Christmas Round Up Part 2

Time for a brief round up of some more Christmas ads!

Waitrose

A nice idea, that seems quite in fitting with the overall ethos of Waitrose. I think it would have helped however, to include or have some kind of detail that says Heston and Delia didn't charge a fee for this ad either. As any doubt over that does dampen the otherwise nice message.



Aldi

You all know the John Lewis ad, that's why I haven't included it, however Aldi have ensured it sticks around a little more by spoofing it nicely. The idea of spoofing the ad, and the little low budget recreation is sweet, but the voiceovers really don't fit, and lose the spirit. A voiceless ad that used simple animation to show the (presumably already clearly understood by many) 'I like this one' message would have almost certainly been a little better.



Argos

I'm not a huge fan of the blue aliens, but it's still a lot better than what most retail stores do. This ad certainly does what it needs to do, makes bluntly clear that Argos have new apps and make it easy to shop on your phone or tablet. It doesn't get in your face though, which is nice. It just rolls up a clear message into an advertising style gag, and doesn't blast a Christmas or sale message at you. Another sign that the average retail ad this Christmas is much improved over recent years.



Boots

Just seen the new Boots ads today. Nice extensions of the individual stories in their first ad. The stories I have seen are shot well, and get across their gift strategy in an enjoyable way. Nothing amazing, but much more inclusive and emotive than last year's Here Come The Girls work.

Battle of The Non John Lewis Christmas Ads

You wouldn't think that Christmas ads would be ones to make me pleased about the return of creativity and connection, but compared to previous years we have a surprising range of ads based around one theme.

Well actually, it isn't really that surprising. Following the public and ad-land wide acclaim (for the most part) for the John Lewis campaign, we appear to have a whole chunk of the retail sector who have been strongly influenced by it.

Which leads us to a weird situation, where we have four major retail chains all going with ads that aim to appeal to us with more emotion. A weirder situation where Christmas ads are largely good. Plus an even weirder one where I have something not entirely positive to say about a W+K ad. God help us there's even a not entirely anger inducing ad from Go Compare, though that's not for this post.

So where to start?

Tesco

Edit: Happily having seen the other ads in the campaign, it's just this one execution where the offer doesn't quite tie. The rest work wonderfully, and the playfulness with the logo adds a friendly touch to Tesco that is has been needing for a while as the supermarket behemoth of note.

Let's start by saying this is definitely a marked improvement on what Tesco have done recently. A million million miles better than the Spice Girls debacle of yore.

The key idea is really nice, the connection of the right present with a good Christmas, the joy of finding the gift your kids are asking for with the minimum of hassle. Who could dislike a Furby singing a Lionel Richie track?

The issue for me is the way the ad jumps too much, I don't like the way it cuts from the lovely key idea, to a promotional message that doesn't feel connected to the main idea, back to the idea, then to an end frame with their usual strapline. It takes an ad that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy and blunts it.

A lovely strategic idea that maybe would have worked better in a longer format, or perhaps by splitting the promotional message into a different execution.



Asda

After what feels like years of out and out price messaging we suddenly get something really nice from Asda. Making no bones about the effort and the hassle of Christmas, but with two reassuring messages that it is worth it, and Adsa is there to help make it less hassle than it would otherwise be. Lots of typical Christmassy problems, but an end result that makes you smile.



Morrisons

What's surprising about this is just how similar this ad is to Asda. They feel like they could have been made with the same brief. Whilst the Morrisons ad is less overtly about the supporting of mums, it focuses more on the trials and tribulations of getting everything ready for that special end result. The wonderfully absurd execution takes the same old Christmas problems and shows them in a way that creates a genuine warm humour. The bit with the Russian Doll cupboard is absolutely spot on.

I think this is my favourite of the three. Although as a friend of mine pointed out, the music ends on a dominant chord, which gives it a really unnerving awkwardness on what should be a happy moment. I am surprised no one spotted that.


Boots

"Here come the g..." Oh.

This is a bit closer to the typical Christmas ad, but the little vignettes are sweet, and feel far closer to reality than the slightly irritating cliche'd 'girls' ever did. It's also a nice strategic way to get around the perception (from how I saw it) that Boots gifts are mainly for women, and are small token gifts rather than significant gestures.

Warm, sweet and funny, great work. The little girl talking to the dog is just adorable.



The Supermarkets all focus on mum, as you might expect, while Boots have gone the other way and opened up more to men. I do wonder whether guys feel left out of Christmas, always in the way or bit part players, whereas I imagine (from my experiences at least) that these days there is a bit more of a team effort. The Asda ad is definitely weaker for this.

