For an extreme holiday, come visit Dagobah
Did your plans for a summer cruise on Alderaan get blown to hell? Then it's time to consider a pulse-pounding week on Dagobah, the secluded swampy getaway that's guaranteed to muddy your boots and clear your mind. This marketing video from the Dagobah Tourism Bureau (aka writer and filmmaker Andrew Zilch) will make you want to ditch your friends and enjoy some quality quagmire time. So, if you've been looking for a place with low ceilings, disgusting food and annoying retirees, but you're tired of Florida, come watch the days go by on Dagobah. Hat tip to my brother-in-law, via Topless Robot. |
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Published on November 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Are home-security TV ads just 'rape fables'?
When it comes to gratuitous fear-mongering, it's hard to beat the litany of TV ads from Brinks Home Security, now operating under the name Broadview Security. So, it was nice to see these melodramatic doses of suburban paranoia getting a proper beatdown from America's funniest feminist, Sarah Haskins. In the newest installment of her Current TV series about marketing clichés (pardon Current's 30-second pre-roll ad), Haskins walks us through the many "rape fables" told in Broadview's ads, which inevitably include a guy kicking in a door with all the cat-burglar finesse of Hacksaw Jim Duggan. In fairness, I should note that the front door is indeed the most common point of entry for a burglar, and a security system is a good way to deter break-ins. In fact, the Washington Post reports that homes without security systems are three times more likely to be burglarized. But unless you're living in some Wes Craven version of reality, your biggest threat is not a skulking psychopath. "The typical house burglar is a male teenager who lives within a couple miles of your home," says the Post, which also notes that "burglars search for homes that appear to be unoccupied." So, if you're going to get an alarm, get it because neighborhood kids might swipe your iPod, not because the outside world is a waking nightmare of rampaging sexual predators. —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 17, 2009 | Permalink
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'Assassin's Creed' ads give cold, dead stare
To promote Assassin's Creed 2, video-game developer Ubisoft is running some of the most enigmatic and compelling pre-roll ads I've ever seen. OK, so they're actually the only enigmatic and compelling pre-roll ads I've ever seen. The 15-second spots, from agency Cutwater, feature little more than dead stares and the game's Web address. You can watch them all here. Sure, there's a lengthier version, complete with contract-killing hero and some slick gameplay footage. But I really prefer the pre-rolls spots, which operate under the premise that "gamers get it." For more from this campaign, check out Adland's writeup, too. —Posted by David Griner
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Published on November 12, 2009 | Permalink
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BMW goes balls-out for 5 Series teaser spot
This teaser spot for BMW's redesigned 5 Series is subtle, beautiful and surprisingly shot right in the automaker's own museum without CGI trickery. It was created using the BMW Museum's kinetic sculpture installation in Munich, an exhibit designed by Berlin agency Art + Com and awarded best of show at the One Show Design awards earlier this year. To see more than just a silhouette of the new sedan, you'll need to wait until Nov. 23, when BMW will broadcast the unveiling live on BMW.tv. —Posted by David Griner
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Published on November 11, 2009 | Permalink
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The 'ridiculous charade' of recording an ad
Few people suffer under the heavy egotistical load of the ad industry quite like the sound engineers who record audio for commercials. They're micromanaged by everyone from the client to the junior copywriter, so it's nice to see them get their revenge in this anonymously produced British video, created with the same Xtranormal text-to-movie software that gave us the bitter robot designer. Via American Copywriter. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on November 6, 2009 | Permalink
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Rap your McDonald's order at your own risk
It's generally a bad idea to try things you saw in a viral video, as four Utah teens learned this week when they were cited by police after rapping their McDonald's order. Personally, I think the only crime here is that they were re-enacting a 3-year-old YouTube clip that your in-laws have probably even seen (but we've included it below, just in case). Apparently they were also committing disorderly conduct by delaying the drive-through line and making an employee feel "her safety was at risk." So, as a public service, AdFreak would like give a nugget of advice to the teens of America: If Taco Bell's ad team has already beaten you to co-opting some lame white-boy Internet meme, it might be time to find a new prank. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Jimmy John's fuels your cowboy threesome
Sub shop Jimmy John's has been hitting pretty deep into left field lately with new spots by The Ad Store. A few weeks back, the college-centric chain unleashed a flood of new ads that feature Jimmy John's as a vital component of childbirth, bomb defusing and extramarital affairs. But those were downright bland compared to the cowboy-themed threesome going on in the spot above. Still, they've done weirder. Via Adland. —Posted by David Griner Previously on BrandFreak: |
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Published on October 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Tourism Queensland disses 'Best Job' shop
