Archive for Ads

High Five FirstBank. Great Super Bowl Commercial.

Yes, that Creative Director had balls to present this concept to the client. Love it.

FirstBank – Super Bowl Commercial from TDA_Boulder on Vimeo.

We definitely like: Chevrolet’s ‘True Story’.

Fantastic commercial, Chevy. With 5 minutes it is a bit too long to enthuse everyone. But dear Chevrolet: Do yourself a favour and turn your boring Youtube channel into a hub for your consumer’s childhood memories. That’s a great story. And even though I as a European have no personal memories of Chevy – I guess a lot of Americans do.

Thx to Creative Criminals. More ‘stuff we like’ here.

Disco! Patrick Swayze definitely had Blue Ribbon on his Mind.

Time for…yes….a TV commercial. Gems like the following TV ads were created back in the days when they were still interesting. In the case of this Pabst Blue Ribbon spot with a youngish Patrick Swayze about a decade before anyone could ever say “Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine. You gotta hold the frame.”

Reminds me of David Naughton in this 1977 Doctor Pepper TVC.Thx to adweek.

Great Ads. Sony PS3, Long Live Play.

Some campaigns are different. Sony’s “Long Live Play” PS3 Campaign may be one of them. Playstation brand’s ad agency Deutsch Inc. really did a great job. But just check it out…

How to position Ice Cream like a Boss: “You want nutrition, eat carrots”.

I just stumbled upon this perfect example of a great copy text. After years of working as a copywriter (in my previous life) I still have a lot of respect for the few who are able to write such an intelligent, bold, entertaining text. A no-bullshit text that positions this ice cream as the fat, unhealthy, very delicious product that it is. Well done! Congratulations Wisconsin for this ice cream and congratulations for the copywriter (who was probably the van owner).

Please zoom in if you are too old to read the text below.

Dirt Devil. The Exorcist Revisited.

One of Germany’s best film and media schools is located close to Stuttgart in Ludwigsburg – Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. The school regularly makes students work on actual projects for actual brands and the following Exorcist spoof commercial for Dirt Devil is just one of them.

I found it pretty funny and a very good, simple TV idea. Well done.

(thx to The Laughing Squid)

Fake of the Day. The GranataPet Snack Check Billboard.

Time for a new category on davaidavai – the fake of the day.

More and more I get sick of unapplicable fake campaigns that get retweeted over and over again to generate PR for the phantasies of an agency. The beauty of (tech) creativity is to work under certain limitations. And is absolutely legitimate to play and experiment with prototypes. But to mark an unapplicable prototype with a reach of 3 persons in your bathroom and a Youtube video to promote it as a campaign is strictly unethical.

The fake of the day came via geekosystem, Creativity Online, and mashable and is currently getting retweeted all over the web. The idea goes like this: ‘GranataPet brand dog food figured out a clever way to beat the problem with food ads: In most forms of media, consumers generally can’t taste or smell the food being advertised. When one checks in at the billboard via Foursquare, some of the dog food slides out of a dispenser and into a bowl, ready for dogs sample.’

Yeah, right. On one billboard?

Questions:

  • I am German. Has any German ever heard of this dog food brand?
  • Has any German ever seen one of these billboards?
  • How should this billboard work if (in 2010) only ~20,000 Germans were actual Foursquare users

Read more »

Wikipedia. 10 Years of Contributors like You.

I was not aware of Wikipedia doing any ATL advertising. But it seems slovak ad agency Jandl has come up with something that looks like a ’10 Years of Wikipedia’ activation campaign. I do not think it’s an official Wikipedia campaign but rather a quick agency-driven award concept. But any hint here is appreciated.

The campaign is nice and pretty true and comes with a good activation insight. Wikipedia is run by passionate nerds who like to share their knowledge. My nerd moment was my article about the Geneva Framework in Germany’s Wikipedia. But that’s a different story.

.
Read more »

Hysterical. Groupon’s ‘Save the Money’ Super Bowl Campaign.

‘Money is one of our most important natural resources. Sadly, thousands of dollars are wasted every year. Until now.’

Groupon.com and Crispin Porter just launched their new ‘Save the Money’ campaign during Super Bowl. Yes, it was fucking expensive. And it has followed the handbook of many successful superbowl commercials – Make the commercial talk of the town. Cuba Gooding Jr., Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth Hurley star in Groupon’s first three commercials which allegedly seem to raise money for charity….but wait…they don’t.

There is a thin line between being ironic and being cynical. And campaigns like this one are designed to spark outrage… One comment underneath the Tibet commercial says

Please boycott this corporation and tell everyone you know to do so. Additionally, please pressure all businesses that advertise through it to end all dealings with it. The vacuousness and utter amorality of 21st century capitalism has been put on display, and we need to collectively say that we’ve had enough.

I personally think Groupon’s commercials are hysterical. Plus if you follow the link to Groupon’s Save the money site you will find Donate buttons to contribute to the four good causes that Groupon makes fun of. I think this in fact counters the cynicism charges adding a lot of money and awareness to these charity projects. Simply because Groupon doesn’t make fun or whales, Tibet or the Rain Forest – it makes fun of Political Correctness. And I sense this Political Correctness all too often is more cynical than to spoof it. Or as @e_fink accurately commented…

“Amazing. More people are offended by Groupon’s ads than the coarse objectification of women in EVERY SINGLE OTHER AD!”

Groupon ‘Save the money, Whales

Read more »

Advertising. Why the Model Slept with the Casting Director…

One thing that keeps on driving me insane in marketing is the massive amount of work attached to a piece of output that most humans would consider as…a print ad…or (most often) a pretty boring radio commercial. I mean if my dad knew how much work has been done, how many presentations were made to eventually stage a billboard with a car on it (and a price) he would instantly go insane. I think this print campaign for Eram in France points that out quite nicely…

.

Read more »

« Older Entries

Davaidavai? What’s that?

Hi, I am Gerald Hensel and I am your host tonight.

Davaidavai is a blog about the stuff which drives my professional life. Digital ideas, social media, advertising in and beyond the 1s and 0s that seem to have taken control of pretty much everything… I work as Strategy Consultant for Blast Radius, Amsterdam. To check out what I do beyond davaidavai, simply follow this link. And don't forget to send me a message in case there is anything left to say.

The thoughts and opinions on this aite are my own, and not that of my employer.

Subscribe to davaidavai

Follow on twitter

More davaidavai on Facebook

The feed

Get it via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License