Absolutely winning at Facebook

Absolut Vodka is a dream client for me. They’re not that big into human truths or insights they just like to make pretty stuff. I honestly believe that that is what they say on the briefs they give to their agencies “Make me something pa-retty”. They’re print ads normally hold as much sustenance as an episode of the Kardashians, but they are B-E-A-utiful. Their latest campaign by Native, Absolut ZA, is no exception.

Their goal was to establish themselves online and they’ve done this through a campaign on Facebook. They took four artists and got them to design beaded sheaths for the Absolut bottle and then invited designers to submit their design for the fifth bottle on Facebook.

To launch the campaign the four artists they chose to all launched a short Youtube video explaining who they are and their designs. Obviously the Cape Town artist, Athi, was the most lovable creature describing his work as “high camp”. These videos are all short and well edited and they make for some nice quick viewing. The artists that they’ve chosen all come off really well on camera, laughing and joking. They also chose relatable artists from different areas so everyone has their sort of “area ambassador”.

The Facebook page where you can submit your own designs has a great layout. Very easy to use and stylish, which is nice to see as Facebook pages are normally bog standard boring. They also have a design tool which works exclusively on Google Chrome. This is the one area that this campaign falls flat for me. Google Chrome? Come on! I am not going to go and download a new browser just to enter a competition. The act of actually entering a competition has to be incredibly easy (this is why “share and like” competitions are all over Facebook). There is such a fine line between what we will and won’t do to win something. If you actually have Chrome the app is incredible. So much fun! You upload your photo and it then “beads it” and gives you effects to customize it. A procrastinators dream. It’s also incredibly easy to use which means everyone can use it.

The agency behind this campaign, Native, focuses on online work and their portfolio is very impressive. They’ve expanded the online platforms of Isuzu and Jamesons both in an innovative way. They preach, “brands are co-owned by their customers” on their website. They are definitely bringing that mentality into their work. Thoroughly looking forward to what they do next.

Greek Mythology meets Multivitamins

I’ve got a super awesome insight for everyone: Feedings kids things that taste horrible is hard. Wow. Genius. Tricking the children makes them eat the yucky healthy thing. What?! Yes, it’s true.

Hopefully you managed to gather my intensely sarcastic tone there. Vital multivitamins for kids have decided to use one the most obvious insight ever and the take an equally obvious metaphors for their latest campaign. The Trojan horse. Only they’ve taken this ancient Greek story and applied it to what looks like medieval England. Very, very strange.

“Why have they applied it to medieval England?” you might ask. “Why not Greece?” I literally have no idea. It could be an art direction choice, what with castles being better looking buildings. It’s also possible that the advert was just misnamed. Admittedly if I had seen it without its name I might have just assumed it was catapult or something, and then the advert would make absolutely no sense.

Maybe over analyzing it is what has ruined this advert. It is very pretty with a wonderful illustration and on first glance it kind of makes sense. Page flip and done for most people. For me, who has squinted trying to understand this thing for close on ten minutes, it is the most jumbled mash of nonsense I’ve ever seen.

Apart from the visual, I really struggle to understand the copy. To me “delicious gets the good in” is just a random selection of words strung together. I understand how it makes sense in the case of the sweetie-vitamins but as a general statement it’s just wrong. 99.999999% of the time delicious gets the bad in. When linking it to the visual it still makes no sense. I may be going too far into the metaphor here but are they saying that the soldiers inside the horse are “the good”? Because that is just historically wrong.  I guess in some sense the vitamins are sneaky soldiers but “good” is just the wrong word.

I don’t expect lyrical genius from a company whose tagline is “Good Health is Vital”; I just expect it to somehow stick to basic sentence structure.

Over all this is one of the most confusing adverts I have seen in a very long time. None of the elements are working together or explaining anything. As I have said however, at a quick glance this could be very cute and memorable.

