People with disfigured faces really like Twix
Nothing communicates the carefree joy of candy quite like a disfigured face. AlmapBBDO in Brazil created this odd spot for Twix (posted below), in which a guy takes his girl out for a nice evening of shopping, cinema and karaoke, and they end up munching Twix on the beach. It's all happy-go-lucky, except you can't help but notice that the guy's face is all deformed and twisted to the side. In the end, it turns out he's "invented a pause," which explains everything. Except why anyone thought this was a good idea. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on December 21, 2009 | Permalink
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KISS-branded M&M's eager for your tongue
I was just thinking: Boy, I could sure go for some KISS-branded M&M's with the guy's faces on the candies right about now! It's like Mars read my mind, because now everybody's favorite aging, face-painted, over-marketed rock gods are available in M&M form—exclusively at Walmart, of course, the retail chain where rock goes to die. Speaking of death, the late Eric "The Fox" Carr doesn't seem to be included, so he escapes with his power-drumming dignity intact. Here's lead singer Paul Stanley's quote from the press release: "We couldn't resist the chance to be the first band to grace the iconic M&M's candies and continue to spread the KISS empire!" Clearly a manufactured PR quote, as we all know the word "iconic" isn't part of Paul's vocabulary. And I suspect this won't be the first time that some ardent KISS fans have popped the band members into their mouths. —Posted by David Gianatasio
Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Cadbury and Ghana celebrate Fairtrade pact
If you think the drumming gorilla or dancing-eyebrows kids got big heads from starring in Cadbury ads, check out the oversized star of "Zingolo," this new Cadbury video, shot in Ghana. The song is the first single off an album from the firm's Glass and a Half Full Productions celebrating African music and culture, while touting the U.K. confectioner's switch to Fairtrade cocoa. (Cadbury will pay a guaranteed minimum price for Ghanaian cocoa under a £45 million initiative over 10 years.) The song is infectious, and we'll assume Cadbury doesn't really use exploding, psychedelic cocoa beans in its chocolate bars (though it would explain why I feel high after a few bites). Best of all, there's no Phil Collins on the soundtrack. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
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Published on September 21, 2009 | Permalink
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Fruit-sex candy wrappers upset British man
Finally, a semi-legitimate marketing complaint out of the U.K., where British dad Simon Simpkins (really, that's his name) has strongly objected to the bawdy packaging of a German sour candy called Haribo Maoam. And he's right—the lemon and lime on one box, which Simpkins almost bought, look like they're doing it. As if this hot citrus love weren't hilarious enough, Simpkins tops it with what might be the funniest sentence ever spoken: "The lime, whom I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face." Good thing he didn't see the lime-cherry flavor. In fact, the lime guy seems to be on all the wrappers, hooking up with all sorts of fruit. "This jovial Maoam man is very popular with fans, both young and old," says a rep at Haribo. And he's probably not going anywhere. The packaging's been around since 2002. |
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Published on September 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Juicy, sexy cranberry rocks Raisinets' worldYou can't eat just one Raisinet, or watch just one of Nestlé's animated Webisodes touting the fruit-candy brand's cranberry line extension. In fact, you can watch two of them, because that's how many of the unabashedly goofy/trippy minute-long clips are currently available. Bitchy raisins (they look more like purple teeth or alien brains) razz a cranberry (who resembles a bloated tick) and say things like, "Oh, for fruit's sake!" A funky, Shaft-style song plays when the new berry arrives: "Who's the sassy fruit that's high on..." "Don't say that!" "But I'm talkin' 'bout energyyy. Cran's got it!" All of this takes place in a magical land of milk-chocolate swimming pools and waterfalls I thought existed only in my mind, or in Southern California. It's completely entertaining. I can hardly wait for the "Dance Off" in episode 4. Hurry up and post it, for fruit's sake! |
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Published on August 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Butterfinger is laughing with you, not at you
Nestlé's Butterfinger has found out something interesting about its young-adult target demo: that they love clever, irreverent humor! I had always thought that was universal, but what do I know? How does one market to people who like humor—besides, you know, the way the rest of the world does (i.e., by making funny commercials)? Well, the candy bar is sponsoring Yahoo!'s comedy network, has launched a humorous video contest (which needs more submissions), and now, through a deal with Levity Entertainment Group, is playing a three-minute Butterfinger sketch video before all shows at 28 Improv and Funny Bone clubs nationwide. So, they're appealing to people who like comedy by advertising in comedy clubs. It's so obvious, it might just be brilliant! Or maybe they're actually visiting the clubs to learn a little more about comedy themselves. Judging by the recent TV spot posted above, they could use a little help. |
