Hrm. All right. These spots for the Honda Ridgeline are kind of clever. In fact, they remind us a little of that Honda Fit series we just looked at (with the comic-book headlines and abrupt punchlines), except a little less...
...what? Is it wit we're lacking? Well, they certainly make an effort. Watch tough meet classy, rugged meet spacious, tradition meet innovation, and rough meet smooth.
Due props go out to RPA and LA-based MJZ for the use of Chuck Norris, a lumberjack and lasers, though. It's rare when those elements don't coalesce into a hit of mind-boggling proportions.
For those seeking a hero in a beauty queen, Miss America has created her own browser to protect young girls from online predators.
Each site the browser accesses is filtered and approved by the Miss America Organization and the Children's Educational Network. It also reads email out loud and can instruct kids to do laundry or homework, based on parental programming.
Par for the course if she can improve the ratio for the 1/5 Americans who can't locate the States on a map. Miss South Carolina failed miserably in that regard, but maybe that's why she didn't win the crown.
This is awesome. Leo Burnett in Cairo put together this series of real-life-meets-pop-culture spots for client Melody Tunes, Egypt's first all-English music channel.
The effort goes in exact opposition to the hipster feel of iPod spots, which suggest your writhing rendition of the soundtrack in your head is actually sexier than it is. The parodies also touch lightly on cultural misunderstandings that occur when pop culture is imported.
This is something we can especially relate to, considering our mom thought "Hit Me Baby One More Time" was an anthem for masochists.
Onto the parodies: Smack That, Oops! I Did It Again, Candy Shop (50 Cent would be so proud), Don'tcha (we covered our eyes for this one), and Hang Up.
That zany little fat kid just cracks us up. He looks (and cries) like an Egyptian Cartman.
A new campaign from non-profit 1% For The Planet is urging companies to donate one percent of sales to a fund that feeds environmental causes. Created by TDA Advertising & Design, three ads place mock blame on several species with the headlines, "If the dolphins are so smart, they should start a small business and save themselves'" "Problem: The California condor is going extinct. Solution: The California condor should have more sex" and Why is it that the vast majority of sycamores cannot grasp even the most basic economic principles?"
Of course the copy goes on to state humans are really the only ones who can affect change and should do so by supporting environmental causes. It's a simple campiagn with a simple message and we think it works.
There's just one thing wrong with this Virgin Trains news report-style video which urges the British to stop driving and start taking the train to reduce global warming. Apparently, due to global warming, the mating season of British wildlife is all screwed up and the animals are having a sex party year round. Is that really a bad thing? Created by glue London, this video, and an accompanying video in which the animals compose a letter to the British urging them to take the train, are funny. They've got all the British wit one would expect.
Additionally, there's a collection of videos from each of the animals pleading their own individual cases
This is cute. In this trilogy of ads, Intel pairs assembly-line imagery with compelling background narrative that lends the sense these chips aren't just cogs in the wheel; they're personalities seeking unique opportunities out in the world.
Observe how chips look for love, ponder their possibilities on "graduation day" and whistle while hard at work.
The campaign, which was produced by Anonymous for agency McCann Erickson, makes a great companion series to HP's The Computer is Personal Again, which focused on how the personalities of computer owners imbued the computer itself.
This is pretty neat. Here's the Nissan Rogue ad that goes with the marble virals floating around on YouTube. Perhaps you saw it when it appeared during the season premier of Heroes last week.
But instead of a marble wandering its way through a neatly-hedged maze, the Rogue itself is speeding through an obstacle-ridden city.
Funnier still is this commentary from REmixed, which attributes the work entirely to his art director buddy Ken. The commercial is even dubbed "Ken's Nissan Rogue ad."
Our west coast contact wryly notes, "Maybe he even cooked the food for the crew at craft services..."
So auteur David Lynch has gone from Eraserhead to Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks to...a Gucci commercial? One could argue it's a sad state of affairs when all a down on his luck (misunderstood?) filmmaker has left is filming commercials. Or one could argue it's a step up since it seems every Hollywood director is doing it these days.
While we not sure about the soundtrack in this Gucci commercial - Blondie's Heart of Glass - visually, it's all David Lynch. It's like a scene out of Twin Peaks with supermodels dancing instead of that freaky little guy. In fact, if you replaced the Blondie tune with the Twin Peaks theme, it would be Twin Peaks. Don't get us wrong. We love Lynch. Though, we wish he'd hurry up and give us another Mulholland Drive or a Lost Highway we could actually understand.
WongDoody, which recently brought us the clever Horizon Air campaign, has extended its No Stank You youth anti-smoking campaign for the Washington State Department of Health with a social media and fashion styled campaign.
The program is described thusly, "To earn a free No Stank You shirt, teens visit No Stank You and participate in the "Do 3, Get T" incentive program. Points are awarded for adding a No Stank You banner to a personal Web site, submitting an original tee design, referring a friend to the No Stank You site and more. Each activity is worth one point. Three points earns a free tee."
Supporting the effort are TV and radio. View one of the six spots here. Gross. Weird. Good.
Interesting. When every marketer is on a land grab for the latest Second Life, MySpace, Twitter or Facebook stunt, Metropolitan Life, perhaps being true to the blandness that if life insurance, has chosen old fashioned eBay (remember all those stupid auctions?) to place its MetLife Snoopy in Fashion promotion. Part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the promotion lets people bid on fashions designed by Heatherette, Isaac Mizrahi, Betsey Johnson and Pamella Roland, Kristin Chenoweth, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Ingrid Hoffmann.
Design for a September seventh runway event, proceeds from the bids will go to Dress For Success, "a non-profit organization which promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life."
For once, an eBay auction that doesn't have anything to do with tattooing body parts or auctioning off pixels on a website. And who doesn't love Snoopy?
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