We’ve spoken of our love of local commercials before: as always, they are the home of the bizarre and the charming.
This is a locally broadcast commercial for Glass Pro, a San Francisco-based glass repair company, banking on the tag-line “What Grandma says, Grandma does.”
“What if a cop pulls him over?”
“No dude, that doesn’t make sense!”
“…what if it was a grandma cop”
“…
brilliant.”
In “giant, obvious brand partnership” news, Jay-Z and Absolut teamed up for a documentary that launched Monday via Absolut’s Facebook page:
The question is, was Jay getting jealous from seeing all of Diddy’s Ciroc commercials?
Probably not, considering this film isn’t as much ego-driven Sinatra impersonation as a pretty decent short documentary filmed by Danny Clinch, a reknowned photographer and filmmaker behind concert films by Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. Although, much like “Blueprint 3,” the film doesn’t ask much of Jay-Z in terms of emotion, it’s an interesting project, and a smart investment for all parties involved. It feels slightly jaded to grade projects like this on the success of the partnerships behind them, but it’s only fair to recognize the art of elegant artistic pairings when films like this is underwritten by brands like Absolut.
Our advice, though, is pair Jay-Z with Absolut’s video series with Zach Galifianakis and Tim and Eric. I think the world would be a better place if Jay-Z got in one of those wigs.
Source : Creativity Online
Proving that not all of the French Press Films team are children of the 80’s, after the thousandth viewing of Old Spice’s recent ad campaign, one of us noticed the inspiration of one Mr. Tom Vu:
Although not quite the ab-endowed manly man of Old Spice’s campaign, you can’t help but hear echoes of Tom Vu in the yacht-riding narration of the “Man Your Man Can Smell Like.” These infomercials, which made real estate broker/poker player Thomas Vu famous in the 1980’s, also feature an ostensibly successful man yelling at us from the TV, plus or minus a yacht and/or a horse. Vu might have the upper hand here, considering his decision to provide testimonials read off of cue cards in between yelling advice at us. Our current favorite Vu-ism? “Are you afraid to ask your Boss for the day off to come to my seminar? Well then you don’t deserve to be rich.”
Below the cut, Tom Vu shows you his waterfall and talks about his loser friends.
We found this ad while on a serious chilaquiles run in the Mission in San Francisco (Casa Valdez, if you need the details), and we were boggled by this bit of advertising. It’s confusing, if only for the fact that it’s the first time we’ve seen “professional directory” linked with the word “bunnies”.
The woman (bunny?) in the green tie is looking at the woman in the orange tie, but she appears to be deep in thought, perhaps in deep conversation on her matching blackberry — nothing says “networking” like an advertisement with two eerily disconnected characters. It’s visually compelling, but only because it’s confusing. It’s a heap of ideas that don’t work together, down to the design and the odd use of neon. Instead of assuring authority and professionalism, it’s like an ad for LinkedIn done by late-night call services.
The sites, sadly, are inactive, so we’ll never know what loanbunnies.com and realtybunnies.com had in store for us.
If there’s one thing the French Press Films crew all agree on, its that we love clever adverts that make us laugh and scratch our heads as we figure out how they made it. Case in point: the Old Spice “Manmercials” campaign which we can’t get enough of. Watch:
AJ, Chris, and Roman must have watched this video about 6,000 times, accounting for .03% of the total viewership. Big ups to Old Spice for letting the ad agency they hired pretty much do whatever they want in terms of creative direction and even bigger ups to the creative agency for pulling it off.
Now, compare it to Dove for Men, the other soap company trying to lure in the “Now You’re a Man, A Manny Manny Man” market:
I get what Dove is trying to do, but it doesn’t come across nearly as effective as the Old Spice adverts, most likely due to that annoying goddamn song that I’ve been humming for two days straight. Also, don’t advertisers know one minute is way too long to keep my attention?
Below is an ad posted up in San Francisco’s Mission District promoting the launch of Levi’s new corduroy line.
Made of corduroy itself, it’s refreshing to see the material of a poster become part of the advertisement’s design. With that slight twist, the otherwise simple message feels crisp and elegant.
As per usual, the Superbowl came with a flurry of advertisements built for next-day workday conversation. This year, there were only a handful of exceptional advertisements in between plays, the most notable of which came from Google:
What’s interesting about this advertisement is that unlike most ads on the superbowl, which are about reinforcing a brand’s core values, this Google ad really expands the reach of what “Google” can conjure to a normal user. There have been other Google “SearchStories” ads, but this is the first one with a direct tug to the heartstrings.
Perhaps Steve Jobs’ introduction of the word “magical” into his iPad presentation got Google thinking they needed to get cuddly with their users? Either way, they scored with an honest-to-goodness emotional message, and although it might not get me to search more, it’s an impressive marketing move for the internet behemoth.
Now, could you pass the Kleenex?
If viral marketing is all about brand partnerships, then this pairing is quite the odd one: indie musician Lavender Diamond and advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy. WKE commissioned Ms. Diamond (also known as Becky Stark), to make a series of short webisodes for a series titled “Califunya!” And it is perhaps the most intensely adorable thing ever made, barring Cute Things Falling Asleep.
Unsurprisingly, due to W+K’s office in Portland, and Ms. Stark’s past collaborations in the indieverse, the show features the likes of the Decemberists, Mia Doi Todd and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Abedimpe. So far, there have been three episodes, each with a differing brand of “holy shit that is too precocious for words.” We prefer the sing-song episode “Bluebird,” if only for the two-part song at its center, sounding like a Vashti Bunyan throwoff dressed in apple pie optimism.
It’s interesting seeing a large advertising firm hosting such an funny, interesting art project, and for no discernible reason other than they thought it would be really cool. Is it going to be part of a larger viral campaign? Is this a test shoot for a new kid’s show? Did they just want to meet Colin Meloy? We’re not really sure.
Alls we know is, once we can afford to do this, we’re giving the Wu-Tang Clan a show on our site.
Although at heart, we are believers in the importance of online media, when a website collects pre-digital design in such an interesting layout, we have to take note.
Called Letterheady, this blog collects historical or otherwise interesting letterheads, showcasing the unique designs of those who are postally inclined. Featuring multiple designs from Marvel, famous musicians, and a couple from Adolf Hitler (?), the letterheads are sometimes minimal, and sometimes bizarrely elaborate.
It goes to show that the intersection of compelling imagery and brand identity has long been a fruitful cross-section for designers of all types. It also goes to show that Frank Zappa had much better taste in letterheads than mid-80’s recorded output.
