Orbit's roaming mouth is bit of a clean freak
Two campaigns with disembodied mouths in one week—what were the chances? First, we had Virgin Mobile's gabby gum-flappers. Now, Wrigley's Orbit gum sends a faceless mouth cruising around a neighborhood in this 90-second stop-motion video (posted below) by graffiti artist Goons and ad agency EVB. Unlike most taggers, Goons's work consists of temporary paper creations that "appear," guerrilla-style, on Chicago streets every now and then. Hey, we've all got time to kill, right? Folks can "clean" away the artwork if they so choose, so I guess there are some synergies with the brand's familiar commercial message. The clip was directed by Partizan's Ace Norton, who used handheld still cameras to tell the story of a civic-minded mouth that cleans a dilapidated house. The brand presence is kept to a minimum (just an end logo). And the soundtrack, "Keep It Clean" by Camera Obscura, is catchy. Best of all, tired brand platitudes like "Dirty mouth? Clean it up" never pass these particular lips.
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Published on November 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Hold on to your hairpiece with Stimorol gum
This spot by Ogilvy in Cape Town, South Africa, for Stimorol "Air Rush" gum manages to transcend its hackneyed office-humor setup through sheer unabashed silliness. The new employee's finger-pistol bit as he quips, "I'll see you cats later" and walks away, is almost a misstep. But then he does it again! Once = bad idea. Twice = brilliantly stupid! And a bit creepy, as the move vaguely suggests he might return later with mayhem in mind. Still, it channels just enough Monty Python-meets-David Lynch to work. I'm not sure what the big deal is about his hairdo. My hair usually looks like that even when I'm not chewing the gum. Via AdPunch. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on October 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Dentyne Ice kills smelly, smoking-gun squid
This unsettling Dentyne Ice ad from Thailand has it all: a cheating husband, a jealous wife and a giant, horrible squid. The sea beast represents the man's sushi-breath from a secret after-work dinner. The wife smells it when he gets home and flies into a rage. So, the man pops a Dentyne Ice and, with more anger than seems appropriate, breathes a big "Ahhhhh" into the woman's face. Weird. By McCann in Bangkok. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Trident gum leaves dentist, finds happiness
Trident may be the gum recommended by four out of five dentists, but lately it's been making a much softer sell—that it's just "A little piece of happy." What exactly do they mean by that? It's tempting to characterize the commercials, from JWT New York, as oddvertising in league with Skittles and Starburst, but they're really more magical realism with a touch of sweetness (reminiscent of the Skittles stuff from the mid-'90s). In the ad above, a flower grows an extra petal for a little girl to pluck. In the spot below, an old dude inflates. See three more ads here—there's one with a coin-operated spaceship ride that comes to life and two random animated spots involving goats and a cat. I'm rather conflicted about the campaign. I think the ads are cute, but they could be for anything. Then again, watching that stupid squirrel bite the dentist in the nuts six times an hour made me want to stick gum wads in my eyes. So, in a way, this new work did actually bring me a little piece of happy. See also: |
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Published on August 6, 2009 | Permalink
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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 |
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Published on May 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Chris Brown, Wrigley might not last forever
Yesterday, following serious allegations that Chris Brown beat the snot out of his outrageously hot girlfriend Rhianna right before the Grammy Awards, causing both of them to cancel their performances, Wrigley's Doublemint Gum said it was suspending Brown's Doublemint ad and all the marketing involved until this mess gets cleared up. The commercial, posted above, which had been running since August, actually aired during the Grammys. Wrigley isn't dropping Brown outright; it's just waiting to see what happens. The company points out that Brown should be "afforded the same due process as any citizen." Wrigley is a bit deep in this whole thing, however, as Brown's hit song "Forever" was actually commissioned by Wrigley to be a new version of the Doublemint jingle. I think Wrigley should just go completely retro in the meantime and bring back the Doublemint Twins, assuming they haven't been booked for double assault or anything. UPDATE: Brown has also been booted from the "Got milk?" campaign. |
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Published on February 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Stop wasting your life online, says Dentyne
Can you surf the Web and chew gum at the same time? Perhaps, but you'll be wasting your time. That's according to Dentyne, which has a bunch of posters up in the NYC subway (and probably elsewhere) encouraging young people to get off their stupid computers for five minutes and "Make face time." Dentyne can help in this regard by giving you decent-smelling breath—something that's all but unnecessary on social networks but handy in actual social encounters. The ads, which seem to have originated in Canada, may run the risk of making Dentyne sound parental. But it's nice to see a youth-targeted campaign that has nothing but contempt for Facebook. |
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Published on September 17, 2008 | Permalink
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Chew on an eyeful of Trident's latest gum
Syd Brak whips up this perfectly lovely retro illustration for Trident Chocolate Mint gum, and then JWT London (in the spirit of TBWA’s Pioneer Kuro ads) goes and gives the girl a mouth for an eye. Seems the gum will indeed “mess with your head.” And you thought a few blisters on the tongue was bad. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on August 8, 2008 | Permalink
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Chew Trident, have a fabulous/terrible day
—Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on July 25, 2008 | Permalink
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