Motherhood, the Fiat 500L and Commentary

Inside That Ad's first video blog post with commentary discussing the Fiat 500L Motherhood Ad.

Advertising Agency: Krow Communications, London, UK
Client: Fiat

Please give me feedback on what you guys think of video blogging.

Best,
-A.B.

Motherhood and the Fiat 500L

Advertising Agency: Krow Communications, London, UK

Inside That Ad Presents its Top 10 Ads of 2011

It is finally here! Inside That Ad’s top 10 ads for 2011. I realize that it is almost the end of January 2012 but it took me a while to create the list. I also needed to plan out how to display the ads a bit more then usual because there are 10 of them and the list begins in descending order.


10. Weetabix Cereal - Street Dancing


The spot above features dancing phenomenon, Arizona Snow street dancing her way through a sophisticated routine in her bedroom. The routine along with the dancing bears will blow your mind. Arizona is reportedly only 9-years old. But from what I can see she could hold her own against any seasoned, pro dancer.

Read the rest of the list after the jump.

Thoughts on the 2011 Super bowl Commercials

The Force

Brand: Volkswagen
Client: Volkswagen of America, Inc
Ad Agency: Deutsch, L.A.

There was no doubt in my mind that “The Force” was the best spot of the night. Of course the Mini Vader spot was going to win, people are suckers for small animals and cute babes/kids. Cute babies and kids are the ad industry’s go to play when it comes to entertaining the crowd for the big game. To add to the Mini Vader saga, according to Adfreak Volkswagen’s super kid whose name is Max page suffers from a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, and he needs a pacemaker. Now if that doesn’t pull on people’s heart strings nothing will.

Siege

Brand: Coca-Cola
Client: Coca-Cola Company
Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

The reason I like the spot above is because of the sophisticated graphics that must have been involved in the creation of the ad. Also, the spot plays like a movie and it entertains people. It’s part of the “Open Happiness” campaign. The campaign began in January 2009.

First Date
Brand: Pepsi Max
Client: Pepsi Company
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners



I thought this spot was great; I developed an even greater sense of respect for the Pepsi Company because they let this commercial air on the biggest advertising stage of the year. I already drink only Pepsi products and great advertising will only further cement my loyalty to them. I was surprised that this spot aired because it explicitly discusses “sex” and as a country we tend to frown on that because we tend to be more conservative then our European counterparts. So to a spot like the one put on display during one of the biggest television in the country makes me extremely proud of our country and our marketers. It shows that we can be a bit more liberal and let people decide for themselves what’s appropriate for them and their families and what isn’t.

Best Part


Brand: Doritos
Client: Frito-Lay
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

This ad was actually the winner of the Crash the Super Bowl ad competition. I am not sure if this spot will hurt or help the Doritos brand as far as over all sales. I think people might be offended by the spot because again we a very conservative nation. And I don’t people appreciated seeing a man sucking on another man’s finer. The only thing that I believe grabbed people’s attention was the shock value of the spot. This commercial will fall in the same commercial predicament that the Snickers “Mechanics” commercial was in back in 2007. TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York created the Mechanics spot.

Artiste


Brand: E*Trade
Client: E*Trade Financial Corporation
Ad Agency: Grey, New York

What else can I say, this campaign as a whole has a special place in my heart because it was an E-Trade “Talking Baby” commercial that got this whole blog started. So, this is just another commercial in a long line of funny spots by E-Trade’s ad agency.

Well people please enjoy and leave your comments below!

Best,
-A.B.

5 Leaked Superbowl Commercials

Black Beetle

Client: Volkswagen
Ad Agency: Deutsch, L.A.

The Force

Client: Volkswagen
Ad Agency: Deutsch, L.A.

Arrive in Style

Client: Chrysler
Ad Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Kenny G: Riot Suppressor

Client: Audi
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners

Empower the People

Client: Motorola
Ad Agency: Anomaly

Immigrant Spot

This is an old spot, 2008 to be exact but some scenes have actually happen to me and some I hope are yet to come. The agency behind this spot is SEK & GREY, Finland, Helsinki. In other words this spot reminds me of me (sort of).

The spot is for Fonecta, a service for marketing calls and apparently identifies unknown calls for you via text message.

Best,
-A.B.

