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Seen and noted

Guest Judge: Tristan Graham, CD, Goodby Silverstein & Partners

 GUEST JUDGE /BEST AD OF THE WEEK   WORLDWIDE    January 28, 2020 13:35 (Edited: February 17, 2023 05:19)
BEST TV
Winner: Cool Ranch Doritos "Monologue". It's always a little awkward when two of the six TV ads you've been asked to judge were made by the agency you work for. More awkward still when you think that one of those ads from your agency is actually the best ad of the week. But hey, what can you do?

For me the winner is Sam Elliott's monologue. It's rare for a Super Bowl teaser to stand on its own as a great piece of filmmaking, but this spot does. Elliott's delivery pulls you in immediately, and the "Old Town Road" lyrics he recites work so perfectly in the context of the scene that it's easy to forget that they are part of a song. Director Lance Acord has created something cinematic and authentic here - a genuine homage to the Western genre rather than a hammy late-night-show skit. The comedy in the idea is stronger for it.

Runner-up: Old Spice "Time Out". The original "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was brilliant in every way. Targeting women (who at the time made over 50 percent of men's body-wash purchases) was a stroke of pure genius. The spots themselves were so funny, they transcended advertising and became a genuine cultural phenomenon—read: a big, terrifying act to follow.

Jump forward 10 years, and some brave souls have done it, reprising Isaiah Mustafa's character and even giving him a son. And they've pulled it off. This spot is funny. The campaign line "Smell Like Your Own Man, Man" is great. I just can't help but think that the original work was a little bit funnier. And it's hard not to compare the campaigns. With that said, I'd be very proud to have my name on this, and I'm sure the social and PR components are going to be incredible.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Nissan "Personal Space". I'll ignore the typo in the copy and assume that it originally ran in Finnish. Conceptually, this ad is interesting. The connection between the cultural truth about Finnish people liking their personal space and the feature that Nissan is advertising is smart. I just wish the execution weren't identical to the memes that inspired it—photos of people waiting at bus stops, equally spaced apart. There's no fresh take and no twist other than the headline. While this is good work, I think it could have been even stronger as an activation or as an out-of-home execution. For example, they could have installed a few little one-person bus shelters along a road with posters in them extolling the benefits of keeping a safe distance from others. Anyway, props for a great insight and a solid ad - I'm sure there is an ocean of forgettable print work for other car companies advertising the same feature.

Runner-up: Covenant House: "Real Life". Visually, this ad is well crafted, and the message is powerful. As with the Nissan ad, I just wish the concept had more of a twist, especially given the highly emotive subject matter and (I assume) the creative freedom that comes with making charity work like this. The copy touches on the interesting idea of psychological shackles being much harder to escape than physical ones. I wonder if they could have explored something more in that space. Still, this is an arresting visual, and I hope it works hard for them, because the cause is important, and the issue abhorrent.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Hyundai "Main Film". My favorite part of this campaign is Hyundai's commitment to the idea. It so easily could have been a flash-in-the-pan scam ad, filmed in a day and then packed up—the cars never to be seen again. But in reading about it, I learned that they've agreed to have multiple cars operating in the town for a whole year - which feels like long enough for their team to actually learn something. It will be cool to see how (and if) the rural community really uses the service.

As a PR idea, setting out to improve air quality in a town that already has the world's third-cleanest air is interesting. I'm glad they didn't overpromise the positive impact of their electric cars by attempting to reduce the pollution in some unlucky industrial area. The only part that could be a little sharper, in my opinion, is the story. They talk about proving that electric cars can serve rural communities. And bringing ride-sharing to the countryside. And improving the air quality. These are all important goals, but the water gets a little muddy when you combine them.

Runner up: Suzuki "Baleno Talkomobile Dealer Demo". This made me laugh. The insight at the beginning of the film - that machines talk too much these days - is refreshingly silly yet true. And the video is fun to watch. I'm not sure how many people will take Suzuki up on their offer of free Talkomobile technology, but I definitely enjoyed witnessing it in use. And it lands a clear, breakthrough strategy for the category without any gimmicks. The tongue-in-cheek copy is fun too. I love that they managed to get the term "Advanced Birthday Card Technology" onto the official Suzuki website.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: UNESCO "#HeyUpdateMyVoice". There have been other ideas about crowdsourcing updates to virtual assistants. "Say It Tika" rallied Kiwis to identify and update Maori place names being mispronounced by Google Maps. However, the insight that underpins this idea is both fresh and alarming: men make up 90 percent of the AI workforce. Most of the virtual assistants that this workforce has created have female voices and names. And when someone says something inappropriate or abusive to them, their responses are tolerant or submissive, teaching boys and men that this sort of behavior is OK.

I tested this insight with our family's Google Home Mini by saying, "I want to have sex with you." The female voice responded pleasantly, "I don't understand." The idea here is to crowdsource better, less passive responses and to petition Silicon Valley to update their virtual assistants accordingly. It's a really big idea, and if it's done properly, it has the potential to have a global impact on the treatment of women.

Runner up: McDonald's "McDelivery Point". In judging this idea, I tried to look past my own feelings about a) seeing a giant McDonald's logo plastered across a public beach; and b) the cheesy video. Once I managed to do that, I found myself thinking about the process of ordering food or even an Uber to a location with no landmarks. It can be very frustrating. As far as beach sculptures go, I prefer sandcastles. But as a way to increase orders of McDonald's, I'm sure this is incredibly effective.



https://www.bestadsontv.com/news/upload/Tristan.png
This week's guest judge is Tristan Graham, creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

Based in San Francisco, Tristan Graham is an Australian creative director working at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. His campaigns have been awarded at major international advertising festivals, including the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Cannes Chimera, the WARC Innovation Awards, D&AD, the Webby Awards, the Effies and the One Show.

As a writer he received the most prestigious advertising-effectiveness award in the world, the Cannes Effectiveness Grand Prix for his "Guilt Trips" campaign for V/Line trains in Australia.

Tristan was also recognized as one of the 30 Most Creative People in Advertising under 30 by both Business Insider and B&T. In 2019 he was admitted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences as an associate member and as a judge for the Webby Awards.

His latest project, "A Holiday Reunion," was developed in collaboration with Steven Spielberg and director Lance Acord. After 37 years much-loved characters E.T. and Elliott were brought back to life in an epic four-minute television commercial for Comcast/Xfinity that ran during Thanksgiving.

The campaign has been described by TIME as "the gift you didn't know you needed," by Forbes as the "#1 holiday commercial of 2019" and by Metro as the "best Christmas ad ever." It became the #1 trending video on YouTube and has been viewed over 218 million times.

Currently, Tristan is leading the Xfinity Mobile, Xfinity Home, Indigo AG and One Medical accounts alongside his creative partner Felipe Lima. Outside of work Tristan enjoys photography, hiking and spending time with his daughter Paloma and wife, Gemma.


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