Thursday, July 29, 2010

Office Depot's "Schulson and Sons"

Office Depot's new ad features Susan Schulson, the owner of Schulson and Sons Movers. Unfortunately for Susan, her sons are going off to university and she'll no longer have the muscle power needed to carry all that heavy furniture. However, after saving tons of money on school supplies by shopping at Office Depot, Susan is able to correct this situation.

I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that the pause after the line "new sons" that then leads to the next line is brilliant.

Funnyfunnyfunny. Check it out.

Dreft's "Fashion always returns"

The great thing about Leo Burnett Brazil's latest print campaign for Dreft Laundry Detergent, is that it's so true.

These new ads show an old personal picture (circa 1970) on the left side, and a new fashion-magazine type picture on the right side. A piece of clothing is common between the two, and the headline reads "Fashion always returns. Take care of your clothes."

Coming from a fashionable mother, it resonates. (Hi mom, I know you're reading this.)



(Photos via Ads of the World)

Elaine's Bagels' "One of many flavourful bagels"

Elaine's Bagels (which through a quick Google search appears to be located in Michigan) has a new print campaign done by agency Squid Inc.

Three different ads feature a bagel in the center of a solid background. The bagels are not regular bagels, however, but instead they resemble their flavors (the onion flavored looks like an onion, the cheese flavored looks like cheese, and the blueberry flavored looks like a blueberry). The line below says "(insert flavor here). One of many flavourful bagels."

Sometimes simplicity works. And I really think it did in this case.




(Photos via Ads of the World)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Best Buy's "Buy a laptop, get a geek"

Usually when an ad for a tech-store like Futureshop or Best Buy comes on, my brain turns off. They're boring, annoying, over-exaggerated, and often a combination of all three. This ad for Best Buy, however, came on yesterday while my dad, boyfriend, and I were eating breakfast, and all three of us actually laughed out loud.

This spot features a soon-to-be university student laptop shopping with his mother. When they pick one, the Best Buy salesman explains that with the purchase of a laptop at Best Buy, you get a geek (of their infamous "Geek Squad" - the group of people that helps you install, repair, or learn about your technology). They walk down a wall of boxed geeks (one who looks just like Ellie's husband Devon in Chuck) to pick the one that will best help the student. The mother picks a male geek who can help "video chat with mom," but the boy has a different idea....

Friday, July 23, 2010

Smarties' "Blue Cat"

It's not too often that I do hit on the ugly of advertising, but after seeing this commercial, I just had to.

JWT Toronto created this spot for Smarties, which starts out with a teenage boy sitting on a couch. We hear a throat being cleared and he turns to look at an ugly blue cat... who then talks... in a very creepy accent. "Blue is back," the cat says, and magically the remote control in the boy's hand turns into a box of Smarties.

I love a lot of JWT's work... but what the hell?

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Old Spice's Personalized Video Responses

I once stated to a friend that many ad campaigns to come will be great, but none will ever get a place in my heart like “The Most Interesting Man in the World”. I mean, the guy can speak French... in Russian, his clothes don’t have the courage to wrinkle, and his charm is so contagious, vaccines have been created for it.

Well - I was wrong, and will one day apologize to that friend for lying to him.

Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” has found a spot of equal, maybe even greater, size in my heart. (Previous ads blogged about here and here)

Yesterday (July 13th), Wieden and Kennedy took social media advertising to a whole new level. They got gorgeous Isaiah Mustafa (THE man your man could smell like) to create personalized video responses to people who Tweet, post YouTube comments, or Facebook about Old Spice.
…They even added in a couple completely random Yahoo Answers responses.

The result? People were in a frenzy trying to come up with questions for Old Spice to answer. One guy even got Isaiah to propose to his girlfriend for him.

Wieden and Kennedy – you’re brilliant.

Check out one of the responses… and the full channel below.



Old Spice YouTube Channel

Thursday, July 8, 2010

AT&T's "Whole New World"

If you like cute stuff or Finding Nemo, you'll love BBDO's latest installment of AT&T's "Rethink Possible" campaign.

This spot (which actually seems like it could be a Pixar movie trailer) features a little fish who discovers some sort of fancy glowing fruit. Unfortunately our little hero is just that - little... and the fruit is thrown, dragged, snatched, and yanked by bigger and scarier sea creatures who each want it for themselves. Suddenly it lands right in our little main character's arms (or fins if you will) and when you finally think he's won it for good - you're wrong. A fish 10 times his size appears and shoots him up through the water to the surface. It's here, however, that our little guy discovers trees just full of those weird little fruits.

The characters, art direction, and soundtrack of this commercial are great, but I fear the message may get a little lost in the overall concept. "Expand your world," the ad says. Will it sell AT&T a bunch of contracts? Probably not.. but it's a pretty little piece of art.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like 2"

Unless you live under a rock in a cave on some remote island, you have probably seen Wieden and Kennedy’s hilarious Old Spice commercial starring the gorgeous deep-voiced Isaiah Mustafa (blogged about here if you actually are that person under a rock in a cave on a remote island… or you just want to see it again).


Well, they’ve done it again. In one fluid shot, Isaiah stands on a beach, log rolls, bakes a cake that says “You’re beautiful,” builds a dream kitchen with his own hands, swan dives into a Jacuzzi, and ends up on a motorcycle - all the while talking to us ladies. He does not, however, end the commercial with, “I’m on a motorcycle.”

What a babe.