Usually, he's just slowly walking around his Battlestar mumbling prophetic statements about the importance of mankind in that gruff voice he perfected so well back on Miami Vice but now Edward James Olmos is appearing, again, in two new commercial for Farmer's Insurance. In the first, Olmos is thrown, hands tied, from a plane without a parachute but is "rescued" by a pair of parachutists who, oh, just happen to be free falling through the air to save him by untying his hands and affixing a parachute to him. Of course, on the ground it's revealed it's all just a scene from some movie.
A second spot, also part of a movie set, has Olmos in the future being chased by a flying motorcycle while being shot. Olmos and everything is undamaged. The message in the two spots is things in real life are not indestructible which is why one needs insurance, namely Farmer's
It's not just brands hawking friends on MySpace anymore; it's products too. For a free milkshake promotion to cool the summer months, Southern brand Krystal put together the Krystal Lovers Lounge, a MySpace page for those who know nothing gets the heart racing (or slowing?) like whipped milk on ice.
While it won't do jack for your waistline, the MilkQuake page does include eco-friendly tips like admonishings to "Switch off your computer and any lights not in use."
Do you know what your Mom does for work? Do you really? We think this Mom's kids - and husband for that matter - have absolutely no idea. UK-based Nandos restaurants serve something called Peri-Peri chicken, a dish so addictive, the restaurant had to introduce Nando Fix Gum to stem cravings. Well, not really but that's what's going on this commercial for the restaurant chain in which "mom" doesn't always mean minivan-driving, PTA-involved, high-powered executive-style woman.
- George Parker wonders what the hell sense an "official insurance company of Major League Baseball" makes. We tend to wonder as well.
- Blind dude goes to Cannes to promote Italian viral community.
- Brokaw mourns loss of unofficial agency mascot.
- Wieden+Kennedy/Amsterdam and Psyop give did a behind-the-scenes peek at the Silver Lion winning "Happiness Factory"'. Real Coca-Cola employees were interviewed and their responses used by the animated factory workers for this film, which is running in Atlanta's World of Coca-Cola.
Wow. This definitely falls into the "so bad it's good" category. Or is it just the "so bad it's bad" category? Anyway, as AdFreak points out, Ballpark Franks has a new TBWA/Chiat/Day-created Alien-style commercial running in which an apparently very hungry stomach manifests an arm of its own because this kid's other two arms are too busy chatting online or fapping to the latest celebrity nipple slip. Hmm. A third arm? Now that would do wonders for those moments when only one arm is available for typing.
Here's a new spot called "Live Your Dreams" that's part of MasterCard's MLB Dreams campaign. Somehow cementing the notion nine innings of boredom is more exciting than the two halves of amazing footwork the rest of the world seems to worship, the spot's got all the usual baseball fanaticism and emotion including curse-reversing Red Sox action.