As always, knowing how people will react to them is hard to guess. There are a mix of positive and negatives scores to each video on You Tube already. I hope that, given the usual minefield of generic Christmas ads, these will have a positive impact overall.

It's lovely to see so many Christmas ads that make you feel something, and show the season with a sense of honesty, rather than the stereotypical cheesy images we usually get rammed down our throats.

In fact, if there is one problem, it's that by all improving at the same time, it's harder for these brands to stand out than if only one of them had improved. That though, is a great present to us from the retail sector and their agencies.

Meet the Super-ad

It's not often that an ad makes a fundamental change to our society or impacts in any meaningful way on the way we live our lives.

Having seen the lasting excitement around the Paralympics at London 2012, I am starting to wonder if we can put Channel 4's incredible Superhumans ad into that category.

Apparently the ad has already been rated by Trevor Beattie as already being the ad of the year.With good reason too. It is a triumphant example of what happens when great planning works together with great creative. A brilliant idea and execution that pushes a wonderful bit of thinking, reframing the Paralympics from the not quite as good follow up, to the celebration of human willpower, determination and battling adversity.

But more importantly, it looks like it has had a huge impact on public perception and interest in the games.

Looking at the time that has gone by, I honestly believe that without that piece of communication building the excitement and anticipation of the games, significantly more people would have forgotten and lost interest in them by time the post Olympic gap had finished.

Given that the public is embracing these Paralympic games like never before, this means the ad is partly responsible for the brilliant things that are taking place:

• Millions are watching paralympic sport for the first time
• Public interest is driving media interest in the Paralympics and athletes - which in turn is driving public interest
• We are seeing Paralympians not as disabled athletes, but as athletes - cheering for them and wanting them to win whilst barely registering that they have a disability.
• People are starting to understand better what you can and cannot do/say around people with disabilities, reducing the stigma and nervousness some people have
• People are increasingly respecting paralympians for their effort, drive and achievement - turning what used to be sympathy (and maybe being a little patronising) into real empathy and respect.
• The support toward paralympians is driving conversation and debate around the general treatment of those with disabilities by people and the government - hopefully being the start of long term changes to destroy disability discrimination once and for all
• Britain is leading the way for supporting disabled athletes, and other countries are noticing

So I think we can argue, Superhumans is not just a great bit of creative work with great thinking, it has been effective too, perhaps (in a way) helping to fundamentally change the treatment of those with disabilities in the UK, and influencing those abroad to do the same.

Wonderful.

Bleeding Hell

Is it irony that offices of the same agency made this ad too?

I don't like to criticise ads in an unconstructive way, because I know how hard it is to create good campaigns, and to get those good campaigns through the client.



But sometimes you see an ad that just has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and there is little you can do but wonder how in the name of all things creative that monstrosity ever got to air.

 May I introduce you to the Colgate Pro Gum Health ad. 30 seconds that single-handedly takes advertising back 30 years. Their recent ads have all been poor, but at least they were just simple, style free ads that showed you some product and information while interacting with what seemed like normal people.


This ad though, commits some unforgivable cardinal sins of advertising.

• Let's start with the 'real' people who couldn't look more like actors if they had their equity cards held up in front of their face.
• Dialogue that tries to sound natural but feels stiled, fake and irritating, while acted in a way that feels so incredibly posed that it makes you want to laugh.
• There's the 'focus group leader' who looks like he has been recruited based on his looks alone.
• Oh and not forgetting the absurdly comic 'ask your dentist' ending with mind-bogglingly silly photo. (I actually did burst out laughing the first time I saw it).
• Additionally, as mentioned by @AJ_ay_it the stylistic approach to branding of plastering everything in the logo COLGATE COLGATE COLGAAAAATTTTEEEE! , and that this researcher should be reported to the MRS for his selling..!

What decade are we living in?

This ad couldn't feel more dated if it was shot in black and white and fronted by someone who is dead. It talks to people in a way that seems to presume they have all the intelligence of a intellectually challenged loaf of bread. If you want people to understand the facts then just tell them in a compelling way, don't break out sales tactics that would be laughed at even by Alan Sugar.

I find it hard to believe that a creative agency could produce this, an ad completely devoid of any charm or creativity whatsoever. I don't know whether this is the fault of the agency or the client, but this kind of advertising will not engage or inspire anyone. Telling the facts can be a good strategy, but not like this. I spoke to someone at another agency who said it felt so negative that he was actually thinking about giving up using Colgate. I say this as someone who has been a loyal Colgate user for over a decade, their products are good, but talking about them in this way is just horrific.

