patrick hughes: signs.

So I’m a little behind the curve on this one, because it’s already topped one million YouTube views, but I just found it. And it’s cute. Really cute. The perfect balance of cute that girls will swoon and guys won’t feel emasculated for feeling its undeniable cuteness. 

Directed by @RadicalMedia’s Patrick Hughes for the Schweppes Short Film Festival, this is some high-end classy ass online marketing. Sure, it’s for Schweppes  – no denying that – but it’s just so… cute! If you’re going to pretend to put on your own film festival, it either has to be so grassroots amateur grimy that people thing real people did it or it has to be like this: beautifully shot, nicely soundtracked, and emotionally impactful.

This is a quality little short – and it mostly made me believe that maybe Schweppes is a brand that creates art for the sake of art and not for promotion… until I saw the fucking product shot at 6:30. WTF? Why? WHY?? It totally pulled me out of the story. It’s like everyone at the table totally got what was going on, but then there was one old dinosaur Marketing VP who insisted there be a product shot. If they thought they could sneak it in there with nobody calling cheese, they were wrong. 

But it’s so cute, I forgive them.

schweppes: “sensation”.

It’s really interesting to see how a company will market itself so differently to various countries. Obviously, there are social mores and cultural values that will affect how an ad will be received. Ads that run for ages to great acclaim in Scandinavia would make most conservative North Americans completely shit their pants.

For an example of a drastic shift in cross-Atlantic advertising, we need look no further than Schweppes. Following the subtle, visual brilliance of their gorgeous slow-mo Australian spot “Burst” comes the fruit-laden psychadelic mind trip of France’s “Sensation”.

I’m not sure how something this colourfully awesome could be so weirdly bad. Drop a tab and let its technotronic waves of babealicious lust slowly wash over your genitals…

(Agency: FFL Paris. Director: Warren du Preez. Production: Stink.)

WTF? I’m all for ads that get artsy for no apparent reason, but this one just seems majorly hokey to me. Plus, I’m endlessly intrigued by how the French will use lesbionic powersex to sell pretty much anything. My favourite part is when the twins rub the bright yellow strawberry between their cheeks…

Oh, but they’re just getting stared. I guess there was some fear that perhaps the ad was too subtle and the sexy party vibe wouldn’t get across, so to really drive the point home they’ve also got a girl rubbing a carcinogenic raspberry on her lips. That’s right… rubbing berries on her lips. Have we run out of “9 1/2 Weeks” food sex clichés? All she’s missing is a pearl necklace and some clear heels.

These girls are SO HORNY! And that… makes me want soda pop? Like I said, I’m all for purely experiential ads, but I don’t get this one.

Plus, if you ever wanted to talk about subliminal imagery in advertising, I give you the following screenshot to peruse:

That’s right. It’s a vagina. It’s a big, French, Schweppes-loving vagina. And to prove it, it’s filled with three glowing Schweppes power-balls. That’s how you know this vagina loves Schweppes.

Don’t get me wrong, despite how incredibly terrible I think this ad is, the production value is totally awesome. The colours are crisp and vibrant – you can tell this is high quality shit. But there’s just something that’s so overtly sexually bizarrely weird about it. I think they might have been trying to achieve a throw-back 80s Robert Palmer “Simply Irresistible” feel of some kind, but it’s just not working for me.

Especially at the end when the embracing naked girls are swirled up into the vortex of a Schweppes bottle. Like a genie. Waiting until a guy comes and rubs off again…

schweppes: “burst”.

I love this ad because it doesn’t try so hard to tell you something. It doesn’t struggle. Much like the brilliant Sony Bravia ads, it gives you room to breathe. It doesn’t rush, but it slowly creates a mood and a feeling, then lets you take the time to live within it’s bubble and figure out what’s going on. Sure, in the end it’s just an ad for soda, but what a magnificent ad for soda it is…

In case you’re wondering, the a-may-zing song in the spot is called “To Build A Home” and is by one of my fave artists, The Cinematic Orchestra.

(Agency: George Patterson Y&R. Director: Garth Davis)