Temptations Treats introduced Temptation Tumblers, a cat treat that you can toss, roll and treat. The Mars Petcare brand’s new Temptations Tumblers—treats are apparently more perfectly spherical that regular old Temptations treats. This commercial focuses on the ‘play’ aspect while feeding your cat.
This new one-minute commercial is a hilariously dramatic representation of play time with cats using the product. The entire video, with its breath-taking slow-mo shots and intense dub-step music makes for a perfectly delightful watch.
The video begins with three people – one a soccer player, another, a football star and third, a tennis player – preparing for a seemingly intense game. You soon realise that the ball for each of their moves is replaced by a perfectly spherical Temptations treat before the real starts of the ad enter.
Cats.
Fluffy, adorable and stunning cats.
The ad moves on to show some amazing moves by cats that are chasing, or rather, playing ball with the treats. The entire visual depiction of play time comes together beautifully and goes on, to show that play-time is a serious sport. Keeping all of that aside there are so many cats in one video! Has to go viral, right?
McCann, Sydney partners with The MTV Exit foundation, an organisation which strives for the end of exploitation and human trafficking, to make this amazing awareness ad with new approach.
This video ‘Broken Dreamers’, features an original song by Paris-based electro pop artist Birkii, and tells the story of three characters caught in nightmarish modern-day slavery scenarios. The stories unfold in the form of a pop-up storybook, with excellent transitions that are beautifully wound with contextual colour-play and music.
The pop-up approach to portray the story is also a parallel representation of the innocence in these victims and the naiveté involved in these scenarios. Each story begins with the classic ‘Once upon a time’ phrase and progresses to tell a series of unfortunate events, highlighting the dangers of the racket.
It’s a beautifully crafted video that delivers the message quite straight-forward.
Considering how sensuous deodorant ads have become of recent, it is only natural that condom ads surpass it to a certain degree to distinguish the product. Most of these ads display the physical aspect of sex in a similar manner. Much to the point where it all looks the same.
Bringing in a breath of fresh air was Durex’s claim to viral fame, ‘Do The Rex’ that featured Ranveer Singh in a refreshing and fun avatar, singing and dancing jovially to represent his love for sex. I absolutely loved that video and it’s taboo breaking efforts in a humorous manner.
But if there was one ad that stuck to the conventional way of showing love-making but with a new twist, this would be it. The ad features two gorgeous dancers, performing to a seductive number. The sensuous dance steps are translations of various sex positions that one would find in the book of love, Kamasutra, from which the brand derives its’ name.
Each shot is breathtakingly beautiful and blends dancing with sexual positions in a flawless manner. It makes it look like art, which it is. The ad adds a further aspirational value to the act of making love by making it look exhilarating and exotic without anything being said at all.
I love the ‘Art of making love’ approach above anything else. It isn’t a new communication strategy or a new approach to sex, but their execution is definitely applause worthy.
A few days ago, the ALS association, fighting against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, set up the Ice Bucket Challenge, to raise awareness around their cause.The challenge quickly gained support from major celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga along with big players in the biz like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.
Now I have to say that I have always hated these Facebook-nomination challenges. There is no real fun or ‘challenge’ to it and I just find it generally sad.
But this one is different for two reasons. First, it is for a good cause that has been popularised by the most influential celebrities out there and the second reason is that big businesses have started tagging along.
On the contrary, the second point brings an issue to light. The problem is, when business gets involved, it is always questionable whether it comes from philanthropic motives or other perhaps, some other agenda. Here, the question intrigued people enough to find out about what is happening.
I would say that Mark Zuckerberg joining the fun is no surprise at all.His platform has always been driving this kind of content and getting it viral. Therefore, not participating could have almost been taken as denying the sole purpose of Facebook and what it can do. It also shows a bit of humanity in a character often depicted as pretty rigid and not really playing by the rules. Plus, it’s great publicity.
But then Bill Gates comes along, and on that one… it’s really hard to make your mind up around it! This got people even more intrigued. The man who is the face of philanthropy just came aboard!
Clearly, he did not just take on the challenge there but he went on and did much more than that.
Let me explain.
This video is more researched visually with a definite camera set up, edit and scenario as opposed to the simple “one take” video that everybody else did. He (or his team) even went further and built a full arch just to pour the bucket of ice onto his face! Add this to the obvious product placement at the beginning and BAM! You’ve got some kick-ass advertising content.He converted the challenge into an advertisement. An advertisement by its very nature is a more consumable form of content.
So, now that we have agreed that if it looks and feels like advertising, then it must be advertising, the question stands. Is that a good or a bad thing?
Well, to me it is the best thing to have happened to the challenge! And it is for a lot of reasons. The first one being that if you take on a challenge and you find a way to make it cooler, you just HAVE to do it! And this is exactly what they did here.
