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)

Update: Book Burning

Ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night 6 will have tickets available for purchase on Friday, March 21, 2008.

The price, which varies for each city, includes a portfolio critique by at least 3 creative directors, food to fill your belly, drinks to calm you down, and a goodie bag filled with stuff, including an official PN6 t-shirt to remember the night.

New this year — students and junior creatives may bring their laptop. Be sure the work is up and ready for review, because you only have a short amount of time with each CD.

After all is said and done, your portfolio will be uploaded online. Any and all CDs in the universe that attended PN6 will be able to check out your best work. Make sure it's your best.

Questions? Visit the Official Portfolio Night 6 site, or see the FAQ Section.

March for Babies

March of Dimes has renamed its biggest fund-raiser, Walk America, to March for Babies, capturing the cause more effectively within the name. Today's article in the New York Times says that a Gallup poll reported only 45% knew what the organization's mission was. Honestly, I didn't know what it was about until after reading the story.

Barkley has created a PSA campaign to announce the call-to-action. The campaign includes Marchofdimesbaby.org, a site where anyone, especially mothers-to-be, can get information from preconception to teenage pregnancy. The entire page has questions that can be either clicked on or highlighted when selecting what you're wondering about. The questions link to answers on the March of Dimes Web site.

Behind the many questions is a baby, and this is where the cute factor skyrockets. The baby is endearing as it plays or crawls or raises its hands in excitement. It may be one baby or babies; the video plays for a while, fades out, and another baby (or the same one) takes the page. From a design perspective, the simple video makes the site so much more interesting to look at. And from an emotional perspective, as a human being, I am pulled in. I'm not a mother, but I could watch that baby for a long time. Mothers are sure to be captivated -- with the baby and with all of the questions that can be answered.

Here are the PSA TV spots.

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.

Christmas Noise

I saw this insert in USA Today earlier this month. Thanks to the reading program on campus, the residence halls receive free copies of the New York Times, USA Today and three local newspapers. The ad isn't entirely relevant anymore, because December 25th has come and gone, but this is a crazy idea.

In the ad, Sony is advertising noise-canceling headphones. They suggest you peel off the stickers and place them on a remote and luggage to show loved ones what you really want for Christmas. How will they know it's from you? There's no clarification on that. Maybe they're supposed to get everyone the same gift.

I would personally be pretty bothered if someone stuck something to my remote. When I want to take a sticker off -- and I'm going to want to -- I have to peel and pry at the thing for minutes. Then there's the paper that tore off and is super hard to get at. Lastly, the sticky grime that's left afterwards. That's going to make me want to get a gift for my friend alright.

The product isn't bad at all, but Sony is taking the wrong approach. I get why they are placing your ad for noise canceling headphones. Are they targeting the wrong person though? If Sony is advising you to put stickers where they would use the headphones, wouldn't that make them want the product more than to give it to you? Maybe it's a full-circle thing. You get one for me, I get one for you. I think it's a little bogus.

The art direction is nice. I like how they incorporate Sony's HDNA graphics into the print and into the stickers. They kind of look like snowflakes too. It makes some sense to put the graphics in, because it follows the design of Sony's other recent ads, but these headphones aren't HD. I'm not entirely sure about the copy, specifically, "From our studios to your ears, only Sony is true to music." Everything else must be a lie.

Christmas, We Love You the Best

The day we celebrate Christmas is over. We have to wait another year before we go pick out the best looking tree, take out the tinsel, and go over to grandma's house to see relatives we haven't seen since last Christmas. It will be another year before the mass chaos of last-minute shoppers flood the stores at four in the morning and bring you back to reality.

Another thing that brings us back to reality are bad gifts. Barkley believes that every idea has an expiration date. Except bad gift ideas. The agency has created the Bad Gift Emporium where you can share the bad gift(s) you've received over the years with others. If you want to, you can even exchange your bad gifts. I'm not sure specifically if the gifts are solely supposed to be from Christmas, because some don't look it. (If that's the case, I have a terribly awesome salt rock light I may display.)

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!

Nonsense

Exactly twenty days ago from today, the public chose a Web page concept for Nonsense, a creative agency in London. I cast my ballot in September. After voting, I entered my contact information and chose the "Just tell me when you have finished the entire project, as if I was one of your relatives" option. I am still waiting for them to contact me. It makes me wonder who else is waiting, or worse, who has forgotten about the whole thing.

