Grey

Grey London for Pantene.



Apparently, when Pantene first came out, it was only sold in high-end department and apothecary stores. It was Grey's job to take this niche brand and transform it into a globally recognized name; this was different for Grey as well as Proctor and Gamble (who owns Pantene) because both of these entities handle large, mainstream brands and not so much of the lesser known, niche brands.

Apparently, all of the print and tv spots featuring super shiny hair that have now saturated the market for hair care products were the creative genius of Grey. Grey pioneered the whole obsession with shine in hair ads; it all started when the culmination of their research brought them to the "hair so healthy, it shines" tagline. They used some kind of revolutionary lighting technique to provide the images of silky hair like people had never seen before in beauty advertising. Since the launch of this new visual technique, competitors have jumped on board with such enthusiasm that I can't remember seeing any advertising for shampoo, hair spray, or dye that didn't utilize this specific imagery. The "shine shot" has infiltrated so much of the current beauty advertising landscape that it feels stereotypical and, in my opinion, has lost its originality. The shine you see on tv or in magazines doesn't even look real; I always thought those images were blatantly fake because they look so obviously unrealistic. Maybe five or ten years ago I would have been more impressed because pioneering a visual technique that has been copied by an entire industry is quite impressive, not to mention the fact that Pantene is one of the most recognized brands in hair care.

Interesting fact about Pantene: it was created using pantenol, which is some kind of chemical that was used to heal burn victims. This fact led Pantene to focus its marketing strategy on the healing and healthy powers of their products.

JWT

JWT Beijing for Nokia.



And this is the reason why Youtube was created; to showcase all of the most bizarre, and conventionally unmarketable skills, the world can offer. However, in this case, Bruce Lee's unmarketable skill...ninga ping pong?... is completely marketable and he probably made a lot of money off of those limited edition Bruce Lee phones.

As simple and inexpensive as this spot must have been to make, it is addictively entertaining- but it doesn't make any mention of the brand until the last two or three seconds. It's a minute of Bruce Lee playing ping pong with nunchucks, and then at the end we find out it's for Nokia. I think its popularity is due to the fact that the content is perfect for an online video. People troll around on Youtube for hours looking for stuff like this, and once you start watching this, you can't look away until it's over..even though you have a good idea of what the whole video is going to be. There is no profound link between the content of the commercial and the brand, except that the phone being advertised is a limited edition phone with Bruce Lee's picture on the back. The whole "limited edition" concept makes sense because Bruce Lee obviously has a huge fan base in China (and this spot was made by the Beijing office). Maybe, this kind of random content actually does target the market of consumers Nokia was trying to grab; still, I wish there was a stronger meaning and context behind the visual and the product.

Y&R

This is done for Office Depot by the New York office of Young and Rubicam.

This ad in particular was spread as a viral ad online, and it seems to be spoofing the tone and visuals of the Snuggie infomercials. At the end of the ad, viewers are encouraged to visit The Survival of the Smartest website, which is sponsored by Office Depot. The Survival of the Smartest features an initiative called the Small Business Self-Bailout that shows different services provided by Office Depot that can help small business owners who are struggling during the recession. The site is guided by two guys, Matt and Matt, who take users around the site, discuss new sales and promotions for the store, and add some definite character and humor to a relatively bland brand.

Y&R also created a weekly internet show called Smart Specials with both of the Matts as a way to give people information about sales and deals. Smart Specials was used as an alternative to Sunday Circulars; for a long time, Office Depot distributed coupons via Sunday Circulars but realized those only allowed consumers to interact with the brand for seconds while clipping coupons. The internet show is not only much less boring, but it fits more seamlessly into people's lives, as more and more people are turning to the internet as their primary source for information.

I think infiltration of viral videos are an innovative form of advertising because it's kind of a sneaky way to get your message across without bombarding people with product facts and brand names. Viral ads spread quickly and generate a lot of buzz in various online communities, but they can also deliver results. The recession aggression video generated around 20 million free PR impressions and was also the best performing spot on Hulu. The combination of the viral ad, the internet show, and the website are a great example of a completely integrated marketing campaign; one that is creative, engaging, and generates brand awareness and sales from multiple vehicles and media.

Ogilvy&Mather

Interactive work by Ogilvy's New York office for Vaseline Clinical Therapy called "Prescribe the Nation."

This interactive campaign used word-of-mouth, via the internet, to allow Vaseline Clinical Therapy users to "prescribe" their friends across the U.S. It started in Kodiak, Alaska, with one person sharing the product with her family and friends, and from there, the word spread to the entire town (now made up of 1,000 Vaseline users). What is unique about this campaign is that the website allows people to track the spread of "prescriptions" across the nation and see how each person was connected. There is also an Alaskan-themed sweepstakes, which is clearly illustrative of how well this clinical moisturizer works.

