Talking of cars, I'm absolutely hooked by the new Seat Ibiza ad.
From a professional point of view, I could quite easily watch it all day.
The whole concept of it, speed ramping, gentle use of dollys, colour treatments, lighting. You name it, it's got it! And the remix of The Avalanches track is also superb!
On the subject of ads which stand out, Coke always make great adverts, noticed recently some very short ads of theirs with coke sloshing around a glass, sends me running towards th fridge.
On the other hand im getting fed up of every other car advert slowly piecing bits of cars together, the novelty factor has well worn off here.
Looking at supermarkets, Tesco & Morrisons now have distinctive jingles so ASDA might as well bring their famous one back.
I can't be the only one who's noticed the irritating trend for whistling in the soundtracks to ads?
It started in food advertisements, trying desperately to convince you that the company is 'green' and 'ethical' using folk music, and music from the hippie movement in the 60s and 70s. (See Waitrose's advert - which doesn't technically use whistling, I know - and several others.) It's also been appearing in insurance adverts (Norwich Union, Co-op Bank, etc) and McDonalds's new ad uses cute children, mud and - yes - folk music and a whistling soundtrack to try desperately to convince us that it is an eco-friendly, ethical company which doesn't destroy society and squeeze babies.
The most effective adverts, I've found, seem to come from those that concentrate on the product and its features, not on a slogan or some abstract concept. Coca-Cola's are extraordinarily effective, because they have a strong brand to rely on:
and people like the product
. The same goes for Apple's ads: Apple has such a strong brand it doesn't need to use an 'Apple' caption with its logo, the adverts focus very much on the product, and normally don't need narration, leaving the product to speak for itself.
The iPhone 3G ad is an exception: it's almost like one of IBM's adverts. IBM's adverts are zany and business-oriented, and the iPhone ad was directed to look a lot like one of IBM's ads - and you are (almost) surprised when you see the iPhone pop out of the box at the end.
Incidentally, PC World have undergone a branding refresh. The new logo is nice, and at last that irritating jingle has been shortened to three notes with no vocals. I doubt it'll improve their crap service though...
Dell's new ad is also interesting. It focuses on features that are pretty much standard across most laptops. Heck, my Eee PC 701 is capable of 'hi-def widescreen', for pete's sake. Also, it says the laptop
is
"amazing wireless reception". So the computer isn't a computer at all - it's just a concept of how well it can pick up a signal from a base station? It's technically incorrect. </pedant>
