For a medium that is nothing more than a giant board atop a metal structure, billboards continue to impress with their seemingly endless flexibility. Of course, none of that impressive flexibility would be possible were it not for inventive creativity. Leo Burnett pleases us by proving to us that, yes, there still are new ideas floating around the minds of agency creatives.
While we can't prove no one has ever before affixed a living thing to a billboard before, Leo Burnett's placement of actual, growing lettuce on a billboard in Wrigleyville for McDonald which spells "Fresh Salad" is refreshingly original and, at the same time, simplistically succinct in conveying the intended message.
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Why crash just one or two cars when you can turn multiple fender benders and head ons into a slo mo spectacle of ballet-like proportion? French car manufacturer Renault wen with the latter in a recent commercial for its line of vehicles. Shot on what appears to be salt flats, multiple Renaults spin, pirouette, promenade, cabriole and generally move with grace while at the same time collide dramatically on ground and in mid-air in one of the best car commercial we've ever seen.
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While some will recognize The Odd Couple theme music in this new RPA-created Honda Civic Hybrid commercial and others won't, the message is crystal clear. There are clean people in this world and there are environmentally unconcious slobs. In the case of the two men in this commercial, one cares about the environment and one doesn't.
Throughout the spot, the former picks up the latter's trash as the go through their days, weeks and months commuting to work along the same path. It aligns very nicely with Honda's be good to the environment message and will likely appeal to those who do actually care and properly make fun of those who don't. All while selling a car. Nifty.
We're kind of crazy about this campaign for Asko by SMFB. If you have no idea what Asko is, that's cool, we didn't either. Apparently it's a brand for washing machines, and now it's the only washing machine we want.
The creative uses the playfulness and grit of claymation to tie our everyday self-delusion to the domestic cuddle-factor associated with doing your laundry. Fantastic balancing act.
Note the modern hunter-gatherer at left, braving the wild with his flannel "suit of masculinity." Check out the long-legged jeans-sporting chick as she towers over all, as much in her imagination as in the real world. Observe how proper washing can add self-esteem to otherwise self-deprecating shirts.
And consider how Asko protects guardian teddy bears! We are hugging ourselves at the very thought.
This is good. Really good. Wilkinson razor has released a JWT France-created trailer and online game which focus on the neglect dads feel because their wives are so enamored with the softness of their new baby's skin. In order to win back their wives' affections, the men take to shaving with Wilkinson razors. Baby don't like this. No, no no. And baby goes all ninja rap on Dad's ass.
If you're Gillette and you want to sell razors, all you have to do is open your mouth and barf out some piece of shit Super Bowl ad. If you're not, you actually have to be creative...and entertain...and inform...and engage. Wilkinson does this very nicely.
Sit back in your chair. Close your eyes. Imagine the theme music from the movie The Last of the Mohicans welling up inside your head. Picture Daniel Day-Lewis running through the woods and over the mountaintop to save Madeline Stowe from certain death. Now, open your eyes and watch this new commercial (YouTube or higher quality on the U.S. Nike site) from Nike called Never Quit directed by Michael Man. It's transfixing. It's intense. It puts you in the game. It makes your blood rush. It sends chills through your spine. It proves there's more than money in the game of American football.
Now, turn the sound off and watch it again. Pretty lame, right? Music is masterful, even more so than video sometimes, at conveying and amping up a message. Of course, we're partial to this sort of emotional manipulation but, then again, isn't that what advertising's about? Thanks, Bill for calling this to our attention.
Tampon maker O.B. has left all the crap about comfort and simplicity behind and zeroed on the product's main benefit: it absorbs a shitload of liquid. Enough said. I mean really. What else can be said about this ad? It's truly brilliant. Maybe a bit gross but brilliant none the less. That is, of course, if it is, in fact, a real ad.
Some people, like LotR aficionados, have waited most of their adult lives for their epic to hit the big screen. Others, notably Harry Potter and Narnia fans, haven't really had to suffer the bittersweet agony of waiting for some director to do justice to their literary childhood fantasia.
Our time has finally come. And it's either going to be really crappy, in which case it takes New Line Cinema down along with it, or it's going to blow our fucking minds.
The epic we're referring to is The Golden Compass, part one of a trilogy we've read at least six times. Watch the Comic Con preview for the fullest effect.
While we doubt Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman would ever let us down, we realize how stupid it is to pin all our broken dreams on an adaptation, so we are holding our emotions at arm's length.
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Young Guns work is usually great but when you have to wait like an entire minute...or more...for a site to load it's well, off putting. That said, this new work, which comes in the form of an online musical, takes us through the day in the life of an award show virgin. All the cliches are here. And there's even appearances by Alex Bogusky, David Droga and Lee Clow. Even the audience can participate.
We particularly like the reference to timelines as akin to having "a clock jammed up your ass." Ooo. Ooo. And there's school girl outfits too! The longer you watch, the better it gets.
We're a little late on this one, but it's worth mentioning anyway because finally there's a way to express the impact and meaning of Web 2.0 without verbally fumbling with "blogs," "collaboration," "synergy" and other bullshit buzz we've been hammered with and hammering others with so relentlessly.
After some trial and error, anthro professor Mike Wesch has perfected his text-based thesis on the evolution of the word, technology and ourselves in Web 2.0.
Definitely worth the watch. The progression from paper to text is a little painful if you've seen it 34598349058 times like we have, but it's nonetheless an elegant process and the ending is still pretty moving. Thanks Lee Hopkins for tipping us off.
Now Wesch can roll up his sleeves and start on his next project: Web 3.0, a web far more tangly than the one we've just finished weaving. But it isn't just around the corner, it's pretty much already here.
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