going into the stands mid-point for some over-the-top flirtation with an attractive fan, and still having time to return his opponent's shot. The spot tries a bit too hard to be "outrageous" with nipple tassels and a recreation of a scene from Flashdance. Even so, it's extremely likable, and I didn't regret hanging in for the entire two minutes. If Head ever casts Anna Kournikova in a similar scenario, hopefully they'll keep the tassels. |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Old swine-flu PSAs will soon come in handy
If the U.S. government finds itself in need of some seriously awesome swine-flu-vaccine PSAs, they can just re-air these old fear-mongering spots made during the last big scare in 1976. They've got it all: frightening, echoey sound effects; hammy acting; cavalier attitudes followed by feverish hospital visits. In the second ad, there's even a casually mentioned old-person death. We won't get PSAs that are half as good this year. We will get lots of new-media communications, though. You can start off with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's swine-flu video podcast. |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Heineken chugs another walk-in fridge spot
TBWA\Neboko in Amsterdam had so much success with its recent Heineken spot with the walk-in fridge (the second ad down) that it's created this follow-up. One of the guys in the earlier spot was apparently so astonished by the beer room that he tries getting one installed in his own house. It doesn't work out as planned—confusing "walk-in fridge" and "walkin' fridge" is understandable. But his friends are still impressed. One can only imagine their reaction if he'd gotten a Walken fridge instead. |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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These 15 home-appliance ads never get old
These 15 great vintage appliance ads might as well be cave paintings now, but there's a timeless, neo-futuristic charm to post-war gadgetry that can't be ignored. It was also the only time in recorded history when people got excited about toasters. Also worth mentioning from the collection are the Kelvinator fridge that looks like an armoire, the Whirlpool automatic washer that looks like a stasis tank, and the Western Electric Picturephone that, come to think of it, still doesn't exist yet. What gives? I want one of those. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Qwest ads seduce penny-pinching Luddites
Draftfcb has launched some new ads for Qwest that tout the company's high-speed Internet service as both cheap and great for data protection. (Those two message are widely kept separate, as "cheap data protection" doesn't sound reassuring.) In one ad, a young woman explains she's working on a farm because she lost her thesis on "medieval cooking rituals" to a computer crash. Was she really going to get a better job with that major? The actress gives the best performance so far this year by someone pretending to stick his or her arm inside a cow. In another spot, a cost-cutting homemaker sucks up the dregs from a ketchup packet. Soon she'll move on to the hard stuff: mustard. Overall, the campaign implies that Qwest sees its potential customers as technologically inept cheapskates. I happen to fit that description, but since I don't appreciate companies pointing it out when they're soliciting my business, I'd probably go with Comcast instead. |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Pedroia defeats Goliath in new Dunkin' spot
American League MVP Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox enhances his performance with a turbo-shot-infused Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee in this spot by Hill, Holliday. The Biblical theme caught me off-guard. It's not like he plays for the Angels or the Padres. And given baseball's doping controversies, the idea of a batter ingesting anything to pump up his prowess seems risky. Maybe it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, or edgy. Still, it's great to see Mark McGwire getting some work as Goliath! I guess freakishly bulking up on steroids pays off after all. |
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Published on April 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Scrabble boards spring to life in Ogilvy adsMore French advertising: this time, some animated Scrabble ads from Ogilvy & Mather in Paris. Says the agency: "Picture a board of Scrabble at the end of a game: words that have nothing to do with each other are crossing and overlapping, to the point that they sometimes tell a crazy story! Our creative idea is to turn this fabulous potential into images." The animation is pretty impressive, though the ads probably overstate the level of excitement in a typical Scrabble game. And the music in these ads made me want to claw my eardrums out. |
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Published on April 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Gay storm clouds become darker and gayer
The National Organization for Marriage's "Gathering Storm" PSA, which we wrote about earlier this month, was morally reprehensible and about as genuine as a set of false teeth. But at about a minute long, at least it didn't waste too much of your time—which is more than we can say for Funny or Die's parody here, which sputters along for almost three minutes before it finally gets funny at the end. But that makes sense, since Funny or Die is owned by Will Ferrell's production company. Kudos to them for actually setting up a Giant Gay Repellent Umbrella Web page, though. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 24, 2009 | Permalink
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