Don’t let them get comfortable.

I have a clever mouse living in my garage at the moment (not as clever as this mouse). I see him every now and again, and the sightings are getting more frequent and more brazen. It is as though, each time he sees me and I see him, he becomes a little more comfortable with the fact that I am no danger to his goings on.

Is it possible this mouse is smart enough to have figured out that, if I was going to kill him, I would have done it already?

Surely not.  

I am pretty sure that my little friend in the garage won’t be stealing the toilet paper or racking up a phone bill any time soon, but I am pretty sure he is most certainly comfortable. Realistically, he is also probably more than one mouse. There is probably a bit of a family somewhere, but to be honest I would rather ignore this fact as long as I can.

Which makes me wonder about this campaign. Wouldn’t these cute ads make you less likely to get someone to your house to poison, squish, or whatever they do to your little friends?

I think my mouse can stay where he is for now, and I will stay where I am: in thye sweet world of denial that there may very well be a village of rodents living in my garage.

Advertising Agency: JWT, Dubai, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Chafic Haddad
Creative Director: Peter Moyse
Associate Creative Director: Firas Medrows
Art Directors / Copywriters: Firas Medrows, Peter Moyse
Photographer: Tejal Patni
Illustrators: Firas Medrows, Nabil Kamara

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Now, we see loads of ads that ask us for donations for food for people in developing nations, and those for the prevention of child abuse, and those asking for money for medical research. Not so often do we come across these ads for human rights (well I don’t, at least), and for this reason, I think the shock and guilt factor works a little better. There is less desensitisation to the topic because we see it less. Result: total downer.

I did check out the website, and I found it totally shameful and depressing. It is pretty hard to believe the things people can do to other people. Really, it is a basic as that.

These wall ads are a great idea because they draw the attention of the passer by to something they probably look at everyday on their way to work or school. And all of a sudden this simple brick wall represents a painful, torturous, humiliating and unjustified death. That is going to get your attention. Wether or not it’s impact lasts long enough for you to remember to go home and look up the website printed in the bottom corner. Even then, there is the need to persuade you that your donation can actuality make a difference in stopping this kind of torture and barbarity.

I myself, am not convinced.

Advertised brand: ISHR (International Society for Human Rights)
Advert title(s): Frame Poster
Advertising Agency (Name, City, Country): Leo Burnett Frankfurt
Agency website: http://www.leoburnett.de
Creative Director: Peter Buck, Udo Leichauer
Executive Crative Director: Kerrin Nausch
Chief Creative Officer: Andreas Pauli
Art Director: Sergio Bernardo, Albert Schlierbach
Copywriter: Leonardo Assad

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It is impossible to see this ad and not laugh. I mean, come on, here we have an orgy of ears and eyeballs, fingers, noses and tongues, and if you look closely enough for long enough, you can find some fairly interesting situations (for example there is an eyeball riding a tongue in the bottom right corner, and a nose riding a finger way up the back of the crowd). The thought of an unfortunate accident reminds me of this photograph, not for the faint hearted.

This ad is totally weird, and fun and interesting. I really enjoyed looking at all the weird combinations of fingers and noses, and I imagining having the job of coming up with thos combinations would be even more fun. One of the more memorable days at work, I would imagine.  

When  I first saw this ad, I had absolutely no idea who or what Blusens was. For a while I was so into checking out the mass orgy of the senses that I didn’t even notice the electrical equiptment scattered all over. So there you have it, if you didn’t figure it out. The ad is for electrics.

Now, because I think the whole ad is so cool, I will refrain myself from mentioning any further than this just how much it bothers me that you cannot taste  or smell any of the products advertised. But it would be pretty boring if it were just ears and eyes, and maybe fingers.

So who cares? This is a  great ad that has the rare ability to keep you occupied for longer than thirty seconds and leave you with a grin on your face. That’s two more positives than most ads have.

Creative Directors: Miguel Conde, Tony fernandez
Art Director: Alfonso Serrano
Copywriter: Oscar Villar
Illustrator: Gael Lendoiro
Photographer: Emilio Montero

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See colours.

The whole colour blindeness test has been used a million times before in advertising, however I think this ad is refreshingly different to many that have used the same idea before. First of all, the sock bundle is really pretty different and the idea of hiding the bottle of washing detergent in the image makes it far more interesting. And it is always good to see an advertisement for a hosuehold product that doesn’t have a busy mother trying desperately to clean stains from her children’s clothes, or even worse, the clothes that are so crisp and clean they take on life of their own and fold and iron themselves. Also, the colours in this ad are just so bright and appealing, and while I have never been to Poland, I imagine a bus stop like this would quite brightly light up an otherwise drab and dull morning.

