Ad Digger – 11.12.15
We’re not far away from the run up to Christmas, and it would be expected that even more emotional, Christmas spirit adverts would be released. But this week’s newly released adverts from around the world took on an unexpected darker and more disturbing twist. One of the common themes was singing or talking road kill in car adverts, for example in the Bosch and in the Toyota adverts. Luckily, not all animal adverts took this route, and some, such as the adorable Freshpet dogs with human hands advert, were quite humorous.
In our selection of the best sync licensing in adverts this week, darker humoured Christmas adverts started to emerge, which makes a nice change from the emotional and sentimental campaigns of the past weeks.
Check out our selection below:
Mobistar – ‘A Christmas Love Story: “Boy”’
At first the pre-cleared music in Mobistar’s advert is the perfect soft melody for a very cliché Christmas romance. The two lovebirds meet in a very seasonal setting, on an ice skating rink at a Christmas market, and it’s not long until romance starts to blossom. Matched with the soft, sweet vocals of singer-songwriter Buddy, we are left to feel like we are witnessing another over played movie romance. That’s until the end, when it comes as a surprise to everyone that the two are cousins.
Song: Apologize (If You Tried)
Artist: Buddy
Agency: Publicis, Brussels
Samsung – ‘Happy Accidents’
Although it may look and sound innocent, with a soft and sweet sync license of ‘You Always Hurt the One You Love’, the Samsung Christmas advert comes with a warning: don’t recreate these scenarios at home. TVs are about to break just in front of the characters eyes, through water damage caused by an overflowing bathtub, being smashed up by a baby with a hammer, and finally crashed into by a Great Dane. The licensed music plays into the theme very well, the people remain relaxed and look the other way, while chaos unfolds, all for a new TV.
Song: You Always Hurt the One You Love
Artist: The Mills Brother
Agency: Fold7, London
Pepsi – ‘Crystal Pepsi Returns’
Pepsi announced this week that they were bringing back their early 90s transparent cola, ‘Crystal Pepsi’. To celebrate the announcement, this flashback advert was created, to make it appear like the spirit of the 90s had never left the company. Accompanying shaky VHS style visuals and some really awful hairdos, the sound of the 90s is unleashed with a sync license of a hit song from the era: ‘Whoop! (There It Is)’ by hip-hop group Tag Team.
Song: Whoop! (There It Is)
Artist: Tag Team
Agency: The Barbarian Group
