In the Hands of Perfection

I know that because of my physical disability I could probably never be a card stacker. After seeing the Lexus spot above my feelings were confirmed. Not only does stacking cards take extraordinarily steady hands but it also takes the patience of a saint. The fact that patience is even required automatically disqualifies me.

For this TV spot Lexus requested the services of Bryan Berg, the world-record holder in cardstacking. It took berg 18 days and 108,864 cards to create the structure used. The commercial's premise was to demonstrate how quite the Lexus ES's engine can be, I believe. But seeing all the cards come crashing down because of a door slam would irritate me as a viewer but that doesn't really matter.

If I tried placing more then two or three cards together they would all just keep falling down. Berg has to have the hands of an angel to be able to create such environments. I would have quit on my second attempt once the cards fell to the ground. I wouldn't even bother picking them up.

Also, didn't the car maker have a similar spot but instead of using cards they used champagne glasses or something? I believe the spot was called "Balance," for the Lexus LS 400. Click here to see the spot. Obviously, it wasn't the same spot but the idea was similar, no?

The card spot was great creative execution on the part of the ad agency, Team One. Did that spot resonate with the target audience, are they looking for the quietest ride possible? I think the spot only helped those already looking to buy a Lexus feel confident in their decision. But is it truly the perfect car? I can't answer that we all have our own opinion.

But with respect to the ad, the idea has been executed before in my opinion. Also, both ads were done by Team One. The agency/client relationship lasted for quite sometime now, that's great to see.

Best,
A.B.

The Wheelchair Heart

The wheelchair heart logo above is the official logo of 3E Love, designed by its founder Annie Hopkins who is, and always will be a friend that I miss and forever love. My friend passed on January 20th 2009. She was a true advocate for the disabled community. We should all follow her example.

According to 3E Love’s MySpace page the wheelchair symbol is a symbol of acceptance of disability. The symbol simply replaces the wheel of the traditional handicapped sign and turned it to a heart. 3E Love is headquartered in Chicago, has goals of bringing products that celebrate disability to the public.

On another note, the wheelchair heart symbol I believe began as a tattoo that my friend Annie got. I love that design because it was simple yet had a powerful and meaningful message. To me, someone who is also in a wheelchair the symbol means that you can be cool, do great things, and show the world that being in a chair doesn’t stop you from doing anything you want.

Just so I can finish the post like I do most other posts, by telling you who the creator of the ad I am discussing is, I’m going to do the same in this post. Annie Marie Hopkins designed the logo and she is the founder of 3E Love.

R.I.P. Annie! Miss you forever.

Best,
A.B.

Steelers Troy Polamalu

The Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamula is in a new Coke Zero ad that is a remake of the 1980 classic "Mean Joe Green" Coke ad. For those of you who don't know what ad I'm talking about, please click here. You'll be able to see the new version of the ad on Superbowl Sunday. The new spot will have a "twist" to differentiate itself from the famous eighties spot, from what I understood from Adfreak.

In my opinion, the spot was created for nostalgia purposes only. If you are part of the younger generation and don't know who "Mean Joe" is or haven't seen the original commercial before, then how could you make the connection? Also, I have to be honest, if I didn't actually study advertising and learned about famous campaigns, I wouldn't have been able to make the connection either. For the games' target audience, however, the spot should resonate and remind people about how Coke used to be a part of their childhood. Like I said, it's all about bringing back that feeling of nostalgia.

Yes, I think this commercial will present the brand in a good light and sell more Coke. Selling your product is of course the ultimate goal in any business.

The spot is being done by Miami’s hot creative shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Best,
A.B.

E*Trade Baby Continued

E*Trade will be bringing back the talking baby for this year's Superbowl. The baby will have a new spot that the company is keeping on the DL. This year the talking baby has even more of of a following and is marketing the E*Trade brand via several media outlets including print, online, and TV. The baby now has his own YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page, and Twitter account. All of these only help to reaffirm why I think the E*Trade "Talking Baby" campaign is one of the best currently out there and it is my current favorite. A link to the Adweek Media article can be found here.

I read one comment on the baby's Facebook Fan Page where a particular fan states something to the effect of "I am a loyal E*Trade customer because of the baby." My only response to this was wow! But this is why I strongly believe that companies should show more respect towards their ad agencies and marketing departments. A memorable and humerous creative execution will help bring and retain loyal customers.

E*Trade's lead ad agency is still Grey in New York.

Best,
A.B.

Pro-Atheism Follow-up

So I found the answer to who created the billboards in the Pro-Atheism post. The ads were created in-house by FreethoughtAction. Here is the email I received from FreeThoughtAction:

"The ad was created in-house by FreeThoughtAction."

