Ad Nut wouldn't describe 2022 as an exceptional year for creative work, though as noted yesteday in Ad Nut's 10 best ads of 2022 there were still some great examples of jobs well done.
Likewise, this year's stinkers are not exceptionally bad stinkers, which makes the year even worse for Ad Nut who loves a good rant but hasn't had as many good rants in long while. Perhaps Ad Nut's new year's resolution will be to quit straddling the fence (but ooh, squirrels just loooooove to run along fences) and turn up the chatter—happy or angry.
Even though there was more 'meh' than madness in 2022, Ad Nut did have a few moments this year to wag a tail at creative work that ducked below the bar and are worth burying in the rotten acorn patch:
1. Is this Malaysia Airlines campaign delusional?
This work was meant to capture the spirit of an entire country. Instead, it conjured up an idyllic past that never really existed.
Throughout the film, the camera pans in slow-motion across an unrecognisable utopia where people of all ages and skin colours are seen laughing, eating, and playing together. Young folks are happily indulging in the massively underappreciated and underfunded art form of wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre). Passengers in a bus rush to a woman’s side when she drops her item. A couple of white doves flutter amid the backdrop of the Petronas Twin Towers. If you think the film itself is bloated, wait till you hear what the press release has to say...
2. Dove creates a multitasking metaverse experience for busy moms
Baby Dove's #RealMomsVillage proposed it could be a place where mothers in the Philippines can 'unwind, socialise and be productive all at once'. But how many new mothers had time to 'gain incentives' in the metaverse?
Ad Nut wonders how many parents have time to enjoy virtual baby baths? And how do you 'enjoy' baby bath time virtually?... Ad Nut finds Ad Nut asking: How many parents have time to explore the metaverse in order to find rewards? Why not make it easier for them?
3. Is there any validity in DDB’s Creative Index?
DDB wanted to prove the value of creativity in Australia. It opted to do so by bringing in an investment advisory firm and developing a half-baked instrument full of subjective company choices that created some cool graphics but proved nothing.
Creativity is present and can be applied in so many different formats, and yes, that may very well include a company’s R&D programme. But Ad Nut is sceptical that DDB and Jarden are committed in studying the specific methods and strategies being used by companies in the index to inject creativity into their R&D. Ad Nut thinks that the index sounds like a free pass for most companies.
4. GM reveals the sci-fi super team that powers your EV
This work explains how new GM electric vehicles are run on the "game-changing" Ultium technology platform, which involves a "super team" of sci-fi action heroes inside your EV engine and battery components, bathed in blue light, barking out and fulfilling commands based on how your car is performing.
If Ad Nut is looking for safety and performance from an electric vehicle, putting these in the hands of a stressed out team of supernerds in tight outfits yelling orders, giving hand signals and unceasingly reacting to external conditions doesn't seem like a great idea.
5. Does this Cadbury ad reinforce or smash stereotypes?
This ad relies too heavily on an ironic twist meant to lead us to question our stereotypes of people, but might end up reinforcing them.
Ad Nut wonders: Why should people who look and dress this way go out of their way to prove themselves innocent? Would another type of character—say a short-haired white man dressed in a suit—elicit a similar reaction? Amid trying to answer these questions, Ad Nut has a weird feeling in Ad Nut’s stomach that this ad instead reinforces classist stereotypes towards people who like to skew grungy in their style.