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Published on August 14, 2009 | Permalink
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Fruit by the Foot combat often catastrophic
Man, do not cross the kid who can turn people's bones and DNA into Fruit by the Foot. That's on the level of Eric Cartman making someone eat his parents. Normally, I dump on commercials like this for their forced randomness, but in this case I can't, because I didn't know Fruit by the Foot still existed until I saw this ad. Touché, Gerry Graf and your team at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York. Touché. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on July 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Blue M&Ms could be very, very good for you
Back in 1995, M&M fans were asked to choose the candy's new color: pink, purple or blue. The electorate voted for blue, and it was apparently a wise choice. Researchers recently found that the blue food dye used in M&Ms (and other products such as Gatorade) might help treat spinal injuries. It worked on injured lab rats, who were able to walk again (and turned blue!) after an injection of the "Brilliant Blue G" compound. While any human treatment is likely years away, there's one group that's already benefiting from the discovery: the marketing folks at Mars. "Blue M&Ms" was the No. 1 trending topic Tuesday evening on Twitter as thousands of users shared the weird story. And really, this karma's been a long time coming for Mars, which once voluntarily shelved the red M&M for nine years due to a consumer freak-out over a red dye that the product didn't even use. With this latest news, it doesn't seem so weird after all that the Blue M&M wants to just sit around licking himself. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on July 29, 2009 | Permalink
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New Starburst spot has a few wee problems
Oh good, another dumb Starburst ad. I needed more of those in my life. At least this "Contradictions" spot, by TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York, tries to include the product somewhere in there. But I'm having trouble figuring out what's contradictory about a Scottish Korean. That's more of an odd pairing than a contradiction. The albino lifeguard is a better example. Though of course he might work at an indoor pool. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on July 17, 2009 | Permalink
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Mentos perfect for flappy-lipped beatboxing
This Mentos ad from BBH London suggests the brand has fallen on hard times. Those little mints used to get you out of any scrape imaginable. These days, all they can do is help you out-beatbox chavs at rural gas stations. You get hot chicks, too, sure. But until they make something that can return your lips to their normal state, it's still not worth it. |
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Published on July 16, 2009 | Permalink
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Skittles linked to premature aging and death
Here's the latest odd Skittles spot from TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. Forget about Skittles making you feel young and attractive this summer. Instead, they could cause you to lose your hair and your mind, and might actually kill you. There's also the question of why the guy would keep his precious candy hourglass out in the living room if it's so vital to his very existence. What, doesn't he have his own bedroom? —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on July 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Modern dancers interpret the art of Cadbury
The performing arts are taking a beating from advertising today. First, we had the Breathe Right nasal-strips guy who quietly snoozes through a pretentious theater performance. Now, we get this Cadbury Caramilk ad from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, in which the process of creating the candy bar is "revealed through modern dance"—which is another way of saying, revealed through a bunch of jiggling, costumed buffoonery. A commercial ridiculing an orchestra would round things out. |
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Published on June 8, 2009 | Permalink
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JWT builds giant doll for Aussie candy spot
Pediophobes (that's people who suffer from a fear of dolls) hopefully stayed well away from the April ad shoot in Brisbane, Australia, that produced this commercial from JWT Sydney for Allen's Confectionery. It shows a 30-foot-tall doll, created with help from animatronics expert John Cox (an Oscar winner for his work on Babe), delighting a crowd by blowing huge oblong candy bubbles that explode and rain down normal-size candy. There's a lengthy behind-the-scenes video here. The doll, at least in its stature, resembles a similar giant puppet created in 2006 by French theater company Royal de Luxe. That doll was more frightening-looking, like something out of a fairy tale. This one, dressed in pink with blonde pigtails and walking along to the nursery rhyme "This Old Man," is more baby-like, in keeping with the candy theme. |
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Published on June 4, 2009 | Permalink
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Ice Breakers may cause druggy nightmares
