Tarantino's Softbank ad is hilarious, baffling
We recently mentioned that Quentin Tarantino was shooting a commercial for Japan's Softbank. Well, here's the finished product. It's both mystifying and awesome at the same time. Not that it will help, but here's some background on the campaign, from Julie in Japan: In the ads, the father is a white dog, the mother is a Japanese woman, the daughter is a famous Japanese pop star and the brother is an African-American man. The ads are funny because the father is really strict but he's a dog, so he's adorable. The family doesn't make any sense to look at, but they act like a regular, typical Japanese family and that's why it's funny. And here's a loose translation of the dialogue from a CNet reader: It starts with the older woman asking the dog if he's going to a town called Tosa. The dog says yes. Then, the younger woman asks if Tarantino is going along, whereupon he declares "I am Tara!" At that point, in the long version, Tarantino does his samurai impression "Hai-ya! Samurai spirit!! Get him with the samurai sword! Ho-ha!" etc. The dog says "I'm determined to go to Tosa!" The older woman tells Tara to calm down, and he says "Yes". Then, the phone rings, the younger woman says "It's the phone", and the older woman says "It's your wife." Tara gasps. The wife asks for Tara, he responds with another "I am Tara!", then she yells "Get home right now!" For a more straightforward set of celebrity Softbank ads, check out Brad Pitt's work for the company. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on December 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Alaska Air chases the gold with Apolo Ohno
"Stewardess, there's something outside the plane! It could be a gremlin, but it sort of looks like Dancing With the Stars winner and champion speed skater Apolo Ohno!" WongDoody's "Follow Apolo" campaign for Alaska Airlines features a plane wrapped in Ohno's image, billboards, banner ads and a Web site, as the carrier sponsors the skater's quest for Olympic gold this winter. They should work Bill Shatner into this. His histrionic yet credible Twilight Zone freakout over a destructive creature on an airplane wing is legendary. It'd be sweet to watch the big ham chew the scenery and hyper-annunciate lines like, "Good Lord! It's ... Apolo ... Oh-NO!" —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Paris Hilton's photo touts 'vacant' billboards
Paris Hilton is upset enough about her image being used to advertise vacant billboard space in New Zealand that she's considering legal action. Her lawyers say Wellington-based billboard company Media5 had no permission to use the photo on the unsold board. Media5 is semi-apologetic, noting that they chose Paris because "she has a proven ability to laugh at herself." So much for that. If it helps them any, we're certainly laughing. |
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Published on November 11, 2009 | Permalink
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A coffee maker saves George Clooney's lifeGeorge Clooney and John Malkovich star in this new McCann Paris ad, directed by Robert Rodriguez, for Nestlé's Nespresso. Clooney gets demolished by a falling piano, but Malkovich, at the pearly gates, gives him a second chance at life in exchange for his Nespresso coffee maker. Clooney once insisted he wouldn't do just any old commercial, but this spot isn't even as good as Spike Jonze's Softbank spots with Brad Pitt. Via Animal. —Posted by Tim Nudd
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Published on November 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Nicolas Sarkozy, child star of a detergent ad
Much like two of his wives, it turns out French president Nicolas Sarkozy is a former model. He's shown here in a Bonux detergent ad, which has just surfaced. The ad is from 1967. Sarkozy was 12 then, but it's assumed the photograph was taken well before publication. Bonux was apparently the Cracker Jacks of detergents, so it made sense to put a child in the ads. Sarkozy's father, Pal Sarkozy de Nagy Bocsa, worked as an illustrator for Bonux at the time. His side gig was making young Nicolas feel like a complete loser. But while a bit embarrassing for the president, this glimpse into his past suggests future work for him once he leaves office. He could recreate that very picture as an adult for Airbus. —Posted by David Kiefaber Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 3, 2009 | Permalink
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DirecTV uses only living people in new spot
The DirecTV commercial with Chris Farley (for which David Spade was reportedly paid $200,000) seems to have disappeared from the airwaves, and has been replaced by the Wayne's World 2 spot above with Dana Carvey and Kim Basinger, neither of whom perished years ago from drug abuse. I wouldn't classify this as a famous movie scene. Garth was always an annoying, second-rate character. Still, Basinger is pretty captivating, and overall it's an improvement over the Tommy Boy fiasco. Some people are hard to please, though—like Matthew Kelley, who says he finds the Basinger/Carvey ad "offensive because both their careers are dead." —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Vodafone recommends stalking Eva Mendes
