Don't fuckin vote!

It's controversial. I love this and hate this at the same time. I just think it's targetted for people less picky and untrusting than me :D And I hate politics. I'm boring by saying this. I like Obama.. (?) read more...

June Update

Tough period of time now, guys. So, let's get rid of a few fresh and not so fresh open tabs that make my browser "move" slower and slower...

- btw, the "Question" has been answered, or NOT, that depends on what you like, really. I think the question is impertinent, the heat is always THERE, '0' is actually not zero, you can't divide temperature and really can't talk about "xtimes colder or hotter" (except for hot chicks and hot guys), let's stick with "xdegrees hotter/colder" :) (see the links provided in the post and comments)

- an autistic man that draws f*cking impressive stuff... again, it's about people with mental disabilities that have these really EXTRAordinary "powers"... check out Stephen Wiltshire's wiki page, drawings and videos.

[credits to ziazik]

- The Meth Project: a Montana project against Meth consuming, that's a drug (i wanted to write "horrible drug", but then.. what drug isn't HORRIBLE?!). The impact of the project lists "Teen Meth use has declined by 45%", etc. Very strong commercials, at the VIEW ADS tab on their site. Some said they're too brutal and overwhelming. But then... i said..we are talking about drugs, what do you expect it to be?... My favs, to say so, are "Laundry Mat" from Wave 1 of the campaign, "Jumped" from Wave 2, "Boyfriend" from Wave 3 and "Family" from the last Wave. Also, VERY disturbing print ads, just because the image stays there, instead of more images changing and gone in 30 sec, like in a commercial.


- unconventional marketing piece from Ogilvy&Mather for Calcutta School of Music.

- test for your taste in home deco stuff, very entertaining. for me, at least. if you'd like to find out what style you are, got to mydeco's web site. i love when companies do tests/games that actually are meaningful :) oh, i'm "funky modern", if that's of anyone's interest :P

- i hope you've watched last episode of LOST!!! Ou mi gad. intrigued, intrigued, intrigued! if you like, maybe read this about the episode ;) i never have time to read everything the net is providing about this freakin show :))

- i hope you've seen the "Office Meltdown" or "... Freakout", but here's your second chance, just in case...

and the other angle of course.
they are Russians! just glad to be able to use my language knowledge SOMEwhere :)) and yes, it does look fake to me, but you never know...

- i've been to the Sugababes concert last week in Bucharest, and uploaded a couple vids I made on youtube, here and here, and pictures on picasa. my face dropped when i saw Keo's performance, and.. it was rolling towards the exit doors when Akcent appeared on stage. but thank god, after 2 hours, when the girls came on stage, i was able to pull myself back together and enjoy their amazing voices. btw, for those who whined about the "lack of impressive lights, video projections, amazing decorations" be sure that the romanian show was like an add-on to their world tour and that they usually do have an awesome visual show, check youtube for that. i came for their voices and songs, so that didn't bother me :P


I actually AM doing my diploma paper now, actually working on it, I promise! So, probably long till smth new goes on this poor blog :D Wish me luck. Btw, if you've got some good info on unconventional marketing, pls pass it over to me ;) read more...

Ashton's Cool Pics

It's Ashton's COOLPIX actually ;)) As I researched the net, for my job, I stumbled upon a mini video banner with Ashton Kutcher in a club, taking pictures, girls, Nikon = interesting! :D At the end it said www.ashtonscoolpix.com so - easy to remember and I right away typed it in a new tab of my firefox. And voila!


It is a form on interactive advertising at its best. Poor Ashton had to do about 30 different scenes to match the pictures that would be uploaded by users. I checked Ashton, and here 's how he did. One little problem: it takes a bit long to load. And I have a 54 Mbps connection.

Good job for Nikon! Very nicely done, great actor/vip, great campaign. I like that they put effort into diversifying the specter of possible emotional states from the photos. Try it for yourselves. Btw, after you upload the pictures, blabla, it doesn't give you the link to Ashton's scene, which is...thumbs down.

I like the cameras, they're very cute, I respect Nikon, which from my personal point of view stands first in the category of digital cameras. I want a Nikon COOLPIX! :)) read more...

Volkswagen Touareg

It is going to be a commercial, but not the one I wished for. Because on Romanian TVs it looks slightly different. The difference is at the end, where the whole point is. Anyway, the, let's say, original version (the only one I could find on Google) is the following one, for the Dutch market:

"54% buys a Touareg because of its appearance. So we prefer to keep it clean."

