Rethink

Rethink for A&W.

A&W was Rethink's first client in 1999. A&W was the premiere drive-in burger establishment in Canada up until about the 1970s, when McDonald's starting impeding on their territory. Since the growth of McDonald's, and the decline of drive-in fast food culture, A&W has been shutting down locations and is now mainly found in mall food courts. What Rethink discovered about the brand was that although the physical locations were disappearing, the generation the grew up eating at A&W (the baby boomers) hadn't forgotten about the strong emotional connection they felt to the brand. Rethink also learned from extensive consumer research that the baby boomer generation associated A&W with many of their adolescent milestones, like their first trip to A&W, "graduating" to a Teen Burger, a first date, or driving a car. From this impressive insight, Rethink developed a "three pronged" strategy that aimed to reach consumers emotionally, functionally, and promotionally. The emotional aspect came from aligning the brand with milestone events from the boomers' youth, the functional came from visuals of how delicious the food was, and the promotional came from coupons and an emphasis on what a great value the food was. The creative execution was a throw back to the retro advertising of the past, and it meshed with the TV spots that were geared toward an older audience. Apparently, the boomers are vastly under-represented in fast food advertising. Rethink used only two media forms for this campaign: TV and direct mail coupons; the strategy behind this was "to seem much larger than we are." The campaign did start to correct for decades of declining sales and has even helped A&W surpass Burger King and Wendy's to grab the number two burger choice in Canada. Unfortunately, no one seems to be able to beat out McDonald's...in any country.

Ground Zero

Ground Zero LA for the Sound Advice Project.

The Sound Advice Project was created as an anti-drug campaign, but one geared more toward parents than kids. The purpose was to help parents talk to their kids about being drug-free in a whole new way; kids whose parents talk to them about drugs are 50 percent less likely to have problems with drugs later. Ground Zero realized that parents didn't really need an advertising campaign telling them just to talk their kids, but they did need a different way to talk to them. Thus, the Sound Advice Project was created. Most great work in advertising doesn't rely on puns or shoddy word games as a part of their creative strategy, but the name "Sound Advice" works because it is backed up by a truly innovative concept. That concept being that parents access the Sound Advice website, where they can choose from phrases they want their children to remember (ie: I believe in you). Then, they record their own voices saying the chosen phrase. The sound waves are turned into a simple, modern bracelet that your kids can wear so that they always have your words with them-just minus the embarrassment of having a parent yell "I believe in you!" out the car window. This is a revolutionary idea, and one that exemplifies advertising and its ability to be customized to the masses. The sound byte bracelets are a smart idea on their own; they show kids that their parents care, they are discreet (always a plus as a middle-schooler), and they are personalized in the most intimate way. This concept has the potential to expand as a powerful symbol of communication with someone you love. These bracelets, at least bracelets or necklaces made using the same voice recognition technology, could say "I love you" on Valentine's Day, Christmas, a birthday, an anniversary, or any date you want to give significance to. The personalization of the messages could be endless, and the shape and style of the jewelry would always be unique. What could be more meaningful that keeping the voice of someone you love with you forever, the meaning is so powerful. This is such a good idea, and if no one makes an empire out of these bracelets in five years, I am.

StrawberryFrog

StrawberryFrog for True North.

This has absolutely nothing to do with nuts or snacks, but it is the winning spot from a True North campaign that called upon people from across the U.S. to submit their own "True North story." A "True North story" explains what you do in life that is, or will become, a part of your legacy; it tells the world what you are passionate about and how if affects people around you, and this is essentially your "True North."

The campaign was designed to introduce yet another snack brand into the marketplace and onto grocery store shelves. True North, which is made by Frito Lay, wanted to create a nationwide "Cultural Movement" illustrating how the brand is all about finding your passion in life. I'm not sure how a brand of nuts develops into an identity about finding your passion in life; the transformation is necessary when advertising for a rather unoriginal or bland product. This work feels very similar to the Nature Valley campaign created by Campbell Mithun, which asked consumers to find their own "Nature Valley." The difference being that one's Nature Valley is only a physical place in nature, while one's True North is the act that they feel passionate about; the edge that True North has over Nature Valley (as far as these metaphysical brand places are concerned) is that True North is a more selfless idea that involves making the world better, or more interesting, for others-not just finding a place for you.

Interestingly enough, this campaign actually started by placing full page ads in newspapers prompting people to share their "True North story" online. Out of the hundreds that were put online in the form of essays, one was chosen (the spot seen above) to be filmed by actress-turned-director Helen Hunt and aired at the Academy Awards. The Academy Awards gave the brand huge reach, to the tune of 40 million Americans. Airing at such a sophisticated venue also helped set the brand apart from their main competitor, Planters, by aligning True North with elegance and the sharing of the year's best stories, which is what the Oscars are supposed to honor. There is no mention in the agency's case study of how the campaign impacted marketing objectives, but the True North brand has certainly succeeded in forging a place in the consumers' mind so they are, at the very least, aware of the new brand.

22squared

22squared for Lincoln Financial Group.

This is a spot from their "Futureself" campaign, which built off of the insight that the person we all trust the most is ourself, so we are most likely to take advice from ourself in the future-our futureself. In an effort to raise awareness about how to plan for retirement, 22squared decided the best way to get consumers thinking about their future was to bring their future to them. It is your futureself that gives you the confidence to seek out a financial advisor and start planning. The campaign involved TV, print, radio, and interactive. The interactive component was the most engaging, as it provided a timeline that users could create, plotting exactly where the big events (graduation, buy a house, college) in their lives would be occurring. From there, users received some helpful hints based off of the amount of time they had to plan for the plotted events. The other media outlets chosen introduced people to their futureselves and sent the message that the time to start planning was now. When people feel anxiety about having procrastinated, especially on something so critical as your financial security, they usually want to take action immediately. This is what the interactive aspect of the campaign allowed people to do; online, users could re-gain control of their financial planning by actually starting to plan-immediately. Without the interactive, I don't think people would have felt the sense of control or gained the confidence to seek out an advisor with as much vivaciousness as they did. The results of the campaign show that consumer advocacy doubled within the first year, trade advocates grew more than any other competitor (while in the recession), and 22squared even won an Effie for marketing effectiveness.

