The continue kicking ass and taking names with "Stork". Showing true range, they've revealed yet another facet to the "Your Calling is Calling" campaign. While "Legs" was entertaining and comic, "Daybreak" was cinematic and epic, the beauty of "Stork" is in it's simplicity and the honesty of its core idea. The nature of the beginning of the spot is wide-sweeping, but the feel of the entire thing is thoroughly intimate. The quality of the 3D work from UK shop Framestore is ridiculous.

At the end, I felt chills up my back and my face felt flushed. When I react to something physically first, it's always a good sign. It means the idea went right into me and I didn't have to mentally think about it. No time was wasted here: I was drawn in from the first second and the final question it poses is salient and universal. If this spot doesn't make you think twice and analyze your own life, even a little, then you're not ready for a real job yet.

(Director: Daniel Kleinman. Production: Rattling Stick. CG/Animation: Framestore.)

Via Motionographer

Adidas, 180/TBWA, Psyop, and Stink continue the brilliant "In 2008, Impossible Is Nothing" campaign for the Beijing Summer Olympics with "Chinese Volleyball Association". After beautiful spots highlighting the hopes and fears of Chinese Olympics hopefuls Hu Jia and Zheng Zhi , this time they look at setter and team captain for the Chinese women's volleyball team, Feng Kun. They won gold in Athens 2004 and Kun won MVP, so it's probably an understatement to say there are some major expectations sitting on their shoulders for 2008...

Now for the 2008/09 season the same group of creatives has teamed up together again, with equally fantastic results. Moving their inspiration from fluid and blood to speed and fire, "Black Poem" takes it's momentum from the music of Turkish composer Fazil Say. Organic and elemental, I've never seen text animated quite as effectively, beautifully, and in-flow with pure visuals as with these letters. They're smouldering, almost made from embers, and yet so sharp at the same time. It's really blowing my mind.

There's a German-language version from YouTube posted below, but it doesn't nearly do the spot justice. Click here to see a full-sized beautifully-detailed English version.

For me, "Cattle Market" works. If I wasn't already a member of Amnesty, I would be after watching this. It's appropriately graphic, the metaphor is realistic, but it doesn't go too far and shockvertize. If you seriously sit down and watch this and think about what it saying and don't feel gross after, then there's something wrong with your heart.

Wait until the very end. The final tagline put chills across my skin because it's so absolutely true.

(Agency: Walker. Director: Jeff Thomas. Production: Sonny London.)

Which is why I'm bowled over by this exquisite spec ad for Zune by Stewart Hendler. Stewart isn't exactly a struggling juniour director, if all of the amazing work on his site is any indication. But it still takes balls to go out and create a spec ad just to create it. He shot "Life" is a single day with a meager 7-person crew.

It looks gorgeous, it's emotive and dramatic, the message is clear and simple and in-line with the narrative, and it's the kind of heart-filled, over the top urban fantasy stuff that makes me swoon.

(Director: Stewart Hendler. Music: Human Worldwide.)

Taking the concept of recycling into a more virtual realm, WWF Canada's latest spot, "Zero Carbon", is "the world's first zero-carbon TV ad". It's made up of recycled video clips (some as old as 60 years), was created during virtual collaboration sessions, and for any in-person meetings the people behind it took public transit to reach each other. Just to make sure nothing was missed, environmental consulting engineer Steve Lapp even did an emissions audit on it's production. and carbon off-sets were bought for any energy that was used.

The icing on this cake is the old skool appearance of some vintage Shelley Long at 0:22...

(Agency: DraftFCB Canada.)

Via Stimulant

"Burma Viral" is a video collaboration between the Burma Arts Board and MTV, and was created by Shilo and Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam. MTV has donated its Time Square Jumbotron to air the viral, which encourages people to head to noneofusarefree.org to donate money to the cyclone victims.

In it lies a simple, understated message. Will the hope it contains alleviate any of our own first-world, Times Square hopping, shopping-spree fueled guilt? Perhaps. But whether it will reach any of the of the injured souls in Burma that it's intended for, we'll probably never know...

Via Adrants

(Agency: Giovanni + DraftFCB São Paulo. Illustrator: Up Ilustração.)

(Agency: BBDO NY.)

