advergirl

Why we do this: Sony foam city

Making a movie seems hard. But, you still want to shutter a downtown and create a cinematic mess. Sound familiar? Then advertising is definitely the career for you.

Check out these early shots from the "set" of the upcoming Sony spot dubbed foam city. Apparently millions of gallons of foam were dumped on the city to create the base scenes.

Now, come on, that looks like fun. And a much better way to spend the day than, say, pitching hot dogs.

The social media spinners are already buzzing about the coming spots - so, here's hoping they'll be as delightful as the original Bravia bouncing balls.

 

ING Your Number

Now that your mortgage is worth bupkis, America's banks have shifted their acquisition strategy. Sure, it would be nice to have your checking account, but what they really want is the big dog: your retirement account. (Even if you haven't started one yet.) It's guaranteed growth income for them (and you), locked up for a couple of decades. Ideal.

I'm a fan of AIG's + campaign for its incredibly repeatable, conversation-starting voice and copy. And, of course, who doesn't get a kick out of the latest Nationwide Life Comes at You Fast episodic jaunt into rather clever and sunny nightmares. But, there's also something really engaging about this fundamentally simple campaign recently rolled out by ING and BBDO...

The spots feature people buzzing along in their daily lives - boarding planes, taking elevators, having lunch - all while toting a giant orange number. Most of the people are aspirational white collar professionals, but there's also a chef, a granddad, a car full of carefree young people. The numbers vary from several hundred thousand to a couple million and represent how much the person needs to save for retirement.

These are big numbers. And, frankly, all things equal, they would be reminiscent of that sick feeling you have in early April when you've been putting off your tax return because you don't know if you owe money, but fear that you might, and a lot, and just are not ready to face it... BUT, these ING spots overcome the fear factor with fun and friendly music and lots of positive motion. In the end, you get: I wonder what my number is. Not: Holy shit, I cannot do this.

The campaign drives to INGYourNumber.com. Which is a great example of why competitive audits work. ING took the best the competitive field had to offer, merged and elevated it, and added their own spin. The result is a site that has clearly learned from its neighbors.

Take a look. I think you'll see the simplicity of Fidelity's retirement planning tool; the personal delivery of Nationwide's; and a little twist on the call-to-action that is all ING.

In the end, the tool isn't a great fit for me. It rewards a customer who likes a high touch experience. And, I'm about as impatient as you would expect of someone for whom even Twittering is too much information. But, it's light and short and there are lots of helpful tricks for people just wading in - like a smart use of (looks like) Ajax to show help tips when a puzzled planner hovers on a question. All-in-all, probably a big win with the target.

AAA. Authentic storytelling makes a comeback.

Remember those long distance commercials from the 90s that left us with a lump in our throats?  The long-lost daughters calling home to dad. The couples reunited across seemingly uncrossable distances. The embarrassed TV watchers swiping tears from their cheeks?

Yeah, those ones.

What made them compelling was the story. The archetypes welling with happy emotion. The everyday hero stories that we all want to be a part of.

Jump ahead to 2008.

In an advertising environment of dropped calls, sweaty athletes and gloriously glossy hair follicles. AAA responds with their own everyday heroes; with compelling, authentic stories that we can all see ourselves in.

The campaign - from AAA Ohio and SBC Advertising - launched this month. It's told from the perspective of real tow truck drivers. But delivers something much larger: the story of their brand – literally, the true essence of service and membership – found in neighborhood driveways, in busy parking lots and in the cabs of tow trucks, with real people just talking about their jobs.

The result is great TV. Watch the spots here. But, don't blame me if you get a little teary on the Ant ones...

Why I love this approach:

AAA is up against two of the toughest challenges aging brands face: commoditization and sinking relevance.

People think: Oh, I already have this with my insurance or new car.

People think: My car won’t break down. I don’t need it.

Keeping ahead of the market, AAA aimed its operations and marketing strategies at refreshing the market perception of AAA.

Operations: Upgrade the ‘product’ we’re selling. People don’t have time to be towed. They want to be fixed and ‘stay on the go.’

Marketing: Anyone in any car can need AAA. The most common calls aren’t for breakdowns, they’re for keys locked in cars, dead batteries, flat tires, etc.

You can see the results in this campaign.