Social Responsibility and Advertising

Here are some examples of social responsibility in advertising that work:


Neogama/BBH offices out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is work done for ADESF.

This is part of a print campaign called "Army of Toxicity." This print efforts aims to show the amount of toxicity inflicted on the body by a single cigarette. Brazilian agency Neogama/BBH used historical human conflicts to represent the invasive force of tobacco, and they had a nine-month long 3D modeling process, which helped give an epic feel to the imagery. This ad works because shows how intensely dangerous every cigarette can be to your body. It makes sense and conveys the client's message clearly but with sophistication.



This is JWT New York for their own environmentally friendly initiative, JunkTrashWaste. Even though this is work created by and for JWT, it is a good example that social responsibility doesn't have to be chastising, aggressive, or painfully non-artistic. The fact that JWT installed this using technology and without producing paper waste was smart because their whole initiative is to remove all waste from the agency; if they had created some super glossy print ad instead, it just wouldn't make sense. It sounds stupid, but there are so many advertisers out there who promote going green, but they promote it on fliers and synthetic t-shirts and such.



This ad is actually created by an agency called Campbell-Ewald for the Ad Council, but this spot is too good not to put in here. The dad in this was a stroke of casting genius because he makes the ad so lovable. The message is nothing groundbreaking, but it reminds parents that spending time with your child is important and doesn't have to be something extravagant or planned. The honesty in this ad is what makes it more memorable than other ads with a similar message; the cheer isn't a stereotypical cheer from the 1950s, so it seems like something little cheerleaders would say these days. I love that the dad gets sassier than the girl. work.

Now, here are some decent ideas for social responsibility, but they just don't mesh cohesively like the ads above:


This is for Guide Dogs Australia, by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. The agency created a unique fragrance called Support Scent, which, when worn by a person would make those with impaired vision aware of the support they are receiving, via sense of smell. BBDO then teamed up with Australian cosmetics brand KIT cosmetics to develop the scent, now sold nationwide at Myer Department Stores, cosmetic shops, and online, with all proceeds benefiting Guide Dogs Australia. This whole concept is drawn-out and disconnected; I don't even understand how something as nuanced as a fragrance is supposed to catch on as a national phenomenon that blind people can recognize immediately. Also, what would a blind person do if they did recognize the scent somewhere? I don't really see any true benefit for the blind with this endeavor. The collateral looks beautiful, but the idea is just another far-fetched attempt to make the beauty industry more socially responsible.


This is one of the ads from Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" which received a lot of acclaim for Ogilvy and Mather's "socially responsible" encouragement of a more realistic view of beauty. They created some TV spots that are socially responsible; however, this ad is actually irresponsible because it was discovered that the photos of these "real women" were retouched!


This ad is not socially irresponsible because it promotes a destructive behavior, as it actually promotes quite the opposite. However, my issue with this ad by AMV BBDO is that the tagline is one that is often used by teens and college students in a positive way. The whole idea of getting so drunk you can't remember things is often turned around into a prize or badass thing to do when you go out. So, while this ad is telling young people not to get shit faced because you look like an absolute mess, I think the target audience would look at this ad and almost be more drawn to drunk images because that is considered the sign of having a good night.

72 and Sunny

72 and Sunny for Nook.

Nook is a new product and brand that was invented and produced solely by 72 and Sunny. Nook is the first company to be launched out of what the agency deems their "Venture Creativity" division. Since this is an entirely new product for 72 and Sunny to introduce into the marketplace, they designed everything from the product and packaging to the retail and PR components. From far away the Nook mattresses just look like a modern version of the egg crate padding you can put on top of your mattress, but they are actually designed specifically for infants. The mattresses are constructed to allow additional air flow through the material and support air circulation throughout a baby's body. On the one hand, I feel like this product is another environmentally friendly (the fabric is made of Eucalyptus), yet unnecessary effort to enhance something that people have been living comfortably without for centuries. On the other hand, I have to commend 72 and Sunny for finding an opportunity in the marketplace by that could be filled by a new product. This forward-thinking attitude is what makes the marketplace function properly, creating and circulating new products that can fill a void in consumers' lives and advertising these new product launches along the way. This endeavor also shows the collective results of an advertising campaign used to promote a product developed by the agency, itself. Advertising is only one aspect under the umbrella of marketing, so why shouldn't ad agencies be allowed to design and launch their own products? Most full service agencies take part in other marketing-related tasks already (product research, distribution tactics, and consumer research to name a few). This could be a great thing for the advertising industry in that it would not only consolidate producers and marketers of a product, but it would also lead to a better understanding of the product and marketplace when designing a campaign. It looks like 72 and Sunny hopes to have more companies like this launched through their "Venture Creativity" department, but we would need a lot more agencies to follow suit in order to see any convergence between the creation of a new product and its advertising.

Wongdoody

Wongdoody for Foxy Lettuce.


Wongdoody for Gossip Girl.

These two ads show the opposite ends of the spectrum of work that Wongdoody produces. The Foxy Lettuce spot is boring with a capital "B" and is advertising a boring product, while the Gossip Girl outdoor ad is sexed up and promotes a sexy, glamorous show on the CW network. The stylistic nature of the work leaves me a little unclear on the agency's identity, as far as the characteristics of their work are concerned; the work on Wongdoody's website felt like there was no congruency, or no common thread, linking the style of the work from one ad to the next, which is evident in some of the more creatively defined agencies. I can't imagine the ad for Foxy Lettuce did anything positive for the brand; this is another example of how much more unique advertising must be for a mundane or ordinary product (and you can't get much more bland than lettuce). However, the ads Wongdoody created for the Gossip Girl campaign resulted in number one ratings among the target audience (women, ages 25-35...too bad there a bunch of 13 year olds watching and learning from it) for several consecutive episodes. What is amazing about the results of this campaign is that prior to it, the show was suffering in the ratings and was on the verge of getting cancelled. I don't necessarily agree with the overt sexuality in every single one of the billboard or outdoor creations, but I have to credit Wongdoody for using an interesting execution strategy in their work for Gossip Girl. They flipped all of the negative press that the show was receiving into a scandalous, but successful ad campaign, which highlighted the negative aspects of the show and turned them into something positive. That last sentence reeked of Bill Bernbach's "truth in the negative" tactic that garnered him so much acclaim in his VW campaign many years ago. Clearly, the strategy still works because the billboards for the CW's fledging show peaked America's interest and girls (and gays) across America are still tuning in to find out what the scandal is this week.

