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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Weather Channel gives 'Meatballs' forecasts
A tie-in with the Weather Channel was a no-brainer for Sony's new animated children's movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, in which a small town is pummeled by food and drink falling from the skies. And they certainly went all out. As you can see above, Weather Channel on-camera meteorologist Adam Berg has been presenting forecasts for the fictional town of Chewandswallow. The movie took over the Weather.com home page last Thursday. And cast members from the movie have been introducing segments of "Local on the 8s." The movie opened over the weekend with what the Los Angeles Times describes as a "murky" box-office take of about $30 million. |
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Published on September 21, 2009 | Permalink
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New ads say PlayStation 3 'does everything'Deutsch/LA is back with a new campaign for the Sony PlayStation 3, and it doesn't underpromise. The new tagline is: "It only does everything." There'll be nine spots altogether heading into the holiday season. Here are the first two, promoting the PS3's online capabilities and new $299 price point. They star one of our favorite actors, whale-noise maker Jerry Lambert, last seen brushing off a peeved Dustin Pedroia as "director of game accuracy" for MLB '09: The Show. Lambert is moving up through PlayStation's management food chain. Here, he serves as "director of rumor confirmation" and (a truly enviable position) "vp of enough is enough." |
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Published on August 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Noted TV-set killer Alice Cooper sells Sonys
Alice Cooper looks about 80 years old in this new Sony spot from TBWA, airing in the U.K. His roadie "Lloyd," who disturbingly bares his butt-crack at one point, looks even older. That's all part of the joke in this likable, Spinal Tap-inspired ad directed by George Hickenlooper of Epoch Films. It touts a Sony initiative designed to convince people to trade in their old televisions to get money toward new Bravias. Alice discusses his penchant for tossing TVs out of hotel-room windows, noting that it was easier to do in the '80s because "they bolt them to the wall now." He adds: "I once threw out my own TV. I thought I was in a hotel room." If Alice shows up at a Motel 6 trying to take advantage of that rockers-stay-free promo, they'd be well advised to turn on the "No Vacancy" sign. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on August 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Wieden takes a closer look at gamers' faces
Wieden + Kennedy in Tokyo has rolled out a new Sony PlayStation 3 campaign called PlayFace, showing the facial contortions that gamers make while they're playing. It's all pretty stylish and exaggerated—the players also make lots of buzzing, beeping and cracking sound effects, which gives them a robotlike aspect. But despite all the bells and whistles, as AdFreak sister blog PDNPulse points out, there's been some grousing that the PlayFace work (the idea, if not the execution) is similar to some still photos that artist Phil Toledano did in 2002, also showing gamers' faces. Toledano tells the gaming blog Kotaku that Wieden "ripped me off," but that seems a bit excessive. Toledano's insight—that people let their guard down when they're focused intently on something (like gaming), and that you can see "a hidden part of their character" in those moments—itself wasn't so new. Philippe Halsman did similar stuff in the pre-video-game 1950s, when he began taking pictures of people while they were jumping—and had to focus on that, rather than on posing for the camera. (Halsman's work eventually inspired some cool ads for HBO's Six Feet Under.) PDN further points to some 2008 gamer portraits by Robbie Cooper, who had basically the same idea as Toledano. Seems like lots of people have been down this road. UPDATE: Compare Wieden's ad to Cooper's "Immersion" video below. |
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Published on August 21, 2009 | Permalink
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Not even sex could save these technologies
For a fun visit to the vaults, check out Brainz.org's compilation of 12 "Dead Technology" Advertisements. What's a little spooky is that if you're over 30, each of these technological wonders has come and gone in your lifetime. Some, like the Walkman and the VCR, were tremendous successes. Others, like Betamax, Laserdiscs and MiniDiscs (the latter shown here with the not-so-subtle tagline, "You know you want it"), never really got off the ground in the U.S. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a strange craving to devour a NeoGeo. Via @JeffreyJDavis. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on April 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Sony's living mannequins swarm Manhattan
Mannequins take Manhattan! Today! With Sony VAIOs! New Yorkers have ad shop 180LA to blame for what sounds like a pretty creepy campaign. Press materials ask us to "picture 10 mannequins sitting at a cafe, IMing, blogging, updating their Facebook pages and tempting onlookers to check out the beautiful new [VAIO P Series] device." Imagine it? I can't get it out of my head! The "living mannequins" are premiering this morning at Grand Central Station, no doubt to the delight of commuters who haven't recovered from that "world's biggest wheel of cheese" promotion there a couple of years back. Sony says the big dummies will "circulate throughout the city's hottest neighborhoods." Thank goodness, SoHo won't miss out. There's a Fashion Week tie-in, as the mannequins have been dressed by young designers. "Imagine going about your day when suddenly you see something out of place: It's a strikingly beautiful mannequin. She's alive. And she's holding the VAIO P Series, motioning for you to join her." Frankly, I think I'll buy a Mac. You guys are freaking me out. |
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Published on January 30, 2009 | Permalink
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One little big problem for 'Little Big Planet'
—Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on October 20, 2008 | Permalink
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It's all fun and games, and no one gets hurt
This Sony PSP ad by British ad agency Mike & Blake puts a twist on a schoolyard "fight" with the confrontation revealed as being almost entirely digital. On one level, the spot is clever, if unremarkable. But I think it (no doubt unintentionally) brings the schisms of our virtual media age into focus. One can easily picture real-life kids actually settling disputes this way, using their thumbs to play games instead of their fists to throw punches. On the plus side, no one gets hurt. And yet, learning to cope with emotional and physical pain is an essential part of growing up and a hallmark of the human experience. This scenario shown in this clip, and video games themselves, create a stimulating yet safe realm in which bruises bloom via electronic palettes and vanish with the flip of a switch. Emotions like pain, courage, fear and shame become stylized, stripped of meaning—and forgotten. Until real stress or peril appear. Then those emotions tend to explode. Bottom line: I probably took too many blows to the head on the playground in third grade. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on October 14, 2008 | Permalink
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Be careful not to step on the tiny billboards
Deutsch/LA deserves a steak dinner. In marketing the new PlayStation game LittleBigPlanet, they've come up with the best kind of billboard: the kind I can't see. These little boards are apparently springing up around San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, and they're easy on the eyes. And a shin-high promotional campaign won't hurt the game much, even if LittleBigPlanet is basically Second Life without all the sex and gambling. In that spirit, they should change the headline here to "Good graphics shall overcome." —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on August 26, 2008 | Permalink
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