Stardust Studios animated this psychedelically cool "State of Mouth" Ice Breakers spot from ArnoldNYC that transforms a scruffy-looking poser into some kind of groovin' electric glacier god. At one point, he looks like an anime version of Mr. Freeze. Or a prospective member of Kiss who's way too cool for that band. Maybe he swallowed a couple of those, you know, wacky ice cubes instead of Ice Breakers. Too bad the brand's old ads with Hilary and Haylie Duff didn't end with icicles shooting through their eye sockets. Now, that would have been a trip! |
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Published on May 21, 2009 | Permalink
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Hershey builds its own factory of happiness
This Arnold spot for Hershey's Kisses apparently debuted a few weeks back. So, why did a local TV station just last night run the brand's "land of chocolate" animated commercial from last year? Anyway, this newer ad is an improvement, perhaps because it strongly channels Coke's "Happiness Factory" spot. Is it a rip-off, unintentionally similar or an homage? Did I even use the word "homage" correctly? Probably not, since I accidentally pronounced the "h" when I said it out loud. The Hershey's spot uses the "Hi-Ho Off to Work" song, which I never thought I could appreciate at all, but in its instrumental form here, it's better than that remake of "I'll Melt With You" from the '08 campaign. Come to think of it, one AdFreak commenter previously suggested that Hershey's "borrowed" Cadbury concepts on that earlier ad. What's next, a spot where a kid comes home to find an empty house and a note from his parents saying they've left because he hogged all the Hershey bars? |
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Published on April 8, 2009 | Permalink
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New Mars candy bar Fling plays hard to get
BBDO created this commercial for the U.S. launch of Mars' Fling candy bar. A guy and gal appear to get hot and bothered in a dressing-room stall, but all is not as it appears. This is supposed to illustrate the tagline: "Naughty, but not that naughty." Frankly, the spot's logical, but not that logical. At the end, the woman nibbles on the product and makes a "thinking-sexy-thoughts" face. Does the Fling bar turn chicks on? If so, shouldn't they market it to men? Then, a woman's sultry voice says the candy has "less than 85 calories per finger." Calling them "fingers" is weird, too. Are we supposed to wonder where they've been? I'd like to check out that groovy boutique, though, because they sure don't let the opposite sexes change right next to each other at Marshall's. Though you can find half-eaten chocolate bars in there sometimes. |
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Published on March 30, 2009 | Permalink
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New Skittles spot has tender, chewy middle
Skittles rebounds from the misstep of the tailor-shop spot with this new ad by TBWA\Chiat\Day New York for Crazy Cores Skittles. The candy has differently flavored insides and outsides, which the commercial dramatizes with a character named Steve, who's undergone a transplant and now has the insides of his hospital roommate, Jose. The two of them are now cosmically connected, mirroring each other's movements and sharing a tender moment at the end. "Transplant the rainbow. Taste the rainbow," says the line at the end. Directed by the masterful Randy Krallman. |
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Published on March 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Snickers finds a rival Web site unappetizing
Snickers has a fun new campaign out, "Snacklish," which our sister site BrandFreak wrote about earlier today. Trouble is, the microsite extension at Snickers.com is rather dull. That's too bad. Thankfully, when that happens, others will build the microsite your campaign deserves. The folks at Poke New York did just that last week with Snckrz.com, a make-your-own-logo site that caused a bit of buzz on Twitter and blogs. Users can create their own goofy "Snacklish" words in the style of the Snickers logo. (Yes, you can put in bad words.) Despite all the social-media gurus, ninjas and black belts telling us that customers own the brand, Mars hasn't gotten that Tweet: It politely informed Poke to take down the site or face the lawyer types. One nice touch: Poke embedded a Twitter feed of the Snckrz discussion on the Snckrz site with a countdown clock before it faded to black. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on March 11, 2009 | Permalink
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I do not find your brown bubbles appetizing
There's a problem with this "Feel the bubbles" spot by JWT London for candy bar Aero, and it has nothing to do with the controversy AgencySpy is reporting—that hard-core skaters are angry that the idea was lifted from some skateboarding film. No, as usual, the IQ-challenged, scabby-kneed kids (the skateboarders, not the AgencySpy folks) miss the bigger issue: all of the off-putting scatological references and imagery in the ad. Come on, a winding tunnel filled with brown bubbles? Please. Frankly, Nestlé, I don't wanna "feel" your bubbles. I'll stay out of the tub, thanks. I'll grab a Snickers instead. An immature interpretation on my part, you say? A stretch? Perhaps. Still, Adrants thinks the ad echoes the swimming-pool scene from Caddyshack. Let's be glad it's not for Baby Ruth. |
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Published on March 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Agency.com redeemed by its Skittles work?