It shows that members are as likely to call for everyday goofs as real emergencies and demonstrates that most problems are fixed on the spot - no need to tow.

But, more than that, it brings to life a level of service and community that I hope will define the brand going forward.

Lipstick Jungle and Maybelline: When ad partnerships undermine editorial

This year’s choice for hot mid-season television formula is Sex in the City gets married and goes to the office. Combine several high-powered, hottie women execs with contentious, creative work environments and stressed out home lives and voila(!), advertisers line up like in the ultra-competitive days of the 1994 renaissance of sexy, smart doctor dramas. 

Tomorrow night will mark the third episode of one of the front runners of the mini powerful-woman genre: Lipstick Jungle.  And, at this point, I’m wondering if the ad partnership won’t be the downfall of the series.

I should preface with this: All television shows based on professions boldly simplify, cast unusually sexy characters (think of the “CSI”s with fully made up faces and low cut shirts scouring trash truck crime scenes or George Clooney still delightfully coiffed after a gory 48 shift) and are generally unrecognizable to people in the actual field.

BUT, still…

Lipstick Jungle’s marriage to Makeup Artist Chuck Hezekiah of Maybelline is a little reductive even for Prime Time. At each commercial break, he pops up with advice on how to get ‘the look’ of the exec featured in the last segment.

I’m not suggesting that the Ad Council should break in with a series on how to raise our young women, but,  when we take a relatively accepted convention (TV sexing up real-life humans) and make it driver of the story, well, it gets a little ugly. Afterall, they weren't exactly paying for ER with hair gel sponsors or CSI with tube top designers.

With such a prominent and potentially-controversial sponsorship, it will be interesting to see what part Maybelline plays in the success or failure of Lipstick Jungle.

"I don't have to grow up" - gen

For every thoughtful discussion I've had about the cultural consumer, the green citizen, the attention economy, I've had a party / conversation / meeting completely derailed by a group of mainstream 30-somethings playing or talking-about-playing video games. Even as I type this, my copy of RenGen is sitting under my PS3 controller on the coffee table.

We - the fabled, if aging GenXers - are a damn playful bunch. Our marathons are as likely to be a Saturday of Project Runway reruns as 20-sweaty miles across the city. We've passed on scrapbooks for passing around digital cameras packed with thousands of hammed-up snaps. We can cook but would rather collect memories of childhood munchies - from an EasyBake oven to the Snoopy Sno Cone machine complete with grape syrup.

So, if I can put down my classic wooden yo-yo for just a minute, I'd like to congratulate three advertisers for really getting the spirit of grown-up play:

#1 Dominos pizza for the inventiveness of friends
#2 Toyota Tacoma for the joy of the game
#3 Tostitos for the creativity in every roll of duct tape (and best random :5 seconds of moose)

Here are the smile-out-loud spots:

A Challenge to Lowe's

As an ad girl at a retail shop I get my fill of holiday cheer by oh-right-about October 1. By then, the hoopla has been in full swing since balmy July when reindeer were being sprayed down on a set that tested the limits of modern air conditioning.

Spring forward to the week before Halloween. Retailers finally get to debut their holiday TV spots to a consumer populace that's not ready for them and an ad community that's already over them.

The early spots look great this year with one glaring exception ...

Lowe's is recycling their "I'm looking for..." spots. The cute idea where a harried shopper hits the store unable to remember the name of the holiday home adornment she's hunting and launches into a charades-style pantomime which the savvy sales girl immediately guesses as a giant inflatable with life-size santa and reindeer.

Yeah, you've seen it.

Clever idea.  Slightly annoying talent. Highly over-exposed spot here in year 2.

First up, let me say, I like the strategy. They're setting themselves in direct opposition to every other big box - from the Depot to Target. It's story about service and knowledgeable sales staff. It is targeted at a busy, high income, high expectation female customer. I love that.

But, America has seen it. And with talent that grating, there's a good chance they'll miss the highlighted product as they lunge for the fast forward button.

Lowe's is a fantastic brand. With great agency partners. But, for some reason, this year, they're leaning on expired creative. So, here's my challenge:

I'll talk my agency bosses into slashing our fee in half if you give us a shot at reinventing the spots. There's still time for a holiday miracle ... call me!

