Every scene in "Making Christmas," a glimpse into one family's holiday, belongs in a frame on a department store mantelpiece. It's a painfully pretty picture of someone else's life -- never mine, maybe yours; you can almost touch the glossiness.
I like the scene where The Men walk in with the presents, then there's coloured paper everywhere, then this short gorgeous shot of a doe-eyed freckled boy. Moments like that make an otherwise-discreet* ad priceless -- part of the narrative of a viewer's season.
All that lux, casual idleness is punctuated by a page number -- "Page 55," "Page 49" -- printed in LL Bean's catalogue typeface. Nice tie-in.
By GSD&M Idea City with help from Sticks+Stones. Background track is Valley Winter Song by Fountains of Wayne. More fun facts here.
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- Hurtin' for love? Advertise on a stripper's apple bottoms. Dolla make you holla! (Via.)
- BU needs money too.
- Mind your social media Ps and Qs.
- The rumours are true: it snows in Switzerland.
- Ivanka Trump blogs for Brides.com.
- Bogus Nike discount code. Boooo. (Hoooo.)
- Maybe that dam is somebody's house.
- Possibly the best marijuana PSA evar. If you watch it while high on 4/20, the universe will fold in on itself. Also, just for the record, I have ironed my hair while under the influence. It is so, so dangerous.
Late to a party long populated with the likes of AmEx, Apple, Converse, Motorola, Microsoft, Dell, The Gap, and Giorgio Armani, Starbucks finally joins the Product (red) brigade, spearheaded by U2's Bono to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Buy a Starbucks exclusive beverage, save lives in Africa! If the watch-worthiness of the ad isn't equal to the cause, it's at least a tribute to the crippling mediocrity that halos brands grown lazy and slow. Way to go, BBDO!
If I'm shocked, it's only because this didn't happen sooner. Really. This has to be a record for the amount of time a top-heavy "lifestyle" company's spent resisting the rejuvenating call of Bono.
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Straight out of advertising's Book of Awkward Moments comes this Thanksgiving-themed commercial for Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss who, after giving thanks and offering prayer for President Bush, President-Elect Obama and the troops, gives his granddaughter a very creepy chest grope.
Creepy as that move might be, it's made even creepier by the two grand kids who utter "...and vote for my big daddy." With the commercial just dripping with overtones of family value, the ending is a bit shocking. Even more shocking is the fact no one noticed Chambliss' awkward hand movement before the commercial hit the airwaves.
Come December, Santa begins to make appearances the world over and since some easily tire of tradition, others are there to shake things up. Actually, no one really tires of Santa and his traditions. Just ad agencies trying to get a nut...and a chance to do something new to something old.
Because smartphones like the Palm Centro are supposedly all the shizzle, Santa, who just got a new one, needs his life upgraded as well. So Seattle-based Creature gave Santa a new haircut, a new suit, a new attitude, a diet and a new name, Clause - pronounced Klouse, of course.
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See teaser visuals for the Whopper Virgin campaign by Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Burger King. Turn the volume down unless you dig the cacophonous din of high-pitched wind instruments.
According to AdFreak, Crispin -- our fearless leader! -- will scour the world in search of people that have never tried a Whopper, then publish a documentary about this deep spiritual journey alongside director Stacy Peralta.
The site boasts footage of unravaged remote villages as well as cultural wisdom, of which this is just one example: "If you want a real opinion about a burger, ask someone who doesn't even have a word for burger."
Ahhh. Today their stomachs, tomorrow their labour force. It's enough to make Hernan Cortes beam with childlike delight.
And it's like ... it's like ... a less funny Terrence and Phillip.
By Tierney Communications/Philly, which hopes to draw 18- to mid-twenty-year-olds choosing a bank for the first time. Two other spots, "Lincoln" and "Operator" -- use your imagination! -- are currently in production. Keep an eye out for those bad-boys at TD Bank Theater.
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Euro RSCG is out with a new commercial for Chivas Regal. The agency was asked to "strengthen Chivas Regal's premium positioning in mature and emerging markets by giving it a strong and distinctive point of view."
The spot opens on a man trudging his way to work on a cloudy day in a sea of lemming-like people. He's clearly questioning his purpose in life as as he voiceover intones, "Millions of people. Everyone out for themselves. Can this really be the only way? No." And with that, the man turns and goes his own way.
The spot then toasts life with words and phrases such as gallantry, doing the right thing, giving a damn, straight talk, freedom, true meaning of wealth, the brave and "a code of behavior that sets certain men apart from all others."
And, finally, "Here's to us." Live With Chivalry.
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"We're opening more lanes than ever ... to make Christmas shopping easier!"
Given what happened at its Long Island location, I think it's sorta weird that WalMart's still airing this ad. I saw it at least eight times this weekend -- and each time, without fail, it brought to mind the Black Friday Death Trample.
In it, lights from open aisles flicker to the tune of Carol of the Bells, which always struck me as a semi-creepy song anyway. (Don't make me explain why.) But now it also rings with the heavy panting of crazed, slightly overweight bargain hunters, indelible red splatters ... and the cracking of bones.
The spot first aired during the 2007 holiday season. Co-workers claim a woman was trampled then too, but that's cool because she was "a repeat stampede faker, from what I read," one dutifully disclosed.
WalMart, what good are extra checkouts without an orderly entering and exiting process? Stampedes don't organize themselves.
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