The nerdy narrative thrust of this 60-second Vodafone spot from Argentina by ad agency Santo is impressive, as is the payoff, which rings so true. What would any of us say to celebrities if we got them on the phone? I'd tell Derek Jeter he's a god (go Yanks!) and advise Bono to lose the sunglasses and accent (it's an obvious fake). I'd warn Jay, Dave and Conan to stop stealing my best AdFreak material and hit them up for jobs. As for Eva Mendes, well, I'd congratulate her on her most recent film, praise her performance, tell her she's the hottest actress around and close with, "It was a pleasure speaking to you, Ms. Longoria." Via Ads of the World. Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Sir Roger hypes his Majesty's postal service
Sir Roger Moore, who at 82 is not yet a Halloween costume, stars in this new ad by Mother for the British post office. Moore, who played James Bond in the 1970s and early '80s, was chosen for the job because he embodies the "sophisticated and respected" image the post office wants to project. The spot is amusing enough, though one writer at the Guardian calls it "desperately, heartwrenchingly sad" that Sir Roger is giving Sean Connery fans another reason to feel that Connery is superior. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Heather Graham is hot, limber public option
Let's break down MoveOn's "Track Meet" commercial. Healthcare providers and insurance companies: bloated, bad. Public option, personified by Heather Graham: limber, good. Healthcare competition: good, because it would give consumers more choice, drive down rates and keep MoveOn from producing more ads. Heather Graham's acting career: fading fast. Apple pie: tastes good, but while quintessentially American, no healthier than the greasy fast food eaten by the people representing the insurance companies in this commercial. (That said, it'd be dumb to say, "Competition is as American as salad.") Peter Coyote's voiceover: authoritative but kinda preachy. Sounds annoyingly like Sam Waterston in the TD Ameritrade ads. TD Ameritrade: I dunno ... bad? Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Vanilla Ice reprises 'Ice Ice Baby' for beer ad
Yes, it's 2009, and ad agencies are still asking Vanilla Ice to perform "Ice Ice Baby" for TV ads. This one's from Ogilvy South Africa, and it promotes Castle Lite beer's new thermocromatic-ink labels, which appear blue when the brew is extra cold. Ice himself could use a freshness-dating label. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 20, 2009 | Permalink
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Billy Mays sells Chipotlaway from the graveInfomercial king Billy Mays, who died in June, was the star of Wednesday night's dead-celebrities episode of South Park. (After learning that Mays' soul is not at rest, Cartman vows to help.) In the clip above—a tribute to the man's ability to literally sell anything—Mays pitches a product called Chipotlaway (pronounced "Chipotle Away"), a laundry spray designed to get the blood stains out of your underwear after you eat Chipotle. Genius. Via YesButNoButYes. UPDATE: The Live Feed has posted Chipotle's response to the episode: "Being spoofed on South Park certainly says something about our popularity with that audience, but we didn’t have anything to do with the content. Some people will find it funny, others will not. But ultimately, being part of the pop culture conversation is probably a good thing." —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Levi Johnston hawks pistachios in ad debut
Literally anyone who achieves a certain level of notoriety in this country has a shot at getting an endorsement deal. The latest example: the ad above for Paramount Farms' so-called Wonderful Pistachios, starring Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Bristol Palin and the father of her child. You know it's a mercenary deal when the company ridicules the spokeman in the press release. ("Hold on to your daughters," says the e-mailed pitch. "Palin 'Baby-Daddy' Levi Johnson [sic] is making his television commercial debut today as part of Wonderful Pistachio's [sic] 'Get Crackin' campaign.") The ad says Johnston "does it with protection," which doesn't make much sense until you see other spots from the campaign, with various D-listers showing how they crack open pistachios. The spot with Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry is posted below. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 5, 2009 | Permalink
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Retailer's ad stars Hitler-James Dean hybrid
Adolf Hitler and James Dean were both resurrected for ads recently—Hitler for that racy AIDS-awareness campaign from Germany, Dean for a South African insurance spot. But now, thanks to facial-morphing technology, they've combined their talents and become a single evil, rebellious pitchman in this ad (also from South Africa) for entertainment retailer CNA Stores. The idea is that CNA stocks a wide selection of products—you can get a book about Hitler and a movie with Dean in one trip. Check out four other ads from the series here, featuring fused versions of John Lennon and Albert Einstein; Prince Charles and Buddy Holly; Queen Elizabeth II and Mother Teresa; and Bill Gates and Elvis Presley. Advertolog credits the work to ad agency Jupiter Drawing Room (Jhb), which should be getting outraged calls any minute, if past reaction to Hitler-themed ads is any indication. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Karina Smirnoff dancing exotically for PETAPETA has gotten Karina Smirnoff of Dancing With the Stars fame to strip down for its latest naked-celebrity ad. See the full ad here. The 31-year-old Russian beauty, who is a reformed fur wearer, follows in the naked footsteps of another DWTS alum, Steve-O, who struck this exuberant PETA pose back in 2007. (Hopefully Tom DeLay won't get any ideas.) Smirnoff says: "You have a choice as an individual ... whether to make a statement that you do support killing animals or make a statement when you don't. And you can still be as chic as you can possibly want to be." —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Serena's bad temper will star in Tampax ads