One other note, I don't think that all spots necessarily expire after one season. A great example is the super iconic Nissan Heisman spot ... which I believe has been running for as many as three years:

Mazda culturally tone deaf?

I think this spot premiered last month. But I believe the controversy it will create is yet to come. Watching the spot the first time I was uncomfortable. Since I've seen it more, it's genuinely changed my perception of the brand.

An all-black chorus singing in gospel-style ... a song that includes the phrases 'come shine here with me' and  'I'm finally free.' The the zoom out hits as they sing the brand's hallmark 'zoom, zoom' in a closed circle around a car.

Excessive religious references aside, it seems like a particularly offensive cultural lift.

In principle, I agree with the approach. Car buyers have changed. Over 50% of them are women. Growing numbers are Hispanic and African-American. Yeah, we need to get away from the white guy in a convertible zipping around the windiest roads of the Italian countryside with a thrilled woman by his side. But, there's a big, big 'in between' from talking to a niche to lifting an experience.

Macy's Holiday TV

Can we maybe just admit a few things to each other here, dear reader? Like, maybe my RSS reader is painfully choked with (quickly staling) kernels of wisdom from bloggers the world-over ... and that by falling off the reading wagon for only a few days (maybe a week), they've run so amok that I will likely have to delete them all and just start over...

Happily, though, I have one less unmet obligation to feel guilty about - as Eric Kintz's recent article 'Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore' has brilliantly validated my eclectic posting and reading pace.

Which is all to say, if this is old news, I no longer have to apologize for the duplication -

The Macy's holiday TV campaign is absolutely infectious.

I admire:

• The single narrative that unites the celebrity appearances
• The choice to take the hard road and schedule multiple celebs on the same location, the same day
• The writing that leverages the public personas of the celebs to build their product brands
• The investment in a 60-second  brand experience
• The all-out fun of it
• The integration of brands that touch so many ages and lifestyles - creating the effect of something you know and something to discover

I love that a department store invested in it - a strong strategy to move from forgetable 'infrastructure' to flat-out memorable brand in the retail sprint to  the holiday.

Kudos for Farmers Insurance approach

Tornados, fires, flying leisure boats ... yeah, you know - it's a prime time insurance ad. If there's no lizard in sight, they're selling one thing: the category. Insurance = peace of mind and there's some pretty scary stuff out there, buddy. Get thee to our web site before it's too late.

So, a quick nod to Campbell-Ewald and Farmers for a nice innovation -

The spots are stopping and fun, but the tagline really steps up the creative from selling the category to placing their brand in opposition of the category:

Sanity makes a come back

Post-Katrina, we all get it: It's one thing to have insurance; it's another thing to not have to fight about whether water damage is actually an insurable weather claim...

As much as I love the campaign, I've got to wonder if the writer has been given a bit toooo much rope. As the campaign goes on, it's starting to morph from stopping and fun to ... well, almost scary.

Guinness 'Alive Inside'

Ew.

Some products just really don't need to be broken down to their component parts by representative humans hurling about to a booming score.

Sometimes in the search for massive production value, we forget how great simple really is...

Bravia: Here comes the "play doh" buzz...

UPDATE:
Here are a few pics from the set:

Play doh BUNNIES? I'm as excited as one of those costumed Potter muggles camped outside a theater at midnight on a Tuesday waiting to see a movie about a book she already read...

Original post:

The buzz-masters behind the original glorious Bravia 'balls' spot and the follow-up-you-probably-had-to-be-there 'paint' spot, are teamed up with Immediate Future for early spinning as the boxes are unpacked for the New York 'play doh' spot.

Play doh!!??

Can't wait.

Watch them Twitter on set. And, keep an eye on the ad site for more...

Huntington Bank, the Indianapolis Colts, and a little copywriter named Scott...

Update: New Web site for Colts Banking: www.coltsbanking.com

Today SBC Advertising's Scott Mylin joins the ranks of truly goofy ad guys before him:

• First there was DDB Chicago copywriter Jeb Quaid playing his own creation - Bud Light's Ted Ferguson.
• Then little 29-year-old copywriter Griffin Creech played the bewildered office guy in Careerbuilder's "Office Monkeys" commercials.
• Followed by the Martin Agency's CD Andy Azula drawing happy little trees on the UPS "Whiteboard" commercials.

