Foam City

Sony and Fallon [London] is currently filming the next commercial for Sony electronics in downtown Miami, Florida. The high today was a sunny 75 degrees.

Ruth Speakman, European PR Manager for Sony, has been twittering about the event all day. She also kept live updates of the recent Sony BRAVIA "Play-Doh" shoot filmed in New York last fall.

Simon Ratigan, who has worked with Fallon in the past, is the director of "Foam City". Sony had the biggest foam machine in the world custom built, shooting out 2.5 million liters (660,430 gallons) of foam per minute.

The $1.4 million commercial is believed to be part of a massive campaign centered around the Sony Handycam, Cybershot and Alpha brands. The campaign is expected to be released in June.

According to BrandRepublic, "The ads will show various scenarios in which adults and children play in foam bubbles around the city."

Update (March 10, 2008) The spot may be aimed at the Sony Cyber-shot W170, a digital camera which automatically detects a smile and captures an image of the subject without the need of pressing the shutter. Who wouldn't smile in a sea of foam?

Update (March 11, 2008) For a lot more foamy goodness, check out some pictures taken and more information from a journalist at the shoot here.

(via Shedwa)

Guess What?

Yesterday, I saw a version of this commercial. (I think they may have pitched for Lexus.) The aired spot is more emotional and a lot less flashy than the one I've linked. If anyone knows where to find the original, please let me know. My friend and I were guessing in our heads as to what it could be. We were drawn in from the start. Is it love? Is it family? What is it?! When the payoff came, (spoiler) we found out it was the letter h. The freaking letter h.

Update (Jan. 31, 2008): Someone's put up the actual spot online. Here it is.

Around the World Famous Studio to US Air

I'm not sure if this would be classified as consumer generated content or something else. The story is similar to how the iPod Touch commercial came about. Two creative directors at World Famous studio in Seattle created a spec commercial for US Airways from the footage they had while editing a regional US Air spot. Executive Creative Director at Moses Anshell, US Airways' agency of record, saw the spec ad on World Famous' site and decided to use it in their national campaign.

Find out more details and see the spot here.

Everyone's Invited to Swim

Only the great will make it to the other side.

The annual D&AD Student Awards competition is in full-swing. The British Design and Art Design Award is one of the most coveted and challenging student awards across the pond and around the world.

There's no limit of entries, but they had better be incredible. The best of the best will be grading them. Each entry needs to be signed by your tutor/professor, or you can't enter. Can a 30 year-old grad student enter? You betcha. (Coincidentally, that's the same age as this award.)

Winners receive an oversize pencil whose tree's growth must have been stunted due to the greenhouse effect. But this little stump can be used as a pedestal to reach the next level, or a doorstop to save yourself from having a crushed foot.

The categories are: Advertising, Animation, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Integrated Communication, Music Videos, Open Briefs, Photography, Product Design, Social Design, and What Else Do You Do? Description for the last onereads, "Having already entered one of more of the briefs this year, you are now entitled to now submit an additional piece of work that has nothing to do with this or any other competition..."

Because this blog is about advertising, I will only list the endless possibilities for the Advertising category.

Postcard
Breastfeeding, Sponsored by Best Beginnings
Press Advertising
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Sponsored by Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Outdoor
HSBC, Sponsored by ClearChannel
Viral
Nando's, Sponsored by Nando's
Ambient
London Fashion Week, Sponsored by Grazia
Writing
If Only I'd Listened More Carefully, Sponsored by Ogilvy
Direct and Online
The Army, Sponsored by TEQUILA\
Poster
The Royal Opera House, Sponsored by This Is Real Art
TV
Belu, Sponsored by Weilands

You can't literally drown if you don't win; you only fill your metaphorical lungs up with water and have to be resuscitated by determination. Or you could change majors (quitter). Before you enter, read this. Did you read it? Okay, the briefs are here.

D&AD will accept entries from students from Jan. 14 – March 20, 2008. The grading takes place in May, and the awards ceremony is in June. All of the 'A' work is accessible in June.

Good luck!

Von Maur Does the Right Thing

After the shooting in Omaha, Nebraska's Westroads Mall on Dec. 5, 2007, which claimed nine lives, Von Maur immediately gave their condolences to friends and family of those involved in the incident. The department store chain is based in Davenport, Iowa, about a four-and-a-half-hour drive away. The shooting has been reported to be on the second and third floors of the Von Maur in Omaha. On the same night, Jim Von Maur, CEO of Von Maur, flew in to offer his personal condolences. I'm not going to say this is a 'great move' by Von Maur, because it sounds rude under these circumstances. But it is by far the right thing, and a very kind thing, for Jim Von Maur to do for his patrons and employees.

