Weekly wrapup: Coke's Myanmar TVC wins in a week without a fail

FTW or fail

Each week we select one campaign or marketing move that we agree is 'FTW' (for the win) and one that...isn't.

FTW: At least some of us were moved by Line's tear-jerker, but felt emotionally manipulated afterwards, even though it's supposedly a true story. So Coca-Cola's first ad made in Myanmar (by Today Ogilvy & Mather), takes the FTW title for the week. We admire it for smoothly drawing the analogy between Myanmar's history and the journey of the youngsters in the ad, who overcome hardships to arrive in the global community—where Coca-Cola is of course plentiful. This could have easily turned out heavy-handed (it sure sounds like it in writing), but it works. 

Honourable mentions:

• Gap's deft handling of an incident where one of its ads was defaced by racist graffiti in New York (via Huffington Post.) 
• AT&T and T-Mobile both trying to woo a single customer via Twitter (via Business Insider).
• Johnnie Walker's F1 car made out of glass tumblers.

Fail: We failed to find a compelling fail from APAC this week. Well done, industry! To satisfy your need for disaster, we offer you Eater.com's list of 11 explosive videos of Americans attempting to deep-fry Thanksgiving turkeys. Note to my fellow Americans: Not everything has to be deep fried! Maybe stick to roasting and reserve the fireworks for the 4th of July.

  

Top stories

The most-read items on CampaignAsia.com for the week of 22 through 28 November.

1. Agency of the Year Awards unveils shortlists
2. DATA POINTS: Defining China's emerging middle class
3. When planners go bad (or sad)
4. Betterway scandal comes to close in China
5. The forces shaping tomorrow's agency leaders
6. Agencies take the PR out of public relations
7. DATA POINTS: APAC internet penetration and social-media use
8. Group of senior marketing executives depart SingTel
9. Being banned in Singapore is better than sex for AshleyMadison.com
10. PHD wins global media planning for Johnnie Walker Blue after competitive pitch

 

Distractions

A few items that crossed our glowing screens this week.

From Dead Parrot, two British actors hilariously dramatise a YouTube comment flame war about the sexual preferences of One Direction's Harry Styles. A great testament to the power of acting, British accents and moody lighting. They've also done one based on comments on a GoPro video.

 

If you haven't seen this work from British Airways, it's a great illustration of what's now possible in the formerly static OOH medium.

 

Most UK Christmas ads are a bit overblown and treacly for our tastes. At least Harvey Nichols knows its audience.

 

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for reading Campaign Asia-Pacific.