Did you guys watch the Super Bowl yesterday? I have to admit, it was pretty hard for me. My hubby and I are die hard Patriots fans and so we spent most of the game so nervous we could barely contain ourselves. But sports are fun, right? Ha! Needless to say, we were elated with the outcome and I now feel better about posting my annual Super Bowl round up (for a trip back in time, see the wrap ups for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014).
Also, what did you think of Katy Perry's halftime show? I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it; especially the Missy Elliot guest appearance and the dancing sharks!
Without further ado, click through the link below to see the best commercials from the big game.
Did you watch the Superbowl last night? I am actually a huge football nerd, so I wouldn't have missed it (I was also rooting for the Seahawks, so the outcome was awesome!). But I have to admit that most of the fun of the 'big game' yesterday—given the lopsided outcome—was the halftime show and commercials. I was skeptical about Bruno Mars performing but he was awesome! I loved the styling of the whole thing, from the costumes to the sweet dance moves. They even managed to merge his peppy swag with the angsty rock of Red Hot Chili Peppers, which I didn't think was possible!
Anyway, in keeping with my yearly tradition, here is a round up of my favorite commercials this year (and here are the past posts from 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013). Overall, I thought the quality was not bad and was happy with the fact that there were very few objectifications of women or croaking frogs . . .
MY TOP TWO
Animal commercials get me every time!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
It's hard to beat the Muppets and Terry Crews, but the sheer silliness of the Tim Tebow 'no contract' idea might top it.
THE TEAR JERKERS
Soldiers coming home and cancer—tough themes for beer and car commercials, but these were done really well.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
This was a pretty simple ad, but I thought the styling and cinematography were stunning.
What were your favorite ads? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments!
Have you seen this new Air Jordan ad? It's so cool! I love when advertisers try to do something a little different: the illuminated ball, the funky outfits, the marching band. Very sweet.
Did you guys watch the Super Bowl last night? I was very disappointed with the results (if my beloved Tom Tom can't win, I don't want the Ravens to! Plus how epic would that 49ers comeback have been?). My hands down favorite part, despite being a die-hard football fan, was the half time show. Beyonce blew it out of the water! I wish Jay-Z had joined her instead of Destiny's Child, but the technical aspects of the show were out of control (many secretly feel she caused the blackout)! Did you miss it? Watch the whole thing show here.
My other favorite part of the game, as always, were the commercials. This year I was pleasantly surprised by the options. There were the standard sexy lady and silly options, but if you looked beyond that there were actually some very clever ideas. Here are my favorites . . .
Cheeky car commercials . . .
Funny food features:
The NFL had some amazing ideas . . .
And then there were the tearjerkers (that Bud ad, oh man!) . . .
Which ones were your favorites? Let me know in the comments!
If you are a college sports fan like me, you are used to watching games on tv that are punctuated with numerous university-promoting ads. Well during last night's football national championship game, I saw a commercial for an unusual type of university: Monsters University.
The ad is part of an ingenious campaign to promote the upcoming Monsters Inc. prequel, entitled Monsters University, due out this summer. In addition to strikingly realistic college commercials they have also created an amazingly clever Monsters University website, complete with degree programs (they have a School of Scaring, and a School of Liberal Arts & Monstrosities!) and an incredibly realistic President's address that almost makes you want to enroll. Not to mention a school store that allows you to select the number of sleeves on your sweatshirt; hilarious!
Even after all that, do you still feel a bit confused about what the movie will actually look like? Here's the official trailer:
But if you want to kill a couple of minutes browsing through a wonderfully creative movie website, check out all the goodness about Monsters University here.
Love this: the music, the idea, the execution. Its advertising at its best! Way to go Faber Castell—a company that makes wonderful art materials and now wonderful commercials!
Did you guys watch the Super Bowl last night? What a game! I was really rooting for the Packers, mostly because the Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisburger is not a good guy and the Packers are overdue for a win. I am glad Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers was able to put out such a great performance and cinch a great game.
