Thursday, November 19, 2009

PACT's "Office of Eden"

I came across this ad while Youtube surfing, and it definitely caught my eye!

PACT Organic Underwear worked with San Francisco director-duo Ian Kibbey & Corey Creasy (known as Terri Timely) to create this awesome commercial, released November 5th.

Featured is a boring, no - I'm going to go with mundane - office. The employees, clearly disinterested in life, are shown in slow motion. As the slow music starts to pick up, a male employee's clothes are ripped right from his body (by who knows what). The same happens to a female and the two, in their matching red underwear and reminiscent of Adam and Eve, run out into a forest. The tagline "Change starts with your underwear" appears.

Definitely worth a watch:


Sidenote: PACT Underwear was started by Ian Kibbey's brother (pretty cool family) and Jeff Denby and is a socially responsible organic underwear company in which 10% of every sale goes to either protecting endangered forests, mentoring young writers, or ocean conservation (the cause you're supporting depends on the color you choose). It's a pretty cool company, and you can check it out here

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Verizon DROID "Does"

Droid finally talks about what it does.... sort of.

Droid's teaser ads (go back about 4 posts for an example) have been well, teasing us for weeks. Mcgarrybowen's newest edition to their campaign talks about robots, and how Droid is so much more than a smart phone - it's a robot phone. Robots crush rocks and punch holes through steel walls, they say. That would be awesome for a phone to do, but still not technologically possible. No, Droid has a giant screen, runs thousands of android apps with ease, and it does "swap semi-functional giggling brat vanity for a bare knuckle bucket of does."

What does this all mean? Guess we'll have to wait for the next ad.

Sony Bravia "Paint"

I thought I'd post another oldie, but goodie. The Sony Bravia "Paint" commercial by Fallon Agency was filmed in Glasgow in 2006. Fallon's idea was to have a fireworks show, but instead of using fireworks, they wanted to use paint. 70,000 litres of paint (environmentally friendly, don't worry), 622 bottle bombs, 330 metres of steel pipe, 455 mortars, 57 kilometres of copper wire, 1700 detonators, one clown, and a whole lot of creativity later, Fallon got across Sony Bravia's point - "Colour like no other."

Skittles "Touch"

Alright, so this commercial is a little old... in fact it's been around since 2007. However, it's been airing quite often lately and my roommate has fallen in love with it. Tbwa\Chiat\Day New York has created quite a few hilarious Skittles ads, but this one has to be my favorite. In a King Midas reference, everything this man touches turns to Skittles. While his coworkers think it's "awesome" he goes through the cons of it. A little depressing, but definitely a good laugh.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Moms Against Climate Change "Demonstration"

Now zig agency may be small, but they live up to their motto - "ideas in their most powerful form" (I'm thinking specifically of their print ad campaign for New York Fries "real fries in a fake world" here or the prostitutes they paid to walk around Toronto with signs stating "Should prostitution be legal?" for CFRP in January 2009 here), and their new commercial has proven to be controversial too.

Moms Against Climate Change are begging Canadians to take action and to remind PM Stephen Harper what he needs to do in the UN Global Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen December 2009. zig decided to do this by staging a protest. Rather than your typical angry protesters charging the police line however, this PSA shows children and ends with, "My future is at stake." Rick Smith of Environmental Defense Canada stated, "If we are going to get the action we need from our government in Ottawa, we need Canadians to start feeling global warming as an emotional, personal issue, and not just an intellectual one," yet viewers don't seem to be huge fans of this approach. Youtube commenters (who we all know are the royalty of intellectuals, ha.ha.) are calling it a "pathetic use of propaganda," "a joke," and "the stupidest video on YouBoob."

I can't say I agree... I think zig has made yet another powerful statement. Thoughts anyone?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Verizon DROID "Stealth"

I've always been a sucker for a good teaser ad. Well agency mcgarrybowen has done it once again with another Verizon DROID teaser.

Now I'm a dedicated iPhone user, but DROID's blatant attack on the iPhone in their last teaser even had me interested. Now this new one, "Stealth" (said to be airing tomorrow), is even better and more focused on its audience, rather than its competition.

Its complete ambiguity has everyone wondering what it's all about. This aggressive hyped up commercial seems to be screaming at it's audience to wake up. And it's complete lack of information is keeping them awake. I can't wait to see what the DROID has in store for us.

Guinness "World"

To start this off: wow.

Guinness' new commercial "World" by agency AMV BBDO which aired for the first time yesterday (November 4, 2009) is quite the production. Though I may only be 21- for as long as I can remember, Guinness' tagline has been "Good things come to those who wait." They have decided finally, however, to scrap this and replace it with "Bring it to life." This new commercial features a group of men bringing a new world to life by providing fish for the ocean, grass for the ground, and so on.

As Guinness explains in their "Behind the Scenes" video, this commercial was filmed in New Zealand, Canada, AND Fiji. They required a rocket scientist for part of the filming and their production crew included the set designer of The Lord of the Rings. They took 3 days to film the underwater scene, and it took 45 women and 6 days to hand-stitch the grass for the grass sequence. There were 3 months of preparation before they could even begin filming in Canada.

While Guinness has yet to release production costs, one can be lead to believe they're quite high! Yet the connection of this world with Guinness beer is a little vague. Either way, it's an amazing commercial and a must-see.

Cadbury "Eyebrows"

Alright, let's start with the adsurd (ha.ha.). This ad may not be new, but Fallon London's January 2009 Cadbury "Eyebrows" commercial still has people talking. That's why I figured this ad would be perfect for a first post. This "Glass and a Half Full" Production (featured below) is still receiving ample air time. Hell - even Lily Allen did a parody of it. Sure this ad catches the attention of the viewer, and maybe even has them bobbing their head along with the tune (a digitalized version of "Don't Stop the Rock"), but does this ad really shout out, "HEY YOU, BUY CADBURY CHOCOLATE?" While the young girl's purple dress may be reminiscent of a Cadbury wrapper, I don't seem to see an established link between the dancing eyebrows and a chocolate bar.

For some reason however, I still seem to like it. Who knew.