Bags Fly Free on SWA

Southwest is back to using benefit advertising to bag on its competitors with its “Bags Fly Free” campaign. They use a good cop; bad cop routine to point out their competitor’s shortcomings. The bad cop is screaming, “We know your charging for bags, drop the bags and turn around.” Then the good cop screams, “Protect the load.” The majority of the spots revolve around the baggage handlers and how much they care about your bags.

Even at the end of the 30-second spot SWA doesn’t miss an opportunity to point out that competitors charge up to $120 as oppose to them where bags fly free. The tone of the spot above was pretty serious in my opinion, but I think their intensions were to have it be more comedic. Due to the good cop; bad cop routine I think this can safely be referred to as Southwest Airlines NYPD Blue moment.

The spot above was created by Austin based agency GSD&M. The agency could be a good internship spot for those University of Texas at Austin advertising kids.

The spot below has more of a funny tone to it when compared to the one above.



Anyway, what do you guys think? Let me know in the comment section below.

Best,
-A.B.

Feelin' Sorry for Myself

Last night I was watching the TV show Trust Me, a show that I've previously discussed on this blog. One of their two storylines for last night's episode was about about a guy who was fired because his work was just not very good. Several years later the main characters in the show give him another chance only to discover that he still isn't very good. So now they need to fire him again and the show takes off from there.

So here is my question, when do you realize that you aren't going to make it in the ad business and look for a new line of work? Maybe I should stop thinking that I'll be working for an ad agency anytime soon.

Best,
A.B.

TNT's Trust Me

So I've been extremely ill this weekend. I've been in my apartment pretty much the entire weekend. Since I cannot be out gallivanting around in my van due to my obnoxious cold, I decided to check out a relatively new TV show titled Trust Me. A show about the goings on of an ad agency. it revolves around the lives of 2 friends, the primary Art Director and Copywriter at RGM, the fictional ad agency. It shows how the two main characters balance their careers, private live, and friendship with each other. The main rival is the ARC Mobile account that is constantly in jeopardy of being lost.

I think this is a great show for cable television, I appreciate it a bit more then Mad Men the show on AMC. Mad Men gives the me the feeling that I'm watching a show that provides a cultural analysis of the 50s. Maybe be how men and women interacted with each other at that time and advertising is simply a secondary story line. Trust me is the show for the year 2009. I feel it reveals more of the business side of advertising as it is today and it actually focuses on "Advertising." Advertising is what we are all here for, I am sure everyone agrees.

The one thing I would change about the show is how TNT decided to present it online. In my opinion their video streaming technology is sub par and they should have simply authorized Hulu to show it online. The site is a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.

Anyway, I still like the show. I get to be inside of an ad agency even if it is just on TV.

Best,
A.B.

A Note on the Superbowl

I was discussing the Superbowl ads with some buddies at work and they thought all of them sucked. Some of the ads they thought were a little funny but not worth the 3 million spent on them. Here are the most obvious reasons why:

1. The ads were over done to the point of annoyance in the eyes of one of my buddies. (The talking baby has been going for a few years.)

2. Most of the ads, my buddies felt didn't take into consideration that our country is in a recession.

3. Most, if not all the ads were not funny. If they were a little funny, my buddies at least couldn't remember the product being advertised.

Finally after thinking about it for a bit maybe the concept of the "Free Doritos" spot was taken from the Sprint 2006 Superbowl Commercial below. Most likely I'm wrong.



But who cares? I thought at least some of the spots were good, which after all, is the case every year.

Best,
A.B.

Super Bowl XLIII Commercial 2009

Well as most of you know, yesterday was the Superbowl and what comes with it, the multi-million dollar ads. Below are some of my favorites and I was hoping to get some feedback from you guys by having you vote on what ads you thought were the best out of the ones I thought were good. "You can vote by choosing your favorite ad from the poll on the far right. Also, below are the spots and the agencies that created them.

You can see all the Superbowl spots by going to this AdAge article.

E*Trade: Talking Baby

Agency: Grey, New York

Coke: Coke Heist

Agency: Wieden & Kennedy

Coke Zero: Mean Troy

Agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky

Taco Bell: Speed Date

Agency: Draft FCB, Irvine

GoDaddy.com: Baseball

Agency: In-house

GoDaddy.com: Shower

Agency: In-house

Well enjoy the spots everybody.

Best,
A.B.