Australia celebrates brutal road-safety PSAsNo one does horrifying safe-driving PSAs quite like the Australians. And now, to celebrate 20 years of making people feel sad and sick in the name of the public good, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission (with help from Grey Melbourne) has put together this greatest-hits music-video montage of nasty, depressing and brutal clips from its most disturbing commercials. It starts off a little slow, but really picks up around the one-minute mark. Death, despair, blood, guts, tears—it's all here! Relive all your worst nightmares this Christmas as you sing along to R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts." And remember to drive safely out there. —Posted by Tim Nudd
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Published on December 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Responsible play doesn't include giant balls
"Playing is fun if you don't push it too far. … Excesses can ruin everything, even the most innocent and safe games." That's the message of this weird campaign from Grey in Milan, Italy, advocating responsible gambling. To illustrate the point, we get images of a giant cue ball, a huge rubber duck and hopscotch squares that stretch on forever. If these examples seem a bit ridiculous, and disconnected from the dangers posed by gambling, that may be because the advertiser here, Sisal, runs an immense gambling network in Italy. It's like a brewer exhorting its patrons to "Drink responsibly" (that's worked wonders so far) or Big Tobacco suggesting tobacco isn't addictive in small doses. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy some lottery tickets to redeem my damaged childhood! Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 6, 2009 | Permalink
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Grey breast-cancer ads have nothing to hide
In America, breast-cancer PSAs skirt the issue a bit—they're even liable to focus on butts rather than boobs. Not so in Europe, where they get straight to the point. For example: this new, very-NSFW campaign from Grey Amsterdam for Pink Ribbon magazine. This 30-second spot just shows a bunch of naked breasts, along with a voiceover's rhyme about each pair's journey through life together. The print ads also show naked women's torsos, along with handwritten text giving the breasts individual names and telling their story. (The print ads were shot by British photographer Rankin, who also worked on that bloody new U.K. anti-smoking spot.) This is par for the course at Grey Amsterdam, whose reel includes a commercial shot from the point of view of a vagina. None of this stuff would fly in the U.S., of course, where Rethink's not-very-shocking "Save the Boobs" campaign is branded "astonishing" for its use of "male lechery." Via Adland. —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Driving on drugs is fairly safe until you stopNew Zealand's road-safety ads have their floppy corpses and their bleeding billboards, but Australia has plenty of its own safe-driving shockvertising. Specifically, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission excels at grisly advisories. The gruesome spot above, by Grey Melbourne, cautioning against smoking dope and driving, is no exception. It even tricks you into letting your guard down right before the end. Not to nitpick, but the driver was right to let his sober wife take the wheel, even if he did pick a crappy place to pull over. His ultimately cruel destiny, which could happen to someone who's just tired, not high, seems a bit random for anti-impairment message. TAC can keep you from making boneheaded decisions, but they probably can't do much when fate is out to screw you. |
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Published on July 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Drift off anywhere with Breathe Right strips
Judging by this commercial from CBGrey in Paris, Breathe Right nasal strips are strong enough to prevent snoring no matter how dull your theatrical experience is. I really could have used one or two of those in 9th-grade biology, although wearing one to class might have been what poker players call a "tell" that I was going to fall asleep at some point. I'm assuming the ushers at this play would have caught that, too. Still, Breathe Right could market the differing strengths of its product by playwright—Neil Simon for light snorers, Brecht for moderate cases, and Chekhov for log sawing that could pulverize granite. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on June 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Ketel One targets manly men in first TV ads
Ketel One vodka, best known for its annoying, long-running "Dear Ketel One Drinker" print ads, has moved onto TV. Grey created these two spots, which are indicative of "a distinctive set of values in the vodka category," to hear Ketel One tell it. Really, what we're working with here is a dressier version of Coors' "Guys' Night Out" series. The ad above shows a bunch of guys in suits being all manly, with their vodka and no women, with a voiceover noting that there was a time when men didn't drink vodka from "delicately painted perfume bottles." Pretty sure they don't do that now, either. The ad below is better. The gentlemen in this rainy spot are actually chivalrous and let a couple of women take their cab home. If it's class they want, that's what will get them there, so they should can the "When men were men" shtick and double up on the social graces. Or dueling. Either way. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Sewers overflow in nasty French laxative ad
This Ratatouille-esque print ad for Dulcolax laxative, by CBGrey in Paris, shows a bunch of cartoon rats with comical terrified expressions on their furry faces. They're charging up from the sewer into the street in a panic. For a second, I didn't get it. Then, I did. Well ... ha. Look, if you need a laxative that's strong enough to overload a municipal sewer system, major dietary changes are in order. Most of us prefer gentle, overnight results from our laxatives. Oh, and the ad's called "Manhole." That might take you a second, too. Via AdverBox. |
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Published on May 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Birds, bees get it on in Danish sex-shop ads
