The Ad Store just sent us a plethora of new Zappos spots for spring/summer and fall/winter 2009.
"Step into Zappos" picks up where "Put a Little Zappos in Your Day!" left off. The latter featured a chipper delivery guy bringing sunshine and rainbows to a neighborhood; these spots riff off the glee infusion you get when you finally open that package.
Underpants-clad customers are pictured either standing in a Zappos box or walking into one. Putting on their best Vanna Whites for the camera, they either reveal their purchases or lift the box over themselves -- at which point they are suddenly transformed into fully-dressed Citizens of Society.
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The new Kia Soul is so compelling you will want to look deeper. And to depict this in the most obvious way possible, Publicis/Toronto came up with "Peer Into a Soul."
Each spot tackles the concept with a different film genre, a gimmick meant to appeal to people who want something more from their car marketers.
The campaign DP is Robert Yeoman, who worked on The Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic and The Squid and the Whale, so we naturally expected the pieces to ooze some sub-normal slice-of-lifishness -- like that feeling you get when a joke's been told but was so subtle you didn't laugh, and now all the hipsters know you Do Not Belong.
The humor here isn't quite that sublime (and for good reason -- they're car ads, after all), but the choice of music definitely oozes Yeoman.
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The YMCA is the place to be. You'll get a burn, you'll make really awesome platonic friends, and sometimes clowns work out there. Maybe.
An art director at Preston Kelly sent us the above-linked (and below-embedded) spots for YMCA, which under the slogan "Real people. Real fitness" hopes to reel in new members that:
1. Don't look like porn stars and/or Arnold Schwarzenegger in his 20s
2. Don't make sex noises on the treadmill
3. Aren't complete fitness bunnies
The natural result of this checklist of Things That May Potentially Turn You Off are these spots, where two workout buddies partake of YMCA's fitness buffet while saying quirky "real people" things, like "It's like a bear trap. Except it's a people trap. And the people trap's made of bears!"
Here is the part where you relate, because that guy is simple, and yet hilarious -- like you! Don't be ashamed; we're relating too.
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In a video from a guy who can only be described as the archetypal high school geek, 50 Cent takes a lashing for his continued penchant to sell out to any brand who will have him. From Vitamin Water to a line of men's cosmetics condoms to a video game to a movie, 505 cent is now on to sex toys.
Female First reports, "The sexy rapper is desperate to release a line of condoms and waterproof sex toys designed to excite his female fans and make them feel closer to his idols."
To which our archetypal high school geek reacts, "My God. 50 Cent is just whoring himself out. First he's doing commercials for Vitamin Water then its a make up line and then...he makes a dildo of his own dick? What else is he gonna do? Fiddy cent diapers fo yo little gangsta?"
Classic.
To kick off its first season as the NHRA's series title sponsor, Coca-Cola's Full Throttle, with help from Mother New York, has launched a six-spot TV campaign that looks at the sport's history, heroes and that thing that has become known as drag racing. Shot at the Pamona raceway in California by Mother's Linus Karlsson and produced by Greencard Pictures, the spots - in black and white - do the whole Rocky fight prep thing. Except way less Rocky.
Each aspect of the sport is highlighted in that...Tom Cruise/Days of Thunder opening credits way. Except...way, way less Days of Thunder. Except...kinda like Days of Thunder...minus the over-blown self-importance of the eighties.
See all the spots here (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
We are loathe to report bad news because, you know, Adrants is all about the FUN in advertising, right? Who wants to be bogged down with minor details like tens of thousands of layoffs and millions of dollars of budget cuts? Right? No one but, hey, we wouldn't be doing our job if, despite all the FUN, we didn't offer up a bit of reality every once in a while. So, without further ado...
Um, how do we say this tactfully. The economy sucks and the advertising industry is undergoing decimation. A recent study from the Association of National Advertisers, in a follow up study to one completed in August, found 93 percent of companies are in cost saving/reduction mode (compared to 87 percent in August) and 37 percent are reducing budgets by more than 20 percent (compared to 21 percent in August.)
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- Speeding could turn you into Haley Joel Osment.
- The Marijuana Policy people are boycotting Kellogg's for firing Phelps for smoking pot, even though he's been nailed in the past with a DUI. They feel this is hypocritical because pot doesn't necessarily kill; it just makes you real, real sleepy.
- So Good is boycotting Kellogg too, as is HuffPo.
- Guerrilla Comm rebrands.
- Twitter to charge brands for use. No word on how.
- Dame Edna for MAC.
- French billboard rage.
- Radiohead licensed House of Cards one of its songs to a homeless shelter for an ad, dubbed "House of Cards," that breaks this month.
We don't know why we're writing this up, given that "going social" is not difficult, or costly, or even all that imaginative anymore, but hey -- if the PR people went out of their way to put this on the wire, then by gad we will honor their service.
Requisite quote candy: "This is the first time a luxury fashion brand has launched a provocative social media campaign tying together their various data-linked platforms, like a multi-entry daily blog, twitter feed and facebook." -- Scott Goodson, CEO, StrawberryFrog
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A valuable lesson from Cisco: it doesn't matter who you are or what you're selling. Like Hallmark and Disney's made-for-TV movie department, you can turn any holiday to your advantage.
In this case, Cisco takes cheesy expressions of Valentine's Day love and wraps them around its ASR 9000, "the first in a new series of edge routers in nearly a decade" -- and more importantly, the fourth way to say I love you.
The video is presently circulating YouTube with FIVE out of FIVE stars! so far. It's the culmination of a months-long campaign in which pseudo-reporter Ira Pumfkin roamed Cisco's halls in pursuit of a big story. See the blog at Tech Edge Weekly (the link also appears at the end of the vid).
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New Dolce & Gabbana ads, brought to us by Jeremy Dante. In this fresh rendition of West Side Story Meets the Park Avenue Chippendales!, a confrontation simmers between two well-coiffed wolfpacks from different sides of town. Or maybe just different sides of the same yacht club.
Alternatively, each print may feature the same group of guys, dressed in their afternoon vs. evening duds. (You know what mama said about wearing sandals after 7pm. It's just not done.)
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