Cheers Leslie Nielsen.

In tribute to a very funny guy. This campaign for Red Rock Cider starring Leslie Nielsen was created way back in the 1990's and featured, perhaps, the greatest tagline in adverting history, "It's not red, and there's no rocks in it."

Kudos to Gold Greenless Trott, director John Lloyd and especially the great Leslie Nielsen.

Fancy a slow pint.

Good stuff for Carlton Draught. It should fall into the "I can't believe no one did this sooner" category. Who needs to see bullets in super slow motion when you can see spittle shooting out of a fat bloke's mouth.

Kudos to Clemenger BBDO/Melbourne and director Paul Middleditch.

Gin anyone?

I shouldn't be pushing this idea considering the folks behind it, but a good idea deserves its due.

Digital agency LBi may be lousy at responding to solicitations, but they sure know how to blend together an engaging online experience for Hendrick's gin.

The experience is wonderfully queer, in the old, non-gay sense. So a grudging kudos to LBi and a tipsy of the hat to Hendrick's gin.

World Cup shocker of the now.

Rank outsiders Switzerland just pulled off a major upset win over Euro chumps Spain. Can't you just imagine the headlines in the Spanish press. "El fucked" would be my choice.

But this isn't the biggest shock of the World Cup so far. FIFA have actually dared to take a stand against advertising.

Check this out for the full story, but to surmise Dutch beer maker Bavaria Beer engaged in some "ambush" or free advertising, much to the outrage of FIFA and probably all the paid advertisers.

It seems while paid, intrusive advertising is perfectly acceptable and to be encouraged, marketing by ambush is a no no. In fact it gets you jail time.

Grrrrr.

A few months ago (March) I pro-actived a branded-entertainment idea to support ESPN's coverage of the World Cup.

It involved creating a web-based reality series, where one fan from each of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup would live in a house for the duration of the tournament. The kicker being, as their team is eliminated so are they.

I shopped it around to various agencies relevant to ESPN without any takers. Just as well. For while I was the initial phase of formulating said idea, Budweiser was already in the middle of producing it. And instantly I went from genius creative with uniquely original idea to copycat hack.

So kudos to Budweiser and DDB/Chicago for a great idea. At least I don't have to say, "I really wish I thought of that."

Beer spot of the now.

Perhaps sweeter words having never been spoken, "Hey man, I need a drink. Give me a fucking beer." And so begins this commercial for Bavaria beer starring "Mickey Rourke.

Granted it's a celebrity commercial, but let's be honest, Mickey Rourke is no ordinary celebrity. Although you probably need to know that he had a reputation for pounding the sauce to fully get it.



Kudos to Selmore and director Jonathan Herman.


(Sharing credit to Adfreak.com)

Here's to diminished returns.

I've been seeing a lot of a semi-new Heineken spot lately, where a young man engages in an ill-conceived maneuver and buys a Heineken for the lovely daughter of his frightening boss. Not bad, but nothing special.

And then it hit me. This ad nicely contrasts with a Guinness commercial that aired few months back. So I thought it could be a useful exercise to revisit said Guinness spot for a little cultural criticism. Bear with me though, this might smell a bit.

Just to refresh, in the Guinness spot, a glass of the black nectar makes its way across the city to a young man who has just asked for a raise for himself and his team despite being on the job for less than a week. In New York we call that chutzpah. Guinness called it being bold, probably the safer line if you want to reach a broader demographic.

Both ads are a toast to today's confident bright young things in the marketplace. In both ads we see intrepid individuals take a risk and assert themselves. But that's where the similarity ends.

The assertiveness of the young man in the Heineken ad is rather mild. Which consequently makes his triumph equally small. So he buys his boss's daughter a drink behind the ogre's back, whoopdedoo. Not exactly masters of the universe stuff.

Our hero in the Guinness spot, on the other hand, not only took a whopper of a risk in making his play, he doubled down. A raise not only for himself, but his entire team. Did this guy have balls or what. If he was in the Heineken ad he wouldn't have gone after the boss's daughter. He would have gone after the boss's job.

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"Up There".

If you live in New York or Los Angeles you're probably familiar with the hand-painted billboard. Part art, part selling stuff it hangs above the urban landscape as a sweet reminder to a bygone era while still try to sell stuff.

Stella Artois has created this truly wonderful branded piece (12 minutes, every moment worth it, like the beer actually) that celebrates this dying art. We are introduced to some of the painters, part dare-devils, part artists who share with us their experiences over the years and their passion for this wall painting tradition.

