June 14, 2007
Another new commercial that I’m hooked on. This time its just a single one, not a whole campaign. I’m just trying to branch out in my commercial coverage. I sure do talk about them a lot for someone who spends a lot of energy trying to avoid them.
I’m talking about the new American Express one. There are a bunch of stars in it: Shawn White, Ellen Degeneres, Andre Agassi, Sheryl Crow, and Norah Jones. None of them matter. I would be just as big a fan of the commercial if none of them were in it. Its all about Martin Scorsese.
The stars are saying what causes they are interested in supported. Some random guy walks into the shot. Scorsese flips out. Who is this guy? Why is he in the scene? What is this lake he is talking about? He’s brilliant. Why isn’t he doing more acting instead of directing. I think he should do both.
I got to thinking that I think watching Scorsese direct his films might actually be more entertaining than his films. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy his films. The Departed was excellent. I think I’d have even more enjoyment though if the camera was behind him directing the entire movie. I’d get all of The Departed with some Scorsese flip outs in between. Awesome, right. Plus, you’d get all the actors in The Departed possibly fighting back. Or just taking whatever he thew at them. I’d be curious to see the on set dynamic.
The commercial can be seen if you (more…)
June 4, 2007
I may have jumped the gun with my look at the Red Stripe commercials. The new ones from Cold Stone Creamery might just be better. I think they may be from the same people that did the Emerald Nuts ads. They have the same eerie feel to them, the graphics are similar, and the web site is solid. The plots make a little more sense than the Emerald Nuts ones. In the sense that the fears of each person make sense. The fact that broccoli is in a Cold Stone might be a reach.
The idea is that the main character approaches a Cold Stone Creamery. Inside are four arch nemeses (I had to look up the plural of nemesis). The character wants his or her favorite creation but they have to face what they fear most inside of the store. I mentioned the broccoli, which was one of the fears of the Kid. He had the other standard kid fears: Boogey Man, Monster Under the Bed, and the Monster in the Closet. The commercial ends with ‘Do you love it or do you love it love it? This is a play on the sizes at Cold Stone: Like It, Love It, and Gotta Have It. On their web page they explain the sizes as Like It: tennis ball, Love It: baseball, Gotta Have It: Softball.
The site lets you see the current commercials. There are bios about each of the main characters. The bios contain even more information about the main characters. Makes me hope there may be a variety of spots for each character.
Make sure you check out the outtakes. By far my favorite is the Bigfoot Tracker. He loves to lose things, so he can track them down. The Monster Under the Bed is pretty entertaining as well.
On the site if you view the you can click on the balled up paper in the corner and you can submit your own story. I’m not sure if you get anything if your story gets picked. Still, I love the idea that they are asking for more suggestions. It leads me to believe there will be a lot more and they could have a ton of variety.
I should mention that I’ve only been to Cold Stone twice. It opened at school a few years ago. However, my school is known for its Ice Cream on campus. The fact that an outsider showed up trying to sell ice cream was unheard of. I refused to go for the first year or so. I had a coupon for a free one, so I figured I’d stick it to them by not paying them anything. The special that month was Cotton Candy. The creation had marshmallows. It was unbelievable. One opened recently near where I live, so I will be going more often, especially thanks to these great ads.
So far Bigfoot is the only one I’ve seen on TV. I am looking forward to a ton more of these. With new characters or a new variety of the current characters. They will reach greatness if they feature some of the nemeses as the main characters. What is the Boogey Man afraid of??
May 22, 2007
I’m no fan of commercials. The #1 reason for purchasing a ReplayTV all those years ago was to easily record things so I could skip the commercials. Turned out the real beauty of DVRs is not being tied to the TV schedule, but that’s off topic.
Still, I’m always intrigued by good commercials. Its just they are so few and far between. Even less often is there a campaign that I just love. I discovered a new one this week. Off the top of my head here are two of my favorite ad campaigns ever, plus a new favorite that I think has a ton of potential.
ESPN
I don’t even need to really talk about these. There have been so many classics over the years. Even now they will still bust out a solid one. I loved the one with Jorge Posada and David Ortiz where Ortiz puts on the Yankees hat (even though it may have been against the rules).
Emerald Nuts
These were just off the wall when they first came out. It was during the 2004 World Series. This is pre-Goulet, those debuted during the 2007 Super Bowl. There were a bunch of them so you didn’t get tired of any and they were available online so I could show people I wasn’t insane.
From the first set: Encouraging Norwegians (also includes Evil Navigators). If I remember correctly, Egomaniacal Normans was my favorite of this group, but I couldn’t find a video.
Then the came back with the really long phrases that spelled out Emerald Nuts.
My favorite from this group: Engrossed Manicurists Eventually Relay Advice Like Do Not Untie That String
Red Stripe
Finally caught these this week during PTI. First I saw the Sweater one and was impressed. What put me over the top was the evil room. I found some of the others online and this campaign only has the ceiling of the number of places Red Stripe is advertised, which I’ve only ever seen during PTI. This one is good enough to be on everywhere.
iFilm page of Red Stripe Commercials
See some that I’ve mentioned after the jump. (more…)