Rambling and blogging for over 8 years, from good food and drink around town, eclectic electronic music, absolutely anything to do with digital media, throw some sport (more than likely cricket) in and the odd personal experience — as seen through my viewfinder.
I’ve been on a bit of a TVC kick recently. The Gruen Transfer’s probably aided this! I do love this ad, just for the concept simplicity - even though the execution might not have been so simple. Released in 1996, it was an award winner for Y&R London.
Take a world class athlete - Carl Lewis, and get him running on all terrain, over water, steep inclines - you name it. Add Quoth by Polygon Window (aka Aphex Twin) for the abrasive soundtrack.
And you get and you get an advert that makes you stand up and take notice.
The US Dunkin’ Donuts chain has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray after critics argued that a scarf she wore in the ad offers symbolic support for terrorism.
Dunkin’ Donuts said today it pulled the ad over the weekend because of what it calls a “misperception” about the scarf that detracted from its original intent to promote its iced coffee.
Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. The ad’s critics say such scarves have come to symbolise Muslim extremism and terrorism.
It’s quite funny, as I remember bringing back a kramah from Cambodia and wearing at as a fashion item for a while before I saw the keffiyeh in start to pick up in use. I think I may have seen it in use in a magazine somewhere at some stage. Why the discussion of the kramah? Because many thought it was a keffiyeh - and as you can see from the picture (left), there are some similarities. Yes, it’s an adornment (er.. scarf!) that can be worn around the head or neck. Yes, this is black and white. The red and white versions of the kramah also became synonymous with the Khmer Rouge. More recently, some friends came back from Berlin, sporting his and hers versions (black and red), and then the fashion item jumped the shark, appearing in low end fashion advertisments for companies like Roger David.
So, what do you think? Is it akin to wearing the Castro cap? Wearing camoflague fatigues that are similar in patternings to dictatorial nations? Or is it a storm in a teacup? It is a scarf after all.
Lastly, when it comes to Dunkin’ Donuts, you shouldn’t be eating that crap anyway! Go and eat a non-extremist carrot!
After watching The Gruen Transfer on the ABC tonight, I hit the website and a thread asked “what ads do you think epitomise the best of the advertising art form?” Now, I’m an online guy, so it seems a little wrong for me to focus purely on TV, but I’m going to, because I do love the format. It’s powerful, it’s on a big screen dominating your living room visually and the audio can still be heard whilst you’re in the bathroom, because it’s been increased by 20dB by the broadcaster.
So, here’s part one of my favourite TVCs. I’m going to focus on one thing that I do love - meat, and Australian produce of course.
Falling in Lamb
Clever. The use of the cinema trailer format is indeed clever, and the first time I’ve seen this, for this type of ad. How do you engage and make meat interesting? Make it in a love story of course. Genius!
Dinner with Tom Cruise
Naomi Watts turns down dinner with Tom. What’s funny to think is that when this was shot, Naomi probably would dream of dinner with Tom and certainly wouldn’t turn it down. Today, she’s probably had several dining experiences with Tom, and could conceivably turn down dinner with Tom to have it with Mum. It’s memorable and says two things to me - spending time with the family is a good thing, and if you’re going to do it, sit down to some quality Australian produce, lamb and of course, a couple of bottles of Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, or some Coopers Sparkling. Oh, I meant to say South Australian produce.
Serve Lamb on Australia Day
A cracker. I remember when I saw this I laughed. And did I laugh and I asked my friends, especially ones into AFL, “Have you seen the new lamb ad with Sam Kekovich?”. We Australians like to poke fun at ourselves, and this is what this ad does. Reminds us that eating tofu and alfalfa together is a pretty flat combination and wearing your pants showing your boxers is “Un-Australian”. Three years in the running now, we’ll be expecting number four to be released in the week preceeding Australia Day. And again, when was the last time an ad made you laugh?
I will be part of a panel discussion on Corporate Blogging tomorrow at Online Banking Review’s - Enterprise @ Web 2.0 for Financial Services conference.
Other topics include:
The business benefits of Enterprise 2.0
Building a collaborative culture inside a conservative corporation
Another quality promo video for Minimal Fuss, featuring Alex Smoke this Thursday night at the Civic Underground, Sydney. See you there. Don’t forget Abe Duque on the Friday night, same location.
Whether it was done internally at nab, by someone at Clems or a client fanboi, or someone at Clems claiming it was done on the “outside”, it’s a clever piece of work. Tongue in cheek and a little cute.
It gets to a point where it does become a joke. Commonwealth Bank, the bank that is determined to be different are showing their point of differentiation in the market place by lifting its mortgage rate by more than the latest Reserve Bank increase.
Wayne Swan expects customers will be “furious” and he will soon be delivering a package that will make it easier for borrowers to switch banks if they are not happy, so they can “vote with their feet”.
I guess CBA are looking at recouping some of their costs from Goodby, so they’ve deemed this the first step.
