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

Uhhh-MER-ka!: The Right Time?

Above is an excellent example from Dodge of a recent slew of American Pride focused ads. Some others include the Walt Whitman Spots for Levi’s and the American Made Jeep ads. Although we haven’t seen this strong of American Made focused advertising since the end of World War 2, is it the right time to bring it back?

I feel I would be one to give a resounding yes. With the economic woes, environmental disasters and looming threat of guerilla attacks makes me feel a greater connection to my country and the people around me. The new advertising isn’t saying just, “Buy American” its positioning these brands to have the same attributes that our country has been historically known for: innovation, youth & freedom.

Yet I’m curious what others think? The right time or not?

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: Nuit Blanche

For this Ad of the Week I chose an ad that isn't consumer facing because I think it's important for ad agencies and production companies to equally be radical in marketing themselves.

The digital production house, Digital Film Central, created this short film noir like scene with some stunning visuals. The reason I love this piece is, unlike most production houses, this doesn't just show how cutting edge and polished their techniques are; but, also shows a strong depth in story telling and creative concept. It shows ad agencies and film companies, that may partner with them, that this production can do more than produce, they can partner with you to add further depth to the creative thought behind a piece of work.

The second reason I chose this is it seems to be doing very well virally. On youtube alone its had over 92,000 hits and has been up for less than two months. As a potential consumer/partner to the organization, I loved the fact that I was inspired enough to wait through all the credits to find out who made this original piece of work. Check out how they made it too.

Production House: Digital Film Central

Director: Arev Manoukian

Music: Samuel Bisson

VFX: Marc-Andre Gray

Cinematography: Arev Manoukian

Ad of the Week: Topicana (Canada)

One of the strongest pulls, for me as a consumer, is an ireverant ad that is working towards making a positive impact.

BBDO made this strong brand ad for Tropicana and not only hit all the marks of great art direction, copywriting, event planning, concept, song selection and post production; but they created a unique moment that was well conveyed in this 60 second spot. Although it's not an ad to be remembered for decades to come, it is one of the important ads to take steps towards making branded consumers that truly believes in Topicana as a "do gooder."

Although I never tend to be one that champions pr or give-aways on their own as a way to drive attention to a brand. Coupled with this feel good ad, their donations to local charities in the area to bring them "a little sunshine" and the healthy pr pick-up across a number of the provinces in Canada really helped make this ad a successful one.

Agency: BBDO Canada, Toronto

Art Director: John Terry

Copywriter: Adam Bailey

Song: "The Great Escape" by Patrick Watson

Advertising with A Conscience?

One of the biggest lessons that my mentor at MCAD, Nancy Rice, taught my classmates and myself is: How do you seek out and work on only those that are doing good?

By this she meant intentionally not working with companies that you considered to be immoral whether that be a tobacco company, a company built on exploitation or one that is knowingly harming the environment. She brought up an example of a client that had approached her at her agency Rice & Rice that she had created after she had left Fallon Worldwide (then called Fallon McElligott Rice).

It was a pesticide intentionally created to not deteriorate, meaning that it would sit in the soil for virtually ever killing specific kinds of bacteria and bugs. Being from a farming background, Nancy knew the harm this could create on the environment and respectively declined the invitation to pitch for the work. Half a year later the company was unable to sell that product and was moving into an environmentally friendly sector and specifically sought out Rice & Rice for their ethics and passion for doing right by the environment.

Stories like these coupled with Nancy’s mantra of, “Never tell a lie no matter how much they are willing to pay.” is something that has stuck with me for quite some time. Although it is a difficult proposition for any new agency to turn down work there are some successful agencies that have been known for only working on clients that do good and I feel they are all agencies that we should aspire to be more like. A few of them include Fame Retail, Green Team, Mono and Olson.

For some cool eco-friendly design inspiration hit up the inhabitat blog.

The Underdogs of Inspiring Blogs

Like many other young art directors, designers, creative directors and the like, I follow a lot of blogs to help jump start my creativity or simply to see how others are pushing the boundaries in my field.

There of course are the staples of NOTCOT for design & art, Ads Of The World for advertising creative, FWA for digital design, Agency Spy for ad gossip and It’s Nice That for design inspiration. Yet there are quite a few, unsung heros that I follow on a daily basis and wanted to spread the love.

1. Inhabitat: Green Design Blog. The thing I love the most about this blog is it isn’t preachy. It simply showcases some of the coolest green solutions for every area of design. It gets your noodle going in a uniquely green way.

