Aardman animates series of quirky E.D. ads

Finally, some halfway-decent erectile-dysfunction advertising. Over in the U.K., Levitra marketer Bayer Schering Pharma has unveiled nine animated shorts from Aardman Animations (and Prospero London) that tell the tale of "one man's journey from droop to Don Juan." Parts 1 and 8 are posted here. Here are all nine episodes. (The last one is a bit randy—the kind of thing Marge Simpson might appreciate.) The series, featuring a quiet, introspective E.D. sufferer named Dennis and his long-suffering yet sympathetic wife, has that über-British self-effacing tone of Aardman's Wallace & Gromit cartoons. "My life started getting a little, shall we say, tricky a while ago," Dennis explains on the YouTube site. "Activities in the bedroom became, you know, increasingly limited. No naughty business as it were. Not that I didn't want it, I just couldn't. It got me down, but now I'm back to my fine, upstanding self and you can see how in these videos. This is my story. Maybe it will even strike a chord with you." It sure beats U.S. E.D. advertising like the ads with the Whiskey Dicks and the dude who talks to his reflection on the way to the doctor.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Aardman, Bayer Schering Pharma, E.D., Europe, Pharma, Prospero

See the darker side of Aardman Animations

If you thought Aardman Animations was only good at cute and cuddly, this new YouTube channel from the British animators behind Wallace & Gromit shows that its dark side can be just as entertaining. See the trailer for the channel here. The animation styles vary, and while the shorts definitely have a surreal sensibility, they are far from sick and twisted. "Stuff vs Stuff" pits household items against each other; "Pib and Pog" is a parody of children's programming; and "The Adventures of Jeffrey" stars an always-bare Australian. If you prefer Aardman's classics, the company also has its regular YouTube channel. But judging by the fan comments, though, the darker stuff is going over particularly well. Maybe before long we'll get to see Wallace & Gromit Go Postal.

—Posted by Eleftheria Parpis

Published on December 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Aardman, Parpis

It's a chocolate world, man, can you dig?

What's with the sudden mania for trippy food ads? I was just coming down from that Friendly's commercial when Hershey blows my mind with it’s “Pure Hershey’s” campaign. How “pure” is your chocolate, Hershey? How pure is this rock, man? Sorry, I was watching an old Starsky & Hutch. Arnold teamed with Aardman Animations, the Wallace & Gromit people, to craft the ad, which is way more visually dynamic than Friendly’s “Ice Cream World”—sort of like comparing upscale Cartoon Network fare to campy ’70s Saturday morning TV. We journey inside a Hershey’s bar that melts into scenes of a young couple tooling around in a chocolate convertible with candy bunnies hopping in pursuit. One complaint: the soundtrack is a wimpy remake of the Modern English song “I Melt With You.” Turn down the sound on the ad and watch it with the original by cranked up high. Now that’s a trip.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on August 1, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (6)
Filed under Aardman, Arnold, Candy, Gianatasio, Hershey

Aardman animates round of disability PSAs

Unlike Orangina’s randy animals, the creatures in Aardman Animations’ new PSA campaign refrain from spraying sticky juice all over each other. Instead, they give brief, charming interviews about overcoming their disabilities. The campaign, “Creature Discomforts,” is a sequel of sorts to Aardman’s breakthrough 1989 short film Creature Comforts, which featured animals talking about living in a zoo. (Aardman later produced a popular TV series of the same name in Britain and America). The company, of course, also went on to do the Wallace & Gromit shorts and feature film.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on November 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Aardman

Johnnie Walker gets into art history

Jonathan Glazer’s 1999 “Surfer” spot for Guinness, inspired by Walter Crane’s painting Neptune’s Horses, may be the most accomplished example of an ad that brings a piece of fine art to life. A new 60-second Johnnie Walker spot from Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Aardman Animations does pretty well, too. The spot’s central character begins as one of the warriors in Delacroix’s The Battle of Taillebourg and proceeds to travel through works by Seurat, Miro, Magritte and Hokusai.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on November 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (64)
Filed under Aardman

Aardman studios go up in flames

Sad news this morning: A fire in Bristol, England, has destroyed the studios of Aardman Animations, makers of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run. The news reports have focused on the movie sets and props that were lost—it sounds like everything but the materials from the latest film. Aardman, of course, has been involved in numerous commercials as well, creating, among other ad stars, the Serta sheep and the Chevron cars.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Aardman

The real curse of the underground mutton

We read this morning that the great posters for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (tagline: “Something wicked this way hops”) are not welcome in one small England town due to local superstitions there. It’s an unwritten rule on the island town of Portland in Dorset that no one use the word rabbit, as the animals have been known since olden times to cause landslides in area quarries with their burrowing. Instead, the people call them “underground mutton” or “furry things.” (Back in the day, if a rabbit were spotted near a quarry, the quarryman would pack up and go home.) The only poster allowed in the area was placed just off the island and reads, “Something bunny is going on.” Aardman Animations is also removing the offending word from ads in neighboring towns.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Aardman

The bright side of movie posters

We were just talking a few days ago about the blandness of today’s movie posters. Of course, there are exceptions, like this cool poster for Warner Bros.’ Everything Is Illuminated. And our movie tagline of the week goes to Aardman Animations’ and DreamWorks’ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit : “Something wicked this way hops.” The poster is nice, too, and the movie’s Web site has plenty of diversions, although we stopped short of joining the Gromit Fan Club.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on September 15, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Aardman