div|whisperer

My girlfriend and I almost never agree on commercials that we both enjoy. I enjoy good advertising, and she apparently does not.

Every couple of years however there comes along an advertisement whose quality is so beyond reproach that we manage to somehow agree. Jill found this one on YouTube and gestured me over with so much enthusiasm that I assumed something must be 50% off somewhere.

It’s about time someone realized they could sell stuff to Canadians by reminding them how much they loath winter. All this commercial needs now is that guy with the beard from the old Canadian Tire commercials and Midas had a classic on their hands.

Client: Midas
Agency: DDB Canada Vancouver

Wieden & Kennedy dropped Starbucks as a client in September and I’m not sure if this is a leftover from their work or from one of Starbucks’ other agencies. I love typography ads. Starbucks is promising to give everyone who votes in the U.S. election on November 4th a free cup of coffee (while supplies last of course).

This is a great idea. From a strictly profit standpoint it is sure to drive people through there doors where they will likely realize that free coffee is good, but a not-so-free triple mocha skin milk latte is even better. I expect the financial damage will be minimal.

PR wise this is a victory because while free stuff does not make for a good sales strategy is does help a company who is better known for being everywhere than helping anywhere.

Of course this could all be a clever Republican tactic. Those democrat-leaning Starbucks drinkers end up in eight-hour lines at the polls and a bladder full of Nicaragua’s best.

My American friends, please STFIL!

Fallon lets loose with four new additions to the Holiday Inn Express campaign that suggests that sleeping in their hotels can help ordinary people overcome being an idiot.

The latest batch includes some celebrity appearances from Cal Ripkin Jr. and Jeff Burton - neither of which is particularly funny.

The rapping spot above featuring a previously unknown (and presumably cheaper) actor is somewhat funny if only because in reality the statistics would suggest he would have been beaten, robbed and possibly killed.

The last spot, a delivery room scene, is also entertaining. The ad suggests humorously that a baby’s intellect is determined by where it was conceived - a fact we all already knew was true as proven by Arkansas.

Client: Holiday Inn Express
Agency: Fallon Minneapolis

New York based Jonathan Keller has been working on a project since 1998 whereby he takes his picture every day and then puts them in fast-motion sequence to bad public domain techno music. The result is the kind of everyman, facial-hair growing, YouTube video that we are far too lazy to actually make ourselves.

The truth though is that the challenge is too great. Who among us can say that over the past ten years there hasn’t been at least one Sunday where opening our eyes was not even an option because of a mixture of Gosling’s Black Seal rum or other fantastic deliciousness? Certainly not I.

That’s all it would take to screw this whole thing up. Jonathan’s video has over 1 million views and even he is a newbie compared to the Noah K video which boasts more than 10 million views AND its own Simpsons parody.

While risking killing any watchers with a corn or cheese allergy, Microsoft has released the first ad in their second wave of advertising for the Vista. The first two ads from Microsoft featuring Seinfeld, which you can watch here and here, were in my opinion, targeted solely at a “nerdish” audience. They seemed specifically designed to attack Microsoft’s reputation as being formal and boring.

The new campaign is smart. The weakness in the incredibly popular Apple “I’m a Mac” campaign from TBWA/Chiat/Day is that the PC character played by John Hodgman is the funny one. Justin Long the Mac character comes across as not funny - I would go so far as to say dickish.

The new Microsoft campaign grabs a hold of this message firmly to remind ordinary people that they’d rather be the PC then some pretentious hoody-wearing snot. Then it reminds them that they’re not alone.

Client: Microsoft
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

The godfather of voice overs, Don LaFontaine, passed away at sixty-eight a week and a half ago. I don’t think his impact on the movie industry will be truly felt by the rest of the world for a few months until all of the trailers he’s done recently are out of theater.

I came across a hilarious video on YouTube of Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate - arguably Hollywood’s top five voice over actors. Definitely worth watching. There’s also a tribute video that shows what a humble man he was for a guy who transformed an industry.

In a world without Don LaFontaine - he is missed.

Landlord Lou is real - and so is his mustache. A former co-worker of mine had Lou as his landlord while living in Halifax. The LandlordLou.ca campaign (which is almost a year old now) is, in my opinion, some of the best copy writing aimed at my demographic to come out of Canada. The original three videos (one, two, three) are absolutely hilarious.

Since those videos were released they’ve removed those videos and replaced them with new videos which aren’t as good. I had to hunt the original three down on YouTube from some random person’s uploads. The new videos are still funny but they aren’t as effective or clever as the originals.

They’ve started going for quirky dialogue that becomes more about character humour then about actually getting across the client (Killam Properties) message. Another sore spot has been the missed opportunity for distributing the campaign.

The web site allows you to join a facebook “group”, which is actually a “page” and add Lou as a friend. There is no ability to embed the videos in a blog or one click way to share them via Facebook, del.icio.us, etc. Stuff that’s considered the bare minimum of a digital campaign. And it shows. Four of the five videos on YouTube have under 1,000 views each.

If I hadn’t of been working for a web site that Colour paid to advertise this site on, I never would have heard of it. None of my apartment dwelling friends have heard of it.

For me this is an example of a fantastic idea, exceptional copy writing and fairly good production without much support. Here’s hoping they smarten up and realize the true potential of this campaign before it’s first birthday.

Client: Killam Properties
Agency: Colour

The reasonably cool guys over at Razor Creative have managed to score themselves an endorsement from Canada’s favourite drunken uncle, William Shatner.  Back in May Stephen and Rich made a post on their blog about a new site they’d discovered called LiveAutographs.com.

The premise unsurprisingly is that you submit your autograph request through the site, they arrange for the “celebrity” to sign it, on camera, and then they send you the autographed item and the video of the signing to certify it’s authenticity and provide the kind of keepsake that would keep two creative directors aroused erect well into their late eighties.

The message Rich and Stephen submitted:

“I love Stephen Brander and Rich Gould — and give them a big thumbs up”

Satisfied with the experience they are supposedly going to attempt more celebrity endorsements through the site shortly. My vote is for Hulk Hogan. I would pay cash for that ’stache.

I don’t really find that Jerry Seinfeld is funny. In fact, the next time you catch an episode of Seinfeld, pay attention and you’ll probably think he’s not funny either. The other characters on the show though, they were funny, and to me that’s Seinfeld’s strength. He makes the people around him seem funny.

In the new ad from Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld (part of a new $300 million campaign), Bill Gates is the funny one - at least in my mind. Do I think paying Seinfeld $10 million dollars to be funny is a good idea? Absolutely not - but paying him $10 million to make Microsoft look funny sounds like a bargain to me.

Client: Microsoft
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Some fantastic pro bono work for Vancouver-based Looking Glass Foundation by DDB Canada. There’s two others in the campaign as well.

The web site for the campaign is also well done and there are some print components as well that I hear were well done as well.

If I manage to find the print pieces online somewhere I’ll update this post to include them. If anyone has seen them, please add the link to this post in a comment - I’m lazy.

Thanks for the tip AdFreak.

Client: Looking Glass Foundation
Agency: DDB Canada