Humor

UK “Crime Bosses” Teach Emergency CPR

Public service announcements (PSAs) mean well, but often times they play on people’s fears, guilt or soft-heartedness to get viewers to pay attention. That’s why these PSAs from the British Heart Foundation are so refreshing. Produced by Grey London and directed by Steve Bendelack, the new Mini Vinnie CPR ad is a sequel to one done featuring British actor/pro football player Vinnie Jones. Embedded in the spoof are some valuable tips on how to give hard and fast hands-only CPR in an emergency. These entertaining ads follow in the tradition of the British Heart Foundation’s PSA, starring British actor/playwright Steven Berkoff on how to identify the symptoms of a heart attack. They are all about stayin’ alive.

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Humor

The Marketers’ Anthem

Dedicated to “consumer whisperers, mother targeters and brand guardians,” this video by Toronto-based Open Creative Company satirically celebrates the feats of advertising marketers. It was made as a call for entries appeal for Strategy magazine’s Marketer of the Year. The words and sentiments in “The Marketers’ Anthem” are all too true, but the male voiceover, dripping with tongue-in-cheek gravitas, pokes good natured fun at the achievements of men and women who “moved us to vote, follow, share, pin, tweet, retweet and like” everything from underarm deodorant, cookies, toilet paper and shampoo. The video taps into the bipolar reality of marketing people who are both proud and a bit embarrassed by what they do. On the one hand, they know their marketing campaigns are the engines that drive the economy. On the other hand, they know that their days, months, years are spent debating how to express the exceptional softness of a brand of toilet paper, or the virtues of one floor mop over another, or the desirability of frozen pop-tarts. No one has yet won a Nobel Prize for market advertising, so it is good that the industry hosts its own awards. Only a jury of your peers can really appreciate the monumental accomplishment of making a cleaning product stylish and exciting. Bravo.