The Romanian version tough, says smth like (I will check exactly) "we already know what a Touareg can do, so we decided to just keep it clean this time."("stim deja ce poate face un touareg, asa ca am preferat sa nu-l mai murdarim")

I agree the messages have a lot in common, but they are different also. The first one is focused on the appearance, the second - on the abilities of the car. I like the RO version better.

Acting! What a remarkable acting. I must consider working in a casting agency :)) The guy talks so naturally, the expressions, the pauses, the gestures are all in their places. Brilliant.
Notice, of course, how it is so different from aaaaaaaall the other car ads, where all we see is a SUV driving on rocks and muddy terrain. This is actually the whole "wow" of this commercial. I like when, seeing smth like this, I wonder "how come nobody thought of this before??" Cool.

Oh, good thing I remembered! The next ad for Lexus Hybrid is an older one, but made a great impression on first watch:

"That day - is TODAY." What a great line! read more...

Banii nu se mostenesc

Rebranding la CEC recently :) Whatever. Cu toate ca noul logo looks nice. Yep, iata de ce m-am hotarat sa scriu in engleza.

Uitati un spot, pe care parca nu l-am mai vazut, cu toate ca, dupa cateva reruns ale clipului, parca incolteste in adancul creierului meu o presimtire-amintire. Anyway. Reclama:

Iarasi, sunt ca de obicei impresionata de acting, in some way... Personajele (adicatelea actorii) au fost alese foarte reusit. Nice.

[credits to IQads] read more...

Persil print

"Every stain has a beginning. And an end."
Genial!

Just an occasional print, seen on IQads today... Loved its simplicity and "genial"ness. read more...

Kitsch

I found this and though it's a kitsch to put up on blogs "very popular videos", but I WILL do it, because, personally, I have never seen it. It was given as an example in an article related to virals. Well, hell yeah, it has 4,215,387 views as of today. It's not very impressive, but maybe I can get feedback on what YOU think and if you've ever seen it. Probably Romania wasn't that "touched" by its viral aura :)


Let me just let me tell you about one more viral: Soulja Boy. I love it :D The CNN people name it "the hip-hop macarena" :))


Beyonce did it too, as part of her performance of the "Soldier" song (Destiny's Child), in her world tour, last year.


Lots more on YouTube, including prisoners, kids ballet dancers, cheerleaders and even soccer players :)
Have fun!
read more...

Turn off the lights, they say

First take a look at this video on youtube. [credits to vali]
I love Earth. I feel strong impact when I see/hear devastating facts about it. I also love social/environmental cause-sustaining ads and whatever else. Because they are cool. Not cool in a happy way. They are nicely done, effective and smart. I will have to post later some day a few unconventional social campaigns.
This video is ok. It tells about something quite serious, objective. But it's not entertaining, or at least different, i mean in the way it's done. I really believe they could have done a way better job.

On the other hand, what can be entertaining about this fact? And for me, personally, this issue doesn't really beg for super cool things in it, but I'm sure for most of people it does.
Apart from that, I'm very glad for this "action" that already took place in Australia. There are a few more cities that join this year. I agree that this is not going to save our planet very fast, but taking action is always good. I just hope it will get enough social awareness. I don't understand people who say " I'm sick of all this global warming shit". Well, then, you are just plain unconscious, limited, greedy, call it what you want.
I think when the whole globe will switch off its lights, that's when it will be saved. But not in a million years this would happen. Sadly.
I wonder what "awareness" will Bucharest be glad of, cause I really doubt people will care about this. Starting with the old lady living next to me. Although she got the fluorescent light bulbs! :D
Speaking of light bulbs, here is a cool ad from WWF France.

read more...

Hearing test

An impressive hearing test. i dare you to take it. not many of these these days :)
Use headphones for better results. I promise there will be no monsters jumping at your monitor :P it's not a joke.

Share your results with me please :) read more...

Jungle in the subway

I'm doing my diploma project on unconventional marketing. I believe this is such a wide and enormously interesting area, and still not so widely used, e!specially in Bucharest. I say Bucharest, because usually unconventional mk plays with city 'tools' and city media in general. Very happy to announce that something great happened in this direction. Take a look at this Lenor little jungle corner established in Bucharest subway, Unirii2 station. If you still haven't got a chance to see it, it's worth checking out :)


Although there is no doubt that this IS unconventional mk, I can also admit that this 'thing' was derived from a poster ad, or billboard, whatever. As a matter of fact, the central piece of the jungle is a poster with the advertiser's logo and message, which btw is smth like "It is so easy to feel like on a tropical vacation right at home". Anyway, "Tropical Fresh" says it all actually. I even think they could have done it without the pretty long (!) tagline. My opinion.
Great job with creating the tropical feel, I was quite surprised. The leaves are so abundant and vivid green and real! At least they look vvvery real. Great job! Plus they have two palm trees on either side of the 'construction'.

