It might not be all that astounding to some but this concept makes most of the product (energy) and a much talked about situation (the polar vortex). Plus, in terms of both a tangible experience and a shareworthy memory is, this is worth a small fortune of brand love.
McDonald’s – What’s on your mind ?
Advertising Agency : Heye, Munich, Germany
Wow, creative Maccas ads. They almost make you forget how bad the food actually is.
Ancient brilliance.
Direct, simple and effective, couldn’t ask for more. Infinitely better than the “joy is power and efficiency” line.
Facebook: We Are Not Alone
Understandably Facebook chose to display a niche circle of disparate (and desperate, no offense) people in their effort to highlight how it connects cohorts. They want to remind us that no matter who you are or what you are into, Facebook is where you can connect with likeminded individuals, which is a slightly noble but forced sentiment.
In the end, it’s not a bad ad, but it’s not brilliant either.. In fact, it’s nothing special beyond the fact that it is a rare ad from one of the few brands in this as, if not more, ubiquitous than Apple (who advertise like their life and profit margin depend on it). And hey, there are no bad chair metaphors.
“If they don’t like you who the fuck cares.”
Every brand needs to learn this lesson sooner or later – there is no such thing as a universally loved brand or product. Competition for money and attention exists everywhere, even if the competing idea/product is essentially nothing.
You cannot win over everyone, and you don’t have to change that. Win over that core target, branch out to their pliable friends and make the most of a good thing.
The Summer Olympics gets its share of ads, and to a lesser extent so does the Winter Olympics. But only recently has anyone made a real effort to get anyone actively interested in the Summer or Winter Paralympics – mostly because for the longest time, there has been a belief that people do not want to see these incredible people do what they do best, in spite of their ‘handicaps’.
Below is the impeccable piece of advertising brilliance unleashed upon us in the lead up to the last Summer Paralympics in London:
Amazing isn’t it? Thankfully, they didn’t see the need to stop there, two years on the same channel has launched a stellar piece for the Winter Paralympics in Socchi:
From beginning to end, these two pieces of communication instill a sense of awe and respect in the casual viewer; at no time do they encourage us to show pity or sympathy, not in the slightest. This is how it’s done – thank you BBC 4.
The ad, by creative agency Don’t Panic, imagines if what has happened in Syria were to happen in London. Amazingly shot, it uses the structure of the popular one-second-a-day videos to show an ordinary girl’s world falling apart over a period of a year (from birthday to birthday)—as her comfortable middle-class existence evaporates and she finds herself a homeless and fatherless refugee amid the horrors of war.
The video coincides with the buildup to the third anniversary of the Syrian crisis, which has left 100,000 people dead and 2 million more as refugees. On-screen text at the end reads: “Just because it isn’t happening here doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”
Some might see this as too little, too late but any creative work which drives attitude change of this magnitude should be applauded. This is the ad industry at its best, crafting messages that allow us to think and to feel even when the subject matter is far removed from our own limited context.
These two pieces are fantastic examples of how you can best use public transport to either make the most of a rush or a long wait. The former is pure fun for people young at heart while the latter is just a fantastic use of the ads physical context. They show is that a bus is more than just a mobile billboard and that bus shelters are just poster slots – make the most of a good ad spot!
I’ve gone on relentlessly about how cinema seems to be the driving force behind some of the most astounding marketing and advertising out there; which unfortunately means I’ve overlooked the increasingly level of creativity now being injected into promoting TV. The above pieces for Walking Dead, Mad Men and Game of Thrones tap into the intense love for the content and use it to build up tension, to create excitement, particularly when paired with your standard teaser. In the case of Mad Men, the level of product integration at play throughout the series’ run makes this meta advertising nirvana – you are advertising a show which in itself is an ad. It’s MAD!!
Time to stop all this ranting and raving, the TV is calling for me!
For most, making print work in this day and age is able digital augmentation – QR codes, embedded videos and other such ‘innovations’. But for others, it’s more about finding a tangible way of utilising the context of the ad; the double page spread is the perfect place to play if you know what you are doing and what it is you are trying to say. Digital isn’t necessarily the be all and end all.
Ad Man in Waiting 