TV reinterpreted in print

Exergian has some brilliantly executed print to promote some brilliantly executed television. See for yourself. It's gorgeous, it's tasty, and it's perfect.

Got tank?

Carlton Draught from Australia has come up with a novel spot. A spot that a lot of people would love to have pitched and sold to their beer client. It involves a tank. Those crazy Aussies.

Someone in Redmond got a sense of humour

And a budget.

What makes a billboard perfect.

Just let a TV station in New Zealand tell you...

Get your freak on.

Here at Oakes & Mowat, we're getting ready for the new year and everything that comes with it. So, for your viewing pleasure, we bring you someone else's content. But it's okay, it's really fun content...

It's the 30 Freakiest Commercials of 2009, from adweek.com. Some you've already seen here, some you'll never be able to forget and some will just confuse you. Enjoy.

Television spot for the printed word

It's brilliant. It's art. It's worth a watch.

The Best So Far

See if you agree with Adweek.

That is all.

Rule number 1: Do not anger the Miracle Whip marketing team

Or they will find you and they will deal with you in a most unpleasant manner. Just ask Stephen Colbert.

They will not tone it down indeed. They're too busy being edgy.

It's a brilliant response. It really is. Unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that Miracle Whip is a spreadable topping, and is not a key part of social identity.

Green screen? Nope. Celeb voiceover? Nah.

We're all familiar with local advertising. From the annoying guy who buys your jewellery to people who provide more esoteric goods and services. To better help them advertise, two guys are going around the U.S. and producing and directing tv spots for a wide range of small and local businesses.

And they're not too bad.

As seen on TV - now it's cool.

Snuggies, Flo-bees, Boxcar Willie albums - you can find it all without ever having to get up off the recliner.

But a combination of recession and low-priced semi-quality consumer goods has led to a rise in sales as more people stay home and look to cut certain corners when it comes to spending.

So much so that infomercials have moved from late-night time slots to prime time. Curl up in your Snuggie while you watch CSI or The Hills.

Links to Adage.com and New York Times for your reading enjoyment.

But wait there's more!

It's just f**king brilliant

Historical? Yup. Incredibly well executed? Oh yes. Subtitled? Unfortunately. A masterpiece? Quite possibly.

Either way, it's an incredible spot for a very lovely substance.

Keep Walking indeed.

I'm just holding it for a friend.

And I didn't inhale. Ever. At any time.

To promote the upcoming season of Weeds the drama/comedy that features all kinds of drug dealing hijinks and lowjinks, the promotional company went and built a blunt of Cheech & Chong proportions.

Using hemp, the ugly sibling of marijuana, the promoters sent out packages that probably raised a few eyes in the mailroom. Once unwrapped, voila, the payoff, some promo print for Weeds and some hemp to put in your office.

Odds are a few packages didn't make it to their intended recipient and a few people spent an evening taking self-portraits and coughing their lungs out...

How did they get the video in the print?

Well, its finally happened. On the heels of the Esquire Magazine e-ink issue, Entertainment Weekly will be producing an issue that contains...wait for it.

Video. Moving pictures. In a static medium.

Real moving video. Not prismatic, not black and white, not a two second loop.

Video. In a magazine.

It's all thanks to these geniuses.

Not sure if this is a sign of the apocalypse or the beginning of a new golden age.

We told two friends, and they told two friends

And pretty soon we had everyone talking about our new Fall lineup.

Social media and Hollywood seem to have fallen in love, or at the very least, they're BFF's, have accepted each others friend request, are following each other on Twitter and definitely connect on MySpace.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Twitter's effectiveness as a marketing tool remains up for debate, but don't tell that to Homer Simpson or Jay Leno.

Along with dozens of other TV characters and personalities on a variety of networks, their shows are being actively promoted on the shortform chat network, part of a drive by major broadcasters to generate awareness and buzz for their fall schedules.

According to network executives, word-of-mouth is the second-most-effective driver of program sampling (the first is the on-air promotional spot). This year, they've stepped up use of online advertising, grassroots events and out-of-home venues and stunts.

"The way word-of-mouth spreads is evolving," said Michael Benson, co-executive vp marketing at ABC Entertainment. "We're trying to utilize all sorts of digital platforms to find the audiences that will watch specific programs. There's no cookie-cutter formula; every show is different."

NBC is using Facebook to stream a full episode, prelaunch, of its upcoming Thursday comedy "Community," about the quirky characters at a community college. The catch: To see it, Facebook users have to send NBC promo clips to 10 of their friends on the social network.

"Fans have to do a little recruiting for us," said John Miller, chief marketing officer at NBC Universal Television Group. "This is sort of our own 'forced' word-of-mouth activity."

CBS is tapping nail salons in major markets, among other stunts, to promote its Monday comedy "Accidentally on Purpose," starring Jenna Elfman as a film critic who gets pregnant after a one-night stand. The salons are equipped with nail dryers embedded with video screens playing a clip of the show as well as branded nail files.

"My attitude is, everything helps," said George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing Group. "We're in a mass business, and we try to maximize reach and create word-of-mouth."

Three of the four major networks have chosen one fall program for an exceptionally hefty promotional push: NBC is pulling out all the stops for "The Jay Leno Show," Fox is giving a huge push to "Glee" and ABC is heavying up on "FlashForward."

