Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Iced Iced Baby

Let me be clear, I'm not one of these people that gets in a flap everytime an ad creative takes influence from a video/painting/song/etc. To claim originality to be the only form of creativity is a ludicrous and frankly outdated notion. However, one thing that does bother me about adland recycling ideas from other creative media is when the creative hits that awkward gap between parody, tribute and influence. It isn't close enough to the original to be considered a tribute or parody, but isn't quite original enough to work without the original reference point.

Lipton Ice Tea's new ad with Hugh Jackman is a victim of this. On the surface it's a decently executed and choreographed dance routine that nicely hits the 'visual representation of refreshment' buttons.

Irritatingly though, it has the lingering smell of Fat Boy Slim's video for Weapon of Choice, which saw Christopher Walken dancing through a lobby in an often similar way. No matter how different the ad is in places the connection is too strong to ignore.

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