The idea for their Web site is really smart. Free PR. Get the ad industry involved by having them post about the participatory election in blogs and online news sources. I'm sure there were other people who voted that aren't in the industry or even interested in advertising. A critical role agencies play is communication, and for me, Nonsense failed to communicate. It doesn't matter if the target audience was the ad industry or prospective clientele. Nonsense may have kept up with people who have their e-mail address ending in @ny.ddb.com, @bbdo.com, @ogilvy.com, etc., and not with the regular public. I don't know; maybe I was the only college student who voted. If the agency cannot create a dialogue with their product or brand, they aren't doing their job.

By the way, the winning vote was for 'The Rocking Chair Test'. The difference of 0.3% separated Media: Mixed from winning. On the Board was the big loser, with a 4.4% difference. This information is from their development blog, which Nonsense has created to update us on their progress. Hopefully they'll stay true to their word.

Volvo Interacts with Movie Premiere

Last year, SS+K and Brand Experience Lab came up with Newsbreaker for msnbc.com, a game using human joysticks and a motion sensor camera. Volvo is working in the UK with Brand Experience Lab and Carlton Screen Advertising by using this awesome idea as an interactive advertisement for the XC70 crossover. The audience is directed to move their hands left or right to gather as much luggage as possible within the time limit. I believe the brand recall will be high because the game looks like so much fun to play. I would probably go see the movie again just to interact with the technology, as well as with friends and strangers. At the end of the game, the theater's score is shown against other venues who are putting their hands up in the air like they just don't care. This is a great concept that works well with Volvo's tagline: 'Life is Better Lived Together'.

2006 | Newsbreaker



2007 | Volvo XC70

Book Burning

ihaveanidea's annual Portfolio Night is looming forth for the sixth time. May 8, 2008 signifies a night of dancing with the devil, or sitting down with brilliant creatives from the world's leading agencies. Aspiring creatives get three opportunities and 10 to 15 minutes to show their best stuff to creatives within an hour; it's more like speed dating rather than a formal interview. Last year, it was held in over 21 different time zones on the same day. This year, at least 33 cities are getting involved. ihaveanidea has submitted the event for application to Guinness World Records for the World's Largest Portfolio Review. Registration isn't up yet, but I'll let you know when it is.

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

All Dressed Up, Nowhere to Go

While visiting a friend two days ago, I saw a Seventeen Magazine in her room and asked to borrow it.

Why look in a girl's magazine? For one, I like ads. Secondly, research. The KSU Ad Club has volunteered to work with a student who is a Senior in Apparel and Textile Design; she will be opening a lingerie boutique in Rochester, New York sometime next year and has asked for some assistance developing a marketing strategy. We're privileged to work with her and have this opportunity.

Browsing through page after page of the publication and evaluating the effectiveness of the ads, I saw part of JCPenney's "Every Day Matters" campaign. The spread shows some teen girls at a dance posing for the camera in dresses that JCPenney is selling. I'm a guy, but I know when someone's hairstyle looks terrible. Theirs does, especially the girls on the far left and right. This is an important detail that JCPenney or its agency has missed. The lighting is also very poor. The copy is okay.


Going through some more pages, landing on a Dillard's ad, I saw a face that looked familiar. I had to do a double-take and go back to the JCPenney ad. She has the same facial structure. Yep, the caucasian brunette is the same model for JCPenney and Dillard's. (You may compare and contrast below.) Is this a bad thing for either company, or is it irrelevant?

JCPenney



















Dillard's



















The Dillard's ad has much better dramatic lighting for the occasion. The modeling and hairstyles are also better.

Are both concepts too similar? The ads are only 29 pages away from each other, in a magazine that has 173 pages. JCPenney is feeling free and having fun. Dillard's is intimate and elegant. Both spreads are scenarios headed to the same place.

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').

Learn How To Speak Teen

OMG AT&T TCHING RENTS 2 SPK LYKE ME

Communications company AT&T has put an insert in today's edition (Oct. 4) of the USA Today and previously on Sept. 25, part of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The insert features a cell phone with an indecipherable message. (I sometimes use text messaging, and the ‘teen lingo’ makes no sense to me, even after reading the supposed translation.) On the side of it reads, "Do You Speak Teen?" in a large, eye-catching font. The backside has information and a small quiz to see if you know your teen. Attached to the insert is a tear-off with more information. All but one side has links to either TheAntiDrug.com or TheAntiDrug.com/ParentChronicles.

Both days the insert has run, it has caught my attention. Both times I have seen them on the floor, dropped and disregarded by students getting their daily dose of headlines. The first time I picked the ad up, it was pretty dirty, so I threw it away. Once again, and in the same location (dining center), it was on the tile floor.