Wouldn’t it be a pity if, until overhearing a little bus-stop chatter about the advertisement that you thought was just a bunch of socks, you had no idea you were colourblind? I suppose a lot of people wouldn’t be too devestated, however this whole subject turns my memory to the film Little Miss Sunshine, where the brother (whose lifelong dream is to become a pilot) learns he is colour blind when his sister shows him a simple test during the quirky family trip. I hope no-one with a dream that requires visual perfection stumbles across this ad on a cold, dark morning in Warsaw.

Advertising Agency: TBWA Poland
Creative Director: Czeslaw Plawgo
Art Directors: Malgorzata Koterba, Sunil Nair
Copywriter: Agnieszka Klimczak

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I spend way too much time in the kitchen cooking meals I have cooked a gazillion times before, adapting from recipe books that bore the hell out of me. What I would like to see is a recipe book that is also the main ingredient. A recipe book that you can eat as you cook.

Which brings up a few questions. Firstly (and this is a minor technicality), isn’t all paper edible? I mean, most of us have made spit balls with paper and straws at school, and so most of us have also accidently swallowed or inhaled a small amount of paper. We didn’t die. We weren’t poisoned. So what makes this paper so different? Probably the digestion part of the eating, I would say. And the contents of ordinary paper don’t really make for a hearty meal.

Secondly (because if memory serves me correctly, ordinary paper doesn’t taste so good), would this paper be flavoured? If so, I wonder what it would taste like?

Finally, I would also like to know the nutritional value of the paper. I imagine there would be a bit of protein in there, maybe some iron.

Anyway, I think the whole premise for this ad is pretty lame, but the edible paper idea is great. Imagine if you could eat your phone bill? Or if you could cook a nice meal with a speeding ticket marinated in there somehwere? That would be great.

Advertising Agency: Loducca, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Director: Guga Ketzer
Head of Art: Cassio Moron
Art Directors: Daniel Poletto, Kika Botto, Carlos Thunm
Copywriters: Rodrigo Senra, Andre Godoi
Released: September 2008

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You won’t come home to this.
Adopt a dog.

…but you will come home to this… (insert images of dog poop, wee on the carpet and chewed slippers here).

But seriously, I like the concept being used here. Obviously, it is an extreme and ridiculous comparison (as if getting a dog is a serious alternative to having a child, or at least, dealing with a teenager), but these ads are really funny. Having never been on the parental end of these shenanigans (and I might point out, on neither end of the middle situation), I can only see the funny side to these. However, rather than convince me that adopting a dog would be a better idea than having any more children, these ads just make me look forward to when my children are teenagers, and seeing what shenanigans they come up with themselves (again, I would like to exclude the second image from this discussion). If the topic does interest you, here is a video that will either make you sick or make you laugh – or both. Just don’t go there if you are prude or quesy.

Replacing dogs with kids (and vice versa) is a great idea that is pulled off really well here. I mean, if you hate kids, or love kids, or have kids; or love dogs and already have one, or love dogs and want to get one, these are ads that can offer something, even if it is just a little giggle. Just don’t use your imagination too much when considering the second image, because that really is not a place you want to go. Trust me.

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Beirut, Lebanon
Creative Directors : Bechara Mouzannar, Chermine Assadian
Art Directors: Nayla Moubarak, Joumana Ibrahim
Copywriters: Rana Najjar, Alex Kent
Illustrator: Tiago Hoysel
Published: January 2009

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If anyone had tried to tell me a week ago that bum cracks have something to do with Earth Hour, I would have laughed. Actually, come to think of it, even though this connection has been made, I am still laughing.

Everybody, at some point in their lives, has come across an unavoidable case of bottom cleavage. There are those you can walk past and pretend you never saw, and thankfully these are the more common. Unfortunately there still exists those times when the crack is in your face, every crinkle and freckle and hair staring out at you, and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. This looks to me to be of the latter variety.

I think it is good to see some humour when it comes to ads about the environment, and especially good when the environment doesn’t even make an appearance. Having said this, I also imagine that the message gets a little blurred and as a result the ad might lose it’s effectiveness. I for one am thinking about bum cracks rather than Earth Hour.

Still, it is attention grabbing and definitely different and entertaining, and to be honest with you I think any advertiser would find a challenge in successfully advertising an hour of “lights out”.

Advertising Agency: DraftFCB, Toronto, Canada
Creative Directors: Robin Heisey, Joe Piccolo, Chris Taciuk
Art Director: Joe Piccolo
Copywriter: Chris Taciuk
Additional credits: Jennifer Nagle, Jeremy Marten, Jessie Sweeney, Victor Carvalho

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