I think one of the most overused value in food commercials is the value of sharing, but that is somehow understandable since this are what commercials are made of–to instill in the minds of the viewers that such food is worth sharing to others. There are times though that showing the ideal concept of sharing would not be effective on catching the viewers attention, and may even end up a boring ad. That’s why humor comes in, breaking the rules.

Below are two old commercials that were aired in the Philippines wherein the value of sharing was given a twist.

FITA BISCUIT - One Wish

This commercial is one of my old favorites. After the guy gave the old lady half of his Fita biscuit, the old woman turned out to be a fairy.

Fairy: Because you have a great heart, I am giving you one wish.

Guy: A sportscar! A red one!

BINGO BISCUIT - Pink

Chat translation:

Bing: Let’s meet at the mall!

Pinky: Sure! I’ll be in PINK!

Bing: I’ll bring a BINGO!

At the mall:

Bing: (Upon seeing the fat lady in pink) Oh no! Hey, Bingo?

Nerdy guy: Thanks.

Well, in reality, why would you tell to someone you would meet-up that a Bingo biscuit would be your thing of identification? Why not, I’ll be wearing an orange shirt?

• Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
• Production Company: Partizan Midi Minuit
• Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
• Agency Producer: Rob Steiner
• Agency Creatives: Matt Gooden & Ben Walker
• Post Production: The Mill
• Producer: Fi Kilroe
• Flame: Barnsley
• Flame Assistant: Dave Birkill

No computer generated trick to show that a car part moved! In fact, it took 6 million dollars, 3 months, and 606 takes to make this commercial perfect. It’s amazing how much patience and passion the creative team had to finish this ad. I wish I was part of the team.

You don’t believe what you see? Check out Wikipedia for a detailed explanation on how this commercial was created. Or you can watch the video below.

Read other response to this commercial from other blogs/sites:

• Did they really make that Honda advert in one take?
• Honda Accord Cog Commercial - Status: TRUE
• New Honda Accord commercial - purely awesome!

Agency: DDB

Country: Egypt

I love this commercial. The video and choice of song are perfect. The message is clear, that he’ll do anything: get the rose that fell in the sea, go with her when she goes shopping, and push her car, except for one thing–sharing his McDonald’s combo meal. He won’t do that. Anyways, the song is originally sung by Meat Loaf, and the title is “I’ll do anything for love (But I won’t do that)“.

Lyrics of the song in this TV Ad

And I would do anything for love, I’d run right into hell and back
I would do anything for love, I’ll never lie to you and that’s a fact

no no no no….I won’t do

I would do anything for love
Anything you’ve been dreaming of
But I just won’t do that…

No I won’t do that

In my senior year, we had this college-wide ad competition. We were not really Advertising majors, but Broadcasting and Journalism majors, that just happened to have an advertising class that year. One of what our class did was to search online for advertising agencies. We would like to know their credos, and watch their ads so we could get ideas for creating our own.

However, I did not use the search keyword “list of advertising agencies”, but particularly looked for McCann-Erickson, Leo Burnett, and some agencies I heard from the advertising congress I attended the year before.

So here, I made this list of major advertising agencies based on Wikipedia’s, hoping that I would help students, or anyone who is in search of advertising agencies. Just click the links to go to their official websites.

Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

Director: Frank Budgen

Imagine everyone in the city is playing tag: taxi drivers, bus passengers, office workers, teenagers, … anyone you can think of. Interesting isn’t it?

The idea behind this Nike ‘Tag’ commercial is brilliant and simple: tag whoever buys Nike, and surprisingly everyone buys Nike. The reason for playing tag isn’t clear for us though, we have to watch the rest of the commercial to find out.

This kind of technique is only effective for commercials that are just made to reinforce the brand, and the creative team should really find an effective way to trigger the curiosity of the viewers, and to get them interested on watching the rest of the ad. For the Nike Tag Ad, Wieden + Kennedy did a great job. in fact, they won a lot of awards for this ad, including being one of the Grand Prix winners in Cannes Lions 2002. (The other winner was the Ikea Lamp commercial.)

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

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Norwegian Version

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Russian Version

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Malaysian Version

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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.