Advertising in the Air
Advertising in the Air is one of those events that makes one feel privileged to be part of the advertising community. Celebrating such amazing work, though filling me with envy, also fills me with hope. It is encouraging to know that, at least for some of us, there really is light at the end of the tunnel. That, sooner or later, we’ll get the opportunity to work for a client with a great product and a great attitude (and a great budget though that isn’t absolutely necessary).
Royston Tan’s “Cut” was hilarious. It voiced out everything that is wrong with this nanny-state mentality we’re stuck with. No doubt it isn’t gonna change anything. (I don’t think anything would change unless, say, we got invaded… er… liberated by the Americans as they have a tendency to do these days.) But at least it’s brought to the censorship board’s attention what the masses think about all this snipping which is, in a nutshell, “CUT IT OUT!”
Ads, Ads and more Glorious Ads. The weird, the wonderful, the painful, the downright unintelligible. Everything was on display. As expected, the Adidas campaign was one of those showcased. I think when you use Muhammad Ali, you’re bound to succeed. But there was that wonderful line too. Impossible is Nothing… you can almost see the thought process.
Copywriter and art-director sit on couch drinking coffee with notepads on table. Either one of them is whistling while the other twiddles a pencil. Deadline’s in an hour.
CW: We’re screwed man.
AD: Yeah. Definitely
CW: Wait… so if I clench my fist really tight, the mosquito won’t be able to stop sucking and explode?
AD: Yeah. Definitely.
CW: Gotta try it once we get this out of the way.
AD: This brief is impossible. (see see?)
CW: Nothing is impossible. (even more see?)
AD: Hmmm…
CW: Hmmm…
AD: Impossible…
CW: Impossible…
AD: is nothing?
CW: Bleah… Jot it down.
And that would have been that. No leaping for joy. No nothing. Serendipity (if it really happened like that) happens more than we’d like to admit.
Linux had a great ad. A boy sits silently on a stool staring blankly while various experts take turns to explain a lot of crazy stuff to him. Chaos theory (it’s all about timing), engineering, programming etc and he just takes it all in. The voiceover describes the project as if the boy is some prototype cyborg whose mind (or hard disk if you must) is imbibing vast amounts of knowledge. It ends with “His name is Linux”. And the tag line? “The Future is Open” if I remember correctly. Loved it.
And then there were those that didn’t appeal to me.
Playstation, I believe, had one where masses of people run onto the streets heading towards one skyscraper (or “sky-scrapper” as I recently read in some company’s whitepaper) and begin swarming it like so many ants over a dead cockroach till they reach the top. A few have their turn to stand at the very peak before falling over only to have their places taken by others. Great art-direction, especially the flyby shot towards the end. But then it just ended with the word “Play”. (Again, my memory is fuzzy but I think that’s how it went.) Which left me puzzled and unsatisfied.
And then there were those where you marveled in part at the creative but more so at the servicing team that managed to sell the idea in the first place. The ad in question was for, again I’m guessing, Nike.
Madison Square Garden. A basketball game is in progress. The crowd is on its feet, cheering, eating, booing etc. That usual NBA tune is playing. Dum dum dum dum repeatedly. I’m sure everyone knows this one. And then the tune stops. The crowd sits down hurriedly and the camera sorta picks out this one puzzled basketball player and another dude in the crowd as they finally realize what’s going on and make a dash for it. Others who can’t find seats are doing the same, scrambling around and grabbing everything that counts as a seat. Forklifts seats, toilet bowls, dressing room stools. Anything. Until finally only the poor basketballer is left standing. And then? The music plays again and the game starts over. Ok… words don’t do this ad justice but it’s basically a glorified inverted version of musical chairs.
How do you even sell this sorta idea to a client?
Suit: Well, you know musical chairs?
Client: Uh-huh…
Suit: We’d like to do it on a larger scale. You know? Like really AWESOME.
Client: …
Suit: So we have this huge arena full of people and everyone has to grab a seat, see? And this one guy doesn’t make it, and well, yeah. It starts all over again from there.
Client: Get outta here.
I suppose this is where a helivac would come in useful for most servicing teams but apparently this one managed to punch through and shoot the client in the head. Good job and a great though somewhat pointless ad. What I’d give to have something like that in my book nonetheless.
