Another ad filmed from the POV of a vagina

Commercials shot from the point of view of the vagina are becoming ever more popular. Last year, we had that Grey Amsterdam spot for GlaxoSmithKline's Lactacyd vaginal cream. Now, Cossette in Vancouver offers up this cinema spot titled "Eye of the Cervix" for the B.C. Cancer Agency and its Cervical Cancer Screening Program. At this rate the vagina will soon be a regular walking-and-talking character in commercials.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Canada, Cossette, Health, Nudd

Bouncy Mentos eaters guaranteed to irritate

Mentos used to make quirky commercials for its mints that everybody liked. What I mean is: The spots were popular. The candy, not so much. Now, to launch Mentos Gum in Canada, the company (with help from Cossette) is staging stunts everyone can hate. In Toronto and Montreal, kids and grownups dressed in what appear to be HazMat suits and rode big red bouncing balls down the streets. There was also break-dancing in paint. They're Canadians, so it's no use trying to fathom their frosty, black-bacon-fueled ways. When I was 5, I wanted a big red bounce-toy, but my parents wouldn't buy me one. "You'll just fall off and hurt yourself," they said. They were probably right. I was an uncoordinated little freak, but psychological scars are worse than skinned knees. Maybe Mentos is giving those bouncy things away as part of this promotion. Even if they sent me one, I'm too old to ride it now. In public, at least. Also: that Michael Mooney song in the spot super sucks, but man is it stuck in my head!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on May 8, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Canada, Cossette, Gianatasio, Gum, Mentos

Iconic ad campaigns drafted to fight hunger

Parodies of well-known ad campaigns, reworked with anti-hunger themes, will be popping up around NYC ahead of next Thursday's launch of Agencies in Action, a new non-profit designed to get local ad agencies involved in the city's social problems. See three full ads here. Apple's iPod silhouette morphs into a panhandler beneath the headline "iHungry." Nike's airborne Michael Jordan trades in its basketball for a place setting and the headline "Just feed them." Jordan's rich, but even his checkbook can't wipe out hunger en masse. That's why Cossette's Bill Oberlander founded the non-profit. Get involved at www.hungervolunteer.org.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Cossette, Gianatasio, Homelessness, Hunger, Parody

For an explosively fun time, it's Pizza Pops

Cossette in Toronto goes the self-consciously "outrageous" route in a quartet of commercials directed by Holiday Films' Scott Corbett. See all four ads here. "Pizza Pops are loaded" is the tagline. The foodstuff in question ends up splattered all over a robot head, monkeys in a research lab, a midget karate expert and a high-school mascot dressed as a deer. Now, if they had found a way to combine those elements into a single spot, then I'd be impressed. Check out the way that mascot leers suggestively at the high-school kid when he licks his arm. That's Canada, I guess: Anything goes! As for the robot: He had it coming for wanting to enslave all humans. Soon, kids will be asking their parents to buy Pizza Pops just so they can take them down to the playroom and make them "explode" using dad's ball-peen hammer. Sales of plastic slipcovers will skyrocket.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on January 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Cossette, Gianatasio, Pizza Pops

Have we seen this Molson Dry spot before?

Cossette's "Run" spot for Molson Dry is cinematic and memorable, but that doesn't necessarily make it a great commercial. It mixes ideas from Apple's epic "1984" (athletic chick smashing the image of Big Brother on a video screen) and American Gladiators (the rolling orb) with cliched Nike-style go-go enthusiasm and the visual elan of every big-budget sci-fi flick of the past 20 years. Actually, the ad looks spectacular, and I could forgive the borrowing if the payoff met my expectations. (I try to steal every other word in my AdFreak posts from David Sedaris. Even my first name—that's his!) Unfortunately, Molson's ultimate on-screen message is: "Become a party legend." It's a big anti-climax and doesn't motivate me, though I suppose for those who chug the suds every Saturday night, that call to action will suffice. Via Ads of the World (because everybody borrows).

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on November 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under Alcohol, Cossette, Gianatasio, Molson