Taxi

Taxi Canada for Plan B.

What the french is this and why does the girl suddenly get so "sassy gangsta" when the guy says the condom broke? Whaattt?? Oh my lanta...this campaign is controversial in more ways than one. The spot shown above is a part of the interactive component of this campaign, and while it takes a soft-porn approach to advertising Plan B, the ambient disposable panties shown below take a more light-hearted approach to preventing an unwanted pregnancy.



Is this real life? When I initially saw this on Taxi's website, I chuckled once but then started to read the accompanying case study and wasn't so amused. In the text, Taxi discusses how their main insight was "discovering" that their target market (women in their early 20's) have grown up in a "hyper-sexualized society where sex is an accessible entertainment." Really? Really Taxi? This is a sweeping generalization that has become associated with younger generations of women, who are now being stereotyped into holding extremely casual views on sex and the ease of short-lived sexual encounters. However, this is a growing stereotype that should not be assumed, or encouraged, among women or men. I think the group of women that fall into this category are vastly overestimated and are now becoming over-represented in the media. Taxi makes no mention of focus groups, interviews, or any credible form of research that allowed them to make these judgments; the agency did, however, have data verifying the success of the campaign, with a 19% increase in sales. The increase in sales of a product like Plan B is somewhat of a catch 22 though; the client wants an increase in sales obviously, but what does that mean for our society if more and more women are using Plan B? Maybe you should calm down and keep your panties on...but that's what Taxi encouraged in this campaign; a key component to their strategy was to let consumers post their own "oops" stories about a time they should have kept their legs closed. Stories were shared via mobile text (dumbass. That has to be the easiest way for a company to track exactly who you are...you need to keep your panties on and your phone off) or on Post-it notes in fitting rooms in clothing stores. Yeah, it gets better though. Taxi also placed their message in the places women "meet and hook up: bars, clubs, college and university campuses, and music festivals." So now we're pouring gasoline on the fire because we are telling young women that you have an easy way out of pregnancy, while they are getting drunk and contemplating making some bad decisions. This campaign proves exactly why media messages and stereotyping can be so dangerous; these entities can give a false perception about what "everyone is doing" or how you are supposed to act according to race or gender roles. This is so ridiculous, and I don't have any issues with the product itself, or the brand's desire to increase awareness of the product, but don't do it at the cost of loving relationships!...This whole shenanigan with Taxi and Plan B totally makes sense when you remember that Taxi also does advertising for Viagara!!

Mother

Mother London for Gu, which makes chocolate pudding.



Mother London for Match.com.

Mother does some...eclectic work. It's hard to categorize or describe what they do because their work is so diversified, and their style is oftentimes a little odd or bizarre. These two spots feel characteristically European; they both feel like a mini movie with cinematic filming, complete narratives, and accents. The first spot for Gu leaves you feeling uncomfortable about eating pudding in public, so I don't know how effective that ad was for their product. The second spot is sweet and has a calming, bohemian feel to it, but the spontaneity in both ads is flat out confusing. The situations presented in both of these ads are so unrealistic that I question every action taken by the characters in the ads: Why does the lady in the Gu spot leave her dog and walk inside a house for no apparent reason? Why does the girl in the Match.com ad burst into song? Or why are there two young, attractive people in an antique shop?...no one does this stuff. In a way, the actions taken in these spots are so unrealistic, but the acting and filming makes the spots feel normal and completely real. Maybe this is just the Euro influence at work. European sensibility in advertising feels odd in comparison with American advertising because it often incorporates very unusual or outrageous scenarios into commercials, whereas American commercials are cluttered with product demonstrations and "real life" consumer testimonials. Despite its peculiarity, European ad work has a heightened level of artistry and culture, which I think is due, at least in part, to the lessened restrictions and social openness to a variety of subject matter. America is so censored that at times, we are forced to censor our creativity, at the risk of offending anyone.

R/GA

This is work for the Ad Council by R/GA New York.

This campaign started out with the goal of raising awareness for harassment among teens and dating violence. While talking with teens, R/GA unearthed a new, but very related problem that has only begun to present itself since the mass digitalization of communication evolved within the past decade or so. This problem is digital abuse, and has come to include such abusive behaviors as, "incessant, harassing texts, to pressure for nude pics, to the loss of privacy resulting from hacked personal accounts." The "That's not cool" campaign is R/GA's digital platform to not only help teens understand that this controlling behavior is in fact a form of abuse, but also to direct them to resources that can help them cope. Below is a picture of the That's Not Cool website; it is clear from both the website and the commercial that public service announcements and Ad Council messages have taken a more creative approach to reaching young people these days. The chastising, beat-it-into you type messages have disappeared and been replaced with more metaphoric, authentic messages. With this spot in particular, the dialogue presents questions that a lot of teens have gotten via text, so the campaign is poignantly applicable to real life. The newness of this "digital abuse" issue illustrates how advertising, and P.S.A.s in particular, will prove vital to historians in the future. Ad Council messages are created to counter-act a problem in our society or culture, and many years later they will reveal all kinds of anthropological information, from the technology we used, to the ethnic and racial tensions of the time, to our political and environmental landscape. The value of advertising is so underestimated; even when examined from a purely research-oriented or historical perspective, advertising is a key component to understanding societies.

Cramer Krasselt

This is work for Smart Ones, which is the brand of weight conscious, frozen dinners from Weight Watchers. My initial concern for this ad is that there is no way there is that much pasta in a Smart Ones dinner, so this is another case of the Campbell's soup ads with the marbles at the bottom of the bowl to make all of the vegetables rise to the top; I'm betting there are some marbles in there. Advertisements with food images often look so much better than the actual product that anyone with common sense knows not to expect their food to look anything like the picture, but this is actually a very legitimate form of deceptive advertising. Once I was able to get past the pasta, I noticed that this ad doesn't display the brand name anywhere on it. Instead, Cramer Krasselt throws a little mystery into the ad, asking the consumer to figure out who the brand is. It is almost unheard of to produce an ad that doesn't let consumers know who is doing the advertising; however, it has been done before, such as the TBWA prints ads for Snickers (but even those ads used the notorious brand typography that has become synonymous with the Snickers brand). The red box in the Smart Ones ad uses the brand's iconic red color, but this is not nearly as identifiable as the Snickers text style. The red box is actually a peel-away sticker that once peeled, reveals the brand name to curious consumers. Cramer Krasselt believes that this tactic was successful in engaging consumers because "the pause between the visual cue and the brand name was just enough to let the goodness of the food overcome the old, and mistaken, baggage of the brand." The "baggage" in question is really a nicer way of saying the brand's problem was that the food tasted bad. There is no mention of any improvements or changes made to the product; only that this campaign increased sales by 17 percent.

