KBS+ Takes Bissell to the Subway in Gross Spot

KBS+, Toronto have a new campaign for Bissell that gets a little gross. In the spot, promoting the Bissell Symphony, which vacuums and cleans hardwood simulateneously, Bissell Canada Senior Brand Manager Ravi Dalchand sets out to prove that he’s behind the product one hundred percent.

So he uses the Symphony to clean a subway floor and then takes things a giant step forward in the gross department and eats some saucy pasta right off the spot he cleaned, seemingly to the disgust of fellow subway passengers.

“Instead of just showing how it works at home, we felt the stronger message was to show how well it could clean, even in an extremely tough, dirty, messy situation,” Bissell Vice President General Manager Craig Emmerson told The Huffington Post.

As that publication points out, however, this was not a normal Toronto subway stop. The stop used was the Bay Lower Station, which TTC CEO Andy Byford said had been “closed off to the public six months after opening in 1966 due to passenger confusion and consistent delays.” It’s now mainly used as a set for movies and television. So while eating off of subway tile is still pretty gross, it’s not as disgusting as it originally appears. And those onlookers are almost definitely actors. But KBS+, Toronto and Bissell assume (probably correctly) that most people won’t reach that conclusion, and, staged or not, the gimmick is pretty memorable. (more…)

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Toronto Shop Bemoans ‘Stupidification of Society’ in Short Films for TED Event

We here at the Spy couldn’t help but be reminded of Mike Judge‘s highly underrated 2006 film, Idiocracy, when checking out these shorts from Toronto-based agency, Capital C. The shop paints a bleak portrait of a social media-addled future hinged on 6-second sound bites versus long-form content and one which lacks any thought-provoking communique. Yes folks, behold the “Stupidification of Society,” which Capital C created pro-bono for the  TEDxColumbiaSIPA conference that took place in New York on May 8. According to the agency’s chief creative officer, Gary Watson, the films “The Vine Effect” (above) and “The Glass Era” (below) “…very much play into cultural and digital trends. Shortened attention spans. Technology overload. Things that get in the way of spending time with inspirational content that ultimately makes a difference in our lives.”

Short films lamenting the loss of longer-form content? Oh, the irony, but perhaps that’s the point of all this to begin with. Full credits after the jump.

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Production Duo Celebrates ‘Gran Turismo’ 15th Anniversary by Honoring its Creator

Producers Tamir Moscovici and Paul Proulx, the creative production team behind Urban Outlaw and Painting Coconuts , decided to mark the 15th anniversary of Sony’s landmark Gran Turismo series (and recent release of Gran Turismo 6) with a documentary profiling “the single-minded genius behind Gran Turismo’s birth and breathtaking 15-year evolution,” Kazunori Yamauchi.

KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide is a one hour, 24 minute documentary examining the drive and devotion Yamauichi has put into Gran Turismo from its birth through its incredible evolution over the past 15 years. Since the first Gran Turismo game in 1997, the game Yamauchi had wanted to make since he was fifteen years old, he has always gone above and beyond expectations in creating the best games possible. Yamauchi has been one of the most important and interesting figures in gaming over the past 15 years, with a singular devotion to giving gamers the ultimate driving experience. His insane devotion to detail in his racing simulation series can be traced to his love for racing and all things automotive — he really races himself, and often wins. This offers him a unique understanding of what racing is all about, something he brings into each of his games.

If you’re a gamer, and especially if you’re a fan of the Gran Turismo series, it’s a really intriguing — and sometimes nostalgic — look at one of Sony’s most iconic gaming series and the incredible man behind them. Check out the trailer above, and, if you’re interested, head on over to Hulu for the complete documentary. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Lowe Roche Mines Data, Reveals Ad Folk Like to Drink Alcohol, Watch Porn Among Other Things

Lowe Roche respects the data. In a video for Strategy Agency of the Year Awards, the Toronto-based company provided some education on the habits of the ad employee demographic. Not just tidbits about dieting and working, but the juicy stuff: you know, alcohol and porn. As someone who works with data just about every day (for sports, not survey research) I definitely appreciate a math-based approach to an industry full of projects that often rely on intuition and copycat trends. Product-research data can always be manipulated or ignored or conducted incorrectly. Steve Jobs once said, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” and he was right. But demographic data is usually helpful and meaningful.

Here are a few lighthearted and self-deprecating mathematical takeaways from the clip, according to PMB Advertising Vertical Analysis 2013:

– Ad people drink nine times as much bourbon as the average Canadian.

– Ad people watch 1.7 times the amount of pornography as the average Canadian.

– And ad people are 1.6 times as likely to mute the sound in TV commercials as the average Canadian.

At least we can all agree that television commercials are typically bad. Buy some Jefferson’s Reserve. Drink up. Credits after the jump.

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