sony bravia: domino city.

Sony Bravia spots are the Brangelina of the advertising world. They’ve almost become so big, such an iconic idea unto themselves, that there’s no way they can live up to expectations. Shot in India and airing across the Asia Pacific market, this new spot is the second one not helmed by Fallon London – creator of the legendary global spots – but by Bates 141 Singapore.

(Director: Nic Finlayson.)

It’s cute. Its got colours. Its got an ethnic, spice-market, global unity through the magic of electronics vibe that I kinda dig. The music is a bit too similar to the José González track used in “Balls” which, though lovely, has already been done.

I’m ambivalent.

Those Fallon Sony ads are beyond legendary and are possibly an impossible act to follow. People acted like they’d just experienced The Rapture after “Paint” came out. A 50-state Obama sweep is the only thing that could bring more joy to the world. It’s like being asked to paint Mona Lisa’s sister… it just won’t be that good unless you go in a totally new direction. I’ll admit, though, that if I had seen this spot separately from the others I’d probably love it. That’s what happens when walking in the foot steps of giants.

You can check out a nifty Making Of vid here.

Via Illegal Advertising

australia directors guild: freaks.

It’s the totally dead-pan earnesty of this spot that makes it so amazing. Created by Soma Films and directed by Ben West, the theme of this year’s Australia Directors Guild Conference, “creative collaborations”, inspired this little mockumentary promo about the creative freaks attracted to film-making.

Watch “Freaks” in HD here, or check out it out below…

Via Feed

quercus: total warming.

Holy shit. I feel riddled with guilt after watching this. This is one of the best environmental-awareness pieces I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I need to go recycle something now.  Heartbreakingly lovely animation from Seagulls Fly.

(Agency: McCann Erickson Portugal. Director: FlavioMac. Production: Seagulls Fly.)

Via Fubiz™

hovis: go on lad.

I like this spot because it reminds me that no matter how banal your product is, your commercials don’t have to be. There’s always an opportunity to do something cinematic and interesting and that doesn’t necessarily make any sense until the end. This might be moving against conventional commerical wisdom lately, but good things come to those who wait…

(Agency: MCBD London. Director: Ringan Ledwidge. Production: Rattling Stick.)

nike + nieto: conversations from the inside.

Say what you will about Nike, they’ve got a ginormous advertising budget and use it well. Always hitting on new ways to foster upcoming directors, designers, and animators. They give them the cash and freedom to really blow it out the door. It might all be part of an evil corporate greed machine, but with animation this kick ass I don’t really care.

For Nike Women, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has gone to some heavy hitters and created five separate spots inspired by different female athletes. The best one by far, produced by Paranoid US and directed by Nieto (who directed the Visa spot “Anthem”, one of the most beautiful ads from the Beijing Olympics), is an organ-by-organ account of what goes on inside runner Nicola Sander’s mind and body when she’s running a race. The result is freakin’ brilliant and entertaining to boot.

I also really like another Paranoid US contribution to the project (again, about an athlete named Nicola…) but this time it’s triathlete Nicola Spirig, directed by Edouard Salier.

Via Motionographer

digital kitchen: true blood opener.

I still remember exactly where I was when I watched the first episode of “Six Feet Under”. I sat on the couch and didn’t move, barely breathed, and had that wash of tingles feeling you only get when seeing some revelatory and entirely new. “Six Feet Under” is the best show that’s ever graced a TV. Relentlessly and fearlessly different, it constantly broke outside the mold of what we expected TV to be. That trail-blazing included its breathtaking opening sequence, created by the amazing Digital Kitchen. I know I post this up every time I get a chance, but it’s just so crazy brilliant. I can’t stop myself. It never gets old… so click here to watch it again.

This week, “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball’s next series, “True Blood”, finally debuted on HBO. I’ll run out of superlatives if I try to describe it, but suffice it to say “True Blood” is a must-watch. He hasn’t tried to re-create “Six Feet Under” in another form, but he’s taken the core of what he does best and translated it into an entirely different world. A sweaty, lusty, dusty, southern, forgotten town… where there happen to be vampires. Genius.

Clearly a very clever man, Ball also knows that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. So he headed back to Digital Kitchen for the opening sequence to “True Blood”. The perfect turn away from the austere, medicinal, and haunting feel of the “Six Feet Under” opening, this new work goes right down south – mixing images of the bayou, bloodlust, religious fervour, animal instinct, sex for sale, heat, and roadkill. It actually makes my eyes feel burnt and spicy. Watch the “True Blood” Opening right now.

My fave image is this one. What a brilliant word-play on that sort of bible-belt religious zealot craziness and the characters of the show. It’s otherworldy, weird, and on-topic all at the same time.

Via Motionographer

UPDATE! Today I was emailed a post from Lifting Faces with some interesting comparisons that Digital Kitchen’s work might not be as original as I once thought. Check out the post and decide for yourself…

xbox 360: viva piñata.

I found this old spot from Xbox 360 on one of my favourite blogs, The Denver Egotist. It came out about 18 months ago, which is approximately 1,000,000,000 in blog years, but I don’t care because it’s fucking awesome. I feel a little bit of shame, because I’m not sure how I missed this the first time around, but I also feel tingly in my special places, because this ad is completely hilarious.

It’s turning me into one of those people that just randomly quote something and giggle at how funny I think I am. It’s obnoxious, but I can’t… resist… about to… quote…:

“For you, a pet cobra”.

C’mon. That shit is gold.

In my obsessive perusing of the interwebs, I came across a long version of the ad. Almost too long. I can see why they edited it down to a minute, but it’s interesting to look at how the idea changes between the long and short versions. The succinct version is funnier, plus the visual button where the piñata jumps into the bushes totally ices the cake. With the ending cut from the long version, it relies a little too heavily on the list of magic items and the kids’ reactions, which, though totally funny, get a bit laboured after a while.