Doner

This is work done for the Detroit Zoo. This is a decal that was placed on windows of store displays and other public locations in Detroit.

So maybe it's a little hokey, a little kitschy, but this campaign did major work for sales and membership rates at the Detroit Zoo. The actual execution isn't brilliant-I think it should be described as "Detroit Cute," but the initial concept is smart and strategic. This campaign is based upon the idea that the Detroit Zoo is an essential part of one's childhood and growing up in Detroit, just like going to school and eating a well-balanced diet; essentially, the zoo is good for kids and helps their development. The only problem was that attendance to the zoo was rapidly on the decline due to the downfall of the economy. Detroit, in particular, was hit pretty hard once the economy was starting to tank, so trying to increase sales and profits from a service that is based in the entertainment sector in a very difficult task considering the economic landscape. When people are losing jobs left and right and having to cut back on basic essentials like gas and groceries, the last place they are going to spend money is the zoo. Even so, this campaign, which had components of print, TV, outdoor, interactive, and out of home, actually resulted in breaking previous records of attendance for the zoo and selling out their annual memberships. The campaign was called "Vitamin Z," and used a pseudo-nutrition label to illustrate (maybe a little too literally) the nutritional benefits of taking your kids to the zoo. This is the kind of work that is considered to be okay, or just good, in the advertising world, but the public responded really well to it. So does that make the campaign better? I think the creative execution was a little tired and imitative...making their own version of a nutrition label, it's cute. It accomplished the client's marketing goals though, which is usually the bottom line. Sometimes the strategy of a campaign can compensate for dull creative.

The Richards Group

The Richards Group is certainly put on a pedestal in Dallas; granted, they do a lot of great work and have large accounts, but so do a lot of agencies across the U.S. and abroad. Even so, they are usually ranked as one of the best places to work in Dallas, and The Richards Group will continue to be the holy grail for ad students looking for internships in Dallas. Much of the work created by The Richards Group uses humor as a key strategy in their ads, but the humor used often feels the same; it is a combination of awkwardness, exaggeration, and a lot of times, borrowed value. Borrowing value can be helpful to an advertiser under some circumstances; Nike borrows value from athletes all the time, and Pepsi has been known to borrow value from TV personalities and actors (Pepsuber/Macgruber Super Bowl ad in 2009?). The instances where I have noticed The Richards Group borrowing value have been in the last couple years at the Super Bowl, where they have played off of movies and spoofed a little too closely to the original. The two spots I have in mind are shown below, the "Taters" spot with the potato heads and the "whale of a tail" spot that aired this year at the Super Bowl. The potato heads are well known characters that Americans love from Toy Story and I don't see anything wrong with using these characters in an ad. However, I think The Richards Group could have been more inventive when developing the narrative of this spot; angry eyes came straight out of the movie, so you should probably think of something else to use in your ad. Then, the next year, The Richards Group turns around and creates their own version of The Hangover. I mean really?...rescuing an exotic animal and inserting dialogue about a bachelor party?!? They should have borrowed value from the actors in that movie; the spot would have been much funnier. These spots make The Richards Group look like a bunch of copycats, and they aren't; this agency does put out a lot of credible work...those two spots just aren't it.






Since The Richards Group is a local celebrity in Dallas, I compiled some of the spots I considered part of their best work:



haha love it. This is for Quik Trip and reflects the typical character of a Richards Group work.



This is for Ad Council and takes a more serious approach than what The Richards Group is known for. It has a very different thematic approach as well in that there is no real narrative, as there usually is in their work, but it is effective because it is so simple and impactful.



This is more artistic than humorous, more sophisticated than realistic. It is for Hyundai. I had to get at least one dance ad in this blog! Get it Pilobolus.

Bartle Bogle Hegarty

BBH London for St. John's Ambulance company.

St. John's Ambulance is a company that provides first aid services at events and also teaches first aid. These ads were part of a campaign that included "hard-hitting press, posters, and an iPhone app" to spread the message that knowing first aid can make the difference in a life or death situation. This creative work was based off of the statistical insight that it can take up to eight minutes for an ambulance to reach the scene of an accident; this wouldn't be such a terrible or shocking revelation except that BBH also discovered that 25% of people said that they would "helplessly do nothing while a life is on the line." This one bit of insight reveals a huge amount of detail into just how helpless and unprepared most people feel in the midst of an emergency, and oftentimes, these emergency situations can be muted or even resolved as long as someone knows how to do first aid. First aid information is teachable and readily available, yet many people are completely unfamiliar and unversed in the steps they should take to save a life using procedures like CPR or the Heimlich. St. John's wanted to raise awareness among the general public of the United Kingdom to inform people that people die needlessly because they needed first aid and didn't get the treatment, and also that knowing first aid can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.

The stark photography really sends an image of death in these print ads, which was the goal for this campaign; however, the images are almost too real and too morbid for a company whose message is fifty percent about the risk of death from not knowing first aid, but also fifty percent about how their services can save a life. The copy on these ads is impossible to read, but each ad includes a narrative about how the person in the ad died from a common scenario that could have been easily avoided, had someone only known first aid.

The narrative of the ad with the young girl's picture reads, "A grape stuck in my throat. I couldn't breathe. It was really scary. But I knew a grown-up would help me. Who was clever at first aid. Who knew that all I needed was some hard slaps on the back. Because all grown-ups know what to do. Don't they?"

