Starbucks' "It's Pumpkin Spice Latte Time: Who's not excited?"

So I've decide to post an entry on a Starbucks ad while sitting at Starbucks sipping on a Nonfat Chai Tea Latte.

This ad by Wexley School for Girls (actually an ad agency, not a school) is promoting the return of the infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte. The spot features a young girl by the Starbucks sugar table who is bombarded with dialogue by a seriously creepy barista named Charles. There's a little twist though... turns out Charles isn't actually employed by Starbucks.. he's just a big fan.

So the commercial is a little funny, but will it actually make people want a Pumpkin Spice Latte? Not sure. I think I'll stick with my Chai Tea Latte.

Tipp-Ex's "A hunter shoots a bear"

An ad for Tipp-Ex seemed to have made quite a splash recently. A video was uploaded to YouTube entitled "NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!" This video shows a guy brushing his teeth in the woods when a bear approaches form behind. He and his friend both freak out and he grabs his gun and points it at the bear. But then the unexpected happens --- this becomes an interactive video. The user gets to pick "Shoot the bear" or "Don't shoot the bear" and they're lead to a new video, where the hunter uses Tipp-Ex white out to white out the "shoots a" in the video title, allowing the user to then type in what they'd like to see him do with the bear.

Some of them are pretty funny. I personally like "A hunter dances with a bear"

The Virginity Hit's "Still a virgin?"

Before I say (type?) anything else, let me start off with: This ad is kind of brilliant.

The Virginity Hit is a pretty low budget movie, with no really "known" actors, yet thanks to this ad, its IMDB profile is up 992% this week, and reportedly politicians in Louisiana, Miami, San Diego, and Arizona are ticked.

Sony Pictures has put billboards up across the USA stating "Still a virgin? For help call 888-743-4335 toll free." And yes, it's a working number ("Press 1 if you're a virgin, press 2 if you're friends with a virgin and want to help, press 3 if you don't know if you're a virgin or not..." and it goes on).

Great way to think outside the box.

Anaesthesia Lingerie Print Campaign

Sometimes I look at an ad and all I can see is clutter... a large colorful image with too much text that just makes you want to look away.

Well these ads by Nikotin for Anaesthesia Lingerie [sic] are the exact opposite of that.

At first glance, the ads started off strongly for me. The gorgeous simplicity of a simple black image in between quotation marks on a white background definitely caught my attention. But they quickly lose their appeal. The only other thing on these ads is the company's logo. Well what are they supposed to mean? What on earth do a lightning bolt, water drops, and exclamation marks have to do with wearing pretty undies? This campaign is a perfect example of when more is better. Perhaps a simple paragraph of body copy could have helped Anaesthesia make their point.

What do you think?

(Photos via Ads of the World)

Fiat GPS's Flags

I'm starting this off by saying this: I love this campaign.

Marcel (of Paris) created these 6 print ads for Fiat informing consumers that updated GPS maps are available on their website.

Rather than doing a cliche picture of a map as one might expect, these ads show funky colors and patterns. Seems a little unrelated right? Wrong. When you look at the bottom right corner of the ad, you notice a GPS system showing countries' flags. Turns out these patterns are super zoomed in images of the flags. "Find your way everywhere in the world" the ad says.

Really cool idea and they did a great job rendering it. Two thumbs up.

Wales:

Lebanon:

India:

Ecuador:

Canada:

South Korea:

Yashida Ice Sculpture Exhibition's Tongue

I can definitely say that this print campaign put a little smile on my face.

Publicis Singapore put together these 3 ads for the Yashida Ice Sculpture Exhibition back in December. It reminds me of that famous scene in Dumb and Dumber where Harry licks the ski post (here).

Simple, funny, nice type, well done.