BBH ready for British Wimbledon champion
Robinsons drinks and BBH London made a decent bet with this commercial, which has been airing during Wimbledon coverage in the U.K. over the past fortnight. It dreams of the moment when a British player will once again win the prestigious London tennis tournament. (The last British men's winner was Fred Perry in 1936; Virginia Wade won the women's draw in 1977.) The ad is a clear reference to Andy Murray, the Scotsman who's ranked No. 3 in the world. And sure enough, Murray is heading to Friday's semifinals. There, he meets Andy Roddick, the American player who so memorably screwed up AmEx's 2005 U.S. Open ad campaign by losing in the first round. |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Too much animal passion in U.K. liqueur ad
Color me aghast that alcohol is sold with implied promises of sexual conquest in this day and age. Britain's Ad Standards Authority recently banned this Wild Africa Cream liqueur ad after receiving complaints that it "linked drinking to seduction and sexual success." Cited as particularly offensive were the ad's tagline, "Unleash your wild side," and the claw mark next to it. What's offensive to me is how the positioning of the people in the ad was considered in any way passionate. They look like they're dancing at someone's wedding. |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Gold's Gym can't look at your nasty cankles
Gold's Gym and McKinney are making war on "cankles," a slang term for how an overweight person's calves don't narrow at the ankle. Gold's is ramping up efforts to warn consumers about this aesthetic affliction (which is, ironically enough, outpacing "muffin tops" and "saddlebags" as the No. 1 bathing-suit killer in America) with direct mail and a Web site, Say No to Cankles, where there's a contest in which people vote on who has the best legs in Hollywood. While the fitness chain considers this a fun, lighthearted way to tell people to get in shape, making fun of people's specific body parts for aesthetic reasons and then comparing them to celebrities who can afford nutritionists and personal trainers isn't really going to help. There's a line between highlighting obesity's health risks and flat-out ridiculing fat people. Getting rid of the celebrity stuff and the tacky Facebook applications will put Gold's Gym on the right side of it. |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Modernista! auctions dozen beer-ad scripts
With the Palm Pre spots long finished and Hummer not exactly doing a ton of ads these days, Modernista! has some time for self-promotions. The agency spent this week auctioning off a 12-pack of beer-commercial scripts on eBay. After 11 bids, the package sold for $45. That's pretty damn cheap. You have to pay a lot more than that for just one Crispin Porter + Bogusky intern (and they would probably bring their own beer to the office!). The eBay thing is a bit tired, too. Talk about Web 1.0. Why can't Modernista! do something clever to generate buzz, like launch a Web site that illustrates social-media transparency by sending users to Google, Wikipedia and other resources for agency info? |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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New York finally gets its pro-atheist bus ads
Oh Lord, not the atheists again. Inspired by similar marketing efforts in London, Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, atheists in New York City are taking it to the streets with ads on MTA buses that say things like, "You don't have to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person." Which is true, and it also proves that being preachy doesn't require belief in God, either. Not sure how effective this will be in New York, anyway, since you probably need a city permit to own a flat surface that doesn't have something written, glued or stapled to it. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Robots: Switch them on, and they just do it
Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects created this "spec commercial inspired by Nike." Whatever that means. I guess nobody's got paying clients these days. Now, I'm no fan of robots, but this is one impressive vignette. It subverts expectations by using a mechanical subject and lifeless cement-and-steel cityscape to vividly communicate pursuits of the human spirit, or at least the robot spirit, like pushing oneself to new heights, smashing limitations and being in total sync with the environment. Or running on all circuits. There's no need for this sprinter to chug Gatorade at the end of his gravity-defying run. That would just burn out his transistors, anyway. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Evil children can't wait to get to McDonald's
DDB Stockholm remains king of the weird McDonald's commercials with new spot above, in which the prototypical childhood car-trip question takes on a sinister aspect. "Not there yet? Stop at McDonald's!" a bird screams at the car at the end. In terms of weirdness, it's up there with some of the agency's other creations, including the cliffhanging french-fries eater and, below, the two dudes with the same nose. |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Drive safely in spite of the bloody billboardsWhat were we saying last week about New Zealand safe-driving campaigns? Oh yes, that they're insane. Here, the Papakura District Council resorts to "bloodvertising" to slow motorists down during the rainy season. Three big roadside billboards with children's faces on them are equipped with sensors that "bleed" red liquid when it rains. The effect is startling. Problem is, the kids look like they've been ravaged by syphilis rather than speeding cars. And if safety is the goal, shouldn't roadside ads be a little less distracting? Via Copyranter at Animal New York. |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Isn't it just wonderful to wake up Canadian?
Happy Canada Day to our northerly inclined readers. To celebrate, here's an ad that the Canadian government put together this spring to alert non-Canadians that one day (April 17, actually), they might wake up Canadian, too. It's a stirring commercial. Just ignore the excessively long URL at the end, and the confusion over what a forward-slash looks like. |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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HowStuffWorks not too concerned with why
Who: HowStuffWorks.com and ad agency Preston Kelly. What: A new ad in which a convertible falls from an airplane and four foolhardy skydivers then parachute out of the car. Where: Hopefully above a sparsely populated area. It looks flat, so it might be Kansas. How: Quite compellingly, though I could do without the "quirky" soundtrack. Why: Who cares?! That's the takeaway from the skydiving ad above, and the spot below, starring Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham, the first person to complete a backflip in a wheelchair. The campaign urges you to "Keep asking." But focus on the how, not the why. And for God's sake don't take your eyes off the sky! |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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