On the floor, they had some kind of an interactive screen with fishies which was - wow - another, if not the most curious, thing. At least kids where all over it, and I guess that was at their 'level of sight'. When stepped on, the screen made waves around the feet. Watch someone's video capture of the whole 'miracle' :D

I know it's great, super-duper, sweet, nice and cool, but the question is: is it worth?!? Can you i-ma-gine what money all this costed, and costs? Cause the leaves are really - WOW-REAL!!! I mean, when I think of unconventional, I think of cost-effective, and I mean cheap :D ad campaigns. I mean crazily unique and simple ideas. I mean originality. And honestly, this was too much :| There are so many examples when almost costless ideas, involving city sights and objects, make millions of money and as much satisfied costumers. Why couldn't they think of something more original and less expensive? Maybe people think that everything that is VA-VA-VOOM! is great, no matter what. I don't know...
read more...

Smart ad

I'm almost speechless, but let's just say this is great! Great commercial. I adore unexpected endings, for anything. Especially when they are rrrreally unexpected. And again, I'm thinking... what a simple idea, huh? I wish i can do things like this in the future :D

[credits to feeder] read more...

Vote for the Best Ad!

As a subscriber of IQads, I got a reminder today in my email box about BestAds, the only online advertising festival in Romania. I had actually a fun time spending on the competition pages of BestAds and choosing my favorite ad. This one right here is my fav in the Print category. A work by Leo Burnett adv agency, pretty huge here, in Bucharest. This piece is part of a larger campaign, that absolutely rules! The idea is that the refreshing drink gives you so much energy that even the characters off your clothes (and accessories :D) logos are wasted :D I remember first time seeing a big outdoor in Unirii area, it blew me away. You must also see these: Lacoste, Polo.

Of course, if you're not from Romania, it's probably unnecessary to vote for the best ads (because you're just not familiar enough with them), but I just think it's worth watching this year's collection, I consider it a pretty decent one ;) An yes, all the ads are made in Romania.
Another hit campaign was the one for eJobs.ro, a recruiting online portal, presently nr.1 in its area. The TV commercial included super funny scenes of two characters, a very grown man with beard dressed as a bride, and her husband, a mellow man dressed in a boring office suit. They have typically banal and disturbing husband-wife short conversations, which reminds us that marriage is hellishly boring and just sucks. At the end, the message is smth like "It's just a job, not a marriage. If you don't like it, look for something else better." Anyway, my fav from this campaign is the following:

The other 2 TV commercials are this, and this.

Other great ones are for Cosmote (mobile network) entitled "MMS" and it's just full of extra funny moments or everyday's life in Romania, or things that people just kinda expect to see in Ro and have a good laugh at it.

Anyway, I actually voted for this one, because the scenes are just genially funny. And the tagline for this festival was smth like "To the times when we actually won't have to switch channels." This commercial just kept you watching it, over and over :D

Another very good one is for Zaraza (spirited drink), called "Kafka". But I just thought they have been doing it on the same pace for years now, and it's about time to think of some other ideas for their creative realizations. Great nevertheless!

Oh, and I cannot forget this "legend" that took over us, me&my b/f, we sing the song from this commercial liek every day, and make fun of it, with it. Watch it! Aha, and Sprite rules!

Other pieces of the campaign is here and here.

So vote for your favorite ad, keep in mind that the values that a good ad must include are brand recognition, emotional impact, and just the urge to keep watching it. What I value probably most in a TV realization is acting :D
read more...

Beauty and brains :))

I love jokes about stupid blondes, and I am no racist. I just think that the people who are told these jokes HAVE to be intelligent enough to understand that it's not meant to be mean specifically to blondes.
Racism is an interesting topic, by the way, but I'm not into discussing it right in this post...
I love Mercedes Benz also. They might be a little too "high-class" for my taste, but still... love it. So, yes, they too have a good set of commercials spread all over YouTube, but this "blew me away", if quoting yourself is normal :)
Watch it first:

What really impressed me was the "tagline" to say so, after the clip, "Beauty is nothing without brains" ! Again, powerful and very direct message, kinda lets you think a lil' bit. Like it was something new!? But it really touches a nerve there...
The blonde's face looks, honestly, strikingly stupid, almost like if she would carry a "watch out! i'm STUPID" poster with her. The way her hair looks and the clothes.... I don't know, but they really managed to create a "stupid"-aura around the poor actress. And, of course, I always appreciate good acting, anytime, and this was no exception...
Congrats, Mercedes!

