YOUTUBE: Betty White's Hoodies

As a follow-up to the post from yesterday about Betty White's partnership with clothier Hoodie Buddie to raise money to benefit the Morris Animal Foundation, comes this farse of an advertisement naming White as the "designer of the year". Full of White's sartorial wit and some great one-liners, the spot amkes it clear why this woman is a national treasure, even if she's got a mouth like a sailor.


Sergio del Limonar

WEBSITE: I Believe In Advertising

Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero." And most of the time he would be right. But then there are those exceptional pieces of advertising that transcend the rest and become epiphanous works of art.

I Believe In Advertising is a great blog that hunts down and compiles such works of commercial genius from all over the planet, and displays them here, free of charge to the product's company and providing congratulatory kudos to the firm and artist(s) who designed the ad. Most of the featured advertisements are print ads from magazines and newspaper sources, however a few television commercials make the cut, as well as other unique and creative advertisers who choose to think outside the box a bit, like this "ad" for McDonald's from Zurich, Switzerland (below).


Wouldn't it be great if all advertising was this fun?!?

Sergio del Limonar

YOUTUBE: Bruce Lee Ping Pong

In some foreign markets, cell phone maker, Nokia, is using old footage of martial arts master Bruce Lee to sell their new product. This video edits two such ads together. In the first, Lee is playing ping pong against several different challengers. The extraordinary thing is that Lee is using nunchucks while his opponents use the traditional paddles. Also, Lee kicks their butts.

In the second ad, Lee attaches a strip of some material that serves as a flint to the end of his nunchuck and then proceeds to light several things on fire. First he kindly lights a cigarette while it sticks out of a guy's mouth. (You can't see it but I'm sure he is wetting himself.) Then a box of matches is emptied out and the thrown, one at a time, for Lee to hit with the end of the nunchuck and the momentarily light. Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan have got nothing on this guy.

Sergio del Limónar

TV: Pepsi "Oh, Africa!" ad

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is right around the corner and the marketing departments of all the major sponsors are in high gear. Come June we will no doubt be inundated with many ads featuring the sport and athletes of soccer. Pepsi, for example, has released a fantastic advertisement that exemplifies the spirit of the game, the excitement of the entire continent for hosting the event, and the unifying power the game has.

In the ad, Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry, Kaká, Frank Lampard, Andrei Arshavin, and Didier Drogba, find hand-painted jerseys with their names on them at an African village market. They attempt to purchase a Pepsi from another stand only to be told they would have to play the vendors for the beverage. The footballers ask the kids, "Do you know who we are?" to which the challengers respond with the same question. They then ask where the field is which is when the magic and creatively of the ad really begins.

With a soundtrack featuring the song "Oh, Africa!" by Senegalese-American R&B artist, Akon, the spot makes you want to board a plane for the dusty savanna and get your own pick-up game started. I can only hope for more creative and uplifting advertising campaigns in the next couple months!

Sergio del Limonar

TV: P&G Olympic Commercial

I am loving watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this year. I am loving watching for the Olympic Moms ad from Proctor & Gamble (makers of all kinds of products like Tide, Crest, Pampers, etc.) almost as much. I will be sad when both stop appearing on my TV.

I was a gymnast when I was a little girl and, pretty much constantly, had visions of myself flipping across the balance beam at the Olympics. I think this is a common dream many kids picture for themselves at one point or another whether they recognize it as a fantasy or not. I think that's what makes it that much more special for the athletes that do make it there. Everyone who has competed in a sport regardless of ability, all had the same dream.

Not that that is the message of the ad, it just makes it relatable. I love the speed skating kids and the sideways look the little boy gives at about :42 seconds into the ad. Although the clincher is, undoubtably, the anticipating look of moms everywhere at the ending shot as the ski jumper is preparing to take flight. I love this ad.

Buzzy

YOUTUBE: Embrace Life PSA

Its amazing to me that there are still people that do not wear a seat belt. Thinking, "I'm just going down the road," "The safest spot is behind the driver" or "Its all residential driving - very slow." All these excuses, of course, are bogus and simply lead to more tragic accidents on the road.

The people across the pond at the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership have released a Public Service Announcement that hopes to drive the point home, pun intended, that wearing your seat belt is the smartest thing you can do in a vehicle. I love that the PSA's title is "Embrace Life" with the dual meaning that not only do your family and friends love and care for your safety, but a seat belt embraces you in a similar way.

Just because those Brit's drive on the "wrong" side of the road, doesn't means they don't know what they're talking about when it comes to auto-safety. CNN has already covered it which is a great start in spreading the message in this viral era. Do your part and pass this video on to those you care about.

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Shiny Suds Commercial

Believe it or not, The Shiny Suds Commercial, which has been making its way around the internet lately, is a real advertisement. However not for an actual cleaning product. Seemingly mocking (or inspired by) shower cleaners such as Scrubbing Bubbles™, the ad is actually a public service announcement for an advocacy group known as METHOD: People Against Dirty. These good folks are proponents of the "Household Product Labeling Act" which promotes the accurate labeling of all chemicals in cleaning products. (Which is pretty ZONINO! in and of itself!)

But I digress...just check out the creepy perverted bubbles that the woman in the ad is originally enamored by and then begins to wonder who they are what they came from. My favorite is the big bubble and his leering "use the loofah" suggestion. It's a shame the ad got pulled for alleged rape innuendo because I think it makes its point very well; it is important to know the chemicals we expose ourselves and our families to on a daily basis.

Support the "Household Product Labeling Act"!!!!

Sergio del Limónar

TV: d-CON ads

Sometimes the old adage of less being more is true. I am currently obsessed with the new set of advertisements by d-CON, makers of the snapping glue-filled mouse traps. It has been rumored that I cheer when they come on.

Whoever said you need to have millions of dollars for a successful ad campaign?

Sergio del Limonar

TV: Wordlock Ad

You know those combination locks with letters instead of numbers. I suppose they think people will be more likely to remember their combinations if it is a word rather than a series of numbers. I never got the logic since, although there are indeed potentially thousands of possible "codes" to use, a word seems less secure than a random number set.

Even so, this advertisement by one of these products, evidently called Wordlock, has made me concede that for the moment they are pretty Zonino! The ad is awesome because it plays right to the truth - the inner middle schooler in all of us.

Sergio del Limónar

TV: Foot By The Foot Ad

The first time I saw this ad I at once laughed and celebrated the fact that the good people at Fruit By The Foot did not shoot down the creative genius of this awkwardly unique and awesome television spot. I only wish it was shown more often. At least there's YouTube, though, eh?

Sergio del Limónar