Serena Williams needn't worry about losing endorsement deals after threatening to force-feed a tennis ball to a lineswoman at the U.S. Open. Procter & Gamble just signed her up for a brand-new Tampax campaign. According to the press release, "Williams will be featured in a series of playful, lighthearted advertisements and online videos. In each piece, Williams defeats Tampax's Mother Nature character, who tries to deliver her 'monthly gift' in an unsuccessful attempt to throw Williams off her game—on and off the tennis court." She doesn't defeat Mother Nature so much as fire tennis balls at her, which is more believable now than it might have been a month ago. This deal was clearly in the works before the Open, and Serena's actions actually suit Tampax's ad themes of empowerment fairly well. The campaign is part of the brand's larger commitment to celebrating women who "live life on their own terms every day." |
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Published on September 22, 2009 | Permalink
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James Dean grows old in new financial spot
South African agency King James resurrects James Dean (with the help of an actor who trained for months and wore heaps of prosthetics and was always filmed in soft focus without close-ups) in this spot for financial-services company Allan Gray. The ad considers what Dean would have done if he'd been "given more time," a worthy question that unfortunately ties back only tenuously to the services Allan Gray provides. The agency pulled out all the stops, even using a replica 550 RSK Porsche Spyder, one of only two available, to shoot the accident scene. Still, any speculation on Dean's life that doesn't see him in rehab for something is idle fantasy. |
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Published on September 17, 2009 | Permalink
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Serena outburst foreshadowed in her promo
Lots of top tennis players filmed ads this summer for the U.S. Open Series under the tagline, "It must be love." But of course, Serena Williams had to turn the feel-good theme around and make her 30-second clip all about fighting! Watch as the little Serena doll not only brandishes her racket at the Venus doll but actually beats her down with it. Look for a linesperson doll and a PG-13 rating for next year's clip. |
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Published on September 14, 2009 | Permalink
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Practically anyone can endorse Burger King
Burger King's new campaign from Crispin Porter + Bogusky is a goofy bit of meta marketing in which celebrity endorser Tony Stewart, the Nascar driver, explores the nature and reliability of celebrity endorsements. In the spot above, he gives Carrot Top and Erik Estrada tips at the Tony Stewart School of Endorsements. You come away from it mostly wondering what the hell happened to Carrot Top. It looks like he's been flavoring his coffee with the same poison that ravaged that Ukrainian guy. The spot below suggests that Stewart decided to endorse the Whopper rather than a contraption called the Sockmaster 2000. Both ads imply, somewhat comically, that Stewart himself—adviser to D-listers, would-be sock steamer—is pretty lame as celebrity endorsers go. Still, it should be fun on Oct. 20, when Stewart will submit to a live polygraph, broadcast online, that will determine once and for all whether he does actually like the Whopper. |
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Published on September 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Playmates give Hefner a 'Guitar Hero' show
Here's the new Guitar Hero 5 spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, in which 10 Playmates put on an air-guitar show for Hugh Hefner in the Playboy Mansion. "What? I like variety," Hef says at the end. Actually, the campaign could use more variety. This is the fifth spot in the Risky Business series. See the earlier ones here, with Heidi Klum, the pro athletes (A-Rod, Phelps, Bryant, Tony Hawk), the college-basketball coaches (Knight, Pitino, Williams, Krzyzewski) and the guys from Metallica. For the next spot, maybe let Pitino into the Playboy Mansion and see what happens. |
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Published on September 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Naomi Campbell falls off the anti-fur wagon
Fifteen years after starring with four other supermodels in a high-profile anti-fur ad for PETA (posted below), Naomi Campbell apparently can resist the stuff no longer. The 39-year-old is the star of a new campaign for designer Dennis Basso, in which she is seen lounging around in a series of coats made from Russian sable. Heather Mills is among the hordes calling Campbell a hypocrite, but Campbell, true to form, doesn't seem to care much what other people think. "As for that Heather whatshername saying she'd written to me to complain about me wearing fur and I'd never replied, I never received a letter, nothing," she says.
