allan gray: beautiful.

Check out this sweet little gem. Even though the commercial is set in Argentina, it’s for a South African investment company. I’ve read around that some people think it’s flawed – it’s a bit long, it takes a little bit of intelligence to get the point – but any spot that’s intentionally short and designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator isn’t usually something that’s going to appeal to me much.

This is pure human truth, well-shot, with the message delivered in a lovely little realization at the end.

(Agency: King James Cape Town. Director: Keith Rose. Production: Velocity Films.)

monster: stork.

I don’t know what’s going on over at BBDO New York, but they have been doing killer work for Monster. Not just good, not just great, they’ve been knocking it out of the park each and every time. For proof, check out past awesomeness “Legs” and “Daybreak”.

The continue kicking ass and taking names with “Stork”. Showing true range, they’ve revealed yet another facet to the “Your Calling is Calling” campaign. While “Legs” was entertaining and comic, “Daybreak” was cinematic and epic, the beauty of “Stork” is in it’s simplicity and the honesty of its core idea. The nature of the beginning of the spot is wide-sweeping, but the feel of the entire thing is thoroughly intimate. The quality of the 3D work from UK shop Framestore is ridiculous.

At the end, I felt chills up my back and my face felt flushed. When I react to something physically first, it’s always a good sign. It means the idea went right into me and I didn’t have to mentally think about it. No time was wasted here: I was drawn in from the first second and the final question it poses is salient and universal. If this spot doesn’t make you think twice and analyze your own life, even a little, then you’re not ready for a real job yet.

(Director: Daniel Kleinman. Production: Rattling Stick. CG/Animation: Framestore.)

Via Motionographer

adidas: chinese volleyball association.

I’ve raved about this campaign enough already, so as hard as it is for me to hold back my rabid enthusiasm, I won’t get into it again. But click on “raved about this campaign enough already” if you want to read my past raving.

Adidas, 180/TBWA, Psyop, and Stink continue the brilliant “In 2008, Impossible Is Nothing” campaign for the Beijing Summer Olympics with “Chinese Volleyball Association”. After beautiful spots highlighting the hopes and fears of Chinese Olympics hopefuls Hu Jia and Zheng Zhi , this time they look at setter and team captain for the Chinese women’s volleyball team, Feng Kun. They won gold in Athens 2004 and Kun won MVP, so it’s probably an understatement to say there are some major expectations sitting on their shoulders for 2008…

pixelsurgeon: “the day there was no news”.

Imagine.

By cutting together those always slightly-awkward moments where newscasters have finished speaking but wait to go off air, Pixelsurgeon has created a powerful video idea. It’s totally John Lennon-esque. I’m having a hard time resisting the urge to break into song. Be sure to read the scrolling newsbar at the bottom – especially at 0:31.

Via Boing Boing

amnesty international: “cattle market”.

Sometimes I worry about the humanity of the world. When teenagers playing Grand Theft Auto 4 can blow off a hooker’s head for entertainment value, how can groups like Amnesty International depict real horrors going on in the world in ways that will hit home for people?

For me, “Cattle Market” works. If I wasn’t already a member of Amnesty, I would be after watching this. It’s appropriately graphic, the metaphor is realistic, but it doesn’t go too far and shockvertize. If you seriously sit down and watch this and think about what it saying and don’t feel gross after, then there’s something wrong with your heart.

Wait until the very end. The final tagline put chills across my skin because it’s so absolutely true.

(Agency: Walker. Director: Jeff Thomas. Production: Sonny London.)

zune: “life”.

For those of you that aren’t familiar, when you’re young and new and hungry and trying to get ahead in the world of advertising, you have a portfolio showcasing what (little) work you’ve done. That’s like cake. The icing of your book, though, are the speculative (everyone calls them “spec”) ads – work that you’ve dreamed up showcasing the absolute best you can do, but which hasn’t actually been produced, because you don’t have a job. Spec work is a blank slate, an open field, a pure creative battleground. It’s the best and the worst, because when you can do absolutely anything you want, your failures come crashing down around you twice as hard. It’s a lot like hell.

Which is why I’m bowled over by this exquisite spec ad for Zune by Stewart Hendler. Stewart isn’t exactly a struggling juniour director, if all of the amazing work on his site is any indication. But it still takes balls to go out and create a spec ad just to create it. He shot “Life” is a single day with a meager 7-person crew.

It looks gorgeous, it’s emotive and dramatic, the message is clear and simple and in-line with the narrative, and it’s the kind of heart-filled, over the top urban fantasy stuff that makes me swoon.

(Director: Stewart Hendler. Music: Human Worldwide.)

amp: “walk of no shame”.

I’d like to say that I have no idea what this ad is talking about. But then I’d be a liar. As well as a slut…

(Agency: BBDO NY.)

rspca: “hit”.

Holy fuck.

(Agency: The Campaign Palace. Director: Glendyn Ivin. Production: Exit Films.)

Via The Denver Egotist

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…

adidas grün: “guerilla gardeners”.

I’ll spare you my usual brand-cult diatribe about how I worship the ground Adidas walks on…oh shit, too late. So Adidas is the king. Once again, they go beyond merely creating and marketing a product to integrating it into a lifestyle and entertaining you while they demonstrate it.

Adidas Original’s new Grün line (German for “green”, dontcha know…) is their foray into the environmentally aware / sustainably created game. Sure, there are the old standbys like making the rubber soles from recycled tires, but Adidas is also investing research into creating shoes and clothing out of renewable, eco-friendly resources like bamboo. We all know that recycling is good, but reducing the amount of what needs to be recycled in the first place is where the future of the planet lies, and Adidas is taking steps to make that happen.

Knowing that environmentalism is a mind-set, not just a selling point, their Grün campaign has kicked off with “Guerilla Gardening”. For all intents and purposes, it’s graffiti with plants. The aim is to take a neglected, off limits urban space and turn it into a thing of beauty – be it with spray paint or with grass. Check out the “seed bombs”…

The line divides into three facets: “Made From” features track suits and apparel made from sustainably grown bamboo, cotton, crepe rubber, hemp, and rice husks.

All of the clothing in the “Reground” range is fully biodegradeable – right down to the zippers and buttons. One of the shirts in the Women’s “Reground” collection is made from from a mix of organic soybean and cotton fibres, and the neckline is inlaid with sunflower seeds.

Finally, everything in the “Recycled” line is exactly what it says – shoes and apparel made from 100% recycled plastic soda bottles, rubber, and others materials that otherwise would have sat in a landfill for eternity.

To prove it’s point, Adidas has taken the organic push and put it into more traditional marketing channels – like these green billboards made mostly from living plants and flowers:

Shoe pics via Sneaker Freaker