Ad Digger – 13.10.2014
We’re starting off your week with a warm hug today, with a combination of feeling the love and looking cool (sometimes simultaneously) from our favourite recent ad sync. Whether it’s for family, Italian delicacies or supercars, the stars this week have distinctly soft hearts (but cool shades.)
So far October has been a fruitful month for music-based ads in general, from the Beeb’s glossy effort to Ballantine’s a cappella masterclass. If you’re fighting the afternoon slump, try some Lego-based invigoration or a little molten terror with Danny MacAskill – after that you can probably forgo the coffee. And if your Monday just isn’t weird enough so far, try on Tomcat’s grisly theatre for (probably uncomfortable) size.
Spotify – I’m a Drifter Again
The most satisfying in Spotify’s That Song When… campaign highlighting the importance of music at pivotal (or less pivotal than hoped) moments in people’s lives, this spot looks at turning a moment of luckless defeat into perverse personal glory with the right soundtrack. Combining confessional interview style narration with a short and sweet flashback, the spot builds to a climax we (like Jason) can sort of see coming, but which is elevated from everyday awkwardness to a contrary walk of take-your-job-and-shove-it pride in a blaze of unapologetic hard rock. Simple, believeable, likeable.
Song: Here I Go Again
Artist: Whitesnake
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, David
Johnnie Walker – Driving Masterclass
Cool/uncool disparity always makes for fertile comic ground – put both in a sports car and reap the fruits. In this three-way collaboration between Johnnie Walker, McLaren and Tesco, slightly unsettling high-def slow motion of extremely concerned passenger faces makes an entertaining contrast with the reveal shot of Jenson Button’s ice-cool unconcern. It’s a rather smoother ride than other recent high-profile driver ads – the gleaming supercar visuals fit beautifully with the stylish langour of Etta James, and the lyrics are of course enjoyably bang-on.
Song: Trust in Me
Artist: Etta James
Agency: iris Singapore
Production: Firecracker Films
Director: Nigel Simpkiss
Whirlpool – Every Day, Care
Whirlpool’s nicely observed montage of parental and familial gestures of love notes the sunny and the not so sunny with equal warmth, quietly putting their products at the centre of the family without overstatement. All-American family values might be at the campaign’s core, but it all rings warm and true, and Johnny Cash’s simple, moving version of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ is a perfectly judged accompaniment.
Song: You Are My Sunshine
Artist: Johnny Cash
Agency: DigitasLBi
Production: Epoch Media Group
Director: Martin de Thurah
Melbourne Salami Festa – Remo
Airbag’s stylishly daft spot promoting Melbourne’s upcoming salami-making festival is a winning combination of straightforward and kooky – it forgoes all salacious metaphors and stars the actual winner from last year, but nonetheless boasts a distinct Aussie twinkle in the eye, partially due to the magnificently mustachioed Remo’s own hilarious character (that oil painting really does hang on his wall). The tender crooning of Teddy Reno lends the spot both its wonky romance and its Italian cred.
Song: Trieste Mia
Artist: Teddy Reno
Creative Director: Carlo Mazzarella
Production: Airbag Productions
Director: Adrian Bosich
