Album Cover Ad Designs?

The Album cover for the for up coming album release from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs titled “Mosquito” has to be one of the crazies pieces of art I’ve seen in a while. Although I have to say, doesn’t this show some similarities to a Megadeath’s 2004 Youthanasia album cover? Check it out below.

The Mosquito album cover was designed by South Korean animator Beomsik Shimbe Shim. The design is eye-catching to me because of the agony the Barney looking child seems to be experiencing? It has to be one of the craziest designs ever right?

Anyway do you all see the same similarities I do between the two covers? Let me know in the comments below.

Client: Yeah YeahYeahs

Animator: Beomsik Shimbe Shim

This post was made possible thanks to AdFreak.

Best,

-A.B.

Paul Bryant Museum Spot

Alabama is a name that has become synonmous with college football dominance. And while the clip below is supposed to be a comedy, there's a certain amount of believability to it. The University of Alabama's Paul Bryant Museum created the video in-house and it’s pretty funny, I must admit. The video is titled: “So Many Trophies, So Little Space” you’ll make the connection after watching the video.

This is actually the second time I write a post on an ad involving Alabama football in the last coupled of weeks. The first post is: ESPN Roll Tide. These comedic sports ads just capture my interest, I guess.

Client: University of Alabama

Agency: In-house

Best,

-A.B.

Sweet Acceptance Via Target

Here is a heart-warming montage put together by Target and Deutsch LA where they string together clips of college applicants' reactions to the news they’ve been accepted into various colleges they applied to.  It’s a simple concept, illustrated on the faces of these kids. As the copy states, “Every kid deserves this moment.” I can honestly say there isn’t anything quite like the feeling you get when you learn that you have been accepted into the school of your choice.

Target has been known for its donations to k-12 educational causes so the colligate angle works well for the “Big Red Machine.” As a side note, Target has already committed to doubling its 500 million donation to educational endeavors.

In conclusion, I’ve applied to a PhD program several times with no success therefore the spot really grabbed my attention.

The credit for this ad goes to:

Client: Target
Agency: Deutsch LA

Best,

-Abdallah

Expedia Lets Travelers Tell the Story in First Ads From 180LA User-gen campaign is themed 'Find yours'

Expedia.com this week introduced a new brand campaign—its first work from new agency 180LA—under the theme "Find yours." The effort kicks off with an anthem spot stitched together entirely from user-generated content, featuring video footage from people's travels. It's the beginning of an extensive campaign by the world's leading online travel agency to move away from the nuts and bolts of travel booking (the previous tagline was "Where you book matters") and into more aspirational territory focused on "the transcendent bliss of the perfect vacation." All the user-gen content—photos, videos and stories—will endeavor to explain how seeing the world has transformed the travelers as people. Beyond the anthem spot, Expedia is working on mini-documentaries starring ordinary people with extraordinary travel stories; sponsored trips for travel bloggers to different popular locales, including Pamplona, Spain, for the running of the bulls, to Las Vegas and across the U.S. on a college-football tour; Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest integration; and a short-film contest that pits 37 filmmakers ages 13-28 against one another. Expedia is also serving as platinum sponsor of Passports with Purpose, an organization dedicated to doing long-lasting good for people who live in the places travelers visit. Check out the anthem spot below.



Read more at: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/expedia-lets-travelers-tell-story-first-ads-180la-141791

Phil Shifley, Guy Who Faked His Own Death for DirecTV, Pops Up on Facebook Find out where he is, and win 'bragging rights'

Not since they sold Gregor the Russian billionaire's tiny giraffes has DirecTV had a TV spot spin off amusingly into a random and goofy online campaign. This time, Phil Shifley, the alias of the guy who faked his own death and attended his own funeral in the amusing DirecTV campaign from Grey, has popped up on Facebook. That's the extent of his known whereabouts—for now. DirecTV is challenging you to find him, and "win bragging rights." That's not a great prize, but you can also just friend Phil and rap with him. He's quite chatty, and needs all sorts of advice for a "friend" who needs facial work and tips for surviving in the wilderness. Check out some of Phil's recent status updates after the jump.