Omo vs Super Soft

Here’s a bit of an awesome claim to fame. I was a child model. Oh yes. I may look awkward and yoda-esq now but I was one flipping cute child. My biggest and most demanding role was when I played kid-in-corner and had to hopscotch for 5 hours. Tiring as hell. But that critically acclaimed performance of mine may be why I always have, and always will, love Omo. That’s right folks, I was one of the first “dirt is good” kids. (Queue applause).

You can probably understand why now I’m a bit pissed that my legacy has been ruined by their latest print campaign. Bad advert. Creepy advert. And from such an awesome agency. I’m not sure if I 100% get it to be honest. I feel like it definitely needs come copy to explain the concept.

These print adverts feature photos of clothes lingering over a window watching kids plays. What I take from this, after much consideration, is that the clothes are jealous because they can’t play in the mud. On first view all I could think of were creepy ghost children or just clothes that had come alive. It doesn’t help that in one of the adverts the clothes look like they would be suited to an adult male. They just have a haunting, creepy aspect that doesn’t convey the Omo philosophy properly.

I just feel that the emotions attached to Omo and the positive connotations that the brand displays aren’t shown in this advert. When I think of Omo my immediate reaction words are dirty, fun and learning. Not what this advert displays at all.

On the other side of the fabric-cleaning universe you have Stay soft and their ass-kicking latest campaign. They have taken badass icons like Chuck Norris and Hulk Hogan and created their faces out of fabric. The headline “Softens even the toughest” next to their baby faced pack shot just has a lovely fun contrast.  A fun and simple campaign which manages to show the benefit but in an unexpected way.

This simple campaign is exactly what we like to see. Good design, funny concept and good execution. It may not stay true to the brands normal style and theme but that’s what makes it even better. People like looking at an advert and getting it, which is my main issue with the Omo advert. Stay Soft also shows the power of copy in an advert. With a bit of copy the Omo advert could have been easily understandable and possible relatable.

Dassies and the Water

Warning: If you are from Johannesburg: stop reading this right now, just stop. Everything you ever hated about Capetonians is about to come true. You will leave this thinking of us as dumb hippies. Stop reading. I’m about to talk about the sea and the ocean. It’s happening. Look away now.

This TV advert for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is more of an ode to Cape Town than an advert with its panoramic scenes of the characters and landscapes of the Mother City. The grey sea in the early morning, the mountain behind mist, the surfers and the fishermen all captured perfectly. It makes your heart balloon with pride when you see the city like that. The poem by John Masefield read in a wise, husky voice with a slow banging drum all encapsulate the sound of the ocean. And the tagline “because you love being out there we’re always there”, yoh! That tagline! Whoa. They got it.

Work like this is what makes me understand why I love advertising. Why I am not the spawn of commercialism and enthusiastic voice-overs. Ogilvy aren’t scaring the pants off me, they’re protecting me and making me slightly more aware. They’re also giving me a very fun game I now like to play called “guess the beach”, seriously, if you’re from Cape Town watch this advert and try not to play it. So far I have Dalebrook, St James, Kalk Bay Harbour and Boulders.

You often find that some of the best work in agencies is made probono. What tends to happen is that the advertising agency gives the brief to the younger people in the agency and they, desperate for some great portfolio work and with a fresh perspective and naivety hard to find in old hands, create something spectacular like this. And that’s where the magic lies in this advert, the fantastically edited shots of the sea, the gentle personality shots. It flows so well that it stinks of hard work.

Some real credit needs to be given to this voice over artist; you can almost smell the old tobacco and feel his strong arms over your shoulders when you hear him read. It makes me crave old leather and dusty books. When he reads the opening line “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky” I got shivers. Ogilvy have managed to take that little feeling we keep in our fingertips and eyelashes, that tiny tingle that makes us love the freezing cold water and crunchy sand and they’ve physically manifested it. It takes a big group of people with a deep love of this city to make an advert like this.