Only to be outdone by SBC's own SCOTT MYLIN - not just the star, but, heck, practically the singer-songwriter for Huntington's Indianapolis Colts affiliate marketing program.

Watch, love, share the spot created by Scott and Creative Director Lance Dooley:

Creative team: Lance Dooley, Scott Mylin, Ben Harben, Dave Oberst, Katie Dirksen 

Fetish casting?

"I want to be one less. One less."

A little melody so annoyingly memorable that you'd think it was in a Target spot.

But, I digress. I actually have something much more snarky to say:

This Merck spot has been running since February or so and every time it comes on, I am completely distracted by the casting. How does being HPV-free correlate to having really, really horrible eyebrows? The full range of eyebrow errors is displayed: from huge, untamed caterpillars to over-plucked bald foreheads. I cannot look away. It's like a mangled, burning car on the side of the road.

My guess: Either the casting director has a thing for eyebrows or the agency creative team had this conversation very late on the night before (ok, the morning of) the casting presentation:

Hyper-caffeinated creative director: We're selling a $360 product to girls 9 - 26. Get it? This can't look like an over-produced spot. These all look like models. Where's the authenticity?

Pissed off copywriter: We've talked about this a hundred times. It's still TV - they have to look aspirational. The script will deliver the authenticity.

Guy who knows he has to give the presentation: Maybe we just give them all one thing - one signature that makes them look more accessible. Like ... I don't know... cut off jeans.

Hyper-caffeinated creative director: Yeah, but something more physical. Something that separates them from models. What about eyebrows... big bushy eyebrows.

Guy who knows everyone: Perfect, boss. I know the makeup artist who made Ugly Betty ugly.

The ads we were raised to create

Brands of our childhoods.

Nostalgic.

Harkening simple memories of good times.

Or, at least uncomplicated times.

How glorious to sit in a workstart meeting, charged with boldly exploiting them to sell a completely unrelated product.

No, really. That sounds fantastic.

Like the Transformers.

The (cranky, snotty) boy my mom babysat growing up would hunker down in my dad's tan cordoroy La-Z-Boy at 3 every day to watch the warring robots. And, of course, we all watched, too ... biding time through the machines & GI Joe for whatever we were really waiting to watch.

Despite the luke-warm reviews, I'm still looking forward to the movie. And, although the too-obvious GM spots barely held me for the full 30-seconds, congratulations to the new Mountain Dew spot for hitting all the key tones for successfully playing a nostalgia brand:

• Fresh element added (not a direct lift from the story)
• Priveleged view (as with all great childhood stories, it's important that not everyone in the room can really see the magic going on)
• Unexpected environment (bring the icon into the brand's real audience / location / etc.)
• Playful (even if it was scary growing up, all kid brands should be fun looking back)
• Remembers the re-runners (even if you didn't see it the first time around, you still get it)

Now we know!

And knowing is half the battle.

Anyway, top five brands I cannot wait to have a movie made of ... a movie that I will parlay into advertisements for hams and 800-thread count sheet sets:

1. Smurfs. (Gargamel obviously needed softer sheets. And, Bigmouth could have been easily distracted by a nice ham)
2. Fraggle Rock. (Sing it with me ... down at Fraggle Rock)
3. Punky Brewster. (It could happen. Headbands are hot right now)
4. The Snorks. (I wonder if Al Gore will make them part of his movie ... in a post-Global Warming world, when we all live under water...)
5. Strawberry Shortcake. (It's only a matter of time until we're all trading scratch-n-sniff stickers again)

Does your CD do banners?

Yet another highly-questionably-designed survey has revealed this counter-intuitive truth:

Although seven of ten men 18-34 are going online more than ever before, they consider television a better advertising medium

Surely, there are lots of rational arguments to be made - about in-stream behaviors, history of ROI, quality of experience, etc.

But, I wonder if our industry - far beyond the media buying department - plays a self-perpetuating role in the success of broadcast vs. Internet advertising. One where our very best creative minds & most inventive strategists are at work pushing the bounds of aging mediums while interns and newbies churn out banners and boxes for the Web.

How different would Internet advertising look if our industry awarded the talent and prestige to it that it's long given the :30-second spot.