The wording is simple, but when paired with the visuals, the ads take on an eerie tone. These are certainly shocking enough to catch someone's attention, and perhaps give some thought to first aid classes, but I can't get over how dead looking the photos are (a little Andre Serano-esque...not a good move). I think the ads are hovering on a dangerous line between scare tactics, intended to scare people into taking action, and shock value, just meant to shock for the sake of being shocking ad work. Pushing the boundaries seems to be a European sensibility in advertising, as well as culture. So, perhaps this campaign was not received with any shock or surprise in the U.K., but I don't think it would run in America.

Weiden + Kennedy

That's a lot of ads, but all of them are so good and work so well together you need to see them all. This is work from Wieden + Kennedy's Delhi office in India.

These print ads are all a part of a campaign called "Incredible!India;" it was executed to promote India's tourism industry, but it was made exclusively for the Los Angeles market. The concept was "a simple toungue-in-cheek approach appropriate for a town that lives and breathes movies." The idea is simple, but the execution of the work is what makes this campaign more artistic and refined; just another notch on W + K's belt though. Their work consistently reaches a level of sophistication and style because, to generalize broadly, their work all looks like it was given time, attention to detail, and care when crafting the final product. Whether W + K meant to do this or not, the visuals chosen in this campaign juxtaposed against movie titles, seems to compare the old world of traditional India with the modernity of the movie-making glamor of Hollywood. In this way, the campaign stays true to India's history and heritage and the beauty of its culture and traditions, while also connecting with their very cutting-edge target audience in a way that is more familiar to them. The photographs used look like something that would appear in a spread for National Geographic; the photos alone could be turned into an exhibition, which is yet another way of looking at advertising as art. The starkness of the copy resonates slightly with the "Absolut [fill in the blank]" campaign that ran for decades, literally. Though the copy changes to match each title, the sensibility of the ad still feels a little like that of Absolut; not to mention, the Absolut campaign wouldn't be a bad model to follow for a print campaign because it received great success.

Dentsu

Dentsu Tokyo, in conjunction with the agency GT Tokyo, for Sony Walkman. Above, is the viral video depicting how to use the new TV-recording capability that is available on the new Walkman. Below, is the "Rec You" website that allows consumers to create their own bobbing, singing version of themselves by simply uploading a picture of themselves online.



This campaign was released in 2009, in the midst of the ipod, iphone, zune, and tons of other mp3 players, all competing for sales and market share. Who would have ever thought the Walkman would make a comeback?!? After all, the Walkman was starting to become the typewriter of music listening devices. However, Dentsu along with GT, has been successful at re-introducing the brand back into the marketplace, which is not an easy task when dealing with a brand that is still regarded as old, obsolete, and is even the butt of a lot of jokes. Granted, this new Walkman has all of the same music-sharing capabilities of any other modern mp3 player, so it has clearly kept pace with other music player brands; still, the out-dated brand image of Walkman was working against both client and agency.

The work Dentsu created for Sony's Walkman did help bolster the brand's image because it not only utilized new media technologies, but it also introduced an online activity for users that had never been done before. In this way, it seems as though Walkman is reclaiming their original position as an innovator in the field of technology. Both viral and interactive media are popular channels for reaching the tech-savvy population; another plus for these outlets is that they can be viewed and used around the world. The viral spot especially, was strategically crafted because there is no real dialogue, so no language barriers. The music used isn't exactly easy to follow in any language, making this campaign an incredibly smart and directed way to reach a particular subset of people around the globe. Sony is an international brand, so their product advertising should reflect this cross-cultural element as well.

The process depicted in the viral campaign is really interesting; it uses a technology called motion portrait technology, which was developed in-house. This technology allows you to upload a still picture of yourself, and it uses "photo-realistic animation" to make it look like you are bobbing your head, singing along with a song, and of course, wearing your Walkman. Things get more interesting because the program sends you a movie of yourself singing; this movie starts to pop up everywhere. You join a group of singing photos from everyone who has taken part in this, then your movie appears on MSN, then it pops up in places like sports stadiums or in local ads, and eventually some will make it into a new TV ad for Sony. Kind of an invasion of privacy, but still a great way to integrate user participation across various geographic markets.

Kirshenbaum Bond

This is work for AdoptUsKids.org. This is a great piece of creative work because it uses truth to encourage, and somewhat commemorate, adoptive parents but does so in a realistic and endearing way. The end of this spot has a real pay off for viewers because it gives reassurance to people who may be considering adoption, with added elements of humor, honesty, and realism. Nobody wants to adopt a kid that's not going to like them, so the narrative in this spot depicts a very realistic fear many potential parents may be having. However, instead of giving us a sweet, cliche spot about how perfectly adoption works out, or a calculated, depressing spot about the numbers of children in foster care (circa pet adoption/animal cruelty advertisements) Kirshenbaum Bond delivered a spot with humor and truth. The lasting impression leaves people with a good feeling and positive attitude about adoption; it ends on a high note, which is good, and is much more believable because of its realism.

The message to prospective parents that "it's okay not to be perfect," and furthermore, kids don't expect perfection, is a message that you sometimes have to hunt for in media and advertisements. It is easy to point to genres like beauty ads and say these industry ads send messages encouraging unrealistic or idealistic views of beauty; however, in about the past decade, there has been an emergence of ads that have taken the opposite angle and embraced the idea of not being perfect, but trying to be the best version of you that you can be. This ad for adoption has a similar tone in that it says to people that just being yourself is enough for kids living in foster care and waiting to be adopted; they don't mind if you give them a bedazzled Christmas sweater, they just want parents...the sweater is pretty great though. The humorous tone of the spot certainly helps to keep the mood light, which sets it apart from the expected, highly-emotional ads that address tough or difficult issues. This spot is all around well-crafted; it has such a touching, yet general, message, and telling it from an honest perspective makes it all the more poignant.

Cliff Freeman + Partners

Cliff Freeman for DSW.

