Land Rover has a clay old time in U.K. spots

If your travels ever take you through an endlessly changing clayscape, a Land Rover might just be the car for you. The animation in this British ad from RKCR/Y&R is really smooth (a video after the jumop explains how they did it), and it's a unique way to suggest the car's mastery of different terrain (not to mention, driver Clay Mason apparently needed the work). There are numerous ethical and dietary issues associated with cups of coffee that spontaneously turn into birds, though. So, try to avoid those whether you end up buying a Land Rover or not.

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Filed under Automotive, Europe, Kiefaber, Land Rover, RKCR, Y&R
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Hair straightener helps Cinderella go glam

Cross an ultraglam take on Cinderella with an '80s MTV flashback, add some shades of Fellini, and you've got the new commercial/music video for hair straightener GHD. The spot by RKCR/Y&R serves double duty, also introducing the agency's record label and its first band signing, L.A.-based Le Rev, who should get the hook until they learn how to write one. Cinderella actually looks hotter before she fixes her 'do with the client's straightener. With that mane flying in every direction, smeared mascara and torn dress, she goes from warmed-over new waver to post-punk/pseudo-goth priestess. Trash it up, baby! Via Creative Review.

Filed under Gianatasio, Hair care, RKCR, Y&R
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Flying is dreamy in global Virgin Atlantic ad

Virgin Atlantic has just released its first-ever global TV ad, the dreamlike 90-second extravaganza below from RKCR/Y&R, with the tagline, "Your airline's either got it or it hasn't." By "it," they apparently mean pilots who are rock stars and flight attendants who float around doing somersaults and falling into milk baths. Virgin passengers, meanwhile, shimmy through metal detectors and dance with 20-foot-high forks spearing shrimp the size of Vespas. The crew ends up standing on the wing of a plane, which usually only happens on US Airways flights. According to Virgin, the campaign "takes the viewer on a metaphorical flight—a surreal and glamorous world of airline iconography dramatizing how it feels to fly with the airline." It's certainly stylish. The music is a reworked version of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good," a song used expertly in this old promo for the fourth season of Six Feet Under. Via Ads of the World.

Filed under Airlines, Nudd, RKCR, Virgin Atlantic, Y&R
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Back to school is quite a trip in BBC promo

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R trots out David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in this weird but affecting promo for the new season of the TV program BBC Schools. "Every September, thousands of children begin the biggest adventures of their lives. Are we sending them in the right direction?" the voiceover asks. I'd say not, if parents in England are dressing up the kids in spacesuits and sending them into orbit. The local school's probably closer and more safely reached by bus. Kids watching this are surely already dreading the new term. Now, as well as fretting over arithmetic and wedgies, they have to worry about drifting helplessly through the cosmos. Truancy will skyrocket. Via Campaign.

Filed under BBC, Europe, Gianatasio, RKCR, TV, Y&R
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Eating Activia is sexy, according to U.K. ads

Activia, the Dannon yogurt brand, maintains its penchant for oddball ads in this U.K. spot from RKCR/Y&R starring actress Martine McCutcheon and tagged, "Tummy loving care." The work sparks so many questions. Why is she spinning—endlessly spinning!—to the strains of "Gimme Some Lovin' " in a bubble chair like the kind the bad guys used in The Prisoner? Why didn't they import the brand's U.S. spokescougar, Jamie Lee Curtis? Did she stop eating Activia and get all, you know, stopped up, and die? At least Activia can still afford commercials after paying out $35 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over alleged false-advertising. I was worried! Adrants notes that McCutcheon tries hard to make the product seem sexy. Hey, when isn't digestive healthy sexy? First, that colorectal PSA, now this. Today is turning into a real bummer.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Activia, Celebrity endorsements, Europe, Food and drink, Health, RKCR
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Kid can't stop himself in U.K. teen-abuse ad

Hopefully this rounds out our gloomy Friday of depressing PSAs. This spot is the centerpiece of a new RKCR/Y&R campaign for the U.K.'s Home Office that's aimed at curbing abuse in teenage relationships. As with the human-trafficking spots we saw earlier, this ad features a scene of realistic violence and a powerless bystander—though this time it's the abuser, who's been able to step outside himself and see what he's really doing to his girlfriend. The tagline is: "If you could see yourself, could you stop yourself?" Unfortunately, the answer here is no, as the kid is blocked by an invisible wall. Though maybe that's a good thing. If he rushed up and attacked himself, we'd be in a Parkinson's commercial.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Domestic violence, Europe, Nudd, PSAs, RKCR, Y&R
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Risking life and limb for the Boursin cheese

This ad from London's RKCR/Y&R for Boursin cheese takes the brand's classic, long-dormant "Du pain, du vin, du Boursin" campaign into potentially grisly territory. The lovers' cornfield picnic is nauseating enough to make one almost anticipate the "rather unexpected interruption" at the end of the spot. Boursin shows good sense in letting the ad go black before that pivotal moment, though. No sense associating its product with too much blood and guts.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Boursin, Food and Drink, Kiefaber, RKCR, Y&R
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Virgin Atlantic marks a sexy quarter century

Before the first Virgin Atlantic flight took off on June 22, 1984, the flight attendants made a major exhibition of themselves, flaunting their assets as they strutted through the terminal, their impossible sexiness causing men to drool, women to fume and little girls to dream. At least, that's the scenario put forth in this new spot from RKCR/Y&R and Traktor celebrating Virgin's 25 years of flight. Our favorite Virgin Atlantic ad remains the one below. Not quite as sexy, perhaps, but entertaining nonetheless.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Europe, Nudd, RKCR, Virgin Atlantic
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London prepared to grab Olympic spotlight

The 2008 Olympic Games continue through Sunday in Beijing, but London's tourism officials are already elbowing in and reminding the world where the 2012 Games will be held. Visit London, the official tourism body, is launching a £4m global ad campaign this week from WPP agency RKCR to promote the city as a tourist destination in the lead-up to the 2012 Games. The main image from the campaign is a picture of London taking up the entire globe—an image perhaps inspired by British maps from the glory days of the empire. The tagline is, "See the world. Visit London." James Bidwell, CEO of Visit London, is quoted as saying: "In the words of one of the finest English authors, Samuel Johnson, 'There is in London all that life can afford,' and as we prepare to host the greatest sporting event on earth our campaign shows there is no other place to be than here." The London 2012 committee itself is remaining quiet this week, either out of respect for the Beijing Games or lingering embarrassment over its logo.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Nudd, Olympics, RKCR
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