It does, however, deliver what is possibly the single greatest line of copy ever created in a main-stream commerical. I’ll let you watch and guess what it is…

That’s right folks. “To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women”. I realize I’m quoting again, and I may need someone to save me from myself. It doesn’t get any better than that. We’re talkin’ about some old skool Greek tragedy shit right there. Although “vigilante justice” scores points with me too. Fuck, more quotes.

…”The skulls of the vanquished”. Ok I’m done. … For now.

nike + oscar pistorius: bad listener.

To me, Oscar Pistorius is both a fascinating human story and a signal of things to come. Born without bones from the knees down, he’s overcome adversities that most of us can’t even fathom. Now he’s a fast enough runner that he’s on the brink of becoming the first Paralympic athlete to compete in the Olympics themselves. However, the opposition he faces is greater than just his lack of legs…

Check out my last post about Pistorius for the complete story on the controversy surrounding his journey. In the end, after wrangling with various international athletic federations and flying around the world for scientific tests, Pistorius was only finally allowed to try and make the South African Olympic team mere weeks before the preliminaries and he fell seconds short of making the team. His sights are now set on London 2012. I’ll say it right here, right now: in 2012, Oscar Pistorius will become the first “differently abled” athlete to compete in the Olympic Games and make history before all of our eyes.

For now, Pistorius remains an inspiration; a shining beacon of just what the human body and mind is capable of in a competitive world designed to keep people inside their neat little boxes. Pistorius has appeared in Nike South Africa ads before, but in this new spot, “Bad Listener”, they pay a subtle tribute to the strength of his will. There’s a slight irony here, with the spot created to coincide with the opening of an Olympic games that Pistorius won’t be attending (though he will be competing in the Paralympic Games, where he’s sure to continue demolishing the competition as he has been for years. He’s the Michael Phelps of Paralympic Track).

The ad isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, but with subject matter like this you don’t really need it to be. Shot with his actual trophies and at the actual high school he attended in Pretoria, Nike and W+K were smart enough to know all they needed to do was tell the story simply and with truth, because the emotion inside it is so great and universal that it’s doesn’t need to be augmented by any advertiser or agency.

It’s almost so quick and easy as to brush past you. But I dare you to calm your mind, sit for a moment, watch this, and actually imagine what it would be like to be him. To have everyone tell you that your dreams are impossible. And then to prove them all wrong. And to have to do it every single day.

(Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Director: Brent Harris. Production: Rabbit at Bonkers.)

Via Creativity Online

beijing 2008: adidas’ countdown + coca cola’s bird’s nest stadium.

I’ve been obsessed with the marketing buzz building towards Beijing 2008 for quite a while now, particularly with the stunning work from one of my fave brands, Adidas, and their “In 2008 Impossible Is Nothing” campaign.

Now the games are finally here. This morning I got up at 7am to watch the Opening Ceremonies live. I’m not an early riser by any means, but an Olympics opening is one of the greatest spectacles of our time. I don’t want to give anything away for those who will be watching tonight, but Beijing turned out the most pomped out, kick ass, jaw dropping, absolutely over-whelming display of light, precision, synchronization, and sheer human effort. It’s one of the very few things, if not the only thing, that the world collectively agrees to turn its attention to in a generally positive light. And for that it should be cherished.

This last week some of the big guns have really amped up their marketing and turned out some proper Olympic-style work. Here we’ve got two new spots that launched this week in the final build up to the games.

First up is Coca Cola’s cutesie pie “Bird’s Nest Stadium”. So much of Olympics advertising is lazy and relies on the natural drama of sport without taking a fresh or humanistic approach. Show a bunch of people diving, twirling, and running, que the cheering crowds, slap your logo on the end, et voila. This spot does much more but simultaneously doesn’t try and veer too much from what this is all about. Without hitting us over the head, it’s a nice blend of that human-family multicultural angle that the Olympics just beg for and also highlights, in an undeniably adorable ending, the excitement and anticipation most of us feel for the world’s biggest sporting event. It’s pure feel good and a total bull’s eye:

(Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Directors: Eric Lerner + Thomas Hilland. Production: Partizan.)

With “Countdown”, Adidas continues it’s more Chinese-nationalist approach it’s taken throughout its entire “In 2008 Impossible Is Nothing” campaign for the games. While the Coca Cola spot (and, indeed, most Olympic spots in general) take the POV of being a non-athlete in another country, watching and supporting the games from afar, the Adidas spots went for something different. They focussed on specific Chinese athletes (such as Hu Jia and Zheng Zhi) and didn’t shy away from the tremendous pressure they feel to honour their country. In this final spot, it broadens that anticipation from the individual athletes to that of the entire Chinese population. A particularly interesting angle to take for these games, for while we can all identify with a sense of national pride, China’s not an open book. The catalyst for what might be encouraging China’s national identity isn’t freely shared with the rest of us.

Still, the feeling it evokes is honest and the visual idea of citizens physically imitating their Olympic heroes, moved almost beyond thought and action into just a pure manifestion of national will (which, let’s be honest, isn’t a far cry from China any ol’ time), is wonderfully effective.

(Agency: TBWA China. Director: NEO. Production: Stink, London.)

Via Motionographer + Creativity Online

skittles: feet.

It takes such huge balls to just be weird and hope people get it and not care about who might think you’re lame if they don’t. That’s why I’ve got so much respect for Skittles – their recent work has all been completely crazypants weird and they don’t apologize for it. In the same bizzaro-world vein of past hits “Pinata” and “Touch”, director/copywriter Brendan Hearne created this spec spot for Skittles. It’s so far gone and fucked up that you can’t really help but love it.

(Production: GARGANTUAN)

Via Creativity Online