Do you remember the first time that you learnt about human biology? And I don’t mean in the truly scientific sense, but more like a Year 3 health class. In my case, and most students in Sydney, Australia, we had a puppet giraffe named Happy Healthy Harold tell us fascinating facts such as that our meals took over a day to digest, and that our central nervous system looked like a mess of competing veins and nerves and somehow it all just worked.

When I look a complex piece of machinery, or a fancy new version of technology, the cynic in me always thinks “Wow, that’ll really suck to fix when it breaks down.” But blame my eight-year-old naiveté, when faced with the most intricate system ever ‘invented,’ the human body (thanks big guy!) I never realised how easily and disastrously, we can break down.

The ALS Society provides considerable support for people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which progressively paralyses the body as upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord degenerate. The disease is commonly associated with baseball legend, Lou Gehrig.

The statistics are even more depressing than these ads, if that’s possible – eighty percent of those diagnosed die within two to five years. And it is not the graceful, dignified death that most elderly hope for; it is messy, and painful, where someone can no longer breathe or swallow because their body doesn’t know how to.

The World Health Organisation has predicted this disease to surpass cancer, as the second leading cause of death in Canada, by 2040. So it’s understandable why the ALS Society are desperately seeking a cure.

This ad manipulates the maze concept so that the viewer can truly visualise the internal struggle of a patient. The copy compliments the images perfectly; the series provides an in-depth insight into the sadness of ALS with three photos and a couple of sentences.

There is always pain and suffering associated with death; by the person who passes, the family around them, the friends who shared and celebrated their life. But degenerative diseases, such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, take the struggle to a whole new level. These ads highlight the problem beautifully – let’s hope that they can provide a solution.

Advertising Agency: Lowe Roche, Toronto, Canada
VP/Creative Director: Christina Yu
Chief Creative Officer: Geoffrey Roche
Copywriter: Rob Sturch
Art Director: Ryan McNeill
Agency Producer: Helen Dedrick-Williams
Business Director: Amanda Gaspard
Photographer: Russell Monk

Illustrator: Ben Weeks

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So in the average advertising office, I’m assuming that there is, at some stage, one of those douche bag guys who sits around the boardroom suggesting half-naked girls for every pitch that is potentially, slightly, maybe directed at a male audience.

I’m also assuming that he got fired.

So why, oh why, did this make it off the drawing board? Stunningly gorgeous women who on billboards will make all other women feel terrible, and will make men stare, drool, and leave thinking about cup sizes instead of deodorant.

Most guys will also be wondering why there is a fail stamped across each one of these women. I know I am. Either Lentheric Solo is suggesting that you have no shot at each of these women without their product (probably true) or that once you have their product, you’ll be rejecting women like these (definitely false).

I wonder who had such a low opinion of the male population that they thought that – yes, if men see hot girls, they will instantly believe that our product will help them get them!

No. Men will walk past this billboard, salivate, and then think about that FHM/Ralph/alternative men’s magazine that they were planning to buy. They might also head to the beach.

Advertising Agency: Bester Burke, Cape Town, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Stephen Burke
Art Director: Riaan van Wyk
Copywriter: Jed Dawson

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I wonder if aliens and predators, locked in a furious battle over the galaxy, have the same kind of concentration in a chess game. To be honest, the battle would be a whole lot more interesting – in fact, I’m guessing that these ads are a lot more interesting and a lot funnier than the movie.

There have been phases in sci fi history – the days when the aliens were all evil, then the days when they could lvie among us a la Men in Black or X-Men, and there’s even the idea that truly, aliens are just like us, but living someone else, like in Roswell or Smallville.

So maybe the aliens in their parallel universes are just like us, playing chess in the living room or shooting pool in a dingy bar. These ads are so well executed that I would believe it. The details are stunning, the graphics realistic – the smoke in the bar reminds me of my local. And I love the idea of aliens and predators, just airing their differences over a simple game of Swingball. Although it does belittle the greater unknown (if they’re out there): somehow they decide their issues the way five years olds do.

I think that we might be underestimating them. Not that I can claim to know a thing about alien warfare – but I’m thinking that the whole evolution thing has resulted in elevated IQs, the kind of brain which thinks long and hard before rushing into pointless wars. Not to go all political, or make note of some of the obvious defences in human warfare, or anything.

But this brilliant ad seems like a lot of effort from Sky to simply promote a film. And like I said, the viewers  might be disappointed – this is one ad which somehow sells itself (and its creative team) better than a product. Is there something about graphics guys in New Zealand? Given, my only knowledge of their work is this ad and Lord of the Rings. But in either case, I’m not disappointed.

Advertising Agency: DDB New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Toby Talbot
Art Director: Gavin Siakimotu
Head of Art: Mike Davison
Designer: Cliff Li
Retoucher: Gordon Moir
Copywriter: Paul Hankinson
3d Artists: David Partridge, Ben McGrall, Ben Parry
Account Director: Danielle Richards

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Get Lasik, and you’ll never need binoculars or night vision goggles again! Somehow I think the more realistic idea is that you’ll never need glasses again – but that’s ok, advertising doesn’t need to be realistic.