(Agency: The Campaign Palace. Director: Glendyn Ivin. Production: Exit Films.)

Via The Denver Egotist

For an example of a drastic shift in cross-Atlantic advertising, we need look no further than Schweppes. Following the subtle, visual brilliance of their gorgeous slow-mo Australian spot "Burst" comes the fruit-laden psychadelic mind trip of France's "Sensation".

I'm not sure how something this colourfully awesome could be so weirdly bad. Drop a tab and let its technotronic waves of babealicious lust slowly wash over your genitals...

(Agency: FFL Paris. Director: Warren du Preez. Production: Stink.)

WTF? I'm all for ads that get artsy for no apparent reason, but this one just seems majorly hokey to me. Plus, I'm endlessly intrigued by how the French will use lesbionic powersex to sell pretty much anything. My favourite part is when the twins rub the bright yellow strawberry between their cheeks...

Oh, but they're just getting stared. I guess there was some fear that perhaps the ad was too subtle and the sexy party vibe wouldn't get across, so to really drive the point home they've also got a girl rubbing a carcinogenic raspberry on her lips. That's right... rubbing berries on her lips. Have we run out of "9 1/2 Weeks" food sex clichés? All she's missing is a pearl necklace and some clear heels.

These girls are SO HORNY! And that... makes me want soda pop? Like I said, I'm all for purely experiential ads, but I don't get this one.

Plus, if you ever wanted to talk about subliminal imagery in advertising, I give you the following screenshot to peruse:

That's right. It's a vagina. It's a big, French, Schweppes-loving vagina. And to prove it, it's filled with three glowing Schweppes power-balls. That's how you know this vagina loves Schweppes.

Don't get me wrong, despite how incredibly terrible I think this ad is, the production value is totally awesome. The colours are crisp and vibrant - you can tell this is high quality shit. But there's just something that's so overtly sexually bizarrely weird about it. I think they might have been trying to achieve a throw-back 80s Robert Palmer "Simply Irresistible" feel of some kind, but it's just not working for me.

Especially at the end when the embracing naked girls are swirled up into the vortex of a Schweppes bottle. Like a genie. Waiting until a guy comes and rubs off again...

Then I found this video. I watched it. And I sat at my desk and cried.

Because it was the perfect time for me to be reminded of just how foolish and ignorant and incredibly, unbearably selfish I can be.

(Agency: colman rasic carrasco. Director: Steve Rogers. Production: Revolver.)

This video is another facet of MTV's brilliant pro-social side. MTV Exit works to end child trafficking and exploitation around the world. The poignancy of this is so simple and direct, it grows not from manipulation or dramatization - just the comparison of two truths, neither of which we can deny. Plus, let's be honest, a little Radiohead never hurt anything either.

I can't rave enough about how honest, direct, and artistically engaging all of their PSAs are. Check out the work they've done to promote environmental awareness through MTV Switch, Holocaust awareness through MTV Think, and to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS with what is one of the best ads I've ever seen, period - "Shot".

Adidas Original's new Grün line (German for "green", dontcha know...) is their foray into the environmentally aware / sustainably created game. Sure, there are the old standbys like making the rubber soles from recycled tires, but Adidas is also investing research into creating shoes and clothing out of renewable, eco-friendly resources like bamboo. We all know that recycling is good, but reducing the amount of what needs to be recycled in the first place is where the future of the planet lies, and Adidas is taking steps to make that happen.

Knowing that environmentalism is a mind-set, not just a selling point, their Grün campaign has kicked off with "Guerilla Gardening". For all intents and purposes, it's graffiti with plants. The aim is to take a neglected, off limits urban space and turn it into a thing of beauty - be it with spray paint or with grass. Check out the "seed bombs"...

The line divides into three facets: "Made From" features track suits and apparel made from sustainably grown bamboo, cotton, crepe rubber, hemp, and rice husks.

All of the clothing in the "Reground" range is fully biodegradeable - right down to the zippers and buttons. One of the shirts in the Women's "Reground" collection is made from from a mix of organic soybean and cotton fibres, and the neckline is inlaid with sunflower seeds.

Finally, everything in the "Recycled" line is exactly what it says - shoes and apparel made from 100% recycled plastic soda bottles, rubber, and others materials that otherwise would have sat in a landfill for eternity.

