Yellow Pages "Randy"

This ad is so bizarre that it's brilliant. Yeah, it's one of those ones. Taxi 2 came out with this 30 second spot for Yellow Pages Canada last week and it showed during the How I Met Your Mother rerun last night. The reaction in my living room? A couple confused exchanges, ultimately ending in laughter.

This spot features Randy, who's "99% muscle, 1% tiny swimsuit." So what's Randy's deal? He loves to be oiled up... all the time... to the extent that he uses Yellow Pages on his iPhone to find local gourmet food stores (where he uses some gourmet olive oil), gas stations (for "Tram" oil), and salad bars (for salad dressing, and apparently to get stared at by a blonde ignoring her husband. His reaction? A peck-flex).

Randy is an odd duck.



(Edit note: I previously stated that this was Cossette's work, but it is in fact Taxi 2's. Sorry for the mix up! The executive creative director, Lance Martin, informed me that there are 2 more coming - so keep your eyes peeled!)

Bell Canada's Campaign

Alright, so this post is going to be a little different as it's not on a specific ad, but rather a campaign. My friend Eric recently asked what my opinion on Bell's campaign is seeing as he's not a huge fan (particularly, I believe he said, of the little plot lines within each ad). Now I don't enjoy the plot lines either (like the couple trekking through the "forest" who suddenly realize they're going to miss Glee or something along those lines, or the guy who's so excited he brings cheerleaders to his friend's place, video below), but I do have to say I was much more than relieved when Bell axed the annoying beavers (no offense to Cossette, who I love as an agency overall).

I was interning at Cundari in the summer of 2008 when Bell surprisingly announced they were dropping Cossette's irritating yet oh so famous beavers Frank and Gordon like hot potatoes, and moving on to an idea conceived by Zulu Alpha Kilo, founded by Zak Mroueh (former Top Creative Director of Taxi Canada). Holy run on sentence eh?

Anyway, I used to take the subway to and from Cundari everyday and I remember Bell's teaser ads. Of course at the time I didn't know they were Bell - that's how good these teasers were. At first the TTC posters were simply white with a line of blue, or a corner of blue, or mostly blue - they all differed. As the days went on, they would slowly change, each day revealing a little more. I, however, couldn't wait and took part in the daily office chat of "what the hell are those weird TTC ads?" And within just a couple days of the campaign starting, we had all the research we needed to figure out what was going on. Oh well, still a really cool teaser campaign.

So how is the campaign now, a whole 2 years later? It's alright... I guess. I don't change the channels when the ads come on or anything, but like Eric said - the plots are annoying... very annoying. To counter this however, the commercials are quite visually appealing. The use of the giant blue Bell logo on a crisp white background is great for their branding. Maybe if they were to get stories that weren't quite as irksome, they could make some pretty cool ads.

Cheerleaders:


The Old Campaign - Beavers

Natural Gas's "Wool"

TBWA\Brussels came up with this new spot, released this month, for AARDGAS Company's Natural Gas. It's seriously super cool. In this ad a house is shown in the morning. As the heat kicks in, the house is slowly covered in wool. Each item up to the pipes, walls, and even the water becomes wool. The point? Natural gas is the softest of heats.

So how was it done? Stop motion was used and each item was covered and then uncovered with this wool. This is definitely a must see.

Durex's Type Ads

So I'm not quite sure what the deal is with these ads. Every source I've found simply says "by Andrej Krahne" without mention of an agency. With a little further research I discovered that Krahne is a German illustrator and designer, so are these simply Krahne playing around or are they really for Durex? Either way, I can't particularly say that I like them. This campaign consists of 3 print ads made entirely of typefaces. All 3 feature a man and a woman in different sexual positions created out of words, with the Durex logo where the man's junk is.

In the first, the woman is seated on a table (created out of the word "wood") and the man is standing. He is created mostly out of "overload" while she is created out of words like "heaven," "peace," and "paradise."

In the second, the man is in the crabwalk position with the woman on top. He's mostly "muscle tension" while she is "quaking," "horny," "orgasm wave," "vibrations," and for some reason "confused."

In the final one, the woman is giving the man oral pleasure. While he's mostly "Fatal error," she's "tasty," "contented," "fruits," "satisfied," "happy," etc.

I'm sorry, but I'm confused. I thought men enjoyed sex as well? Durex may have the whole controversial-we're-gonna-get-talked-about thing going on if these ads are real, but I still don't like the campaign.

Frito-Lay SunChips' "Removing"

This ad by agency Juniper Park South Africa for Frito-Lay's SunChips is really cool. The spot features different people walking around with large pictures. When they see a piece of trash, they place the picture in front of it, and it turns out the picture actually fits into the scenery. Okay, so it's hard to explain, but if you don't get it, you will in a minute. The narrator is a little girl (adorable right? - reminds me of Cundari's '09 Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure spot that I was lucky enough to be on the account team for). The little girl states, "If we all made a change, it could lead to some pretty amazing things and keep this world beautiful so I can someday pass it on to my children." The point? SunChips has made a change - their bags are now made of plants so they're compostable. Saving the world one chip bag at a time. "For a brighter tomorrow."

Ally Bank - Even Kids 2

Back on January 21st I posted about Ally Bank's "Even kids know..." ads, and about how much I love them (here). Well thanks to AdFreak I just found out about two more of them. Still hilarious. Enjoy!

McDonald's "Small Prices, Kid"

Agency The Cousins of Geneva, Switzerland made this ad for McDonald's that first aired in Switzerland in January. It's different than North American McDonald's ads for sure.

This spot features little cartoon characters with the typically annoying cartoon sound effects. A little boy walks over to what can be assumed is his father (the walking sound is the worst. It may have made me cringe a little). They smile at each other, blink a couple times, and the father hands the son a 20 dollar bill. The boy looks at it, waves his hand no, and walks back off (again with a cringe). There's a close up of the father who gets a bit of an eye twitch, which is actually kind of cute, and the line "Our prices make you more independent" bounces onto the screen.

Cute. But come on, even if a kid could afford a cheeseburger on his own, is he really going to turn down $20? I think not.

Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"

I have to throw out a thank you to my friend Eric for bringing this commercial to my attention, because now I just can't get enough of it. This Old Spice spot by... get this... Wieden + Kennedy Portland (again! Shocker. They're everywhere), and featuring gorgeous actor Isaiah Mustafa first aired on Youtube on February 4. In this spot, the "man your man could smell like" (who may be giving the Most Interesting Man in the World a run for his money) tells you to look at your man, then back to him, back to your man, and back to him again. He tells you to look away while the scene changes to the beach, and suddenly he has tickets to "that thing you love" and then those tickets turn into diamonds. Oh but that's not all.... he's on a horse. What's so great about this commercial? It's different.... Really different. What else is great about it? It was done in one shot - sure, it took 3 days, and the final version didn't come out until the 57th take of the third day, but it was worth it.

By the way - if you have 20 extra minutes, the making of video with creatives Craig Allen and Eric Kallman is seriously interesting.

Tropicana's "Arctic Sun"

This ad is nothing less than adorable. BBDO Toronto made this spot for Tropicana, featuring the Canadian Arctic on its 31st straight day of darkness. As people go about their business, missing the sunlight, Tropicana pitches up a fake sun. Kids in classrooms perk up to look out the window, and the town gathers around this artificial sun. Smiles are seen, children are dancing, and an awesome song is playing ("The Great Escape" by Patrick Watson) as this town's day is brightened. It's definitely a must-see.