They haven’t focused on a human truth or insight as much as an understanding of Capetonians. They’ve shown that they understand the raw emotion and bond, which is why they will protect us and that is what makes this advert so magical.

I think I can safely speak for everyone and say I am very excited for Ogilvy Cape Town to have work back on our TV screens and off our laptops for a while. While their nontraditional stuff is exciting, nothing can make you feel quite like a good old’ fashioned video.

Smile or I'll make you

Like many people in this world I am a complete and utter sucker for an awkward dance. I cringed in Napoleon Dynamite, I swooned in 10 things I hate about you and I shook my groovethang in The Inbetweeners.  It just gets your heart racing and smacks a smile on your face.

The latest Engen/ Wimpy advert follows quite a basic storyline. Boy sees girl, boy dances, girl smiles; boy and girl go on date. Incredibly simple and entertaining.

The act of actually advertising Engen/Wimpy quickstores seems completely pointless to me as the main selling point 90% of the time is that there’s nowhere else to go. Somehow this advert had me wanting to shake my booty on down to milkshake town and go fall in love at the Engen. Admittedly if I hung around in a petrol station with a giant milkshake I’m more likely to be arrested for loitering than courted but hey, worth a try right?

This is a great example of how a product with basically no benefits advertises well. I mean what are they saying other than get your warm fuzzies at your nearest Engen?

There are little pieces of magic that save this advert from being the complete and utter steaming turd it should be (the concept is overdone, there’s no insight, the tagline “love the journey” encourages dry heaving). That Cape Town hipster actor with his scrawny body and wispy facial hair, fantastic casting, he looks like the kind of d-bag who complains about the differences between lattes and flat whites. You can’t help but love someone like that, especially when he’s making a fool of himself. It’s that facial expression when you can tell he thinks he looks cool- sold. Then there’s the song, a George Harrison cover, such cheese so condensed. It’s just enough to tow the line between ironic and disgusting, the Rod Stewart of adverts, I love it.

On the other side of the spectrum we have another South African TV advert which is attempting to give us the warm fuzzies but in the worst kind of way Everyone is already going to be super harsh on McDonalds advertising, what with them being the beef devils that they are. Their latest adverts features “real footage” of a group of orphans going to get free McFlurrys and then taking them to an old age home to share. Urgh, too far.  You have to choose Maccy D’s: old folks or orphans, you can’t have both. And if you do have both at least give them each their own McFlurry

This visual over a (sounds like Parlotones?) cover of Forever Young had me Hulking with rage at the screen. I have nothing wrong with bad companies advertising, and I do appreciate the fact that they’re not targeting kids in this advert, but don’t pretend you’re a good guy. Or at least be more subtle about it. It’s like people that take photos of themselves doing charity work and then upload them to Facebook. It makes me feel like you’re only doing good when people are watching. And you’re not even doing that much good, I mean you gave away twenty free McFlurry’s, not even one for every person in the ad? Pfft, stingebobs. It could have been cute if they had the kids trying to balance all the McFlurrys, like the old Clicks milk advert, before they got to the old people. Having all the starving children staring down their treats and drooling on the screen- not cute, heartbreaking. Also the tagline “Everyone can do with a little happiness”, Coca Cola much?

McDonalds could take some tips from Engen. We, the consumers, love the warm fuzzies but it’s the little things that make us smile. It’s tripping, dancing, smiling all the basic actions that make me seal clap and smile with happiness. If you’re selling your product purely on an emotion it is either has to be a good simple advert or extremely clever. Both are equally as hard to achieve and very offensive watching when done wrong.

The most worrying thing is that this advert has already scooped Best of McDonald's TV for 2012/13 by some of the top McDonald's Creative Directors from around the world. I say aim higher Maccy D’s, cheap shots will get you nowhere with us.

Volkswagen? You've let me down, son.