My issue here is that its just so literal? Sharpen your image, and you won’t needed any viewing devices. It lacks imagination, and only points to the obvious – it’s easier to see. I guess the oddness of the ad isn’t helped by the fact it looks like the birds are behind the guy, and same with the stars. I suppose stars are everywhere, but that’s one mighty flock if he’s looking in the right direction.

Plus, I really don’t like the idea of medical procedures being advertised.  It doesn’t exactly fit the mould – oh, look, that’s a pretty car, I’ll get that. Then, oh, look, I don’t want to need binoculars at the footy, I’ll get Lasik. Shouldn’t it be, oh, I don’t know – recommended by someone with a medical degree? Not just a billboard or a magazine article.

Advertising Agency: DM9JaymeSyfu, Manila, The Philippines
Executive Creative Director: Eugene Demata
Chief Creative Officer: Merlee Jayme
Creative Director / Copywriter: Jerry Hizon
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Gogie Sinson
Creative: Allan Montayre
Photographer: Ruben Dela Cruz
Accounts: Josephine Neric, Rissa Guillas

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Sunlight lasts. (Or, if you want to take the copy from Lowe Bull Johannesberg, ‘A little goes a long way’.) As someone who lives in Sydney, and is constantly inundated by AMI ads in very poor taste, the advertising of longevity in with regard to something clean, as opposed to, er, not, is refreshing.

This is ingenious, with three executions of the same idea that are attention grabbing, relate to multiple audiences, and somehow descibe momentous periods of a person’s life.

True, few men want to be reminded of the span which led them to lose their hair, but I suppose numbers will show that few men are the ones buying Sunlight anyway. But the growth of a child from nappies to the bathroom, or the mundane, everyday act of someone trying to lose weight, are both captured with interesting graphics to sell Sunlight.

I love the little details here – the woman’s ponytail grows longer, the different patterns on the nappies, the momentary returns to nappies during potty training. Even the empty Sunlight bottle is something which could easily have been left out, but it really seals the message.

People are all looking for something that lasts, and Sunlight could have really gone dramatic with this idea. Alternatively, the economic crisis is seeing more and more people in need of value for their money. All praise to Sunlight who decide not to capitalise off the moment, and just gave people some cute graphics and a corny cliche to smile at.

Advertising Agency: Lowe Bull Johannesburg, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Rui Alves
Art Directors: Miguel Nunes, Juliet Honey
Creative Catalyst: Sarah Dexter
Illustrator: Pete Harrison
Copywriters: Juliet Honey, Miguel Nunes

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From such a bold advertising strap line you would honestly expect better from Andy Warhol. I mean, honestly, he doesn’t even know a thing about cars does he? I bet he doesn’t even own a toolbox.

Ok, so we know it wasn’t Andy, Van Gogh or Dali themselves who came up with this range of ‘arty’ advertising profiles for the current Lexus model but it may as well have been someone as equally unqualified.

Perhaps a little harsh, I guess, but more than fair. I can only suggest that the creative director had perhaps nipped out to get the office foccacias and mocca-latte-double espresso-frothy coffees (extra sugar for Marjorie remember!) on the day of the Lexus brief and left his fresh-faced college intern to complete the task.

This delivery is lazy to say the least and at best it can almost be classed as a weak parody. When I first saw the artwork I didn’t even realise which product it represented due to it’s unfamiliar technical subject. For the at-a-glance person on the street they’ll also be wondering why Lexus have moved into the photocopier/printing market. So it’s an engine thingy that makes the whole car go whizz and broom-broom at the delight of its owner – however it still doesn’t disguise the sheer lack of an over used gimmick.

It surely must be the last resort in the biscuit barrel for the frustrated or mentally dry creative team, like picking up the crumbs of a desperate campaign for a product we really would expect better from. We can clearly see the intent of the campaign, don’t get me wrong, but it’s almost too clever for its own good.

A symbol of motoring supremacy being underlined by it’s artistic classic stance as if created by the new generation of expressionists or contempories. But essentially the delivery or the intent is far too subtle for it to reach a wider demographic.

Let’s face it, it’s more subtle than tickling a butterfly with a feather and then feeding it cotton candy. Surely only these images would be better suited for the swanky boardroom of Lexus head office or a charming, delicate piece of art for the receptionist to dust occasionally in between transferring calls on the switchboard.

“Good morning Lexus…how may I direct your call? {short pause} Yes, well why don’t you ask Saatchi & Saatchi about that one”.

My thoughts precisely.

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Absolutely inspired. This new bus stop has cropped up in the Netherlands. Theres nothing more tedious than waiting for the bus to arrive, and this new mechanism can really give public something to think about as they are left sitting there. I can only imagine how many people have decided against sitting down at this bus stop. Or how many people have sat down, without realising that their weight will be displayed for all those around them.

A little cruel, maybe, but the ad does get its message accoss effectively. There are times where I would have given anything to have this bus stop. Sitting down, at a packed bus stop, only for some overweight middle aged woman to walk up and cough and throw daggers at me until I offered her my seat. Had this been available she might have finally got her cummupance for being so anal.

I’m not too sure how it works, whether it can weigh more than one person or simply the person sitting in the middle. The concept is spot on, and really plays on peoples emotions. I would be interested to see if many people did actually sign up for Fitness First after these went up, or if they are just an advertising gimmick.

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