I doubt it would look much like a banner or a box...

Taking on Griner: Why I like Boy Wendy in the Woods

Ok, David, now that you’ve convinced me to return to blogging, I’m going to have to make a pest of myself.

First up: The issue of Saatchi & Saatchi’s pig-tailed play in the woods.

To catch everyone else up:

AdFreak’s David Griner – and, in fairness, other industry notables – have panned the new Wendys spot as too long, derivative and flatly executed. Here’s why I think the spot was smart, strategic and an overall win:

Real estate: Chain-wide, Wendys has 6600 stores. Compare that to category leaders: McDonalds at 31,045 and BK at 11,184. They don’t have the built-in marketing hammer of being top-of-mind via ubiquitous presence. When lunch time rolls around, Wendys needs you to be so wanting their square burger that you actively seek it out. In :60 seconds they pounded that brand and the idea of a hot and juicy burger into memory.

Client culture: I wonder what decades of casting cuddly founder Dave Thomas as the primary brand spokesperson have done to the marketing culture at Wendys. I would guess it’s fairly conservative. This is a huge and bold departure – one they should really be proud of in terms of contemporizing the brand and niche-ing their approach to the market.

Noise: You watched it, right? The visual is ridiculous; the audio is unexpected.  It broke out of its 3-minute Idol pod and got watched. That’s successful.

After-School Special Effect: I’m not convinced Saatchi was following Crispin. The spot actually seems a little snarky – almost making fun of the category. It’s got that feel of intentionally-off on authenticity … think: after school specials. And, I’m guessing Wendys customer is a little older than BKs – so, that might be just the right tone and fit.

Anybody out there from Saatchi? Come on, tell me I’m close…

David: Here’s one as annoying as those BK ads, linked just for you

Can brands be funny enough? (Or: Beat the meat)

Link: A branded viral video from BullsEye created by Greg Auer and Patrick Durkin at DRAFTFCB-Chicago.

I'm posting this for two reasons.

First: Let's forget the video for a moment. Greg sent me the single-most effective pitch email I've ever received. For those of you readers who are also fellow bloggers, you are no doubt familiar with the range of "outreach" activities perpetrated on bloggers by traditional PR types - emailed press releases, faux attempts at familiarity, strange headlines with disjointed form letters, etc.

While I'm sure it was still a form letter, Greg went about it in a much more genuine way. Summary: I'm proud of this work. I'm trying to get it out there. Will you post it?

THAT kind of approach makes the world seem smaller and more collegial. And, it gets response.

Second reason: This video is cute. It gets at lots of the "just a big kid" personality play of America's Joe Lawnmower-Griller. But, is it really fun enough to be viral?

Maybe.

As more brands get into this space of trying to be the post-next-door on YouTube and MySpace and (please let's stop) Second Life, I have to wonder how many brands can really pull it off.

Some of you are likely thinking: Subservient Chicken. That was 2004. What truly viral (meaning sans huge PR campaigns) site / campaign / video  has had that enduring and wide-spread success since then? I think Ted Ferguson could easily be nominated. Maybe a few others. But, for the few viral wins by brands, there are hundreds and hundreds of losers. Ideas micromanaged from laugh-out-loud funny to wouldn't-even-make-me-chuckle. Copywriters so deluged with brand attributes that they can't string a knock-knock joke together. Art directors who've jammed a logo on every frame.

Strategically, I think Miller Lite had the right approach back in 2005 - picking up the Carson's Christmas display - those flashing holiday lights synchronized with the Trans Siberian Orchestra score. It was proven viral. People liked it. It had the low pro, authentic feel. Miller Lite added corporate sponsorship and gave it an even wider reach.

For those of us with clients who may not be funny from white paper, it seems like a logical approach to present a slate of proven-viral hot candidates to approach for sponsorship ... before we drag out our home video cameras and water balloons.

Garmin: Great holiday sell

Home Depot's rolled out a bland round of Santa and Mrs. Claus spots. Wal-Mart managed to find trouble even with something as simple as a Christmas promotion. I don't even want to talk about Best Buy's latest gift-giving pitch...

So, I guess it's up to the gifts to sell themselves this year.