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Published on September 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Step inside Britney's head in new VMA spot
Things are looking up for British bad boy Russell Brand. Last year, Britney Spears couldn't even remember his last name when they were promoting the MTV Video Music Awards together. Now, according to the new promo above, she's holding out for a personal invite from Brand, who's hosting the show for the second consecutive year. And while Britney seems strangely shy about showing her face, she doesn't seem to hide much else—namely, her truly atrocious acting abilities. |
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Published on August 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Brad Pitt serves a sumo in Softbank's spots
In the grand tradition of Americans doing wacky Asian ads, Brad Pitt is back with a few more commercials for Japan's Softbank. In the new spots, directed by Spike Jonze, Pitt plays a personal assistant to sumo champ Musashimaru. The tagline is, "Serving you in any way necessary," which in Pitt's case involves Pitt feeding sushi to the 520-pound Samoan (in the ad above) and daintily carrying him when his shoe breaks (in the ad below). In reality, Softbank's slogan is quite literal. It's is a diversified corporation that owns a financial-services company and the Fukuoka Hawks baseball team, and is the official carrier for the Japanese iPhone 3G. Clearly, they have enough money to hire Western talent (including, previously, Wes Anderson) to wipe the mouths of their yokozuna when the moment arises. |
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Published on August 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Noted TV-set killer Alice Cooper sells Sonys
Alice Cooper looks about 80 years old in this new Sony spot from TBWA, airing in the U.K. His roadie "Lloyd," who disturbingly bares his butt-crack at one point, looks even older. That's all part of the joke in this likable, Spinal Tap-inspired ad directed by George Hickenlooper of Epoch Films. It touts a Sony initiative designed to convince people to trade in their old televisions to get money toward new Bravias. Alice discusses his penchant for tossing TVs out of hotel-room windows, noting that it was easier to do in the '80s because "they bolt them to the wall now." He adds: "I once threw out my own TV. I thought I was in a hotel room." If Alice shows up at a Motel 6 trying to take advantage of that rockers-stay-free promo, they'd be well advised to turn on the "No Vacancy" sign. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on August 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Brett Favre can't even decide on a television
Passing for a whopping 4 yards, Brett Favre didn't give fans much to talk about during his Friday debut with the Minnesota Vikings. But if there's one thing that has kept people buzzing, it's the Sears commercial above, which made its own debut this weekend. It's a great example of dry wit and an understated celebrity cameo (i.e., no one yelling "Hey, look, it's veteran quarterback Brett Favre, who agonized for more than a year about whether to return to the NFL!"). The spot gets bonus points for being entertaining while still explaining the benefits of Sears' real-time price-check service. Now I can feel confident that I'm getting the absolute best price on that baby-grilling body-part roaster. —Posted by David Griner See also: |
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Published on August 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Thomas Pynchon narrates 'Inherent Vice' ad
There's nothing special about this video trailer for the new Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice, except that it's narrated by the author himself, one of the world's most famously reclusive writers. The Wall Street Journal took the clip to a voice expert, who said he was pretty certain it was Pynchon after comparing the vocal timbre and delivery to Pynchon's voice as captured during his two guest appearances on The Simpsons in 2004 (his first and, until now, his only public appearances of any kind in 40 years). Faced with the WSJ's findings, a reluctant Penguin Press has admitted it is, in fact, Pynchon doing the trailer's narration. The news caps a busy week for Pynchon fans. The novel (the author's seventh) came out last Tuesday. And this week, coincidentally, it was revealed that a short New Yorker piece about Pynchon from 1996, which suggested that he once palled around with a rock band called Lotion, was a hoax. Via AgencySpy. |
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Published on August 13, 2009 | Permalink
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