And it documents, here's the branded part, just how painstaking this process is as artists create fifty-foot ads for Stella. It took them three weeks to paint the ads. It's quite a contrast to the heady world most of us live in, where things usually get accomplished at the speed of a click. Sometimes amazing things come to those who take their time. Oh wait I'm mixing my beer messages.

Here's a quick taste.



Lots of kudos to go around. Stella Artois, Mother, Mekanism, director Malcolm Murry and The Album Leaf for creating the perfect soundtrack. "Into the Blue Again" is unquestionably one of my favorite albums of all time.

And of course special kudos to the painters themselves. For more of their work over the years, check this out.


(Sharing credit to psfk)

Drink your heart out Doritos.

Big Rock Alberta Craft Brewery have their own ad contest. It's called "The Eddies" and apparently has been going on since 1993. I don't think the person who came up with the term crowd-sourcing was even born then.

Here's a stand-out entry from this year's contest. It certainly gets my vote.



(Sharing credit to mediabistro.com)

Now this is what you call a stunt.

There's advertising and then there's literally creating an advertising event. Although I should point out that as an avid Milan fan I would NEVER have succumbed in the first place. Still, I suppose all those boyfriends got laid for going along. Multi kudos to Heineken and JWT/Italy.

N.B. Following Milan's destruction by Manchester United last week I needed something a lot stronger than Heineken to soothe my sorrows. Those one thousand Milan fans from the event probably did too. 


(Sharing credit to mediabistro.com)

Brain-teaser Monday.

There's a new Coke Zero campaign that has just debuted. One of the tv spots centers on cloning. A Coke Zero spokesman begins with the following, "It's 2010. What happened to cloning ourselves. I mean if we at Coke Zero can copy real Coke taste with zero calories why can't you have more yous...

Without going Joelapompe on everyone, here's a ad from a spec campaign for Edison Light Beer that works off a similar premise, only reversed.

How many years before the Coke Zero campaign was this ad conceived?

• 3 years
• 4 years
• 5 years
• 6 years

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: Disclosure; Mad Dogs and Englishmen; The Client; The 39 Steps; 24 Hour Party People

Still one of the best ever....

From one of the best beer campaigns ever. Kudos to Lowe Howard Spink and Jonathan Glazer. With maybe, just maybe a little inspiration from "Jean de Florette".

Creative review of the decade.

Advertising Age did it. Adweek did it. Now it's my turn. A humble tip of the hat to my five best advertising ideas/campaigns of the decade. My only gripe is that I had nothing to do with any of them. In fact, I don't even know anyone who knows anyone who had anything to do with them.

The decade started conventionally enough. I, for instance, was playing traditional ad guy at a traditional New York agency. A few days in saw me yucking it up at The Mondrian in Los Angeles, while shooting a typical thirty-second spot for a mainstream multi-national corporation. Who would have wagered that ten years later the best place to see a traditional advertising agency in action wasn't on set, but rather on a retro television drama series on AMC.

Not surprisingly then what inspired, wowed and provoked me to scream out, "fucking cock-suckers, I wish I did that" bared little resemblance to the advertising we once knew. The judging was unanimous. Me, myself and I all agreed that the two most mind-blowing pieces of work were "The Hire" from BMW and "HBO Imagine". Poetically, the former began the decade, the latter ended it. 

BMW Films hit the imagination in 2001 and I would insist sparked the new decade's romance with advertainment - try this scholarly read on the subject. About three years earlier, an under-rated movie, Ronin directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Robert de Niro was released. It featured a brilliant car chase with a black BMW through the streets of Paris. I remember thinking, "this would make a great ad". Clearly, more enlightened souls than me at BMW and Fallon thought, "this is a great vehicle for a new form of advertising, let's do it".

Was the "The Hire" eclipsed as the decade wore on by more even creative forms of branded entertainment? Of course, as it should have been. But because it opened my eyes and probably lots more to the idea of long-form content outside the sixty-second spot, it has to be at the top of my list. Here's to the pioneers. 

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Branded entertainment alert.

Check out this cool project for Level 42 Vodka. More evidence that this is the most wonderful time to be a creative. No doubt if I presented something like this to my creative directors a few years ago I would have been laughed out the room. Actually, now that I think about it I was. For a coke project. I seem to remember being taken as seriously as a third rate stand-up comedian in the Catskills. Time for a drink.

Time for a beer break.

The "gay" is very much in the spotlight again. There's the debate over "Don't ask, don't tell", which seems to be reaching boiling point. The contentious issue of same sex marriage has resurfaced. And Glen Beck cried again on national TV.

So I thought, being an open-minded liberal from the Upper West Side I should add my voice. Here is a reprisal of a spec ad I produced a while back that broaches the subject in a very tasteful and sensitive way. Kudos to director Aaron Kisner.