In an apparent (and very sad) strategic shift, Carl’s Jr. appears to have dropped its collection of hotties — including Jenny McCarthy, Nina Agdal, Kate Upton and those two scorchingly hot, Daisy Duke-wearing burger babes — in favor of…a sports fan.
Created by 72andSunny, the ad features the iconic theme from Monday Night Football.
Years ago, I discovered my daughter loved snow globes. When I travel, and I travel a lot, I like to give my daughter snow globes from the various cities to which I travel. As the years went on, this became a bit more difficult as airports cracked down on the amount of liquid you could bring through security. But over the years, I was able to bring home a globe from most major cities around the country. For a time, she used to place them all on her bureau in her bedroom. Some are still there but as the collection grew, some had to be placed in boxes.
While my daughter is still quite a few years away from college, I can identify with the emotion the father in this Wrigley Extra Gum commercial experiences as he sends his daughter off to college and discovers she has saved every origami creature he made for her (out of gum wrappers) over the years.
Of course, my daughter would need a crate or two to take all her snow globes to college but I’d like to think that one day I, too, will have the experience that is shared in this BBDO Chicago-created commercial.
It’s definitely a heart string tugger.
The campaign aims to stem category losses that began in 2009 with Wrigley losing 5.54% in the last year as kids gravitated to energy drinks and chocolate.
So Facebook had its chair and reviews were mixed. We liked it. Most didn’t But that’s how we roll.
Now there’s another chair in town and this one’s really bad. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-bad. From Draftfcb New Zealand comes this animated work of wonder for New Zealand insurance company NZI.
Entitled “Devil’s Chair,” the ad shares the horrors one desk chair unleashes on unsuspecting occupants as it is passed from one to the next. The results is a sequential Rube Goldberg-style disaster of epic proportion all of which ends with the tagline, “Bad’s not going anywhere. Neither are we.”
It all makes us want to run over to Netflix to see if they have The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly to stream. And…they don’t…but Amazon Prime does!
It’s the campaign that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. When we first met the Kia hamsters, they had barely taken on their now mostly human qualities. They were more hamster than human. As the years past, out fat, fuzzy friends have gone through a bit of a transformation and have become pop culture heroes we love to hate…or hate to love. Well, at least the the ad business. To the rest of the world, they’re just psuedo-cool fur balls in a car commercial.
For its fifth outing, David & Goliath has crafted an, ahem, transformational spot for the 2014 Kia Soul in which the hamsters go through a transformation of their own. Just as the Kia Soul has received a makeover, so do out fat, furry friends.
While we love the work, we’re not sure we love the hamsters’ svelte new look. We’d carved out a special spot in out heart for these fatties who, over the years, make us laugh and dance like a school girl when each new spot was released.
Now, the trio is just like every other self-indulgent, overpaid Hollywood movie star or musician. What’s next? Twerking with Miley Cyrus during next year’s VMAs?
Don’t take this the wrong way. We love the work. But where do you go from here? Alas, we are confident the creative geniuses at David & Goliath will, once again, deliver the awesome.
Spec ads are awesome. Why? Because the creators can do what brands wish they could do; create commercial that aren’t bogged down by legal, cultural or moral concerns. In a spec ad, you can just tell it like it is. Or how you’d like it to be. Or how you’d imagine it to be. Which is exactly what three German film students, Tobia Haase, Jan Mettler and Lydia Lohse, did when they created this spec spot for the Mercedes Benz C-Class.
Many have wondered and pondered what the world would be like had Hitler not existed. It’s the stuff of many a movie plot, documentary and science fiction show episodes. BUt we haven’t seen Hitler front and center in many commercials.
In this 80-second clip which has garnered over 730,000 YouTube views since Friday, the Mercedes-Benz, equipped with Collision Prevention Assist, has a mind of its own. While the driverless Mercedes smartly detects children in the middle of an Austrian countryside roadway and stops, the vehicle makes an entirely different decision when a young Adolph Hitler crosses the roadway.
The ad closes with the tagline, “Detects dangers before they come up.”
Predictably, Mercedes is not happy with the spec ad and has forced the students to slap “this is spec work” labels prominently on the video.
While Hitler is certainly a touchy subject, the students report they simply wanted to explore what it would be like if machines had souls and could make human decision. Via.
In, perhaps, the silliest commercial for a cable or satellite TV service we have ever seen, Director Adam Huber put together this spec spot for DirecTV which has us believing the service is so good, you’d crawl into bed with it, give it a cuddle and maybe even have sex with it.
We anxiously await contact from DirecTV asking us to remove this drivel from the interwebs even though, repeat after me, THIS IS A SPEC SPOT.
Bringing back really, really bad memories of LA Gear, a new ad created by RealNormal/Beef & Sage (WTF kind of name is that?) introduces the Big Red soda Pump Bottle. That’s right. Now when your Big Red soda gets flat, all you have to do is push the pump a few times and your soda will, once again, be carbonated.
