This ad for the Microsoft Zune (you must be like, Why are they making new commercials for that?), which AdFreak has dubbed the indie Peter Pan tribute, is a pretty but otherwise fairly pointless experience.
Moonlit ET-style silhouettes aside, the ad would probably suit better for Polaroid, considering there's actually an insta-cam featured between the lovebirds. But considering how hard Polaroid's rolling these days, the spot may ring too sappy for the hard-partying camera execs.
Perhaps sick of playing with other people's hands, HP rips a page out of Apple's playbook and tries taking the back door into widespread popularity: by appealing to graphic designers.
Toyrama, created by Arc Worldwide Singapore, is jammed with all the tiresome but stock aspects of an animated world, including theatrical, urban and comical elements, with a Willy Wonka twist: the best animated director to join the Toyrama contest gets to visit Dreamworks.
Don't forget to return your Everlasting Gobstopper on the way out.
VLAN! drew our attention to this 3D billboard for the iPod (and iTunes), which is perched somewhere above the streets of New York. We can see a few album covers in our own collection, including Sinatra and Jack Johnson, which definitely gives the ad a double-take quality.
Is it just us, or does it look like the wee white device is vomming media? Guess that's apt.
We liked this would-be viral for Umpqua Bank by Creature, which showcases the travails of the budding entrepreneur from the eyes of a seven-year-old "lemonaire" who hasn't yet learned there are myriad ways in which life can maim and destroy the dreams you hold dear.
Of potential lemonade stand competitors, the little hero ambitiously opines, "I'm gonna crush them and turn them into parking lots."
We're touched.
We also like the tack Umpqua took in not putting together some gritty astroturf viral. They effectively converted an obscure brand we've seen on a couple of drab buildings into a sunshiny, fun place to teach one's kiddies about the value of money ... and interest rates.
It's worth mentioning that Jim Haven served as creative director on this spot. We'd hate on him some more but we're still pleasantly sedated by all the yellow on the Lemonaire site.
Fallon, London just put together these new spots for Ask.com. They've got that VHS vibe going on and are weird, but oddly watchable. (We liked Algorithm best, probably because of the dancing.)
With the failure of Jeeves and the new face of Ask, characterized by that cryptic billboard campaign, it took us awhile to warm up to the brand's quirky new personality. The ninja effort probably helped.
What we like about the new Ask is that they manage the random humor well but don't go all left-field - all efforts serve the purpose of delivering the same, consistent message in different ways.
Smart. Why is that so hard to do?
Fashion advertising, more so than any other form, is in the eye of the beholder. Just ask D&G. While we don't fawn over fashion mags as much as, say, Anna Wintour fawns over next season's collections but we're quite sure Perry Ellis, whose Fall 2007 press release gushes, "the legendary American fashion brand known for pushing the envelope in its seasonal advertising campaigns, is taking yet another unexpected turn..." is doing no such thing with this new print campaign.
We could be wrong. And since we don't claim to get it right all the time like Bob Garfield does, that's always a possibility but we don't think so in this case. That comic book thing from the last campaign? We never got it. Way too hipsteresque for our jaded sense of the world.
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Brentter was recently sent the latest iteration of the Alltel Wireless ad series, which improves upon the earlier set by adding more geektacularity to the personalities of its wireless competitors.
We agree that the new series is better (the "we could learn to be archers" reference in this acknowledges films-gone-geeky like Lord of the Rings and Napoleon Dynamite), and the campaign's definitely drawn the roving eyes of friends seeking to change wireless plans.
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This is a little old but it begged for coverage. For tennis players who never felt the cotton polo was sufficiently breathable, lingerie brand Ophelia Fancy will help you get scandalously skimpy for the next match.
Hey, it's hard to find a decent costume that doesn't come out of a plastic Halloween tote bag. And with Ophelia covering our dress-up fetishes (with pasties!) and Hot Milk keeping expectant mothers delectably scant, there's really no excuse to go on a-porting your favorite cotton boy shorts, is there?
Because Second Life is getting too competitive (or not), H&M goes back to where vicarious cyber-living began: the Sims, in a Fashion Stuff Expansion Pack for Sims 2.
We nearly forgot the Sims existed.
Check out H&M Sims trailer. It makes shopping almost as tiresome as it is in real life. Maybe the physical experience would be funner on a runway. Or maybe we're digging too deep and the truth is that all experiences are just funner on coke. Is there coke in Second Life?
It's obviously not the real thing, but we're having fun with this new game Heat Fighter, a variation on the classic Street Fighter, created for Nestea by Lowe Roche, Toronto.
Players can be customized and the game has all the basic moves you'd expect in a fighting game, though the challengers (Solar, Cole and Mercury) don't seem super-challenging.
The little Nestea superchargers are a nice touch. We are actually kind of feening for some iced tea now.
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