BBDO NY Pauses the Action for U-verse

There are an abundance (some might say an overabundance) of ads for television related products and services showing the viewer immersed in the onscreen action as a means of highlighting features, so BBDO New York’s latest spots for U-verse certainly don’t score many points for originality. Yet BBDO’s latest contributions in the category for AT&T’s U-verse get the formula right in a way not many do, thanks to deft editing and good transitions from the onscreen action to “real life.”

In “Police Drama” for example, a man is thrust into the action at a police station as a sergeant berates his officers to get leads on a case. He interrupts the sergeant, telling him, “We’ve got to move.” “That’s mu point,” the sergeant shoots back. “No, we’ve got to move to the den, my wife’s got book club in here,” he replies. He then marches through his wife’s book club crowed over to the den to finish the show. “Space Capsule” takes a similar approach with a sci-fi show on a train. It’s not anything viewers haven’t seen before, but the transitions make for a better execution than is typical for the approach. Now maybe it’s time to move on to a new idea?

“Space Capsule” and credits after the jump. (more…)

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BBDO Reads Subtitles, Rearranges the Furniture for AT&T

A spot from BBDO‘s latest campaign for AT&T combines the 70?s sitcoms that our more mature readers all loved with what looks and sounds a lot like a 90?s metal show hosted in…a high school auditorium?

The point, of course, is that the quality of reception on many cellular networks leaves crucial calls all but indecipherable…and that subtitles aren’t just for Bergman movies that you can’t fully appreciate even after the translation.

We feel bad for the fake band in this spot, because we failed to see even one head banging.

More of the “Frank and Charlie” series plus credits after the jump.

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If This ‘It Can Wait’ Doc Doesn’t Help the Cause, We Don’t Know What Will

We figured we’d hold off on posting about this until this afternoon because it’s Friday and you might actually be able to view this in full, if you haven’t already, because it deserves to be.  Werner Herzog, the legendary director, writer and/or producer of a million projects including Grizzly Man during his 50-year career, has gone behind the camera once again for the above documentary, From One Second to the Next. This is the epic, poignant, sad and important extension of the ongoing “It Can Wait” PSA campaign initially launched by AT&T that has now been supported by the other major wireless carriers including Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Herzog, along with BBDO New York, continues to hammer the message home that texting while driving doesn’t shouldn’t mix via the tales of four different people who were affected by it on either end of the spectrum. Be safe this weekend and if you’d care to, take the “It Can Wait” pledge here. Credits after the jump.

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AT&T Taps More Kids for Youthful Publicity, Adds Mother’s Day Theme to ‘It’s Not Complicated’

Let’s kill two birds, shall we? AT&T must really like little kids. First, we had the Beck Bennett commercials that ran incessantly during March Madness (and still run; check out the newest Mother’s Day-themed “It’s Not Complicated” clip from BBDO after the jump). Now, the telecom giant seems to think we want more, more, more. The latest work from Dallas-based multicultural agency Sanders\Wingo shows young’ns on their mobile devices, saying things like, “In my day…our connection was so slow, we had to take turns online.”

Some viewers may find this cute, others may find it scary, but as kids become more and more comfortable with the latest technology, these types of spots should become the norm. We already have videos of babies who can swipe a page on an iPad, but can’t turn the page in a book or magazine. Regardless, kids will always have to eat the trope-filled Brussels sprout before they get to use any of these devices, and that’s how we get the thirty-second “Veggies.”

Check out the second spot, “Haircut,” the aforementioned “It’s Not Complicated” Mother’s Day effort and credits for all after the jump.

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