[credits to santa] read more...

The Whopper Freakout

Watch this interesting video on different people's reaction when being announced that their favorite product is not available any more... It is about Burger King's whopper sandwich, action takes place in the US, of course :P

For those who are not familiar: the Whopper sandwich is the signature product sold by Burger King.

read more...

Ikea commercials

I hope you know the funny Ikea commercials, if not... "youtube it" :)

Here's one I didn't know about, but this just blew me away...


It's brilliant, it strikes me with just its power and going beyond limits. Perhaps some will find it violent or inappropriate, but I just love it. The silly Swedish sales clerk and the whole silly Ikea crew is so funny, it shows they're fun and open, and capable of making fun of anything. Fun rules! :) By the way, I just realized - it reminds me somehow of Borat :)) Oh gosh, I just want to watch it again and again... :D
Oh... I want to go to Ikea again... Their food...:) By the way, do you think that when I think of going to Ikea, I think of eating there, is a good thing? for Ikea of course...? Cause I don't think their goal is to be associated straight with their kitchen.... although i love their furniture and everything, too... But still, their food........:) read more...

Veryfunnyads

Veryfunnyads and very smart too. Enjoy!


Against Littering (Belgium)
--> Don't ****ing throw trash everywhere!
Watch what happens to this guy ;)




Hydro Energy (Norway)
--> Bunch of kids playing it real.
I wish kids were that smart nowadays..




Statoil (Norway)
--> A very bad day for the poor man :))
Such a cute clip..




Clube das Empresas Amigas do Ambiente (Portugal)
--> I love antismoking..anything!
Smoking blows. read more...

Shadow poster :: VW

A few days ago, I discovered this site, or better so... somebody discovered it for me and believe me, I spent these few days checking it out doing nothing else (u know...). I found tons of spectacular, uber-creative, revolutionary, amazing ads (I limited myself looking only on their print gallery), and found this up here too... I thought this is incredible. Incredibly simple actually, but so smart and god... just fantastic!

Ok, so the ad is for Volkswagen's Eos convertible model and it's.. conveeeertible! So: air, wind, sky, SUN! Sun, yes! So how do we relate our convertible to the Sun? A: Do a shadow poster.. (dull intonation) OMG it actually seems that this technique has never been used before! Can you believe it? I can't.. but 've been unsuccessful with googling on this so far, so holler if you got smth...

As you can probably see from the pictures, they placed a big tough poster on the edge of a wall (or smth) but the poster isn't built to be looked at, its SHADOW is! So it has cut out letters and logo , completely cut out, so the sun rays could travel thru them and 'draw' words on the ground, beside the wall. The poster itself looks totally awkward because of its position and because you can't read what it says (the correct side with the message is facing the sun).

But what a great idea, to get people's attention that the sun is up and well :D, all shining, and to build an unconventional "invitation" for test driving the new convertible, which is also built for sunny weather!

To add that this campaign was held in Germany (from what I've found) and the message on it is in German, ya! Oh yeah, this is a very crazy form of unconventional marketing, it's evidently not a common outdoor ad poster. By the way, if anybody (anybooodyyy??!...) wants to talk/be told about this matter, I'm always up for it :D

So, here's their official copy for the mighty ad:

"VW Eos Shadow Poster
_______

Challenge
Increase the number of test drives of the new Eos convertible. Target group: Men and women between 25 and 59 years of age, better educated and better off.
_______
Strategy
Who is more qualified for advertising a convertible than the sun itself? Therefore we got the sun to invite people for a test drive by shining through the world's first shadow poster.
_______
Results
Everywhere we put it up, the shadow poster not only caused a stir but also increased the number of test drives by more than 12%. Thus the 2000 Euro poster caused a positive PR in the value of about 200.000 Euros."

The car is awesome looking, too...Ahhh... Very cute and compact....














And some credits:
BTW: Sorry for such an 'amateur' point of view, but I just can't help it, I've become really passionate about this ad now. Time will tell if I can come up with a more professional analytical explanation for this ;)
Now, the credits:
Advertising Agency: DDB Dusseldorf, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Amir Kassaei
Executive Creative Director: Eric Schoeffler
Creative Directors: Heiko Freyland, Raphael Milczarek
Copywriters: Felix Lemcke, Jan Propach
Art Directors: Fabian Kirner, Michael Kittel read more...