2. The Dieline: Showcase of Packaging. I have always been a strong believer that a true designer can design anything (sans math integration without proper training) be it a website, poster, motion graphics, typeface or a piece of packaging. The thing I love about packaging inspiration is it pushes the boundaries of your thought process in both 2D and 3D.

3. Birds of A Feather: One A Day Picture Blog. I use this blog as a picture a day to keep the block away. Some pictures are good; but, the majority are awesome. Keep this one on the rss feed.

4. Change The Thought: A.D.D. for Designers. This blog is all over the place in an incredibly fantastic way. You get about 3-4 blog posts a day of random awesomeness be it industrial design, photography, motion graphics, screenprinting or a good old advertisement.

5. Thought Bubbles: The View from A Young Copywriter at Mullen. From the Mullen agency that lovingly brought us the brand bowl (in tandem with radian 6) comes the view of a young copywriter at a pretty cool agency. Allison tends to simply blog about the things she loves, all of which has proven to be pretty interesting.

6. Christine Vo: The View from a Young Digital Designer at Wieden + Kennedy. From the digital stuff she makes at W+K to the design stuff she makes on her own. All in all some pretty cool work and interesting pieces of inspiration.

7. Conscience: The View from A Creative Director at the Martin Agency. Although Joe doesn’t post too terribly often, when he does it is always really cool work from the Martin Agency who, as we all know, has recently been winning new business pitch after new business pitch after new business pitch.

All in all a pretty cool group; but, if I’m missing any good ones out there leave a comment or drop me a line on twitter.

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

It's Not The Choice Itself Thats Important

Like most people, I get on kicks and as of late its playfully threatening to shank my co-workers. I was asked by a close coworker why I have such a violent sense of humor and the first thing that shot to my mind is, “Violence is the way to live life.”

Not literally of course; but, I feel there are two ways to live life: violent or secure (with most people living somewhere in the gray between).

The violent ones are the ones that are incredibly passionate and narrowly focused on what it is in life that they love and seek. They will take ballsy risks in persuit of what they love and are willing to give up some everyday luxuries to get it. These people either burn out fast or rise to the occasion and achieve what it is they are pursuing.

The secure ones are those that put a greater emphasis on family, security and an everyday life well lived. They also may have a passion they are going after; but, choose to do it in a far more calculated and methodical way. Although they may not create the sweeping change the violent ones create they also don’t run the same risk of burning themselves out before they achieve their goals.

It’s not that one or the other is good or bad it simply is a choice and my choice is to live violently. The film Revolutionary Road does an amazing depiction of the struggle between these two extremes in a married couple.

My Greatest Source of Inspiration

When looking back at my previous blog posts, I’ve found that I talk a lot about inspiration.

In the end, as a creative person inspiration is key to continuously moving, reaching for the nearly unattainable and getting you going. Often that inspiration will come from a related field; but, I’ve found, for me, that some of my strongest inspiration comes from outside of advertising.

The individual that has inspired me the most is the writer/philosopher, Ayn Rand. She wrote a lot on the behalf of supporting laissez-faire capitalism, the positive attributes of selfishness, anti-religion and being pro-individual. Yet, the thing that consistently grabs me the most is simply that she clearly and ardently fights for her point of view.

In a sea of being politically correct, speaking between the lines and passive aggressive culture, she consistently cut to the core of what was being discussed and eloquently stated her point of view. She never backed away from her ideals and never apologized for her position on issues. Even though she wasn’t a native English speaker, she worked herself to death writing and rewriting drafts until she produced Fountainhead (read by my most American high school students) and Atlas Shrugged which has been judged to be the second most influential book in human history (second only to the bible).

Yet, with even a figure that I so deeply admire, I still wonder to myself how much of it is the ideals themselves and how much of it is simply excellent persuasive writing?

Always Meet The Team Before Accepting The Offer

When helping a friend think of advice to give to ad students three things immediately jumped to mind. They are what have and will continue to guide me on my career path:

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1. “Start your career at a small agency, it is incredibly chaotic; but, you get your hands in everything and can learn skills that will help your later career flourish.” –Brian Collins, CEO at Collins

2. “Always plan your agency path three moves ahead. If you can’t get into your top agency of choice find out where most of the creatives came from and go there. You can gain the skills that the creative team will look for having come from a similar career path.” –Tim Brunelle, Co-Founder & CEO at Hello Viking

3. “Always meet the creative team before accepting the offer.” –Kathy Umland, Director of Creative Operations at Martin Williams

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For most students who are lectured to be choosey when selecting agencies to go after the thought is often: I wish I had that luxury.

