We're not really sure what IBM is trying to do here but in our mind this ad only makes sense if they're trying to make some ironic commentary on society that has nothing to do with being special. They've depicted mankind as a walking passel of coffee cups and the one that sticks out happens to be attached to what looks like a set of iPod earbuds, which could have passed for special before everyone in the world had the telltale white cords leaking from ears to pocket.
Will your business solutions be as innovative as your pseudo-individualist coffee cup, IBM? -Contributed by Angela Natividad
We've seen this at least three times at different web addresses but passed it off as just a freakishly weird video but now the video contains a TiVo status bar, sound effects, closing copy and logo. And, it now lives on the website of San Francisco-based Swivel Media lending more credence to the marketing angle of the clip. The video (an old Bollywood film) features an Indian-looking family sitting on a bed with an old-school boombox. The Dad turns the boombox on and off as one of the kids (or...dare we say, dwarf with a big head and freakishly weird smile), standing on the floor in front of the bed dances robotically, starting and stopping as the Dad starts and stops the music. Freakishly weird but additively entertaining.
We contacted our friend Erik over at Swivel Media to confirm (yes, shockingly, we do that sometimes) this is, in fact, another weird promotion for TiVo and Erik tells us, yes, Swivel did create it in the sense they latched on to popular and strange clip and branded it with TiVo. We say another because in mid-September an odd, 50's-style video surfaced called Blue Moon in which scientists found a Tivo and thought it was some sort of alien (the kind from other worlds) device.
Assuming this is a real ad - because as we all know and as you readers have been so vicious in pointing out, fake ads are a dime a dozen in the world of Flickr - Bentley just wants the rest of us poor, unfortunate slobs to know for sure we are, most assuredly, lesser human being than Bentley owners.
Marriott Spring Hill Suites has chosen to highlight the Seinfeldian Elaine-like dancing abilities out there with More Room to Move, a dance-o-matic game thingy that somehow aligns bad footwork with the need for bigger hotel rooms. Cheese at its finest.
With a riff on typefaces, HP's Imaging and Printing Group have released their first virally-intended video, called Berthold's Grotesk Zkzident, which features two graphic designers working together, one of whom freaks out when the printer breaks and ends up trashing the office unintentionally. Oh, and bike messenger that shows up at the end? No idea. Weird. But in a strangely good way. Created by Publicis Dialog.
To promote its new online and mobile dating show, Meet or Delete, this virally intended video features a woman on her bed transfixed by a guy she's checking out online. Her desires to be with him do come to fruition but, sadly, not for too long.
We apologize in advance. We simply cannot help ourselves when it comes to Gary Brolsma and all things Numa Numa. Advertising Age's Bob Garfield took a look at yet another knock off of the Numa Numa video, this time done by a company called Arnet Broadband. The company uses that same catchy tune but fills the video with a Gary Brolsma look-a-like (which they call Garry avoid legal stickiness) and several others whose purpose it is to illustrate the virtues of broadband access and the utter wackiness it provides access to.
One might say this is played out with over 3,000 Numa Numa videos out there but the train won't stop. Even Gary himself came back to join th party, albeit with a less organic and far more commercial endeavor. If it works, rinse, repeat.
While George Parker doesn't like the new Eat Like A Snake Commercial for the new Burger King Triple Whopper, we think there was no other possible way to promote a fatburger than with a freaky commercial like this. Atfer all, who in their right mind would want to suck down this 1,000 calorie plus, four inch high burger than a snake? Oh wait, that McDonald's fat kid would love this thing and could probably suck it down in one bite too.
But anyway, Ariel's right when she says "Burger King has successfully spent the last few years integrating itself with pop culture. Nay... BK IS part of pop culture. Unlike the majority of companies...BK refuses to merely be a reaction of what is already taking place. They choose to create the reaction, and fairly intelligently." It's perhaps true the wackiness of all recent Burger King advertising is simply aimed more at creating an odd brand persona than actually trying to sell a burger. But, given the upcoming generation's hatred of "being sold," the odd approach Burger King is taking seems to be an appropriate one.
We all know that an agency's own website usually falls to the bottom of the list when it comes to priorities but the creators of this Indian agency's website forgot to bother with basic copywriting, proofreading, translation and, well, just about everything else when it crafted its homepage verbiage. Yes, yes, we shouldn't pick on a company for not knowing English when we Americans are the worst offenders at knowing other countries languages but a simple call to, well, anyone in any English speaking country could have helped these guys out quite a bit.
UPDATE: We've been had. Apparently, it's all just a witty promotional site for an LA-based agency called Kiwi.
- OTO Trimax weight loss product demonstrates its slimming capabilities by wrapping a bus with a very creative, DDB Worldwide-created bus-squeezing wrap.
- The new Ubisoft video game is getting infomercial-style promotion in the form of John Badsky's Fifth Freedom.
- Blogging under the name "Corn Mash Whisky," this "27 year old southern born woman who fled nawth to New Yawk City in search of something new" shares with us a recent RFP she received from a cola brand which, more than most, takes itself way too seriously.
- Pamela Anderson has signed with Virgin Mobile to appear in a RKCR/Y&R-created commercial for the company's mobile TV service.
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