Brazilian cancer spot is a serious tear-jerker

This is one intense spot by agency Base Propaganda for Brazil's League Against Cancer. For pure emotional impact, I'd rank it up there with the ALS Society of Canada's jarringly effective efforts. One key difference: The ALS appeal has more components to manipulate in terms of unsettling images and character interplay. The LAC clip is basically just a woman crying, but you can feel the primal force behind her sobs. I couldn't turn away, and I imagine many in the target audience will be likewise riveted. Kudos to the actress for conveying the depths of despair and heights of hope with the same gestures and tears. She elevates the spot beyond its "trick ending" into something far more thoughtful and profound. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Base Propaganda, Freaky, Gianatasio, League Against Cancer, PSAs, South America

Kids' characters fall from grace in soda ads

This new ad campaign from the La Familia agency in Chile for some kind of soda isn't very kind to beloved children's characters. Here we have a guy who's returned from an afternoon of delighting children as Barney, and is digging into his carton of smokes and collection of skin mags. See the full ad here. Another ad shows a Teletubbie taking a leak in a Trainspotting-like bathroom. Somehow this "0% fantasy" notion is meant to make the soda appealing. Despite the grim outlook, the artwork is pretty fantastic, with the bloodstained wall behind the bathroom's broken mirror in the Teletubbie ad one of many killer details. I'm not sure why they focused on PBS characters who peaked in popularity 10 years ago, or why they draw on examples from mass media at all. But who cares! This fun concept has legs, and with any luck, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch will be next. But not Snuffleupagus. He's real, dammit! God, I need another Coke. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Gianatasio, Soda, South America

You'll be roasted alive, but still earn interest

At last, some bank advertising that tells it like it is! No vanilla platitudes here! In ads from Y&R Lima, Banco Financiero faces the truth about the world today: that we are (or might as well be) under assault from rampant meteor strikes and roaming dinosaurs, terrible storms and rising sea levels, and/or even vicious alien attacks. We're all basically screwed, though even if the world ends, that 8.5 percent rate from Banco is rock solid. This is exactly the tactic more banks should try, though naturally, no U.S. bank would have the guts or absurd sense of humor. The details of the illustrations are awesome. In the dinosaur ad, in one of the exposed apartments of the ruined building on the right, I think I can see a saurian chomping down on some guy's head. And in the space-attack ad, that's either a chortling alien one of the balconies, lovin' it all, or a pitiful human bemoaning the fate of mankind. Hey, it works both ways! Note to our new Martian overlords: When the attack begins, please zap Bank of America first! Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Banco Financiero, Finance, Gianatasio, South America, Y&R

Global warming hits home in Brazilian PSA

Brazilian ad agency Ponto de Criacao put together this environmental PSA, which quietly and skillfully dramatizes the problem of climate change. "When you feel it, it's already too late," says the line at the end. As global-warming PSAs go, it's as good as anything Noah Wylie's done.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 9, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Environment, Nudd, Ponto de Criacao, PSAs, South America

Guinea pigs, consummate advertising pros

As advertising characters and/or props, guinea pigs almost never disappoint. And they prove their worth yet again in this Argentine spot by agency El Cielo for cell-phone company Claro. The ad amusingly shows how, for kids these days, getting their first cell phone is often a bigger deal than getting their first pet. That's some great acting on the part of the varmints, one of which is awesome at vibrating. And yet, this is only our second-favorite guinea-pig commercial. The best one is still G4's Midnight Spank spot with the kidney-eating rodent.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on February 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Animals, Claro, El Cielo, Nudd, South America, Telecom

Belgian nonprofit helps, frightens farmers

When most ads use little people, it's just for some low-brow laughs. And maybe that's the case here. But I have to say I like this ad for the Belgian nonprofit Vredeseilanden ("Peace Islands") which raises money for third-world farmers by selling keychains shaped like, well, little people. (It's actually the organization's logo.) Instead of just tugging at our heart strings with the sad-but-true facts about life for South American farmers, the nonprofit deserves credit for creating a spot that's informative, funny and a bit self-deprecating. Maybe that's why they reportedly sold 100,000 of the keychains in January. To learn more about the campaign, including a clever guerilla effort on the steps of the Belgian Stock Exchange, be sure to check out Osocio's write-up.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on February 23, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Activism, Belgium, Griner, South America

Don't throw those innards out with the trash

2008 may be remembered as the year when organ-donor-plea advertising came of age. California's singing-maggot effort ranked among AdFreak's 32 Freakiest Ads of '08. Now, from IMIP in Brazil (via agency Ampla) comes a print campaign that poses men, women and children next to trash cans. The text reads: "One of these two will get your organs. You decide." See all three ads here. I'm assuming they mean someone will get my organs after I'm dead, but you'd never know it from the haunted, hungry looks on the faces of those models. Go ahead, dream about my spleen. Just let me finish using it! Of course, I can't shake the feeling that maggots will get us all in the end.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on January 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Gianatasio, Organ donation, South America

Chevys handle nicely through wedding cake

Cake is a big thing in auto ads lately. Last year, Fallon London baked up that sedan-shaped cake for Skoda. And now we have this McCann Argentina spot in which a pair of twentysomethings drive their Chevy Spark through a giant wedding cake. The meaning of the stunt is unclear, but it probably has something to do with rebellion. The tagline is, "Life has just begun."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on November 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (5)
Filed under Chevrolet, McCann Erickson, Nudd, South America