Three Adverts We Love
Here are three advertisements that have impacted me in different way in the last month or so (October-November).
“What is your next Vision?”- XBox
Part of the Kinect Effect campaign, “What is your next Vision” is about how Microsoft’s Kinect device (launched for the Xbox 360) has gone beyond gaming. Since its launch hackers have done things to the program that Microsoft hadn’t thought of originally. The applications have included helping stroke victims recover, and encouraging children learn new skills. In the advert you see musicians, surgeons and bomb-disposal expert using kinect technology to push the boundaries of their fields as they make music without instruments, or view essential information with a wave of their hands. This advert touched the futurist within me.
“The Long Wait” – John Lewis
The next advert, called “The Long Wait” had people all over the UK weeping. Made by Agency Adam & Eve to promote Christmas for John Lewis, the spot continues the retailers’ Christmas tradition of focusing on simple heartwarming stories. This years’ ad differs in that rather than telling multiple stories, it tells a simple familiar story of one boy impatiently counting down to Christmas day. The tagline is brilliantly simple; “For Gifts you can’t wait to give”. The visual warmth and excellent performance by young lead are enhanced by a perfect song choice, ‘Please, Please, Please let me get what I want”; originally by the Smiths and rerecorded by Slow Moving Millie. But there’s a little twist at the end that makes this ad really special. Pluck go the heartstrings.
“Rock Giant” – Johnnie Walker
The final ad is a special effects masterpiece from Brazilian Agency Neogama BBH Publicidade Ltda for the Brazilian faction of Diageo, the world’s largest producer of spirits, this spot continues the tradition of Johnnie Walker ads begun in 2009 with the award-winning short film “The Man who Walked around the world” starring Robert Carlyle that tells the story of brand. This is the first time Johnnie Walker has developed a local campaign specifically for one country. Production company Zohar Cinema e Comunicado Ltda under director Peter Thwaites of Gorgeous, has teamed up with Post-Production house The Mill to, quite literally, move mountains as Rio‘s Sugarloaf Mountain awakens and is revealed to be a sleeping giant? We watch in awe as an entire mountain unfolds into a humanoid shape and starts walking… a metaphor for Brazil itself, perhaps?
The third one is incredible. It's funny that a Whiskey company is telling you to "keep walking"...!
Great picks! Adverts count as escapes to the cinema for time-challenged folks like myself.
[...] pretty easy to see since it’s so in-your-face, as well as being all around us. Ads, ads, everywhere there are ads. Now, no one is disparaging the advertising community because there is some amazing creativity to [...]