Hasta La Creative!

People in Britain who had settled in for a nice viewing of Prometheus this weekend were distressed, to say the least, when a realistic 30-second spot aired—completely unexplained—that advertised synthetic human housekeepers for sale.

“Meet Sally. The help you’ve always wanted,” the freakishly soothing voiceover began, as a lovely though dead-eyed cyborg is seen folding sheets, organizing the kitchen and putting the kids to bed. “She is faster, stronger, more capable than ever before.”

The ad then pitched a company called Persona Synthetics, which claims to make androids that are “closer to humans than ever before.”

By Tuesday, there had been 100,000 searches for the brand on Google, and the website was nearing half a million visits. It was all a hoax, of course—a campaign from Channel 4 for Humans, a Black Mirror-esque futuristic drama.

Along with the TV spot, there are print ads, a fake store on Regent Street, social accounts and a mock auction on eBay inviting visitors to bid on a robot (sadly, no one met the £20,000 minimum bid). At the Regent Street store, two screens used Microsoft Kinect technology to show giant robot models reacted to their movements of the people watching.

It’s freaky indeed, and we’ll only be seeing more of this kind of stuff going forward. The ads are also beautifully made by in-house agency 4Creative, whose prior work included the stunning “Meet the Superhumans” ad for the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Um dos filmes mais emocionantes do ano passado – e que exatamente por isso mesmo ficou com o GP de Film Craft em Cannes -, Meet the Superhumans acabou de ganhar uma sequência, The Return of the Superhumans. A volta acontece para divulgar o Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, jogos que marcam o primeiro aniversário da Olimpíada de Londres.

Apesar de seguir o mesmo conceito do primeiro filme, The Return of the Superhumans não causa o mesmo impacto, provavelmente por conta da expectativa criada pelo antecessor. A fotografia em preto e branco, entretanto, cria a tensão necessária para lembrar que outros recordes podem ser estabelecidos, e que os super-heróis paralímpicos estão sempre dispostos a superar obstáculos e enfrentar novos desafios.

Mais uma vez, a assinatura é da 4Creative para o Channel 4.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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So, there's this British just-barely-science-fiction series called Black Mirror, created by a mad genius named Charlie Brooker (good interview with him here; he's also ripped into advertising fairly regularly), in which all of the worst and strangest things that are possible with contemporary or soon-to-come technology happen over the course of its (thus far) six episodes. It's gotten a lot of attention in the U.K., where it airs on Channel 4. One of the reasons people like it so much is that it's very well directed (which is not always the norm for British sci-fi, as anyone who watched the first couple of beautifully acted and largely well-written seasons of Doctor Who can attest).

Anyway, you can't watch it in the U.S.—like, at all, because no network airs it, it's not on streaming, and there's no Region 1 DVD release. But you can see the incredi-weird promos on YouTube. And let me tell you, they are worth watching. How good are they? Consider that I feel duty bound to say the following to our extremely savvy readership: If a pre-roll ad pops up, make sure it's actually a pre-roll ad. "A future you deserve," indeed.

Trailer for the current season:

Trailer for the first season:

Promo for a recent episode: