The Rise of Catvertising

Wow. This is unreal.



I can only imagine what brought this about! Would have loved to have been in the room when a request for a branded or sponsored cat video came up.

Office Envisions Our Future

A cool video produced my Microsoft Office.

With the up rise in touch screen technology and announcements around flexible LCD screens I can actually see some of this stuff coming true!

Now lets just hope their product launches help bring this vision to life, because I really want a pair of those Babelfish glasses.



Kind of reminds of the Nokia "future" video that came out a couple years back... Without the creepy dude in the boat.

VW Makes Art. Dares Canadians to Steal it.

A very interesting concept. VW and their agency create some cool pieces of art and dare Canadians to steal them!

Following the recent "pop-up" shop trend, VW took over some unsuspecting construction sites across Canada, creating mini pop up galleries in support of the 2012 Jetta GLI.

A nice and innovative way to interact with consumers.



What makes it even better, is the fact that it is an extension of their "Light Painting" ads from earlier this year - making it a great example of leveraging a single creative idea acorss multiple mediums.

Abandoning America

In this 4 minute video, Chipotle (who has been touting themselves as a strong supporter of anti industrial, sustainable farming) creates a oddly beautiful portrayal of the demise of American farming.

A powerful message, I just hope they can figure out a way to cut it down for mass broadcast! Having to watch through 4 minutes of footage is a lot to ask to ask of consumers, particularly when the hard hitting message only comes in during the last 10 seconds.

The Crazy Ones

ADWEEK's edit of TBWA's iconic Crazy Ones ad was done a few months back, but I could think of no better time to share it than today.

A sad sad day. The world has lost a visionary and leader. Someone who never accepted the status qua and constantly move technology and how we interact with it forward.

RIP Steve. You will be truly missed.

Rick Perry's Trailer for Presidency

Now that the summer blockbuster season is over, its time for the next big wave of trailers - for the 2012 presidency.

I have to say that is this the most epic presidential candidacy spot I have ever seen. A narrative that pushes us into the depths of reality (really?!) and then lifts our spirits with with F18s flying overhead.

Wow.



If this is a signal of things to come, I guess we won't be expecting any Riney-esque ads this time around.

Moleskine: Meet the Power of the Force

Well I think this tops the list of the best product partnerships of all time.


And what could be better than Moleskine Star Wars Notebooks? This amazing stop motion spot that was put together to mark this once in a lifetime occasion!

A really fun and interesting example of how two products, that are light years apart, can be brought together in such a simple way.

Wait a Minute... What Just Happened?

So I've been sitting on this spot for a couple of days trying to get my thoughts about it together.

No luck. I seriously don't know what they are going for here. While I agree that the Skittles work over the past couple years have done "good weird" well, this is a whole new level of odd (and very creepy!).

Did Razer Just Redefine the PC Market?

This past weekend was PAX Prime - The Penny Arcade eXpo dedicated to all things gaming. And in between talk of the next Halo launch and discussions around Bioware's upcoming epic Star Wars MMO, Razer launched their new laptop - the Blade - a product that may just redefine the PC market.

For those who don't know, Razer is a high end gaming peripherals company. Essentially they manufacture $200 gaming mice and keyboards that constantly push the limits of how consumers interact with their computers.

While I had seen some of their previous "laptop" like prototypes, nothing prepared me for the awe inspiring machine that they were secretly creating.



So why is this launch important? And why should anyone outside the PC gaming community care? Here are two reasons:

1) It represents Design Thinking being brought back to the PC.

When it comes to staple goods, design is the great differentiator. Its sad to say that computers have become a staple, but Apple is really the only company today that is able to wow consumers by placing design thinking at the core of their products. Their products haven't always worked the best, but they feel the best. They approach all of their products from a consumer perceptive and this has allowed them to create a serious cult following.

Razer has always done the same thing with their products. The Naga mouse is a perfect example. With its 17 buttons (including a full number pad strapped to its side), it might seem ridiculous at first, but once you've use it you can't put it down.

It looks like they are about to do the same thing with the Blade. Moving the track pad to the right of the keyboard shows just how far they are willing to push the popular idea of how a laptop should look and feel. They understand that track pads get in the way, so why leave it where it is? They understand that most gamers use a mouse, so why not give the trackpad a new use and turn it into an LCD screen?

Net net, its a well designed product.

2) Its going to cost nearly $3000.

Why has HP been thinking about dumping their PC business? Its not because they don't sell enough computers, its because they can't sell them for enough money! Lower margins on this product line (in comparison to their enterprise solutions business) has got them questioning why they are dedicating resources to it.

Why does Apple love their laptop line? Because they can charge a lot for them! It looks like Razer is going down this road - producing a well designed machine and charging a premium for it. Further, they are launching it with one build only - Take it or leave it, no customization allowed. Definitely not something that Dell or HP would ever do!


As much as I love Apple I think they should watch out - If design is their great differenciator it looks like Razer may have just beat them at their own game.

Tron Duck Cycles

A new crowdsourced spot for Duck Tape & yet another example of the rage that is stop motion filming.

No idea what Tron and Duck Tape have to do with one another, but I guess this does reinforce the sheer number of uses for the product. The irony of using duck tape to represent Tron's Light Cycles is also just hilarious.

Manufacturing the "God of Advertising"

A hilarious new project by not for profit agency Trunchpole & Trunchpole.

