Friday, June 09, 2006

World Cup of Advertising

Yes, everyone has it!
Its that wonderful time of year where we get to make up another excuse for not winning...


It must be said though, that the number and quality of football / footballer related ads is shocking.
Heres a brief summary:


England Album (various) - Who on earth buys this rubbish, must be the same folk who buy an updated Christmas cd each year. Terrible ads, terrible product.

Asda - Michael Owen doing his best pocket tapping. Not bad for an Adsa ad, but thats like saying that a broken metatarsal is a not bad injury.

Domino's Pizza - Michael Owen again... not a particularly well written or performed ad, but the idea is pretty good.

Pepsi - Various - The Xbox 360 tie in is alright, nice to see the less used older stars in with the usual suspects. The radio ad is much better.

Pringles - Various - Typical football ad crossed with typical pringles ad. Not bad, but not good either.

Gillette - Beckham - Just the usual ad with a "World cup sponsor" bit added. Still rubbish.

BenQ / Siemens - Ronaldo - Interesting idea of doing skills on a small podium. Gets the idea across without appearing like a 'cash in' ad (although it is).

Mars - Believe - Not awful, but not exactly good. The whole "believe" idea is a bit lame, a half hearted attempt to be a 'proud British' company; although at least this one has an idea... I preferred the more subtle "Russian Linesmen" ad from Euro 2004

Carling - Same old kickabout ad, but I like the added "post match interview" section. Usual Carling stuff

Budweiser - Lots of good ads recently, and the Mexican wave picture idea is great and refreshingly (...!) simple. Possibly the best football ad this year: Note that it does NOT contain, star cameos, stars reading terrible lines badly, bad football stereotypes, out of place football jokes, or any of the crap that goes with the usual. Its just a good idea, done well. Simple and effective.

Adidas - At last a company with an actual connection to football! Nothing amazing, but the light hearted use of Franz Beckenbaur (I know thats a wrong spelling, I just dont know the right spelling!) is really good.

Apart from a few notable examples, world cup ads are generally a time for the cash in creative not the creative creative. This world cup appears to be exactly the same, save a last minute batch of genius.

2 comments:

Scamp said...

Nice post, Rob.

I do wonder in the Michael Owen Domino's ad whether he is sitting on the toilet in there?

The Mexican wave ad I actually think is very chest-beaty.

Especially the bit where they chortle. Ugggh

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

Thanks :)

It does look a bit like they've stuck Owen in the toilet, which is where he looked for most of the Paraguay game anyway...

Budweiser seem to have started showing a slightly extended and poorer version of the mexican wave ad. (the original was less chest beaty and didnt have the rubbish voice over "refreshing!" type words.

Shame, the simplicity of it is still great though.