Church billboard questions Christmas story
Not about to let the pushy atheists hog the spotlight in New Zealand, a progressive Anglican church has commissioned this billboard just in time for Christmas. Designed by M&C Saatchi for St. Matthew in the City, the ad shows a morose Joseph in bed next to a disappointed Mary, with the headline: "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow." The idea is to question the literalness of the conception story, and bring some more critical thinking to the tenets of Christian fundamentalism at Christmastime. "Is the miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor?" asks priest Glynn Cardy. Of course, the real miracle will be escaping censure from the ad watchdog. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on December 16, 2009 | Permalink
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Kapiti ice cream not actually made of shoes
So, I see these ads, and I'm thinking, Great! The next time I have a craving for surrealist ice cream, and I happen to be in New Zealand, I'll pick up some Kapiti frozen treats! Thanks, Colenso BBDO, for the tip, delivered so stylishly in this print campaign. Designer watches, shoes and handbags melt in a most attractive fashion. Then I find the commercial below, and I realize there's a problem: Kapiti treats don't look surrealist at all. They're just ordinary ice-cream bars! OK, they're "designer" ice-cream bars. That makes the snazzy print kind of deceptive, eh Colenso BBDO? I want my melting-timepiece snack! Now I'll have to go to an art museum and take a bite out of this one. I'm not 100 percent sure it's edible, but since it's surrealist, there's always a chance. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on December 10, 2009 | Permalink
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TV is the bright spot in your sad, painful life
Bad stuff happens in life. You accidentally hook up with a transvestite. You get run over by a car. You're attacked by a shark and lose both of your hands. You stumble on a landmine and get blown to smithereens. Your wife sleeps with your best friend. But that's OK. You've still got your dignity—and your television shows. This glass-half-full reminder, set to the tune of "Que Sera Sera," is courtesy of Sky TV and DDB New Zealand. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on December 3, 2009 | Permalink
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New Zealand novels will give you paper cutsMaurice Gee's novel Going West literally springs off the page in this animated spot for the New Zealand Book Council by Colenso BBDO and Andersen M Studio. The clip's garnered a quarter-million-plus YouTube views in less than two weeks, and there's no denying it's visually impressive. Still, I found the monochrome images and droning voiceover a bit turgid at first. After the halfway point, the pace picks up, and the stark colors and distorted narration get hypnotically trippy. A tagline like "Read a book, get high" would work, but instead we get "Where books come to life." If this is a series, my own brilliant tome is available for use, gratis, in upcoming PSAs. Hmm, the council seems to be dedicated to promoting New Zealand authors and their work. Luckily, I happen to hail from New Zealand! Um ... g'day, mate, put another shrimp on the barbie? Oh, just forget it. —Posted by David Gianatasio
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Published on December 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Vodafone ads show sad face of text bullying
It's not such a g'day Down Under when text-messaging bullies go all Qwerty on your ass. That's the basic thrust of this Colenso BBDO print campaign for Vodafone in Australia and New Zealand. The work effectively (if somewhat derivatively) plasters frowny-sad emoticons on the faces of school-age victims. Of course, if they actually look like that—bright yellow disk-shaped heads with no ears or noses—then they do have something to cry about and they will get teased. But seriously, this is a legitimate mobile-age problem that's generated its share of tragedies, so kudos to client and agency for confronting the issue, um, head-on. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on November 20, 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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Win the Lotto, redeem your sucky childhood
This ad from DDB New Zealand has a Wonder Years vibe, as a balding, middle-aged family guy comes across a childhood wish list in the garage. Turns out he's achieved most of his goals. He married his grade-school crush ... and he's become a millionaire—thanks to the local lottery, of course, which is the client in question. As for being a "hero" and an astronaut, well, I guess he's still working on it. It's a sweet, smartly cast and overall extremely well-done spot that almost made me forget that lotteries are for compulsive suckers like me willing to waste our money for a crack at jackpots we'll never win. Besides, the guy can't be a real lottery winner. If he were, he'd have a full head of hair and a trophy wife, he'd send the brats off to boarding school, and for damn sure he wouldn't still be living down at the ass-end of the world! Via Adoholik. |
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Published on September 15, 2009 | Permalink
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New Zealand finds novel ways to rescue you