This is the first commercial created for DSW, and it definitely whoops any of the ads I've seen for Payless lately. The concept is much more creative than any Payless commercials, though Martin Williams isn't exactly setting the bar high with work for Payless, but this DSW campaign at the very least shows some thought. There have been several other variations of this ad that play off of the notion of women as hunters, who come out of hibernation and prowl for shoes. On one hand, I can watch this ad and think of it as just a light-hearted way to say women love shoes and shoe-shopping is a serious business. On the other hand, I can't help but feel like this ad, and the whole concept of the campaign, does its share of promoting a consumer culture and over-consumption. When you examine the concept with more detail, it takes a simple event, shopping for shoes, and transforms it into an instinctual behavior that supposedly all women are born with the instinct to carry out. This plays a part in perpetuating conventional gender roles and establishing what acts and behaviors girls are supposed to engage in. It implies that girls have some innate quality in them that gives them some natural impulse, need, or desire to shop. The fact that this ad is focused on the change of the seasons, and the need for women to go out and buy multiple pairs of new shoes (as indicated in the woman trying on multiple pairs of shoes) for the new season only further promotes a culture of consumption. Granted, these critiques expect that consumers are looking deeply into the subtext of the ad, which most people don't do. However, over time, being exposed to enough of these sorts of images, with people shopping and buying new things, becomes a learned behavior. This is part of the, though not the whole, problem we have as a society that consumes more than we can discard and sustain at one time on earth.

VitroRobertson

VitroRobertson for Newcastle Ale.

This stuff is so boring. Unfortunately, so was everything else I saw that had been done by VitroRobertson. They remind me a bit of Martin Williams because they are a big agency, that got picked up by a holding company, they manage to grab some big clients, but the work is terribly mundane. This is the clutter people complain about in advertising- VitroRobertson, you are the clutter. The outdoor advertising they created for Newcastle is an example of the epitome of a conventional VitroRobertson ad; it has cliche copy paired with a cliche visual. In the ad above with the blowfish, the visual is redundant; it does nothing to enhance the copy, it basically says the copy in a very inarticulate way. The billboard shown below is just a hot mess. Who is going to be able to read all of that copy while driving? The comparison is a bit of a stretch as well...smooth beer should never be put on the same level as a peace treaty because now they are just making a mockery of international relations (lulz). There has been a lot of beer advertising that seems to think actually being able to drink the beer without gagging is a strong product feature. The "Drinkability" campaign for Bud Light used a similar message, but I think this strategy ends up having the opposite effect. No one is going to want to drink your brand of beer after you just had to reassure them that it is, in fact, not that bad to drink. I don't see anything extraordinary about this work, and I still can't figure out how agencies like this stay in business. I was even more shocked to discover that IHOP recently switched their advertising from McCann to VitroRobertson...why? It can't be because of their history of creating great work.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Crispin Porter + Bogusky designed this concept in conjunction with Trek Bicycles and the insurance company Humana.

Technically, the client is B-Cycle, but the B-Cycle brand and bicycle prototype were the brainchild of Crispin Porter's own Alex Bogusky. He only unveiled the prototype at the SXSW conference in 2009, so this is a very new brand. On Earth Day of this year, April 22nd, B-Cycle is going to be launched in Denver, Colorado, where they will debut 500 B-Cycles at 50 B-Stations across the city as part of the pioneering "bike-sharing" initiative. Despite the fact that B-Cycle is just beginning it's product launch this month, there are already plans to construct B-Stations in other major cities in the U.S. The logistics of B-Cycle are fully explained in the video above, however, I found out that B-Cycle only costs $65 for an annual pass, but if you rent by the day, you could end up paying up to $65 ($65 is the cap on costs for renting the cycles). The cost break down makes it obvious to consumers that the annual pass is by far the best deal; I wonder if they set this price point, predicting that people who buy the annual pass will use the product more, and in turn the increased usage will build brand awareness. It will be interesting to see if this idea starts to catch on, or if it ends up being more of a hassle than a help to commuters looking for an alternative to riding their own bike. It certainly does speak to the power of advertising as a launching pad for new ideas, not just new ways of selling old products. This shows that advertisers can create and build their own brand as well; advertising is a discipline centered around creating, not recycling ideas.

Typically, work from Crispin Porter + Bogusky has a reputation for being wild and quirky, and sometimes weird, so this ad surprised me a little bit because it seems so straightforward and objective in relation to the outlandish work they have been known to produce in the past. The B-Cycle is a very eco-friendly and innovative idea, yet somehow it seems so simple that I wonder why no one thought of this before. We already rent cars when we want to go short distances and then give the car back, so why not bikes? Since this is an original company and concept, the ad needs to be informative, and it is. This video is simple and explanatory and really focuses on raising awareness for what B-Cycle is and the logistics of where and how you can find it. It shows a versatility in Crispin Porter, as this work proves they are an agency that doesn't have to rely on eccentricity in their advertising, and they can even be the inventors of the product they are advertising.

McKinney

McKinney for Nike.

Nike is pretty much synonymous with Weiden + Kennedy as far as their advertising is concerned. Nike's history with Weiden + Kennedy has been so long-lasting because W + K continues to produce work that is incredibly creative and motivating, so why did Nike even stray to McKinney at all? The resulting spot from McKinney completely lacks the artistry and revolutionary call-to-action that W + K is well-known for incorporating into their work for Nike.

This is a 60 second spot, but I spent about the first 55 seconds trying to figure out what was going on. The name of the spot is Gamechangers, but the visuals and the copy kind of just mismatch together in a sloppy attempt to tell people not to use so much gas. About halfway through the ad, McKinney attempts to put everything into perspective with the clincher, "Maybe streets should be for sports." Umm...no. Maybe streets should just be used for driving, the way they were constructed for use.

What is going on in this spot is that there are too many ideas at work. There is an obvious disconnect between the notion of encouraging people to use less gas and not pollute the earth so much, and then there is the entirely disparate idea of transforming streets into arenas for sport, or being a "gamechanger." The sport concept seems to be a bit of an after thought; there should be some logical reasoning for mentioning gas usage and polluting the earth in a Nike ad, but there is nothing to be said for that here. It would have made more sense to use a sport like running or cycling in a commercial promoting alternatives to gas-guzzling; playing in the streets instead of driving on them doesn't really make people want to trade in their cars. The key is relevance, which is lacking in this ad. Another thought would have been to take the whole gas/pollution concept out and just stick to the idea of using your imagination to change up sports or games; one idea is all you have time for in a 30 or 60 second spot. It should be noted that this was the only work I found from Nike on McKinney's website, so this was a chance happening and Nike should know better.

Euro RSCG

Euro RSCG Chicago for Barilla pasta.

