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Seen and noted

Guest Judge: Wesley ter Haar, founder, MediaMonks, Netherlands

 GUEST JUDGE /BEST AD OF THE WEEK   WORLDWIDE    April 28, 2014 22:30 (Edited: February 17, 2023 05:19)
BEST TV
Winner: Axe Body Spray - Soulmates. It's the battle of the big boys, and Axe ends up with the girl. It might be the looks, or even the talent to play the perfect song, but above all it's the complete and utter confidence this swaggers in with. It's pitch-perfect and manages to convey a multitude of stories with the simplest of scripts. Each stolen glance and missed opportunity another string in the bow of Axe's romantic renaissance. Was it not for my complete lack of body-odour I would run out to buy some now.

Runner-up: Nike Football - Winner Stays. Ah yes, let me start of by saying I will not be the first reviewer to not mention write the future. There, I did it. It looms large, a perfect piece of pop culture, forever enshrined in the advertising hall-of-fame. This is not that, but it's also not bad. A joyous, infectious piece of fun that is less about them, and more about us. The running time feels like somebody misread the memo and kept their darlings, but it's still amazing to see Nike & W+K flex their considerable muscles. This was on every other monitor at the office when it hit Facebook, event advertising. Which isn't bad for a World Cup.

BEST PRINT
Winner: HBMR bicycle locks - White bicycle. Not the best bit of craft, but a nice visual idea, that does what the best print tends to do. Explain something with very little actual explanation, while making you look twice, maybe even three times to make sure you're taking it all in. Decent stuff all-round, but it would have been good to add a bit more publishing polish.

Runner up: Sensodyne - Ice Cream. Can you call something a classic piece of print, or is that a tautology now that we have all of those new fangled mediums available to us? What we can call it is a classy piece of print, nicely worked, and instantly recognisable to everyone that has ever suffered the sensation Sensodyne looks to solve.

BEST OUTDOOR
The Winner: Coca-Cola - Coca-Cola Rainbow Nation - 20 years of democracy in South Africa. You'd be hard pressed to find something more outdoor than a rainbow, and you'd have similar difficulty finding an idea that fits a brand better than this piece of work. It's as Coca Cola as it gets, but manages to stay just shy of cloying by some nice bulky executions and the sheer wonder involved by capturing a rainbow. Tasting it however is a different matter entirely...

Runner up: CAT Excavators - Stack. Jenga. With Excavators. Oh, you need more. Let me fill out my required word count by repeating that. Jenga. With Excavators. There really isn't much more to say here, someone went to the trouble to entertain us, and we the people should laud them with applause and a runner-up spot on Best Ads. The video could have been a bit more fun though.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: Guy Cotten - A Trip Out To Sea. Nominating this for best of the week feels almost too small, a digital drop in an ocean of awesomeness. This easily ranks as one of my favourite pieces of the year so far, it's not often digital work makes good on its holy grail, that mythical promise that by interacting with an idea it becomes more powerful and personal than if it's being consumed as an idle spectator. But this piece of live and death digital just does that. That it also manages to make one of the most over-used and abused navigation trends ever (yes, scrolling...) feel relevant is an added bonus that i'll gladly take.

Runner up: The Lounge Hair Salon - HairTagProject. From something big and shiny, we dive in to a much more contained idea. I'm a sucker for scary-smart social stuff, and this ranks up there with the best of them. I don't know if the idea came first, or if this was a client-brief that just happened to be rewarded by genius, but i do know this made me do my pantomime iwishithoughtofthat hand gesture and send out the link to people that should be thinking of this.



https://www.bestadsontv.com/news/upload/2012-02-01 Photo Wesley ter Haar.jpg
This week's guest judge is Wesley ter Haar, founder and chief operating officer at MediaMonks, Hilversum, Netherlands.

Wesley founded MediaMonks in 2001. His aim: to wage war on a mediocre digital industry. A fan of tight deadlines and a giver of spectacular high-fives, he's worked tirelessly to grow the company into its current (but not yet final) form. He spent his late teens and early twenties wrestling the beast that is Flash in a technically non-existent - according to all building schematics - basement office; with no phone, no daylight and no standing space. In a little over a decade the company has grown to accommodate almost 200 Monks, with offices in Amsterdam, London, New York and Singapore.

Wesley is currently Head of Operations, making him a lifeline for deadlines and the project-manager of project-managers across three continents. He spends his occasional and ephemeral free time on the FWA's Judging Panel, or cultivating his exceptional beard.


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