Fight for your right to house party
December 10, 2008
Home improvement adidas style
“It’s the house party to end all house party’s-and you’re invited,” says the iconic three stripes footwear brand as it celebrates ‘60 Years of Soles and Stripes’.
Katy Perry, Estelle, the Ting Tings, Missy Elliot and David Beckham are among the stars appearing in a new adidas house party commercial, part of the company’s “Celebrate Originality” 60th anniversary campaign. Read more
Door to door salesman
December 10, 2008
The retail countdown
Jamie Cullum launched ‘The Advent Cullumdar’ on 1st December which houses £20,000 worth of Christmas gifts behind its virtual windows, including AC/DC tickets, John Legend concert tickets, 10 CDs from Universal and a Nokia Comes With Music phone. Read more
Ring of fear
December 10, 2008
The ‘Saved by Zero’ jingle from a recent Toyota commercial (from the original song by 80s new wave act The Fixx) has been remixed into a horror video. Bizarrely the original ad, which was lambasted by viewers due to its repetitive nature, has taken on a whole life of its own, making it a far bigger campaign than Toyota could have imagined. As displayed on American Idol so often, a bad performance often garners more attention than a good one.
Gap in the market
December 1, 2008
Jingles sell tops
Clothing retailer Gap has launched a major holiday promotion. The new campaign features a host of celebrities – including singer Ashanti – wearing its New Holiday Classics in print ads. Central to the online and broadcast side of the campaign is a selection of traditional carols exclusively remixed and performed by a wide range of actors, musicians and comedians which hit cinemas on 14th November. Read more
Crystal clear
December 1, 2008
Here is Toshiba’s rather brilliant time sculpture ad (and also an interesting making of) used to promote its LCD TVs. The ad – created by Grey London and director Mitch Stratton – uses over 200 of those overly complex Matrix style ‘bullet time’ cameras to capture the unique revolving imagery. The commercial is sound-tracked by the excellent Crystal Castles, and here, as ever, it’s the music that gives the whole £3M concept its edge.
Let’s get physical
November 13, 2008
Strictly limited editions
• London band Subliminal Girls are releasing an extremely limited-edition version of their new single (‘Self-Obsession Is An Art Form’) for £1,200 each. Only 10 copies will be available and will come in a box with art prints, a book, a T-shirt, and signed negatives of the band. Read more
Skies on firewall
November 13, 2008
AC/DC Excel themselves
Sony BMG has launched the world’s first video in an Excel spreadsheet for AC/DC single ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Train’; bringing the rock titans off the stage and directly into the office environment. “It’s come about because we recognised that a lot of people have fairly restrictive internet and security policies at work,” said Phil Clandillon – who worked on the project with Steve Milbourne at Sony BMG Read more
Environmental face off
November 13, 2008
Watch Marius – a rotund fella in a hoodie – dance to ‘Rabbit Pushing Mover’ by Toy, in this online campaign for ICA (The Norwegian grocery chain) and its organic food range. Alternatively you can put your face on his body – which results in a strange video resembling an audition for ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ mixed with elements of Muse’s video for Super Massive Blackhole – and terrify your friends.
Chicken water wings
November 13, 2008
Attempt to crowd surf by punching those keyboard arrow keys in this online game, part of KFC’s Guitar Hero promotion alongside Dr Pepper. Play as a variety of male and female music genres (depicted by haircut: Punk, EMO, etc) and try and keep yourself above the crowd. You can, as with the ICA campaign, upload your own photo and create your own character. Game play is actually much harder than it sounds
BoyZune
October 16, 2008
A viral video to promote Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference – and the forthcoming release of the Windows 7 operating system – parodies a failed boardroom brainstorming attempt to create a boyband marketing campaign. Using lyrics such as “Wrap your windows around me,” Windows 7 will apparently “take you closer to heaven”. Its creator is swiftly asked to leave the room. How about Seinfeld and Bill Gates in a boyband? That could work.
