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Timeless Odd Couple Deliver Honda Hybrid Message

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While some will recognize The Odd Couple theme music in this new RPA-created Honda Civic Hybrid commercial and others won't, the message is crystal clear. There are clean people in this world and there are environmentally unconcious slobs. In the case of the two men in this commercial, one cares about the environment and one doesn't.

Throughout the spot, the former picks up the latter's trash as the go through their days, weeks and months commuting to work along the same path. It aligns very nicely with Honda's be good to the environment message and will likely appeal to those who do actually care and properly make fun of those who don't. All while selling a car. Nifty.

by Steve Hall    Sep-24-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Brands, Commercials

Operate with Asko, the Washing Machine for Winning at Life

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We're kind of crazy about this campaign for Asko by SMFB. If you have no idea what Asko is, that's cool, we didn't either. Apparently it's a brand for washing machines, and now it's the only washing machine we want.

The creative uses the playfulness and grit of claymation to tie our everyday self-delusion to the domestic cuddle-factor associated with doing your laundry. Fantastic balancing act.

Note the modern hunter-gatherer at left, braving the wild with his flannel "suit of masculinity." Check out the long-legged jeans-sporting chick as she towers over all, as much in her imagination as in the real world. Observe how proper washing can add self-esteem to otherwise self-deprecating shirts.

And consider how Asko protects guardian teddy bears! We are hugging ourselves at the very thought.

by Angela Natividad    Sep-24-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Poster

Baby Wants Mom Back From Wilkinson-Shaved Dad

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This is good. Really good. Wilkinson razor has released a JWT France-created trailer and online game which focus on the neglect dads feel because their wives are so enamored with the softness of their new baby's skin. In order to win back their wives' affections, the men take to shaving with Wilkinson razors. Baby don't like this. No, no no. And baby goes all ninja rap on Dad's ass.

If you're Gillette and you want to sell razors, all you have to do is open your mouth and barf out some piece of shit Super Bowl ad. If you're not, you actually have to be creative...and entertain...and inform...and engage. Wilkinson does this very nicely.

by Steve Hall    Sep-13-07   Comments (3)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Commercials

Michael Mann Blends 'Last of the Mohicans' With Nike's Never Quit

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Sit back in your chair. Close your eyes. Imagine the theme music from the movie The Last of the Mohicans welling up inside your head. Picture Daniel Day-Lewis running through the woods and over the mountaintop to save Madeline Stowe from certain death. Now, open your eyes and watch this new commercial (YouTube or higher quality on the U.S. Nike site) from Nike called Never Quit directed by Michael Man. It's transfixing. It's intense. It puts you in the game. It makes your blood rush. It sends chills through your spine. It proves there's more than money in the game of American football.

Now, turn the sound off and watch it again. Pretty lame, right? Music is masterful, even more so than video sometimes, at conveying and amping up a message. Of course, we're partial to this sort of emotional manipulation but, then again, isn't that what advertising's about? Thanks, Bill for calling this to our attention.

by Steve Hall    Sep-10-07   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Commercials, Creative Commentary

Tampon Absorbs Entire Pool

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Tampon maker O.B. has left all the crap about comfort and simplicity behind and zeroed on the product's main benefit: it absorbs a shitload of liquid. Enough said. I mean really. What else can be said about this ad? It's truly brilliant. Maybe a bit gross but brilliant none the less. That is, of course, if it is, in fact, a real ad.

by Steve Hall    Sep- 7-07   Comments (11)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Magazine

Talking Polar Bears, Alethiometers, Nicole Kidman - What's Not to Like?!

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Some people, like LotR aficionados, have waited most of their adult lives for their epic to hit the big screen. Others, notably Harry Potter and Narnia fans, haven't really had to suffer the bittersweet agony of waiting for some director to do justice to their literary childhood fantasia.

Our time has finally come. And it's either going to be really crappy, in which case it takes New Line Cinema down along with it, or it's going to blow our fucking minds.

The epic we're referring to is The Golden Compass, part one of a trilogy we've read at least six times. Watch the Comic Con preview for the fullest effect.

While we doubt Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman would ever let us down, we realize how stupid it is to pin all our broken dreams on an adaptation, so we are holding our emotions at arm's length.

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by Angela Natividad    Aug-31-07   Comments (16)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Online, Promotions, Trends and Culture

Alex Bogusky Dispenses Advice to Award Show Virgins

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Young Guns work is usually great but when you have to wait like an entire minute...or more...for a site to load it's well, off putting. That said, this new work, which comes in the form of an online musical, takes us through the day in the life of an award show virgin. All the cliches are here. And there's even appearances by Alex Bogusky, David Droga and Lee Clow. Even the audience can participate.

We particularly like the reference to timelines as akin to having "a clock jammed up your ass." Ooo. Ooo. And there's school girl outfits too! The longer you watch, the better it gets.

by Steve Hall    Aug-28-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Online, Strange

What is Web 2.0? Stop Fumbling with Words and Just Watch

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We're a little late on this one, but it's worth mentioning anyway because finally there's a way to express the impact and meaning of Web 2.0 without verbally fumbling with "blogs," "collaboration," "synergy" and other bullshit buzz we've been hammered with and hammering others with so relentlessly.

After some trial and error, anthro professor Mike Wesch has perfected his text-based thesis on the evolution of the word, technology and ourselves in Web 2.0.

Definitely worth the watch. The progression from paper to text is a little painful if you've seen it 34598349058 times like we have, but it's nonetheless an elegant process and the ending is still pretty moving. Thanks Lee Hopkins for tipping us off.

Now Wesch can roll up his sleeves and start on his next project: Web 3.0, a web far more tangly than the one we've just finished weaving. But it isn't just around the corner, it's pretty much already here.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-22-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Online, Video, Viral

BAT-Test Shatters Long Held Belief that We Are, in Fact, Superhuman

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This is almost too engaging. To promote the premiere of Bionic Woman, take your BAT.

The BAT-test is where you can have a bionic assessment made on your super-extremities. The examinations are simple but actually pretty hard, and they can all be solved via keyboard.

Apparently Adrants is only 39 percent bionic. We're bummed.

Well, even if you can't be all powerful, you can at least watch Jaime Sommers try balancing life and paramilitary affairs on NBC's series premiere, which hits TVs on September 26th at 9/8c.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-22-07   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Best, Games, Online, Promotions

BooneOakley Runs For Saucony Account, Literally

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Charlotte-based BooneOakley is in the running for the Saucony account. Leaving it at that, though, would be a giant understatement regarding the lengths the agency went to to deliver the RFP to Saucony's Boston office. A team from the agency literally ran for the account - 859 miles to be exact - from Charlotte to Boston and documented the entire trip on a blog with videos.

Sadly, it seems, no one at Saucony is aware of the agency's extreme efforts as no one but a lone intern website coordinator from the marketing department was in the office last Friday to receive the RFP when the running team finally arrived. Contents of the RFP aside, Saucony should hire BooneOakley for the intense dedication and effort it put into running for this account. If it's any indication of the ongoing dedication the agency would give the account, Saucony would be wise to choose BooneOakley.

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by Steve Hall    Aug-13-07   Comments (8)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Agencies, Best, Brands

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