Playing ad critic is fun. So this is how Bob Garfield makes a living.
Anyway, for some great TVCs, visit here and here.
Royston Tan’s “Cut” was hilarious. It voiced out everything that is wrong with this nanny-state mentality we’re stuck with. No doubt it isn’t gonna change anything. (I don’t think anything would change unless, say, we got invaded… er… liberated by the Americans as they have a tendency to do these days.) But at least it’s brought to the censorship board’s attention what the masses think about all this snipping which is, in a nutshell, “CUT IT OUT!”
Ads, Ads and more Glorious Ads. The weird, the wonderful, the painful, the downright unintelligible. Everything was on display. As expected, the Adidas campaign was one of those showcased. I think when you use Muhammad Ali, you’re bound to succeed. But there was that wonderful line too. Impossible is Nothing… you can almost see the thought process.
Copywriter and art-director sit on couch drinking coffee with notepads on table. Either one of them is whistling while the other twiddles a pencil. Deadline’s in an hour.
CW: We’re screwed man.
AD: Yeah. Definitely
CW: Wait… so if I clench my fist really tight, the mosquito won’t be able to stop sucking and explode?
AD: Yeah. Definitely.
CW: Gotta try it once we get this out of the way.
AD: This brief is impossible. (see see?)
CW: Nothing is impossible. (even more see?)
AD: Hmmm…
CW: Hmmm…
AD: Impossible…
CW: Impossible…
AD: is nothing?
CW: Bleah… Jot it down.
And that would have been that. No leaping for joy. No nothing. Serendipity (if it really happened like that) happens more than we’d like to admit.
Linux had a great ad. A boy sits silently on a stool staring blankly while various experts take turns to explain a lot of crazy stuff to him. Chaos theory (it’s all about timing), engineering, programming etc and he just takes it all in. The voiceover describes the project as if the boy is some prototype cyborg whose mind (or hard disk if you must) is imbibing vast amounts of knowledge. It ends with “His name is Linux”. And the tag line? “The Future is Open” if I remember correctly. Loved it.
And then there were those that didn’t appeal to me.
Playstation, I believe, had one where masses of people run onto the streets heading towards one skyscraper (or “sky-scrapper” as I recently read in some company’s whitepaper) and begin swarming it like so many ants over a dead cockroach till they reach the top. A few have their turn to stand at the very peak before falling over only to have their places taken by others. Great art-direction, especially the flyby shot towards the end. But then it just ended with the word “Play”. (Again, my memory is fuzzy but I think that’s how it went.) Which left me puzzled and unsatisfied.
And then there were those where you marveled in part at the creative but more so at the servicing team that managed to sell the idea in the first place. The ad in question was for, again I’m guessing, Nike.
Madison Square Garden. A basketball game is in progress. The crowd is on its feet, cheering, eating, booing etc. That usual NBA tune is playing. Dum dum dum dum repeatedly. I’m sure everyone knows this one. And then the tune stops. The crowd sits down hurriedly and the camera sorta picks out this one puzzled basketball player and another dude in the crowd as they finally realize what’s going on and make a dash for it. Others who can’t find seats are doing the same, scrambling around and grabbing everything that counts as a seat. Forklifts seats, toilet bowls, dressing room stools. Anything. Until finally only the poor basketballer is left standing. And then? The music plays again and the game starts over. Ok… words don’t do this ad justice but it’s basically a glorified inverted version of musical chairs.
How do you even sell this sorta idea to a client?
Suit: Well, you know musical chairs?
Client: Uh-huh…
Suit: We’d like to do it on a larger scale. You know? Like really AWESOME.
Client: …
Suit: So we have this huge arena full of people and everyone has to grab a seat, see? And this one guy doesn’t make it, and well, yeah. It starts all over again from there.
Client: Get outta here.
I suppose this is where a helivac would come in useful for most servicing teams but apparently this one managed to punch through and shoot the client in the head. Good job and a great though somewhat pointless ad. What I’d give to have something like that in my book nonetheless.
Playing ad critic is fun. So this is how Bob Garfield makes a living.
Anyway, for some great TVCs, visit here and here.
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