It's not 1955 anymore Colgate.

Excitement from Toyota

"Honestly, this goes down as the best Toyota I've ever driven"
Top Gear Magazine

I think it's nice when you see campaigns that really get to the heart of the product they are selling, and pull out the truth, making it impossible to miss.

The new ad for the Toyota GT86 (by Saatchi and Saatchi I believe) does exactly that.

In a world where cars try to do everything for you, the GT86 is an artificial assistance free car. A massive buzz of excitement and experience for a price that makes it one of the best value cars in the world if measured in fun.

The ad takes the idea of a back to basics car that is directly and joyously connected to the road rather than through a control centre full of electronics; and brings it to life in a way that is hard to miss.

I'd done a lot of research on the GT86 for a friend, so I knew a lot about it. When I heard the line "Can you feel the thrill of being alive, no neither can I" came on, I thought straight away that this has to be for the GT86, it fits it perfectly.  A car that is designed to push the limits and give you maximmum fun even at the expense of grip.

Sure, it's a little po faced, but it's bold, brave, and most importantly, it doesn't feel like it could truthfully be for any other affordable car.

I mean, look at it. For £25k...! I want one, and I don't even drive.
(Pic from Toyota)

Showing the car almost entirely in CG only is a bold step too, and appears well thought out, allowing the ad to show exciting driving without breaking any regulations. For a car this interesting and exciting, doing the usual boring car ad cliches would have been doing it no justice whatsoever.

If there is any justice, this car should become the new XR3i, the new M3, the new RX8, a truely rewarding piece of engineering that brings all the fun of overpriced sports cars to the general public at a fraction of the price. The idea of reintroducing the thrill of driving for real, of remembering the joy of a real connection to the road, to a public fed on assists and technology, seems like a perfect cry to start that trend.

Don't Be Different

I find the latest ad for Tesco Mobile a little weird.

It is essentially saying, don't be an individual, be like everyone else and follow the herd.

Now I appreciate not everyone wants to stand out a mile, but do people really want to be exactly like everybody else? I find it hard to believe that anyone likes to think of themselves as being just like those around them. Surely everyone, (no matter how dull or mass market in their actual choices) likes to believe that they make their own decisions and have elements of their personality and lifestyle choices that make them the individual person they are



I get that they are trying to say that sometimes lots of people choose something because it is the best, and that following the herd isn't always a bad thing. But I find it hard to believe that people actually want to feel like part of a herd. At the very least they could have exaggerated the 'individuals' and tweaked the wording slightly to make it sound less like a push to lose your individuality, and more like a push to join those in the know.

"You are all individuals."
"We are all individuals!" - "I'm not."



They've usually tried to mock the big imagery of the other mobile networks and contrast it with being down to earth; but this feels like a bit of a mis-step. Perhaps presuming not quite enough variety and personality in their audience.



The only real question for me is what age group they are targeting. Maybe an older audience with less knowledge of mobiles would feel more confortable with this message, but otherwise I just can't see people under the age of 35 feeling connected to the brand at all from it. I watched it and instantly felt put off from the brand.

Given Tesco's behemoth like position in the UK supermarket world, the image of them as the place where everybody goes, but not everyone is quite sure why (not the cheapest, not the best products*, not the best range**, but ubiquitous presence), I would have thought voicing out loud a blanket herd mentality position would be a no no.

Edit: The online is much better at avoiding the 'same as everyone else' idea. On another viewing I think it's just the middle bit that seems like it is too 'herdy', but it was enough to put me off still, even though the overall idea of grouping together is a good one.

* Personal opinion
** Personal experience outside of the biggest few stores

Simple but Brilliant

How do you launch a new brand in a crowded market when the product has no hugely different features?

How do you get people to remember your brand in a category which can easily be generic?

Change the words.

The new campaign for Stella Artois Cidre is clever. Instead of just trying to repeat the brand name, it tries to change the whole category name around the product; but as it uses a foreign word rather than a new brand name it works.

It reminds me of how Starbucks used new size names to make coffee seem new and exciting, to break people out of their existing coffee routine.

It's not Cider, it's Cidre. Brilliant. No sunny orchards, no '3 guys in a pub'. They take the European values of the master brand and create something simple and humorous that jams the product name in your head without feeling overly sold to.

After a few years of being a little lost, the Stella campaigns are really starting to find their feet, surviving the post "Reassuringly Expensive" hangover. It's lovely to see.