Enter Garmin, manufacturer of various GPS and navigation toys. And, these two really entertaining and still-entirely-in-the-holiday-spirit spots ...

Enjoy!

Chevrolet: Weeeee!

Ever notice that a new auto is the largest financial decision regular folks routinely make for entirely impractical reasons? Or, maybe your commute is a little different than mine...

Agency: McCann Erickson

Negative Nursery Rhymes

The last word in negative spin on the election this year comes from voice-over artists Dennis Steele and Scott Sanders who specialize in creating threatening voices for political ads. In a recent NPR interview with Melissa Block, they show off by adding their special menace to every day nursery rhymes.

Listen to the *.wav file.

(Apologies for the little skip in the middle - I fast forwarded through a chunk of particularly ingratiating laughter from Block).

Headplayer

Great painkiller spot from a Finnish company ... not only funny, but lets us imagine a time, a country, a television experience where pharma spots do not have to include warnings of anal discharge, nose bleeds and compulsive vomiting.

Agency: Bob Helsinki

Radio City Buzz

Interesting Rockettes spot sent by an anonymous emailer ...

The feminist in me is definitely not thrilled by the dreamy-eyed girl ga-ga over the half-naked dancer

BUT - the ad girl in me thinks of the long lines outside of American Girl stores and knows this is a hit...

Dominos: At least this one is less gross

Continuing to market to the otherwise untapped stoner audience, Dominos has added "uncontrollable laughter at something not really funny" to its series of ridiculously gooey and sweet spots.

(Apparently all pizza marketing has been put on hold for this all-out assault on the candy and twinkie aisle at the nation's gas stations)

Agency: The Perlorian Brothers

Elf the vote!

Tired of the endless stream of local political ads? The petty accusations about real estate taxes and miscellaneous law suits? The really, really bad suits and worse ties?

Here's an election that will renew your love for democracy: Big Lots spokeself.

Starting tomorrow, three elf finalists will attempt to wow the country with their spokeself auditions (handily condensed to :30 second spots). Viewers can visit a voting site to cast a ballot for their favorite elf. The winning elf - announced on Thanksgiving - will be the brand's national spokesperson for the rest of the holiday season.

Check out the site - watch back stories, see elf rejects and more:

(My name is Advergirl and I approved this message)

Agency: SBC Advertising

Emotional appeal

Does it strike you that some of the best advertising being done right now is about the quality of worklife?

The category - from the Career Builder monkeys to Monster.com's "When I grow up" series to these simple vending machine displays below - there seems to be a universal understanding of the emotional appeal in this category. Not money, not shorter hours, not even a better title - just, simply, be the person you want to be. Very aspirational. And selling like crazy.

Scholz & Friends, Berlin

Found at: Spoiled

MTV recycles tired joke

Judging from the lace-bottomed leggings, big hoopy earrings and giant sweaters spotted on the tiny, emaciated bodies of marauding teenagers at the nation's malls, I'm guessing there is a vibe of "everything old is new again" in pop culture. After all, if you don't have old school photos of clam bangs, florescent t-shirts and jelly-braceleted arms, how could you suspect just how evil the 80s really were?

So, perhaps it's no surprise that MTV is recycling this boring old "walk into the wrong bar" business to sell their Rhapsody-knockoff: Urge. Really, the S&M clubs and dominatrixes of the world should seek PR council ... not only are they always forcing good kids into bondage in mass media, they also all look like crap.

Camera work is great though. Nice perspectives.

Agency: MTV On Air Promotions

AAA Membership

 

Local advertising can be impossible. Tiny budgets. Huge expectations.

AAA is one of the toughest cases. National brand. Local control. Local dollars.

I'm really proud of these spots my agency / team created for the Ohio Auto Club - they very cost effectively carry off the national brand in a way that builds relevance for new audiences...

Agency: SBC Advertising

Tea Partay

Tea Partay: If you haven't seen it, you have to watch it.

And, visit the site if you want to fall prey to the whim of advertisers ... and, who doesn't, really?

Renault and Coke: Fresh takes on usual messages...

Renault Clio print from Lowe.

(No, this is not a picture of me from last weekend)

And, a great Coke spot that must be buried in all the summer reruns ...
From W + K and Nexus Productions:

Best American Express commercial ever

Roddick vs. Pong is delightful. And, way better than my idea.