Colenso BBDO's latest ads for New Zealand Land Search & Rescue show ghostly doorways appearing, Tardis-like, in the middle of forests, mountains and more mountains. "We'll get you out," says the tagline. The doors are supposed to be metaphorical, but these are just the kinds of delusions that folks lost in the wild might actually experience. If you've been stranded for days without food and water, it wouldn't be surprising at all if a portal suddenly materialized out of thin air. The next thing you know, a yeti will walk by and build a campfire. Why does this group advertise so much, anyway? It makes New Zealand seem like an awfully dangerous place. Maybe we could send Teva's "Naturist" down there. But if he vanishes in the wilderness, please don't try to find him. See also: |
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Published on August 31, 2009 | Permalink
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New Zealand reporters get scoops ... or else
Pelting reporters with tomatoes, or dangling them upside down from high above the street, if they don't break big stories? It's part of a promotion by New Zealand news and entertainment Web site Stuff.co.nz. Indeed, both punishments were meted out near the site's Auckland offices recently (see the videos below), along with banners that read: "If our team don't break stories first, there are consequences." Please, no quips about Stuff needing copy editors—the subject-verb agreement there is actually OK in New Zealand, where dictionaries and usage guides are routinely used to paper wallabies' cages. On a personal note, I'm sorry I didn't break this story on AdFreak first, but c'mon, guys, have a heart: The wind's picking up out here, and it's tough to type with my head banging against the flagpole! |
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Published on August 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Yetis are not coming to your rescue
Just in case any Kiwis out there were banking on Yetis for
mountain rescue, allow New Zealand Land Search and Rescue and Colenso BBDO in Auckland to point out that the creatures aren't real. And even if they did exist, they wouldn't be much help. Yetis
don't stray far from the Himalayas and, depending on who you ask, they'll
either gobble you up or hug you fiercely to their furry bosoms and call you George. Both scenarios are fatal. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on July 15, 2009 | Permalink
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Drive safely in spite of the bloody billboardsWhat were we saying last week about New Zealand safe-driving campaigns? Oh yes, that they're insane. Here, the Papakura District Council resorts to "bloodvertising" to slow motorists down during the rainy season. Three big roadside billboards with children's faces on them are equipped with sensors that "bleed" red liquid when it rains. The effect is startling. Problem is, the kids look like they've been ravaged by syphilis rather than speeding cars. And if safety is the goal, shouldn't roadside ads be a little less distracting? Via Copyranter at Animal New York. |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Air New Zealand also does long-form nudity
Last month, we posted the 45-second Air New Zealand spot that shows the carrier's employees naked, with painted-on uniforms, to emphasize that they have "Nothing to hide" (at least in terms of hidden fares). Today, The New York Times points out that the campaign also includes the three-and-a-half-minute on-board safety video above, which likely gets more attention than most presentations of its kind. It's still not clear that being nude improves the flying experience, but Air New Zealand is at least filling the void left by Naked-Air, whose first flight in 2003 was also its last. |
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Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Another lovely New Zealand safe-driving ad
Ah, New Zealand road-safety ads. Always so subtle and understated, except when they show children's bloody heads smashed on windshields or, in the new PSA posted above, a dead guy flopping around and terrifying his injured buddy after their drunk-driving accident. The spot is meant to be brutally unsettling, but there is a bit of unintentional comedy—the dead guy's body looks a bit like a dummy at times. Though of course, the point is that both of the guys are dummies. The tagline is: "If you drink then drive you're a bloody idiot." By Clemenger BBDO in Wellington. |
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Published on June 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Toyota eyeing the giant-tire-swing business
Call me dense, but I don't see what this Toyota spot from Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand has to do with, well, Toyota. In fact, it seems to encompass nearly everything but Toyota, including envy, materialism, good parenting and the sturdiness of Oceanic craftsmanship. The only time Toyota even enters into things is when the dad goes out for supplies, and that's maybe five seconds out of 60. Although it has convinced me that Toyota should start producing enormous tire-swing contraptions. |
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Published on June 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Air New Zealand employees strip for new ad
