This is "Ca$h," a fun little ad for a gratuitously violent game called Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. I love how it illustrates the acquisition of profit by unethical means: the seedy backdrops, filthy oceans, and characters' faces all bear the delightfully crisp stamp of currency.
And the song! It's convivial and music-hallish, the kind of thing you learn the words to, then leap around and mouth while blowing holes through the furniture with your bad-ass mercenary fingertips. What a feast it'll be for the PTC when these role models invade their living rooms.
Put together in HD by Shilo for DraftFCB/San Francisco. Electronic Arts debuted the spot on August 18 Stateside; it'll start running September 5 in the United Kingdom. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like on TV.
You've probably seen the American version of this iPhone ad, and you've probably not thought twice about it, but the United Kingdom ain't having any.
The Advertising Standards Authority argues the ad suggests iPhone users have access to all the parts of the internet, which technically isn't true. Two viewers complained, and the ad's been pulled.
If Apple wants to run it, it'll have to give Mr. Voiceover something less, oh, all-encompassing to say.
In addition to protecting big spenders from Apple's appalling dishonesty, the ASA's also railed against mascara deception, erosion of religious values and unsafe car dancing. Unrealistic depictions of nipple elasticity are okay though, because bright citizens know better than be to duped by that.
Good to know there's a discerning body keeping the UK safe from uninhibited agency machinations.
Yell.com, an online service from the Yellow Pages, debuted its first standalone TV campaign this month. The effort revolves around a party planner called Fresno and his whiny little clients, which vibe like rejects from My Super Sweet Sixteen.
This spot went live on August 20. It's about Marcus, a Surrey brat who wants his Roman-themed party changed, practically overnight, to a bling-heavy gangsta-gansta street bash. Fresno, aiming ever to please, insists all this and more can be accomplished at the drop of a (pimptastic!) hat. Meanwhilst, his anxious assistant trots behind him, tapping queries into Yell.com at a feverish pace.
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Time's drawing near for the September 2 debut of 90210, the CW's remake of '90s pop classic Beverly Hills, 90210. Worried that the network will slut it up a la Gossip Girl, the Parents Television Council is admonishing advertisers not to sponsor the show unless a pre-screening is released.
Read the elongated back-and-forth. In a nutshell, the PTC insinuated that the CW won't release a pre-screen because it doesn't want large, socially-responsible advertisers scrutinizing all that naughty, dirty, bad, baaaad content. The CW says it just doesn't want to spoil a highly-anticipated premiere. In the end, it'll probably win this girlfight.
Concerns about poisoning our pure American youth aside, the PTC's got a definite beef. For its last Gossip Girl print campaign, the CW used the headline "Mind-blowingly inappropriate!", a statement the PTC made to rebuke the show, to promote the new season.
Hilarious. Anyway, the PTC ain't going down without a yowl. It's contacted 136 major advertisers about the 90210 pre-screening issue. Cheers to the virtue of vigilance.
Image credit: the NY Post blog.
Three high school kids stand at the side of a track. One pulls out some chewing tobacco, then everyone's attention is captured by a rabbit with antlers. Bad taxonomy job? The creature spits tobacco out on the kids, everybody goes "Daaaang," suddenly somebody's missing a front tooth, and the moral is, don't chew tobacco.
"Dip. It can make your teeth fall out!"
By EnviroMedia for Spit It Out Texas. I don't get it. Off-topic, anti-tobacco ads -- no matter how disgusting -- always make me nostalgic for Big League Chew.
This Zappos spot, where a smiling courier hand-delivers a little bit of happy to customers in a small neighborhood, is infectiously charming.
I like how it brings the brand offline and makes it feel down-home and local: it's your friendly online shoe conglomerate! This approach would ring disingenuous for most internet giants, but Zappos has a coupla things going for it:
1) Getting a package in the mail gives people warm tinglies.
2) Its service really is just that good. The first time I placed an order with Zappos, the shoes didn't fit, and they sent a replacement pair even before I returned the old ones. "Just drop them in the mailbox whenever you can," the rep said (I could hear him smiling!), and boy did that feel nice. Cartwheel-nice, even.
Read more about Zappos' ad efforts riiiiiiiight here.
- It's the best of this year's Plaid Nation tour! Diggin' the chick who says plaid is God's favorite color.
- Anna Kournikova's still around. I like how her Maxim bio reads, "Before simply being superhot, Anna was a superhot tennis player." Put "simply being superhot" on your resume next time you get shafted, then see who throws sponsorship money at you.
- Naked guy runs across America.
- Last Visa "Go World" spot by TBWA/Chiat/Day. Michael Phelps: he keeps going and going and going and going...
- Check out Google minus Google. Running a search without getting results from YouTube, Blogger, or Knol feels sort of ... fresh.
Imagine if the Coke Happiness Factory got hijacked by dancing Reds that prefer fruity vodka to sugar water. You're probably picturing "Airship," the latest spot for Stoli Blakberi, put together by Publicis/London and production company Stink/Psyop. Music by Prokofiev.
Part of what keeps me drinking Stoli is unwavering affection for its advertising. On TV or in print, it's always got the same feel: over-the-top, cartoony, propagandistic. Disney's "It's a Small World After All" meets the hoarse ballads and frosty grit of Moscow.
Stoli is a proud, heavy-handed romantic, and taking a swig is like surrendering to history: the beautifying dizziness, concrete on your lips, bile in your throat. It's a suffering, and a brand, baptized in nostalgia.
Who knew people still read TV Guide? Apparently enough still do to make it worthwhile for ABC to buy out all the ad space in the August 25 issue in advance of the upcoming fall television season. The network will buy 21 pages in the issue and insert a DVD for New York and Los Angeles subscribers and newsstand sales.
When a movie chooses not to preview for critics, it's almost a foregone conclusion the movie will be bad. Hopefully, that isn't the case with The CW's 90210 which has also decided not to screen the show for advertisers or the media.
"Classic" 90210 was a good show...for the first few years. Over time, it got worse but people kept watching. All the way through the cast's high school years, their college years and the first few years of their "real world" life. The cast became like Twitter friends. No matter how mundane their lives were, you simply couldn't turn of the "weekly update." It was an unhealthy addiction.
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