Is it that we are setting increasingly punishing standards because
we live in a world in which it seems that everything has been done
before?
Perhaps. But I must stress that each and every ad I have reviewed here
has my utmost respect because they respect reality - real-life paying
clients, real pressures and real demands.
I've been a Formula One fan for ages. So much so that this Mercedes Benz
ad, the Future of Automobile, starts off on the right foot for me.
The camerawork caught my eye. Even the content approach satisfied me;
not many people know that a Formula One driver undergoes hours of
torture while strapped into his car at 180mph.
A commercial, like this one by Ericsson, that attempts to associate a
'lifestyle/user image' look with a product seldom stirs me. Note the
glitzy lighting, the shining piano and the yuppies sitting bored in
their jazz bar etc plus the cool, flirting conversation of the
characters all brings to mind the cognac and watch ads of the 80's.
Perhaps I wasn't the target audience for this series of ads by
Asiawise.com.
I really couldn't figure out the one featuring an 'Onion'. Do tech and
financial matters really make men cry? I also felt that the chosen
execution styles had been done before. Marking out spaces to illustrate
a point.
Unreeling of a tape to stress a hint of mystery. A little too familiar
an approach, perhaps. The trouble with clients that promise to provide
an edge in information supply, is that too many of them utilise the 'we
are the guys to come to' approach. This might have been done a little
differently to avoid blending in with the rest of the crowd.
This series of four McDonald's "Breakfast" ads was probably designed
with a utilitarian purpose of hammering home the message of an dollars 8
meal with few frills on the side. I recognise the creative effort to
repeatedly stress the dollars 8 message in as new a light as possible.
However, the approach of 'an ad within an ad' isn't particularly new.
And what if I only caught the second and fourth in the series? The
entire intended effect would be lost. All in all, a commendable effort
in a product category that doesn't necessarily have the greatest
potential for extreme creativity.
Dentsu's TVCs for Star Channel, titled "Rocky" and "Titanic" are
hilarious.
Although a bit drawn out, these spoofs had me aching in places I forgot
I even had. It took me a while to realise what was going on (and isn't
that a hallmark of some great ads?) but the killer punch knocked the
wind out of me. The backdrop, the effort to mirror little aspects of the
original movies all rewarded my long wait for the punchline.
The bid by the Churches of the Love Singapore Movement to make God more
approachable is not something that people might necessarily associate
with the Church. But it's obvious in this case, that they're going out
to attract the younger generation. While I (once again) felt that the
execution, which used 'still supers' to impress a point, had been done
before, it was also apparent that this had been a 'writer's style of
ad-making'. Some of the messages in the ads were refreshingly
thought-provoking.
Simple yet challenging, I think this series will mean a re-think of the
client's image in many young minds.
1. MERCEDES BENZ
Project: F1 Global
Client: DaimlerChrysler AG
Brief: The future of automobile
Agency: Batey Ads
Creative directors: Garry Tranter, Mattew Cullen
Copy writers: Mattew Cullen, Andrew Reznik
Art directors: Darren Hogan, Gary Tranter
Production Company: Stink 41
2. ERICSSON
Project: Style Outside, Surprise Inside
Client: Ericsson
Brief: Promote the 'style inside, surprise inside' of the T29 phone
Agency: Results Advertising
Creative director: Canon Wu
Copy writer: Joy Chueh
Art director: Kevin Chen
Director: Wayne Peng
Production Company: Polychrome Films
Media Used: Terrestrial and Cable TV
3. ASIAWISE.COM
Project: Asiawise.com (No holds-barred)
Client's name and title: Gene Galbraith, CEO & chairman
Brief: To create awareness of a new dot com information provider and to
position the company as a leader in its area.
Agency: Doremus & Company
Creative director: Vijayan Ganesh
Art director: Doris Hiw
Retouching: Amoeba Digital Imagine
Media used: SCMP, Today
4. MCDONALD'S
Project: Breakfast Promotion
Client: McDonald's HK
Agency: DDB
Creative director: Barry Mok, Louie Hui, Paul Chow and Derek Wong
Media Used: TV, Bus, Print and Instore POP's
5. STAR CHANNEL
Project: Rocky; Titanic
Client: Star Channel Inc.
Brief: A new television commercial for Star Channel
Advertising agency: Dentsu
Creative agency: Tugboat
Creative director: Takuji Nakamura (Dentsu Inc.), Yasumichi Oka
(Tugboat) Director: Shinya Nakajima
Production Company: Tohokushinsya Film Corp
6. CHURCHES OF THE LOVE SINGAPORE MOVEMENT
Project: God
Brief: To promote a 'God' consciousness in Singapore
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Copy writer: Eugene Cheong
Art director: Pei Pei Ng
Director: Sng Tong Beng
Production Company: Odeon Productions Hong Kong
Media Used: TV, Press, Posters, DM, SMS, Internet
