"Extra-Strong Coffee". Clever. (Thanks Ipub)
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Hello, crowd. Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm currently on vacation, or something that resembles it closely. I won't update exactly every day, but stay tuned nonetheless because I might add goodies here and there - depending on mood /time of day/fun factor.
(Also explains why I stopped my updates on the Cannes Lions. The Guinness "Noitulove" spot won the film Grand Prix, unsurprisingly. So, if there's lack of surprise, there's lack of interest. And, my friends, only interest is posted here :-)
So, relevantly, if any of you have interesting links to stuff you deem interesting, please post an interesting comment below and you can be sure I'll be interested enough to add it.
Okay, ON WITH THE GOOD STUFF! Check out the new Coca-Cola gig, out in France and USA. It's called Coca-Cola Blak: The Unique Fusion of Coca-Cola and Coffee extracts.
WOW. Coffee. And Coke. For those of you whose morning perks are essential to a proper wake-up sequence, THIS, my friends. This, is the brew of the gods. Coca-Cola Blak will get you ssssstarted. IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE? No. It's your heart rate.
Check out their awesome site here. Both french and english versions are worth seeing.
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Here's one off the oddmeter.
Howard Stapleton, electronics engineer of British Aerospace fame, came up with the idea of a tone that could only be heard by a specific ear. The man was fed up of kids hanging around his shop (the man has a shop of some sort), and invented a teenager-repellant box that can send 80-decibel soundbursts up to 16khz each THAT ONLY KIDS 20 and UNDER CAN HEAR. Same concept as a dog whistle, but for annoying groms.
Now, to make a long story short, a cellphone company salvaged the technology to put it to better use, and is now providing a more agreeable ringtone in mp3 format. If you're curious, you can
hear the ringtone (or, if you're over 20, take a long and meaningful look at it) and download it by clicking on this very long link.
(Thanks Karine :)
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Have you heard of Second Life, the virtual universe? While this might be old news to some of you, it's interesting to know that the community is now past 250,000 residents, and is now a booming virtual world, with its own economy.
How is that interesting to us advertising people? Well, for starters, Second Life has its own currency, which you can buy using real world money. The world has its own little businesses : whether you're selling clothing for your virtual character, houses, building services, games, etc...everything is sold and bought for real. Some SL citizens already have begun selling their services as advertisers, but it won't be long before you see actual ads from brand-name announcers. Linden Lab Inc. are creators of Second Life, which they created as part of a unique socio-cultural and economic experiment.
Some real-world in-game advertising agencies (such as IGA and IGN Entertainment ) already have begun to investigate Second Life's advertising market potential. While the segment is still small, one might consider Second Life as a unique communication channel to reach a very specialized worldwide crowd morsel for specific uses, for example, lauching viral campaigns. I'd be curious to see current SL user demographics.
Second Life is ENTIRELY FREE. You get (weekly?) allocation money (Linden Dollars) for loggin in, and you don't have to buy currency if you don't want to participate in the economy. There's a fair deal of stuff to do and land to explore.
Check out the place and create your own character for free at http://www.secondlife.com/.
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Many people wonder about my fascination with squirrels. Honestly, I don't know. That's why all this friday squirrel posting exists: I'm on a path to self-discovery, one squirrel at a time. A noble cause, truly.
Squirrels. They're out there.
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Love's all about good editing. Or is it? Remove the sex and everything becomes okay again. Or does it?
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Tongue-in-cheek spot from Leo Burnett Oslo. While the idea in itself is clever, I can't help but wonder if this would effectively convey the idea of a 'Gay Festival', if you had the ending super removed. But hey, TV spots are what they are. Pure, unabridged creativity, made to be remembered. (I said unabridged again).
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A fantastic ad from Renault. Smart, entertaining, and to the point.
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A message for Three UK music channel, from WCRS London. Great art direction, and weird a souhait.
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Funny-as-hell TV spot for Carlson Draught, courtesy of George Patterson Partners, Melbourne.
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Great new viral from Fallon USA, for Brawny Extra-Absorbent Paper Towels. 8 men were sent by their respective women to a reform camp, "The Brawny Academy", to figure out how the duality of their alpha-manhood can co-exist with their soft, romantic side. This'll score for sure. Check out the first episode here.
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Here's Wieden+Kennedy's follow-up to "Grrr". While the initial message is pretty clear, I can't help but think that there's a pretty strong third message in there, yelling to all mustachy alpha-male gay people that one day they shall be free, and racing in the wind singing. I'm not taking any positions here, I'm just expressing a general feeling. Racy, mustachy gay people are okay with me. Everyone deserves a place in the sun on this earth, be it in a race car or a balloon. Oh God, there's no way out of this.
