Coldwell Tries for Funny with Founding Father Staring Contest

coldwell-stare.jpg

There are few things more lame than a competitive staring match between two non-blinking pros, unless those pros are also inanimate objects.

Watch helplessly as the portraits of Coldwell Banker’s founding fathers, Colbert Coldwell and Arthur Banker, try out-stare each other. Well, sort of. They’re side by side, so they can’t really stare.

It could be worse. (Imagine the moving-mouth and eyeball-hockey effects that challenged advertisers usually impose on stills.)

This playful take on the real estate market is positioned by the PR folk as a radical departure (note: our view, not a verbatim quote) from manicured lawns, smiling children and “the ubiquitous ‘sold’ sign.”

Nice distraction. You want radical departure? How about the now-ubiquitous “foreclosed” sign? Make generous use of yellow tape.

The ads were developed by McKinney, Durham and are accompanied by a microsite by Kinesis Marketing. The site includes a virtual office and blog.

Picture of Steve Hall

Steve Hall

RECENT ARTICLES

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Psychology says the person who thanks the waiter every single time isn’t performing gratitude — they genuinely don’t experience service workers as invisible, and that’s rarer than it should be

Psychology says the person who thanks the waiter every single time isn’t performing gratitude — they genuinely don’t experience service workers as invisible, and that’s rarer than it should be

Global English Editing

The loneliest version of retirement isn’t having no one to call it’s having a phone full of contacts and knowing that every single one of them will ask “how are you” without actually wanting the answer and you’ve gotten too tired to keep pretending that’s enough

The loneliest version of retirement isn’t having no one to call it’s having a phone full of contacts and knowing that every single one of them will ask “how are you” without actually wanting the answer and you’ve gotten too tired to keep pretending that’s enough

Global English Editing

I found a letter my father wrote to my mother before I was born — and the 3 sentences in it that he never said out loud to anyone in our family while he was alive changed how I understand every conversation he had with me for 40 years

I found a letter my father wrote to my mother before I was born — and the 3 sentences in it that he never said out loud to anyone in our family while he was alive changed how I understand every conversation he had with me for 40 years

Global English Editing

The art of the Sunday call: 8 things that happen psychologically during a 12-minute phone call with an aging parent that neither person will ever name but both people feel

The art of the Sunday call: 8 things that happen psychologically during a 12-minute phone call with an aging parent that neither person will ever name but both people feel

Global English Editing

Psychology says the person who is kind to everyone and close to no one isn’t always lacking in the capacity for intimacy — they’re managing their exposure to it, and management and intimacy are fundamentally incompatible, which is why the closeness they’re managing against never quite arrives

Psychology says the person who is kind to everyone and close to no one isn’t always lacking in the capacity for intimacy — they’re managing their exposure to it, and management and intimacy are fundamentally incompatible, which is why the closeness they’re managing against never quite arrives

Global English Editing

Women who have developed something genuinely beautiful in their character by the time they reach their 60s and 70s aren’t the ones who were always kind — they’re the ones who went through enough to become bitter and chose something else instead, who were let down enough times to close off and decided to remain open anyway

Women who have developed something genuinely beautiful in their character by the time they reach their 60s and 70s aren’t the ones who were always kind — they’re the ones who went through enough to become bitter and chose something else instead, who were let down enough times to close off and decided to remain open anyway

Global English Editing