it’s good, it’s bAD

Facebook-bashing seems to be the fashionable thing to do this month. I’ve not jumped on to that particular bandwagon yet but I’m loving these bunch of really cool looking posters taking a dig at social media (special thumbs up for the unplugged border).

Check out the rest at ads of the world

Plug out and enjoy an evening of pure, unadulterated live music – seems like an innocent and heartfelt message till you see that the programme has its own Youtube page. And Facebook page. And Twitter account. And isn’t it just a tad ironic that I came across them on..errrmm the Internet? Mind boggling hypocrisy aside, I still feel that the posters are well designed. If that counts for anything.

How BAD is it? Oh it’s BAD.

Here’s a fact about me – I’m a Helvetica atheist. Yup that’s right I said it. I’m not a believer in our lord and saviour Helvetica and I sure as hell don’t think it’s the holy grail of typography. In fact, at the risk of assassination, I’m gonna put it out there – its not really that different from Arial anyway! (yeah, take that ya plaid shirt, skinny jean, horn-rimmed glasses wearing, emo-haircutted, pierced and tattooed lot.)

Turns out that the pleasure of having the last laugh is all mine. If anyone’s seen the new and supposedly improved version of the Gap logo they’ll know what I’m talking about. Not only does it come off as pretentious as opposed to the ‘modern’ and ‘clean’ look I’m sure the designers were going for, it doesn’t hold a candle to their previous one. And you know why? Because the design looks like it was done in MS Word. I’m all for clean and modern and ya-da-ya-da but taking a classic design and taking away every bit of personality it ever had is not original, it’s just silly. I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall during the meeting where the designer came up with, what I’m sure must’ve been, an insightful rationale for this logo with a boardroom full of suits hailing his every word as gospel (I’m willing to bet my right hand that there was some discussion about thinking ‘outside the box’).

good ol' classic on the left and well the new one on the right

Anyway so after an online outcry, initially Gap tried salvaging the situation by allowing their Facebook friends to come up with their own logos. Turns out that in this digital age, “friends” don’t really like working for free and so the backlash continued. Till Gap held up their hands, admitted their marketing boo-boo and decided to revert back to the previous logo. All was good again in the world, and somewhere out there the designers of the Pepsi logo sniggered ironically at the fact that Tropicana and Gap have had their branding efforts blow up in their faces and somehow that monstrosity of a Pepsi logo persists. Sigh.

Check out this link to make your own crap umm i mean Gap logo - http://www.makeyourowngaplogo.com/

ADvantage Microsoft…really? No really.

If the world of smart phones were high school then Apple would be the popular head cheerleader and Microsoft would be the head, and probably only member, of the stamp collector’s club (I mean how is this the same company that makes and markets the Xbox??!).

But there’s something different about their latest (and some might argue – last) attempt at taking the smart phone market by storm. It seems like they actually know what they’re doing this time. For once they seem like they really have a plan.

On first view it seemed odd that any marketer would parody the idea that we spend too much time on our phones while trying to sell us umm a phone. I mean it gives me the impression that their phone maybe isn’t as interesting or apptastic as the iphone or android. But on further viewing (and after having someone explain to me that the simplicity of their interface actually makes Windows 7 phones a lot more user-friendly), I got it.

Maybe it’s my instinct to eternally root for the underdog (or maybe I’m just hopped up on the candy bar I ate for lunch) but I love that their insight is so human and relatable and just plain funny. Plus it’s a bit of a teaser. I may not buy the phone but I’m gonna be scanning the reviews to find out just how it’s going to ‘save us from our phones’. Could Microsoft, dare I say it, become cool? Sadly, I feel like most people would come to the same initial conclusion that I did (just wish they had been a bit less subtle about how user-friendly it is). So despite a pretty neat campaign I think it might be too smart for its own good.

 

 

These shoes weren’t mADe for walking

Don’t get me wrong, I think the ad is hilarious, but am I the only one who feels like everyone on Diesel’s marketing team is a 19 year old, beer pong loving, football obsessed frat boy (from hereon referred to only as 19YOBPLFOFB)? First the whole stupid > smart thing, and now this.

Ass kicking is so 2010, walking is so 2000 and then (what? Joaquin Phoenix can fake rap and I can’t??) – the insight is definitely new. It works for Diesel. All they had to do was make sure they came off as cool to the afore mentioned 19YOBPLFOFBs and I think they succeeded (mind you I myself am not a 19YOBPLFOFB so this is just speculation on my part). Its funny, well shot and will probably go viral – which pretty much equates to job well done.

On a side note the campaign is a total 360 – TV, print, web (they’re definitely making sure people take their kick ass message seriously). Check it out here.

A Detective at work

First impression: Interesting! Creative and effective.

