The Society Of The Spectacle

We all know Nike for it’s punchy, full-bore advertising. From Write the Future to ‘No Excuses’ and the (literally) hundreds of others, everyone has a favourite, where it gets the hairs on the back of your neck up. So it was rather surprising to find this running ad buck the trend so completely. On the one hand, this is a very well executed ‘ad’ (at 2.30, it feels more than a little flabby), on the other this feels so unlike Nike. Sure it has great production values, but the song, the love story, it all feels very out of place in a Nike ad.

But you’ll keep watching. Some of the copy lines are great, and the Forrest Gump-ness of the whole ‘run across America’ thing is nicely captured, and overall, it just sort of makes you smile. Will it fit into the great pantheon on Nike ads? No. Does it fit with a brand that consistently delivers surprising ideas and takes chances? Yes. Judge for yourself.

(P.S – You can watch this IN 3D!)

The Internet has gone suitably Mad Men mental as Season 5, after a 17 month delay, finally returns to our screens (well, in the US anyway…). Having done a quick refresher of Season 4 this week, it’s quote easy to forget how brilliant the show is. It’s nuanced writing, it’s slow burn qualities (albeit diluted when you watch a few back to back), and of course, it’s obsessional attention to detail.

Newsweek has dedicated this weeks issue to the return of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce with these wonderful (and sometimes awful) retro ads for modern day brands. The brands that really nailed it? The ones that were around in that era. The collection shows how hard it is to do retro without it veering into pastiche. Having got a collection of vintage TIME magazines from around 1966/67, these ads really nailed the colours, and printing qualities, not just the art and copy.

The second thing that has broken this week is this weird fan mashup. 8Bit Mad Men is what happens when Choose Your Own Adventure, meets 8bit Arcade Game, meets 1960′s adland. Surprisingly, it works. It’s a hell of alot of fun, and is just another example of the devotion to detail that fandom of Mad Men generates.

Having read some of the preview reviews for the show, the quality of the two hour season premiere is undiminished. With so many questions left unanswered, and new plot-lines beginning to flower (Don & Megan etc…), it will be brilliant to see how the Mad Men evolve as the Summer Of Love approaches… (Which is nicely theorized in this article in the LA TImes; ‘How Groovy Will Mad Men Get?’)

Jung Von Matt have really been doing some serious great work the last few years, especially in using to tech to bring their ideas to life. This concept for Mercedes is another example of that quality. To promote the new F-CELL Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology that make’s a Mercedes emissions ‘invisible’, they did just that. Made the car invisible. The video above shows how effective this idea was as the car toured Germany, creating genuine WOW moments.

Another superb example of how tech can be used to create gorgeous simple stories that amaze. I hope this gains the acclaim it deserves.

Great initiative from Stella Artois out of Mother NY. In the spirit of Christmas Stella has created a rather lovely Christmas Jazz album (think more Diana Krall, less fucking Bublé). It’s a free download, cute little site, and definately gets you into the festive spirit. Get over to Under The Holiday Star to pick up your copy.

An interesting experiment here from Playstation Store. To promote the website and concept of ‘Great Films Fill Rooms‘, Studio Output and Marshmallow Laser Factory have created 3 virals. The trick is that all of these spots are created in real time. The contrast of human interaction (with the strange mimes directing props in varied directions) and the admittedly impressive digital visuals is at times pretty jarring. You could make an argument that a concept like this removes the ‘magic’ of creating ads like this, (see Brylcreem ad from a few years back), but, the visuals themselves, and the general spirit of the executions helps it win out.

Here’s the other two. Transformers and Pirates Of The Caribbean.

So over at the (recently discovered) Design Chapel blog, North Kingdom founder Robert Lindström gives us a detailed breakdown of their new work (in collaboration with Forsman & Bodenfors) for Volvo. Volvo Cross Country Travels is a multi platform experience that brings to life 25 of the most spectacular adventures in Scandinavia.

To be honest, Robert’s detailed breakdown on his own blog does a far superior job than I ever could of explaining the reasoning behind each creative decision. I want to focus on what a fully realised, and excellent project this is. Every single touchpoint; the awesomely well executed website, (which acts in it’s own right as the best tourist guide to Scandinavia you’ll find on the web), which works seemlessly across tablet and mobile platforms, to the films shot for each experience, are flawlessly executed.

The sense of an adventure is enhanced by the smaller touches of integration through the experience. The badges (see below) are cute touch that work across your digital prescence, e.g checking into Foursquare, and integrated into Google Maps as well as being real world objects, collectable in the same way that scout badges were for us as kids. It’s a little thing, that makes a huge difference to the overall effect.

This is always what you imagine a Volvo car should be doing, even though it’ll spend most of it’s time ferrying the kids to and from school and that’s some pretty powerful brand association. This project also shows (obviously you might say) the value of attention to detail in cross platform delivery and is another excellent example of a maturation of interactive experiences in 2011.

Kudos to all involved.

This is one of the smartest things I’ve seen recently, and, by proxy, one of the most inspiring. Ana Andjelic, a planner (and visual thinker – her words) based in NYC, recently scored a pretty plum gig at everyone’s super-cool-boutique-agency-not-named-Anomaly®, Droga5.

Now, Droga5 aren’t mugs, they probably get resume’s from dozens and dozens of people every day, touting there wares with varying degrees of zaniness and blandness. Cutting through that noise takes smarts. So how do you cut through?

Well, having a strong social presence is usually a good start, but more than that, you need to illustrate your value, and your point of view, in an interesting and compelling way. Ana got this spot on by presenting herself, her story and her work in a clear, and smart narrative. Her presentation lets you really get an understanding of not just what you are buying (skills), but also the personality behind those skills.

You might think this might sound like the most obvious thing in the world to do. And it is. But it’s so much harder to achieve in practice. It’s easy to get lost into a rabbit hole where the work we do defines us as people within the industry, whereas, the people we are, the influences we have, and things we do beyond the walls of work are actually as crucial, if not more important, because they help make the work better, because we embrace the very things that make us better at our jobs. Culture.

This presentation, helped me remember that. Offered clarity. Thanks Ana for your generosity, and good luck in your new role. (Sending something your way now…)

Via.