Best,
A.B.

Funny or in Poor Taste

The billboard above was put up on behalf of Kenneth Cole, it was congratulating US Airways flight 1549 for landing safely in the Hudson River after its engines failed. It was celebrating the safe landing by using word puns on the billboard. Now, Kenneth Cole has an in-house advertising department. Should they have produced something more creative and out of the box?

From what I've read puns are considered the lowest form of advertising. I've read blogs that condemn KC for using puns for such an accident. I've also read that Kenneth Cole is simply a bad copywriter because he didn't produce something more creative. Is the billboard tasteless, I thought it was rather funny. What do you guys think?

Best,
A.B.

Pro-Atheism Ads

Pro-atheism ads similar to the one above started appearing on buses in London and Washington DC. Beginning on January 26, 2009 pro-atheism billboard ads will appear in Charleston, SC. The ad above is part of a collaborative effort between the American Humanist Association, FreethoughtAction, and the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry (SHL). The ads show headlines like "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." Ads like these I can almost guarantee will cause some controversy. What I have yet to find out is whether the ads were created in-house or by some advertising firm. But once I find out, I'll write a short follow up to this post to give you the final answer.

These ads will cause some tension in in South Carolina because it is my understanding that people have deeply rooted religious ideas and beliefs in that part of the country. Challenging those ideas may cause some problems within the community. But any publicity maybe regarded as good publicity.

While people may not agree with the message itself, I think it is important to create awareness of different views. Different ways of looking at an issue and accepting disagreements is part of what makes our country so great, am I right?

As far as advertising goes, I believe its awesome creative execution of their message. people will be shocked, surprised, pleased, or caught off guard. This will make the message more memorable in the minds of the intended audience.

According to the Adfreak post this was also done with cooperation from the American Humanist Association which is the American national organization.

I received an email with the press release from the SHL president! I feel rather privileged.

Best,
A.B.

Voltage Everywher

Mountain Dew has recently introduced a new berry-flavored drink that they hope will saturate the web. The campaign known as “Voltage Everywhere” is primarily a viral marketing effort on the part of PepsiCo. The “Voltage Everywhere” campaign is asking people to go to Dewmocracyvoltage.com where dew fans are rewarded points for spreading the word about the new soft drink.

By spreading the word I mean talking it up on social networks like Facebook and MySpace just to name a few. They can place notes on message boards and start fan pages. Fans can then collect points towards things like an Xbox or iPod. This type of promotion is the year 2009 version of school promotions such as “look under the cap to win.”

On Dewmocracyvoltage.com fans can also play games with other site members, download wallpaper, and do many other things. The site intends to keep the target audience engaged with the product. This is a great idea in my opinion, but it is already being executed on many other websites like the ones mentioned above, why would a consumer want to add another site that they have to visit?

The creators of the site, DDB Tribal claim it is so that the consumer can become deeply involved with the product. Would someone really want to be that engaged with his or her favorite soft drink? DDB Tribal seems to think this is a great idea.

By the way DDB Tribal is an interactive creative shop.

Best,
A.B.

Better Results

Yes this is another Mac VS PC commercial. In this Mac ad, the Mac compares its and PC's movie making abilities. They demonstrate the Mac's movie making superiority by presenting the movie as a beautiful woman while PC has a man dressed as an ugly woman as the movie they produced.

Mac commercials are some of the greatest creative execution I've ever seen. But everything has to come to an end. I feel that the execution above insults the intelligence of the audience. Why you ask, because it says that all you have to do is show a beautiful woman in a commercial and the dumb consumers will buy our product. And I strongly believe that consumers are a lot smarter then this ad gives them credit for. Don't get me wrong, Mac seem to be the current "hip" trend but did Chiat/Day run out of ideas so they decided lets put a pretty woman in our spot, that will sell. The ad might as well have been a car commercial.

This is probably common knowledge but TBWA/Chiat/Day are Apple's agency. They have been doing Apple's ads for many years. they were responsible for the famous 1984 spot. Honestly I don't believe spot will result into "Better Results."

Let me know what you all think?

Best,
A.B.

The 44th President

Congratulations America change has finally arrived with the swearing in of our new president Barack Obama. You can find full inauguration coverage on MSNBC.com. It’s a great day for our country. Change has finally arrived.

Best,
A.B.

Dear Mr. President Videos

A video montage asking Americans "What would you say to our new President on the day of his inauguration?" This video was created as a marketing attempt by soda Giant Pepsi to cash in on Obama's popularity. Its asking people to submit video statements to our new president. I ask you, what does this do for the Pepsi brand?

Also I found the video on Adfreak.com once again.

The video was created by R/GA

Best,
A.B.

