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Once upon a time we noted ad people would rather shoot movies than make boring ads. To illustrate this desperation we get tons of contrived holiday videos. But considering adland's love of video production in general, you'd think more artists would be thinking, "By gad. I'll get Ogilvy to position my bikini-clad models!"
Well, U2 did. Nix the bikini model part. For "Window in the Sky" they tapped Modernista, the only agency we know that self-promotes to an audience that perhaps prefers to remain unawares about agencies lurking behind brands. The resulting video is gorgeosity and includes multiple musical influences, icons and audiences.
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For a long time, everyone's been wondering who's really behind that freakish looking Burger King mask. OK, so we're the only ones wondering but has anyone seen Jack Kevorkian lately? The euthanasia dude seems to have disappeared. Oh wait, is he in prison? Anyway, we think we've found him along with the true identity of the Burger King.
Pop quiz. What do you get when you combine an advertising agency Christmas card with the Second Life fad? An agency Christmas card video set in Second Life, of course. Leo Burnett Detroit, one of the early agency entries into the virtual world has forgone the typical, boring, so yesterday, "real world" holiday card and, instead, given us an avatar-filled, winter-themed, Second Life hip hop jam. Hmm. Different. Nicely produced (by Millions of Us). Though it doesn't look like the Second Life we know. No lag. No half-built sims. No clunky interface. Just a lot of happy, dancing agency avatars. What's not to like?
What do Bob Saget, Penguins and Girls Gone Wild have in common? A viral-intended promotion for the DVD release of his movie The Farce of the Penguins of course. Narrated by mother f'ing, Snakes on a Plane dude Samuel L. Jackson, no less. It's dumb. It's stupid. It's funny. It was created by Special Ops Media.
Ross Simons Jewelers has launched another version of its long-running marriage proposal faux paux (did we spell that right?) promotion. Back in the day, videos of marriage proposals gone wrong (or right) were physically shipped to the brand and only a few people (the judges) got to see hundreds of versions of that awkward moment in life known as the marriage proposal. Now we have YouTube for public humiliation the world over. In a promotion called Proposal Gone Wrong, Ross Simons is offering $10,000 to the person who submits the best marriage proposal screw up.
Oddly enough, the promotion is entirely self-serving (not that all marketing isn't) in that the $10,000 doesn't come in the form of cash but in store credit. It might have been nice if that $10,000 was around before the engagement ring was actually purchased. Now, the $10,000 has to be spent on other body bling whether you want it or not. Oh wait, people love jewelery. Who are we kidding?
It's a good thing Annika holds the Kenwood MP3 player up to the camera for a close up in this video otherwise we'd have suffered from the "my eyes are up here" syndrome throughout the entire thing in which she sings We Wish You A Merry Christmas in an enticingly sexy Swedish accent. Acknowledging her hard to miss cleavage, this rendition of "We" Wish You A Merry Christmas takes on entirely new meaning.
We dig this video released by FCCFU.com which, to the tune of "My Country 'Tis of Thee," slaps the FCC in the wrist for being such tight-asses about what's available on mainstream media.
It flirts with tastelessness but gets the point across in a way that made us grin and not roll our eyes. Good stuff. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
Vaseline releases a couple of ads lauding the magic of skin. There are a couple of versions; one esoteric and mystical, the other slightly more fast-paced with a beat made of babble. We'll let you guess which is which.
How or why is it that the USA versions of ads always seem crasser and dumber than UK ones or ads for Europe in general? - Contributed by Angela Natividad
For Zvue, makers of handheld whatever-the-fucks, indy SF-based agency BuderEngel and Friends throw together a hopeful viral called Feet for Hands. They warned us first that there wasn't much cash in the deal but no amount of money can compensate us for the embarrassment we suffered having to sit through this story of a man with boots for hands dancing to "Look Out Weekend."
Of course the agency says it's doing well so what do we know? - Contributed by Angela Natividad
In Sydney, to celebrate Christmas, MTV got a crowd of restless people to litter...oh wait...tag the side of a building with 2,000 magnetic LED lights. They turned the whole thing into a video as only MTV can. Looks like it was fun. Not sure though. Though we do wonder what is was like for the people, if any, living in the building to be pelted by 2,000 magnets.
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