What is better than Art & Copy? A mocumentary about Cornelius Trunchpole - the man who invented the TV commercial, the concepts of mnemonics, the rhyming tagline, and so much more.


I really hope this comes to fruition - cant wait to see the classic "clowisms" that come out of it!

DDB New Zealand - A Lemon Re-imagined

DDB seems to really be making the most of Bill's 100th Birthday.

Supposedly this ad ran in a New Zealand newspaper last week. Speaking to how Bill still influences everything that DDB does, and paying homage to the impact he had on modern advertising.

As much as I love the classic VW work (particularly Lemon), I'm not too sure how I feel about the agency reworking these ads to help merket themselves.

Part Art Installation, Part Billboard, Entirely Cool

Newcastle Brown Ale debuted its new "billboard installation" earlier this month in San Diego.

Using thousands of Newcastle bottle caps and a single light source the artists did a great job of bringing the project and brand's "lighter side of dark" concept to life. A great representation of ad & art becoming one.

I just wish they could produce more of these! Seems a shame to waste this concept on a single market alone...

HP Now Selling Old Spice?

A new campaign for HP. As much as I love the "changing set" idea and the irony of analog cinematography being used to sell high tech products, for some reason these spots leave me wanting.

After watching them all I am still not sure what they are trying to sell. Phones? Tablets? Printer paper? I guess this is another example of trying to use 30 seconds to sell an entire product line (or in this case 15!).









CORRECTION: After watching these multiple times I finally realized that they are trying to sell printers! Definitively didn't get that the first time through.

Sony Challenges our Need for the Human Eye

Sony Ericsson & McCann put together this video for the German market.

Though a nice portrayal of the phones functionality, it felt a little long to me. Maybe I'm getting old.




Here is another from the same series. Should we now worry about sun burns every time we use this phone?

Nikki Reed Fights Apathy While Solving the World's Problems

An interesting presentation of a simple concept.

It will be interesting to see if this actually works and can be sustained in the long run. If anything is stronger than this generation’s apathy towards social causes it’s our ability to unapologetically migrate to something new(er).

Don Wishes Bill a Happy 100th

In celebration of its founder's 100th birthday, DDB put this into the latest edition of ADWEEK.

Supposedly Jon Hamm himself approved the final execution - a bit odd if you ask me. Wouldn't be surprised if he through the 'guy' in the picture behind him was taking up too much space in the frame.

They also ran a 3 page feature: Bill Bernbach at 100 - How DDB's Work Changed Advertising History. Should be a great read.

Levi's Legacy: Bukowski & Rioting

Moving on from Walt Whitman, W+K brought Bukowski's The Laughing Heart into the newest iteration of Levi's European Go Forth campaign.

Brilliance of voice over aside however, launching the spot with all its visuals of youth defiance seems like a bit of a risk in the European market right now (and a case of really bad timing). Won't be surprised if this gets re-cut to at least remove the police in riot gear!

Police Steal from Banksy

In a new recruitment campaign, the New Zealand police force steal inspiration from someone they they have no doubt gone after before - activist and artist Banksy.

Would love to see these in context, and how they get altered over the coming weeks.

Some of the "pieces" are below, along with a Banksy original - can you tell them apart?! (Here's a hint - the ads don't feature a pink balloon dog)

Ushuaïa Hotel Takes Away All the Work of Posting to Facebook

If you thought updating Facebook was easy enough - Thing again.

Ushuaïa Hotel in Ibiza has taken the world's obsession with constant facebook updates to a whole new level. By combining RFID tagged wristbands, webcams, and good times hotel visitors can now easily make all their friends jealous in real time.

Melissa Sell's Shoes Using Post-it Notes

Another great piece of stop motion animation - This time by Brazilian shoe maker Melissa.

By placing 350,000 Post-it notes over 5 months in the entrance of their flag ship store, they were able to to create a installation that truly brings their "power of love" campaign to life.

1 Sculpture. 5 Hours. 4000 Free Drinks at McDonald's.

To promote Dollar Drink Days, McDonald's & Cossette created a very interesting interact sculpture.

8000 pounds of ice surrounded 4000 loonies in the shape of the Golden Arches. As the ice melted (and consumers bashed away at it!) they were able to get hold of some of these coins - hopefully there was a McDonald's near by!



Here is a video showing the sculpture being put together and some people lovin' it.

Nokia Breaks Record for Stop Motion Films. But Why?

A very cool new video by Nokia.

The entire short was shot using the 12 megapixel camera on a Nokia N8, with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 feet! You can really get a sense of this scale in the making of video (also embedded below).

Two problems that I can see though:
First, you have to know the context of the video to actually find it (really) interesting. You sort of get this at the end, but that takes nearly 2 minutes.
Second, What does the content of the film have to do with the brand?



The making of:

Corona Brings the Beach Downtown

In the latest iteration of the 'find your beach' campaign, Corona brings the beach to a downtown near you. The Juxtaposition of a downtown environmental and relaxing beach state of mind does a nice job of showing how the brand can take you away from the stresses in life.

The first time I watched it though, something wasn't sitting right... Then I realized this this may be the first Corona ad to feature active dialogue! Though dialogue can be an effective means of engaging consumers, there was something tranquil about the previous Corona work that seems lacking here.

Pushing Nike

New spot for Nike out of Brazil.

You know a brand is confident when they position themselves as supporting addicts!

Love the cinematography.