This spec work created by Richard Wilkinson for Saatchi & Saatchi Germany is fan-freaking-tastic. His illustrations are incredible and remind me of my favorite digital artist, Stuntkid. Both have a wonderful command of their art with a special focus on little details that make their pieces pop. I recommend checking out the rest of Wilkinson's work. It's lovely.
This set of posters for Head & Shoulders (see the rest here) aren't even remotely in-step with anything I've ever seen from H&S. In fact, these are times upon times better. The dark humor actually gives the brand a bit of personality, something it's never had before. I'd love to see them take this route.
Is it cool if my favorite ads of 2009 (so far) are spec work?
Like all good tragic heroes in America today, Mike Tyson's documentary hits the screen April 24 2009. James Toback’s Tyson, appears to be an inventive retrospect of one of the most famous sports personalities of all time. An icon of boxing, "Iron" Mike Tyson's roller coaster life has always been center stage in the media, it will be interesting to see if this film meets the hype.
I find the the poster's art direction particularly interesting and intelligent. The overall tone feels insightful, even poetic. The softer aesthetic nearly makes the portrait of Tyson appear wise, something that no other media outlet has done. While I have a distaste for the serif typeface "Tyson" is set in, I'll always back a movie poster featuring someone with face tattoos.
I think my last five posts have been sports related, so why stop now?
Last night Patrick Ewing was honored as a Knick Legend during halftime of their game at Madison Square Garden. Needless to say, we at Das Good Ads felt compelled to pay our respects.
TBWA/Chiat Day has released some pretty memorable Snickers ads in the past year or so, and this one is no exception. I especially love how Patrick Ewing wears a wig. Considering he looks like this now, I guess it wasn't a bad idea to bring back the hi-top fade.
Is there some baby-obsessed copywriter working at DraftFCB (they still have Taco Bell business, yeah?) putting out all these awful, pregnancy oriented ads? Ok, so maybe it's only two, but that's two more than I ever needed to see. Maybe she/he is trying to send a message to a significant other about a ticking biological clock. Or maybe they really can't come up with anything better.
What was the last Taco Bell ad you can actually remember liking? I'm having a hard time remembering any.
This may be the first iPhone-based ad that people will actually want to use. Using the iPhone's accelerometer the ad makes Dufon Smith, an urban street dancer, react and dance to the user-created movement.
The ad "will appear in the iPhone games 'iBasketball,' 'iGolf' and 'iBowl' and the lifestyle application iTV." Between different levels of the game, the ad will pop up prompting the user to make Dufon dance before moving on to the next board.
The ad is an obviously effort by Dockers to remain relevant to the middle-age, tech-savvy, male customer is covets.
(I kind of hate the use of numbers in "Shake 2 activ8" and "Shake 4 encore". Seems a little forced and tacky to me. More tween than successful business man.)
EDIT: Dockers is really stepping it up by also co-sponsoring the Pandora application for BlackBerry. Dockers branding will accompany the start-up of the application as well as song information.
Back in February, Hulu ran its first ever ad during the Super Bowl. (Can you remember that far back?) Prior to the release of the ad, they hyped it up, claiming they were going to out some "big secret". Well, as it turns out, Hulu is an alien-run company hell-bent on destroying the minds of Earthlings. Fine by me, as long as I get to watch 30 Rock on my own time, amirite?!
They've just recently released the second ad, which features Eliza Dushku from Fox's show Dollhouse. (Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and Fox. Try to keep up.)
Sure, Eliza Dushku's tongue has some sex appeal, but I'm still loving the Jack Donaghy-esque Alec Baldwin from the Super Bowl.
We shed some light on The Most Interesting Man in the World last year when the campaign was entirely web-based. Now, Dos Equis is expanding the campaign like whoa.
Previously, the ads could only be seen online or in select American cities, but not anymore. DE is planning on running the 15- and 30-second spots nationally for the next 4+ months on network TV as well as ESPN, FX, TNT, etc. Hopefully we'll see some during the upcoming NCAA tournament.
They aren't stopping at television either. With the push of the ads they are also producing, radio, outdoor, PR, and more web-based work.
It's somewhat reassuring to see a brand actually expanding its ad and media budget, while it seems everyone else is tightening up.
I don't know what it is about this ad, but I love it. That Tim Lincecum is a cutie and his CGI-self is just as adorable. The shot of them pitching side by side is fantastic, as is the one in the car.
I wonder, though. How many takes were needed to get Randy Johnson to deliver that line? If that was the best they got, I imagine there were far too many with disastrous results. RJ is not exactly improv material.
I also like the duality of the line, "The major leagues down to the minor details."
I'm sorry, but there are just some industries that shouldn't be jumping on this whole vampire bandwagon. Some of those include blood drive sponsors, pediatricians, and definitely feminine hygiene products. I mean, sure it's a fact of life, reproduction and nature are beautiful and all that jazz, but no one likes a tampon ad. No one. Not even the female contingent that actually needs to purchase the product.
Sure, we deal with tampon ads when they make a period seem like nothing more than a week when you'll still be able to do everything normally and possibly have an ever-expanding bouquet of flowers follow you around. However, this just makes me want to vom. Obviously, every other agency doing tampon work thought of this at one point or another. They were just kind enough to not go there.
I don't care if it seems that I'm not comfortable with my own female self, I just wish I could un-see the above image. *Shudder*
In a very literal take on "user-generated content," Skittles has almost completely placed its brand image in the hands of web users. The candy's home page is now its Facebook page, choosing any of the products directs you to Wikipedia, and "Chatter" is a stream of any and all Tweets including the word Skittles.
It must be said that Modernista! used this same tactic before Skittles. However, as a service rather than a consumer product, far fewer people come in contact with their site (or rather collective of sites). While a risky endeavor (anyone can say anything about your brand), it has more people talking about Skittles and in greater detail than they probably have before. Like, ever. Sure, the novelty will wear off, but the level of interaction between the brand and its consumer has been drastically escalated. My question is whether or not this change (and the buzz surrounding it) is reaching the majority of the audience. The internet-using crowd is obviously all over it, but does that transfer to mainstream knowledge? If so, will that majority of users understand what they are seeing when they get to the Skittles home page/Facebook page?
Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Just join in on the fun of the ". . . because of Skittles" meme while you can.
Some things even we can't get out of your head.