Yet, the thing you rapidly learn in the industry is that it isn’t a luxury it truly is a necessity. If one works at an agency with a poor reputation, often the creative industry will have a predisposition to think less of you. As a result, you have to work much harder to prove yourself to that agency later in your career.

For a student using that advice as a guiding principle more than set in stone needs, it can prove to be quite fruitful. In the end, I was surprised how I had followed all the advice unconsciously starting at a small agency, Rockfish Interactive, where I have had a chance to have my hands on everything including the pitch, I’m gaining the interactive experience the big agencies are looking for and before I accepted I drove to Arkansas to meet the team.

My advice as a young art director is: “Never underestimate anything. Do what you want and prove yourself the most on the 'throw away' projects, they are what earn you the clients you want to work on.”

Why I Love My Clients

One of the hardships for an entrepreneur is giving up control and placing full trust in a new agency.

When working with an agency it can be difficult to emotionally remove themselves from the way their product or service is being marketed. As a result, they can often become a micro-manager in the creative process, wanting to say too much at once or potentially highlighting an asset that won’t resonate with their target market.

The important thing to remember as an entrepreneur, is to allow each person and organization to fully bring their expertise to the table. In doing so, they can have even greater business results than they had hoped for.

That is why I love my current clients. They understand this fundamental truth, give their incredibly logical feedback and at the end of the day allow for us to do something great for them that will hopefully yield even better results than they originally hoped for.

The question is though: When a client is micro-managing, what is the best approach for helping them understand this fundamental truth and who, within an agency, should be leveraging the agencies strengths?

Traditional Vs. Interactive Agency

Will the traditional or interactive advertising agency win the battle for dominance in the future?

This debate has raged in the ad community for quite some time now and many ardently believe that interactive agencies will reign victorious. The reasoning stems back to a mixture of interactive agencies beginning to win “agency of record” posts mixed with the decline of traditional media consumption. Yet the down side being many interactive shops are relatively small agencies that sometimes can’t handle the sheer amount of work from larger brands and bigger concepts.

On the flip side, the traditional rooted agency has structure on it’s side. It already knows how to create big picture, original creative work in a timely fashion and take on the volume of the big brand. Yet the same structure can often cripple it in response to quick fire needs such as negative publicity on social media feeds such as twitter or blogs.

Ultimately my money is on the idea agencies. At the end of the day it’s great to be able to spread the word across the globe or respond quickly to negative twitter backlash; but, if there is no great creative concept that will cut through the clutter there is no point in getting started in the first place. Today the “idea agencies” tend to be rooted in traditional; yet, interactive shops are rapidly catching up to speed.

New Challenge

Although it’s late for resolutions, I thought I’d pose a challenge to myself. Last time I did that on my blog it nearly got me sued, gave my website over 300 unique hits in a day and landed me a job, so I think its worth a shot.

An Ad A Month. I’m going to produce a new campaign each month (outside of my work) to add to my book.

48 Hour Blog. Post a blog every other day on advertising, design, my work, etc.

Brand It. Redefine my personal branding and website.

Easy enough on paper. It should be interesting to see how this pans out. Check out some resolutions on this nicely designed site.

2009 British Television Advertising Awards

There are many avenues for inspiration in advertising; but, the one that seems to trump them all every year is the annual British Television Advertising Awards.

I was fortunate enough to be back at home in Minneapolis over Christmas and got a chance to see a showing of the awards this year at the Walker Art Center. Although the work skewed more towards the serious this year (most likely due to the economic climate) the work was still excellent. I have found also that the few that you remember a week later are the ones that I truly need to learn from.

I think the greatest or worst piece of a creative persons’ character can be seen when faced with obvious greatness in their field. Those that see it as a command to rise and those that denounce and hate it in fear.

Some of my favorites this year:

Barnardo’s/////BBH

PG TIPS/////MOTHER

Sony/////Fallon

Virgin Atlantic/////RKCR/Y&R

Economic Recovery?

Will the signs of revitalization be noticeable as they happen or only in hind sight?

I’ve liked looking at each agency as a mini-cosmos of the gradually improving economy and I think one of the best success stories of the past few months has been Fallon in Minneapolis.

Creative Success with Alice

Creative Success with Fizzy Lizzy

Business Success with winning Chrysler

Not a bad way to end the year or to bring a jolt back to the ad community in Minneapolis.