The birds and the bees get kinky in Uncle Grey's sado-masochistic print ads for a sex boutique in Denmark called Lust. At first glance, these awesomely detailed illustrations seem plucked from an Audubon guidebook. On second glance, you find yourself asking ... OMG, WTF is that bee doing to that bird!? And WTF is right. The work is unsettling because we usually focus on the bucolic imagery and beauty of the natural world while ignoring its more rough-and-tumble aspects (real or exaggerated). Also, the anthropomorphic touches in the campaign remind us that human sexuality—even in its more deviant forms—is, ultimately, natural. Or to put it less analytically: That bird's enjoying it! I guess the Danes aren't such a melancholy bunch after all. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on May 6, 2009 | Permalink
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Use a condom, thwart that evil Hitler sperm
Do condom ads reflect the mind-sets of nations? In the U.S., we get faux-patriotism and soft-core porn, while the French have safe sex on the beach. Now, from Germany, comes a dour dose of angst via Grey in a campaign for Doc Morris Pharmacies. The message: Use a condom, and be sure you're not bringing the next Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong into the world. Of course, you'd have to sleep with one of those three to risk that—and I imagine most would abstain, especially in the case of Hitler, since he's been dead for almost 65 years. Or maybe the ads are just generally likening sperm to invaders and terrorists. The bad hairdos should be enough to frighten anyone away. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on April 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Unknown numbers can fetch untold millions
This mobile-phone commercial from Finland, by ad agency SEK & Grey, puts a lot of weight behind the company's caller ID service, noting that "an unknown number could be the most important of your life." It's a powerful and impressive statement, but a tad melodramatic. Most of the unknown numbers that call me are asking for money, not offering any. Still, having my phone company identify the number for me would be swell. That way, I'd at least know which collection agencies I was ignoring. |
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Published on March 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Eat eggs, and you'll be amazingly incredible
There's something both mystical and disgusting about eggs. They're smooth, seemingly perfect vessels of sustenance, until they crack, stink up the house and make your hands all wet and sticky. The latest ad campaign by the American Egg Board, from Grey in New York, is also a bit of a mess. It features Luke Myers, a 14-year-old world-champion plastic cup stacker. In terms of job skills, he's recession-proof—at any place in America that needs plastic cups stacked very quickly! Luke and the other endorsers deliver their pitches while sitting in a creepy, egg-shaped swivel chair that looks like a prop from a bad '70s sitcom. Yes, I want one. The work's about egg-lovin' "incredible people" doing "incredible things." There's a tie-in with Rachael Ray, who's having these people tell their "incredible stories" on her show. So, on the plus side, there's a chance Rachael will get egged. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on February 13, 2009 | Permalink
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The undead could use some decent therapy
These posters by Grey, advertising a medical center's psychological counseling services, are pretty cool and disturbing. They might actually some viewers to need psychological counseling, so they work doubly hard for the client. The tagline, "Look inside yourself," is interpreted in creepily literal fashion in two iterations. One shows "Simon," the another "Roxana." Maybe they're different sides of the same twisted psyche? Actually, they appear to be more possessed—or dead—than disturbed, more in need of an exorcist or a mortician than a therapist. (That's also true of rocker-turned-insurance-ad-superstar Iggy Pop, who looks positively corpselike these days, and can do probably do that same gross trick with his eyes.) These ads are from the goth capital of the world, Romania, land of vampires and Whopper Virgins. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on January 29, 2009 | Permalink
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E*Trade's talking baby is ready to rise again
Waaaa! That's not the sound of E*Trade's talking baby crying from hunger or diaper rash. (It's a talking baby, after all, so it could simply say, "Jeez, am I hungry!" or "Ow, this diaper rash is a pain in the ass!") That's me crying, because the insufferable brat is back in another Super Bowl spot by Grey. I know these ads are popular, but I can feel my brain cells dying each time that stock-savvy cherub pops onto the screen. This year, the crib-based assault is spilling over like a bottle of formula into Facebook, Twitter and online videos. Waaaa! That's the sound of everyone who's tired of this cutesy, lowest-common-denominator approach and longs for something better—like another spot from GoDaddy, which is high-concept by comparison. It's also, alas, the wail of countless investors, from E*Trade and elsewhere, who are seeking a few hours of escape by watching the Big Game only to be faced once more by that precocious preschooler looking to pick our pockets as the market continues to slide. Waaaaa! —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on January 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Finally, an ad told from the POV of a vagina!
Random thoughts about this commercial for GlaxoSmithKline's Lactacyd vaginal cream, shot from the point of view of a vagina: 1) It must be Dutch. Ah, of course it is. It's from Grey Amsterdam (done by a female creative duo, by the way, one of whom calls the ad "unapologetic and unashamedly confident and energetic"). 2) The model must've been pretty sore after the shoot. Luckily, there were product samples around. 3) It's just a matter of time before the "lost footage" surfaces on YouTube. 4) This is a camera gag Letterman could use to freshen up his show, but we might have to wait until Sarah Silverman gets a late-night gig first. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on January 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Pay attention to my rich and buttery locks
So, uh, boobs. There sure are some boobs in this Pantene ad from MatosGrey in Brazil. Is there a, y'know, point to throwing those in our face? Maybe this next ad will ... nope, still boobs. Oh, I see. The tiny, barely readable circle of copy near the model's right ear reads, "Make sure your hair is the second thing he looks at." These ads were clearly written by men. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on October 3, 2008 | Permalink
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