Some will argue that this is just a narcissistic fad for wealthy men to look good in the eyes of the public, but it’s without knowing Bill Gates. The man has cared for the foundation he created for nearly 15 years and is probably the most famous philanthropist in the world. He doesn’t need any of that to look good!
Some others would say that pouring a bucket of ice on top of your head doesn’t get money to the foundation. Well first, Bill Gates does say right at the beginning of the video that he WILL donate to the ALS, and second it seems the association is actually raising millions, thanks to this campaign. So I reckon it works just fine.
Transforming the challenge into advertising, permitted the video to go viral by allocating resources to make it look fun and probably also gave it a little push in media and PR from the Microsoft team, which, in the end, raised a lot of awareness.
One thing you can ask yourself as well is: is it really different from every Pro-Bono campaign that advertising agencies do all year round, investing in people and money just to get awards in end? I don’t think so. But this time, all the factors tied well together to make I work.
I also really just like the off-beat atmosphere of this video and find it really refreshing that one of the most influential business man in history can still play around with his reputation. And that is why I think what they did here is pretty cool.
But if you don’t like that style, you can always get a little louder and go for the Charlie Sheen way.
Oh wait he’s plugging TMZ? Damn it!
Author:
Benoit Finck
Benoit is a French copywriter that has lived across 4 countries over the last 4 years. He is passionate about advertising, cultural differences and Stand Up Paddling (some kind of surfing) that he practices every time he gets a chance to get out of the office.
Paul George is a 24-year-old basketball star who plays with the Indiana Pacers. Last week he had a possibly career ending leg fracture. You can watch the video of his severe injury. One week later, Nike made this powerful tribute ad.
The copy in the ad is absolutely beautiful and inspirational. In a world of few words and design led posters, ads and billboards, this one stands out with the use of great copy. It leads to inculcate a sense of optimism in the reader’s mind, which is perfect, keeping the reason for the tribute in mind.
Not much can be said when the ad speaks for itself. So I’ll leave it at that.
‘Under Armour’ which is an American sports apparel and accessories company has an annual revenue of $1 billion for its men’s products and exactly half i.e. $ 500 million for its’ women’s apparel. The company has long contended that its goal is for the women’s segment to grow as big as, if not bigger than, the men’s.
A mighty $15 million is what they have invested in this new campaign, their biggest ever, specifically targeted to women, in hopes of achieving that goal.
The first TV spot, of the series, ballerina Misty Copeland stands in the practice studio, slowly rising onto her toes. The muscles in her calves as angular as bent elbows are purposefully highlighted at this point.
As music plays and, in a voice over, a young girl reads a rejection letter explaining why the ballet academy candidate was turned down.
“Thank you for your application to our ballet academy,” says a voice-over, “Unfortunately you have not been accepted. You lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length and bust. You have the wrong body for ballet. And at 13, you are too old to be considered.”
She is then shown flying with grand jete leaps and rapid-fire spins across a vast lighted stage as if breaking into a grand performance. Only later is it revealed that Copeland, who at this point is looking triumphantly into the camera, is a well-established professional ballet dancer.
Copeland is seen sporting off a black Under Armour tank top and the brand’s “Cheeky” underwear bottoms throughout the ad as opposed to the standard leotard and tutu.
An end card introduces a new tagline for the campaign, “I will what I want” — an elongation of a long-running slogan for the brand, “I will” — and the name of a new website for female consumers, http://iwillwhatiwant.com/
The question here is, why is the brand that always features conventional athletes making an ad with a ballerina?
The reason is simple.
Even though she’s not a competitive athlete, she brings a modern athleticism to a very traditional art form. She pushes the boundaries on the status quo of the word ‘athlete’. There are a lot of sports, activities, hobbies and passions that women are engaging in that are athletic and physical and should be celebrated, whether it’s dance or soccer or kickboxing or spinning. This approach makes the targeting exclusive to women.
Intelligent move on their part considering that women have a broader sense of what constitutes an athletic activity.
The others involved in the series are: Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, the tennis player Sloane Stephens and the soccer player Kelley O’Hara.
A very similar ad was the launching spot for Clean & Clear USA’s new global campaign ‘See The Real Me’ a while back where they featured a 13-year-old aspiring ballerina, Emma, who also struggled with having a body type and corkscrew curls that were not in the traditional mold. This ad bears a striking resemblance to that one.
Some commercials feel like they are made with the sole purpose of making one’s day better, that which makes you feel better about the world than most other days. This commercial, by Samsung, is one such example.
Created as part of Samsung’s global sponsorship of the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour, this ad goes on to beautifully portray the exhilaration, danger and excitement that comes with surfing in the uncertainty of the oceanic waves. It makes a smashing point by saying that each moment spent in the ocean is a new moment, unique in every aspect.
