We can't even count the number of times we've been dragged to some canine haven by an overzealous pet, so this new ad by Petco, brought to us by good old Brentter, definitely struck a sappy chord.
We were jarred back into reality by the voice and branding message at the end, though. It just didn't jive well. The guy sounded like a hard-boiled narrator for an energy drink - you know, like this, except ever so slightly less intense.
That bold-ass font didn't help matters either.
Advertising Age drew some attention to an effort by Levi's to strengthen its clout in the gay community by producing an ad twice - once for the straight community, and once for the gay one. The gay one ran exclusively on MTV's Logo network (which, unless it branches out, sounds like it's probably getting less play than the hetero version).
As always with Levi's the production is clean but the concept is wrongfully credited for being the first to do the gay/straight coin toss with human beings.
Orbitz, noted by Ad Age for having done this with marionettes, also produced a set of thematically gay and straight ads with human beings.
Oops.
We won't fight the notion TV needs all the help it can get when it comes to program development so we're holding out high hopes for The Storyteller Challenge, a TV pilot competition presented by MySpace, FOX and the Producers Guild of America. The competition, hosted on MySpaceTV (which currently makes no mention of the competition), will award two winning entrants $25,000 and a chance at an development deal with FOX. MySpace members will comment on the 5-7 minute entries, vote for their favorites, suggest plot lines and generally play television critic.
First it was Doritos commercials. Now it's full blown TV shows. What's next, movies? Oh wait, we had Project Greenlight and that didn't go over so well.
On a mission to benignly molest any and all Sci-Fi classics we may have placed on the altars of our souls, DirecTV tears into the scene in Aliens where Ripley fights the alien queen.
In this appropriation she's really peeved because the queen won't leave her in peace to watch her DirecTV.
Nice touch with Sigourney Weaver who, according to Adfreak, joins William Shatner, Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen in the annals of DirecTV's illustrious ad history.
Post Kill Bill, Daryl Hannah doesn't seem to be doing much, so who wants to bet a cookie that the next ad is a Bladerunner nab?
We can't shake the sense that there's something really dated - think late '90s - about these mod new Sony VAIO ads (1, 2, 3) by Ignited for Latin America.
Oh, wait. We just figured out why. 1998 was the year Apple came out with its snazzy pick-a-swatch gimmick for the clear and colorful new iMacs, starting with Bondi Blue. That was really hot for back then, but, oh, we need more than color these days to save a flailing brand.
But assuming the product actually were imaginative, the ads also leave something to be desired, and the slogan, "Like no other," was clearly not the result of a "Eureka!" moment.
Martijn over at Fresh Creation pointed us to this ad for Videotron, which sought to emphasize the HDTV experience with a crash test dummy.
We dig the voice-over and the concept, but why haven't crash test dummies been retired to the annals of old-school yet?
- All those predictions about the death of the upfront? Still wrong. It's looking healthy and on it's way to 9 billion, up three percent from last year. Death of the :30? not this year.
- PricewaterhouseCooper says global web ad spending will hit $80 billion by 2011.
- Even more Cannes idiocy: Wrath of Cannes
- Howard Stern may be sued by weight loss company JEC for disparaging comments he made about Stern regular, Cabbie who is using the product.
- Johnson & Johnson has pulled creative duties for all but one account, Acuvue, from IPG's McCann Erikson, a loss of $90 million for the agency.
If you're head is about to explode because you can't follow the increasingly insane Lost plot twists. If you're sick of the Jack/Sawyer/Kate will they/won't they crap. If you can't figure out whether the show is biblically purgatory-based or some kind of time travel experiment gone wrong. If you think the Dharma Initiative is run by Bill Gates' detached-at-birth twin, TomTom has all the answers for you inside it's Lost in 30 Seconds video.
Created by Brainchild Creative and given the XFX treatment by Phoenix Editorial & Designs comes a campaign for California's Flex Your Muscles energy efficiency PSA. Employing non-professionals and using a loose scripts, the "California" spot features parents promising to leave their children the beauty they know to be California. Closing with the tag, Global warming isn't just a fact. It's a choice, the spot urges people to realize what they do today has a serious effect on future generations. Three other spots, Climate, Drought and Floods complete the campaign.
The first two spots, California and Climate broke June 11. The second two spots, Drought and Floods will break July 2
- Cynopsis reports ComScore will now begin measuring the reach of widgets, used more and more buy brands as a commercial platform.
- Cynopsis also reports the first major upfront deal has been struck between NBC and Group M. The deal is reported to be between $800 million and $1 billion and was based on live plus three ratings.
- There's a bit of a bitch fight going on between Google and eBaby over Google's courting of unhappy eBay merchants who Google would like to have as Google Checkout customers. In an apparent reaction to that, eBay has pulled all its AdWords advertising
- When NBC's Heroes returns this fall, Nissan will be all over the show like Syler on Hiro with increased product placement and exclusive sponsorship of the season opener.
- Ford Models has hooked up with MySpace for its International Model Search. MySpace will be home to the search for both aspiring models and those who just like to look.
- It seems the iPhone is too big for some over at Apple and they want to make it appear smaller in their ads.
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