• Cheap hair dye can really burn your scalp. Or so says that friend of mine who uses hair dye a lot.
• I found out what was causing my headaches. These glasses. That I totally need by the way. Because I need glasses. That's totally true.
• Does anyone know a plastic surgeon that can work really fast for very little money mostly at night? I have a sports injury.
• Remember that movie Face/Off with the face switching? Can that really happen?
• Not sure why so many are copying my look on Facebook? I don't mind blending in.
• I've been considering buying a new boat. That doesn't mean I used to have one. I just mean I'm buying a brand new one.
• My friend, who's been living in the woods for a while, ate some weird looking berries and can't stop sweating. Does anyone have any advice? For him?
• Been eating at a lot of truck stop diners. Well, not at the diners exactly. Behind them. Where they dump the stale bread.
• I've been seeing a lot of the country. Because I'm on a road trip. With my best friend Pete who's not on Facebook so don't bother looking for him. But he's real.
• Hey maybe that Pacquiao judge should start hanging out with me on my road trip?
• How lucky can a guy get in the biggest, little city in the world?
• So many new.....uh, "friends"....thanks? Not used to this much attention.
• I'm looking for an apartment rental. Preferably something with no windows, a safe room, and a secret underground tunnel that leads to the highway. Let me know if you hear of anything.

Read more about this at: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/phil-shifley-guy-who-faked-his-own-death-directv-pops-facebook-141180

Bing Keeps you from Looking Like a Moron or Does it?

Sorry for the long delay between posts everyone. But I can’t write posts in my office anymore because of recent changes to my work schedule. Anyway, let’s talk about Bing baby. Bing is Microsoft’s latest attempt to catch up with all mighty Google with respect to search engines. The campaign claims that Bing is the “Cure” to search overload.

If you watch the spot you can understand what they tried to do with this particular creative execution. They are simply saying that with traditional search engines your results are loaded with sites that seem related to what you searched for but they really aren’t. The way they visually demonstrate this is by having one person say something they are looking for like “cheap tickets” and others would make a million suggestions for similar terms. After even 10 seconds of listening to this you will be extremely annoyed and that when they make the statement Bing is the cure to search overload.

This spot and several others like it were done by JWT. Microsoft is all about being the cure to diseases these days. In this particular spot, they are curing “Search Overload Syndrome” or S.O.S. JWT has provided the software giant with several other diseases to cure. They say Internet Explorer 8 cures F.O.M.S and S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. The other diseases I read about via Adfreak.

What do you guys think about Microsoft being a cure for your search ailments? I never really thought of Microsoft as the cure for anything, I thought of them as the problem. But hey, as you all know these are all just my opinions.

Best,

A.B.

Microsoft and Basketball

Is it possible that Microsoft is trying to get into the spirit of March Madness with the ad above? Maybe I don’t have as good of a grasp on what quality advertising is, as I once thought. Why is the illustration above relevant to the product being advertised by the Redmond company? For those of you who don’t know, Microsoft Visual Studio is used for writing programs. How does the copy in the ad above make the connection related to monsters and basketball?

Also, what does the illustration represent? Do the monsters represent viruses? My other issue is who exactly is the target audience for this particular print ad? By the way the ad was taken from Information Week. How does this ad promote Visual Studio to the readers of the magazine? I would think that the ad seemed rather stupid to the magazine’s target audience.

I am not quite sure who the ad agency behind the creative is and I know that Crispin Porter + Bogusky does quite a bit of the Microsoft creative. But I highly doubt they did the print advertisement above. They seem to be a class above the work shown here.

Best,
A.B.

No, Not Another Poker Show

I saw this ad on on Adrants and thought yes, another poker show I get to watch. Upon taking a closer look I realized that it isn't an ad for a poker show, its an ad for a new show by CNBC titled Demolished. According to the Adrants article its a show on how the American dream became a nightmare. I can only assume that this show will focus on the collapse of the U.S. housing market.

For those of you who don't know, the idea of the American dream is being a success, owning a home with a white picket fence. I thought the ad was for a poker show because of the scattered cards, it reminded of the show titled Poker Superstars Invitational on Fox Sports for some reason. But anyway, way to promote depressing subject matter.

w what the ad is advertising right away doesn't that indicate a weak creative execution? But again, this is just my opinion take it or leave it.

The ad was created by Woods Witt Dealy & Sons.

Best,
A.B.

Here Comes: Windvertising

I was alerted to this article on the Huffington Post by my boss at work. The article discusses a new form of advertising playfully dubbed Windvertising by the post. It got its name because this new, creative form of advertising employs WePOWER's PacWind turbines. When ads are placed on top of the turbines and they spin, it creates the illusion of animation.

The Huff Post does say that the image is a bit misleading when you first look at it. I thought the logos are simply placed on top of the blades. Obviously, from the image above some logos look better then others. In my opinion the Nike logo looks better then that of the golden arches.

It is certainly a creative idea. It will be interesting to see if this new platform is accepted by advertisers. This hopes to promote the idea of "Green Power"

PS: The image was also taken from the Huffington Post.

Best,
A.B.