Hasta La Creative!

The father is a human in a dog's body (for reasons "you're too young to understand," he once barked at his daughter), the son is a black American, and their maid is an alien incarnation of Tommy Lee Jones. They are “The White Family,” a staple of telecom Softbank’s marketing, and they have become the most popular recurring commercial characters in Japan. The family is made up of a father (Otosan), a son (Kojiro), a mom (Masako) and a daughter (Aya). Telling you much more about their family dynamic would require me actually knowing Japanese, since few of the many YouTube clips from the campaign have been subtitled, though you can read a great profile on the Whites' commercial success in The Japan Times. Like me, you may have stumbled across their ads before and been too distracted by the craziness of their antics to actually recognize it as an ongoing campaign—one that has been tallied as the nation’s favorite for six years running. The sprawling series of more than 130 spots, credited with vaulting SoftBank from industry newcomer to one of Japan's top mobile providers, have even featured cameos from Quentin Tarantino, Tommy Lee Jones and a real Japanese astronaut filming his appearances in space. For my fellow uninitiated, I’ve compiled some of the more interesting clips from the campaign after the jump. Disclaimer: Seeing more of these ads doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll understand them any more. Hat tip to WTF Japan Seriously.   

When you hear the words human hair orchestra, don't you just imagine Hannibal Lecter conducting? Not so for this Unilever-sponsored stunt in the Philippines from JWT Singapore and JWT Manila. To show the strengthening effect of its Cream Silk hair-care line, the marketer enlisted a custom bow-maker and used human hair washed with the products instead of the usual horsehair to string four violin bows. An all-female quartet then used them to play 40 songs over four hours in a busy Manila mall. They reported no broken strands through the four-set concert, which drew a crowd of more than 600 people. The live music's lovely, and the idea's unique, but doesn't the whole thing have a slightly creepy it-puts-the-conditioner-on-its-head vibe?

Gape in awe at these impressive "Windows 8 Training Camp" videos that dramatize product benefits through the goofiest of competitions. In "Makeup," three women have 10 seconds to apply cosmetics, with results that are hilariously mixed. In "Piano," we are introduced to two men who balance work and play by tickling the ivories while playing pingpong with their buttocks. They’re actually quite talented. And in "Watermelon," three skilled martial artists carve and suggestively finger some watermelons. Microsoft told bloggers the online-only videos were created specifically for Asian markets and were only posted to the global Youtube channel by mistake, but we're not buying it. While I don't speak Korean or Chinese, commenters who are native speakers of both have said on The Verge' that the actors in the ads are actually speaking a fake language that's just gibberish, which makes you wonder if the whole odd-Asian vibe and vague backstory for the spots are signs that these were intended to be viral videos from day one. More spots after the jump.

Dan Stafford est agé de 24 ans, et travaille actuellement comme illustrateur à Londres. Focus sur son portfolio, avec des visuels impressionnants mélangeant culture occidentale et orientale. Une sélection de ses illustrations au rendu époustouflant sont à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Jan Feliks
• Vicente Garcia Morillo
• Patrick Monkel

a href=/media/print/dq_led_torches_to_love_and_be_lovedimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/To-love-and-to-be-loved.preview.jpg alt=DQ LED Torches: To love and be loved title=DQ LED Torches: To love and be loved class=image image-preview width=315 height=460 //apAdvertising Agency: Firstell Communications, Shanghai, Chinabr /
Creative Director: Murphy Choubr /
Art Director: Murphy Chou, Kens Caobr /
Copywriter: Murphy Chou, Yanli Songbr /
Published: December 2008/p

a href=/media/print/dq_led_torches_let_the_freedom_reignimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Let-freedom-reign.preview.jpg alt=DQ LED Torches: Let the freedom reign title=DQ LED Torches: Let the freedom reign class=image image-preview width=460 height=315 //apAdvertising Agency: Firstell Communications, Shanghai, Chinabr /
Creative Director: Murphy Choubr /
Art Director: Murphy Chou, Kens Caobr /
Copywriter: Murphy Chou, Yanli Songbr /
Published: December 2008/p

a href=/media/print/3m_scotch_brite_stove_crawlimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Stove-Crawl.preview.jpg alt=3M Scotch Brite: Stove crawl title=3M Scotch Brite: Stove crawl class=image image-preview width=460 height=276 //apAdvertising Agency: 180 Degree Strategics, Malaysiabr /
Creative Director: Chan Fongbr /
Photographer: Kenneth Limbr /
Art Director / Copywriter: Kc.Har / Kyle/p

a href=/media/print/3m_scotch_brite_sink_abseilingimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Sink-Abseiling.preview.jpg alt=3M Scotch Brite: Sink abseiling title=3M Scotch Brite: Sink abseiling class=image image-preview width=460 height=276 //apAdvertising Agency: 180 Degree Strategics, Malaysiabr /
Creative Director: Chan Fongbr /
Photographer: Kenneth Limbr /
Art Director / Copywriter: Kc.Har / Kyle/p

a href=/media/print/aquafresh_flex_direct_toothbrush_biscuitimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/original_aquafresh_trapped-biscuit.preview.jpg alt=Aquafresh Flex Direct Toothbrush: Biscuit title=Aquafresh Flex Direct Toothbrush: Biscuit class=image image-preview width=340 height=460 //apAdvertising Agency: Grey, Hong Kongbr /
Executive Creative Director: Keith Hobr /
Creative Directors: Brian Ma, Alfred Wongbr /
Art Director: Brian Ma, Leo Yeungbr /
Copywriter: Alfred Wong, Tony Chanbr /
Photographer: Anton Digital Art Ltd/p