Stella Artois - Cidre Ad

Lovely and refreshing

Lovely Mexican ad for Coca cola showing how the bad outweighs the good in the world.

You know us so well...

I do find it irritating when ads claim to know exactly what we want (I might be in advertising but I am still a customer and viewer), even more so when they do so despite the claim being blatantly untrue.

Sure, there are plenty of people who would like their air freshener to be shaped like a plastic version of a stone; but enough to make a key line out of the phrase "If you could design your air freshener..."

What did they do, carry out a quant survey of 300 housewives and say If you designed your air freshener, how would it look? To which 151 people said "Like a cheap plastic copy of a stone... even though my living room has no real stones."

By all means tell us it's the nicest looking air freshener around, that it fits neatly into your room, it doesn't look like an air freshener. All those things are valid. But really, to imply that a piece of grey plastic is what we would create is just damn annoying... unless you have some good evidence to back it up!

Totally Awful

Some ads are just bad, some are really bad. Some just pass by without doing much, while others make you want to rip your hair out. (Those of you who have any left)

It takes something however to make an ad that is so bad that it makes me consider not buying a brand I have been loyal to for over a decade; just to object to being made to watch it.

Unlike the ads for Colgate sensitive, which (whilst being flat and direct) told a new piece of information that was interesting to learn, and were at least a bit interesting; the new Colgate Total ad commits too many sins to be forgivable.

It's flat and direct, it looks dubbed, it features a hideously bad personal trial mechanic, it has nothing to engage the viewer with at all.

The brand has a history of straightforward ads, but this is the weakest I can remember. The old stuff about 'More dentists use Colgate Total' was genuinely interesting and persuasive, the demonstration of how Colgate Sensitive stops tooth pain was informative... this just feels like being lectured.

When people talk about the internet and how a one-way monologue is no longer relevant; it is this kind of stuff that they are talking about.

I won't subject you to it, so here (about 3 ads in) is a better ad from the brand in 1995.

Comments on Modern Communications...

"The advertising ... this year had been produced in a year of economic recession. It is my experience that, in times like these, both the quantity and quality of advertising is diminished."

"All magazines must learn that good design does pay"

"It's very fashionable to knock the work we earn our living at, but it's always amazing to me that [campaigns] ever end up as good as they do"

"I think we all know production values have got better as good ideas have got scarce"

"Considering the commities that scripts seem to go through and the number of odds and sods who put in their destructive, and genereally ignorant, two pennysworth, it's a miracle that [good work] ever [gets] through"

All from the D&AD Annual ... 1976

Is This Crowdsourcing??

Lots of talk going on today about the new 'crowdsourced' Peperami ad for Unilever. It's the usual stuff for the brand, decent if not amazing, but for me the biggest news is how it was created.

Unilever keep stating it was 'crowdsourced' to save on paying the retainer costs of an ad agency, an idea put out to the general public, and the best ad was made and will be shown.

Except.

The character, the campaign idea and the strapline already existed. Created for by a paid, retained ad agency team and tried and tested over a long period of time. The only part of this ad that was actually put out to the public was the script for this execution.

Now let's add to this the fact that the winning team was a pair of ad execs shall we? Open up the general public to submit their ideas, and in the end the best one came from two ad folk... hardly suggests a response worth publicising does it? It ends up looking like a piece of tight budget cutting instead of a real attempt to let people take control of your brand.

[Update - As Charles mentions in the comments, it's definitely a case of a PR brief . However the fact it was won by an ad team using an agencies' campaign idea makes me think the PR isn't actually that great.]

Why did they (seemingly) not look at finding a smaller agency that could offer a lower cost without losing the planning and creative skill sets from the brand? How about one of the many talented non-London agencies, with no Central London rent costs? It annoys me that none of this appears to have been considered, an apparrent case of 'Big London agency or nothing', even when they are openly trying to reduce costs.

I suspect it's for the same reasons that the ad wasn't truly crowdsourced... it would have needed risk taking to change the campaign. But smaller/cheaper/non-london agencies (Like the one I work in) would love to work on a brand like Peperami; we would all work like crazy to make great work and would be much much lower risk than real crowdsourcing of a new campaign.

I have nothing against the idea of crowdsourcing, and absolutely nothing against Unilever or Peperami, I just want accuracy. If we are going to talk about crowdsourcing, can we not do so when we really just mean 'hiring freelancers' please.

Glass and a Half Empty

Sometimes there are ads that are just plain bad. Work that makes you want to tear your hair out (or whats left of it if you are a planner...) like Go Compare, DFS, etc. That's just life in advertising.

