TBWA Paris put together this amusing PSA for AIDES, the French AIDS awareness group, featuring probably the most gifted and accomplished penis depicted on film since John Holmes. The whole thing leads up to the tagline/punch line at the end. Possibly NFSW, I suppose. TBWA Paris has a history of doing fun AIDES spots. Previous efforts have included last year's freaky bathroom-graffiti spot and the truly epic "Baby Baby" cartoon from 2005.
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Robots and obits are two of my regular beats hear at AdFreak. They go hand in hand, as robots are dedicated to the destruction of mankind. Which brings us none too smoothly to Burger King's tie-in with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. My colleague Rebecca Cullers has noted the "conspiracy" aspects of the campaign and warned us of "a series of worldwide robot sightings." Oh, it's far worse than that, people. As our flesh-and-blood world reels from the loss of the King of Pop, the metallic monsters have found their king: the Burger King! He's been robotized to massive proportions—transformed, if you will, into a digitized death-dealing demon! Someone would probably die if a giant King smashed through a BK like he does in the spot above. There’s be chaos and confusion, at any rate. And then my chance of getting no pickles, already abysmally low, would decline even more. Robots. They'll spoil your meal every time.
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This Oven Pride spot has caused an uproar in the U.K. Set to nursery-school music, it features a husband learning a lesson in the kitchen as the announcer keeps repeating, "Oven Pride. So easy, even a man can do it!" Hey, sweet, I didn't realize we were bringing the '80s role-reversal thing back! In 1979, Kramer vs. Kramer showed that a father could learn how to make breakfast. Advertisers picked up on the trend big time, for two reasons: 1) They had finally sniffed out this thing called feminism; and 2) Somebody had to look stupid in order to learn a lesson in a commercial, so now it was the man. Hee hee! The trend is still happening, to some degree, as advertisers pander to women, but not with the aesthetic sledgehammer of this particular spot. I guess it's meant to be taken straight—it's too dumb to be ironic. But the bigger takeaway for me is how hard it is to use the product—and how little it helps. This big lug has to place heavy, greasy oven racks in big plastic bags, shake them, then remove them and wash them off. The main problem with washing oven racks is getting the things in and out of the oven. If you're going to have to rinse them off in the sink anyway, how much good does pre-rinsing them in giant bags do? Stupid product, stupid commercial. Now, honey, get me my breakfast, and make it snappy! You think these caribou slippers put themselves on?
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Danica Patrick has joined 180LA's "Unwrong'd" campaign for Boost Mobile, following in the proud hoofsteps of those cannibalistic pigs from a few months ago. The setup is the same as the earlier spots: The viewer is subjected to some unpleasant visuals—in this case, Patrick signing man boobs and being tended to by a pit team in drag—and is then told that's not as "wrong" as getting screwed over by your mobile carrier. Go Daddy's Bob Parsons is going to be livid when he finds out that Danica signed any kind of boobs in someone else's ad. UPDATE: Also check out the third video below for a peek behind the scenes of the spots. It includes some choice quotes from 180LA's William Gelner, who says that channeling the insanity of his creative team into a Boost ad is like herding cats.
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Weeds returns to Showtime for its fifth season on June 8, and as usual, they've got an entertaining hodgepodge of advertising to promote it. After launching the spider-web-themed print campaign back on April 20 (which was, not coincidentally, National Weed Day), the network has now released a pair of new videos: an animated history lesson about marijuana (above) and a "Yes We Cannabis!" faux political spot below. We're still waiting for the more offbeat stuff like the marijuana-scented strips in magazines and the giant bags of pot stapled to billboards. Via @dabitch.
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Ketel One vodka, best known for its annoying, long-running "Dear Ketel One Drinker" print ads, has moved onto TV. Grey created these two spots, which are indicative of "a distinctive set of values in the vodka category," to hear Ketel One tell it. Really, what we're working with here is a dressier version of Coors' "Guys' Night Out" series. The ad above shows a bunch of guys in suits being all manly, with their vodka and no women, with a voiceover noting that there was a time when men didn't drink vodka from "delicately painted perfume bottles." Pretty sure they don't do that now, either. The ad below is better. The gentlemen in this rainy spot are actually chivalrous and let a couple of women take their cab home. If it's class they want, that's what will get them there, so they should can the "When men were men" shtick and double up on the social graces. Or dueling. Either way.