Buick May Have a Chance

Tonight I saw an ad online (left) for Buick. The Buick Enclave is the crossover vehicle in the picture. It seems like they're saying "we don't suck anymore, give us a chance" through Motor Trend magazine's review. It's your choice to accept a brand that's only acceptable and not the leader. Buick has been around for over 100 years, and we all know by the incredibly slow drivers that the brand still exists. Buicks are known to be called the car for an old person. I have heard younger people complain and say, "oh, they're driving a Buick", when in fact they're driving a Cadillac, Oldsmobile, or whatever. Buick is working to erase the stereotype by making their vehicles –- or at least the Enclave -- more romantic and family-oriented.

The 30-second spot, done by Vigilante, for the Buick Enclave features the Director of Design, Interior, Michael Burton, who subtley lets you know how he supposedly chose what materials to use in the design.



I would compare this commercial to the Lexus spots, done by Team One, which specifically talk about music and remind consumers about the Mark Levinson sound system. Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, is the number one luxury automaker company in the world. It was a great idea by them to focus on a small but important piece of the pie rather than the whole thing. It's engaging and entertaining. You can watch the other two here.



Michael Burton explains how he got inspired. (Video ends at 2:15)

Apple Commercial Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

DIY Advertising, also known as consumer generated content, is becoming more prominent. Agencies' clients pay a large sum of money to grab your attention so you can do the same to others by creating an advertisement that is relevant to consumers like yourself.

Apple and their agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, are doing something a little different; marketing employees at Apple found a 30-second video about the iPod Touch and wanted that to be their next commercial. The video was edited in Final Cut Pro and produced by Nick Haley, an eighteen year-old freshman from the University of Leeds in England. He's an Apple enthusiast, having received his first Apple computer when he was three years-old.

The spot is quite similar to something TBWA/Chiat/Day and Apple would produce, so it's no wonder the video matches their taste. The music, 'My Music is My Hot, Hot Sex' by Brazilian band CSS, is expected but fits very well with the fast tempo walk-through of the iPod Touch. Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS), Portugese for 'Tired of Being Sexy', will be playing for Great Britain in December on their Christmas Tour. After Chiat contacted him via e-mail on his phone, he took his first trip across the pond and worked with agency creatives in Los Angeles to produce a similar HD broadcast-ready version.

Nick Haley spot


TBWA/Chiat/Day + Apple spot

BRAVIA Bunnies!

The newest Sony Bravia advertisement is out. First, there was 'Balls', then there was 'Paint'. Now, there is 'Play-Doh', featuring 2.5 tons of plasticine in 1:30 of stop-motion. "Devised by Fallon [London] and shot over three weeks in New York, the commercial employed 40 animators from Passion" (Sony). The spot also included 189 2' bunnies, 150 1' cubes, a 10'x20' purple wave, one giant 30' rabbit, and six cameras.

Watch the Teaser


Watch 'Play-Doh'


For better quality, watch the video on Sony BRAVIA's site. It takes a little while to load, but you get to read some colourful facts while you wait. Update: Don't wait and watch it here.

The Website has more. First, put your headphones on. Colour your own on the personalized Colourwall, walk through sharp blades of grass, listen to calming music, fly through a tunnel, drip a droplet, and bounce a ball on some walls to drop psychedelic sounds and ripples of colour. You can download the old BRAVIA spots, wallpapers and images. Also, check out the colour experiments and some info on the singer-songwriter José González ('Balls').

(Do It) For the Glory of Love

In the latest issue of Communication Arts magazine, Ernie Shenck encourages us to appreciate every day, whether it's the day you get laid off or the day your agency lands an account with your favorite brand. The article is called 'Is There a Shoeless Joe in You?', referencing the baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Do what you do because you love it unconditionally.

Here's an excerpt of the motivational column. I encourage you to subscribe to CA. If you don't, at least get this issue for Ernie's uplifting words.

"I hope you love it all. Embrace it all. Suck it all in and let it shape and form you into something amazing, something with depth and breadth and subtle variations in texture and color, the likes of which we've never seen. Love what you do. Love the highs and the lows and weave it all into what you are to become. Be blindly in love. Be Shoeless Joe. Hold the bat up to your face. Look at the grain. Feel it on your cheek. Smell the varnish. You'll be better for it. We all will."

Here's a great example.

Philips Seduces Viewers

Philips has begun an international campaign for the Aurea, a Flat LCD HDTV that projects ROY G BIV onto your wall. It's much more than that, though. The Aurea is endless visual pleasure. The experience is like tripping on acid -- without the acid. The sad news: currently, it's only available in Europe.

DDB concepted the idea of a short film, directed by Wong Kar Wai, which can be seen on the Web and in stores. You are given the option to keep the "Ambilight On" or "Ambilight Off" to compare and contrast. A beautiful musical score, by Mark Slater and members of the London Symphony orchestra, labeled as the "Aurea Soundtrack", may also be downloaded on the Web site, created by Tribal DDB.