Found at Peanuts

HP: The Computer Is Personal Again

Hmmm, several blogs are calling out the new HP series today. I'm a little undecided on the campaign:

• Big plus: The look is very cool. The celebs are intriguing. It's definitely a watch-multiple-times, really-pay-attention-to creative approach.
• Big minus: The spots are like brand ads for a product ... all soft and fuzzy; there are no benies, no new bells & whistles. Worse, all the "cool" factor is the software (not included!). My guess is that they're taking on MACMac's differentiator headon - the PC can be cool, too.

Lovely to watch. See more.

Update: Check out much smarter post over at The Ranch.

Agency: Goodby, Silverstein Partners

It's Bacon's Time to Shine

I know it's a selfish use of a community medium, but sadly this post is for one reader only. A reader who will understand the preeminence of bacon and is presently researching the viability of a business plan for bacon-flavored water. For you, my friend, I give you McDonalds Canada:

VM: Multiplying like Rabbits

Back-to-back auto spots at Advergirl. This one is much better - a fun take on an old cliche and a very memorable execution. Some of the "choreography" seems a little messy or off in some way, but overall a great spot by Crispin, Porter & Bogusky:

Oh, no worries, we'll make a better product SOMEDAY

Ok, humans can't fly. So, not a great example. We can get in machines that fly, but nothing like the freedom Da Vinci imagined. Unless, of course, you consider gliding flying, which would be a little silly, but, ok ...

So, thanks to BP, we will apparently be subjected to an endless number of these inane brand ads that gloss up the general environmental shittiness of their current products by saying "we're working on it." Super.

Agency: Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi

That's Lynx, not Linux

This Lynx deodorant spray spot is as mildly disturbing as all "sex sells," "woman are things" advertising (which - as an American - I am (more) disturbingly desensitized to), but I'm posting it because context truly is everything:

I'm not at all familiar with this product. So, when a friend sent me the link, I thought he said it was a Linux spot. And, I have to say, I was at the edge of my seat to see what bizarro "geeks are hot" ending was afoot.

Alas, more derivative, offensive body spray nonsense. Boo.

Found at: Dave's Adventure into Boredom

Cheerios Dads

I hesitate to post anything at all after that pet naming request – I think that was my most popular post of all time. Maybe I have the wrong calling here … I should leave advertising entirely and start some sort of pet calendar biz.

Until then, here’s a fun one:

Stick with it. I know you’re going to think done a million times, not creative, etc., although you know very well that you’d still watch it out of the corner of your eye, rubbernecking at the public embarrassment. But, truly, it’s the ending that will delight you.  (Those of you jaded ad guys who are, in fact, still capable of delight.)

Agency: Saatchi

Nokia Tattoo

Check out this branding ad for Nokia's new Tattoo phone. The graphics are really intriguing - you quickly get the sense of connection and spreading something beautiful and affective. Still, it's subtle. If you're not looking at the television, you'd miss the entire thing. The music isn't captivating. There is no VO. And, if you're half watching, the slithery tattoos are still subtle, elusive.

Here's the counter to my counter - Nokia is looking for early adopters, people looking for the next hot thing. I think maybe they'd watch. Or, better, seek it out. And the tag and close are pretty strong.

Great product name. We walk around with these phones glued to our faces, talking about what model we're addicted to and why we love our special carrier. Portable, disposable, pricey tattoos. Nice.

Agency: Hasan & Partners

Brawny Academy: Retro TV online

After much buzz about Lifetime’s Perfectmatch.com show last week, I thought we’d pretty well soiled our advertising selves in the retro world of brand-sponsored TV, but it looks like this is just the beginning of our return to a campy TV world where everything really can be made with Campbell’s Soup…

Next stop: Brawny Academy

Working with veteran reality show producers the Feists and Biscuit's Tim Godsall, Fallon is about to launch an 8-episode online TV serial called “Brawny Academy.” In the show, under-performing hubbies have been recruited for a retraining experience that looks like something between Survivor and the early seasons of The Real World.