In the ad, a gang of boom box-fueled breakdancers dressed like, well, like they were in an LA Gear commercial, runs into a bit of trouble when their soda goes flat.
And that voiceover? Good God. Shoot me now!
We like Snapple. We like fun facts. Which is why we are saddened by this utterly inane, completely boring video featuring ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne sharing the origin of the high five and how a day in the park with his daughter inspired him to form the Kenny Mayne National High-Five Preservation Society…of which he is the only member.
n the video, part of the brand’s Re-enFACTments campaign, Mayne drones on and on and on about the high-five’s origins, usage offshoots (like the fist bump) and shares examples of proper high-five ettiquette.
It could have been funny. It’s not. Maybe we hadn’t yet had enough coffee before viewing. No. It’s just boring.
While some might say it’s lazy to grab a baby, stick a mustache on him and have him chase a vacuum cleaner around his house in a roller cart, we say stop over analyzing and just laugh your ass off because that’s what you’ll do when you view this Samsung Motor Sync vacuum cleaner ad which touts an easy-to-manuever, swivel-style vacuum cleaner.
Add Samsung to the ever-growing list of brands (Evian, eTrade, etc.) digging on babies.
Working with BBDO New York, Footlocker is out with a new commercial entitled Harden Soul featuring NBA players James Harden and Stephen Curry. In the ad, Harden wants to branch out by cutting a new R&B single in the studio. Thankfully, Curry arrives and saves Harden from embarrassment who when he hears himself, utters, “Is…is that me?”
Somewhere in there is a message about Footlocker having “all the fresh, new gear.”
This is, perhaps, the most interesting TV commercial you will see in a very long time. And by TV ad, we mean a TV ad for a TV. In this case, a Samsung TV. Created by 72andSunny and called Meet the Family, this ad introduces us to a family that just got a new SmartTV from Samsung.
But first…OMG! This family is interracial! Yes. Interracial. Call the cause groups! This one could get ugly! My God, the wife is Asian! And she’s married to…OMG…a white guy! Good God, the interwebs are going to light up with this one.
Anyway, it is on of the most well-paced commercials of any kind we have seen in a very long time. Dad, mom, daughter, son and grandfather all get great lines and all interact with one another perfectly! And with awesome dialog like, “I don’t know, calling girls and hanging up” and “Which one of you yahoos put our TV on the curb,” It’s like they’re a real family. But that couldn’t be true because, as we all know, no one wants interracial families in advertising, right?
It’s a well-known fact marketers are obsessed with pretty people when it comes to selecting spokesmodels for their advertising campaigns. But what happens when a product is so good, just about anyone can step in and promote it?
That’s the silly notion behind this BBR Saatchi & Saatchi-created campaign for Elite Cow Chocolate…which is so good it can turn anyone into a windblown hottie.
Who doesn’t love the attention of a doting mother every once in a while? And the loving attention of a doting mother becomes ever more important when you’re one of the 24% or so of 20-34 year olds living at home.
Deutsch LA gives nod to this statistic in a new Taco Bell commercial — perfectly titled Smothering Mother — which promotes the brand’s Smothered Burrito. In the ad, mom buzzes about tending to her son’s every need with rapid fire questions and commentary.
Here’s yet another ad that uses children as a really good reason to make sure you use a condom when you have sex. This one for Durex was just dubbed Spec ad of the year by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. It was directed by Paul Santana and it’s certainly funny but it breaks no new ground. And it, like all others of its ilk, has a gigantic strategic flaw.
The only reason all the children in these ads appear to be the little monsters they are is because the parents let them become little monsters. Parents who give a shit and properly discipline their children would never end up like the four familial disasters we see in this Durex spec ad.
It’s really that simple. You want kids like the kids in this ad? Then abdicate your parental responsibilities and let your children ruin your life. You want well behaved children? Then employ a little discipline from the start and you’ll be surprised how well-behaved children can be.
And, yea, I’m not an idiot. I know this is an ad and in order to be a good ad, it has to be funny. And in order to be funny, it has to highlight to lowest of the low. The worst of the worst. The most idiotic of the idiotic. The weakest of the weak. And so on. So from that perspective, it’s a great ad. And, yea, if you don’t want kids, don’t have them. But don’t have them and end up like the goofballs in this commercial. Via.
How in the world could we not write about this? What’s funnier than a baby laughing at a silly commercial? Or a baby laughing at anything for that matter? And, thanks to YouTube, we now have hundreds of these videos to enjoy in perpetuity.
Here’s one of a baby cracking up while viewing Geico’s The Martin Agency-created Dikembe Mutombo commercial. Via.
Predictably, a few fuck heads (and that’s really what they are) had to make several idiotic racial comments.
