#51 Forget High Fives, You Deserve a Bear Hug

From a polar bear, for owning a Nissan LEAF!

I adore this commercial! At first I was confused and wasn’t sure what it was for, and assumed it was for some National Geographic “Save the Bears”-esque fund, but once I saw the ending, I was completely won over.

The Youtube caption summarizes it nicely: “Seeing its arctic home melting away, a lone polar bear sets out on a great journey to thank someone who is trying to help.” The man the bear comes to visit is an owner of a Nissan LEAF, which is an electric car and generates zero emissions. If you haven’t guessed already, he gets a great big polar bear hug. How freakin’ adorable!

I’m not one for gooey, cheesy things, but this video really struck a chord with me — and I’m not even remotely concerned about the predicament of polar bears or melting ice-caps! I’m a horrible person, I know. Anyway, watch it and be touched!

I was interested to learn that a real polar bear was actually used to make the commercial. Named Aggie, the bear is trained and has been on other movie sets before. Aggie was used for nearly all the scenes except for those taken in the arctic, which were actually taken from nature documentary footage, and the scene where the bear crosses a bridge at night. That was computer generated. For more behind the scenes trivia, watch this video.

I’ll end this post with, “The Nissan LEAF has arrived, and the planet is glad it’s here.”

#50 AT&T: The Fairytale

I was cruising through Youtube when this featured ad by AT&T caught my eye. It starts “sometime in the future” with the presidential inaugural speech of the 57th president, and cuts to an old couple, the president’s parents, proudly cuddling in the crowd.  Then it begins to rewind through the parents’ lives until we come to a scene with a young man standing in front of a train about to leave. He catches the eye of a pretty woman in the window, and thanks to AT&T having the “fastest 3G network,” is able to instantaneously change his ticket and get on the train with the woman. As we know from the beginning of the ad, it’s happily ever after.

This modern fairytale would be sweet and cute, if it weren’t just that: a fairytale.

AT&T is the most unreliable network in the US. In reality, that poor kid would be stuck there frantically and frustratedly pushing his phone’s buttons as the train sped off, watching his chance of fathering the future president fade into the distance.

Now my question is, could this be called false advertising? After all, it’s a well-known fact that AT&T has the poorest service and connectibility. Just take a look at the results of this year’s Consumer Reports reader survey, which ranks Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile along with some regional carriers. Readers were asked to grade each carrier on several criteria including value, voice service quality, data service quality and customer support. AT&T received the lowest possible rating of “Worse” in eight out of nine categories, managing to eke out a next-to-lowest rating for SMS service quality. See for yourself:

So where’s the line drawn? Can AT&T continue to advertise themselves as the “fastest 3G network?” Should they?

I think you know my opinion from the tone of this post, but I’m curious to hear yours.

#48 Red Bull Gives You Chances

I thought you might be interested to hear about Red Bull’s Best Ad Contest.

I found out about it through a banner ad, unexpectedly.

Best ADvice ever!

I love it.

They’re looking for “charming and witty stories that convey the benefit of drinking Red Bull” and how it revitalizes both body and mind. Entries will be examined by a panel consisting of Red Bull marketing executives and representatives of their advertising agency, Kastner & Partners. Sounds like a good way to get noticed, if nothing else. The winner will have an opportunity to “spend time inside the world of Red Bull,” whatever that means.

The deadline is 12/12/2010.

Check it out!

#47 Rituals and Concerts: More from AXE

AXE has got some interesting side campaigns going on aside from the “Clean Your Balls” campaign I talked about in post #10.

They joined forces with Funny Or Die to produce “AXE Manliest Rituals,” a mock reality TV internet series where two guys travel around the world to find out “what gets the ladies.”

Regardless of what challenge they face, they find that the ritual they are most accustomed to, “Pit Pit Chest” — named so for the areas that are sprayed with Axe in order — is still the best method of getting girls.

This campaign showed a lot of promise but wasn’t executed very well, to my disappointment. AXE could have created a huge cultural movement, the way Old Spice did with the Old Spice Guy, but their characters just didn’t rub off on the viewer. The episodes were missing something, too. They were kind of funny but not to the point where I felt tempted to share them with friends.

Others thinks so too.

Then I discovered AXE Music and their One Night Only campaign through a Youtube video ad. Although I might be a little biased as a concert junkie, I think this is a great idea. They’ve presented O.A.R. in Chicago, Weezer in LA and Wisin Y Yandel in Las Vegas. On their microsite, they offer visitors a chance to win tickets for themselves and 3 friends to the exclusive event set in an intimate venue starring big names. Those interested in attending must first purchase an AXE product, though, as a UPC code found on the back is required.

In addition to winning tickets, visitors can read artist interviews (so long as they have a UPC), see behind the scenes videos, and watch recordings of the events. I watched a bit of Weezer’s and discovered  Jorge Garcia, who played Hurley in LOST, performed along side Weezer for one (and maybe more) of their songs. Awesome!

The microsite also offers visitors a minigame where they can create an animated crowd surfing version of themselves and virtually crowd surf online.

