A lot of times we take for granted the little things that make our lives work. No one stops to think about all the bits in the toilet makes it flush, all the things that it takes to provide running water, or all the pieces in a car that takes you where you want to go.
This is true in advertising as well, but not all the time. It's nice to see work that showcases the small parts that make up a whole, the things that are taken for granted. Even if the commercial isn't showing you all the individual car pieces, the inclusion of small things that come together to make a whole can just remind us of the idea of the importance each little cog of life plays.
I applaud this spot for not using cliched sex scenes or suggestive interactions between a guy and girl at a bar. The spot was clean, to the point, and somewhat lighthearted. Also, this spot promotes safe sex, a message that is inherent within the product itself. Though the imagery that "wasn't there" could have been pushing it a little, I think the other factors outweigh this "visual".
Wieden + Kennedy, Portland
It'd good to see that amongst all of Heineken's other commercials promoting their beer, they decide to launch a campaign aimed at drinking responsibly. It shows that you can still have a good time when you're out, you just need to be conscious of your actions. The fact that a beer company is essentially going against it's own objectives of selling more product shows that they, as a corporation, care.
BBDO, New York
Though many advocate the banning of Starbucks due to it's image as a company only concerned with growth, by teaming up with Product (RED), it appears that Starbucks is hoping to change this view. Yes, it's promoting consumerism, but for a good cause, so if you must have your over-priced coffee, feel good that some of the money isn't going into the corporation's pockets.
Irresponsible
BBH, New York
I don't know if I even need to say anything. The suggestive language is unnecessary. Compared to BBH's Lynx commercial with the couple hunting for their clothes, this one seems like they ran out of ideas and went with something a 14 year old boy from the streets said.
DDB, Chicago
Though this beer commercial is different from others in their product category, I feel like it's still just as bad. Yes, it's funny, but when you look at it, if a young child saw this, or even teenagers, the message that is being sent is that professionals in the workplace can cast aside civility just for a case of beer. Kind of sad.
Wieden + Kennedy, Portland
With the success of the new Old spice campaign, this spot seemed to fall short for me. Portraying women as nothing but golddiggers, or just after a man because of material factors (his scent?) is getting old. We see enough of this from Axe, we don't need another product following suit.
The thing that I like about this campaign is it's successful use of shock. The autobiographies here shed light on a situation that many don't realize still exists today, let alone in the US. Martin/ Williams had this listed under their "Non-traditional" work, so I'm assuming these were distributed in receipt form, furthering the shock value upon discovering that it's not an actual receipt. Another thing that I like about this campaign is that it still empowers the viewer to do something, but in a way that is more action-oriented than guilt-oriented, as many other ads calling for change or charity invoke the latter (see every commercial that has ever said, "YOU can do something about this, so send us money").
To advertise for an advertising award show. I think I've found a task more daunting than advertising laundry detergent. I think that La Comunidad lived up to the job. Though some may say they took the easy way out by re-using campaigns created by other agencies, I think this was a smart move. These campaigns are widely recognized, so they were able to achieve the element of surprise by altering one thing. The result was humorous, yet not detracting from the overall message. Also, this shows that Latin agencies can create good work that can appeal to any audience.
Most of the time, I find Snickers commercials funny, such as the ones that say "Snickers, they're only satisfying if you eat them." This one, however, seems a little desperate. First of all, I thought Mr. T was in retirement, and if he's not, he definitely should be. Secondly, using celebrities to promote a product seems like the easy way out of coming up with a genuinely good idea on how to sell a product, granted, Nike has mastered to use of celebrity endorsements. This commercial just ended up resorting to a D-list "star" and teenage boy humor to sell candy. With iconic campaigns for The Economist, I expected better from AMV/BBDO.
Here is another example of how technology has allowed us to all stay connected. This commercial not only featured Hollywood celebrities, but also internet celebrities. Normally this would seem risky, but with the prevalence of YouTube and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook (also featured in this spot), they can be assured that the majority of people will get the references to the "celebrities" that were included. To showcase how technology has created a larger society via the internet, this is an ad for a product that brings together Television and Internet; this larger, interconected community is now available at your fingertips as well as from your couch
This campaign for Product (RED) is "honest" advertising; they are blatantly promoting consumerism. However, as we all know, our spending is all going for a good cause. I like that this this charity is having people help without having them realize it sometimes. The only problem here is that by telling people to " make change at the register" those who aren't motivated to do anything in the first place might think that they can get away with just swiping a credit card then saying they're really devoted to a cause; people may just be trying to stay "cool" by promoting these products without being completely devoted to the cause.
As far as viral videos goes, this one is not my favorite. Other viral videos that I've seen are catchy, and showcase someone doing something cool, such as the Guitar Hero bike riding spot done by Droga5. this video seems to portray this brand and it's patrons as reckless and immature. Though their target market of teens and skater-type people may find this amusing, the population at large may not react this way, especially if this is their first impression of the brand in general. Also, the comments say that the roaches were plastic, but if they weren't, then they can't say that animals weren't hurt during the production of this spot.