Go, Speed Racer, Go!
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The Cannes Lions Jury made a variety of shorlists available today.
(The shortlists can be found by clicking here.)
(Please note : If any agencies want to send me the specific shortlisted ads (or links to the ads) cited below to be featured on this blog, please forward them to my email address.Thanks.
Press shortlist nominees for Canada :
- ARNOLD WORLDWIDE CANADA : In retail, "Recycled Ad" for Fashion Go-Round, A second-hand store.
- ARNOLD WORLDWIDE CANADA : In advertising and media, "Vultures" ad, for the Advertising And Design Club of Canada (a student portfolio review)
- COSSETTE ATLANTIC : In Restaurants and Fast-Food Outlets,"Big-Mac Burger" ad and "Drive-Thru : Fries" ad.
Outdoor shortlist nominees for Canada :
- COSSETTE COMMUNICATION-MARKETING : In Savoury Foods : "Crab", "Snake", and "Scorpion" ads for Butter (Dairy Farmers of Canada).
- OGILVY & MATHER : In Entertainement and Leisure : "Electric Chair", for the Comedy and Film Festival.
- DDB CANADA TORONTO : In Entertainement and Leisure :"Baby on board", for Monster Jam Truck Rally.
- DDB CANADA TORONTO : In Ambient, Bars and Restaurants : "Nose Cup", for Toronto Plastic Surgery.
- RETHINK : In Special build : "Tree", "Car" and "Hair", for Science World.
- RETHINK : In Stunts and Live Advertising : "Button Wall", for the Contemporary Art Gallery.
- TAXI CANADA : In Special Build : "Leg Lift Banner", "Barge resistance", "Crunch Decal", and "Jarome Crane", for Nike Hockey Training.
- DDB CANADA VANCOUVER : In POP Posters :"Costa Rica", "Paris", and "Rockies", for Group BMW Vancouver".
Direct shortlist nominees for Canada :
- DIESEL : In Other consumer services : "Crashed Ice", for Red Bull (Crashed Ice sporting event)
- DIESEL : In Field Marketing : "Crashed Ice", for Red Bull (Crashed Ice sporting event)
- BLITZ DIRECT : In Business Products and Services : "Die Cuts Mailer", for Canada Post
- PROXIMITY CANADA : In Alternative Media : "Wine Tasting Game", for Ernest And Julio Gallo Winery
- LEO BURNETT CANADA : In Traffic Building : "Lipstick", for the Assaulted Women Helpline.
Media Lions shortlist nominees for Canada :
- COSSETTE MEDIA : In Best Use Of Magazines : "Smart Girl", for Smart Set Women's Clothing.
- LEO BURNETT CANADA : In Best Use Of Ambient Media : "Lipstick Tube", for the Assaulted Women's Helpline.
- COSSETTE MEDIA : In Best Use Of Ambient Media : "Ready for your :45?", for Nike Hockey Apparel.
- M2 UNIVERSAL : In Best Use Of Special Events and Stunts : "Kick for a million", for Wendy's Canada.
Radio Lions shortlist nominees for Canada :
- DDB CANADA : In Alcoholic Drinks : "Voice Message", Mott's Clamato Caesar Ready Mix, for Cadbury-Schweppes.
- DDB CANADA VANCOUVER : In Cars and Automotive Services : "Wake Up", for BMW Cabriolet.
- DDB CANADA VANCOUVER : In Charities<...> : "Cookies" and "New Word", for Auto Crime Police.
- DDB CANADA VANCOUVER : In Charities<...> : "Stumble", for ICBC Counterattack (road safety).
- DDB CANADA VANCOUVER : In Retail Stores, Restaurants and Fast Food Outlets : "Vacuum", for Richmond Centre shopping centre.
- BLEU BLANC ROUGE : In Retail Stores, Restaurants and Fast Food Outlets : "Hen", for Burger King (enormous omelette).
- RETHINK : In Travel, Entertainment and Leisure : "Herring Chat", for Science World.
- PIRATE RADIO & TV : In Travel, Entertainment and Leisure : "Rich Joanne", for Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
- TAXI CANADA : In Travel, Entertainment and Leisure : "Death Scene" and "Acceptance Speech", for the WorldWide Short Film Festival (Canadian Film Centre).
