Writing in More About Advertising, Stephen Foster says Levi's has "lightened up" with a follow up to the Wieden + Kennedy-created opus, Go Forth Braddock. That spot, if you recall, pulled the heartstrings by focusing on American despair and how that despair, so says the commercial, motivates people to work towards a goal. Idealistic is an understatement.
The agency's new work, This is a Pair of Levi's, is far from a "lightening up" of the original. In fact, it pours on the hipsterific poetics as if the entire world suddenly and collectively participated in a gigantic hand-waving, come-to-Jesus beatnik meeting of epic proportion.
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Crispin Porter + Bogusky is out with another 90's flashback for Old Navy. Having capitalized on Mayim Balik and Joey Lawrence, the agency has turned to the original 90210 alums Jason Priestly and Gabrielle Carteris for its latest outing. The spot is as quirky as ever with Priestly and Carteris posing as teachers in a color-fueled, robotically-enhanced school whre a "new girl" makes her debut.
Hey we like the spot but all these "retro" commercial do is make us feel old.
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Over the weekend I was informed by AdScam's George Parker that his friend and long time copywriter Curvin O'Reilly had passed away after a short bout with cancer. Who was Curvin O'Reilly? I didn't know the man but George did so please read what he had to say about this man who, it appears, embodied the reality of our current day fantasies of the Mad Men era.
In addition to George's thoughtful words, Tom Messner wrote a beautiful eulogy he shared with a few of us over the weekend.
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This Olympics-focused editorial series is written by Ronald Urbach, Chairman of law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP and the co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group at the firm.
I don't know about you, but the last time I played badminton was when I was on summer vacation with my kids. We bought the kit at the local hardware store, set it up on the grass and started playing. As we played, not only did we have fun, we got better. This stimulated me to learn a little more about the game: the little birdie thing that we were hitting was called a shuttlecock, and the game itself had been started by bored British military officers in 18th century India.
What does my summer vacation game have to do with the Olympics, advertisers, and agencies? Well, thanks to the South Korean, Indonesian, and Chinese Olympic badminton teams, I now know that badminton is an Olympic sport and has been since 1992. Eight Olympic badminton players from these countries threw their games - in other words, they intentionally tried to lose. Was this a Black Sox Scandal? No. No one was bribed and no one was betting on the matches hoping to personally profit from their actions. What happened was they wanted to lose so that they would face an easier opponent in the later rounds of the competition. Call it strategic losing. Go to YouTube and watch one of the matches - the entire stadium audience recognized what was happening and boos rained down on the athletes. It was bizarre.
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In what is, without doubt, the strangest ice cream commercial you will ever see, Philadelphia-based Little Baby's Ice Cream introduces an entirely new way to enjoy its super premium, 16 percent butter fat ice cream.
With all the creepiness of a pedophile, an announcer intones the wonders of "eating baby's ice cream" the as a man (woman?) scoops ice cream off his (her?) head.
Seriously twisted stuff but with all the proper ingredients to become a viral success.
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In a new commercial created by Actung, Vodafone is touting their Party Starter app that, according to this ad, really only succeeds at one thing; making you look like a douche. And that's really all we have to say about that.
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Alaska Communications is out with a beautiful new commercial, Great Alaska, that touts the state's vast size and the company's ability to connect people so it doesn't seem so vast. The commercial, created by Vitro, was shot at four frames per second with a miniaturizing filter effect applied resulting in an effect that perfectly communicates the intended strategy.
With the copy, "when you exist for the sole purpose of keeping Alaskans connected, you learn to treat small businesses like big businesses," the message of connecting people together in such an expanse is driven home.
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Yes, it's true. Adrants now has a proper mobile site. It's not perfect. It's not complete. But it is far better than trying to view the full site on a mobile device. We used Mojaba to create it...ourselves! No mobile designer needed. Let us know what you think.
And, yes, we know it needs more work. It's fueled by the RSS feed (which, by the way, is now a full feed for you RSS junkies) so it's not perfect but it works. Have fun. Go to m.adrants.com to see it.
In the world of advertising it's pretty much written in stone that brands portray their products in an aspirational manner using imagery and actors that are everything a consumer wants to be but can't because they aren't rich enough, beautiful enough, skinny enough, own a fancy enough car, have big enough breasts or a six pack that puts Calvin Klein models to shame.
Which is why we love this new Southern Comfort work from Wieden + Kennedy New York. Called Whatever's Comfortable, it's a celebration of just that. No pretense here at all. Just a not so perfect looking guy walking down the beach with all the calm collected coolness that only...ahem...comfort with one's own body can bring.
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AdFreak loves them. AgencySpy loves them. And we do too. Three new FedEx spots from BBDO New York amp up the funny with deliciously zany scenarios, all involving golf. First up, a very Kiss-like (well, looking, that is) rock band lazily lounges in a hotel room as their manic manager bursts in and shouts, "How am I supposed to sell you guys as the most dangerous band in the world when you're seen schlepping golf clubs through the airport?"
The wordplay which follows between manager and band is magically masterful as the band turns out to be a bunch of golf-loving softies who'd never think of trashing a hotel room.
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