Ad Digger – 1.8.14

 
After a brief summer break, we’re back to dish up another serving of examples of great sync currently circulating on screens large, small and medium-sized. This week it’s all about unexpected cover versions, stripped down or scaled up (way, way up) and a scope spanning the sublime and the ridiculous.

 
Nationwide – People
 
Lush and intimate time-lapse vignettes of ordinary people bustling about their day couple beautifully with a warm, pared-down version of one of Kylie’s most heartening hits. The underlying concept is nothing new, but the execution is unexpectedly lovely.
 

 
Song: I Believe in You (Abbey Road sessions)
Artist: Kylie Minogue

Nissan – Endless Love
 
Nissan seem to be enjoying a gear shift from bracing daftness to all-out kookery with this slice of glam rock camp. Poison frontman Bret Michaels, never knowingly under-coiffed, heads a particularly all-out product demo montage (some of which may seem familiar) for the sturdy vehicles, decked out in a hair metal take on Lionel Richie and Diana Ross’s Endless Love. A little goes a long way, which at music video length is particularly noticeable, but the spot certainly doesn’t stint on loving tongue-in-cheek closeups. Or anything else, for that matter.

 
Song: Endless Love
Artist: Bret Michaels (original Lionel Richie)
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day

Cadbury – Freeze the Joy
 
While not quite attaining the heights of some other spots from their Free the Joy campaign, this summer morsel is nonetheless a pretty satisfying treat. Continuing the line of likeable British chaps unleashing their inner dancing monarch, this ad introduces some new elements – the undecided British summer, more free-wheeling camera work, unbridled rock’n’roll in the rollicking form of Little Richard rather than preened 70s disco – but preserves the same sense of bounding, warmly silly good cheer.
 

Song: Slippin’ and Slidin’
Artist: Little Richard
Agency: Big Communications
 

Samsung – Every Day is Day One
 
This sweeping spot – which also illustrates how far Samsung has come in terms of low-key product placement – zeroes in on the brand’s partnership with the Association of Surfing Professionals.
 
The intense, beautifully-lensed visuals are carried on the back of Andrea McCluskey’s high-cresting cover of David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners, which mirrors the build and release of a sought-after wave. The stripped-down instrumentation bringing the song’s bittersweetness to the fore, providing an eloquent explanation of the hard-mistress exhilaration that draws these surfers back to an often punishing sport.
 

Song: Absolute Beginners
Artist: Andrea McCluskey, Paul Cantelon
Agency: 72andsunny