Sunday 24 August 2008

The new Nike ad?

Saw this whilst killing some time on Kontraband this morning and thought it would make an awesome sports brand ad...



Now whilst I don't wholly agree with using viral ideas as inspiration, if creatives continue to use these raw, user generated platform for ideas generation then they should at least 'fess up and incorporate the original people in the making of the ad, instead of bastardising the orginal and making it look shit. i.e.



Instead of using Kristopher Storm to design (and get paid for) the new Carphone Warehouse ad:



and you guys who ripped off Flight of the Conchords for Coors Light, stop it, stop it right now, and come up with something original you lazy bastards.

Saturday 16 August 2008

At the next tree, turn left, collect the fruit...



Image courtesy.

I was reading an article on Thursday night about how games are being specifically made to coincide with the proliferation of GPS on mobiles. Basically the premise is that by using your GPS enabled mobile you can go to any open space (park, beach, disused airfield) download a specific GPS game (classics such as pacman) and then by using the built in technology you (your phone) turns into pacman and you have to run around the place trying to collect the fruit whilst avoiding the ghosts and dog poo.

It's such a simple idea, but it blew me away. What a fantastic way of getting kids to play outdoors whilst still being tethered to their beloved iPhones. From an advertising perspective there are certainly opportunities for brands to get on the back of this. I can just imagine someone like Innocent coming up with a game at one of their Fetes that involved collecting ingredients for a smoothie whilst avoiding nasty sweeteners and preservatives!

Monday 11 August 2008

Send in the clouds...






make your own at http://wordle.net/

Monday 4 August 2008

Silence is golden...

I was in the pub with a friend yesterday and the Grand Prix happened to be on, and whilst watching the ads (with the sound muted) in between Hamilton getting a flat and Massa's engine blowing up, something dawned on me. Some ads just DO NOT work without audio commentary.

The ad break was so short my re-call was fairly minimal but it got me thinking. Car ads work without a v/o although they often need a commentator to highlight the points of difference that may be on offer however some ads (interestingly the more conceptual ones) don't need anything audio for the message to be understood.

Examples of ads that work:





And those that don't:







I think when ads are tested they should be played without any audio to see if audiences still get it. Something tells me some of the time they wont...

P.S. If you have a bit of a fetish for TV Ads visit this site.

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