- DIESEL : In Business, Equipment and Services : "Congratulations", for Workopolis.com
Promo Lions shortlist nominees for Canada :
- TARGET MKTG & COMMUNICATIONS : In Retail Services : "Crusin' To Win", for Irving Oil.
That's all, amigos! I'll be posting more canadian results when upcoming shortlists are made available. Enjoy.
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This one reminds me a bit of Margaret Perrin's performance on Trading Spouses, something which left a part of my brain scarred for life.
"They're DARK-SIDED!!!!"
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I catched this subject on the Ad age newsletter, and I deemed it interesting enough (for once) to bring back on my Blog. 1-second radio ads would be called "Blinks", and could be featured in precise air time positions as quick Jingles (for example, McDonald's "I'm Loving It", or Intel's annoying keyboard punching).
Blinks would be a way to extend a brand's reach through innovative use of media - apparently an omnipresent wish among radio announcers, says Clear Channel VP-Creative Jim Cook - and something which could be perceived as positive and surprising by the audience.
On the downside, Ad Age reports, "...critics suggest the format is likely to fit a very small number of advertisers and is too restrictive for meaningful creative."
What do you think, world? 1-second radio ads, good idea or not? Discuss.
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A completely hazardous find, folks: The Missing Star Wars : A new Hope (the first movie) intro. For real. Something that's straight out from George Lucas's Attic Of The Stuff That Needs To Be Forgotten By Mankind. Thank God this never made it into the final movie, because MAN DOES IT SUCK. AND BLOW. Simultaneously. Nevertheless, it is genuine. Get passed the first 30 seconds of b/w stuff, and then see Mark Hamill in all his uh, glory.
Watch it here.
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I LOVE THIS COMMERCIAL for Folgers. I love it, because it's full of happy freakish yellow people who came straight out of a Jesus Christ Superstar revival. And there's a guy who has butterflies coming out of his mouth. And never once do they mention the delicious, full-bodied taste of Folgers in your cup. No pouring shot. Isn't life wonderful? Folgers, you're now my new morning brew.
(spot courtesy of the AdAge Group.)
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Another excellent CD (once again, recommendation from the almighty Max, praise be upon him), this time a french artist named Jehro. He presents us with his debut eponymous album "Jehro", which could be classified in the music of the world / reggae / island section.
Jehro presents us with a very smooth album from top to bottom, and he sets the listener in a relaxed, bong-inviting mood with soft vocals and dreamy lyrics. You have your guitar tunes with deep percussion, you have your moody reggae B2 organ tunes, you have your spanish-tune-dedicated-to-a-lost-love tune, it's all there.
Max strongly recommends the Jehro website to all you folks, where you can listen to samples of this album. Jah Rastafari.
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...just came out of the dark with these simple campaigns for Southern Star Milk featuring:
a) A brilliant idea
and
b) Inspired art direction
Bravo.
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Hello, world. Each friday, I will be posting a picture of a squirrel in honor of the little furry rodent, who is largely unadvertised. You may comment on the picture, by adding a humorous caption of your choice, hence giving people a new perspective on this otherwise common critter. So, without any further introduction here's our first squirrel, in full deployment.
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(via AdCritic) - To celebrate the World Soccer Cup, which is this year held in Germany, Adidas had a huge 9,000-square foot fresco painted on the roof of the famous Cologne Train Station. The fresco presents 10 major football stars in a symbolic god-like connotation, a real treat for fans of the sport who will certainly miss their daily tchoo-tchoo to work in favor of a good neckache.
A far view of the Cologne train station.
The Fresco, in all its hard-to-grasp-in-such-a-small-pic glory.
A comparative shot of the Fresco, showing its masterful trompe-l'oeil and the people faking not noticing it for the sake of the camera.
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Just so you know, I am absolutely crazy about all things Japanese. Design, lifestyle, games, movies, animation, everything. Proud owner of a PSP system, I'm always on the lookout for new PSP stuff.
If you have some time to spare, check out the official site for Sony's upcoming PSP game, LocoRoco. It's a refreshing game concept in which you navigate the little LocoRoco through a world by "shaking the earth" left and right, thus making him bounce. Loco can feed on wittle flowers and munchies and become bigger, and then split up in little rocos. Isn't that the epitome of cute?
You can also check out the official english site, which has a clever navigation that'll let you grab the concept.
Check out the Official (English) Website for LocoRoco.
As a bonus, here's Sony's most generous offering of a LocoRoco Desktop Wallpaper (check out the little character who says "Gufufufu"...I have no idea what it means, but just seeing that makes me completely wet).