Skittles took over Twitter yesterday. Discussion of Agency.com's extreme social makeover of Skittles.com swamped the service, with people posting profane messages to get on the brand's site and various social-media gurus, ninjas and black belts offering chin-stroking analysis of the effort. Is the site the breakthrough humankind has waited for? The stock market sadly didn't think so. Whether the stunt has any legs remains to be seen. In any case, when was the last time a consumer packaged-goods Web site got so much buzz? At some point, you have to hand it to the folks at Agency.com for having the guts to sell this idea through to Mars. The question, though, is whether this finally exorcises the ghosts of the infamous Subway pitch video, or if it just adds another black mark to Agency.com because it took an idea from Modernista! Vote below. Photo: Special on Flickr. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on March 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Agency.com pulls a Modernista! for Skittles
In the offline ad world, creatives are always quick to cry "rip-off." Pretty much everything strikes me as derivative of the Bible and Beowulf, but protecting the originality of "the idea" is hard-wired into ad culture. Does that translate into online? Agency.com has built a new site for Skittles that is pretty much a carbon copy of Modernista!'s much-lauded "un-site," which of course some claim is a rip-off of an earlier Zeus Jones site. The Skittles site is an interesting case study for a consumer goods company. Let's face it: Why would anyone go to a packaged-goods Web site? But nowadays, in social media, people are talking about all sorts of stuff. Agency.com gets that with a "chatter" link that pulls up the results of a "skittles" search on Twitter. It could be on to something. Does it really matter if Modernista or Zeus Jones got there first? —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on February 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Pink Smartie is better traveled than you are
While the rest of us curtail our travel in these uncertain times, the pink Smartie is racking up the miles by globetrotting in search of a mate. A lot happens to the lovelorn piece of candy in this 90-second spot. She goes snorkeling; visits Egypt, Brazil and Japan; watches fish, camels, birds, a pencil and a sharpener, salt and pepper shakers, a pair of dice and a nut and a bolt enjoy solid, meaningful relationships; falls for a soccer ball and a piece of sushi; and eventually tries online dating. None of which goes anywhere. She eventually settles for a guy she's known all along, who hopefully doesn't mind some credit-card debt. Agency: JWT London. |
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Published on February 17, 2009 | Permalink
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Cadbury returns with dancing-eyebrows ad
Here's "Eyebrows," the new British spot by Fallon for Cadbury. I'd like to say it matches or even surpasses the famous drumming gorilla, but it doesn't. I'd even go so far as to call it annoying. That said, I could easily be in the minority. British advertising mega-blog Scamp feels "the status of the industry you work in just went up a notch." I guess we'll just have to see if the official Cadbury Eyebrows page on Facebook (currently at 211 fans) can catch up to the Cadbury Drumming Gorilla Appreciation Society (population 4,123). —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on January 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Latest Skittles ad needs some adjustments
Here's the latest Skittles spot from TBWA\Chiat\Day, involving some unusual antics at a tailor shop. Not sure about this one—its weirdness seems a little forced, and the characters are a little flat. Also, Gerry Graf, who's been at Saatchi since the summer, is listed in the credits, so this one must have been sitting on a shelf for a while. |
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Published on January 14, 2009 | Permalink
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Eat this candy, not the plane-crash survivor
Back in April, we posted some Swedish Fish print ads from JWT with the tagline, "A friend you can eat." Here are three TV commercials from the same campaign. They try a little hard to be hip and offbeat, but the spot above, with the proverbial hungry plane-crash survivors on the snowy mountaintop, is amusing—perhaps the best cannibalism-themed ad since this skin-care one. In other cannibalism news, the Monday after Thanksgiving is probably as good a time as any to ask yourself: "How many cannibals could my body feed?" |
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Published on December 1, 2008 | Permalink
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