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This Coke Zero spot from Wieden + Kennedy is described as an "epic rock opera ... featuring such memorable cast members as a singing bear, candy-pooping birds [and] an elk with sausage antlers." There are also sheep with honeycomb wool, which I don't understand, but if that bear likes his sheep full of angry bees, more power to him. This is America, after all. (Actually, the spot only aired in Brazil, and broke just recently, even though it was completed some 15 months ago.) Anyway, the gist of this ad is that the bear is taken aback by the robust flavor of Coke Zero. Was he expecting it to taste awful? If so, he might not be the brand's ideal spokesbear. He could open for Meat Loaf on his next tour, perhaps.
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Over at Adweek.com, Eleftheria Parpis is less than enamored by this Huggies spot from JWT featuring an expecting couple who can only say "me" (the wife) and "you" (the husband). If this scenario were taking place in my life, I'd be sobbing "Why me?" and my wife would be screaming "Damn you!" But that's a story for couples' therapy. I've drifted from my point, and so does this 60-second ad. Still, it makes a potent statement with the birthing scene at the end, reminding me of one big reason I don't want kids. There's also not a diaper to be seen, either. Just like at my house. Oh, and those of you with little ones at home trying to make plans for this holiday weekend: Good luck getting a sitter, suckers!
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In a sure sign that civilized man has begun to devolve back to the hirsute, rock 'n' roll party animals from whence we sprang (that's some lede!), Geico's cavemen rock out with the band 3 Doors Down in commercials and a video for the song "Let Me Be Myself." That caveman really does capture the Fender Strat-fueled angst of the tune, which, let's face it, is all the cro-magnon has ever asked of the world in Geico's iconic ads from The Martin Agency. Are we 100 percent sure that's not Charlie Daniels in that clip above? There is a resemblance. Or maybe a long-lost Allman Brother. Or Jim Morrison? That's how he'd look if he were still alive. In fact, that's pretty much how he looked in '69. Jim was the Lizard King, though. He'd jam with the gecko.
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Cramer-Krasselt's latest campaign for AirTran focuses on phony brainstorming sessions at Mindflow Consulting, supposedly hired to figure out "what AirTran should put on every flight." The two actors work hard in the 15-second clips to elevate the stale-feeling material, and for the most part they do OK, with decent comic timing, delivery and chemistry. They'd be well cast as workmates in a sitcom—perhaps Trust Me would have been better with these two. Some of their discarded brainstormed suggestions—haircuts, Xboxes, Belgian waffles, history lectures—don't sound so implausible, and would go a long way toward reliving the tedium of circling O'Hare for three hours on a foggy night. And they shouldn't discard the notion of balloon animals so fast—a plush variation's been popular on Carnival Cruises for years.
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One last unusual TV spot for the week, and it's from McDonald's, which wants you to know that a large group of miniature, impoverished peasants are crawling around in the bowels of your car, tired and hungry, just waiting for you to drop a single golden-brown McDonald's french fry, which to them is basically a giant shed of potato that could feed the entire horde for a year. But don't worry about letting them go hungry. Why would you want to feed a large group of people with food you'd normally throw away? That's not what McDonald's is all about. Keep that fry for yourself—remember, no one wants it more than you! By DDB Chicago.
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Coca-Cola is shocked—shocked—that a commercial in which a guy who's breaking up with his girlfriend is suddenly surrounded by pole dancers, prompting the girlfriend to lower herself to his adolescent fantasy standards, would be deemed sexist. Perish the thought! Really, all this Coke Zero ad from Australia needs is a bit of rephrasing. The line at the end, proposing that this is breaking up "as it should be," suggests a full endorsement of the proceedings, cartoonish though they may be, when all you need there is a quick acknowledgment that the guy's actually a delusional moron. Or they could make a companion ad from the women's point of view and apply some unfair, stereotypical expectations to men. An eye for an eye always leaves everyone happy.
