Okay. See the hands at left grasping greedily for the giant diamond? That's supposed to represent the mobile web ... and the faceless villains that will immediately try to exploit it.
This is the first of a three-part video series that explains the whole "4G=IP" thing to people that buy tech items, such as iPods, primarily because they like the pretty colours.
We're suckers for smooth animated magic -- and for Cisco in general -- so we kept our eyes on the piece, which was a comfortable length and not too stuffed with strange-sounding geek noises. It's possible we even learned things.
That squeaky Adventures in Odyssey-sounding narrator kinda pissed us off though.
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Here's "Samples xD," the latest spot from Scion's fresh-out "Samples" effort. The latter launched in January and features car customizations mashed-up to the din of mixed beats.
From ATTIK CD Simon Needham: "These newest ads energetically combine actual owners' xBs, xDs and tCs with stock models in ways that convey the distinct personalities of Scion's vehicles and their owners - while also showing how their individuality ties them together."
Metaphor for life if we ever heard one. Sound design -- a mere window-shopper to Aphex Twin's Window Licker -- by Face the Music.
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In this cockle-warming story about a hyperventilating geek who now wears onesies and gets his pick of trophies (both metal and collagen-enhanced), Tony Stewart reinforces the power of Swagger.* The Old Spice product previously de-geeked Brian Urlacher and LL Cool J.
Actually, LL Cool J's still pretty square. Sometimes getting all muscly to stop being square will only make you squarer.
But we digress. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Swagger campaign. It's starting to feel a little less highlariously kitsch-tacular and more like Axe/Lynx. Which sucks because once upon a time, both brands were uniquely neat, and now they're almost exactly alike, except Old Spice is too red and Axe/Lynx is too potent.
Work by Wieden + Kennedy/Portland -- which succeeded, as always, in stimulating provocative discussion on YouTube.
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Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco is out with another Sprint NASCAR commercial and, thankfully, there are no short shorts in the one. This one's called Speedway and it hypes the NASCAR Sprint Series and the ability to watch it on your Sprint phone.
Having just caught Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder on cable recenlty, we can identify with the on-track mania depicted in this commercial. Though we're not entirely clear why Goodby decided to get MassMarket to visual effectify the spot into something resembling a video game. Oh alright, we'll agree it's far more interesting that just watching "regular" cars crash into each other and it does capture the take-no-prisoners competitive aspect of the sport.
Hoping to battle the apparent escalation of violence in Vancouver and to encourage people to come forward if they have information about criminal activity, a new pro bono PSA campaign from DDB Canada informs, "You remain anonymous, criminals don't."
The out of home and print campaign for Greater Vancouver Crime Stoppers depicts crimes in progress with the criminal in focus and the victims and witnesses pixelated which supports the campaign's tagline.
Explaining the strategy behind the creative, DDB Canada Creative Director Dean Lee said, "Pixelation is instantly recognized and commonly associated with the reporting of criminal activity. But this time it's used to illustrate the anonymity of providing crime-solving tips. People need to realize their tips are completely anonymous, that tipsters have nothing to fear and can make a real difference in helping make Vancouver a safer city to live in."
We like the simplicity of the campaign. It's not over-engineered and it, both visually and sith copy, makes the point quickly.
JWT Dubai recently created two spots for the Helen Bamber Foundation. In one, Vows, a couple stand before a priest as if you exchange vows. Vows are certainly exchange but they are not of the normal variety.
In another, Auction, a room full of seedy-looking rich people continue to outdo each other's bids for the auctioned item onstage...which turns out to be a child.
Both spots do a decent job of twisting your perceptions and creating a sense of suspense.
"Skaters," an ad for the Seat Ibiza, features a beautiful cover of Forever Young that made us tuck a chin in our collective hand and sigh, because we were thinking about Freaks and Geeks and childhood in general. Vintage footage of kids on skateboards only fueled the cozy flames of nostalgia.
Then there was this awkward cut to a car. Everything changed: the feel of the ad, the imagery, the sounds. And then our souls, which were floating up somewhere above our heads, collapsed onto concrete.
We get what agency Atletico International, and production company Agosto, wanted to do: tie the Ibiza into youth and freedom, personify that spirit in a vehicle that in some ways is decidedly less whimsical. (Not much wind in your hair, no risk of elbow-scrapes.)
But it could have been done better.
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- AdGabber members remember Lee King. Reading about other peoples' experiences with King brings his body of work to life for us. Also, here's a nice memorial from AdWeek.
- How Mac's Genius Bar experience makes loyalists.
- Hey, AmEx, that's not very nice.
- Twitter started out on legal sheets. Look at them, all innocuous and ordinary, like so many ideas-cum-dustbunny-conventions lying dormant under your bed.
- Old Kraft logo, new Kraft logo.
- In case you ever wondered how influential you are on Twitter. What's that saying? Being powerful is like being a lady...
- Food for thought: The top 10 chains -- Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, Macy's, Dillard's, J.C. Penney, Kohl's, Sears, Bon-Ton and Belk -- had sales of about $110 billion last year, about one-fourth of Wal-Mart's total.
- Cow pee bevvies. Um ... yay?
- Congratulations on still having a job!"
The best investors are people that can see the big picture based on the little rivulets of action that trickle into it: hoarding licenses to all sans-serif typefaces, for example, right before Web 2.0 made Helvetica a star.
(*shifts feet in awkward pursuit of a better illustration. Decides to move on instead*)
To demonstrate is ability to see the grand tapestry by virtue of its many intersecting threads, T. Rowe Price tapped JWT/New York to oversee a pair of ads in which small events bleed into bigger ones. Meanwhile, a soothing voiceover compels audiences with its amazing ability to synopsize The Economist.
Production work by Psyop. Ads below.
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jetBlue's released a big wordy poster, calling out all the guys that used to be too good to fly with others: C-suite execs, "Underwriters of Mortgage-Backed Securities, Former Treasury Secretaries," et cetera, et cetera.
The bottom of the ad pithily reads "WELCOME ABOARD." There's also a separate section of the jetBlue.com site labeled "Welcome Bigwigs," which details the PERKS! everybody on jetBlue gets.
"The Best Seat in Coach" is high up there, followed closely by "All the Free Snacks You Can Eat." (Actually, that's pretty appealing. United's stingy about peanuts, AND they charge for boxed lunch.)
The WELCOME ABOARD, FORMER CASH-MONEY BALLERS!* effort is part and parcel of its ongoing Happy Jetting campaign, which loves itself some stencil clouds and ALL-CAPS.
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