To the Cloud

There's something very clean and Priceline-esque about these new Windows ads. The Dell tablet plug is a bit stiff, but not distracting, and the scenarios presented in each spot are nice and short:

Casting is a bit scary in the airport spot:

 

But otherwise, I think Windows has created a safer bunch of ads, not reminiscent of their Seinfeld days. They've released countless ads with awkward attempts at humor and I think this campaign works because it pokes fun at the daily situations we encounter and redirects your attention to how it can be fixed with a PC, rather than focusing on the humor alone. 

Another clean spot from the Cloud:

Apple has lost its bite

I'm a die-hard Apple fan. I'm addicted to the design, quality, branding. The overall image that they sell is just beautiful. But I rarely take a harsh look at their ads - why should I? I'm just going to buy the product anyway. I drool over the video footage and content of each piece, but I'm already sold on the product.

So it's a rude awakening for me to really look at how far their ads have come since "1984". Most recently, they've promoted two things that I'd like to point out more specifically: the iPhone4 and the Beatles.

Here's a promotional ad for the iPhone4 that does what 95% of their commercials do so well. It points out a feature at the beginning and relates a long line of apps to it. Great battery life? Well look how many cool things you can do with more time!



The problem is they can literally apply this tactic to ANY new feature on any new product that they offer. Great screen resolution? Look at these apps! Great speakers? Listen to these apps!

As consumers, it's nice to see a clean ad that delivers all the information that we need to hear. But Apple is known for handing us such great products and it would be nice to see some groundbreaking ads to match.

On a similar note, Apple recently announced the release of the entire Beetles collection on iTunes. So how do they publicize such an exciting event? As minimally as possible. They might as well have made these spots in iMovie because they come packed full of classic Ken Burns zoom effects and transitions. This series of ads really woke me up to the lack-luster nature of Apple ads today. Unfortunately, these aren't available to embed just yet, so you'll have to take a peak at them on Apple's site.

This lazy, Gap-nouveau style regression is present in nearly every ad Apple has out today and countless other commercials to date. Until the industry wakes up, I'll be reminiscing back to good old 1984.

Scary Fast

I'm in love with this series of ads for VolksWagon. They're youthful, funny... and a bit scary.

I was introduced to the "Make Friends With Your Fast" campaign while researching for a similar angle on my campaign in ad Studio class - but VW has used this angle perfectly.

Their personification of our "fast", how we relate to it, and the danger it brings is quintessentially cool:



Their use of situations we relate to day-to-day, mixed with the unreal experience of our "fast" talking to us in the car, creates great impact. What's also great about this ad is its ability to go from commercial, to ambient, to print really easily. It's recognizable, and just likable enough for the individual consumer to get excited about their favorite "fast" character appearing in a new ad.

Supersized Copy

Here’s a cute, classic way to get people to actually read your copy. Even if they don’t read straight through the copy, they’re bound to skip around and pick up on one of the lines thanks to the smart formatting. Completely in line with McDonald’s existing strategy, this campaign shows the features of their products with clean and simple presentation.

The campaign works as a complete set, with each individual product changing the format of the ad slightly. My favorite is the chicken because they use the Styrofoam packaging that we’re used to as the background for the CV. We might have preconceived misconceptions about how their chicken is transported and delivered, but this relates it to the everyday fresh chicken that we know and love.

Seeing the positive in the negative

Here's an interesting, simply beautiful, and diverse campaign for IBM by Ogilvy. It's got a brilliant message that couldn't have been promoted any simpler. All of the ads are tied together by highlighting the verb in each headline, keeping the shapes big and bold, and juxtaposing two images together. The visuals are clean and witty, some more successfully presented than others:

My favorite is based on education and uses negative space perfectly.

 Others are a bit of a stretch for me; this one is downright creepy:

One last one worth mentioning is the brilliant placement of the hands in this ad promoting IBM technology in a Germain retail store. The headline is right there in the visual, but not too in-your-face.

Somehow, as inspiring as these were for me, I couldn't help but see that last one and think "In soviet Russia, tie picks you!". I guess these were meant for an older demographic, but I can't help but appreciate them!

