Old Spice Gets Off Horse, Mounts Raven Instead

Hmm.Not sure about this one. Actually, we're not sure about any Old Spice commercial that follows the amazing Isiah Mustafa series. This new work features NFL linebacker Ray Lewis on a quest to eradicate the universe of body odor with Old Spice's Swagger body wash.

"It's like a fantasy only it's real."

Hmm. Just doesn't have the same ring to it as "I'm on a horse."

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MINI No Match For Grandma in Parking Space Race

MINI is out with a new campaign to tout its model updates for Convertible, Clubman and hatch. A TV commercial has the trio speeding through a parking garage in a race for the last space only to be beaten by, well, an entirely different sort of motor vehicle.

Supporting the campaign is a print effort.

We love the MINI and racing through parking lots but, seriously? Cool as this car is and it loses to an old lady? That's just not right! Just not right!

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Wii Saves Home From Wayne Gretzky

We all know most professional sports athletes aren't idiots. Though if you see them in commercials such as this Heat-created spot for EA Sports NHL Slapshot featuring Wayne Gretzky you'd think otherwise.

After a seemingly oblivious Gretzky goes Bull in a China Shop while watching a hockey game, the maid shows up and slaps him upside the proverbial head with what any non-idiot would do in a living room when overcome with the urge to play hockey: play NHL Slapshot on the Wii.

State Street SPDR Can Save Your Sinking Financial Submarine

Hmm. Here's an interesting approach to an advertising analogy. From The Gate Worldwide comes this new commercial for State Street Global Advisor's SPDR ETF brand. After :40 of underwater Das Boot/Crimson Tide/Hunt for Red October submarine trauma, the camera zooms out to reveal a boy in a bath tub playing with a plastic submarine. The announcer then intones, "do you know what's inside your investment?"

Yes, an investment can be as "small" as a toy submarine or as "big" as that child's imagination makes it. Or as strange as pretend men screaming inside a submarine. It's the same for adults. If you don't know what's inside your prized financial holdings, you're in a lot of trouble and you're at the mercy of the market.

This metaphor can, of course, be interpreted many different ways but we think gate has done a nice job making the point yet leaving it open ended enough for multiple interpretation.

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