To prove it's point, Adidas has taken the organic push and put it into more traditional marketing channels - like these green billboards made mostly from living plants and flowers:

Shoe pics via Sneaker Freaker

The Tumble spot itself is cute. Obviously not as epic as Foam City and the Bravia stuff, but I think they're smart for not trying to out-colour themselves on something that probably can't be out-coloured. There's no point in continuing to trump your own ads for one product with another of your own product, you'll just split you own idea too far. So the big stuff we've come to know and love will stick with Bravia TVs, and the HD camera stuff we're seeing with Foam City and now Tumble will evolve in this direction: more subtle, more understated, and more about the idea of capturing an image. Which, considering these are ads for a line of cameras, isn't really a bad way in, is it?

I feel like the CGI of the actual falling cameras looks just a little bit fake, but the core idea is strong: the quality and technology of super high tech professional cameras gets broken down and put into your little hand-held Sony thing.

The best part of the mini-site is the Making Of Video. Sony just doesn't shy away from letting us see what's behind the curtain, and getting to check out the production on something as high-level as this is fascinating.

(Agency: 72andSunny. Director: James Rouse. Production: Outside)

Singing Egyptologists... what more do you need? There are little things that take a grade A spot and turn it into an A+. In this one, it's clearly Stephen freakin' Hawking singing "boom de yadda" at 0:53. That was pure win. Plus the tagline "The Earth is Just Awesome"... the casual use of one of my favourite words - "awesome" - that was, well... awesome.

Thanks to The Denver Egotist

All is set to be revealed at sony.com/tumble on April 21st. The URL isn't even active yet, so no clues there. In the meantime, all we've got is the preview. Check it out:

The YouTube vid description simply says "watch something turn into nothing, then watch it all tumble...". Directed by Andrew Douglas at Anonymous Content, the video hints at what I'm sure will be insanely killer computer generated graphics and a bunch of stuff rolling around.

In the press release issued by Sony, which is now making it's way around the marketing sites, there is a line saying "Sony Electronics today launched an integrated marketing campaign in the U.S. where its new Alpha digital SLR cameras, Handycam(R) camcorders and Cyber-shot(R) point-and-shoot cameras literally "tumble" from a mountaintop." I'm having a hard time visualizing the tumbler being the actual cameras themselves - but if anyone could prove me wrong it would definitely be Sony. It's also interesting to note that even though agency Fallon London has been the powerhouse behind all of the legendary Sony Bravia "Colour Like No Other" spots, and the recent "Foam City", the new "Tumble" campaign is coming out of 180 Los Angeles.

It might be redundant to say at this point, but I'm really pumped for this one. I have a good feeling... Check back in on Monday the 21st for the full spot.

Update: The site and ad are up.

I'm not being naïve; sure, then they use them to build their brand and promote a product. But there's an artistic sincerity here that always rings true for me, and any brand getting shit this cool done is clearly at the top of its game.

Though the proper name is "The Superstar Film", it's travelling around as "The Left-Right Project", which I think is a better name anyway. They've taken classic Superstar shell-toes and built gigantic 15-foot long models, sending the left show to the west coast and the right shoe to the east. On opposite sides of the continent, Sam Flores and Upper Playground customized one Superstar on the west while NYC/Paris collective Surface2Air handled the east. The results are as amazing as you'd expect.

The designs are sick, and "The Left-Right Project" is one more jewel in the Adidas crown. All day I dream about shoes... damn right.

This spot, directed by duo Ubik for MTV's environmental awareness campaign - MTV Switch - is pure win. The animation is sharp and eye-catching, and rather than ramming some bombastic message into our faces it's just simple and lovely and allows us to make its emotional feeling our own emotional feeling. This is an ad you can embrace. Love love love it. Ubik won "Best Animation" at the BTAA Craft Awards for this and were just nominated for "Best Film and TV Graphics" at the British Animation Awards. They deserve it big time.

The YouTube version is right here, but to truly get the nuanced quality of the animation, I suggest watching the high-res version here.

(Agency: Ogilvy & Mather)

While you're at it, check out these equally awesome PSAs from MTV Switch.