Balloons in Action

I found this TV spot for Durex condoms on a friends' blog. The creative execution was absolutely hilarious in an adult sort of way. I am not going to describe the spot when you can simply watch it below. From what I've read about the commercial is that it has caused some controversy. The spot may have been too explicit for TV viewers. I am betting that it went over well with the 18 to 28 male demographic.

The spot hit the mark with its target audience, it was memorable, and also funny. I am certain that the spot will get extensive viral marketing. The one thing I'll say about what's going on within the spot is that it keeps your attention until the end and then tells you the brand being advertised.

The spot was created by Süperfad a design company with offices all over the world including one here in Los Angeles. Their goal is to present their client's brands in a unique way.

The spot causes you to think you are watching something dirty until the end when you realize you are simply watching a unique execution for a condom advertisement.

Best,
A.B.

Vandals Turned Photoshopers

A few days ago, on one of my favorite ad blogs Adfreak.com an image of a vandalized subway in Berlin appeared. Vandals must of left their sharpies and spray cans at home and decided to use giant stickers to disfigure the subway ads. The stickers used were of Photoshop tool palettes. I have to say that it was a creative way to vandalize an advertisement on a public canvas.

To me, the vandalism was a message to the advertisers themselves. It declares that the consumer isn’t stupid they know exactly what happens to the ads before the public sees them. So in other words the vandalism is means to say a big F-you to the advertiser you aren’t fooling anyone. There has been an ongoing debate on the “Photoshop effect” in advertising. You can watch a good video on the subject below.



So does the “Photoshop effect” give women a false idea of what beauty really is? In my opinion, yes the Photoshop effect does give people an unattainable goal of beauty. Those women are all air brushed.

So now back to the Berlin subway vandalism. That form of vandalism is a clever way to deliver a message. You can see more of the photoshop vandalism at Gizmo. The vandalism may now serve as advertising for Adobe.

Best,
A.B.

PC vs MAC: Transformer Style

I found this video, initially on creativebits.org an Apple oriented design community but it is a YouTube video. This piece of creative was created by Nick Greenlee, a digital media designer. The piece is an absolute mastery of digital computer-generated imagery.

The reason I feel the need to talk about it here is because it combines the Mac vs PC ads with the 2007 Transformers movie very well. I actually thought it was a brand new commercial created by TBWA Chiat/Day. This short movie not only combines the Mac commercials with the Transformers movie— it also has a little Terminator thrown in there. It gives you a literal demonstration of how Macs kick PCs' asses.

What do you all think?

Nick, you are an absolute master and I salute you.

Best,
A.B.

Where is the Connection?

Here us another ad for Virgin Atlantic Airlines but this time it’s a print ad. I found it on a very good creative advertising site adsoftheworld.com. You guys can see the print ad, can you find the connection between a hooker and the Kenyan Rugby team? I know that it’s a play on words and all but I can’t make the connection so that it makes sense to me.

It is a very funny print ad and I realize that they are only sponsoring the rugby team. I can make a connection between hooker and virgin but why would this be on a print ad sponsoring the rugby team? Are they implying that rugby players sleep around?

I believe the art director who produced the ad uploaded this advertisement to the site but I’m not sure. He may have worked for BBDO Worldwide.

Best,
A.B.

Just a Little TMI: Sleeper

Can you believe this ad actually targeted the mainstream audience? I thought it was very tasteless TV Spot.

Since this blog tries to let you know who created all the ads mentioned in the posts and this is no exception. BBDO Worldwide made the spot for Virgin Atlantic Airlines. The commercial aired in 2004.



Your thoughts, anyone? Also, it is important to note that the spot was for South Africa.

Best,
A.B.

Australian Cancer PSA

I ran across a rap music video on cancer of all things. I discovered the piece on another advertising blog and thought I should share some of my opinions on the video. Oh and by the way that other blog I follow is adfreak.



As you can probably tell it is a Youtube video, the title on YouTube claims that it was too hot for TV. The music video was made by Australian rapper Al Bino as a PSA, as a reminder to protect yourself from the sun. It is currently summer time down under. According to adfreak the video was meant as a PSA.

But why would the music video be too hot for TV I wonder? The video did feature a vile looking sore with hideous teeth singing about the dangers of the sun. Was it too graphic for Australian TV? Would this have passed the Federal Communications Commission’s standards (FCC)?

I think the video will serve its purpose and that is to help young people remember to protect themselves from the sun? The graphic images will definitely grab their attention. So why not show it on TV?

Best,
A.B.

Hillbilly Herald

Well I have nothing new for today but I went to see a cool band play at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. The band is Hillbilly Herald and People. They were awesome.

Big props to my boy Jimmy!!