It was the most successful, award-winning tourism campaign of the year. And yet "The Best Job in the World" was not enough to get its creators hired as Tourism Queensland's lead agency. Sure, the quirky quest for an Australian island caretaker sparked international buzz and racked up every top-shelf prize in the industry, including three Grand Prix at Cannes. What you may not have heard is that the project's agency, SapientNitro (formerly CumminsNitro), was passed over in August when Tourism Queensland put its account up for review. The snub was a hot point of debate this weekend, as "Best Job" won Australia's top newspaper ad prize. "How can that happen?" the award committee chairman vented. "That's just not fair." I posed the same question on Sunday to Michael Branagh, national managing director for SapientNitro Brisbane. He told me: "We participated in the review, but we actually weren't successful. We thought we were in pretty good stead, but we were beaten by a global behemoth." That winner was incumbent lead agency Clemenger BBDO, which promptly launched the "Hey hey, this is Queensland" campaign, which has been roundly panned. The new campaign even featured "Best Job" candidates, and tourism officials continue to find ways to milk the project for even more publicity. (Branagh says SapientNitro's involvement ended in July.) So, if you're one of the countless tourism marketers looking to piggyback on Queensland's success, here's some good news: You can actually hire the agency that made "Best Job" a global phenomenon. Just cut them some slack if they seem insistent about a long-term contract. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 26, 2009 | Permalink
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'All Together Now' spot continues to inspire
A few months back, we wrote about an advertising student who was inspired by Budweiser's "All Together Now" spot and decided to take her own low-budget stab at it. Now, one of her friends from London has made yet another homage to the ad, and it's quite an impressive bit of stop-motion goodness. The video was created as a side project by Isaac Bell, a photographer, editor and designer for DDB London. It's definitely one to watch several times, though you'll still be hard-pressed to catch all the clever bits of background animation. I'm sure his agency overlords have given him some hearty encouragement, probably along the lines of: "Nice job. Now quit dicking around with the stapler and get back to work." |
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Published on October 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Sony back to just smashing up its products
If there's one benefit to a crappy economy, it's that people set aside their wasteful ways and learn the importance of fiscal prudence. And yet, five seconds after the Dow broke 10,000, Sony apparently said, "Screw it, let's just start smashing really expensive consumer electronics together." And thus we have this captivating bit of elegant destruction from Sony Australia, which is offering a free PS3 when you buy a new Sony Bravia LCD TV. Of course, what you do with them is up to you. I recommend getting all the poor kids in town to watch as you run over the unopened boxes with your dad's solid-gold Porsche. Via Engadget. —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Deceptive dental ads get a kick in the teeth
No, it's not just you. Those terrible teeth-whitening ads really are on every Web site in the galaxy, and they really are as scammy as they seem. Thankfully, a few brave souls—namely, the Better Business Bureau and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection—are dropping the hammer on some of the worst offenders. Wired's Epicenter blog reported Tuesday that Cyprus-based Farend Services is being scrutinized for its ads running under the name Dazzle Smile, which is now the target of a Utah "administrative citation" for allegedly steering customers into a thicket of fake articles and unexpected costs. The BBB, citing Dazzle Smile and several other companies, says on its blog that it has "received a recent onslaught of complaints from consumers who thought they were signing up for a free trial of teeth-whitening products but were repeatedly billed for products and services they didn't want." Meanwhile, some teeth-whitening companies feel they've been wrongly targeted in the backlash, and search engine giants like Yahoo! and Microsoft must decide whether to keep running the ads despite consumer complaints. At a time when revenue is so hard to come by, I wouldn't be surprised if the ad networks simply decide to grin and bear it. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 21, 2009 | Permalink
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Tabasco sauce makes your pizza really sing
Apparently, I've never tried Tabasco on pizza, because I'm pretty sure I'd remember if small faces had erupted from the pepperoni and started singing like a barbershop quartet. That's what happens in this bizarre spot from TracyLocke in Dallas. The guys call themselves the Pepperonis, and they're heating up just as the weather cools down. Over at the Web site, you can even download MP3s of the group harmonizing on some reworked holiday classics. It's nice to see Tabasco getting quirky and pushing the "So much more than hot" theme, especially since you can find about 100 spicier sauces at the store. But there's something undeniably creepy about the commercial. Maybe it's the subtle mix of flavors, like a hint of Naked Lunch with a dash of Nightmare on Elm Street. Or maybe it's that the Pepperonis look just like the swollen lesion from this Australian cancer PSA. —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 16, 2009 | Permalink
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Captain Lou, the quintessential 1980s icon?