The visual representation of the same ideology is perfectly executed. Each shot feels like the person is undergoing an experience like never before. It takes the viewer on the same journey as the one being shown in the shots.
This seamlessly leads the viewer to the tagline, ‘Every day is Day One’.
There’s no denying that this ad is visually spectacular. Every shot is gorgeously crafted but my favourite part is the soundtrack. It’s beyond perfect. A cover of David Bowie’s ‘Absolute Beginners’ by Angela McCluskey and pianist Paul Cantelon, the song takes the emotional quotient of the advert to a whole new level. The lyrics blend with each shot like they were meant to be.
Representative picture
The ad also includes a mix of beginners and seasoned surfing pros like Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Gabriel Medina, Johanne Defay and Mitch Crews. Shots were filmed in Iceland, Fiji, India and even the suburbs of New York.
The tone of this ad is completely different from Samsung’s last one where they took a mighty dig at the iPhone. I prefer this one. Watch this amazing commercial here:
The Mahindra Group has been propelling into the space of encouraging innovation since 2011 when it launched the ‘Spark the Rise’ campaign. This year, they went a step further and launched ‘Rise Prize – World class from India’, a nationwide innovation challenge with a million dollars to be won for the best idea.
For this campaign, Mahindra has recognised two areas, core to the Indian needs, in which it is looking for disruptive and next-gen innovations – Mobility(transport) and Solar energy.
In order to promote this campaign, they launched an excellent digital film with a voice-over by the renowned Ninad Kamat. The script for the same is extremely well crafted, with visuals that beautifully depict the words being spoken. The ad begins with a couple of reflective lines where the voice over talks about how the world is made up of numerous ideas and how ideas can be sparked everywhere and anywhere. It then moves onto asking, changing the tone to that of an innocent curiosity, if the next big idea can come from right here – India.
The ad makes for a great shout out to entrepreneurs and innovators with the lines, “If you have a million dollar idea, we have a million dollars for you’. Mahindra has called it ‘India’s Biggest Innovation Challenge’.
The idea with this campaign is not only to generate innovative ideas but also to build an eco-system that is strongly driven by innovation. Mahindra is carefully and pro-actively moving towards being the brand that represents innovation in the country. It’s a great move for any brand and especially Mahindra, one that is truly Indian.
‘Rise Prize’ is built in such a way that it doesn’t seem like a campaign for Mahindra’s brand proposition ‘Spark the Rise’. Instead it’s made to look like a campaign that is built for country-wide encouragement of innovation. Now that, is where the genius of the campaign lies.
No matter who takes the million dollars home, the real winner here is Mahindra.
Greenpeace has a history of picking on high-profile targets in their effort towards a better planet. They have been vehemently campaigning against the petrochemicals giant, Shell Corporation, for their oil drilling projects in the Arctic. But with this new campaign, they’ve involved another global brand in a surprising turn of events.
Lego has been associated with Shell via their “Royal Dutch Shell Lego” play-sets since 1960. Greenpeace wasn’t going to let that go at any cost. Last week, they began a campaign against Lego for supporting Shell via their play-sets.
In this commercial, we see an Arctic lego land built with Polar bears, huskies, ice-hockey players and even Santa.
The video is accompanied by a slowed-down version of the Lego Movie theme tune ‘Everything Is Awesome’. The set also shows a section where some oil drilling is taking place.
Eventually, you see the entire set being flooded with thick, black oil engulfing the habitat – children, puppies, Santa and teddy bears amongst others. This happens due to an oil spill.
The only thing standing at the end, above the submerged land, is the Shell flag – unmoved.
The commercial ends with the tagline: ‘Shell is polluting our kids’ imaginations.’ The call to action that follows is: ‘Tell Lego to end their partnership with Shell.’
Greenpeace has a website where people can petition against Lego.
It’s an applaud worthy effort by Greenpeace even though some might call it nit-picking. Nonetheless, the depiction of the Lego and Shell connection is very well imagined. The soundtrack makes for an excellent addition to the commercial too. They keep the touch of childhood alive in the ad by adding various elements like Santa, the elf and the teddy bear in addition to a kid with headphones. It gives you a glimpse of the shattering repercussions that support towards Shell, in any form, can have.
Here’s the ad. I suggest you sign up for their petition too. Actually, I insist.
I’d tell you what this ad is about but I’ll simply let you amuse yourself. All I will say today is that this ad is sheer genius. It identifies a nationwide problem and gives an undeniable solution to it. In the process, they made it about patriotism too. *Slow clap*.
I can bet that you won’t guess what the advertisement is for, right until they reveal it.
Watch here and tell me what you loved about it in comments.
the ad woman 