say it again, sam
Do you remember the Pronunciationmanual videos from last year? You know the ones, the videos with comically mispronounced brands and celebrity names. Granted, some were better than others (especially Justin Bieber and haute couture) but it was pretty funny while it lasted*. It even made it on to the Ellen Show (11 months ago) so you know it was really a ‘thing’.
Well, ever on top of pop culture trends an ad agency has created a version teaching us how to (mis)pronounce the big players in the advertising game. It’s about as funny as a Call Me, Maybe?/Gangnam parody (ie not at all) but people seem to like it. Check it out for yourself and then waste half an hour on the Pronunciation manual channel.
*turns out they’re still making them with a few updates every month
*travel related pun*
I bloody love a good print/press/whatever you can them ad. That moment flipping through a magazine when you can’t quite get past a page; you stop, turn the page and flip back to to take it all in. It’s just as good as that feeling walking past a bus stop, doing a double take and shuffling backwards to have another look. Maybe that’s just me and I’m more easily pleased/simple than I thought.
It’s why I absolutely love the ads below for Expedia with phrases made up from luggage tags. It’s so simple you can hardly believe it hasn’t been done before but that same simplicity makes me just sit and stare. Word on the street/Ben Kay’s blog is that the ads are limited run and have been made just to be entered into awards (where I imagined they’d do pretty well).
The Bon Voi Age ad is my favourite by far (despite the spelling). I actually kind of hate the ‘wish you were here’ one but thought it was worth including. You can see the rest on the Creative Review site.
horse’s eye view
Channel 4 is on a roll. Just last week I was talking about looking forward to their NYE houseparty and ‘bigging up’ last year’s C4 mashup. Since then they’ve announced another mashup in the New Year (which is amazing) and shown this beauty to promote their 2013 horse racing coverage.
While I’m not a fan of horse racing on any level (I don’t even care about the Grand National) I’m absolutely in love with this video. I’m a sucker for anything vaguely ‘behind the scenes’-y and with that fast paced editing I’m always going on about. It feels like a very young ad which I don’t imagine will appeal to the typical racing viewer (which in my head is a sea of McCririck clones) though presumably, that’s the point. The ‘see racing differently’ line is kind of perfect.
Also, Claire Balding, she’s pretty good, isn’t she?
the apocalypse according to Diesel
Video NSFW. You should probably give it a miss if you’re easily offended or not a massive child.
I love you Diesel.
ghost of christmas adverts past
So I know they aren’t identical in any way but these ads are basically the same, right? Or very similar, or just there’s something about them that calls the other to mind. It might be the buildup or the child presenting something that an adult has made to look like a child has made it at the end that does it. It all reminds me how good that John Lewis ad was and how totally unconvinced I am by the dad in the B+Q one. No way is that man a father.
for the love of money
There’s an American Express ad on the telly at the moment waxing lyrical about making the impossible possible. ‘How do you that?’, I hear you ask. Well my friends, the answer is simple, you make the impossible possible with money. It’s really that simple which makes me hope that I’ve really misunderstood what’s going on here. For a while I thought it was peddling some sort of AmEx concierge though I’m not sure that’s really any better: the message is still ‘throw money at something to sort it out’. The ‘return a loved one’ line seems particularly bad in this context and takes something that could have been really sweet, like if Royal Mail did it, into something cheap and nasty.
It seems that the ad has been on the go for a few years too. In their defense they’ve updated to voice so it’s narrated by David Tennant now. The same David Tennant who will use his voice for absolutely anything (I’m looking at you Virgin Media ad).
He does have a nice voice though.
THE BEST EVER LINES EVER IN ADVERTISING. EVER
In what might be the most vapid thing I ever post, here are my top three lines in advertising (I’m mostly joking by the way). Turns out they are all somehow bear related. I really like two of these ads anyway (nos 1+2) so the brilliant individual lines are just gravy. You can’t embed a video at specific points but I’ve listed the time the line comes up if you want to skip. On with the lines!
3. ‘That’s not a bear’ (39s) – he’s right, it’s not
2. ‘Bring on the trumpets’ (7s)
1. ‘What about a little ‘airy bear?’ (23s) – do NOT search youtube for that phrase. You have been warned
Old Spice saves the world
Old Spice have added to their list of creatively bizarre, bizarrely creative ads in the guise of Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 1/2 weeks to Save the World. The 8-bit game sees you control the Congolese Basketball player in his attempt to save the earth. Each week (I’m guessing) a new game will be revealed as you help Mutombo on his mission. The first problem to tackle, as explained by your bear friend, Science, is an obsession with Psy’s Gangnam Style that is preventing the American public from voting.
Yeah, I haven’t made any of that up. The game itself isn’t that fun but persevere, beat up Ohio and you’ll be able to have your initials sketched into an updated Mayan calendar as you watch on livestream. Pretty crazy but then again, this is Old Spice. One of the weirdest things is how topical it is so it’ll be interesting to watch if Old Spice keeps this up in the future games.
I actually thought the game was pretty bad and kind of infuriating. Your ‘health’ is connected to your quota of converted voters so every time you take a bump you need to rescue five more people. It means it can turn into a right slog if you aren’t careful and I nearly gave up when I replied for screengrabs. Saying that the game is packed in with incredible cutscenes that stick true to former Old Spice work. The real life calendar is a really cool touch like nothing they’ve ever done before. I’m always impressed when brands can turn digital interaction into something ‘real’
there’s no (product) place(ment) like home
Do you remember the Littlewood’s Christmas ad from last year? You know the one. The nativity scene, with the annoying children and all the ugly, expensive products shoehorned in for bad measure. Remember how bad and cheap and shameless it all felt? We get it Littlewood’s, you sell loads of stuff, no need to rub it in our faces. All that means this ad from Fab.com must be horrific, right?
Wrong. It’s actually really clever and pretty amazing (clamazing?). Chances are you’d never have heard of Fab before the ad and you almost definitely had no idea what they did. Even if you knew they were an online shop you still don’t know much at all. In that case, the visual product assault works. There might be a touch of double standards because I’m a sucker for this sort of designer stuff but it doesn’t half help that their stocklist looks great. Heavily edited stuff works for me too.
fun fact : Fab started life as a gay networking site, says FastCompany
