BEST TVWorking on Playstation must be a tough gig. That bloody ad. You know the one. The great Playstation ad of 1766. It's a thing of legend and no mortal can ever better it. We've seen so many 'The next great Playstation ad' ads over the years, and been mildly disappointed. This new
Greatness Awaits ad goes close I have to say. It's big budget. No. Stop. Rewind. It's not big budget. It's a flipping massive budget. And rightly so. It's advertising the most exciting sector there has ever been. It's beautifully delivered and directed in one enormous, awe-inspiring-take as a dude emerges from a wrecked car and takes us on an inspiring journey to get the most out of our lives. I liked it. I also liked the
Attention Assist ad for Mercedes Benz. Advertising has many roles and many audiences, but I always believe that it works best when it has a purpose, and this is a pretty useful product, and the ad makes the point simply and entertainingly. It would have been all too easy to get all dark and melodramatic with this product, but the idea of a nerdy driver having an erotic daydream before being snapped back into reality by a sharp Beep from the car's onboard killjoy computer. Hmm. German cars eh? That would never happen in an Italian car. Low budget. Simple idea. Nice direction. Nice casting. Well done.
BEST PRINTEvery day we are exposed to horrifying images of every description, so I'm not sure shock tactics work as well as they used to. So the
Florida Department of Transportation was an interesting brief. Trying to get people to think of the consequences of drinking a skinful and then getting behind the wheel of a car is hard. This ad really engaged with me, because it engaged with me, and didn't just try to scare the poop out of me. It's emotional. It tells the story of all the amazing and mundane things that a person that lives a long life gets to do, and how it's cut short by some stupid drunk driver. It's a nice solution to a pretty standard brief. Beautifully written and boldly art directed, and very powerful. I also liked the
Einstein ad for a Dyslexia charity in Malaysia. It's a very simple idea, nicely art directed. I didn't know that Einstein was dyslexic. I liked that. Not that he had dyslexia but that I learned something from an ad. Wow. That's not supposed to happen! Thank you.
BEST OUTDOOR Brands that really understand their customers use advertising and communication to play a bigger role than just getting them to buy stuff, they use it to create change and influence culture. I loved this work for work for Moms Demand Action. The gun laws in the U.S. have been under the spotlight for a while now following some awful atrocities over the last decade, and this powerful work wants stronger gun legislation and a total ban on all assault weapons. As you can imagine there is a lot of insane hypocrisy surrounding this issue, not least the fact that Kinder Eggs are banned in the States because of the 'dangerous' toy inside and assault rifles are relatively easily available in comparison. The
Kinder Egg plays a central role in the story. It's very emotive and powerful stuff, and it looks like getting what these moms want may take some time. I hope they get there soon. I also like this
IBM work. They've created smart solutions for city problems. It's kind of what IBM do. So that works doesn't it. They've created some clever public seating and shelters. I've got to say I have tried to get clients to do this stuff before, with no success. But these guys did it. It looks really good and is genuinely smart. Well done.
BEST INTERACTIVEI have two kids and they are both crazy. And the internet is like the most exciting place they can mess around in because they know there's bad stuff there and they are desperate to find all of it as quickly as possible. Or maybe that's just my kids. Anyway. When I saw this
Cif work I almost choked I was laughing so much.
It's an app that sets up effective parental control, blocking dirty sites and 'cleaning' the web. Geddit? A cleaning product, trying to clean the filthiest thing in the history of the world. Good luck to them, but good for them for trying. It doesn't stop there, this app also cleans up all the filthy language. It recognizes thousands of dirty words and replaces them with clean ones. Now, this is the bit that made me laugh out loud. The example it uses was a nasty tweet from John DeFranco who sounds like an arch bastard. It reads as follows: Justin fucking Bieber can eat shit. The buttfucking assfuck should never have come out of his mom's vagina! That's not very nice is it? The app then cleans it up as follows: Justin flipping Bieber can eat stuff. The gardening disaster should never have come out of his mom's handbag!
Oh Jesus wept. This is brilliant! Eat what stuff? Gardening disaster? Where does that come from? I love the idea and the ambition, but I have a terrible fear that if this catches on, telling my son to get some money out of his mom's handbag might really mess him up for good and send him over the edge. Good idea. Good luck.
I also liked the clever idea for the
Britanico English Institute, that pirated pirate films. Apparently the naughty people of Peru love an illegal download and Peruvian pirates then translate these using online sites. So the Britanico lot went to great lengths to set up a fake subtitle translation site and then mess with the viewers with bogus subtitles, eventually directing them to not rely on subtitles but to learn English. Contorted and hard work. But a cool, funny idea. Nice.
This week's guest judge is Dave Buonaguidi, founder and chief creative officer at Karmarama, London.
I have lots of professional experience covering too many years to mention, because as an immigrants son I was sent out to work very early. I have worked in small agencies, (TBWA back in the early days, and HHCL when it was a month old,) I have worked in bigger agencies (WCRS and JWT) and run and set up agencies (Chiat/Day London, St.Luke's, and Karmarama) I have also worked client side as creative director at Channel4 and all of these experiences have shaped my thinking and ambition for what I want Karmarama to achieve.
My solitary goal is to keep going. Learning. Enjoying. Creating. Improving.
Specialties: Obviously, I love creating, but so much more than just the product that we produce at Karmarama, but I also love working with lots of clever people in creating the brand, the culture, the personality and the whole experience of the place.