That said, one of my favorite parts of the game was still watching the commercials (as it was last year, and the year before). This year I thought advertisers really stepped up their game and delivered some great commercials—relying more on creativity and less on busty women or talking animals to sell their products (though, of course, there were still some of those). Here are my favorites in no particular order. I especially love the Audi commercial though; Kenny G! Classic!
Enjoy!
(See almost all of the commercials from the Super Bowl here.)
Did you have a good weekend? I spent most of it doing work, but I did manage to sneak off and do one fun errand—I will try to share it in a weekend update later this week.
In the meantime, I thought I was overdue for a post about clever advertisements (see here and here). Here are some eye-catching billboards I have come across recently . . . . I am totally in love with the first one! Which is your favorite?
I got back from Colorado yesterday and can't wait to share some of my pictures with you tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to share this amazing tilt-shift video made to advertise Whistler ski resort. It perfectly captures the magic of the mountains and the wonder you feel standing before them.
See some other great videos made by Whistler here.
I am running off to a busy day of work, class, reading and errands, but I wanted to leave you all with my new favorite TV ad. This ad—actually a promotion of advertising on television—is both cute and clever, playing on our superficiality, even when it comes to our pets. I love how he has his bag packed at the end: so adorable! Hope you like it.
(Have to admit that I would still be tempted to adopt the dauschund—such perfect puppy dog eyes.)
My sincere apologies for being missing in (blogger) action recently. I have spent the last six days in the sleepy town of Woodstock, Vermont with my boyfriend and his family blissfully disconnected from the outside world. Days were spent hiking, swimming, reading and eating ungodly amounts of delicious food. On rainy days I even worked on a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle: a pastime I had not had time to enjoy since summers off from elementary school.
To get to the point of this post, evenings in Vermont were spent eagerly watching the epic cycling challenge known as Le Tour de France. For those of you who are not as cycling-obsessed as I am, this year's Tour was a nail biter, with the winner of the yellow jersey only decided by a matter of seconds on the final day of the month-long race. It was also Lance Armstrong's last time competing in the Tour, after having announced that he will retire this year with his record-breaking seven wins. Accordingly, his sponsor team Radio Shack launched an incredibly clever and funny ad campaign that played non-stop throughout the competition. It features Lance talking to his "assistant" the bumbling but sweet 'Alphonse'. These ads are so good they almost make me want to shop at Radio Shack for something other than an obscure car charger or 9 volt battery.
My personal favorite commercial in the series, however, is definitely this one. Hilarious!
Hope you like them! Back to regularly scheduled posts tomorrow!
I am in love with this new Gatorade campaign. I don't care about the actual product, but I am amazed with the elegance with which it has been marketed. The idea of "evolution" that the Gatorade ads latch onto, changing your product and advertising to meet changing needs, is so obvious and simple and yet brilliant. An ad campaign that is forthright is refreshing in our day and age of spin, spin, spin (Remember the 'Truth' campaign against smoking? That got to me too.). It also helps that the ads are well shot and the jingle--"Evolve" sung by Blackstreet's Kermit Quinn and arranged by the award-winning producer David Banner--is incredibly fun, unique and catchy. I love it and cannot get it out of my head.
Learn more about the campaign and download the jingle at the Gatorade website here.
Is anyone else getting really really excited for the World Cup (even with the NBA finals still in full swing! Go Celtics!)? I watched nearly every game during the 2006 World Cup and was particularly happy to see Italy win having just returned from a six month study abroad there. I can not wait to watch the games this year and am keeping my fingers crossed for a strong performance by the US (and, for my Kiwi boyfriend's sake, from New Zealand too . . . even if they do have a near-impossible draw). To get you in the spirit, I thought I would share some of the best commercials promoting the games. Enjoy and go U-S-A!
See more of my sports obsession here and see an awesome interactive schedule of the games here.