The trailer includes some fun clips:

• Sloppy men living with actual pigs
• See-what-women-go-through races, forcing the men into high heels to push baby carriages, clean windows, etc.
• Attempts to school the eight in the “masculine” arts – like an ax tossing lesson where all miss the target
• And, genuinely horrible dancing

Overall, it appears to be a laugh or SCREAM proposition, heralding back to the original days of brand TV and wallowing in the social stigmas of the time. High heels and baby carriages? What a conceit. Try long hours and getting the pizza boxes out to the trash.

(Oh, but I'm not saying I won't watch it. TV I can watch at the office. Come on, you got me.)

Submitted by: Mr. Lance Dooley

Bank of New Zealand: Piggy Bank

Sometimes it's ok to be derivative if you're this flat out delightful.
Agency: Y&R Auckland

Amp'd: Entertain Yourself

Have you heard that Dennis Miller routine where he claims to have written his joke about hotel laundry back from the word squatter?  This is one of those spots where you know it was written backwards from the women kissing, past the junk shaking ... and, what, what can we add that will make this seem like the phone delivers something other than porn??

No surprise that the every creative listed in the credits is a man ... desperately trying to mine that 15% of consumer purchases actually made by men.

Nonetheless, great idea. Fun approach. Just bored with the whole women are hot kissing cliche ... but, I am clearly not the target.

Submitted by: Mr Mike Swainey

Agency: Taxi

Elmers: Men are silly

Have you seen this spot before? I love the idea behind it - it's perfect for the category that buys duct tape by the 3-pack.

Agency: SBC Advertising

Honda Element: One chatty auto

Oh my, joyful. How did I miss these delightful spots from Honda? The lazy oppossum, the scampering crab, the woeful burro, the silly platypus - they're all great. I could watch these again and again.

CO too Silly

This is an excellent example of why creatives kick AEs in the shins when projects get a little too client-driven...

I heard this spot mocked on Wait, Wait this morning. Essentially, The Competitive Enterprise Institute is taking on the "alleged global warming crisis" by going to bat for the wonders of CO2.  The result is a "hodge-podge" of stock footage and a ridiculously over-wrought message about our beloved exhaling gas of choice.

A few key lines:

"Some politicians want to label CO2 a pollutant" "What would our lives be like then?"

"They call it pollution. We call it life."

Who's running the blog pool? I think 10:1 that "We call it life" line was written by a VP ... of something other than marketing.

I'm a Mac

Ok, it's a little Dell, but it's still delightful. Check out the whole series.

McCann loves gay cowboys

All the really cool bloggers seem to get cease and desists - so, I'm making my headlines ever-more inflammatory to try to get on the A-list.

Ok, not really, but I did want to show you this Brokeback spoof ad created by McCann for CowParade is Lisbon. (If you missed Cows on Parade in Chicago - or the knockoff pigs in Cincy; donkeys in DC; corn ears in Columbus, etc. - it's basically a city-wide outdoor art project made entirely of large fiberglass animals decorated in fun themes.)

Found at: Adverblog

Hill Holiday creates buzz

Wow. Hill Holiday really knows how to create buzz around themselves and their clients. I've heard more about Dunkin Donuts in the last week than in probably all of the post-Starbucks era combined.

It all started with a really interesting Wall Street Journal article (exerpts here. link for lucky subscribers.) about immersing Starbucks drinkers in Dunkin and vice-versa. Picture unhappy exchange students grimacing at their coffee.

Now the rebrand has launched.

With in-store work, packaging and TV.

Not to mention tons of online buzz.

Oh, and it's a great campaign, too, with a nicely-carved-out, not-really-competing-with-Starbucks niche and very sticky creative. A banner day for HH.

Overview
Doing Things spot
Tree spot
Pleather spot

Early Fishing spot
A Ton of Stuff spot

Big Lots ambassadors

Big Lots must have a BIG media buy - because I've seen these great testimonial spots again and again despite my habitual tivo-induced fast forwarding.

Here's the big idea:

Presumably, Big Lots has a perception problem of consumers thinking it's not "their kind of store."  So, in this series of three spots, they ask real shoppers (all very likeable, attractive people we can imagine ourselves being friends with) to bring a friend to the store. In :30 seconds they find tons of bargains on great stuff they would really buy and at the end of the spot the unsuspecting friend declares herself a convert.

I'm really a big fan of these spots. Great direction for increasing relevancy AND v