Ogilvy ad breaks through against prejudice
Ogilvy & Mather in Istanbul presents a quietly powerful metaphor for prejudice in this effort for the Zaman newspaper in Turkey. We get surreal scenes of average folks who literally run up against their ignorance in the form of unseen, transparent barriers that inhibit their progress. They become trapped, unable to move forward or connect with others. In effect, they are no longer full and active participants in daily life. They've exiled themselves to a no man's land where they're on the outside looking in. The ambient soundtrack works with the bleak visuals to evoke a mood of sad isolation. The climactic "breakthrough," though predictable, provides catharsis and hope. "Our prejudices. Our invisible walls. Isn't it time to demolish them?" says the copy. At 1:45, this is the director's cut (there's also a :60), but the length allows for an almost hypnotic effect to take hold. Those who think the spot's too long should watch without prejudice. |
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Published on October 30, 2009 | Permalink
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We haven't seen the last of 9/11-themed ads
In the wake of the WWF/DDB fiasco, Adland has posted a bunch of other 9/11-themed ads done over the years. Many of them are also pretty tasteless—in particular, the one with the oblivious pilots reading Humo magazine while heading straight for the towers. Adland also points out this 2003 MTV campaign, which similarly compared the death toll of 9/11 with that of other tragedies—in this case, AIDS, famine and poverty. If we've seen this stuff before, Adland asks, why did the DDB ad cause such a backlash? Who knows. It was probably the slow news week and the image of multiple planes, which was particularly upsetting. Whatever the reason, we surely haven't seen the last of 9/11 imagery ads. The visual shorthand of the century's defining image is just too tempting. In fact, there's already a new 9/11 advertisement out—the one above (click to enlarge) from BBDO for the English-language Moscow News. "Things hard to explain, in a language you understand," says the tagline. (There's also a Hiroshima version.) It's pretty harmless, though it does seem more exploitative than it would have a week ago. With future ads, that kind of awareness is probably the best we can hope for—along with a reminder that the total annihilation of New York is never a great advertising theme. See also: |
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Published on September 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Newspaper ad prepares for its 50th birthday
The Guardian has an interesting story about one of the most resilient ads of all time: a British newspaper ad that's been running, all but unaltered, since 1960—probably the longest-running ad in newspaper history. Designed to look like an article, the ad promotes an English speaking and writing class at a college in Cheshire. The company behind the class is baffled by the ad's success. "We have produced new adverts that we thought were better," says managing director Ian Travis. "We expected them to do really well, but they've just been awful. When we switch back to this one, the inquiries flood in again. I honestly don't know why it's so successful." A former company executive, Bob Heap, says the ad got lots of exposure early on because of a peculiar arrangement the company had with the newspapers. "When they hadn't sold a front-page ad, they'd ring us and offer it to us at a discount," he says. For many years, the ad has featured the photo shown here—of a man named Derek Derbyshire. He was a 33-year-old amateur actor (and soon-to-be accountant) in 1963, when he posed for the fateful portrait. Derbyshire died at age 70 in 2000, but his image lives on. In his obituary, the Telegraph said Derbyshire was "thought to have graced the front pages of more newspapers than the Queen, Tony Blair or even Posh Spice." |
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Published on August 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Zimbabwe ads printed on trillion-dollar bills
The Zimbabwean, a newspaper written by Zimbabwean journalists in exile, is running an ad campaign in South Africa courtesy of TBWA Hunt Lascaris that uses the most pointed substrate in history: thousands of worthless Zimbabwean bank notes. With inflation so out of control that a trillion-dollar banknote can't even buy a loaf of bread, TBWA came up with the genius idea of plastering them across billboards and posters, offering free tear-away trillions with information on The Zimbabwean. Headlines like, "It's cheaper to print this on money than paper," "Thanks to Mugabe, this money is now wallpaper" and "Fight the regime that has crippled a country" are screened onto the bills, which were also sent via direct mail to South Africa's top corporate executives. It's a bold statement to the Zimbabwean government, which has already put a 55 percent "luxury" tax on the newspaper, and was most likely behind last year's torching of a Zimbabwean delivery truck. Check out paper's Flickr stream for full coverage of the Trillion Dollar Campaign. Via Boing Boing. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on April 14, 2009 | Permalink
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Stihl hacks newspapers while they're down
Boston agency Winsper's recent ads for Stihl leaf blowers, chainsaws and weed whackers are fun and eye-catching as they appear to hack, trim and blow newsprint off pages of The Wall Street Journal. And even as the ads try to sell yard equipment, they provide a no-doubt unintentional commentary on the medium in which they appear. In fact, given the sorry state of the newspaper business, they might cut a bit too close to the bone. |
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Published on April 8, 2009 | Permalink
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'Simpsons' gets crazy cool with crosswords
On Sunday, in the sixth episode of its 20th (!) season, The Simpsons went crossword crazy in a cross-promotion with The New York Times and the Hartford Courant. The episode featured the voices of renowned crossword creators Merl Reagle (whose puzzles appear in the Courant and elsewhere) and Will Shortz, puzzle master of the Times. The crossword in Sunday's Times featured a special message "crucial to the episode" (though the episode was not crucial for completing the crossword), and the Courant published a Reagle crossword on Sunday called "Simply Simpsons," in which every question was Simpsons-themed. The episode itself featured a bunch of crosswords, all of which Reagle designed at the behest of Simpsons executive producer Tim Long. (For some irritating reason, none of those puzzles are online—you have to squint at the pixilated stills.) The Times has the back story on the collaboration. The episode was probably the biggest thing to happen in the crossword universe since the documentary Word Play; Long dubbed it "most crossword-intensive half-hour of television in the history of America." Of course, he's never seen the crossword episodes of Three's Company. "OK, I need a four-letter word for something that comes between Janet and Chrissy." Via Wired. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on November 18, 2008 | Permalink
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