Via The Denver Egotist via Motionographer

If I had to sum up my response to the first of the Foam City ads it a single word, it would be "meh". I'm suspicious though and I think there's something up their sleeves still. The spot is short, really almost more of a teaser compared to the others - it's only a minute long. We haven't seen the end of any of this yet. Maybe this foam thing is all an elaborate ruse, and they've really filled a Hawaiian volcano with multi-coloured confetti and streamers and filmed it erupting glitter into the air while the rest of were watching suds in Miami. Maybe?

Despite the fact that I'm a little underwhelmed, it's still better than almost any other advertising you'll see. My reaction to this is a lot like watching "Eyes Wide Shut" - bad Kubrick is still better than almost anything else. Being a little less of a genius is still more genius than most of us. And with that, here's the spot...

(Agency: Fallon)

As with most shockvertising, these will get passed around the net and we'll all gasp and feel weird for a couple seconds. Whether they'd actually deter someone from doing meth or not, I'm not so sure because the images are so graphic that I don't think the actual message sinks in. Which is the problem with shockvertising. Reaction doesn't equal assimilation of the message. I'm not so sure a young girl would look at this and make the "meth-addiction-prostitution-dirty whore-I don't want to be a dirty whore-I won't do meth" connection. I think she's say "ew, gross" and put Hannah Montana back on. If I knew Pete Doherty, we could ask him how he feels about these, but I'm pretty sure he's busy beating someone in an alley.

(Agency: Leo Burnett Paris)

As if that wasn't kick ass enough, check out these candy flossed ads he created for Puma and Nike:

I also found some ridiculously hot work on art director Drew Wilson's online design gallery Muse:

But if there's one thing that completely mystifies me it's attempted censorship. As an artist, I think it offends my very nature. Anytime that ugly little beast coerces a company to remove any work of art, media, or culture from the collective "many" because of the opinion of the narrow-minded, but vocal, "few", I get very angry. We all have the right to our opinions, but nobody has the right to undermine free speech and promote censorship.

The question, one that I can't answer even though I've thought about it, is "Why are some Americans completely incapable of having a sense of humour about their own country?"

(AP Photo/Teran/TBWA)

So here's an ad that ran last month in Mexio, created by Teran/TBWA for Absolut Vodka. The map shows Mexico's borders before The American-Mexican war of 1846-1848. The war started when Mexico had the cojones to not recognize the U.S. annexation of Texas. It's been a sore spot with Mexico ever since, as the transfer of land and re-drawing of borders post-war usually tends to be.

The joke is simple, innocent, and harmless, and was only ever intended to run in Mexico. No harm, no foul. That's until American media outlets got a hold of it, the ad started to spread across the web, and I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

People lost their shit. The Absolut website got a couple thousand complaints, threats of a boycott, and the Neo-Cons foamed at the mouth at the audacity of anyone to ever assume that the world could possibly be a better place is America had less land. People starting reacting as if Mexico had made a formal declaration of war and was massing troops along the Rio Grande.

The offender takes over a billboard in Mexico City. Pic courtesy of Kyle Fletcher.

The main point of all this, the one that drives me nuts, is that somewhere along the line everyone managed to forget that this was just an ad. It's not a UN treaty. It's a vodka ad.

Last week, Absolut's makers Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the U.S. market. Absolut released an apology saying "In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues."

No shit. That's because it's an ADVERTISEMENT FOR VODKA. Just the fact that anyone should have to explain that a print ad isn't literally suggesting the Mexican annexation of Texas proves how worked up some people are. Worse than that, the fact that some Americans would react with such vitriol towards Mexico over something so inconsequential illustrates just how intrinsically racist the offended, boycott-happy bunch really are.

Want proof? Here are some of the choice comments from the website absolutads.com:

"How about an ad that shows a mushroom clowd [sic] over Mexico and USA people rejoycing [sic] that we don’t have to put up a fence to keep law breakers out. Thats no worse than you giving half of our country away."

"In an world of Absolut America haters, the USA wouldn’t exist. But, where will the Mexicans run to for jobs and indoor plumbing?"

"I know what an intelligent marketing move is: pandering to a bunch of illiterate Mexicans, most of whom are dirt-poor and have no discerning taste anyway, while pissing off millions of savvy Americans, who can, far and away, afford to purchase much more of your product and are more likely to drink it anyway. Genius!"