The only aspect of this campaign I feel a little weird about is the emphasis on prescriptions; something about "Prescribe the nation" makes me think of a bunch of pill-poppers, and people are already so dependent on modern medicine that "prescribing the nation" anything sounds like a bad idea. A part of the website allows people to interact with and learn more about "the people behind the prescriptions."...what? That just sounds so institutionalized, once again, it gives me the feeling that we are now just a bunch of prescription labels instead of people. Being able to track the growth of product users, one-by-one, is very informative for the brand and cool for people to follow on their own, but they really should have used better word choice.

Martin Williams

Martin Williams for Payless Shoes.

I don't really get Martin Williams; in exploring their website and viewing some of their work, I don't think they do anything great. In general, the work I saw looked mediocre and mundane, and it's work like this that contributes to the notion of advertising as clutter- not to mention that this work IS the clutter.

This ad for Payless Shoes wasn't the worst, but it might have been some of the better work they have produced for clients. This ad contributes to the overall agency image as being average and ho-hum; the work is nothing special. Maybe the marching nutcrackers were creative...maybe? All Payless spots look the same; lots of girls wearing shoes, supposedly from Payless, and doing seasonal activities (in this case, winter holiday activities include walking down stairs, decorating a Christmas tree, and getting out of a car). Payless seems like a big enough brand to be recruiting a better agency or finding someone to produce good work.

The ads Martin Williams produces feel like what you would expect from a typical, in-house agency somewhere; nothing feels inspired, thought-out, or close to cutting edge. Overall opinion: I don't know why they are a part of Omnicom, but someone deserves to lose their job over that acquisition.

LatinWorks

This is work done for the Active Life Movement; the copy says, "Keep obesity away from your child."

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this ad; I think LatinWorks definitely took a risk in making a bold statement about the dangers of obesity, but I also feel bad that the images could definitely be interpreted as offensive. The ads obviously show the unnaturalness of being that over-weight, but the irony is that the role models in children's toys like Barbie or action figures portray an equally unnatural physicality. It's fairly common knowledge that Barbie's measurements are anatomically impossible, which is why I am a little confused that LatinWorks chose to use a very similar character in one of their ads. It almost suggests that Barbie is what is normal because it would seem ridiculous to buy your daughter a fat Barbie or to see toys manufactured in fatter form. I know that is not the intention of the ad, and I like that the image is immediately captivating, both in its originality and subtle shock.

Obesity itself is an odd and difficult issue to tackle because it is now considered an epidemic and cultural crisis, but it is one "disease" that most people have complete control over. Granted, obesity in children is often the result of learned habits from parents, but in general, people have much more control over their weight than their blood make-up or organ condition. I suppose there is no way to advertise the dangers of obesity without offending someone, thus proving the difficulty in this kind of ad. All in all, I think LatinWorks created a very unique ad and integrated the element of children and protection in an artistic way, but I think they presented a faulty argument by using images reflective of Barbie and action figures whose physical appearances can cause equally negative body image problems among youth.

Dieste Harmel & Partners

Dieste Harmel & Partners for Clorox.

Get it Dieste Harmel. Finally, someone makes an ad for laundry detergent or supplementary laundry materials that is more interesting than side-by-side comparisons of white socks, or grass stains, or a maternal figure who is way too excited about clean clothes. I think much of the advertising created for laundry products is not only boring, but it makes way too big of a deal out of cleaning your clothes; everyone does laundry, and it's not a big event like it is portrayed in commercials. People just want to do their laundry and have their clothes be clean. That's it. The over-acting is unnecessary and quite frankly, it has become embarrassing. On top of that, why do the people in commercials start cuddling and rubbing their clean towels all over their face as soon as they come out of the dryer? You just washed that, and now it's dirty again.

With this ad, Dieste managed to integrate the emotional facet of doing laundry without over-doing the emotion. Usually parents are the ones doing their kids' laundry, and it's a sign of how much you love and care for them, and in this spot, the viewer still gets that point without the side-by-side stain comparisons. The animation in this ad reminds me a little of the "Happiness Factory" spots for Coca-Cola, which were done by Wieden+Kennedy. Both employ imaginative creatures in an extravagant course of action that culminate in, what is presumed to be, the completion of a relatively simple task. These spots are well-crafted and fun to watch, and the end of the Clorox spots pay off; the copy is relevant to the previous animation and captures the honest relationship between mother and child that is often missing from the cliche laundry ads.

GSD&M Idea City

ummm wasn't GSD&M founded by a bunch of longhorns?? I don't know if I'm impressed or insulted that the Austin-born agency started by six UT alums does work for Texas A&M. Personally, the thought of Aggieland is straight-up foul, but A&M does have some of the best advertising I have seen for a university. Usually, you see these spots during college football or basketball games, and I am always confused as to why these huge public institutions with enormous funding (and most of them with film or cinema departments) produce the most amateur, awful commercials!! Look below to see what I mean, and with these particular spots, I think it goes from kinda bad to worse.







yeaaaa if Drury admissions aren't dropping, they should be....that school looks like the students hate it. Most ads for colleges all look the same; they follow the same mundane formula, as if they have a checklist of important buildings and stereotypical settings or activities to pan across. The nice thing about the A&M spot is that it establishes a genuine, comfortable, and content feeling at the university without the mediocre filming or exhaustive slideshow of old buildings and diverse classroom environments.