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With the backlash against all things swine, it's not a great time for pigs in ads. And it's really not a great time for pigs in White Castle ads. The spot above, by new White Castle agency Zimmerman, advertising the chain's new pulled-pork sandwiches, shows a female pig dancing suggestively on a stage and then pulling a lever that douses her in an explosion of tangy barbecue sauce . The breathy female voiceover then describes the sandwiches as "sweet, saucy, oh so naughty." (In a similar vein, the Web site advises you to "Get your oink on" and "Rock out while you pig out.") Swine flu and stripper hogs aside, this gets back to the whole issue of suicide food—of ads that show animals celebrating the fact that they're about to be cooked and eaten by humans. For some reason, pigs are especially prone to this, whether you're talking Moo and Oink or the Smokin' Stokes pig, who rolls around on burning coals and "does not merely accept his own destruction. He revels in it." The White Castle pig joins this acclaimed crew, and even does that little dance for you first.
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This anti-Big-Oil spot from environmental group Avaaz.org pushes all the right buttons and succeeds by being rather restrained and good-natured where others would go too far with the name-calling and hyperbole. The guy in the faux-oil-company commercial really does look like a smooth-talkin' corporate CEO as he reminisces about the good old days before the economic meltdown, when politicians followed the oil companies' lead and "we bought bigger and bigger corporate jets." Yet, he never seems crass and comes across as more self-serving than outright evil. He's a villain you can almost love, just like that real-life Sprint CEO who's been in his company's ads. Kidding. Consider: We should probably root for Mr. Phony Exec and his cronies to get their Learjets out of storage soon. When they do, that'll mean the recession's passed and we'll all be better off.
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"We took a very simple, recognizable element, the penguin, and made it artful and unexpected. It's eye-catching for adults and children." So says WongDoody chairman and executive creative director Tracy Wong of his agency's "More colorful than ever" ads for an upcoming penguin exhibit at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Visually, the ads are imaginative and appealing, and perhaps they even evoke the sense of childlike wonder the shop says it was striving for. Still, they imply the birds' familiar monochrome color scheme wasn't quite up to snuff. And parents could be in for a long day at the zoo trying to explain that no matter what the posters suggest, penguins don't come in paisley. Except maybe in the gift shop.
Rhett & Link, the musical comedy duo who worked on the Red House Furniture commercial below, have brought their Flight of the Conchords vibe to various other projects for brands like Alka-Seltzer, Baby Ruth, Starburst, Hummer and Cadillac. Above is their Taco Bell drive-thru song. The guys say they are "actively seeking to partner with agencies and brands to create high-quality branded content." Go here for more.
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Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, the world's third-ranked player behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, gets extremely loose in his first major outing for sports brand Head since the equipment and apparel company signed him in January. His nickname's Djoko, with a silent "D," and he's certainly more fun on camera than Federer, whose performance in that '70s-themed Gillette ad with Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter was as wooden as an antique racquet. In the Head spot, there's a cute set-up with Djoko going into the stands mid-point for some over-the-top flirtation with an attractive fan, and still having time to return his opponent's shot. The spot tries a bit too hard to be "outrageous" with nipple tassels and a recreation of a scene from Flashdance. Even so, it's extremely likable, and I didn't regret hanging in for the entire two minutes. If Head ever casts Anna Kournikova in a similar scenario, hopefully they'll keep the tassels.
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While you might not immediately make the connection between Gossip Girl's uproariously shallow beauties and Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove will illuminate everything this coming Monday, April 27, with the launch a series of documercials about four real girls whose lives and posh outfits mirror those of GG's privileged characters. Check the trailer above—it's just like the Real Housewives, but aimed at teens. The clips will air exclusively during Gossip Girl and online, where you can also catch the girls' blogs. In typical Dove brand fashion, all four girls appear scrubbed clean of makeup, but for some unspecified reason, the particular product they're pushing is Go Fresh Body Wash in Burst, which I can only assume helps you burst onto the scene smelling like nectarines. According to the press release, I'm right. It helps girls "start their days with a burst of energy and inspiration." The connection to the product on the Web site is tenuous at best, and seems to boil down to a peachy color scheme. I'm not entirely sure why they picked a single product at all. But who cares? Free gossipy content masquerading as a Dove commercial, I dig. Via Y Pulse.
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