What a great, interactive campaign with a lot to offer. Love it! If I was a fan of one of the bands performing next, I’d definitely purchase a product for the UPC code and try to win tickets!

Peep it!

#46 Capital One: What’s In Your Skull?

I simply do not understand Capital One’s commercials featuring Vikings. Why Vikings? How do they tie into Capital One’s product, brand and brand values? I am left angrily perplexed, each and every time. I tried to understand it, especially because my dad took a liking to a the one with a bunch of Vikings singing opera — Oh, wait, no, that was JG Wentworth.

See? There’s no brand identity here and the ads are directly responsible for that. I legitimately was confused and had to look up “singing Vikings commercial” to see if the two campaigns were related.

Some viewers might find the ads comical, sure, but are they buying into the brand? Are they coming up to Capital One branches to… Call me stupid, but I’m not even sure what Capital One does. I’ve seen the commercials a 100 times but nothing has ever stuck. I only learned that they are a bank from writing the article about their separate, much improved Mascot Video Challenge campaign.

What differentiates them from other banks? Why should I choose Capital One over their competitors? I just rewatched one of their commercials and I still don’t know.

In my opinion, this campaign needs to be scrapped and substituted with one that relates to the bank’s name “Capital One” and to its brand values, whatever they may be. In fact, it seems like the bank could simply use a rebranding right now.

According to an article by USA today, Capital One has been pumping out these ads since 2005. Are you kidding me? Amusingly enough, the journalist, Michael McCarthy, was complaining about the repetitive, continuous nature of Capital One’s campaigns in his article. And that was 5 years ago.

Seriously, Capital One, start rebranding because I can’t stand another minute of these awful commercials, and I know I’m not the only one.

#45 Squish and Squash

Are the names I suggested Mozilla Firefox give the two red panda (a.k.a. firefox) cubs, born at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, that have officially become a part of the Mozilla community this Friday.

These two are “seriously warm and fuzzy,” and recognizing this, Firefox has set up a microsite and Twitter account that make it easy for viewers to keep up-to-date on the cubs’ cuteness. The site offers a 24-hour live video cam feed called “The Frolic Cam” that allows visitors to watch cubs do everything from chilling to gnawing.

The microsite also offers visitors a chance to suggest names for the cubs that currently go by “cub number one” and “cub number two,” which just will not do.

Mozilla says the campaign is a part of their efforts to raise awareness on behalf of the endangered species that live in Nepal and India. They provide a link on their microsite to Red Panda Network‘s website, where visitors can “adopt” a member of the endangered species.

Mozilla is not just selflessly streaming cuteness to draw attention to a cause, though — they’re also promoting their product, Firefox 4.  Each time Firefox reaches its target number for Firefox 4 downloads, they reward participants and cubs by giving the cubs a treat. This time around, Squish and Squash are in for a jungle gym.

Clever, Firefox, clever.

This is a pretty well thought out strategy. As Mashable put it:

We’ve been impressed by a number of cleverly devised social good campaigns cropping up in the last several months, including those from MTV, Keep a Child Alive and the Urban Ministries of Durham, but we’re especially impressed with the way Mozilla has managed to draw attention to a cause by using one of the oldest viral tricks in the book — cute animals — in a way that’s completely in line with the name of its best-known product.

But in addition to the appeal that comes with watching cute animals frolic and snuggle all day is the role viewers get to play in determining the cubs’ fate. This campaign is interactive on so many different levels. Visitors get to help give the cubs an identity, watch them play, eat and nap, and help win them treats. In a tiny way, each participating visitor gains a little bit of ownership over Squish and Squash. The resulting warm, fuzzy feeling we get is then translated into brand loyalty for Firefox.

In conclusion, good job, Firefox. Maybe I’ll ditch Google Chrome and revert back to you, after all.

#44 Criticism for the Industry

Advertisers need to start advertising for consumers again. There is a trend among agencies to advertise for other agencies. It’s against nature, like peacocks strutting their stuff in front of other peacocks. It’s the peahens/consumers that need impressing, not those other fellas. And, sure, consumers may be impressed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to buy into the brand or product advertised. Sometimes, advertisers get so carried away that consumers don’t even understand the premise of a campaign, commercial or advertisement. That’s not okay. An agency’s job is to sell things. Not to go wildly overboard. Not to be the biggest, baddest and most recognized through awards. Instead, agencies should be focusing on communicating their clients’ idea effectively and promoting their clients’ products and services successfully. That is, after all, what they’re hired to do.

Just saying.

#43 Ciroc: Trending Now

Just a day ago, if I had of seen “Ciroc” trending on Twitter, I would have thought it was the exotic name of some hot new rapper or obscure character off of a video game. But, after seeing CIROC Ultra Premium Vodka’s “Perfectly Smooth” campaign featuring “Ciroc Smooth Talk with Diddy,” this vodka brand name will stay with me for life.

Other consumers must agree with me, because “Ciroc” is currently trending on Twitter, and you know you’ve done well when you’re trending on Twitter!

Twitter loves Diddy, and by extension, Ciroc.

Ciroc has done SO well thanks to these commercials, in fact, that it has become the No.1 Vodka sold in New York City!

