gondry motorola ad

I was delighted to see some new Gondry work in a medium that he is really well suited to: the advertisment. Showing here with an ad for Motorola. Gondry is the king of the lo-fi look. In his last movie The Science of Sleep there were several dream sequences where the city seems to be made of cardboard. He is obviously exploring this a little further here. I absolutely love the way he explores the features of the new phone by imagining it as a real world entity complete with people inside operating the various functions. Gondry loves the surreal but he is never over-indulgent. Always charming and forever creating a tangible and enticing world to explore. His new movie Be Kind Rewind is out soon.

Interactive Shopfront

I really love this ingenious way to showcase your wares in a shop window seen here for New York Fashion Week for Elle MacPherson Intimates. Devised by Human Locator this is a great way to generate interest in a shop display as it encourages people to explore the window at their leisure and spend more time there than they necessarily would. Adding a level of interaction like this breaks the mold and reminded me of this banner of the day over at bannerblog. Exploration with your mouse to mimic your finger movement is the same in this banner as waving your hands by the window to see what is underneath. This really appeals to our inherent nature to be nosy and explore.

gondry for hp

Oh I love Michel Gondry and he loves experimenting with film as is shown in this nice ad for HP photosmart printers. It reminds me of that great HP ad "out of the picture" of which I can only find the dutch version (below). It's that one with the picture frames going over the guys head. A simple effect to do in After Effects but effective none-the-less. It is kinda cool for HP to align themselves with all these trendy people as they have done for this campaign with famous singers and snow boarders also in the line up. They want to show a variety of ways their product can be used to invent. The Gondry ad just shows again how this eccentric French man thinks and dreams and how this is all realised into something tangible. Nice....

montana meth project

This series of anti-crystal meth ads from Montana really hit home. The dichotomy between what is being said and what is being watched is really effective. Crystal meth is one of the most harmful drugs out there and is seriously ruining the lives of some young people out there. This campaign is hopefully going toward stopping some of that harm. My only real worry is that this ad is preaching to the converted. It seems that possibly this set of ads is talking to parents and kids to show them how badly drugs can mess up their lives, it is not actually talking to the kids who are currently using. However, if the message reaches just a few of those kids who may be tempted then it is a success.

wwf

This is truely a remarkable and inspired billboard ad from the World Wildlife Fund. Using the sun and a specially designed screen, the shadow cast on the ad creates the illusion of the seas rising over the course of the day. This stop-motion video shows how the ad looks over time. This is genius and just shows how if you think a little laterally you can produce stuff of meaning for the real world. The link takes you to a Save Our Climate microsite.

ray (should be) ban(ned)

The 80's are back and so it would seem is Ray Ban here with this viral video. Watch it first and we'll discuss in a minute.

Ok so this went round the agency today and although it did get fairly widely slated it is clearly quite clever. I suppose there are people out there who won't realize that it is all done in After Effects or some such tool and to those it works as a good viral video, one you really do want to send round to all your mates. To the more savvy viewer they will realize that this is just a shameless promo piece for Ray Ban featuring two obnoxious guys. But it is still a good video with a good concept and one that everyone wants to look at even if just to see how it was done. And if you notice on the car window the words "Never Hide"... type this into google and the top hit is the Ray Ban website. Clever!

fedex slingshot

I saw this banner ad for fedex titled slingshot and I had to share. The reason I like it is because it surprises you a little by being able to pull the package outside of the ad. The way this is done is for the advertiser to buy a space bigger than the area that the ad looks like. Within flash you then create an invisible background so that the page beneath will show through. It then appears that the fedex package pulls beyond the confines of the ad. It is an effect done many times before but where this ad works is in its simplicity. For best results view WITH sound. Oh and if you are in the industry or working in flash you should add banner blog to your list of bookmarks because at some point you will probably have to make a banner and this is an invaluable resource.

reasons campaign

So the safe sex campaign for the GMFA, I have been involved with, is now live. The ads focus around six guys and their reasons for 'choosing' safe sex. GMFA doesn't preach or lecture so the campaign had to focus around positive ideas based around why gay guys have safe sex. The print ads are running in the gay press right now and are being drip fed in. The full print campaign can be seen here. The banner campaign (which I built) is now live at puffta and will be going live very soon at gaydar and gay.com. Check it out here but be warned that like all banners you may need to refresh the page a few times in order to see the ad. It should look something like the screenshot below.

saab aero

Here we have Saab beefing it up with their Aero X concept car. The photography for this ad and for the microsite itself is incredibly gloss giving it that glassed icy look. And they make that parallel in the video as the screen freezes over. Also in comparison is a jet fighter and as the roof slides open the idea of bubbles rising. Ok so a little pretentious for a pretty unremarkable car. Some angles do look quite good (the back has a kind of edgyness to it) but really you can tell this is Saab trying to be Audi or BMW. Oh and it is already starting to look dated. When was this car released? I figured about 2005 and now those blue lights at the front do nothing for me. Still this is a slick ad and it does what it is supposed to do for its target audience of no doubt male aspirational 25 to 40 year olds. Nothing remarkable with the microsite either which is a shame as there was a lot they could have done. This is a far better microsite for Saab. Much more interactive and a great way to use flash video.