Most of the advertising will be television-based, by DDB Amsterdam, showing the brilliant, upgraded feature with a 60-second spot. Vincent Peters, fashion photographer, shot the print.

Philips is also staying ahead by partnering with Swarovski, a world-famous crystal and jewelry company. They're launching the Philips-Swarovski Active Crystals collection.

Rudy Provoost, Philips CEO, says it's a "fusion of function and fashion." Philips is targeting the female touch. "It's kind of bringing Philips 'sense and simplicity' with style and seduction" (Shiny).

These Colors Don't Run, They Drive

"Rethink American" is Saturn's new tagline. Everything in the commercial (below) by Deutsch LA, to my knowledge, is driven to be American -- except for the song. "Higher" is performed by British band Soundcage, composed by Daniel Cage. He's also written music for major brands like Nike, Reebok, Pepsi, and Coke. According to Cage's official Web site, he graduated from the University of Southern California, and his next show is in New York -- performing at a charity benefit with Bette Midler and Kanye West. But he's still from the UK; it's an American-themed spot with a British song. This contradicts the whole message and makes me wonder why more people aren't seeing this disconnect. Details shouldn't go unnoticed. Isn't it Rethink Canadian, anyway?

Contagious Commercial

This commercial by BBDO New York for Diet Pepsi Max interacts with the audience, and sometimes -- depending on if yawning is contagious for the individual -- the audience interacts with the commercial. I yawn just thinking about yawning. The other commercials in this campaign aren't as focused. Is Diet Pepsi Max trying to get the consumer to identify (the absence of) yawning with their brand? It's a somewhat creative approach, but any caffeinated product can give you a kickstart in the morning. Now I can't...stop...yawning.

'Cavemen' Evolved Too Fast

ABC producers have decided to re-shoot the 'Cavemen' pilot, after failing to establish them properly. Two of the original Geico actors in the commercial spots were unavailable, but Jeffrey Daniel Phillips, will be in the series. Hopefully it was Joe Lawson, creator and producer, who spoke up on how much the pilot preview sucks and how the actors' personalities do not resemble the savvy, yet Paleolithic minds, featured in the great Geico commercials. If it wasn't him, maybe the network actually listened to us.

(via Drudge)

'Dirty Jobs' Plugs Ford

On tonight's episode of 'Dirty Jobs' on the Discovery Channel, Mike Rowe, the show's host, teams up with a Texas outdoor advertising company to install a billboard. He helps with everything from start to finish. Keeping the stereotype alive, the billboard is huge. At the end of the segment, he plays with the idea that only a big company could handle this advertising space. The camera pans out and the Ford oval from an F-150 is in view. Cut to Mike Rowe on the billboard in front of a brand new Ford F-150 advertisement. He looks up at the truck and says, "Now that's a tough truck."

Mike Rowe joined Ford in January as a personality in their TV, print and online advertising campaign for the F-150 truck. The show was sponsored by Ford, and this one entire segment was dedicated to constructing a billboard. (I don't recall of any other episode where Mike Rowe did only one job for the entire show.) I wouldn't be surprised if Ford purchased the billboard and concepted the idea for this episode. The show was entertaining, and the Ford plug wasn't until the end, although it was very obvious what they were doing.

Will audiences accept this form of advertising, or will they ignore it?

Hillary's Campaign Song

To announce Hillary Clinton's campaign song, she made a video that spoofs the 'Sopranos' finale. At the end of the video, a Web site address is given to find out the winning song. If you don't want to register and listen to what she picked, go here.

(via Drudge)

Free Root Beer Float at Sonic!

If you haven't seen the commercial, in 24 hours from now (that would be June 7th), from 8pm - midnight, you can get a free 10 oz. root beer float from Sonic. There's no catch -- no "with the purchase of" -- just free.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Recently there has been a campaign by McCann-Erickson for the Nikon D40, an entry-level digital SLR camera. The camera was introduced to the market in November 2006. The recent TV commercials, which first aired two weeks ago from today, were filmed in March of 2007 in the town of Georgetown, South Carolina. The cameras were given to ordinary people - fire fighters, police officers, retirees, high school students, moms and dads - to document their everday lives. Nikon states that Georgetown, dubbed Picturetown, is "a place where ordinary people take extraordinary pictures."



Viewers can visit stunningnikon.com/picturetown to view over 300 pictures in the gallery and learn about some of their experiences using the camera. Visitors can enter in a chance to win the camera if they spot it on the site, within the 40 days of the sweepstakes. The site also gives the time in Picturetown, USA, but it is the wrong time. The time zone here is Central Standard Time, and the time zone for Picturetown is shown as one hour earlier, not later. When I changed the time on my computer, the Picturetown time went back one hour. You can see the screen shot below.