Have you noticed the stickers on the bananas in the past couple months? Now Chiquita seems to be transitioning to stickers with text on them again, but for much of the beginning of 2010 all the stickers had funny faces on them. Geeks, wrestlers, vamps, goofballs, girly girls . . . these silly faces made bunches of bananas look adorable and fun. See what great marketing can do? I think I have had more potassium in 2010 than in the last three years combined. And this campaign is certainly a step up from past ones (like this commercial, here). Learn more about past Chiquita sticker styles here and the new faces, in an interview with the designer Dj Neff, here.
I agree with swiss-miss, the video creator at Google Search Stories is awesome. I made my own little video self portrait above, hope you like it! Head over here to make your own search story; it's a cinch!
(Also, I wanted to thank you all for your kind birthday wishes! I had a fabulous weekend and will try to share some photos of the party with you as soon as I get them organized.)
I came across the awesome commercial for the UK-based home store 'Homebase' last week. Unfortunately, I can not remember who turned me on to this ad gem. Hopefully I can pour through my notes and figure it out. Even so, I think you will love it - it performs an incredible makeover of an English train station, turning it into a series of comfy "home rooms." If I had come across this installation I am pretty sure I would have skipped my train and just spent the whole day hanging out. So lovely!
So the Olympics are over. I am not sure if you were as obsessed with them as I was, but I couldn't get enough! The tragedy, the triumph, the hard work, the dedication, the passion! I love watching people achieve something they have dreamed of their whole life in a matter of seconds!
Besides the excitement of the actual competition, I was also impressed by some other things. There were some pretty great commercial series; VISA did an awesome champion series including this one with Dan Jansen's incredible story. Plus the ad series dedicated to the mothers of olympic athletes, done by P & G, was so adorable I couldn't stand it.
Even better? I loved the classy uniforms, designed by Ralph Lauren, for the US Team to wear at the closing ceremonies. It was ski lodge met preppy chic and every member of the team looked absolutely stunning. But what was with the rest of the ceremony? How awkward was the stand up? And how sad is it that all of the famous Canadian performers have all achieved fame in the US, and lived in the US, for decades?
See more photos of the closing ceremonies at the NY Times here and more olympics advertisements here and here.
Just like last year, I thought I would share some of my favorite commercials from the Super Bowl last night in case you missed them. I was surprised that there were no super standouts for me, though there were a bunch that had me chuckling. These four were particularly creative; I particularly love the Google 'Paris' ad for its sweetness and simplicity.
Welcome to yet another installment of "In the Classroom". This week I will be talking about 1950s/1960s era magazine ad men--truly the good ol' boys seen on "Mad Men"--like Helmut Krone and George Lois.
Helmut Krone is like the Godfather of advertising. Everyone knows his name, his handiwork and his "family"--the agency Doyle Dane Burnbach. Among his many accomplishments, Krone is known for democratizing type by using all lowercase, basic fonts, and colloquial text. Often he would completely remove the company's logo, leaving the actual product to speak for itself (like the Polaroid camera at top right). He is best known, however, for spearheading the iconic Volkswagen "Think Small" campaign. Voted the best ad campaign in history by AdAge.com, the Volkswagen ads were near heresy to other designers (in fact there is a scene in Man Men that addresses this); you could barely see the product; the text was too jocular; the ad mocked the product. But people loved it. And pointing out that the bug is a "Lemon" or that it "Makes your house look bigger" appealed to a consumer base that was looking for an alternative to big companies and big cars and big environmental damage. Learn more about him here and here.
George Lois was also an icon, but his work is most often seen on magazine covers instead of within magazine covers. His covers for Esquire were always dead on--commentary on modern art and commentary on current events. He used photomontage to get to the heart of the matter: Mohammed Ali's martyr status after refusing entrance into the army, Andy Warhol's exponential fame through his use of Cambell's Soup cans. He has published several books about his career and was the subject of a MoMA retrospective in 2008. Learn more about him at his awesome website here.