gondry the ads

I thought for this rather glorious Sunday I would indulge into a little more Michel Gondry this time with his TV adverts. His love of repetition and loops is evident again here in a stunning ad for Smirnoff where narrative and time are irrelevant as our hero dives from one unrelated scene to the next. Each fall into a new land is made possible by peering through the Smirnoff bottle and seeing the new world unveil. What is great here are the transitions between scenes. I especially like the way the bald guy's head becomes the spaceship. Next up is Gondry's ad for the Gap. Here his perfect sense of rhythm has his dancers perfectly orchestrate a routine that has them blending with each other and exploding into others in a full range of colour. A very memorable winter season ad. Oh and I have left you also with his Levis ad which is shot in delicious black and white with a totally edgy feel. Again a powerful sense of drama here as a scratchy sound track delivers it's punch in a wry narrative. A bit of a diversion for Gondry but a classic none-the-less.

Smirnoff



Gap



Levis

ford womb

Oh this is just lovely. I'm pretty sure this is actual video taken with those new ultrasound techniques as opposed to CG. Amazing to see these creatures in the womb. And that polar bear (wow). Not sure about the message of the ad though. Ford being green conscious and appealing to a new generation of users. What about dealing with their existing gas guzzling market and trying to change a few attitudes? Just a thought :)

foreign office

If you haven't yet seen Children of Men then go out and see it NOW. It is by far one of the best movies of 2006. The movie portrays a chilling and fearfully accurate vision of a not-too-distant future. Part of this is some advertisments that appear on bill-boards and the sides of buses. The folks over at foreign office are responsible for these little gems and a showreel can be seen lo-res below or if you have time the hi-res version is here. Advertising of the future? Thanks Kit for this link :)

auditricity

I quite like this ad in terms how it has been made. It is dynamic which I love (basically animations of this sort fall into two camps.... timelined and dynamic, where a timeline animation will always look the same). It seems to have been made by having three movie clips that react to where the mouse cursor is and stretch to meet that point from original points on the car. Nicely done. From an actual ad point of view does it actually get across its message? Well its not bad. A pretty good idea. And with all ads of this size simplicity is key. Check the ad out here

virginia slims circa 1969

Aaaaaah simpler times. When the trend in selling your product was to nod towards women's lib with a "Look how far you've come". How fab does this woman look though? With a flavour she likes and now in a slim feminine size. Genius. I now know why my granny smoked these. Because you looked SUPER COOL. I'm sold :)

eatPES

I found this rather lovely stop-motion advert for Bacardi from the guys over at PES films. I particularly like the first lemon advert. The thing with great stop-motion (as the guys over at Aardman will tell you) is you have to start with a great story. The genius comes with how the cheeky script is realized through stop-motion. This really is such a painstackingly labourious medium to work in that I have such great respect for anyone doing this kind of work. I'm not sure if I have the patience.

This one by PES will also make you titter :) roof sex

and this one is just wrong!!!! beasty boy

See how it feels

Ok I don't watch TV very often so I do end up missing out on these brilliant ad campaigns. Thank gods for youtube is all I say. BMW here with their "See how it feels" campaign. This is fracking gorgeous stuff. Watch and enjoy. Created by the guys over at Wanted Films it features a reworking of Beethoven's 9th Symphony produced by UNKLE. The gorgeous lighting effects are created Matrix style using a lighting rig mounted with time delayed cameras. The results are smart. This really is HOW to sell a car. By giving a notion of experience.

Oh and if you don't get my two Battlestar Gallactica references then you NEED to start watching this show (best thing on tele - via downloads in case you were wondering).

shadow play

This is exactly how car adverts should be. Simple and elegant. A poignant message with a simple strapline "Isn't it beautiful what hands can do?". Shadow puppetry has always been an interesting medium to me. It relies heavily on the imagination to work. No colour and no sound. Just shapes and suggestion. There is a great scene in Hideous Kinky where the two girls are acting out a shadow puppet scene called the 'dark hand'. It reminds me of what it is like to be a child where everything is full of wonder and excitement. I think this Volkswagon ad captures that moment.

windows mobile campaign

It is finally online. A huge labour of love for me at GT. This is the first Microsoft campaign that we undertook and here is one of the ads in its live format. Please note that adverts do alternate on pages such as this so a few refreshes of your browser may be in order (I have provided a screenshot to show you what you are looking for). Click here to view the ad in all its glory. Oh and don't forget to click on the ad even if you don't want to. No harm done and it all adds up to a successful campaign for us.

why i love lego

Created by Blattner Brunner, USA, this print campaign highlights why so many people LOVE lego. Because it encourages you to use your imagination. And if this isn't an inspiration to kids around the world (and adults alike) I don't know what is. This campaign went on to win the Cannes Grand Prix Prize and well deserved it was. It just goes to show...simple ideas can have a huge impact.

hand of blackjack?

Definitely an iPod inspired ad here for the Samsung BlackJack. But doesn't it look lovely. The phone is shuffled like a stack of cards and as they are fanned you get to see the five main areas of functionality that this phone has to offer. Set on black (it being the BlackJack) really sets it off with its glowing blue accents. I actually have made some ads for the Cingular BlackJack in our last Microsoft campaign and unfortunately we did not get one of these devices to play with. That being said I think this is a great entry from Samsung and a worthy adversary to the Blackberry.