Hasta La Creative!

BBDO Toronto continues the absurdist tendencies of Skittle’s advertising with one of the brand’s strangest ads in recent memory.

Entitled “Struck By A Rainbow,” the ad is a mockumentary about a man named David who is hit by a rainbow, changing his skin to Skittles. Directed by Conor Byrne, the video, while never laugh out loud funny, convincingly mirrors and parodies the tropes of documentaries about people combating adversity, getting the feel just right. The long running time (“Struck By A Rainbow” clock in at well over three minutes) is used to show most of the implications of David’s condition and show David’s journey from struggle to acceptance. In case you’re wondering, a doctor points out that “From a medical perspective, there’s nothing wrong with David. His skin is just now Skittles.” The spot saves one of its more obvious jokes for the end, as David’s wife leans in to kiss him on the cheek and bites off a Skittle. While over three minutes is a very long time to spend watching an ad, and the premise is stretched a bit thin by the long running time, this should still appeal to fans of the brand’s distinctly oddball humor, and anyone creeped out too much by the idea would stop watching immediately anyway.

“Struck By A Rainbow” debuted on YouTube and the brand’s Facebook page on December 8th, but the campaign also includes a digital buy featuring 30-second teasers to drive additional views. Media support for the spot will continue around four weeks.

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Back in 2011, john st. unveiled this spot for Corby Distilleries Limited, part of their “Wiserhood” campaign promoting Wiser’s Whisky brand, in which a dickish guy makes a big deal over holding his girlfriend’s purse for a minute. He drops the bag on the ground, potentially damaging the contents within, and uses a plastic bag to pick it up, which he then turns inside out — as if the purse was, in fact, a steaming dog turd. Now john st. has resurrected the somewhat sexist “Wiserhood” campaign with a new spot featuring another boyfriend of the year.

In “Swan Song,” a couple are at the movies when the guy sees a display ad for a new action movie called “Swan Song” that contains the tagline “Death is back for an encore.” When his significant other returns (presumably from the bathroom or something) she asks if he’s picked a movie for them. They look at the movie titles currently showing and the woman says “Hmm…’Swan Song,’ sounds romantic.” The guy enthusiastically agrees, in all likelihood knowing fully well that his significant other is going to utterly hate the movie for the next couple of hours. What a dick.

Here’s my problem with this spot, putting the sexism aside for a moment: Who goes to the movies these days without knowing what they’re going to see? Going to the movies is freaking expensive. Too expensive to go into all willy-nilly “I’ll see whatever” and just walk into a terrible movie. Plus, people tend to know what’s playing from advertising and the Internet. If they don’t know what’s playing, they look it up and pick something out before going to the theater. It’s not 1994. While I understand that this is a short ad, and isn’t all that considered with verisimilitude, this still bothered me. It makes the spot seem like it’s from a different time, which I would guess is not what they were going for. Credits after the jump. continued…

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