jtherkal: Did I notice it? Yes. Was it funny? Pretty funny. Did I remember what it was about? Yes. Do I want to think about eating unborn chicken babies for breakfast? Not really. That’s the only flaw I can find here, especially when I think of the follow-up ads they did. A-.
sjbooher: Complete agreement. I love those screaming chickens! Denny’s even took a subtle jab at themselves, after last year some of their locations ran out of ingredients during this giveaway. A+.
jtherkal: It took this Heineken commercial to bring about a disagreement strong enough between myself and sjb to get us posting again. Me? I love it. It makes me laugh every time. The gag might not be that brilliant, but something about this just cracks me up. Something about the way the guys scream, and the way that one guy dances. And I’ll have to pay more attention to what’s on TV here, but I can’t find any versions of this on YouTube where the girl at the beginning is speaking English. Has this always been in German or whatever language that is? This doesn’t do anything to make me actually want to drink Heineken, but I remember it and I like it. A-.
sjbooher: I hate the way those guys act so much that it puts me in a bad mood and I don’t like talking about it. On the other hand, these guys do make me laugh:
It would be an F, but since it inspired LeBron to do good work, C.
sjbooher: I guess this is sort of memorable. I guess that guy probably does want a new job. I new the attempt at humor here fails with me and makes me angry. C-.
jtherkal: “I new the attempt at humor here…” What? Maybe you need a new job. This is a simple, memorable, instant classic joke. I didn’t see it coming, and I feel like that’s sometimes hard to do nowadays. And more than being a nice joke, it delivers the message. You get the ass end of the deal. Get a new job. The only problem is, I can never separate the Monster and CareerBuilder ads in my head. I think both sites suck. A-.
jtherkal: eTrade is holding on to the talking baby ads. And why not, they’re simple, funny, recognizable. And you can have that baby talk about anything. Do I remember what service they’re selling? Nope. But I remember the brand, and I remember “take these broken wings…” A-.
sjbooher: Yep, I give up. Count me in. My mom loves these too, if that counts. A.
sjbooher: This is “jammin’ on the one” as Theo Huxtable said back in the day. Love. And this is officially an Ad That Works, as I bought a 12-pack of Pepsi on Monday. Show the product in some more prominent way, and you get your A+. A.
jtherkal: That’s more like it, Pepsi. The only thing this could have used was a little refreshing sexy pour of the Pepsi onto some ice cubes in a glass. That’s what makes me thirsty. My complaint about the last refresh everything commercial was that they didn’t refresh the song, which they did here. That’s good enough for me. A-.
sjbooher: These are reminiscent of one my all-time favorite campaigns, the Johnson Automotive Badger — both involve local car dealerships, and both use animals in an attempt to be zany and funny. However, where the badger is completely original and awesome, these monkey ads are bit too easy, and not all that funny. A little bit of “joke in a can” syndrome. Teeanage boy making out with someone’s daughter? Been there, although the shotgun scene was a little funny. That being said, much of the masses love lazy comedy. I just feel like whoever wrote this campaign was given the leeway to do something great and original, and they did not kock the ball out of the park. C-.
jtherkal: The trunk monkey! This ad is a classic. If I’m not mistaken, the original trunk monkey ad came out about seven years ago, which makes it a pioneer in the monkey ad joke space. While I agree that the badger ads were funnier, they had years of monkey and puppet joke expertise to build on. You can’t deny the hilarity of a monkey leaping around with a defibrillator (a machine for which my brain could not remember the name–I had to Google “electric shock heart restart machine”). But you’re partially right. Even back then this could have been better. A-.
sjbooher: This is great, to me. But based on the PC-ness of American advertising, I’m guessing this is strictly a European phenomenon. Is this offensive? I don’t know any more. There are so many gray areas and double-standards these days, I don’t know what to think. And after seeing all of the way racial slurs and hateful comments directed at Josh Howard recently, my faith in mankind is on the downswing. A-.
jtherkal: Eh, this one is okay. The potential for comedy is there. A blind guy, a dog and racquetball. But it falls flat for me. Luckily, I love racquetball! But I believe that dog should be wearing glasses. The last thing a blind guy needs is for his seeing-eye dog to get popped with that little blue rocket-ball and lose an eye. That’s just reckless. Someone call PETA. C+.
jtherkal: Boom! Here it is. The second debut of the Windows Vista campaign. Apparently this is the real campaign, with rumors flying around that the Seinfeld-Gates ads have been pulled and were only intended to get people talking before the actual release of the “real” campaign. While I seriously doubt that Crispen purposely made boring pieces of shit, this is starting to feel more like what you’d expect. The idea that PC’s have been unjustly stereotyped is one that, while perhaps untrue(I think PCs and Windows have earned their reputation), is at least an idea.
They’re giving people who use PCs something to identify with, something to rally around. They’re trying to make you feel okay to not be hip like Mac, because people like Pharrell (although he’s already being bashed for selling out, after saying he’s a Mac guy), Tony & Eva, Vera Wang, and some guy with a beard are PCs. A lot of people have PCs, so making them feel like they don’t have to rush out and get a Mac is not a bad starting goal.
And, before you can break a stereotype, you first have to get people to acknowledge that there is, indeed, a stereotype. This does exactly that. Call out the stereotype and start to prove it wrong. Plus, “I’m a PC” is the type of phrase that can catch fire in pop culture. It’ll find its way into sketch comedy shows, YouTube videos, t-shirts, etc. Why on earth didn’t they just launch with this instead of shoveling that load of Seinfeld shit out onto the airwaves? We still haven’t seen anything about the product, so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes next. A-.
sjbooher: Now THIS is good. So really, WHAT was that Seinfeld crap? An amazing turnaround, here. They actually used relevant celebrities this time. Good idea! This is the type of ad the young tastemakers of the world are can grab a hold of, as my colleague said. Does the product still suck? Yeah. But if you don’t know that, this can catch your interest. This succeeds as more of a “brand builder”. A.
As for the Pharrell issue… isn’t Microsoft the one getting played here, for paying a guy that is a definite Mac user to hawk your brand? Microsoft already looked like suckers for using N*E*R*D’s “Spaz” in this Zune ad, when on their album, the track immediately preceding “Spaz”, namedrops the iPod repeatedly!
jtherkal: Apparently this ad has been pulled from television in the UK due to its “homophobic” nature. When they yanked the Snickers Superbowl commercial with two men kissing, I could understand the sensitivity. But this one? If I were gay, I’d be pissed that people think that just because a guy is portrayed as a crybaby-pussy he’s representative of the gay community. The fact that they pulled this for being anti-gay is 1000 times more anti-gay than the commercial itself.
This one is possibly closer to being offensive. But it has a Snickers Gatling gun, which is awesome:
jtherkal: This YouTube comment more accurately states what is offensive about this campaign: I can’t belive a creative agency has done such an offensive commercial, how do effeminate guys feel when they watch this ad? the underlying message is that effeminate men must be shot to become masculine. This is really bad… So is it offensive to effeminate guys? Sure. But it’s equally offensive to both straight and gays. Either way, I like them. And the message isn’t to shoot effeminate guys, it’s to get some nuts. A-.
sjbooher: I agree, ONE THOUSAND %. However, it is a slippery slope. While these ads are not offensive in and of themselves, I just spent two weekends recently with a group of guys that would see the effeminate men shown here, and instantly say: “those guys are gay”. That is because most people are idiots, I guess, and always will be. A-.
And yes, Mr. T. is gold standard when it comes to Ridiculous Black Men in entertainment.