Long before Gilbert Gottfried and Roseanne Barr proved you could build a career on in-your-face annoyance, there was Captain Lou Albano, a wrestling promoter so breathlessly brash that he could just about strip the paint off your living-room walls whenever he appeared on the TV. But thanks to his surprising and successful career moves (primarily, his inexplicable partnership with Cyndi Lauper), Albano transcended his role as a villain and became a beloved icon of the 1980s. And that's how he was remembered across the Web on Wednesday when news broke that he had died at his home from natural causes at age 76. Albano leaves behind a strange legacy, one that's nearly impossible to explain to anyone who didn't grow up in the '80s. In fact, he is probably the perfect representative of '80s entertainment, considering his famous affiliations with professional wrestling, MTV and even Nintendo. So, here's to Captain Lou, a man who proved you don't have to be brilliant or beautiful to be a star. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 15, 2009 | Permalink
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Two great ad bloggers, one intense podcast
We all sometimes find ourselves taking a walk in the crisp autumn air and thinking, "This is precious time I could be spending thinking about the ad industry." Well, good news. Now you can load up your iPod with AdVerve, a new podcast launched by two of advertising's most insightful online voices. Bill Green from Make the Logo Bigger and Angela Natividad of Adrants and MarketingVOX fame recently posted their first installment, which is actually a two-part epic discussion of racism in advertising with author Hadji Williams. While the production value still has room to grow, the conversation is compelling, surprising and emotionally charged. Listen to part 1 and part 2, then follow their blogs for future episodes, which they hope to make available through iTunes as well. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 13, 2009 | Permalink
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New FTC rules screw Jared, Bowflex granny
The long-awaited FTC guidelines concerning the "use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising" were posted today, and they're sure to get lots of buzz for their first-ever rules for bloggers, including mandatory disclosure of paid reviews. But the real game-changer may be the crackdown on the use of "Results not typical" disclaimers in advertising, a loophole that's enabled decades of preposterous claims such as, "I lost 50 pounds in a week!" and "I made $100,000 in my first month!" Here's how the FTC summarizes the change: "In contrast to the 1980 version of the guides—which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as 'Results not typical'—the revised guides no longer contain this safe harbor." While this could represent a much-deserved kick to the crotch of late-night snake-oil salesmen, it also seems to be bad news for mainstream brands like Bowflex and Subway, whose success stories (hot granny and Jared, respectively) center on rare cases of extreme willpower. Sounds like they might have to try out some new copy, like, "Bowflex. You'll burn dozens of calories hauling it from your closet to your yard sale!" |
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Published on October 5, 2009 | Permalink
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This college mascot could destroy the EarthIt's not every day that we write about college hockey promos, much less ones that are a year and a half old. Then again, it's not every day that you get to see a celestial polar bear destroy satellites, downtown Anchorage and the whole damn moon. My favorite part of this video for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks is the note on YouTube that "this is the intended directors cut with the original music choice, rejected by the UAF people for being 'too 80's.' " I'm sorry, was there music playing? I think my senses were too overwhelmed by the awesomeness of a giant, moon-crushing murder bear. (Hat tip to my brother-in-law, who found it on With Leather.) |
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Published on October 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Latest '1984' spoof casts Apple as the villain
Perhaps the most iconic ad of all time, Apple's "1984" has been repurposed a hundred times over. But this is the first time I've seen it turned against its creator. The international crew behind DoubleTwist, a media software that promises to put "your iTunes library on any device," created this animated parody to promote its Oct. 6 launch. (The beta version is available now for free, but lacks features available with the update.) So, how do you feel about Steve Jobs being cast as Big Brother? The open-source community has long felt this way about Apple's "walled garden" approach to its devices. And with more than 220 million iPods sold worldwide, not to mention the 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches, there might be a valid claim that Jobs is indeed the Kaiser of Conformity. But will a cross-device iTunes knockoff really end that? Or will it just tide you over a few more months until you can afford the Apple device you really want? Via TechCrunch. —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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LG's 'gorgeous slab' helps humanity evolve
It's a little strange to see a 40-year-old movie reference in an ad for a swank new phone, but LG makes it work in this British spot for the Chocolate BL40. The monolith is an appropriate image for a phone billed by its manufacturer as "the world's first wide-screen mobile" and by Engadget as "LG's gorgeous mile-long slab." There's no doubt it's a sexy phone, what with its 21:9 aspect ratio. But the thing's more than five inches long, practically the size of a candy bar. That could make for some awkward conversations: "Is that a monolith in your pocket, or are you just happy to have achieved sentience?" —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Adidas giving soccer the 'Heroes' treatment