Air New Zealand claims it has nothing to hide. This extends from its ticket prices to its unusual decision, as seen in the ad above, to paint uniforms on its employees rather than have them wear clothes. And unlike Intel, they used actual employees—more than 90 of them for the campaign, apparently, including eight who got stripped and painted. The airline's CEO, Rob Fyfe, was one of the eight—he's the silver-haired guy loading the bags on to the plane. The passengers all react surprisingly well to the naked people, even when they're serving food and drinks. It's a good thing Air New Zealand has such an attractive workforce. A campaign like this would be problematic if, say, Dunkin' Donuts tried it. |
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Published on May 18, 2009 | Permalink
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National Cleavage Day gets global support
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Published on April 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Deathbed chainsaw ad irks New Zealanders
This comical spot from DDB Auckland for Stihl chainsaws is harshing some people's buzz down in New Zealand. In the ad, which is pretty tame, a son misrepresents his father's final whispered dying wish in a plot to snag the prized Stihl machine. To some, that's simply no laughing matter. "I was really horrified," says Adrian Cooper of Media Matters in NZ, a group devoted to protecting kids from the horrors of television. "I thought, this is not good enough. It's simply not good enough, and it's not the New Zealand I know. ... I think that any mature, responsible, thinking adults looking at that would find it offensive." DDB creative director Toby Talbot shrugs off the controversy. "It's a shame, it's a pity some people feel that way," he says. "I think, generally speaking, a lot of people see it for what it is—it is actually quite a light-hearted ad." |
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Published on March 31, 2009 | Permalink
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Go primitive with Valentine's Day at the zoo
The move by New Zealand's Wellington Zoo to open its doors for "adults only" activities on the evening of Valentine's Day sounds objectionable, and probably illegal. But actually, in a very unexpected way, it's rather sweet. The ads, including the video below from Saatchi Wellington (which has NSFW audio), hint at the possibility of real monkey business—but actually they're just suggesting you have dinner and drinks there. Now granted, there are about a thousand ways this could all go horribly wrong. But disregarding possible animal maulings or impromptu bestiality, "a candlelit dinner for two, served in your own romantic spot overlooking an animal enclosure," sounds pretty fun. The lucky couple who scores a table facing the chimp enclosure will have stories to tell for years. |
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Published on February 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Don't drink and drive on your lunar mission
Here's a silly but amusing PSA from New Zealand warning against drunk driving. It's never a good idea, on Earth or anywhere else. Via Spare Room. |
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Published on December 8, 2008 | Permalink
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42 Below vodka gives up on sense entirely
When you work at Kraft Foods and your boss tells you Kool-Aid is better than freshly squeezed orange juice, he's trying to get you to "drink the Kool-Aid." When an agency called The Glue Society makes an incredibly esoteric spot for the most generic of products (vodka—aka, pure alcohol mixed with water), and they tell you (in the inane tagline) they did it "Because we can," are they trying to get us to "sniff the glue"? The marketers at 42 Below, a New Zealand vodka, must have been high when they approved this ad. It can't be enjoyed any other way. Take my word for it, and sniff some of this Elmer's—it smells like roses. |
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Published on November 14, 2008 | Permalink
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New Zealand bets on an exploding billboard
If you're the kind of person who likes to sit at the computer and watch absolutely nothing happen, you could do worse than visit When will the fruit burst?, a promotional Web site for Cadbury Pascall fruit chews. The site tracks the progress of an actual billboard in New Zealand featuring a giant fruit balloon full of Fruit Burst chews that's been placed next to a giant pin. As the balloon fills with air, it moves closer to the pin, and we laypeople can place bets on when it will pop ... and hopefully not scar a large swath of downtown Auckland with chewy shrapnel. Although if it does, we hope the live feed is still going. |
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Published on October 27, 2008 | Permalink
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New arrivals unnerve Auckland Zoo animalsIf we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: Few things get a message across to the consumer quite like animals pooping. This commercial for the Auckland Zoo (now with tigers!) is the latest to take advantage of this, but we're wondering if this prior MTV spot was filmed there, too—the location, the animals and the messes they're making look awfully familiar. We're also wondering about those tigers. If they make freaking rhinos do that, who knows what effect they'll have on people. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on October 23, 2008 | Permalink
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