Washing Blood Off Your Hands

From what I understand, I don't believe this was done in an advertising effort, however I thought it was a unique idea. If you're looking for a fun Halloween party idea, I came across this "Scary Ideas". The idea is putting soap died red in the dispensers to give off the effect that you're "washing blood off your hands". Kind of creepy, but the fact that the dispenser has the board game name "Clue" written on it, makes way more sense. It looks pretty cool and kind of brings the game to life. It would be creepy, but cool if this was done and produced to promote the actual game Clue. However I think this is just a party suggestion...

Kelloggs Brands Each Flake

In an effort to beat out its imposters, Kelloggs has started to stamp its logo into each individual flake so consumers know its the real brand, and not a knock off/generic brand of cornflakes. As I understand, its only doing this for Corn Flakes, and not any of their other cerals. It took me awhile to realize in the picture that the brand name was etched into each piece but once I realized it, it looks pretty cool. This website points out that it may not be that neat to stare out early in the morning while you're trying to eat and wake up, which I can totally understand. It does look a bit overwhelming. However every time you eat them you will always remember Kelloggs, and if you are served the generic form you will know right away. If you are a Corn Flakes fan, you will subconsiously be absorbing the brand when you eat it on the regular. Great marketing on their part, even if it was done just to fight off its imposters.

http://www.landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.blog&post_id=21038&bhcp=1&bhhash=1#top

Lowes gets creative

While trying to come up with some super creative, purple cow type comps for my Body Shop project, I happened to see Lowes newest commercial for their LowesT prices. I thought it was a very creative play off their own name. Taking something so common, and having it reflect the fact that they are a low price hardware/home improvement store. Using strategically placed letter "T's" such as a lamp post, street sign, jacket it really caught my eye. To me its an outside the box kind of idea, even reminded me of the American Express commercial I blogged about a few days ago. Made me kinda stop and go "I wish I could think of something like that." Hoping this commercial will be inspiration to make my comps more unique and creative!

Why Does Food Look sooo much better in ads?

Is it just me or do you get mad when you see those food commercials, or the pictures on the advertisements? I just watched a spot for Chilies Baby Back Ribs and McDonalds, both of which I would never order, however look pretty appetizing in their commercials. Advertising is supposed to make the food look appetizing and tasty to bring in customers and make them hungry for what they saw in the ads. Fake Foods is a company that specializes in making food replicas for the ads. Wendys, General Mills, Einstein Bagels amongst many others are some of the brands that have used Fake Foods for their advertisements.

Some of the ones that have made me hungry have been:

McDonalds

Wendys

Baskin Robbins

If only their food really tasted as good as it looks on TV and posters!

Hans Brinker= Hilarious ads

In one of my mass comm classes, we were shown an Ad for the Hans Brinker Eco Friendly Hotel in Amsterdam. I absolutely loved it! I think they are hysterical. They also kept it simple and to the point, nothing flashy, just this is who we are take it or leave it. I also really like the fact that they are black and white, with hints of green which not only adds a bit of color but emphasizes their "eco-friendlyness" even more. In the ad, they were able to make fun of themselves and the fact that they are a budget hotel with no frills (or elevator, shower, heat, etc.) and then take a trend (being eco-friendly) and find a way to incorporate it in a humorous way. I would totally stay there if I ever went to Amsterdam. Personally I feel that while on vacation, if it's somewhere exciting, with lots to do, I'm hardly going to spend any time in my room except to sleep, so why pay a lot of money for a nice hotel I'd barely be in for more than a few hours sleeping, when I could save that money to spend on sight seeing and souvenirs?

Heres some links to images of the ads I found off google:

Eco-Shower

Eco-Elevator

Eco-Towel

Eco-Heating

This one is not apart of their eco-campaign but I thought it was pretty funny too!

Smile American Express

Just came across this commercial on Best Week Ever. It's for American Express card. Honestly, I had I not known what it was for before I clicked play, I would have never picked up on it until the very end. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. The commercial definitely kept my attention. I was busy trying to find the faces in each image such as a chair, purse, bridge... I thought it was a unique, creative way to show faces and emotions without using people. While watching it, it made me want to come up with something that creative as well. Like who came up with the idea of finding a happy face in a gift bad? The images did distract me from listening to what they had to say about American Express but it made me watch it the whole way through until the end when they finally show the American Express card itself, and if they can get me or any audience to sit through an entire commercial, thats saying a lot now a days!

Apple Iphone Giving Free Advertising to Others Businesses?

Advertising these days can be super expensive! Why are brands focusing some time on making awesome Iphone Apps? Maybe because Apples Iphone Apps commercials have been featuring these brands with- Free advertising?

These Brands/Apps didn't ask to be the commercial (although I'm sure many would love to be and/or trying to get into them), Apple chose their favorite apps that they have found to be the most useful for users. Pizza Hut, Gap, Epicurious, Barnes & Nobel and Zagat are a few that were used in aired commercials. Pizza Hut lets you order directly off the phone with a touch screen menu. If you use their app they also take 20% off your order, which encourages more people to use it, perhaps rather than ordering over the phone or online so they can take advantage of the discount. Gap allows you to put outfits together in their app to pick out what you'd like to buy. Epicurious lets you download recipes. This showcase of useful apps in the Iphone commercial is drawing a lot of attention to the brands themselves, which is bringing more and more people to check them out and use them. With over 75,000 apps to choose from, apple chose the ones that were easy to use and used the most Iphone features in their app to feature in the commercials. I think this is a great way for brands to push the envelope and make a great app to grab not only the costumers attention, but to attract Apple's attention as well to get free advertising out of it. The commercials themselves are reaching a ton of viewers, thus which ever app is being shown at the time, will get a lot of publicity as well. TBWA/Chiat/Day are behind these Iphone ads.

There's an article about this on Advertising Age

Where to Start...?

New to this whole blogging thing. Not really sure where to start... I guess from the beginning. Abbreviated version- I originally wanted to do graphic design and/page layouts, which I fell in love with in High School. I decided I'd never make it through the University's art program so Creative Advertising was the next best thing. The decision worked out pretty well, especially now that I love looking at great ads and watching commercials. I used to hate commercials, they really annoyed me. Always interrupting my shows at the most dramatic scenes, but after having studied great ads, the history and people in the industry, I've come to really appreciate them. I find myself sitting on the couch discussing what I like and don't like about commercials that come on with whomever happens to be sitting in the room. Most of the time it's someone who hasn't been studying this, so they just smile and nod at me. I no longer look at ads as a ploy to get you to go out and buy something, even though that's their goal, or as a huge interruption; instead I've begun to see them as a work of art. I feel that Great ads should make you feel something or to get up and do something.

Just for fun, I've been re-watching these 3 commercials lately! Not to say there aren't many, many more that I could watch over and over again.

I love Adidas Ultimate House Party commercial. It's one giant party with all these different celebrities, it really makes me want to be there! You almost forget its an ad, you get drawn into the excitment, the fun, the people. They throw in subtle hints from the design on the invite, to logos on shirts, and clips of peoples shoes that its for adidas which keeps it relevant to the brand they are advertising.

HP is another really awesome commercial where the people are coming out of the pictures, or becoming the pictures. Hard to put in words but its really awesome to watch. Super creative.

Smirnoff took a different more passive approach, because they are so well known they were able to have fun with their product, they are pretty much making fun of themselves, their product, and who would drink it, but it works. It spurred a West Coast version too, but I gotta represent for the East Coast Tea Partay!