We've been subject to some foul premises in our lives, but few things have generated an adverse physical reaction the way this ad for Mio has.
Produced by Duval Guillaume in Brussels, the tagline reads, "There's always a way out." Ponder on that as you like if you ever accidentally swallow a live bug.
It's probably worth mentioning that we just consumed an inordinate amount of peanut butter. This really has nothing to do with the ad, but after watching the spot, our stomachs are not happy.
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.
You can label it ingenious, lazy or a ploy for publicity but London agency Nonesense wants you to help create its website. They've got a brief and three idea and they want you to choose the best one. We're not sure about any of the ideas but we love the fast talking guy who explains them.
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..."
Following the release of a video on YouTube, navigation aid TomTom has launched a full blown campaign across Europe with TV, print, radio and out door. In two TV spots, the Mapshare feature, which lets users update and correct the map database, are highlighted in a humorous manner.
In one spot, a boss and a subordinate find themselves together at a stop light on the way to work. The boss looks over at the subordinate, taps his watch with a "don't be late" glare. The subordinate, who has TomTom, makes a left. The boss goes straight. Guess who gets to work on time and guess who looks the fool? Exactly. In the second spot, a husband and pregnant wife race to the hospital with TomTom telling them to go down what once was a one way street. It's very straightforward expect for the fact they're just on a practice run.
The commercial are shot using a lime green illustrative animation style from Dutch agency TBWANeboko and production company PostPanic.
We like the style and tone of the commercial, it's use of un-hip humor which can be clearly understood across countries and cultures and the uniqueness of the visuals.
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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.
If you followed my Advertising Week adventure at all, you probably know I hit YPulse on Friday. In the late afternoon, a bunch of kids were corralled onto the stage to give us one last shot at learning their inner-workings before hitting the road.
Like the minds of the demographic it hopes to distill, the one-room YPulse Tween Mashup conference hall is a different world.
Upon entering, you're accosted by Michael Jackson's ABC (this is before Hanson's Mmmbop was spun about 6 different times) -- and with so much pink SWAG just waiting to be snapped up, you feel roughly the same emotional tug that only Lisa Frank's overpriced unicorn-shaped pencil sharpeners could conjure.
With all this going on, the YPulse atmosphere serves to make marketers feel pre-adolescent and out-of-touch, all at the same time.
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