WWF sends a deadly message

Too many non-profit organization ads play it cool, but don't leave a lingering message. It's a great promotional step to place a logo on shirts and accessories, but there is so much more potential for promoting awareness.

WWF has done a really great job combining slick design and viral marketing in their interactive campaign promoting the protection of the Siberian Tiger. Finally, a t-shirt with two purposes: to look great and send a message.

Shirts were created with a special tiger design. They were then placed in various shops around Moscow next to specially designed mirrors. When an individual stepped in front of the mirror, the image on the shirt was recognized, and triggered (no pun intended) footage that made the wearer look like they were being shot.

The technology was taken a step further with the online content, which provided the same augmented reality experience through the individual's webcam. Because of the online and in-store shirt distribution, over 200,000 people were affected by the campaign.

We're a narcissistic society. We are constantly looking at ourselves, and happy to show of a company logo if their product fits in our wardrobe - so why not appeal to that nature and hit us when we least expect it.

Timberlake's take on directing

Who's to say that someone who does great work in front of the camera can't take a step behind the lens and try their hand at advertising? Ok, so maybe some people should just stick to their original career.

Thankfully, when Justin Timberlake decided to try his hand at directing, he was actually quite good. He came up with a series of sexy ads for 901 silver tequila that all seem to fit together, while each offering something completely different.

There's something witty in the style of shooting where a quick glance by the speaker is translated flawlessly by a swift camera maneuver. The dialogue is intriguing and the overall style is punchy, yet sexy. The voiceover by Timberlake at the end is appropriate – his tone matches the rest of the footage really well.

His style is so concrete across all the ads, but each one said something different. I look forward to seeing more from him. 901 is actually a brand that he started, so it's nice to see something done by someone within a company that's actually fun to watch.

Here are the other two ads: one being scary sexy, and the other having a more traditional smolder.  

Friends in High Places

Excuse me while I gush for a minute about one of my favorite actresses: Christina Hendricks. She plays a powerful female office manager in the show Mad Men and I can't help but fall in love with the work she does outside of the show. She has recently signed on as the spokesperson for London Fog, which ties in perfectly to the brand's existing presence in Mad Men (straight from Season 3).

Past the gushing, on to the meat-and-potatos of this post:

I'm surprised that more brands haven't come forward seeking connections between their products and the hit show. London Fog has done a great job getting people like me to pay attention to their brand. You've got fans who aren't afraid to admit to re-watching season after season of the hit series, so even products shown in Season 1 could benefit from hiring Man Men actors and actresses. And anyone who's loyal to a show knows that there's a certain excitement that comes from seeing one of your favorite characters doing work elsewhere.

Mercedes-Benz did a spot using John Hamm (Don Draper on Mad Men) for voiceover and it worked great:

You get to know and love these characters in the show, for their faults and for their triumphs, so you instantly relate to the products that they sell. Here's hoping that these brands keep it up!

What's yours is mine.

Idea ownership has always been an interesting subject for me. We're producing exponentially increasing numbers of creative ideas each year and there's bound to be redundancy. So what happens when someone comes up with the same idea as you and sells it first? Worse yet, what happens when your idea gets ripped off before it can be trademarked and you don't see a dime for all your hard work?

Fast Design wrote a story recently about a Brooklyn artist whose work was seemingly ripped off by UPS and Ogilvy for their outdoor campaign. It's pretty beautiful execution, if it wasn't actually taken from the artist, Ryan Johnson. 

The new ads by Ogilvy are on the left, put up in numerous places in Jakarta (interestingly enough, where the artist grew up). Johnson's original work is on the right.

But what confuses me is: if they did steal the visuals here, why not change them up enough where you could still get the idea accross of a moving person? Why keep the identical shape and size of each panel of color, the same staggering pattern, and similar construction? The creative team could have easily appropriated the idea of blurring a subject in their installation, without discrediting their own creativity.

Plenty of other objects can serve as pixels in this ad, illustrated similarly by Lego:

I'm simply surprised at this point by the fact that the ads are still standing. I think it's reasonable that Ogilvy wants to stand by its creative team by defending their abilities, but I think it's up to UPS to retain their own integrity and pull the ads.