Hasta La Creative!

BBDO New York’s latest offering for GE continues to celebrate innovation, but marks a stylistic departure from the agency’s recent work for the brand.

While “What Would Happen” and “Childlike Imagination” looked at innovation from a sense of childlike wonder, “Ideas” takes a sharp sidestep, personifying those ideas and focusing on how they often emerge as rough around the edges but grow into something beautiful. In the 60-second online spot, ideas are presented as an odd-looking creature that looks like something that could have crawled out of the reject pile at Jim Henson’s workshop.

Starting from birth, we follow an idea as it has a pretty rough time of things. Continually facing rejection, it resorts to sleeping on the streets until it is finally taken in by GE. “Ideas are scary, and messy, and fragile,” says a voiceover, “But under the proper care, they become something beautiful,” and then we see the fully-transformed idea, followed by the “Imagination at work” tagline.

Following the success of BBDO’s recent work for the brand, the shift in approach comes as a little off-putting, and the idea seems a bit dragged out at 60 seconds. But then maybe the spot being a little rough around the edges actually fits the concept. (more…)

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This one’s been making the rounds for awhile, but we figured we’d add our two cents since it involves the ruining of a classic Beach Boys track. BBDO New York employs the Beach Boy’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” for their latest AT&T campaign. In the debut spot, “Sing Anthem” people in everyday situations randomly start singing the song as if they’re on Glee or something.

To be fair, BBDO does a passable job of connecting the song to AT&T’s message of helping “people and things speak the same language” and a good job of illustrating the point visually. But people of various walks of life (including an operatic news reporter) randomly bursting into song is a lot to swallow, and that the song is a personal favorite makes it even harder to take. The spot, which BBDO collaborated with Biscuit Filmoworks and editorial company Rock Paper Scissors to make, is part of a broader campaign that employs “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” as a theme song in each of its commericals. Thankfully, “Sing Anthem” is the only one of these to turn everyday life into a cheesy impromptu musical. Stick around for credits and “Sing Network” after the jump. continued…

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