At first glance, this app sort of freaked me out; life-sized fetal development images seems a bit much for me, but maybe that's because I can't even think of having a baby right now. Feelings about the application aside, I feel like the development of this app, it's features, and how they're promoting it says a lot of about where we are now, technology-wise. This application was developed by Pampers, is being promoted for Apple's new product, and can be used in conjunction with Facebook. It just goes to show that the world is really all bout staying connected via the internet now, especially when friends can view the growth of your baby on Facebook.
The cool thing about this spot is that 72 and Sunny found a way to promote basically every TV show on the Discovery Channel without resorting to the typical "Tune in at 7/ 8 Central" message. Instead, they were able to leave viewers with a higher sense of self, a "Yeah, I'm proud to be alive and love that there are so many things wonderful to live for" feeling. Two birds with one stone: accomplish the task of promoting a Cable TV station while being able to appeal to virtually every type of audience member.
Most of the time when I see nudity in an ad, it's done so distastefully, i.e. bottled water ad with Jennifer Aniston posing topless; nothing was revealed, but still. It's bottled water, so really? Anyway, here I feel like this is a celebration of the inner athele, and humans' natural ability. I was shocked at first because people being naked for Powerade is no different than Jennifer Aniston being naked for bottled water, but I don't know, I guess this grew on me. The term "Innergear" tied it all together and made it about more than just being nude.
This spot for Rhapsody was a little disappointing compared to Droga's other work. Using celebrities here was relevant, but I feel like they didn't to anything with it; Jay-Z got a nice check for making a "music video". When I saw this, I immediately compared it to Jay-Z's commercial for HP Personal:
There was more interaction and it felt more personal. More than Jay-Z's image was borrowed, making this commercial feel more genuine. I did, however, like Droga's work for Guitar Hero (the bike), and their Tap Project, the Rhapsody spot just didn't meet the bar set by their other work.
The cool thing about this billboard is that it went through phases; as time went on, the billboard was essentially pushed over to look like the block of "cheese" was getting smaller and smaller because it was being grated. It's refreshing to see the medium of billboards used in a creative way. I can just imagine driving by this billboard many time expecting it to be the same, then being pleasantly surprised by the clever use of a billboard. Once again, it's nice to see agencies advertise "boring" products in a creative way.
Yet another product that seems boring to advertise. Here, Cramer-Krasselt took kitchen supplies and made them fun yet informative. The use of arrows to label the points of interest in the product seems like an overused idea, but I feel like here it was necessary; Pyrex wanted to showcase why their new products are more useful and revolutionary, so with a print ad, there aren't too, too many ways to get this done. Sure Cramer could have been more creative on that front, but I think that the overall feel of the ad made up for it.
The most obvious thing that one can like about this commercial is the artistry involved in creating it; the brown color pallet didn't come across as dull, and the animation is beautiful. What struck me about this spot is that it reminded me of Coke's "Happiness Factory". I felt like Coke's was more effective because the message was achieved without any words. However, the use of dialogue here was done tastefully, and was able to work in conjunction with the animation and not get overpowered or become overpowering.
I bet all the girls that have seen this have raised the bar on how they would like to be proposed to. I sort of thought it too, but it wasn't this man's creative proposal that caught my eye, it was the tag line at the end: "The exclusive Celebration Diamond, Zales' most brilliant diamond ever." I remembered the DeBeers campaign that launched the diamond, a worthless rock, into the image it holds today. It's amazing how it went from nothing to becoming a status symbol, to have different statuses within it's own high rank; "Celebration Diamond." What does that even mean? This just made me think that sometimes, the significance of a proposal can be overshadowed by what's essentially a rock; a proposal should still mean as much if the guy gave you a ring made out of a paperclip.
There are many great things about this spot. First of all, it broke the formula for lotion commercials; there weren't shots of some woman caressing her shoulder while a voice over explained how awesome this moisturizing lotion is. On top of that, this spot uses nudity in an acceptable, and artistic way. They used nudity to showcase the beauty of the human body, reminiscent of the Dove campaign for beauty. The use of motion in in this spot was a nice artistic element as well. Also, the many different skin tones combined with the synchronized movement of the "dancers" seemed to create an undertone of the positivity of the coexistence of many different types of people in the world, a message that isn't normally associated with lotions.
You can't think of Weiden + Kennedy without thinking of Nike. The amazing thing about all the work done for Nike is that all of their spots are inspirational, they strike a chord with athletes as well as non-athletes. Here, there is a wide array of sports being represented, yet the simple message that it takes many tries to achieve perfection, or get up when you fall, can apply to everyone in any field. Weiden has taken the Nike brand and turned it into a social force, as evidenced by this spot.
Before I started looking at Dentsu's work, I assumed that it would be risky things that probably wouldn't run in the States; I assumed this because we see outrageous products, TV shows, etc. from Japanese culture that we don't normally see here. However, once I delved into their site and other sources, I saw that their work wasn't how I expected at all. Take this print ad for Yamaha for instance. It's clean, simple, and promotes music education, something that every society can encourage, especially in Japan with their culture centered around rigorous education.
"Fuel to be fabulous...because women need a different kind of energy." This line wouldn't be a problem to me if it wasn't presented in this context. Women need a "different kind of energy" to shop till they drop, and to party it up at a club all night. Hm. Nice. In this appeal to TAB's female market, it just seemed like they ended up promoting materialism instead; empowering women is one thing, but empowering them to, in a way, neglect work in favor of things that women would be better at, such as dancing all night, is another.