Or, at least, that’s what Diddy says.

And I’ll take his word for it, because Diddy is the “Smoothest Man of the Year.”

#42 Be the Santa You Want to Be!

I love Christmas time. Who doesn’t? It’s a season of shopping, gift giving, family, friends and merriment! But as a chick who’s highly allergic to sappy, cheesy scenarios, it can also be the season of intense eye-rolling.

Which is why I like Sears’ “Be the Santa you want to be” campaign.

The television commercials don’t gush any of that “It’s so beautiful I could cry!” crud at you that most other advertisers seem to default to. Instead, they portray humorous characters that we can all say remind us of someone we know.

The commercials are meant to lead shoppers to Sears‘ website, where contests corresponding to the characters from the ads are arranged according to date. Basically, as a visitor to the site, you choose the Santa that best describes how and when you like to get your Christmas shopping done, and enter the contest.

Apparently I'm the Procrastisanta, which sounds about right.

Each Santa category winner gets awarded a different prize. Savvysantas enter to win a $5,000 Sears shopping spree. Santamazings write an essay about their favorite charities and how Sears can “blow them away.” The winning essay writer gets a $250 Sears gift card. Powersantas write in to Sears telling them how they prepare for Black Friday for a chance to win a $3,000 power pre-opening shopping spree during Sears Black Friday. One winning family of the many that enter the Santabulous contest get a makeover with a stylist and photographer. Finally, Procrastisanta contestants get to give Sears an excuse for why they haven’t been able to buy their friends and family gifts as of yet, and the entrant with the winning story wins up to $15,000 worth of prizes.

To spread word, Sears uploaded videos to its Youtube account that feature an original Santa character meeting each of the characters above. Their take on Santa, a grumpy, middle-aged man who has no passion for Christmas left after centuries of celebrating the holiday is hilarious. He reminds me of comedian Zach Galifianakis. What do you think? Here he is being taught a lesson from SavvySanta:

They also have a humorous reality-tv-esque portion of the campaign where people who fall under each of the Santa categories above are interviewed about their Christmas shopping and preparation habits. They of course are hired actors and are not real people. Here’s Santabulous!

Watch the rest of the videos on their Youtube channel, they’re hilarious!

#41 Epic Fail: Please Move on Because the Internet Has

Can the media STOP overbusing (overusing+abusing=overbusing) the terms “fail” and “epic”? Especially together?

I legitimately feel embarrassed whenever I see articles or ads trying to gain the attention of consumers by tossing out one of these words.

Why?

Because, media, you missed the starting gun. “Epic” and “Fail,” to put it in terms you can understand, are “so five minutes ago.” Not as five minutes ago as “five minutes ago” is, but definitely on their way out.

According to knowyourmeme.com and the Encyclopedia Dramatica, the internet meme “Epic Fail” can be traced to a character called Epic Fail Guy created 4 years ago on the message boards of 4chan.org. EFG, a stick figure donning a V for Vendetta mask who is bound to fail at everything he attempts, became synonymous with the word “fail” and was used as a response to lame, unimpressive and awkward posts.

Eventually, people stopped using the stick figure drawings altogether, opting to simply write “fail.” “Epic” was more or less dropped from the meme, unless someone was being exceptionally ridiculous. It is important to note that “epic” is its own meme and can be used as an adjective separately from “fail”  to describe something, but when done so, usually takes on a sarcastic tone.

The memes spread from 4chan to other forums and message boards, and websites like epicfail.com, failblog.com and shipmentoffail.com popped up as a means to document all of humanity’s epic failings.

For example.

Although EFG was created in 2006, the use of “epic fail” as a humorous trolling response on the internet hit its peak in 2008. Clever, up-to-date people at the failblog.org were quick to jump on the cultural movement and created a free iPhone app that year that allowed downloaders to make their own demotivational posters. That was 2 years ago; soon to be 3. Usage of the memes has declined greatly and advertisers and journalists need to realize that using the once popular internet memes excessively in the hopes of catching up with target audiences is simply pathetic.

Don’t believe me? Well, here’s proof, straight from the “internets”:

Urban Dictionary entry confirms your worst fears. Yup, to use "epic fail" is now an epic fail.

Sorry for all the profanity, but I didn’t write that. So, don’t shoot the messenger.

In conclusion, we live in a jaded society where consumers are painfully aware of how hard marketers try to win them over. Using these internet memes is like a parent or high school teacher desperately trying to be hip and fit in with teenagers by awkwardly and incorrectly adopting their slang — a couple years too late. Remember how much scorn you felt for those adults? Well, it’s the same scenario here. No one’s buying it! It’s much more effective to go for an honest, straight-forward approach with advertising. Don’t try so hard, marketers, just be your humorous, creative selves and people are bound to love your work!

Just in case you’re not sure where my rant is stemming from, here’s some of what you missed:

Released Nov 30, 2010 -- 3 years too late.

Lopez Fail

 

Epic Undie Run? Oh boy.

Epic evidence win. Got an article fail and banner ad fail in one screen shot!

Need I say more?