Advertising

Metaphor for Global Warming

WWF_Ice_Cream
This public service ad by the World Wildlife Fund in Belgium needs no translation. Created by VVL BBDO in Brussels, “The Melting Earth” ad is a metaphor that works across all cultures and even communicates in a way that children can understand. The text in the boxed space warns: “The first signs of global warming are now clearly visible. We urgently need to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Nothing and no one will be spared from climate change….” As much as the image communicates the point instantly, what’s needed are follow-up ads/posters/booklets that spell out pragmatic steps that each individual can take. It’s not just a a problem for the world or a nation to solve. It demands action on all of our parts. But the public needs more guidance on what we as individuals can do to lick this problem before we suffer an irreversible meltdown.

Advertising

People on the Move at TNT Express

TNT Express, the Netherlands-based international courier, launched a global campaign to rebrand itself as “The People Network.” Its TV commercials drove home that point by making a delivery truck (cab, frame, tires and engine) literally out of people. Directed by Mischa Rozema from PostPanic and created by Amsterdam agency Etcetera/DDB, the 60-second spot is an incredible feat of creative imagination, Czech stunt team agility, and seamless CGI magic.

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Advertising

Pet Focus Group Yields Laughs for Big Lots

Consumer focus groups have long been a mainstay of marketing research. It’s a great way to gather user perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitude about a product. Chicago ad agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul pulled together a panel of mostly four-legged consumers to roll out Big Lots’ line of pet supplies and toys. Two improvisational actors served as panel “facilitators,” conducting a tongue-in-cheek user opinion survey. The panel of dogs and cats weren’t exactly forthcoming in their preferences, but they did give the discount retailer an opportunity to show the vast and varied range of pet products it sells.
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Humor

IKEA Marvels at the Wonders of Bookbooks

This promo could just as easily have been made to promote printing papers, instead of IKEA’s 2015 home furnishings catalog. Created by BBH Asia Pacific, the IKEA marketing video channels the Apple brand persona in style and tone with its uncluttered, plain white background and its wide-eyed, uncynical spokesman explaining the amazing features of IKEA’s bookbook catalog – touch interface, eternal battery life, instant loading with zero lag, fully charged, no cables, expandable interface, preinstalled content, touch browsing, fast scrolling, easy bookmark and sharing capabilities, and voice activated password protection. The bookbook has everything you’ve ever desired in a modern information delivery system. So simple, so portable, so intuitive, it’s a wonder that Apple hadn’t thought of it before. But let’s give credit where it is truly due – to Gutenberg and medieval bookmakers. Steve Jobs didn’t invent the “wheel”; he invented an elegant means to adapt the desirable features of print to a digital platform. The attributes that consumers seek in an information delivery device have been around for at least 600 years, and tech giants have spent the last several decades trying to replicate the kind of ease-of-use offered by paper.

Advertising

What Pet Cats and Great Athletes Have in Common

At first this commercial for Temptations Tumblers cat treats by adam@eveDDB/London seemed like a brazen effort to hook viewers in by combining two of the most popular subjects on YouTube — top athletes and adorable cats. The first half of the “Time to Play Ball” Temptations commercial did look like an ad for Nike or Adidas, with not a furry paw in sight. But then the shared attributes of jocks and cats came into focus. The athletes looked steely, determined, alert and focused. Even the hairs on their neck stood at attention. The cats, presented in elegant slow motion, exhibited the same kind of single-minded concentration. Nothing distracted them from the tiny Temptations Tumblers tossed their way. The comparison came together nicely and worked. (It didn’t hurt to be able to feature cute cats and buff jocks either.)