Hello. And Fuck you Nissan.

August 24th, 2010 • View Comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Campaign, Fail, Germany, Nissan, Underway

I just stumbled upon this pic of the current Nissan campaign by TBWA London. It is not only a boring headline, it also shows a lot of disrespect and lack of any kind of cultural sensitivity no taste at all. The headline alters the first stanza of Germany’s national anthem – ‘Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles’ (‘Germany, Germany above all’).

I am not so sure if Nissan and TBWA know that this part of Germany’s anthem is (not prohibited but) officially banned in Germany due to its function in the Third Reich. We sing the third strophe now for about 65 years…apart from a couple of skinheads. And yes, coming up with this headline in 2010 is highly offensive for a German. But what I feel sorry about most, TBWA – your lack of knowledge in combination with bad copywriting.

Does Nissan actually sell cars in Germany too? I think so.

Bizarre. My Tram Station is an Outdoor Award Entry.

August 22nd, 2010 • View Comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Agencies, Amsterdam, Awards, Funny, Ideas, Media, Outdoor, Truth, Underway, visual, World

I work pretty much in the center of Amsterdam. I love the city. But to be honest, there are nicer places than Leidseplein, the square nearby which opens the gates to the touristic part of the city.

What I find really bizarre (beyond stoned German teenagers) is Leidseplein’s tram station. In fact, it’s not a tram station – it is a living Cannes Outdoor Lions Award entry for the city’s agencies. Every second week the tram station is in the center of another expensive outdoor ad idea that you cannot see anywhere else. It’s the kind of stuff that you see in award videos. The kind of idea that is getting sold to award jurys as a globally executed ad campaign, while in fact we are talking about one tram station at Leidseplein.

This week it’s 180 TBWA\BEC with adidas F50 Lightspeed.

A couple of weeks ago it was some fantasy motion picture…

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Oh Fuck. ‘When I grow up’.

August 18th, 2010 • View Comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Cool, Creativity, Funny, HR, Ideas, monster.com, Viral

Ha ha…ha….ha….think you’re funn……waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! The video is very very old. But it still is……waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Case Study. Old Spice Guy flexes his Muscles.

August 5th, 2010 • View Comments Ads, Strategy, We like
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Ads, Agencies, Brands, Case Study, Creativity, Funny, Ideas, Old Spice, Presentation, Social Influence Marketing, Truth, We like, wieden & kennedy

Yes, we all love Old Spice now. No, it was not at all unsuccessful. In fact Wieden + Kennedy did not only stage a highly entertaining stunt with ‘the man your man could smell like’ – obviously it had exactly the effect a great campaign is supposed to have. It sold stuff.

I admit, ad agency case studies should always be watched with a certain skepticism. But hey, the best social media first ad campaign of the 21st century rocks big time (via adweek).

We like. The new Old Spice Commercial.

Juni 30th, 2010 • View Comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Funny, Ideas, Old Spice, We like, wieden & kennedy

Hooooooray. It’s the new Old Spice commercial. You know the campaign, don’t you? Wieden + Kennedy’s commercial has just scooped the Cannes Grand Prix. And I think even die hard social evangelists would agree – this is advertising we like to see and share. (via)

I am now on a boat.

Absolut. Wallpapering Italy.

Juni 10th, 2010 • View Comments Brands, Display, Media
Tags: Absolut, Ads, Art, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Display, Experimental, Ideas, Italy, Lifestyle, Media, Out of Home, Outdoor, visual, We like, World

There are a few brands in this world that simply know how to stage themselves. Absolut doublessly is one of them. Check out ‘Absolut Wallpaper’, a wonderful revision of Modern Art by Ron English. This is currently on display in Rome and Milan. Thanks to PSFK and Wooster Collective for the link.

Rome

Milan

Nike. Write the Future.

Mai 21st, 2010 • View Comments Ads, Brands
Tags: Ads, Agencies, Brands, Cool, Creativity, fifa, Fun, Funny, Ideas, Lifestyle, Media, Nike, soccer, visual, We like, wieden & kennedy, World

Okay Nike. Nice one.

The sportswear brand really becomes a web video specialist. After the last couple of really cool, entertaining commercials Nike brings the fun back into advertising (and to be honest – I don’t care whether a commercial entertains me on TV or Youtube, as long as it’s fun to watch.) ‘Write the Future’ is an inspiring ride, featuring some of the greatest football stars of today. Its topic is the one moment when a player is in control of the ball and whole nations start to scream and shout or start to cry.

The new commercial was created by Wieden & Kennedy and was directed by director and producer Alejandro G. Iñarritu (21 Grams, Babel). It stages stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Patrice Evra, Gerard Pique, Ronaldinho, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Thiago Silva, with guest cameos by tennis legend Roger Federer and basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. Homer Simpson completes the star-studded cast of appearances. The film will be shown on TV for the first time on May 22nd during the European Club Final.

You will like it.

Via Fubiz
.

Heineken. So, can I buy you a drink?

April 23rd, 2010 • View Comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Beer, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Diagram, Funny, Heineken, Ideas, Print, visual, We like

Good Information Design is an extremely challenging task. Nevertheless the web community’s enthusiasm to press every figure they could get their hands on, into a colorful info visualization got a little bit annoying, lately. For a couple of weeks it seemed as if no piece of data about the Social Web, Twitter or other Natural Disasters could just exist without being pressed into a statistical wallpaper.

Now, after this piece of info visualization has become as cool as running around in Ed Hardy wear it is time for the wallpaper’s successor – let’s get back to the classic process flow. ‘So you need a Typeface‘ kicked it off. Next is Heineken with this brilliant and absolutely important process flow which I found on ‘ads of the world‘. It’s obviously a creative experiment by Miami Ad School. Anyway, well done. Print can be good sometimes.

And I will now stop blogging about print for a while. I promise.

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Digital Creative. The Anatomy of Persuasiveness.

April 20th, 2010 • View Comments Display
Tags: Ads, Advertising, Agencies, Banner, Creativity, Display, Ideas, Philosophy, Presentation, Trends, Truth, visual

Even though I don’t agree with the premise of this deck by Soap (“display rocks”), it contains a couple of very true thoughts about digital. Or, to be more precise, six foundations of what turns digital superior to more than a challenger of traditional advertising.

Nike Air. Where the Magic comes from.

April 4th, 2010 • View Comments Ads, Brands
Tags: Ads, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Funny, Ideas, Nike, Nike Air, Viral, We like

The description ‘Viral’ for a commercial on Youtube did always suck.

Face it, it’s a commercial in the first place. And it can trigger a viral effect. But it’s not viral simply because it’s on Youtube for God’s sake. So, if we put this stupid term aside, I find it quite interesting to see how cool advertising can be if it does not have to comply with mainstream TV ad slots. Let’s please do one thing and call these little clips ‘Web Commercials’ instead of Virals. And Nike is once again demonstrating how to entertain in advertising. After the brilliant Paul Rodriguez commercial comes now the secret behind Nike Air.

Thanks to Sascha for the link.