DDB Canada crafted a new campaign for Sony, promoting its Hi-Res Audio collection via two 30-second broadcast spots.
The ads aim for a weird sort of humor, with each showing people working out their ears in preparation of the intense experience they’ll get from Sony’s products. In practice, this ends up looking a bit creepy, as in “Ear Crunches.” The spot opens on a man as he takes off his cowboy hat and, with the aid of some special effects, begins some vigorous ear crunches. “Ear Workout” (featured after the jump) is more or less the same concept, with each spot ending with the tagline “Get Your Ears Ready” before showing the range of products in Sony’s Hi-Res Audio collection. Strange as the approach may be, it’s refreshing to see audio equipment advertised for sounding good rather than as a fashion accessory worn by celebrity athletes. Still, it would have been nice if DDB Canada could have mixed up the formula a bit more between the two ads. (more…)
For the new campaign for Stoli Vodka, Toronto shop Jacknife asked directors to tell an origin story of their choice. Stoli’s tagline is “The Original Vodka for Original People,” whatever the hell that means, but the origin-story theme can make for some interesting recreations. Director Sean Wainsteim decided to focus his efforts on the origin of The French Exit, when people leave a party without saying goodbye. We’ve all been there. A clingy come-on at a bar, friends of friends who you don’t really know that well, the weird Uncle. For the anti-social, goodbyes are unnecessary social conventions usually meant for people you don’t care about.
You’ve probably never heard of Bentley Theodore French, but he invented The French Exit while at a stuffy, waspy party that may be set in the 1930s, at least according to Stoli’s two-minute narrative ad. Bentley even passes up the chance to dance with two ladies at the same time on his way out the door. I’m not sure why he’s at this party if he dislikes everyone in attendance, but he is a social innovator who will never be forgotten. I still use his work to this day. Credits after the jump.
People like crunchy cereal. Oatmeal Crisp is a cereal that is crunchy. Cossette took this idea and handed it to a bunch of deranged copy writers who escaped from a mental institution. The result is their batshit crazy new campaign, “Competition Crunch.”
The four spots that comprise the campaign all feature varying degrees of absurd, random humor. Think of recent Old Spice campaigns for a point of reference, though that only gives you the basic idea. For whatever reason, Oatmeal Crisp’s spokesman is a Scottish dude in a kilt, who introduces “Competition Crunch.” Each spot features a new opponent for Oatmeal Crisp — a hungry tortoise, a ginger wedding, an elitist marionette, and romantic robots. That should give you some idea of the kind of crazy we’re talking about. This is filed in our “What The…?” category for a reason.
The spot featured above (my favorite), “Hungry Tortoise Vs. Oatmeal Crisp” presents a hungry tortoise, for absolutely no apparent reason on a Japanese game show, eating a crunchy head of lettuce. Our Scottish spokesman admits that the hungry tortoise eating a head of lettuce is very crunchy, but it’s no match for Oatmeal Crisp. Believe it or not, this is on the less crazy side of the campaign. Out of all the spots, it comes the closest to making sense.The only tamer spot might be the “Romantic Robot” spot, in which two romantically inclined robots make a toast and break their glasses.
On the crazier side, we have “Elitist Marionette” and “Ginger Wedding.” What can even be said about these? “Elitist Marionette” centers around — you guessed it — an elitist marionette who flaunts his “100% Egyptian cotton” strings, and his overall superiority to a second marionette. Then the puppeteer controlling him loses his cool and repeatedly stomps on him. Yes, it’s as crazy as it sounds. “Ginger Wedding” almost matches its mishigas, when a wedding of gingerbread people is interrupted by the Aflack duck, who massacres the congregation. If you’ve ever wanted to hear a church full of screaming gingerbread people, this is probably your only opportunity.
These spots are worth a chuckle and/or befuddled stare, but I’m not sure what they’ll do to sell Oatmeal Crisp. Check out “Ginger Wedding” below, and “Elitist Marionette” (along with credits) after the jump. continued…
WPP-owned, Toronto-based john st. continues in its great annual tradition of taking the piss out of the industry as part of its pitch for Strategy‘s Agency of the Year awards (we covered fellow Toronto agency Lowe Roche’s entry earlier today). In its follow-up to last year’s introduction of a “professional clicking service” called Buyral, john st. gets more aggressive, scaring the bejeezus out of total strangers (well, at least let’s play along) as part of the a new marketing strategy that the agency’s christened “exFEARiential.”
It’s just as absurd/amusing, if not more so, than previous john st. AOY videos including Buyral as well as predecessors, Catvertising and Pink Ponies. It looks like we aren’t the only ones that get a kick out of “exFEARiential” as it picked up Best Agency Video at the Strategy awards, where john st. also took home gold for Agency of the Year and bronze for Digital Agency of the Year. FYI, if you stick around til the end of the clip, you can click on separate videos of the stress tests featured above (or if you’re just unwilling to wait, go here and here). Credits after the jump.
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.