To illustrate its hunt for the best soccer players on earth, Adidas has assembled some of the best comic artists on earth. Above is the newest installment in "The Ultimate Search," a Heroes-esque series narrated by French football legend Zinedine Zidane. Ad agency 180 in Amsterdam and its offspring agencies Riot and Detail commissioned three graphic novels for the ad series, featuring artwork by Jae Lee, Ryan Benjamin and J.G. Jones (whose comic was repurposed into the Web video about Liverpool's Steven Gerrard). Zidane's dream team also features Argentina's Lionel Messi, who didn't get his own comic book but still merited ads like the one below. This series has been running since May, and with seven more spots for Zidane to fill, you can bet Adidas will be dragging it out for many more months to come. By that point, it will probably have outlived its own inspiration. —Posted by David Griner
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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DDB fights breast cancer with musical butts
Ever slide on a pair of jeans and feel an unmistakable eruption of divine glory from your buttocks? You know the feeling—like riding a giant seahorse through the denim countryside? Well, that sensation has finally been captured in an ad—specifically, in this spot for Lee National Denim Day, an annual fund-raiser for breast-cancer research. The Oct. 2 event encourages supporters to create teams and gather donations. Two DDB Chicago animators created the spot above as a promo for the agency's team, "DDB Cheers for a Cure." So, if you're a DDB fan (or a job applicant looking to score brownie points), you can donate a few bucks to help them reach their $10,000 goal. Or you can make your own team, especially if you're at an agency that also wants to get in line for the Lee creative account. (Has Lee made a memorable ad since Fallon's Buddy Lee spots?) Oh, and in case you were confused like me, this isn't the Denim Day that advocates against sexism and rape. (That's April 23.) Lee National Denim Day supports a variety of breast-cancer initiatives and predates the other Denim Day by about three years. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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DDB stocks up on cute for New York Lottery
Oh sure, any commercial can pack the cute cannon with puppies, kittens, piglets and ducklings. But putting them all in little tiny pajamas? That's some straight-up innovative brilliance by DDB for the New York Lottery in the new spot above. The Huffington Post even declared it "perhaps the cutest lottery commercial of all time." If cuddly adorableness isn't your thing, you might at least like the other recent spot below, which squeezes a lot of stylized animation into a mere 15 seconds. See also: |
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Published on September 23, 2009 | Permalink
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DSW's shoes are lonely and looking for love
Earlier today we showed you some oversexed feet without shoes, so why not follow up with some lovelorn shoes without feet? Discount-shoe warehouse DSW just launched the "Speed Dating" spot above, which shows the shadier sides of rubber-sole romance. A second ad is posted below, though it lacks the comedy combo of incest, criminality and cross-dressing. |
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Published on September 15, 2009 | Permalink
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Beavis and Butt-head return to tout 'Extract'
There was a time when Mike Judge seemed shackled forever to Beavis and Butt-head, the depraved duo of delinquents who dominated MTV in the mid-1990s. But then Judge became known for a more subtle style of social critique with Office Space and King of the Hill. So, it's a bit strange to see Beavis and Butt-head return in the clip above to promote Judge's new movie, Extract, a comedy about sex and duplicity based around a vanilla-extract factory. You can watch the trailer below. After all these years, do you still laugh at lines like, "Shut up before I split your ass sideways, butt-wagon"? If not, you probably wouldn't enjoy a comedy about a guy whose gonads are knocked off in an industrial accident. Via VideoETA. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on September 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Air New Zealand testing ad ideas on Twitter
So, you've made some travel ads that blatantly mock the destinations you're promoting, and possibly Christianity as well. How do you know if you've crossed the line? Why, just ask Twitter! Air New Zealand has posted six potential ads on Twitpic, the service that lets you share images on Twitter. The 9,000 followers of @grabaseat were asked to "tell us what you think of these new ads." (You can read more about the campaign in the New Zealand Herald.) The responses have been mixed, with vague criticisms mixed in alongside actual constructive feedback. It's a commendable way to get easy input on ads before they launch more broadly, but I'm a bit surprised Air New Zealand would be ones for caution, seeing as how their flight crews are frequently naked and slathered in paint. —Posted by David Griner See also: |
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Published on September 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Kurt Cobain back on stage in 'Guitar Hero 5'
Fred Astaire danced with one Dirt Devil, and before you knew it, marketing folks were reanimating corpses faster that you could say "Herbert West." Now, it's Gen X's turn to cry foul, as Activision announces that Kurt Cobain will be a playable character in Guitar Hero 5. If you watch the video below, you'll see it's really not as weird as it sounds, but you can't blame fans who feel it's an awkward fit for such an icon of anti-consumerism. Some would argue Activision long since crossed this bridge by including Jimi Hendrix in Guitar Hero, but there's a big difference between reviving an epic showman like Hendrix and trotting out a moody introvert who devoted much of his suicide note to his disinterest in performing: "The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage." His fears of music as a mindless job might not have been far off, since he'll now have to end every show with a performance review. UPDATE: Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, is apparently alleging breach of contract over this and plans to sue Activision. |
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Published on August 28, 2009 | Permalink
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