Oil dinosaurs perish in Consol Energy's ads

Here's what I've learned about Pittsburgh from the ad campaigns sent to me by Steel City agency Brunner through the years. Almost everyone works in coal mines, so personal safety isn't highly prized. Drive-ins are the leading leisure-time activity, though patrons miss most of the movies because those kooky windshield sunscreens are all the rage. And now, judging by the new Brunner ad above for Consol Energy, a bunch of dying oil-derrick dinosaurs are roaming the Pennsylvania lowlands, spewing grit, grime and metal shards in all directions. (Either that or they're AT-AT refugees from the Snow Battle on Hoth.) At this rate, Pittsburgh will soon be a desolate wasteland (I mean, more than it already is) ... not unlike the burned and blasted landscapes in Brunner's apocalyptic Zippo lighter campaign! Stay out of Pittsburgh, people. For my next vacation, I'm going to Cleveland. Or maybe Copenhagen.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on May 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Brunner, Consol Energy, Energy, Gianatasio

Windshield shades bring you to the drive-in

Pittsburgh agency Brunner reinvents "screensavers" with this effort for the Twin Hi-Way Drive-In in Robinson Township, Pa., which uses car-windshield sunscreens as an ad medium. Putting ads on sunscreens isn't exactly an innovative concept, but this implementation is pretty cool. (See how they look in action here.) The life-size images of folks watching different types of movies were created for about $700 in production costs and feature friends of the agency and client. Movie-marquee-style copy invites patrons to "Take your emotions for a ride tonight." I assume the crying gals, and possibly the horrified guys, were stuck watching Adam Sandler's latest unfunny celluloid monstrosity, while the dude laughing so hard he spits his drink all over the windshield was not. A front-seat full of popcorn-throwing monkeys for a Planet of the Apes festival isn't part of the campaign, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. I like monkeys.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on April 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Brunner, Gianatasio

Zippo rules like Satan in garbage wasteland

Can print ads depicting a sooty, charred, burned-out wasteland sell lighters? In this campaign from Brunner, Zippo says yes! See the full version of this ad here, and another one here. Like the shop's past work for the brand, the new effort is eye-catching and memorable, but perhaps not in a good way. If Hieronymus Bosch (Google him, people) had been hired to come up with a fire-safety or anti-smoking campaign, these grimy, arid, almost apocalyptic visuals (note the devil's head on this Zippo) might have been the result. "Disposable. Just another word for garbage," it says at the bottom. The overall effect calls to mind (and nostril) the noxious stench of smoldering trash at the city dump. Ignited by Zippos, perhaps? No matter how you spin it, that stinks.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under Brunner, Gianatasio, Zippo

It's getting a little too hot in these hot tubs

Brunner's self-consciously retro ads for Willow Creek Hearth and Leisure put the company's hot tubs in a frisky '70s context. See the ads here. One poster shows a hairy, dripping, masculine chest (I think it's a dude's, but the '70s could be confusing) and the headline, "Because you can only fit one woman in a Porsche." Another ad features ample cleavage (almost certainly female, probably not "real") with the text, "Lowers sperm count to the average male range." If that's not naugh-tay enough, there's the poster above. The work is rendered in unsubtle period fonts, colors and grainy photocompositions. With that much action in the tub, I just pray the water's chlorinated.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on November 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Brunner, Gianatasio, Hot tubs

Zippo's banners too hot for neighboring ads

These Zippo banners by Brunner are hot. Ha-ha-ha! I don't get it. Anyway, Brunner created fake banners to place above Zippo lighters, and had the actors in them react to the heat of the flame below. See the ads in action here, here and here. A woman in one starts stripping—because sex sells, baby! Sorry, I just watched Mad Men, and I can't stop talking like that. Still, it fits, because Zippo would've been big in the early '60s. Did JFK light his cigars with one? Let's just say he did. The guys in two other Zippo banners keep their clothes on—because it's a man's world, baby! Sorry, I've been doing that all day. My officemates are so sick of it. Who cares—I'm on fire, baby! No, really, they just set my shoes on fire. Thanks for ruining my day, Zippo.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on September 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Brunner, Digital, Gianatasio, Zippo

Recruiting miners still a tough assignment

Brunner returns with a new recruitment campaign for Consol Energy, less than three months after they last tried to convince us that coal mining was a good career alternative. In our view, it’s the most dangerous job on or below the earth, and should only be attempted by robots. I’m starting to think client and agency agree, on a subconscious level, in light of their advertising. New posters—visually arresting, to give Brunner its due—show cityscapes powered by coal-based energy and illuminated in the helmet lamps of miners. (See the full ad here.) Above ground there’s an industrial plant, an amusement park, office buildings—all safer places to work than coal mines. It’s almost as if the miners are trapped underground, imagining a world they may never see again. Dude, take the job punching tickets at the Ferris wheel! Carnies get lots of chicks, free nachos at the concession stand and always have enough air to breathe.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Brunner, Consol Energy, Gianatasio

Enjoy a safe and fun career in coal mining

Ad shop Blattner Brunner tries hard, damn hard, to portray coal mining as an appealing career in this Web recruitment effort for Consol Energy of Pittsburgh. The cheery intro bids us to don our safety goggles and check out the rewarding opportunities mining has to offer. (Unlike the old General Electric clean-coal campaign, the miners here are fully clad.) There’s even a mining trivia arm-wrestling game. Maybe I’m a pampered wuss (like anyone doubted that), but I felt the walls closing in and started gasping for air as soon as I saw the foreboding landing-page visual: a dimly lit shaft-descent elevator—leading, no doubt, straight into the inky blackness of hell. What’s that Police song, “Canary in a Coal Mine”? What’s that Bee Gees song, “New York Mining Disaster”? What’s that Gordon Lightfoot song, “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”? (Mining’s not the only dangerous job, people.) Let’s just send robots into the mines. Oxygen’s not an issue for cybernetic servitors. And those metallic limbs make them formidable arm wrestlers.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on May 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Brunner, Consol Energy, Gianatasio

Case knives ad fudges the laws of nature

The opportunity to etch my passion into living oak (or hickory, whatever) has never presented itself. Sigh. Moving right along, here’s a new Blattner Brunner ad for W.R. Case & Sons handcrafted knives, which have been around “since 1889.” From the release: “The image’s simple visual poetry outweighed the fact that trees grow not from the bottom but from the top, and that bark stays at the same height, year after year.” So, trees grow from the top. You learn something new every day here at AdFreak. Nice of Blattner to pre-emptively justify breaking the laws of nature, too. Though I wonder ... have they conclusively ruled out that giants did this? They can be tall and romantic.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on April 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Brunner, Gianatasio

Clean-burning stoves for the incorrigible

"The wife says we've gone green. I think my daddy died of that." So says the crusty old woodsman spokescharacter in Blattner Brunner’s first print ads for Appalachian Stove. His other pithy bits of wisdom include: “I got a thank-you note from Greenpeace. It made for good kindling.” And then there’s this PG-13 execution. The work is designed to convey the clean-burning environmental benefits of the stoves to an independent-minded customer who cares little about pleasing others. The model for the ads, Pat Russell, lives in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, where, according to the agency, the winter population falls beneath 100—and temps dive well below zero. Makes me want to warm up my mocha latte in the microwave and salute Pat’s dedication to eco-political correctness. (God, I’m a pampered wuss.)

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Brunner, Gianatasio