Also, I can't ignore the fact that GSD&M found a way to establish A&M as the unpretentious alternative to UT because everyone that grows up in Texas is aware of the self-entitlement felt by UT grads...come on, you graduate with about 50,000 of your closest friends, it can't be that great.

180 Amsterdam/180 LA

This was done by the Amsterdam office of 180.

So hand models have been working a lot lately since the hype about virtual keyboards, apps, and record-breaking texting records have infiltrated commercial society. All of the new Apple iPhone commercials feature frames of the most breath-taking thumbs and pointer fingers looking for movies, searching directions, and every now and then...dialing a phone number. This spot certainly follows the trend of highlighting the flexibility of the human hand, but this spot is executed with more sophistication than the Apple ads because it transforms the hands into personified characters. It gives a more artistic sensibility to the spot, making this particular ad more about the emotional journey of all the places your hands will travel on your new phone, and less about the straight forward product capabilities and quick technology. Still...all the fingers on TV these days are a little gross, especially the Motorola ads with Megan Fox's little nub thumbs. It's 2010 though, and people in America understand that you use a phone with your hands, so the repeated visual of the well-groomed fingers is a little monotonous and over-simplified. It was a novel idea when it was done at first, but now the concept has been copied in so many forms and fashions, it looks tired and lackluster.

Goodby Silverstein

This particular spot for Cheetos (made by Goodby of course) aired at the 2009 Super Bowl, but it was part of an award-winning campaign, most often referred to as "Orange Underground," which resulted in increased sales and brand awareness for Cheetos. There was extensive research done to help Cheetos because their competitors were out-spending them. One interesting factor in this campaign was that Cheetos determined they had to compete with not only other potato chip brands, but also with cheesy snack products; this is interesting because Goodby also does work for Doritos...a prominent cheesy chip brand, and the work Goodby does for Doritos is usually also in the Super Bowl and has (in past years) been highly regarded for its off-beat humor. What was discovered during the research process for Cheetos was that both children and adults eat and love Cheetos, and both kids and adults feel pressure and stress and Cheetos can help relieve that stress. The resulting campaign targeted only adults, which was a bold move because children greatly influence what snacks go in the family's grocery cart. The new campaign focused on the idea of giving adults permission to be playful and mischievous; the emphasis on mischief is apparent in all of the "Orange Underground" spots and makes them unique for a campaign targeted to adults in general. Ultimately, the new Cheetos campaign increased brand awareness among adults, making Cheetos the 34th best regarded brand among top snack brands. Also, when Cheetos did post-testing of the new TV spots, facial coding revealed adults liked the ads even more than they admitted! It seems adults were a little embarrassed to admit they liked Cheetos, which makes me question how many adults have mustered up the courage to buy those gummy vitamins that are "for adults."

This spot is my favorite from the Cheetos "Orange Underground" campaign...they give Chester the most epic voice.

greatest safe sex commercial ever. period.

This is the Duval Guillaume Antwerp agency (which is part of Publicis Groupe)in Belgium for Zazoo condoms.

hahahahahah...Talk about scare tactics. So maybe it's not such a good thing advertisers are using CHILDREN as the worst possible consequence that can result from sex, but it is kinda funny! Part of the appeal of this ad is just the foreign jibberish (and that little kick routine the kid does on the floor toward the end of his tantrum), and the message has an undeniable element of truth- if you don't that little gremlin as your own flesh and blood, use condoms.

TBWA

TBWA/Chiat/Day for Pedigree. Interestingly enough, TBWA also does advertising for Masterfoods, which is a division of MARS Incorporated (the owner of M&Ms). This is an unusual tactic: to advertise one brand by using another brand's icon. TBWA could not have picked a better mascot for the Pedigree Dogstore; the M&M characters are well-established, recognized, and adored by most people, regardless of age, race, or gender. Also, the M&M characters are seen as wholesome and family-oriented, which is a compliment to the loving, pet-enthusiasts Pedigree was targeting with their "Dogs Rule" campaign.

The campaign has been running since 2005 and has received numerous awards including Effie and Kelly awards. Since its launch, the "Dogs Rule" campaign has come to include print, outdoor, and TV ads, but also several non-traditional elements, like the Pedigree Adoption Drive, sponsorship of the Wesminister dog show, and of course the Pedigree Dogstore in Times Square. This is a great example of how ad agencies can play a crucial role in developing a creative, but holistic integrated marketing campaign. The Dogstore itself is a unique advertisement; it has over-sized dog beds for kids to jump on, all kinds of merchandise gear, and a dog park created to look like Central Park to play with potential adoptees!

An article in Adweek published back in 2008 chronicles the work done by TBWA for this campaign; the article mentions the key insight into the campaign (as told by Lee Clow) was that other dog food brands were focusing on the scientific benefit of the food and completely lacked an emotional connection between dogs and their owners. As Lee Clow said, "People who have dogs love their dogs, why wouldn't you be a brand that loves dogs and have it motivate everything you do?"