I couldn't resist finding the absolute epitome of cheesiness in advertising. Oh my lawd this commercial is bad; it's so cheesy, I can't believe Barilla hired someone to make this. I hope Euro RSCG got paid in spaghetti because this is hovering on the border of bad parody. It has been hypothesized that in advertising, the more bland the product, the more unique the advertising must be. Yeaaa, Euro RSCG wasn't at the office that day. When I watch this ad, there are so many elements that jump out at me as disconnected and really just nonsensical. First, there is that fact that these people, who are clearly American, are living in Italy, but they make store-bought pasta. There's also the sexy, foreign neighbor who comes over to eat dinner; at first it looks like the wife is having an affair with the neighbor, then it looks like maybe he's really into children. Moving on to when the two women are in the kitchen, where the french are they? This lady is cooking in a rustic, open fire Italian kitchen-give me a break, this is the worst kitchen set ever created. Then the dialogue starts, and it's all downhill from here.

This is the kind of work I would expect to see from an in-house agency; the whole concept and execution looks like it was slapped together in a matter of minutes. For some reason, a lot of food advertising ends up this way; incredibly cheesy and boring. However, Goodby proved that even a product as boring and bland as milk could be turned into nothing less than a cultural revolution. There are creative ways to market any product, but this just looks like Euro RSCG didn't have the time or the consideration to try to make something creative. So we get stuck with..."Barilla, you're such a good mom."

Arnold Worldwide

This is the world's largest children's book. It was put in Rockefeller Center.


This is the world's largest beach ball. It debuted in Dallas in October 2008...where the hell was I when this was going on!?


This is not the world's largest sandcastle, but it does look fun. It was part of a week long carnival extravaganza in Baltimore.

All of these activities were a part of Arnold's campaign for Carnival cruises. This campaign had the tagline "Fun for all. All for fun."

This campaign had national media placement in TV, print, and online. There was also a lot of non-traditional, guerrilla-esque advertising done on a local scale. There were several activities, a few of which are those mentioned above, implemented in big cities across the U.S. According to Arnold, the local advertising is what really helped drive traffic to Carnival's website. The focus on advertising at the local level seems to be catching on, as more agencies and clients are trying to reach consumers in unexpected ways, in unexpected places. Local advertising can be more valuable to consumers because it is not as centralized and homogeneous as a commercial that airs everywhere in the nation. Local advertising can also benefit the advertiser because it gives them the control to refine or adapt their message to better suit the geographic region the ad is being shown in. It makes people feel special, like the advertiser cares about them, when they know they are receiving something different than everyone else is getting. One element of this campaign Arnold did very well was that they managed to integrated their more specialized, local advertising efforts with a nationally known, charitable cause; in this case, they worked in conjunction with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to create the giant story book. It started with Carnival teaming up with St. Jude and having an on-board contest where children wrote and drew a picture about the most fun thing they could imagine. These drawings were turned into the giant story book, The Dream Plucker of Perrysport, which was displayed in the middle of NYC. Carnival raised almost $3 million for St. Jude, and despite the strain of the economic recession, cruise bookings with Carnival went up.

lots of things becoming one big thing

Team One Advertising for Lexus.


DDB Dusseldorf for Ikea.



StrawberryFrog for Asics.

I was surprised to find out just how many agencies employ this tactic of using many smaller things to make one big thing; the only other work I have seen like this has all come out of Fallon offices (and usually the one in London). Even Team One made an impressive commercial for Lexus using this strategy, and the majority of their work for Lexus was rather bland. The great thing about the "little things becoming a big thing" concept is that although a lot of ads are created using this strategy, every ad has the ability to look different and unique based on whatever smaller objects are used and how they are joined together. Also, there is no limit as to what kind of products can be advertised using this idea; you don't necessarily have to use the product you are selling as the little things or the big thing (though this is what Asics did by creating the shoe they were selling out of every object related to Japan and Japanese culture). What makes this strategy continually interesting and new, even though it is used a lot in advertising-is the versatility and the impressiveness of creating the "big" thing, as the end result is something that looks nearly impossible for the average person to complete. Also, there is a level of artistry associated with these kinds of ads; they create a visual piece of art made out of a household objects. It's a little bit like turning trash into treasure or making art that is more "for the people."

Team One Advertising

The pictures above are of a hologram of a Lexus, which was designed by Team One and put up in ten cities, for two months, across the U.S. The whole premise behind the hologram was that people could use an outside touch screen to pick the color, change the body style, and even virtually drive the car. Making a hologram seems like a fairly original idea, but all of the interactions with it feel a little bit too reminiscent of shopping on CarMax; you can play with the color and see a 360 degree view of what the car looks like. The actual hologram is intriguing because it's a hologram, and how often do you see those? Not a lot. The activities that go along with "playing" with the hologram are recycled ideas of what car websites have been allowing shoppers to do online for years. This is one of the better creative works Team One has done for Lexus; quite a bit of the TV spots created are adequate or decent, at best. That's not to say there are not a few gems they created for Lexus because there are, with the operative word being few. What makes the really great spots stand out from the expected clutter of car advertising is that the great spots don't focus so intensely on facts, figures, or product features; the great spots find a way to let the car be showcased as the star of the ad, but not strictly because of what it can do, but rather what a Lexus means in the context of the buyer's life. We have seen this before with advertising for Bud Light and Walmart, in which a brand loses touch with consumers and previous users by straying from an emotional connection, and the end result is usually a decline in sales. Clearly, an emotive element serves the advertiser well, especially in a medium like TV, where people are not going to be as responsive to facts and stats.

Below is an example of what I have deemed a gem in Team One's advertising for Lexus:



The difference between the above spot and what is below is drastic. The spot below is not terrible, and all the little cars making one big picture is a popular concept; however, it is still not great advertising. It doesn't have the magical sensibility of the first ad, and it doesn't provide any source for connection with the viewer. After watching it a couple times, it has an almost militaristic feel. You can't see into the cars, so they look really mechanical, like there is not even a person driving.



I found it interesting that the tagline used in the above ad, "pursuit of perfection," is the same one used in advertising done by Dentsu for Lexus. The storybook ad Team One created was pretty good-much better than some of the other spots they did for Lexus- but when you watch the spot below done by Dentsu, it makes the Team One work look like copy cats who sort of missed the mark. This spot by Dentsu is a really great example of how an emotional connection in advertising, regardless of what product it is for, elevates and enhances the resonance of the ad.



