AdFreak

PACT underwear worth showing co-workers

PACT underwear heats up a drab workday in this "Office of Eden" video. Clothing simply flies off the bodies of two white-collar drones. Whoa, that guy must run the mailroom, judging by the prominence of his package. And forget the secretarial pool, Little Miss Bra-Less belongs in a hot tub! The online apparel firm makes environmentally friendly, organic cotton garments, noting in its tagline: "Change starts with your underwear." That's true—but for me, only on Fridays, and sometimes on holidays. At the end of the clip, the PACT-bottomed pair rush out into a sun-drenched Edenic garden. Note the wall clock: It's the middle of the afternoon. Along with all the sexiness, they get to take a half-day! Also, I can't help but wonder: If the underwear's organic, does that mean it's edible, too?

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Not everyone is smiling at Kodak's new ads

Dave Bry at The Awl is unnerved by this Kodak commercial, part of Ogilvy's new "It's time to smile" campaign. For Bry, it isn't time to smile. At most, it's time to laugh uneasily. He wonders: "Is the grandma supposed to be a ghost? Are they both ghosts? Is this a commercial about the victims of some grisly, long-ago mass-murder coming back to haunt the living?" All that's missing is a dream sequence involving Kodak's dual-cyclops dog.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
Mutant dog helps sell new Kodak camera

Discovery Channel still loves the world a lot

Eighteen months ago, the Discovery Channel made people very happy with its "I Love the World" commercial, in which the network's talent sang about their passion for life, the universe and everything. The promo did so well (4.5 million views on this YouTube version alone) that they've gotten the agency, 72andSunny, to do a sequel. Same song, different visuals. Still catchy. The tagline remains, "The world is just awesome."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
Discovery Channel is just thrilled to be alive

Florida Keys ads say there's no app for that

There's an app for almost everything, except for things that occur outside the iPhone's 480-by-320-pixel screen. That's the message in this spot by Tinsley Advertising for the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, representing the Florida Keys & Key West. "Real experiences are always worth more," says the voiceover. "So, unplug and reconnect in the Florida Keys & Key West." The Keys join Dentyne gum and Coleman camping gear among the advertisers who are positioning themselves in opposition to the inexorable march of technology.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
Stop wasting your life online, says Dentyne
Coleman brings camping into the 21st century with iPhone apps

Foxwoods brings back 'The Wonder of It All'

Foxwoods is reintroducing its once-ubiquitous and oft-maligned ad theme song, "The Wonder of It All," and you could be the one singing it in upcoming commercials. The casino explains: "Anyone with even the slightest clue about pop culture throughout the 1990s could likely sing a few lines." True, but we've been working so hard to scrub those schmaltzy brass notes from our collective memory. Why make us relive the nightmare? Foxwoods says it wants to "find a new voice" for the song through a contest that invites artists to upload their own MP3 versions. Jeez, instead of sub-Sinatra rendition by John Pizzarelli (who?), there'll be dozens of renditions floating around the Web! Good lord, Dokken could give it a go, with harmonies from the chicken. I'm betting that no matter which version wins, the jingle will still sound like craps.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Wieden makes jewelry out of charts, graphs

Wieden + Kennedy in London is the latest agency to wander off into the product world. Its take is jewelry inspired by sexy graphs. The idea for the PLOT jewelry line came from planner Lisa Prince, who saw a certain beauty in a jagged line from a PowerPoint presentation. She teamed with art director Nicholla Longley and jewelry maker Hannah Havana to make a product line melding data with design. First up are a bunch of necklaces with artsy representations of commodity prices over the years. Wieden managing director Neil Christie says it's all about getting away from that pesky business of making ads. "We're always looking for the opportunity to work in new ways that are beyond traditional advertising channels," he writes on the shop's blog. The jury's still out on whether these agency forays into product making are more than a diversion to keep the staff happy and maybe squeeze out a Fast Company profile suggesting they're "reinventing the ad agency model." One agency guy gave me a simple explanation for the spate of agency product projects: "That's because the ad-agency biz blows."

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Cigarette-butt mosaics reveal smoking's toll

It might seem clichéd to compare deaths caused by smoking to those caused by guns, drugs, poison, fires and suicide. Still, it's not what you do, but how you do it. And this memorable poster campaign by Indian agency 1-Point Design is certainly a breath of fresh air (ha!) that puts a different spin on familiar anti-smoking themes. Or does it? Well, it turns out there's a different sort of smoking gun, as the work resembles a campaign by the Cancer Society of Finland. Sure, it's the same basic concept, but for a good cause, and this kind of overlap is inevitable in a creative business. There's no such thing as a new idea—no ifs, ands or butts about it!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Previously on AdFreak:
A record 15,000 butts used to fight smoking

Droid phone will enthrall and/or enslave you

Mix the totalitarian subjugation of 1984 with the sinister cybernetic intelligence of 2001, and you get mcgarrybowen's launch spot (posted below) for Verizon's much-ballyhooed Droid phone. (I swear that's HAL 9000's all-seeing red eye about 22 seconds in.) It picks up the dark and industrial vibe from the tail end of the otherwise goofy and lighthearted teaser spot, which got lots of attention, particularly from Apple fans. The new spot stars intimidating robots who crush rocks and punch holes to assert their metallic superiority. And unless I've missed the point (unlikely, as I never have on AdFreak before, at least not that I'd admit), humans will do these droids' bidding once Earth is enslaved, toiling in factories and slugging it out in bloody boxing matches for their overlords' amusement. This isn't a smartphone, the ad warns, it's a robotphone. You don't talk to the boss on a Droid, the phone is your boss. Droid doesn't relay orders, it gives them. On the plus side, Justin Long will be among the first to go in the man-vs.-machine struggle. John Hodgman, a robot passing as flesh and blood, will probably get to run Cleveland.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Previously on AdFreak:
Apple fan strikes back at Verizon Droid spot
Creators of anti-Droid ad unmasked (sort of)

A coffee maker saves George Clooney's life

George Clooney and John Malkovich star in this new McCann Paris ad, directed by Robert Rodriguez, for Nestlé's Nespresso. Clooney gets demolished by a falling piano, but Malkovich, at the pearly gates, gives him a second chance at life in exchange for his Nespresso coffee maker. Clooney once insisted he wouldn't do just any old commercial, but this spot isn't even as good as Spike Jonze's Softbank spots with Brad Pitt. Via Animal.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
George Clooney doesn't want to do terrible ads for crappy companies
Brad Pitt serves a sumo in Softbank's spots

Illinoisan running against Blagojevich's hair

Rod Blagojevich's hair is visual shorthand for corruption in this new campaign ad (posted below) from Andy McKenna, a Republican candidate for Illinois governor in 2010. We see the state capitol in a giant Blagojevich wig, and various other disgraced Illinois politicians wearing the same. The kid above is also apparently very corrupt. It's a smart way to employ one of the world's best-known political haircuts, though McKenna might be taking it a bit too far. He's on record criticizing Illinois' "hair-brained" financial schemes, and said of current Gov. Pat Quinn: "He's Rod Blagojevich with just a little bit less hair."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
Ox battles rat in Georgia politican's ad/fable