Volkswagen. Advertising legends. Since their 1960’s Lemon campaign they have been a dream client for any advertising agency because they’re witty, they’re daring and they’re creative. They’re legendary pay off lines include “It makes your house look bigger”, “How does the snowplow driver get to his snowplow?” and “It’s unusual to drive the car you were consumed in” They do not include “Have you seen him? Your Volkswagen has”

It’s not that this is a particularly bad campaign, and trust me when I say I feel like a pushy parent saying this, but I just expect better from them.  Volkswagen is just smarter than this, more creative than this. This is the sort of shoddy behaviour I would expect from Fiat, or a lesser brand, but Volkswagen- you know better than this, son.

The advert is for their side assist, some magic technology that can detect when someone’s riding in your blind spot. Interesting product that has a lot of cool angles you could take on it. Literally displaying the benefit is possibly one of the most boring ways to show it off, and that is exactly what they have done. Must admit: there is a bit of fun in trying to scope out the person in the picture, your mind does do a bit of work. But there is no awesome “aaah-hahahahaha” moment that your normally get from a Volkswagen ad. Just squinting eyes and “hmmm” with this one.

On first view I really enjoyed the art direction. Simple and a bit interesting considering the boring concept, also a black page will always stand out to me. Basically anything clean-cut stands out from the clutter, so they’ve drawn in the viewer- well done. The longer I stared at it the more familiar it seemed though, it got uncomfortable and frustrating, like looking at a face and knowing you know them. It took me some aggressive Googling to find this. Mwa-HA. Got you.

TVN did a very similar campaign that I later found online; they took iconic still shots from films and wedged a tiny slice of advert between them. When I first saw the Kill Bill advert I loved it (I definitely have a type- oops). Very similar concept with two completely different products, interesting, got me thinking.

A bit more of a search and these damn things are apparently quite common. Wowza, I guess it finally makes sense why I’m writing these things weekly: I have now saved myself the embarrassment of not knowing a cliché. Go Team! Learn something new every day.

Back to VW though, I strongly believe in their general awesomeness. I think they might’ve just gotten ever so slightly cocky and therefore let their standards slip a little. Hopefully it just means their next campaign will be mind-shatteringly crazy good. 

CTFM Babysitter Campaign

Cape Town Fish Market, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. I appreciate a good “fancy” chain restaurant: they make a super effort on the service, only over-charge slightly and they’re generally consistent. In Cape Town, where you normally have to coax your sulky, fringed waitress off her phone to beg for a glass of wine it’s a damn godsend.

For some reason they’ve decided to ruin my lovely relationship with them by campaigning to get kids in the restaurant. Urgh, children. Nonetheless it’s actually quite an awesome campaign.

They’ve decided to play on the fear that many parents have about leaving their children with their “who knows what the babysitter is up to?” campaign. They know that most parents don’t like leaving their little precious’s with anyone, let alone someone they don’t know. In their minds sweet 14year old nieces looking for pocket money morph into demonic sex-crazed drug fiends the second they walk out the door. Instead of soothing their irrational fears the manipulative geniuses at Lowe agency Cape Town have decided to play on that fear to advertise their kids menu, mwahahahahaha!

They’ve released 6 print ads of varying degrees of originality. They’ve gone for some easy jabs: the babysitter having sexytimes, and going through your undie draw but they also have some real gems- my personal best being the one featuring a toddler playing with an Ouija board. The art direction is great, they’re all set in dimly lit rooms with definite mood lighting, they never show the evil babysitters faces but rather show the innocent children creating an interesting contrast. The contrast is apparent again with the juxtaposition of the playful font saying “who knows what the babysitter is up to?”

I love that the mood that they’ve gone for is teasing and playful rather than shocking scare tactics. Parents are well aware that when it comes to their child they’re a bit crazy, and for the most part they’re okay with it.

This isn’t the first time that Lowe and CTFM have paired up to do great work. They claim that their ideas behind their good work come from wanting to have fun with the brand. I feel that this campaign perfectly displays that, it is lighthearted, it has mild conflict but for the most part it’s just funny.