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This one, friends. This one is great. Here's an unorthodox campaign for Pepsi, presenting its new Pepsi Access summer promo.
It's an actual subway poster, in which consumers can jack their headphones and directly listen to a 30-second teaser of the latest music hit, along with a short VO inviting them to check out the Pepsi Access website. Wow. Talk about creating a brand experience.
The Pepsi Access promotion invites the consumer to buy Pepsi, get a PIN, and register the PIN on the Pepsi Access website to redeem music downloads, merchandise, and more.
A smashing idea from BBDO Canada.
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Quite inspired art direction on this TV spot for Ariston Home Appliances, from Leo Burnett (spot courtesy of The AdAge Group)
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Featured at the CEBit this year, this little flower is an example of new "Sensibility Technology". It reads one's emotions and relays them over a wireless network (I also believe the flower changes color accordingly). The flower can send your emotions over the internet, so anyone from far away will be aware of your crazy mood swings.
My prediction: we can expect to see Sensibility Technology integrated inside chat software anytime soon. Smilies? Out. Real-time feeling communication? Yes yes.
Also useful for more concrete everyday application: controlling DUI - Your car could "feel" that you had a little too much to drink, and refuse to start. Moreover, it could relay the info to a nearby police car. The possibilities are endless.
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I accidentally fell on a blog, today.
And it did not hurt. Because I fell in dreamland. And dreamland's host, Jim Woodring, provides some purty far out illustration work (sometimes reminiscent of R.Crumb's work with Mr. Snoid), sculpture and other interesting artistic bits, coupled with short stories and crazy poetic thoughts.
I'm not sure what it's all about, but the part of me who likes strange creative thinking is super satisfied.
Check out The Woodring Monitor.
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More core consumer understanding, by Sony. From Bagby and Company, Chicago. (via Ads Of The World)
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ANOTHER FANTASTIC FIND from my most excellent buddy Max, reference of choice when it comes to cool beats and groovy tunes. I present you mr. Gecko Turner, spanish artist who developped his own music style, titled "Afrobeatnik" - which emcompasses his love of beat poets, Nigerian afrobeat sounds, jazz, blues, reggae and electronica. His latest album, Guapapasea!, is a delight from start to finish, and a most revered addition in my personal collection of all time favorites. I thoroughly recommend it, and listen to me, because I'm your daddy and daddy knows best.
Check out Gecko's home on teh Web.
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I'm currently in business launch mode. Yes friends, being an art director isn't satisfying enough, I need some sideline gig to express my creativity unabridgedly (can I really say "unabridgedly" in public?) and release the frustrated businessman inside. More about this later.
But in the meanwhile, one of my friends gave me a link to Threadless, an ongoing, online t-shirt design competition.
Better described in their words: "Threadless is an ongoing tee shirt design competition. Designs are put into the running to be scored for 7 days. After those 7 days high scoring designs are chosen to be printed and sold from our "SHOP" section!". Fun idea, and there are some really awesome designs to be found there. Here are a few samples, but check out the whole site, it's worth it.
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This is the print version of Guinness' current campaign, "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait", a title which either refers to the time it took for Guinness to come upon earth (and the subsequent goodness of it) - or the fact that serving a perfect Guinness actually takes 119,5 seconds. See the Guinness Website for more info.
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Ever heard of Current? The Current TV Network lets its viewers create their own TV shows and videos, and airs them on the telly. Complete-consumer-made-content-driven TV. Wow. Awesome idea, and now they're going even further.
The Current TV Studio website is now letting users create their own ads for real-life sponsors like Toyota, L'Oreal, Sony and several other big fat brand names. What's more, you have a shot at making some fat cash out of it! If your ad gets chosen by the brand to air on Current, you get $1,000. If it's real good, and it gets chosen to air on (bigger) actual TV channels, you can get anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. Smashing.
The concept is simple, fun and easy to use: You pick an assignment (for example, L'Oreal), read the little brief, download some material to put your ad together, and upload the whole thing in what they call a V-Cam package. I know I'm giving this a shot pretty soon.
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Another creative and quite repulsive ad for Sloche (same as Slush Puppy, different brand), served at Couche Tard convenience stores in Quebec. Sloche has a history of delivering a tasty product with truly disgusting flavor names to its customers: Windshield Washer (blue), Roastbeef (Pink) and Tropical Cheese (Orange...ahh, the refreshing taste of cheese on a hot day) are among the different flavors offered.
The AD was created by Montreal's BOS agency.
Check out the TV ad for this summer's latest culinary delight, "Liposuccion", right here
(Via Infopresse)
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