Hasta La Creative!

Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO, Kuwait
Art Director: Pankaj Bangde
Copywriter: Lokesh Achaiah
Creative Director: Viraj Ponkshe

Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO, Kuwait
Art Director: Pankaj Bangde
Copywriter: Lokesh Achaiah
Creative Director: Viraj Ponkshe

Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO, Kuwait
Art Director: Pankaj Bangde
Copywriter: Lokesh Achaiah
Creative Director: Viraj Ponkshe

Advertising Agency: Y&R Singapore
Creative Director: Rowan Chanen
Copywriters: Edward Ong, Rowan Chanen
Art Director: Kirsten Ackland
Print Producer: Kim Lim

Advertising Agency: Y&R Singapore
Creative Director: Rowan Chanen
Copywriters: Edward Ong, Rowan Chanen
Art Director: Kirsten Ackland
Print Producer: Kim Lim

So there’s this new website called Firebrand that a few of my friends have something to do with. And because the site does nothing but show commercials, they’ve been thinking I’d have an interest in it.

This is not AdCritic (Creativity-Online these days) mind you. Or even AdFreak or AdRants. The site is aimed at the general public and its founders believe that people really want to watch good ads. (Good being the operative word here.)

And while it surprises me at some level that people outside the business actually want to watch commercials, it probably shouldn’t. I mean who would have predicted Civil War re-enactors, right? Plus there’s that moment we’ve all been through, when some guy at a party finds out you work in advertising and starts asking you all about his favorite commercial, some local car dealer ad where the salesman gets a pie in the face and you have to (a) pretend you’ve seen it and (b) pretend you know the guys who did it. And for a brief moment there, despite the seeming awfulness of the premise, you’re shocked, completely shocked at how deeply this guy connects with this car dealer spot and you wonder if anyone’s ever connected that deeply with something you’ve done.

And it got me to thinking how jaded we all are to advertising and the role it plays in people’s lives. (Okay not all people’s lives, but certainly many. I’d even settle for some.) How ads really are little movies or posters that people enjoy over and over every time they see them because they know nothing of all the sweat and grief and 3 hour meetings with account people saying “calendared” that went into making them. They don’t notice that the logo is on the bottom left either, even when we all know it really should have been on the top right because they’re charmed by the previous 27 seconds and their brains know to tune out for the last 3.

Which is the catch, of course. These commercial addicts have probably never bought anything from any of the brands advertised in the ads they watch on Firebrand. Because the reason they love these commercials has nothing to do with the brands they’re advertising, but with the writing and casting and lighting and propping and wardrobe and camera speed and pacing and editing. You know, all that stuff we call “craft.”

And so while Firebrand’s audience may never turn out to be “brand evangelists” they may well turn out to be “advertising evangelists.”

These days, we sure could use some.

You decide where to go. Designated Driver Program. If you drink, don’t drive.

Advertising Agency: Jotabequ, San Jose, Costa Rica
Creative Director: Diego Vasquez
Art Director: Irene Jimenez
Designers: Irene Jimenez, Rosa Ramos, Santiago Cardone
Copywriter: Reinaldo Reales
Photographers: Rosa Ramos, Paul Aragón
Published: September 2007

You decide where to go. Designated Driver Program. If you drink, don’t drive.

Advertising Agency: Jotabequ, San Jose, Costa Rica
Creative Director: Diego Vasquez
Art Director: Irene Jimenez
Designers: Irene Jimenez, Rosa Ramos, Santiago Cardone
Copywriter: Reinaldo Reales
Photographers: Rosa Ramos, Paul Aragón
Published: September 2007

SINGAPORE – Ogilvy & Mather has won a creative assignment for Soyjoy, a newly opened Japanese fruit and soy bar in Singapore, after a pitch with Dentsu and Asatsu-DK.

Advertising Agency: Blue Sky, Atlanta, USA
Creative Director / Art Director / Illustrator / Photographer: Ryan Hayslip
Copywriter: Jason Corbin
Published: December 2007