Best,
A.B.

Marketers on Super Sunday

Today, I want to give you guys a list of who will advertising during the game on Superbowl Sunday. So here goes:

1. Anheuser-Busch
2. Audi
3. Bridgestone
4. CareerBuilder
5. Cars.com
6. Coca-Cola, Co
7. E-Trade Financial
8. Pepsi's Frito-Lay
9. General Electric
10. GoDaddy
11. Hyundai
12. Monster
13. NFL
14. Pedigree
15. PepsiCo Beverages

I found an AdAge article that actually provided the list. All the agencies are listed in the article linked.

Best,
A.B.

3D Ads on Super Sunday

Dreamworks Animation and PepsiCo's SoBe Lifewater have joined together with Intel Corporation and NBC to present an ad in 3-D for the first time in television history. The ad will be debut trailer for Dreamworks’ new 3-D animated film "Monsters vs. Aliens," which comes to theaters in the U.S. on March 27th. To get the full experience of the trailer it must be viewed using 3-D glasses that the Intel Corporation has produced. The glasses will be distributed by PepsiCo’s Sobe Lifewater brand.



Te question is, why would a bunch of young guys and ladies sitting around, drinking beer, and having fun suddenly stop to put on a pairt of plastic glasses just to watch one spot? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I don't believe there are any ad agencies involved in this process. Someone please leave a comment letting me know otherwise.

Best,
A.B.

No Second Date?

What do you guys think? I bet he won’t be getting a second date.



This TV spot brought some laughs when it aired during the 2004 Superbowl. It absolutely captured the attention of its intended target audience. The spot aired on Superbowl Sunday when 80 percent of the U.S. is watching the game. It was definitely a conversation starter the next day, and by default, made itself a memorable commercial. People recalling funny ads they've seen will help the product sell in grocery stores.

DDB Chicago created the spot for Anheuser-Bush.

No long analysis for this one, it was just funny and memorable, which made this creative execution an effective communication tool.

Best,
A.B.

Superman Elevator

Promoting movies on elevator doors have been popping up all over the place from what I can tell. I have seen them just about every time I go to a movie theatre here in L.A. Speaking of movies, I go to a new movie just about every week. So needless to say, I have gotten to know those elevator promotions rather well. Most of the elevators show the main image representing the movie, which is nothing special except for the Superman Movie elevator below. By the way, I found this unique piece of advertising on adsoftheworld.com.


The elevator portrayed Clark Kent removing his clothes to become Superman, his true identity. But it wasn’t one elevator, it was three—all working together—to reveal the famous Superman “S.” The message execution reminds the audience of the famous scene where Clark Kent goes into a phone booth to turn into Superman. Does the creative execution cause the audience to want to go see the movie? In my opinion, this creative execution is only good for winning awards at the One Shows. I don’t think it would make anyone go see the movie who wasn’t already planning on seeing it in the first place.

It was wonderful execution, but it will not affect ticket sales in any way, but I love the creative idea. Everyone should give props to JWT, Brazil for thinking out of the box.

Best,
A.B.

A Gifted Baby

I would first like to give you a short road map of what I'm going to share with you in my blog. I am going to share with you my insights on interesting advertising. We'll talk about what was creative about a particular message, what wasn't, and did the message resonate with its intended audience. Finally, did it accomplish its goal of standing out among the millions of ads that people see everyday. I hope that after reading this blog you feel at least a little more knowledgeable about quality advertising. But please also remember that these are simply my opinions. It is up to you to form your own opinions about what is good and not so good.

Without further delay, here we go.......

My current favorite TV commercial is the E-Trade baby mobile commercial. A baby is trading stock on a smartphone, and he’s telling you how easy it is to trade. He is then promptly interrupted by someone who sounds like a girlfriend of his.

This was a great T.V. spot because the message was both funny yet memorable. Consumers get the message right away that using E-Trade is so simple that even a baby can do it. They also will always remember the brand because of the hilarious baby in their spots.

Moving on to my other thoughts about the spot.

Now, this kid appears to be no older then two years of age, yet he’s trading stock, talking, and getting calls from a girlfriend, hence, the title of the post “A Gifted Baby.” I ask you readers, how is this possible? This is why I proclaim this kid must be gifted. So congrats to the parents—your son will be taking care of you by the time he is 12.

When I first saw the commercial, I was nearly in tears from laughing so hard. This was a great creative done by Grey Worldwide, and here are my reasons as to why the spot was just wonderful:

1. It was funny.
2. It made a connection between the commercial and its selling point, which was E-Trade is so easy to use even a baby can do it.
3. It was memorable.
   

E-Trade has been with Grey Worldwide since 2007.

Best,
A.B.