Second impression: if there’s a huge poster up on a door, who’d actually put their hands on it? No seriously, rationally speaking, it’s more likely to get me to touch any other part of the door than that particular area. And for cryin’ out loud how dirty are the hands of the folks at this office? I mean are they working in a coal mine???!!

Final verdict: SCAM!!

The AD your AD could smell like

Everybody’s got to have gotten a whiff of the Old Spice guy by now. And if you’ve been following the man’s every move like I have, then you’ve probably seen more than a few of his personalized video responses to certain members of the twitterverse (celebrity or otherwise).

Best part about the smooth talking, semi-naked man who your man could smell like is that even after watching about 50 odd videos of him, he still seems fresh. I mean apart from the fact that he literally looks like he’s stepped out of the shower in each of the videos, the humour doesn’t go downhill as you’d expect it to after say take #43.

Which says a lot about a creative team that’s coming up with this comedy gold in real time. And a client who has just the right combination of guts and faith in his creatives to give this the go ahead. I mean apart from the fact that this has set the standards for social media advertising (this is for you, scoffers of social media experts), does anyone actually remember that Old Spice is kind of like your grandfather’s go-to brand…??

Seriously, someone give these guys their own show.

When good ADs go bAD

Don’t you just hate it when good ads turn evil? I mean take for instance this masterful piece of film-making from noted director Alejandro G Inarritu (21 grams, Babel) for Nike’s world cup campaign. It’s been notching up youtube views faster than English fingers can go up to point at a certain Uruguayan referee. And been attracting quite a bit of envy from fellow creatives as well.

But when something peaks too soon, *cough* cough*Argentina*cough* cough*, its got no where to go but down. So comes the news of the curse of the Nike ad. One by one, each and every one of the players in the ad have unceremoniously been dumped out of the WC (Apart from Ronaldinho. Who, holy mother of vuvzelas, didn’t even make the squad!!). I mean surely this must also explain Roger Federer’s horror run of form. Oh all I can do is keep my fingers crossed for Homer Simpson now!

But on a serious note, do I believe in curses and other oddities of the paranormal kind? Hah, not even going to dignify that with an answer. *snigger*snigger*

P.S. My pick for the WC has been Spain from the start. And since none of their players feature in this career killer of an ad, I think they’re lookin’ good for the finals!

my bAD

On the decidedly firm-willed note of not posting any of the back log of things that caught my eye over the last few months, here’s some of the cool stuff I’ve been pressing my imaginary like button over. (Sorry I just couldn’t resist. No more old news after this, I promise) –

How Heineken gave Italian football fans a valentine’s day to remember – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEqJV1acgN4

And the love fest continues as Puma gets a band of hard core footie fans to declare their undying love – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-_rf2jVxxY

How Dulux painted towns red, blue, yellow, purple and every other colour you can think of – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPpMWaSPt-s

And finally the off-field drama at the FIFA World Cup (just a heads up – it doesn’t involve any of the players) – http://www.BudUnited.com

Still ADdicted

It’s been some time since I updated this. Make that a really, really long time. It’s not that nothing’s been happening in Adland or I’ve been weaned off my ADdiction, but as a fresh graduate transitioning into full-time professional and embarking on the journey to becoming successful copywriter extraordinaire, it’s hard to find time to update things!! OK, so I got lazy.

But I was going to try and pretend that the last couple of months didn’t really happen and start afresh. Not pick up where I left off. Or post a backlog of stuff that had caught my eye over the last few months. Try and resist the urge to post this really cool stunt for Coke, which anybody who hasn’t been living in a cave for the last few months has to have seen.

But I just couldn’t resist.

This just climbed to the top of my all-time wish list (of things I can’t possibly have).

I love that a brand like Coke, which doesn’t particularly need to do a lot to market itself is going the guerilla/viral route. For me, this works a lot better than their earlier “Oh-there’s-a-magical-world-of-fairies-and-gnomes-inside-our-vending-machines” ad, (which I never quite understood the hype about) for the same campaign. It’s just so much more real and actually put a smile on my face (which, I repeat, the earlier TVC never managed to do, despite everyone thinking that it’s just the cutest thing ever!!!). OK I’m done now.

ADd more sheep!!!!

When you see an intriguing work of advertising there’re usually a whole bunch of questions that come to mind – How did they come up with that. How’d they manage to get the budget to make that happen. How did they train a sheep to jump a fence..??

Yeah take a look –

Note: I’m not endorsing this video and do not know if any sheep were harmed in the making, but come on, its just really well done.

My problem is that in a week or so I’m definitely not going to remember that this was sponsored by Samsung (or is it Sony??…umm yeah make that in a day or so), but I’ll definitely remember the video, so does that make it a successful viral? Up for debate.