Dentsu Canada for Lexus.

Kaplan Thaler Group

Kaplan Thaler for Trojan.

The "Evolve" campaign for Trojan arose from an interesting market landscape and even more interesting consumer insight. At the time, Trojan was a dominant player in the condom market, but they were having trouble growing the brand and condom sales; the goal was simply to get couples to use condoms more. So Kaplan Thaler set out to discover the situation surrounding when and how a person chooses that kind of "partner" and uses a condom. The insight they discovered is pretty amusing; research concluded that when selecting a partner, "men want to be chosen and she wants to be choosy." It gets better though; they also found that a condom can even be viewed as "a symbol of worthiness." What? Kaplan Thaler's insight on this makes men and women seem selfish and shallow, but those are the conclusions they came to after working with a cultural anthropologist and clinical psychologist to examine condoms from a cultural, social, and biological perspective. The campaign that resulted reflects the idea of evolution and hence, the pigs.

When working with a...mature product like condoms, everyone involved in the advertising process for the product has to be extra careful about media restrictions like time, place, and manner. The restrictions can make media buying and placement, as well as the concepting, more difficult. When Kaplan Thaler submitted their spot "Pigs" to different broadcast networks, they claim they knew it would be rejected. It was rejected. Following the rejection, Trojan got a ton of buzz in the media and among consumers, which helped raise awareness for the brand despite the lack of air time. Unfortunately for media and broadcast stations, it is not unusual for commercials or ads that get banned from TV to end up getting more attention from free publicity anyway.

Fallon Worldwide

This is work Fallon did for the Syfy channel and their show Eureka. The campaign, known as "Sarah: The Eureka Twitter Experiment," was done completely through social media, and Twitter specifically.

The text on this image is a little hard to read, but basically this was an article on Notcot.com about the Syfy show, Eureka , and the show's "smart house" named Sarah who has been twittering and sending personal tweets to fans of the show. This campaign turned the rules of advertising and social media completely on its head; it reversed the process of relationship building between consumers and a brand by forcing the brand to become a fan of the consumer-and not the other way around. Fallon implemented this campaign in order to build awareness of and excitement for an up-coming third season of the show. They did so by using solely social media so that their media costs were literally $0...that's zero dollars for media investments...but their efforts on Twitter returned over 1.2 million Twitter impressions.

What's even more impressive, is that Sarah's not a bot! It took a full staff of writers from both Fallon and the show to communicate with actual fans, but they really did it. First, they recruited fans of the show, and then began to follow them on Twitter, as Sarah (or rather as @ _S_A_R_A_H_). The writers would have conversations, answer questions, send sweet messages asking how the fan's day was, and slip in teasers about the new season. People on Twitter were amazed and humored by the fact that the smart house from Eureka was actually talking to them. Furthermore, the show and Sarah received so much free press through blogs, online news sites, and of course, on Twitter, that the public actually ended up doing more of the talking than Sarah had to do.

Leo Burnett

This is work done by Leo Burnett Sydney for Canon; it is part of the Canon Photo 5 "creative exhibition" and photo competition Leo Burnett devised as part of their effort to get amateur photographers to use their creativity in a more imaginative way, while using Canon products. The basis of the competition was for Australian amateur photographers to take and submit photos using the five "briefs" that dictated various objects to be included in the photos. All photos submitted were compiled and ultimately turned into an art exhibit, where people could view and observe the unique perspectives of thousands of photographers. This is certainly an example of "artful advertising" at its finest; Photo 5 is a genuine and generous way of putting the campaign in the people's hands. Rather than offering prizes or money to people who create an actual ad for a brand, Photo 5 gives photographers the opportunity to first: interact heavily with the brand (I'm sure there is a stipulation in the fine print that requires contestants to use Canon cameras), and second: be a part of creating an event, not just a 30 second spot. Additionally, viewers can browse through of the photo entries submitted online at the Photo 5 website, and the photos that people have submitted are really amazing. This might be a competition for amateurs, but most (I won't say all) of the work looks professional. The high quality work makes Canon look great because it sends the message that an amateur can take a great photo...as long as they have a Canon camera. This non-traditional component to Canon's advertising stands out from other contests because it rewards sophisticated creativity for a change. There are no snow globes to the groin anywhere (sorry, spoiler alert), but the work presented is almost a refreshing comment on humanity and where are we are going as a society and blah blah blah....all of those kind of positive, philosophical notions about mankind because this shows that there are intelligent people making art everywhere in the world, or at least a lot of people in Australia.

Saatchi+Saatchi

Saatchi & Saatchi New York for JC Penney.

So this is obviously much longer than anything that would be seen on TV, but it's so good it should be! Saatchi took the whole dog house mentality that guys have been dodging for generations, and took it to a whole new level by showing guys everywhere what really happens in the dog house. I'll admit this short feature film version is a little bitty bit too long and hovers between being really humorous and riding out a joke for way too long, but I wasn't bored by this video. Did I want it to move a little faster? Yes. Did I watch the whole thing? Yes. So I guess the length can be overcome because the short film is still a minority in the world of advertising media. Also, this particular spot has the ability to appeal to, or at the very least entertain, men from various age or ethnic demographics because the mantra of the dog house is well-known to men in relationships everywhere.

This does have a tendency to perpetuate the clueless husband/boyfriend stereotype, as well as promote the idea that men have to buy their wife/girlfriend a nice gift in order to be a "good" partner. We don't have to look far to see stereotypes in ads; we use stereotypes to set the scene for a short (usually 30 or 60 seconds) story, so sometimes stereotypes are necessary in ads just so that audiences can understand what is going on. When discussing the danger of stereotypes in advertising, it is easy to point to common stereotypes of women like the stay-at-home mom, but it is just as easy, but often forgotten, to identify stereotypes of men. The men in the dog house for JC Penney are a clear example of how men get pigeon-holed and narrowly labeled as forgetful, domestically impaired beings. It's definitely not good to perpetuate stereotypes in ads, we live in 2010 and we are way too politically correct to be using old stereotypes, but it is often resorted to in order to give context quickly to a situation or scene in an ad.