Ad of the Week: Levi's Curve ID

The ad of the week is a pretty hefty print piece for Levi's Curve ID jeans. The ad, placed immediately after the front cover as a six page gate fold, had not only a domineering placement; but, also a pretty stand out creative concept behind it.

Following the tone and feel of their pro-american "Go Forth" campaign, they did a more focused product benefit ad but didn't lose a bit of their unique voice or prospective in the copywriting. With many copywriters toning down their work or having their work squashed by clients, its rare to see a great bit of writing anymore.

To top it all off they included a qr code that lead to a small video spot online as seen here.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy











Copy: "All asses were not created equal

Bring us your skinny tomboys, your curvy girls, and all girls in between. We believe that hotness comes in all shapes and sizes. That we should be able to go into stores and find jeans that fit us instead of having to fit into the jeans. And that every tina, tonya, teresa, and talia deserves jeans that make her curves look like a national treasure. It’s the new democracy of jeans! Finally, jeans for us. Go forth."

Ad of the Week: Camper Shoes

Some ads are known for their high fashion, some for their innovative way to express a product/service benefit and others for their unique creativity. My favorite ad of the week, Camper shoes by Swing Swing, is unique in blending all three of these aspects.

It utilizes hipster fashion and a Michel Gondry-like art direction approach to grab the target consumers attention. The ad is quite enjoyable to watch playing out more like a music video and finishing off the product benefit that it has been demonstrating throughout the ad, their shoe cushion system.

Agency: Swing Swing
CD: Judith Francisco
AD: Gabriel Da Silva
CW: Adolfo Pahissa

Ad of the Week: Target

One of the more interesting experiments, as of late, in advertising is the attempt to make traditional more conversational. It brings up the question can a TV ad truly be conversational?

While watching the finale of Lost, I saw three excellent examples of being conversational through tv. They were a series for Target by Wieden + Kennedy. They simply featured an aspect of Lost and tied it to an everyday product including this one with the smoke monster. The reason I feel it is conversational is it’s making an ad to specifically speak to a target audience of Lost fans in their visual language. Paired with their tagline “Life’s a moving Target.” it creates a meaningful link to their target that makes one feel like Target understands me. It was so successful in fact that already the next morning there was a few great Target ad spoofs including this one featuring a kiss between Kate and Sawyer.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

Ad of the Week: Levi's

Much of success in advertising is dependent on those that are extremely talented mixed with a client willing to take a risk and, in some ways even more so, being in the right place at just the right time.

When the Levi's account was won away from BBH by Wieden Kennedy, I was a little worried because BBH had done some notable good work for Levis especially with one of their last pieces, Strange Love. Yet with Wieden Kennedy's release of this series of two ads including this first anthem, America. It was clear the WK was putting a very unique stamp on the Levi's brand that should prove fruitful for quite some time.

As always from WK, it's excellent art direction, great writing, cohesive branding, good music and a distinctive voice. The reason I feel these ads were released at such a perfect time is that they are keying into the same audience that Pepsi and Coke have attempted to with Refresh Everything and Open Happiness, the young generation that looks at all the issues in front of us as the human race and has a positive viewpoint of what they can do to improve it. Its keying into the new generation of "pioneers" looking to explore and put their unique stamp on things and all of these emotions and aspirations are now being housed within the Levi's brand. The ads themselves went live shortly after Obama had stepped into office. It was a time when many Americans had come off of the high of the political campaigns and now felt refreshed making history with one of the first african american president's in history.

Yet, with anything, the consumer and the dollar is the true judge of wether this campaign is successful or not; but, I wouldn't be surprised if this helped increase sales over the next few years.

Agency: Wieden Kennedy

Ad of the Week: Dove

Here it comes.

Although this ad, which ran after the more popular Dove Evolution, is part of an older campaign I feel that it is one of the rare concepts that will stand the test of time and have a strong punch for quite awhile. The concept itself, women being overwhelmed with beauty messaging, isn't dramatically new, the way in which the message was delivered raised it to an entirely new level.

Through the usage of rapidly moving beauty ads, that foster the idea that to be pretty you have to change, interspersed with depictions of woman dangerously changing their bodies through eating disorders and plastic surgery gives a strong impact. And the overriding message, of talking to your daughter before the industry does, helps reinforce the brand attributes that Dove is using to differentiate itself, they are the brand for real beauty.

Agency: Ogilvy London

Art Directors: Stuart Campbell, Mike Kirkland & Sharon Lee Pan

Copywriter: Tim Piper

Song: La Breeze by Simian

Ad of the Week: Old Spice

Smell like a man, man.

When Old Spice saw rapidly dropping profits, they knew they had to make a change and turned to Wieden + Kennedy. WK found that most people attributed the brand negatively with old men and were won over by the cool sex factor built into the competition, Axe. So what Old Spice did was tap into the factor of being a "mans man" and using a wanky, monty python like sense of humor to grab attention.

Their latest ad, meant to talk to the female buyer as well as the male user, with the line ". . .if he switched to Old Spice he could smell like he's me." The ad was perfectly planned out, art directed, written and produced to deliver a distinctive memorable brand promise that resonates with the consumer. So much so that the actor, Isaiah Mustafa, has since been inundated with friend requests on facebook and is appearing on Ellen this Friday because she became so infatuated with the ad.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland

Art Director: Eric Kallman

Copywriter: Craig Allen

And check out how they made it in this chat with the creative minds behind the ad.

Ad of the Week: Nike

It's a new thing for me to post about; but, every week there is an ad or two that refuels my love for what I do and shifts the way I think about advertising, design and/or branding.

For my first post I'm glad that it is such an excellent ad, Nike's: Human Chain. The piece that makes this ad stand out for me is the simple message, "Everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you gonna get up?" which speaks to me as a type "A" personality. It speaks to not just athleticism; but, also the drive in each of us to want to be successful and push ourselves beyond all constraints and it reinforces the simple message in the well known nike brand, "Just do it."

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland

Art Director: Ryan O'Rourke

Copywriter: Jason Bagley

Music: "Ali in the Jungle" by The Hours