Hasta La Creative!

Car ads have disappointed me lately, so I was pleasantly surprised by this Fallon London spot for Skoda, which ranks as one of the more entertaining and memorable commercials in the category so far this year. (It avoids stalling on gooey sentimentality and hey-we-set-a-record! docudrama.) The awesomely realized one-joke spot shows various objects in a typical suburban neighborhood that have become outrageously big and powerful. These include a baby carriage that's more like a tricked-out moon-buggy; an ice-cream truck serving 2-foot-high cones; a lawnmower with eight cylinders; a jackhammer with mini-hammers to really grind up the pavement; a barbecue grill that's a cross between a UFO and a nuclear plant; and a kid's Big Wheel-type tricycle with wildly humongous wheels. Despite all the size and power on display, folks still stare open-mouthed at a dude tooling around in his high-performance Skoda Octavia vRS.

The action manages to be self-consciously silly but never stupid, because the souped-up stuff, while outlandish and cartoony, is nonetheless cool-looking and convincing. (Check out the "behind-the-scenes" clip below, which opens with a spoof commercial for the jet-powered, bomb-proof grill, and shows some of the impressive props being made.) The slogan, "It's not your everyday family car," is a bit weak, but I still got the message that this is one powerful Skoda, and it might just turn some heads on my boring old street. I'm sold … I'll take the grill! (And a chocolate cone with extra sprinkles, please.)

My name is Rajeev Basu. I live and work in London. I work across advertising, design and products. I’ve worked at Fallon London and The Brooklyn Brothers. And currently work for Saint London.

Why are you into Advertising?
I like being creative. I like the idea that you might come up with something that no-one else has ever thought of. And how it might take shape as a piece of film. Or a book. Or a product. Or sometimes even as a piece of advertising.

You went to study Economics at University. What made you come to work in advertising?
Advertising allows me to laugh just as much in the week as I do at the weekend.

Tell us something about the work and creative atmosphere at Fallon and Saint…
We were lucky to be at Fallon when it was the place to be. Cadbury Gorilla was taking off, and the place was buzzing. It was amazing. I think it was one of those rare times when it was all the right people at the right place at the right time.

I like Saint London a lot. We started here when it was really small. About 20 people or so.  It’s nice because it’s a lot more hands on. And we get to work on pretty much everything. We recently did this title sequence for the Virgin London Marathon. We used a cool animator from Philadelphia called Andy Rementer. Love his style. Think these turned out pretty neat…

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
My dad. He is the smartest person I know. My mum. She is the most selfless person I know.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Advertising?
Tony Cullingham at Watford copywriting school. You cannot describe this man in words. He has shaped so many of the most brilliant creatives around the world it’s scary. He is brilliant. And I feel privileged…

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I like funny stuff. I read and watch a lot of comedy. I like The Simpsons, Futurama… tv shows like The IT Crowd, Black Books and Father Ted. Oh, and I like the film ‘Man on the Moon’ too (it’s a film about a comedian ahead of his time).

Tell us something about your Rat Table project. What spurred this amazing thought?
I do a lot of independent projects outside of work. Rat Table is the biggest and most well known. It’s a sculpture. It’s a table that will be made entirely by rats. You can get all the info and see pictures on my site here. It’s an ongoing project. If you’d like to see how we get on, and see whether a huge number of rats can turn a big solid block of wood into a table – join the facebook group…

I’ve also recently launched my first product called Impossible Lamp. It’s a lamp made of wax that works without melting. You can read more about it here…

Do you get to see some of the advertising being created in India? Anything in particular that you remember?
I still remember the Levi’s stickmen press ads that came out of India years ago. I think I saw them at the Young Guns show here in the UK.

Do you think brands whose advertising wins awards, do well in the market?
I think where awards are rewarding creativity that has demonstrated that it was genuinely effective are good.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals?
It’s better to be different, wrong and irrelevant than to be boring.
Go with your gut.

Mac or PC?
Mac.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
My future wife.

What’s on your iPod?
I don’t own one.

Rajeev can be contacted via his website here

Is Fallon Minneapolis crawling its way out of the shitter? Maybe so. Maybe it’s all that offi-sod some folks have put in their cubicles. Perhaps, it has something to do with the return of creative Chris Wiggins? Or, maybe, the pendulum has just swung a little right. It always does.

