Ad Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, Florida

This Ikea “Lamp” commercial was one of the Grand Prix Winners in Cannes Lions 2002 (the other winner was Nike’s Tag tv ad).

When I first saw this Ad in Youtube, I really felt bad for the lamp being thrown away intensified by the sad background music, the cold weather, the rain, and the owner had a new one. “But what’s precious with that lamp?” I suddenly asked myself. Then a guy came in and said, “Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you are crazy. It has no feelings. And the new one is much better.”

Yeah!!! Crazy.

But what’s the idea behind this ad? According to a news story I read earlier, “the Ikea Lamp ad pokes fun at Americans’ difficulty in parting with hand-me-down furniture.” And for that I should say the ad was indeed effective for targeting the emotions of the viewers and correcting their ideas by having the guy tell them straight to their face.

However, I think Ikea was just trying to tell the viewers, it is okay to buy new furnitures now and then, and that means more sales for us. Don’t hesitate throwing the old ones. Most ads are made for that reasons anyways, to instill to the minds of the viewers the they need something, and reinforce that need.

The Coke Mismo Ad

When Coke’s Mismo Ad was launched in the Philippines, I thought the concept came from a local ad agency. However, after attending a seminar about Advertisements last 2005, where they showed the most effective commercials worldwide, there I saw for the first time where the concept came from.

The Coke Mismo Ad was just a Philippine version of Argentina’s “For Everyone” coke Ad. And the ad agency who created it is the McCann-Erickson Worldwide in Argentina. I think the ad became a Film Silver winner of Cannes Lions 2002 because of the great concept, originality and simplicity, touching the hearts of the audience and coke lovers in particular.

Argentina’s ‘For Everyone’ Coca Cola Ad

The following 5 videos are versions of the Argentina’s For Everyone Coke Commercial, all in different languages. Among these videos, the Norwegian version is what I like most because of its upbeat song.

English Version

__________________

Norwegian Version

__________________

Russian Version

__________________

Malaysian Version

__________________

Bulgarian Version

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh that isn’t a nice opening sentence for this review, but that surely caught the viewers attention on this Bridgestone Tire TV Ad. The element of surprise was there—a squirrel in the middle of the street screams after seeing a fast car approaching towards him. And a raccoon, an owl, a bunny, a mouse, a turtle, a deer, a grasshopper, and other squirrels in the forest all scream with him. Including the wife of the driver of the car. Good enough the squirrel is saved by Bridgestone Tires.

This Ad is a great example for the ‘animal magnetism’ I mentioned in the theme’s page. The use of talking or screaming animals in an ad acknowledge the man’s curiosity if animals converse or have feelings, thus he’ll watch the ad with amusement. However, the creative team has to make sure that product they are advertising would be remembered at the end of the Ad. To be effective it has to have a perfect execution, and a great copy. In this Bridgestone Tire commercial, the creative team did not fail. This commercial is one of the Top 10 Brand Commercials in Super Bowl 2008.

Here are the ten most-recalled TV commercials that were launched during the Super Bowl 2008. The survey was conducted by IAG Research. Please click the links to watch the commercials and read my reviews.

1. Using pigeons on shipping instead of FedEx

2. Budweiser with Thunder and his best bud dalmatian

3. eTrade baby who bought stock online

4. Doritos with the mouse trap

5. Bud Light enables the drinker to breathe fire

6. Bud Light on a wine and cheese party

7. Diet Pepsi with nodding people

8. eTrade baby’s savings account

9. Bud Light’s cavemen

10. Planters with the not-so-good-looking girl

Yeah, the pigeons are on the first spot in IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads. A company is shipping their products through extraordinary pigeons (or the carriers), pigeons that are equipped with GPS and night-vision. Unfortunately, his boss get disappointed on how the big pigeons are shipping their big products.

Well the message is, don’t use pigeons, use FedEx.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this Doritos commercial featuring a guy trapping a mouse is on the 4th spot. Who’s attention wouldn’t be triggered, when you hear an opera-like background music and see a guy in suit holding a Doritos!? Then this guy is putting a piece of Doritos on a mouse trap. Isn’t he crazy? Well, maybe the advertisers want to say that Doritos tastes like real cheese that even a mouse would love its taste. That could be a nice tagline. Unfortunately, you should not eat a lot of Doritos in front of a mouse hole.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this version of Bud Light commercial is on the 5th spot. “Bud Light is brewed to give you everything you want in a beer: never-ending refreshment, superior drinkability…. and now the ability to breathe fire.”

I remember what my Advertising professor told the class, that in the in first 15 minutes seconds of the commercial, you should had already introduced the product to the viewers, but with this ad, Bud Light beer was already in the first 5 seconds and was presented elegantly. Then viewers would anticipate more of an elegance throughout the ad, but they were surprised to see that it turned out funny. Breathe fire? Wtf? oopss… sorry for that. I just thought how other viewers would react. But isn’t that impressive? You can lit the candle in a candle-light dinner, in a very special way. Too bad though if you got allergy, because your romantic date would end up a disaster.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this Bud Light commercial featuring bottles hidden in a ‘serious cheese’ is on the 6th spot. Upon showing sneaky husbands with Bud Light beer in a wine and cheese party, this ad cleverly captured the hearts of men. Simple but not cheesy.

Didn’t the wife of the guy who brought the cheese get curious why bring such big size of cheese? Well, it’s funny though how these ladies were enjoying a classy wine-and-cheese party, when their men were in the kitchen enjoying a Bud Light party, watching a football game.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this E*TRADE Ad featuring a baby banking was on the 8th spot. The Ad suggests that if the target audience would open a savings account with E*TRADE, their earnings will be 8 times the national average. The humorous narrative of a baby doing banking was indeed a clever strategy to instill the message into our minds.

So what did the baby do with his extra money? He rented a clown.

I love the part when the baby was pointing the clown he rented behind him, and whoah… he underestimated the creepinees. Poor baby.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this cavemen version of Bud Light Ad was on the 9th spot. Unlike the Planters Cashews Ad, it wasn’t a classic song that caught the audience’s attention in this Bud Light Ad, but a thrilling background music and the startling idea of mixing in a pre-historic world a modern thing, which were the cavemen pushing a case of Bud Light beer bottles for their party.

And to make it more realistic, the cavemen didn’t speak the modern language, so subtitles were shown. The use of subtitles with a humorous copy was very effective to let the viewers follow through until the end. And it was also clever to let these cavemen speak of wheel, and bottle opener when they did not use them the way we do.

The copy “Endless refreshment from start to finish” was relevant too, followed by the tagline “Bud Light, Keeps it Coming”. At least here, the cavemen knew that Bud Light would give them this endless refreshment and it would be worth it to go through such a sucking situation just to bring the Bud Light case to their party.