Nikon has also been doing print ads for Picturetown, but I really like the actual size cutout of the camera that you can peel off the ad and take with you. You can open it up and read the camera's main features. If a photography lover wanted to bring this to someone's attention (as a gift, to ask for financial assistance, etc.), it's much easier and a better presentation than tearing out an ad in a magazine.

But a camera doesn't take a great picture; the photographer does. It does not state anywhere (that I could find) if the Georgetown participants were all given cameras with the same lens. Because the price given for the Nikon D40 is $599 (w/kit), we can assume they were all given the camera with the 18-55mm lens. If they used a better, more expensive Nikkor lens, I'm sure their pictures would look even better. It's not so much the body of the camera that matters, but it is in the lens. Unless of course, you want better durability, more fps (frames per second), more megapixels, and more professional features. But again, the camera does not set up the composition for the shot or have an alarm to let you know when the best lighting situation is. It is the photographer who makes the image.

Digital SLR cameras are not point-and-shoot cameras. With an SLR (Single-lens reflex) camera, what you see in the viewfinder - and a little bit of what you don't see - is your picture. The LCD screen on a DSLR will not show you the picture before you take it; you are required to look in the viewfinder, take the picture, and then you will see it on the LCD display. Most point-and-shoot digital cameras show you what you are seeing through the digital display screen.

The Nikon D40 (w/kit 18-55mm lens) retails at $525. Nikon's biggest competition is Canon. The D40 competes with the Canon Digital Rebel XT (w/kit 18-55 lens), which retails at $599. The Nikon has 6.1-megapixels, and the Canon comes with 8.2-megapixels. There are other things to compare as well, and you can find them at photography review Web sites like Digital Photography Review, Steve's Digicams, and Camera Labs.

Stunningnikon.com also features the Nikon D80 and the Coolpix point-and-shoot cameras. The site labels the Coolpix as beautiful and the D80 as vision. The D40 is labeled as Picturetown.

The D80 is a step up from the D40. It is a 10.1-megapixel camera that can come with a 18-135mm kit lens and a retail price of $1,179. Nikon gave experienced photographers the camera, and their work is shown at stunningnikon.com/d80. I like this gallery a lot more than Picturetown's because you can zoom in with the entire gallery. And then you can zoom in to the picture itself. All of the participants for the D80 have a Flickr gallery where you can see all of their pictures. There is also a widget you can download that will display their pictures as your background. Great ideas to keep it going even after they visit the Stunningnikon site.

The Coolpix series ranges in price from $110-$350, with various features and sizes. The cameras were given to celebrities to document certain celebrity events. Basic information is given about the limited edition Zac Posen case on the Web site, but the case is no longer available. But if you want to learn more about their promotions, Nikon says to sign up. This is the least involving and least personal.

Nikon released the D40 in November of last year, and four months later, released the D40X, a camera with the same body but more features and $200 more. I believe this is a good move by Nikon, and I thought that maybe it should have been done earlier, in sync with the release of the camera and before the holiday season. But I see that the campaign is about the every day, and this works better with a wider audience, which Nikon is aiming to reach. Though I do believe that their claim of everyone being able to take extraordinary pictures with the Nikon D40 to be false. But with that said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Especially when you get a free camera.

Size Matters

Samsung commercial uses high-speed camera, tiny food, insects, and an arachnid.

Hilarious Commercial

Skittles "Leak" is one of my favorite commercials. It launched in 2006 by TBWA/Chiat/Day. In terms of effectiveness, I'm not really sure how effective it is. But it is incredibly funny and simple.



Ian Reichenthal, group creative director and copywriter, said, "We don't want our strategy to show because this is a target group that doesn't want to be marketed to. Teenagers and young adults just don't respond to pat category strategies like, 'Having a sad day? Eat this, have a happy day.'" (Mediaweek)

I'm going to be up front and say that I've wanted to post this for a while, but it's also for Tom and Jim at Barkley in Kansas City, whom I interviewed with yesterday. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Find the Volkswagen Golf

Pierre Riess, a copyrighter at V in Paris, recently submitted a video he worked on for Volkswagen. The description of the video is "A car film without any car because it's too difficult to imagine the new golf for that price..." The video itself is playful and enjoyable, showing different shots of the road and environment like one would see in an automobile commercial. No vehicle is shown. Rilo Kiley and an acoustic guitar accompany the spot beautifully. At the end is the Volkswagen logo on black. But the vehicle being advertised is supposed to be a Volkswagen Golf. This commercial could work for any vehicle of Volkswagen 's because it describes what Volkswagen is - a good time. I'm just a little confused as to why the Golf isn't mentioned. Regardless, it's nice work and a new, creative way of thinking.