Fallon has recently won the Boston Market account. People are chatting about work they’ve done namely, the recent commercials for The Ladders – love or hate ’em – they are generating noise. Take a look at the moderate bump in The Ladders Alexa stats below. Not , but nice enough.

The agency has also been creating work for United Arab Emirates-based Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, which will kick off in 2009. It’s worth noting that the bank has ended its relationship with the NYSE, but hey – work is work, no?

And really, Fallon has been struggling for a long time. It’s nice to see them make a few headlines, grab some work.

More: Part 2 – Fallon’s Work For The Ladders

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The new spot for The Ladders from Fallon US is a bit of a planning and buying train wreck. Sorry, but this ad is definitely making us believe the hype – 2009 is going to suck balls.

The ad above played during The Fiesta Bowl last night, which makes you wonder about the media buy that went down. The Bowl clocked 12M viewers. However, in 2006, the US Census reported that only 5.6 percent of individual income earners made $100+ year. And in this climate with Madoff and mortgages going belly up that number has definitely dropped. Sure, college football rakes in recent college grads as well as die hard, more affluent alums, but one has to wonder how many watchers are bagging the really big dough?

This begs the question – do you really need to shit all over those folks at the middle of the ladder or even, the bottom? Previously, the job site ran an ad that featured a tennis player. It achieved the same message without crapping on the little guy. In tonight’s spot, we see little godzillas who can’t get the attention of a sales clerk. What happened?

How many people were turned off by the message? You could argue it doesn’t matter if 10% (1.2M) now feel badly about the site. They weren’t going to use it anyway, right? But the trick with luxury is to create a feeling of aspiration. Not aversion to your brand.

Hope all that dough you guys coughed up for media time was worth it. Seems like there would be better avenues to tap the folks you want than a straight up media blitz. Silicon Alley Insider estimates the site will generate $60 million in revenue in 2008, up from about $35 million in 2007. The Ladders didn’t start using broadcast campaigns until just this year. They were doing just fine. Hope this turns out to be worth it. According to Alexa, there was no spike in traffic for The Ladders tonight, so perhaps not. Of course, we’ll check back in on these stats in a few hours.

Oh yeah. This commercial also just badly, badly executed. To quote David Ibsen: The ads are lacking “a clear or effective strategy, are not entertaining, nor are they memorable, or seem to tie to the brand promise.”

Total. Fail.

Gotta say though – as far as the monster themed commercials go, I’m generally a fan. I adored Garmin’s take. Check it out below.

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Advertising Agency: Fallon, Minneapolis, USA
Via: Adfreak

Advertising Agency: Fallon, Minneapolis, USA
Via: Adfreak

Advertising Agency: Fallon, Minneapolis, USA
Via: Adfreak

Via ScampBlog comes this spot from Fallon’s UK office for Budweiser. The one thing that jumps out immediately is that it’s a :60 (when was the last time you saw a :60 in the US that wasn’t a launch spot for a major brand.)

The second is that it’s another in a line of UK TV spots that fetishize the rural American South (Levi’s UK advertising did a good job of this.) Not criticizing, but it’s always fascinating to see an outsider’s take on something uniquely American. To the Brits, the rural South is uniquely and authentically American.

Third is there’s no product sell. It’s a nice minute-long movie about a band that uses instruments made of Budweiser bottles. No lovingly lit pour shots, no hot chicks in bikinis and all the other clichés of American beer advertising. Shot by Harmony Korine, a noted avant-garde movie director best know for his debut film Kids, my only question here is what role did the agency actually play? Did they come to Korine with the idea “rural Southern band plays with instruments made from Budweiser bottles. Go.” Or did they have the basic action plotted out and Korine just added detail, tone and style? I sort of hope it’s the former.

For although many creative purists will look down on an agency for engaging a director at that stage, one of the biggest lessons we have to learn from the digital age is that it can’t always be about the copywriter and art director team anymore. That we need to engage and involve other people– be they technologists, user experience experts or film directors– early on and collaborate with them fully. The result can be something as charming as the spot above.