Burger King Netherlands gets a “tasty new look”; why do brands save all the cooler marketing for our neighbors across the pond? Also, this would have been perfect in Italian Vogue’s Haute Mess editorial. 

Etch A Sketch’s response ads to their unexpected involvement in recent political discourse are Brilliant. 

Filed Under: Wes Anderson + Hyundai 

What makes something typically uncool instantly into something awesome? Wes Anderson, of course. Anderson’s signature irreverence elevates Hyundai cars from boring budget sedans to an appealing auto choice with this whimsical commercial “Talk to My Car,” as well as the quirky “Modern Life.” It’s a new mix of high and low! 

This idea is pure gold: the iconic golden arches made with golden poppies in the golden state! No, it’s not just gold because of the color, but because California Poppies are illegal to pick or dig up due to their status as our lovely state flower. Designer Sean Click made this low-cost, high-impact concept ad for McDonald’s to have an eco-friendly permanence protected by state legislature. Although environmental graffiti for McDonald’s, the antithesis of health and sustainability, may be more than slightly ironic, this logo made of California Poppies would me ingenious and indestructible—anyone who tried to dig up those flowery arches and would face a fine!

In order to avoid having to license the term “Super Bowl” from the NFL to use in their ad, Chipolte has created the above, calling the event instead “The Super Big Internationally Televised Professional Football Bowl Game.” Super-clever, and the promotion it’s for isn’t half bad either! 

This Chinese New Year commercial from rice distribution company Bernas pulls no punches. It is epically heart-sting-pulling, to an extreme. Do I feel manipulated? Yes. Did I tear up during a rice commercial and will I remember it for a long while? Absolutely. 

The short film quality of the spot is in keeping with a direction we see many brands beginning to travel- making commercials as captivating as long-form entertainment might stop the DVR fast-forward that is plaguing the industry today. 

Never before have we seen such a simultaneously risque and adorable holiday commercial as this spot by Harvey Nichols- super brilliant holiday marketing. 

Filed Under:  Giving Small Campaigns a Voice

Kickstarter has a kid sister, and it’s name is LoudSauce.  You may have heard some mumblings about it already, but LoudSauce is a crowd funding company that raises money for campaigns to buy advertising time.  This completely changes the face of advertising from one that tells us what to do or buy (while driving up the cost of commercial space) into one where the public can give socially responsible campaigns a chance to breakthrough.  One example, The Story of Stuff raised enough money to put a commercial on A&E’s Hoarders, reaching an estimated 2 million people who would have never otherwise been exposed to the campaign.  

Mocking competitors and highlighting company achievements is a difficult thing to achieve without a braggart tone in advertising. But Scandinavian Air got it juuuust right with their cheeky new TimeKiller app, aimed to draw attention to being awarded Europe’s most punctual airline 2009 and 2010, as well as the world’s most punctual airline during July and August 2011.

Frustrated travelers, presumably not traveling on Scandinavian Air, can evade productivity and embrace touch-screen-twiddling with silly games like Spin the Hamster and Blow the Propeller, and even directly book a flight through the app. While a spinning hamster may not be the next Angry Birds, the marketing message is loud and clear.

Seizure-inducing graphics, a bizarrely accented voice, and repetitive, irreverent analogies marry for an awesomely weird commercial…only better. 

Yes, those are olives (and popcorn and pillows), but it’s for Vitamin Water. This unexpectedness in a commercial may make people take their thumb off the fast-forward—and appreciate pitted olives.

Twitter went analog at ESPN’s X Games in LA, thanks to the creative masterminds at Wieden + Kennedy. Viewers tweeted with the hashtag #humantwitter, and the especially notable or witty tweets were displayed in the crowd via signs held by 160 official “letter-holders.” WTF y 160?! O nvm, W+K wanted it for line breaks.

The tweets that were deemed worthy for Homo Sapiens display were related to Travis Pastrana’s ugly crash, and the first motocross front flip landed in the X Games by Jackson Strong…even though the dumb ESPN announcer says back flip. Back flips…pshh too easy. 

Although the potential for monetizing a concept such as this is huge, Human Twitter wasn’t intended to advertise for anything in particular. A Wieden rep said it was meant to be a “fun, interactive event ESPN wanted to do that is meant to give fans a way to interact with the athletes at the X Games.” If anything, Wieden + Kennedy is promoting themselves as the preeminent masterminds of innovative advertising that is brazen but manages to engage rather than bombard viewers. And humanizing one of the most unnatural (in its character limitation) forms of communication is just..awesome!