Weekly wrapup: Funky chickens and a Thai tearjerker FTW

FTW or fail

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

FTW: After a heated discussion, we had to declare a tie between the sublime and the wonderfully ridiculous.

The ad below, for Thai mobile carrier TrueMove, is a great story and a true tearjerker. The tie-in to mobile service may be tenuous (the tagline reads "giving is the best communication") but when the story is this universal and involving, no one is complaining.  

 

The second FTW for the week is this mesmerizing Mercedes ad involving chickens and a particular skill they possess.

 

Fail: We had no trouble choosing this laughable piece for Longchamp as the fail of the week. Not a bad concept, but somehow it just doesn't come together and ends up inducing cringes instead of a sense of light fun. One of our editors blames the casting, as the main character's lack of dancing ability brings the whole thing crashing down.

 

Top stories

The most-read stories on CampaignAsia.com for the week of 20-26 September.

1. Samsung Asia sees restructuring in marketing team, "small number" of layoffs

2. Ajit Varghese named Maxus APAC CEO as Neil Stewart moves to global role

3. Aegis Media adds China digital agency Trio to Isobar China Group

4. LinkedIn establishes agency team in APAC, Nancy Willis leads

5. McCann chief creative officer Martin Lee leaves after one year

6. Telkomsel consolidates digital account with local shop Narrada

7. Aegis Media' Roy Tan leaves for The Star Malaysia

8. The most popular apps in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand

9. David Ko, Angelo Umali found firm to generate digital 'Daylight'

10. HK celebs promote Converse collaboration with Maison Martin Margiela

 

Top distractions

Semi-work-related things that crossed our glowing screens this week.

1. This one actually is work related, but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. It's an ad from Adobe for its Adobe Marketing Cloud services. We'll say no more to avoid spoiling it.

 

2. Even if you don't care for the Abercrombie & Fitch's poor-quality clothes, the putrid fragrance emanting from its stores or its discriminatory sizing and hiring practices, give credit to the brand's marketing/advertising apparatus for reacting quickly to the "What does the fox say?' viral hit of just a couple weeks ago.

 

3. And staying with the viral 'Fox', Ellen Emmerentze Jervell of the WSJ delivered the inside scoop on why the "What does the fox say' video exists in the first place—and why it's production values are so high. This explains a lot.

 

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading Campaign Asia-Pacific.