Southern Comfort (with Lime!): for when you're beyond sensory cognizance. The music sucks, your conduct questionable, everyone's funny, and Ugly at left is starting to look like a Good Investment.
The spot's called "Suspended Moments" and is part of a big hard year-end push. Also, in efforts to get down with the music scene, Southern Comfort goes by SoCo now. (It worked for J-Lo, Diddy and BevMo, right?)
Beginning next month, "SoCo Music Experience" webisodes will air on Heavy, My Damn Channel, Pitchfork.tv, Complex.com and DeathandTaxesMagazine.com. I'm not sure what a "Music Experience" is, but if I had to guess, I'd say they're like trashy music videos with slipperier floors. And heavy on the indie bands for good measure.
On Visa's behalf, Morgan Freeman congratulates US Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps "on having won more gold medals than anybody EVAR." The ad started airing hours after Phelps exceeded his own expectations of winning eight gold medals -- seizing his 10th on Tuesday. (He is now up to 11.)
Don't tell me they didn't have this bad-boy lying in wait, because I seriously doubt Freeman looked up from his gardening or whatever to go, "Oh! Phelps delivered the goods, I think I'll put together another sepia montage and say 'Good job' all over the world."
A recent Nielsen Online buzz tracking study found Phelps is the most-discussed Olympian athlete online. And on TV last night, I found out Phelps' wingspan is 6'7" -- THREE INCHES WIDER than he is tall. Also, his feet bend 15 degrees more than the average swimmer, making them more flippery or something.
UPDATE: Everyone seems to think I hate this ad. I don't. I think it was crafty of Visa to have it on the pipeline, I think it was a lovely way to fist-bump Phelps, and I think the campaign as a whole is a positive step away from the mediocre "Life Takes Visa" stuff we've been seeing. There. Please feel free to untwist your underpants.
See the new Colorado Lottery spot by Cactus. It promised instant fun but didn't deliver, although the spot probably would've been mildly amusing if it weren't buttressed by a threat to hit us with talent fees if we host the goddamn ad and don't take it down by October 6.
Fucking wet blankets.
Check out "Theatre" for Holland Casino. It clearly identifies its audience, demonstrates why casinos are more entertaining than a "high culture" jaunt ("It's more fun when you take part") and even made us laugh. I srsly almost choked on my couscous when dude was all, "IS IT A BOOK...?!"
Nice change from gaudy and cheesy. Good stuff by agency TBWA and production company Czar/NL.
And if you believe that, then you probably need it. Produced by Czar/NL for agency TBWA.
- iPhone apps have a "kill switch" that empowers Apple to yank any app off your phone whenever it likes. Steve Jobs says they'll never "pull that lever" unless an extreme situation calls for it (like if an app were disseminating a virus) -- but hell, the I'm Rich app wasn't hurting anybody and Apple was quick enough to pull that off the ropes.
- Glad Facebook wasn't around when Shakespeare was. Hamlet might've been much different (but still such a riot!).
- One expat rails against marketing stereotypes about the French, particularly sexy maids and misuse of "Ooh la la."
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The Olympics has a way of bringing the sap out in advertisers.
Visa's "Go World" campaign, no exception, trots Olympian trivia out to American viewers while convincing us these anecdotes aren't just important; they're a source of pride, a means to connect with the world by way of titanic achievement against insurmountable physical odds.
All this to win the synchronized high-dive? Yeah. See spots...
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- It's another raging Hitler appropriation. This one's called "The Rise and Fall of Twitter." Given that we've had similar spittle-fits over Twitter's goddamn down time, it's pretty funny, actually.
- Some nights you just need to pop a Kanye into your glass.
- Lack of bear at Black Bear Diner.
- So I guess the Montauk Monster is a guerrilla effort for an indie movie called Splinterheads.
- British carrier TalkTalk is trying to help fight autism with a campaign called The Forever Story. Alongside the common man, authors like Nick Hornby will contribute to a story that's supposed to go on forever. For every contribution, TalkTalk will donate 1 pound (the currency) to a charity called Treehouse.
Some people are only your friends because they eventually hope to sleep with you. Others, because you're a doormat with a lot of money. And still others remain your chums because you grow Skittles on your feet. True story.
And you know how you can tell? Because after validating you, they will bend over and get their gnaw on. GROW THE RAINBOW! Taste the rainbow.
The above spot picks up from "Touch" and chocolate pinata man (CHOCOLATE THE RAINBOW! Taste the rainbow).
We're not sure what's going on chez Skittles but it's definitely not sanctionably sane. Also, we kinda want to live there. (Via AdFreak, via the Denver Egotist.)
'Tis the season for back-to-school, and Target hits the notes without once going flat. In its latest spot, two roomies meet for the first time, shake hands, then dance their asses off to Calabria by Enur. Sometimes they're battling; other times they're totally in tandem. Meanwhile, they manage to magically decorate their oversized room.
Sassy stuff though. Tagline: "Be happy together, design together, save together. At Target." But it could also have been "West Side Story, meet Conspicuous Consumption. Now wiggle away your differences."
Think the happy together signals the birth of a new cover song? The Turtles had kind of a Target vibe going on, and it'd make a nice transition from Hello Goodbuy.
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