"How dare you INSULT The United States just to sell your poison to some hispanics. I hope you go under from lack of sales."

"The makers of Absolut have crossed the line. They are now encouraging the overthrow of my country. Screw them."

Who are these people? If they put half the energy of their vehemence over this ad and morphed it into, say, working to fight cancer or stopping global warming or saving Darfur, just imagine what they could accomplish. "Encouraging the overthrow of my country...". Are you fucking kidding me?

One particular foamy-mouthed Neo-Con blogger, who I'm not going to name because a) I don't want to give them any more credit, and b) I'm worried they'll try and have me killed, went as far as to post this lovely graphic response to the ad, photo-shopped by an equally foamy-mouthed reader:

Wow. I don't know what else to say to that except wow. I wonder if these people get all chest-beaty when they think about the Statue of Liberty, or does that entire "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..." concept only get upheld when it's convenient?

Sure, the global opinion of America is at an all time low and maybe they're feeling a little deflated, but it's still the richest, loudest, shiniest, showiest, most powerful country in the world. Isn't that enough to just chill out and let Mexico get a little jab in? Do people seriously think that Mexico will have a few vodkas and say "Gee, that Absolut ad has the right idea... let's take our non-existent army and invade California. That'll show those Yanks...".

I'm not trying to paint an inaccurate picture that these few complaints speak for all Americans. The problem is that these are the type of people that speak up. This is who Absolut is listening to. That's what bothers me.

I'm disturbed that the racism of someone who can't correctly spell "cloud" is partially determining what kind of advertising the rest of us should see. No matter the issue, discrimination and hatred is never a valid response.

Thanks to kp for sending me this.

(Agency: Johannes Leonardo. Director: Laurent Briet)

Next up is "Kenya Sings India":

(Director: Bob Nyanja)

Finally we've got "Australia Sings Lebanon". This mostly makes me think Australians aren't particularly good at humming:

(Director: Kris Moyes)

Thanks to my friend James for reminding me of the hypocrisy that's hiding inside these ads. These ads are for the International Red Cross, but the Canadian Red Cross, despite the blood bag filled with "compassion", doesn't accept blood donations from gay males. Apparently it's 1981. I half expect them to say something like "Due to the rise in gay cancer, we've decided that...". It's ludicrous.

You'd think that by 2008 any supposedly humanist and forward-thinking organization would realize that supporting this kind of homophobia is dangerous. We all know that AIDS is not a gay disease. We all know that AIDS doesn't discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, class, or race.

AIDS can be contracted by everyone. Everyone (except gay males) can donate blood. Therefore, anyone with AIDS can donate blood. To maintain this kind of discrimination against gay men is pointless, offensive, and does nothing to protect the blood supply. All it does is prevent sick people from getting blood they could use...

How compassionate, tolerant, or aware is that?

Via Josh Spear

In pundo3000.com's "Werbung Gegen Realität" (Advertising Versus Reality), they've taken 100 (sometimes incredibly odd looking) German food products and given us a direct comparison of their packaging next to what was actually inside. I mean, sure, nobody really expects their Heringssalat to be as totally filled with juicy bits of fresh herring as is portrayed on the box, but shouldn't it at least be approximately the same colour?

When you open your Heringssalat and it's a bright shade of creamy mauve, it's time to throw that shit away. Plus, you know that your Zwiebel-Hackbraten just won't taste the same without those succulent grillmarks on whatever appears to have been intended to be a steak of some kind. If it had grillmarks, we'd know it was meant to be meat. C'mon people - where are the damn GRILLMARKS?!?!

I'm also a little suspicious of why my kohlwurst has sunk to the bottom of my Grünkohl. I like my wursts to be a little more buoyant...

You can check out the entire 100 products in all their glory here, but these are three of the more heinous ones. This Entenfleisch, Rinderroulade, and Schlemmergulasch ain't how Grandma used to make it...

I also found a video hyping the project (complete with a culturally misunderstood quasi-old skool hip hop scratch soundtrack - I'd say the intention was some kind of irony, but I'm pretty sure Germany's taste in music just blows...)

Via the kick ass The Denver Egotist via Funtasticus