Is this really necessary? I don't mean is this necessary for the advertisement to run, but is our society so disconnected that parents need to be taught by a corporation how to talk to their kids? All of the 'Action Items For Parents of Teens' disturbs me, except for the third, which is only a little troubling.

“• Pick up your teen's mp3 player and go to the "Top 25 Most Played" section. Listen for references to alcohol, drugs or other risky behaviors. Then talk with your teen about what you heard.

• Visit social networking sites like MySpace.com, and browse the profiles of teens your child's age to see what they say, what their interests are and what they are doing online.

• Can you name your teen's favorite TV show? Watch it with him or her and discuss story lines.

• Go to a video sharing Web site and type in "smoking weed." Watch some of the videos. Did you know that your teen might be exposed to these images?”

Let's start at the top and work our way down.

1) My mp3 player does not have a “Top 25 Most Played” list. How do you know if listening to a song is harmful? We all know “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver, and “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul & Mary are references to smoking a blunt. I don’t know anyone who has said John Denver or Puff and Little Jackie Paper introduced them to pot. Bob Marley can be an exception. "Chronic-what-cles of Narnia" is from a skit on Saturday Night Live. It's a popular skit with teens and young adults, but it doesn't make me want to roll a doobie.

2) Stalk or lurk other children’s online communal space to build a stereotype of how your child is. Why not talk to them up front instead of peering over their shoulder?

3) This is good, for the most part. Spending quality time with your child is very important. Discuss story lines, right. How about this? Be genuinely interested and talk with whatever you want to talk about with your child, and whatever your child wants to talk about with you.

4) Parents have to go to a Web site to understand what “smoking weed” is? Doubt that. I’m pretty sure that teens have been exposed to images of marijuana. But does it make them go out and smoke it? That’s really subject to your child's moral values and susceptibility to peer pressure.

It is important to talk with your child/pre-teen/teen/whatever about drugs. Drug usage can destroy families and future generations. I’m glad to see support for the livelihood of teens and my peers working to be motivators.

Part of the tear-off insert reads, “Teens may be a hard study, but knowing more about their world and the influences around them will help you connect better with your teen.” Your kids should not be research projects but should be an individual masterpiece ‘in progress’. The tenor of the advertisement reads as if teens are just a statistic. And that’s especially what your son(s)/daughter(s) don’t want to be labeled today.

I’m a little confused as to who the demographic for this campaign is, because it’s parental advice from a company that may run your cable and is in the pages of a national newspaper. The idea people have of USA Today readers is subjective, so that doesn’t count. Maybe it’s toward the businessmen and women who wake up at 5 a.m. to commute two hours to work and hardly get to see their kids. Suggestion: I would rather have my parents spend an hour with me than spending an hour searching for profanity, connotations, etc. Don’t be anything but yourself, mom or dad.

NEXT Phones Arrive Too Soon

While browsing the news headlines at this early/late hour, I was linked to Breitbart.com from Drudge. At the top right of the page is a banner ad for Verizon Wireless Next series of phones. The banner ad has no animation. The two identical ads on the right at the middle of the page do, however. They go through each phone and then show the whole family together.

First of all, why two of the exact same ad? Do they think that the reader will not click one but give the other a chance? Maybe there's something I'm missing. Update: It has dawned on me that both ad spaces are taken because another tenant would distract from what Verizon is trying to sell.

The timing is way off, for those people who have laptop computers (smaller screen) at least, like me (15-inch). Sorry, my parents did not carry on the gene of reading a few hundred words every five seconds. I don't see the animation, so I have to refresh the page and scroll down. The average person is not going to do that.

What if there were a sensor to detect when the user has scrolled down to where the ad is located? The animation can then attract the reader's eye, doing what it's supposed to do. Scrolling over the ad itself is a good avenue to reach them, which is being used today. Seasoned current event lovers may train themselves to walk the fine pixelated line of not touching any ads or clicking, and that's why a sensoring program, code, or something, would capture more interested eyeballs.

Blendtec Blends Everything, Except Chuck Norris

Happy Trails to You

That's not the image I first pictured when I read the name of Kashi's TLC cookies at Target two nights ago. My mind wandered further down south, and immediately was turned off from the product. Why would something like this be overlooked? Even if it weren't "the stairway to heaven", how does "happy" help a product sell? The cookies aren't really happy. They probably wouldn't make me any happier; chocolate chip cookies put me in a good mood. The box of cookies was stored on the top shelf, so surely it wasn't directed at the younger demographic. Is this just creative laziness?

(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.