Although digital and other promotional platforms are growing in importance, execs noted that their own airtime still accounts for about 90% of their fall campaign impressions. Each net spends an additional $25 million-$35 million on outside media to round out their campaigns.

"We're always researching how people find out what's on TV," Schweitzer said. "The best sampling always comes from our own promotional spots."

Us scared of a supermodel? Impossible!

We're actually terrified.

Seems that the creative team behind a Swedish TV spot for a line of personal care products called Apoliva made a rather terrifying piece.

They used a Swedish supermodel, who shouldn't be all that all that scary. The Swedish beach volleyball team isn't scary. The chef on the Muppets isn't scary. But apparently in Sweden, supermodels are.

How scared are they? A Facebook group “I am scared of the girl in the Apoliva commercial” (“Jag är rädd för tjejen i Apolivareklamen”) has over 1,000 members, and there are quite a few other groups and sites that praise the spot or advise viewers to hide under the bed.

Personally, I've seen scarier things on the subway late on a Friday night.

30 years of television ads

All in one place. Courtesy of Duke University.

From the site: "AdViews is a digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s. These commercials were created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles or its successor, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B). Founded in 1929, Benton & Bowles was a New York advertising agency that merged with D'Arcy Masius McManus in 1985 to form DMB&B. Major clients included are Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Schick, Vicks, and Post, among others."

Ladies and gentlemen; the Rolling Stones

singing a lovely jingle for Rice Krispies

Mmmm! It's Stalin-riffic!

This would be the account from hell. Imagine what would happen if you misinterpreted the brief?

I'm sure the location shoots would involve actual shooting.

In apparent first, North Korea airs beer commercial on state TV

KWANG-TAE KIM
Associated Press Writer

3:56 AM PDT, July 3, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In an apparent first, North Korea — a country that struggles to feed its 24 million people — has aired a beer commercial on state television.

The advertisement, which lasted nearly three minutes after a news program on Thursday, showed a grinning Korean man with sweat on his face holding a glass of beer, with a caption that read, "Taedong River Beer is the pride of Pyongyang."

The commercial said the beer relieves stress and improves health and longevity. It also showed images of a pub it said was in the capital of Pyongyang, filled with people drinking.

Normally, there are no advertisements on television in North Korea, an isolated, communist country that tightly controls its economy and is wary of capitalistic influences.

Programming consists of news, factory descriptions, some children's animation shows, and documentaries on leader Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung, interspersed with propaganda slogans and music, according to a South Korean Unification Ministry official.

The official, who has been monitoring the North's television for more than two decades, told The Associated Press that it was the first time he had seen any sort of advertisement for food, much less beer — although he has seen programs on North Korean cuisine. He asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.

The commercial assured viewers of the beer's quality and nutritional value, saying it was made of rice and contained protein and vitamin B2.

It was unclear how much the beer cost and how many North Koreans could afford it. The country is among the poorest in the world, with an average per capita income of $1,065 in 2008, according to the South's central bank.

The North faces chronic food shortages and has relied on food aid to feed its population since a famine that is believed to have killed as many as 2 million in the mid and late-1990s.

Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, apparently enjoys beer.

Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese sushi chef for Kim, said in a 2003 memoir that he traveled the world for the leader, buying Czech beer as well as Chinese melons, Danish pork and Thai papayas.

Kim's wine cellar was stocked with 10,000 bottles, the chef said, and banquets often started at midnight and lasted into the morning.

Shocking violence from the creator of Big Bird

(Stolen from Super Punch blog)

Surprisingly violent series of commercials for Wilkins Coffee, featuring primitive Muppets. One of the ads involves a guillotine.

In 1957, Jim Henson was approached by a Washington, D.C. coffee company to produce ads for Wilkins Coffee. The local stations only had ten seconds for station identification, so the commercials had to be lightning-fast - essentially, eight seconds for the commercial pitch and a two-second shot of the product.

From 1957 to 1961, Henson made 179 commercials for Wilkins Coffee and other Wilkins products, including Community Coffee and Wilkins Tea. The ads were so successful and well-liked that they sparked a series of remakes for companies in other local markets throughout the 1960s.

The ads starred the cheerful Wilkins, who liked Wilkins Coffee, and the grumpy Wontkins, who hated it. Wilkins would often do serious harm to Wontkins in the ads - blowing him up, stabbing him with a knife, and smashing him with a club, among many other violent acts.

Wilkins and Wontkins were generally the only characters in the commercials, though on rare occasions, such critters as a Muppet whale or baby birds would appear. Company owner Mr. Wilkins was also invoked more than once.

The characters proved so popular that in October 1958, the company offered vinyl puppets of Wilkins and Wontkins through the mail for $1.00 and a coffee can label. The offer on the can said, "Hey Kids! I'm Wilkins - he's Wontkins -- you see us on TV!" Obviously, Wilkins Coffee and Henson knew that the Muppet characters had kid appeal, although this doesn't seem to have had any effect on the use of violence and terror in the ads.

You can see a list of all the commercials here. And go here to see many more Muppets videos from the 60's.

Volkswagen, found sound and Orbital

A really cool combination - one iconic brand, one electronic music genius, a VW Golf and a digital sampler. The result? A 41 second ode to found sound.

In an ad for VW, Paul Hartnoll of Orbital sampled, looped and edited sounds he recorded in and around a Golf, from people to the car itself. What came out of it was this sweet little spot from DDB London.

Here's the ad and the making of segment.