Can someone please explain this ad? No. wait, we get it. Entitled Waiting is Over — for TelecomNZ from Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand and produced by GoodOil — it’s all about waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Anything. Anything at all! Because nothing actually happens in this ad. It’s just a bunch of dramatic still shots. Which, we suppose is the point. Because all you get with slow internet is…dramatic, frozen, still shots. Kind of like the way images would load back in dial-up days.
So we suppose the approach is apt given that TelecomNZ’s Ultra Broadband aims to make waiting — any kind of waiting — a thing of the past. And that’s a very good thing. Especially for teenaged boys who, unlike teenaged boys of the early nineties, will never ever have to experience the ball busting horror of waiting for that nude picture their Yahoo! Chat buddy just sent to load.
“It’s not quite Carling,” says the butler as he offers a Carling to the nursery designer who has just completed his design for William and Kate’s royal baby nursery. The work, from Creature, reminds us its important to know the details before you embark upon work as important as this.
Hmm. Nowhere near as awesome as a Lacta Chocolate love story but this Grey New York-created work for Downy which incorporates a cover of Alphaville’s Forever Young — that awesome early eighties, post punk-style ballad — comes as close as any detergent ad could.
Entitled Forever Downy, the ad is an ode to the clothes we wear because we live our life in them. And they have meaning. Especially that t-shirt you got at a concert which led to a hook up which led to a baby which led to you letting your child wear that t-shirt which started it all.
My how times haven’t changed. Remember that classic Goodyear Polyglass commercial which many have dubbed the most sexist ad of all time? You know the one. The one in which…OMG…you wife has to drive alone!
On one hand, advertising culture has moved beyond portraying women like moronic, bikini-clad bimbos whose sole purpose is to drape themselves across the hood of a car or stand in front of a refrigerator. On the other, we have TrueCar.com which, in a serious headscratcher, thought it smart to imply women are still hapless nitwits who have no idea how to buy a car on their own.
A not-so-recent ad from the used car site features women telling us how the site gave them the necessary confidence to buy a car on their own with one particular woman saying…wait for it…”I don’t even need to bring a dude with me.”
Predictably, reaction to the ad has been far from flattering. Comments include “The most sexist commercial out there” and “Wow. I guess all women are just scared, meek, docile little creatures that get intimidated by car dealerships.”
Defending the ad, which debuted back in March, TrueCar.com responded to comments, saying,”We apologize if our ad came across the wrong way. Transparency is a core part of our business and we aim to improve the car buying experience for everyone by helping consumers make an informed buying decision.”
What complete and utter bullshit. Even if any of that marble-mouthed buzzword bingo were even remotely sincere, what idiot behind this work thought anachronistically sexist copy like this wouldn’t spark outrage?
Of course, the ad is right inline with how TrueCar.com perceives the car buying process. The brand hangs its hat on findings from the book, Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, which states 2.5 more women than men feel “a great deal of apprehension” about negotiation and that they will pay, on average, up to $1,353 to avoid negotiating the price of a vehicle.
Other studies though, such as a 2012 survey from LeaseTrader reveal women are more likely to ask tougher questions and engage in more due diligence when buying a car. The study found more than two thirds (67.2%) of women — as compared to 54.4% of men — requested a vehicle inspection when considering a lease purchase. The differences are even more pronounced in younger age groups with 78.2% of women 21-30 requesting an inspection as compared to 42.3% for men.
So, perhaps, it makes perfect sense for TrueCar.com to target women since they, it seems, are more likely than men to use (and pay for) services that provide detailed information which eases the negotiation process rather than winging it as more men seem to do.
But to imply they’ve needed (or need) the assistance of men (who don’t even probe as deeply as women do when buying a car) rings untrue when studies indicate they don’t need a man; they just need more information when considering a purchase.
TrueCar.com should, indeed, tout the fact they can arm car buyers with information that will ease the negotiation process. But to imply some women need a dude when buying a car does nothing but roll back gender enlightenment 50 years or so.
Goodyear Polyglass ad:
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is out with the third rendition of its much-lauded, Fallon-created “Just the right amount of wrong” work that continues to position the luxury property as anything but normal.
Last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody redux and 2011’s original hinted at all manner of mischievously illicit behavior occurring inside the property and positioned the hotel as an adventure rather than a bed on which to sleep.
The work, particularly the Bohemiam Rhapsody commercial, was a masterstroke of genius which separated the hotel from all others in Sin City and touted the destination as a place for fun and frivolity like no other.
Of this latest work, Cosmopolitan CMO Lisa Marchese tells AdWeek, “We wanted to create a spot that was radically different in form–the mix of typography to imagery, the way the imagery was shot. The tone is radically different. We wanted it to look like nothing else out there.”
The spot is, indeed, radically different. With it’s quick cut phrases such as “Mutation is progress”, Correct is mistake” and Misfit right in,” the work adheres to the original’s mystique but lacks the pompously witty demeanor of the second.
Though for a brand aiming for grandiose, hipsterific magnificence, the work delivers.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