What's more disappointing for me is when a good campaign loses its way, and sadly that feels like the case with the new Cadbury's Dairy Milk ad from Fallon.


While 'Charmer' keeps the trademark decent soundtrack, this ad feels like it shouldn't be judged against Gorilla and Eyebrows. Where they were about branded content, conveying a mood and a feeling; this is a product ad plain and simple. You can almost hear a client shouting "more product" like Father Jack at a wet t-shirt contest... "That's it, more chocolate, more milk, more chocolate, muah ha ha ha!"

The poster campaign for UK advertising as branded content has gone back to the old ways. A shame, but I hope they will return to the new (so the speak).

That said, judged as a product ad it does the job. 60 seconds is too long for an idea that can be more than explained in 30, but it's a nice enough way of getting the point across; and it does make the product look good.

I guess the view on this ad depends how you base it: A decent product ad vs a rubbish follow up to those that went before it.

Let's Stop Reacting, Let's Start Planning

One thing that regularly pisses me off about adland and marketingworld is the amount of corporate and hyped up posturing that goes on. Adcontrarian pointed it out nicely in S&S's new video. [Note - The video itself is nicely done but suggests that we are all fixated with what we used to do rather than what we should do. A few slow thinkers aside we are Ad Agencies, not 'Passive Ad Agencies']

As an industry we are so good at overreacting with changes in the short term, and crawlingly slow at changing in the long term. Every week an agency says they have a new way, the future of advertising, the new media outlook, the end of advertising, or some bollocks idea they rushed out to get headlines and only sounds half decent because they got their best copywriter to word it over their weekend.

It's like Gordon Brown promoting changes in the Labour Party by talking about David Cameron being the next Prime Minister. It is a futile and embarassing ironic attempt to avoid being seen as backward by declaring yourself archaic.

Either that or it is over the top hype mongering in the name of specialism. "TV is dead" say the digital specialists. "[insert tech idea] is the future" say unknown tech firm hoping to cash in. It's the upper market equivalent of SEO spambots. "Get to number one in google now!" 'Well, if you are that good why aren't you number 1 in google for 'SEO', and why are you spamming me??'

Let's not even get on to agencies proudly declaring their 'creative led' attitude that turns out to mean the creative is first in line for the axe when something goes wrong.

I get the feeling that there are agencies out there still so rattled by missing the initial influx of digital change that they are desperate to arrive first at the next big cultural shift. They seem happy to be wrong 400 times to be right once, which is never a good style for adland. "Oh yes, we know our last campaign was totally misguided but cloud sourced augmented reality truly is the new iPad app".

This industry is full to bursting with intelligent, charismatic, forward thinking people. We need to make use of them, develop properly instead of hyping up every new thought to an inch of credibility because we don't want to look like we are being left behind while other agencies float off in their hype bubble.

Let's stop reacting, let's start planning.

Image from Skeletorscorpse

In Defence of Cheese

Contrary to popular belief, a big pile of Danish Jarlsberg is not always a bad thing in an ad.
Cheddar or not you think it is appropriate often comes down to your individual personalities and tastes. In music for edample, I can't stand cheese. In films though I sometimes find it a Gouda match for the emotion and storyline taking place.

This new ad from Match.com falls firmly in the realm of bryndza use of cheese to create an atmosphere and story that feels realistic and warming without having the Limburger effect of getting up your nose.

As a musician I can firmly vouch for the fact that not only is playing random duets with girls in music stores is a brilliant way to Petroti the opposite sex; but is a regular event in music stores around the UK.*

The style is spot on, the writing is sweet and charming, the moment feels realistic and not forced or cliche'd (It doesn't imply easy conquest ala most ads of this style), the casting is graviera, and the idea of tapping into the real stories that every romance has is a milchester miles better than the animated 'Need more men/women' stuff that no one believed.

Other than Honda's current effort, this is probably my favourite ad of the year so far.

*I might be lying.

What Would John Do?

So is the new Citroen DS3 ad good? It is musically sacriligeous? Is it cool, is it anti cool?

I'm not quite sure to be honest.

The message is nice, given our obsession as a nation of looking back and reliving our past in various guises. The sense of a car built to be the opposite of retro, against the faux-retro love in of the Fiat 500 and Mini (though I love the Abarth). Citroen doing what they have always done best and being provoking and unusual.

As Scroobius Pip says: 'The Beatles were just a band.' I love music, I can and will talk for days on the merits of genres and styles and tracks; but raising someone up on this pedestal where they are treated like a god is just weird. That said, the collective image and belief of an artist in the mind of the public is very much the same as how brands are an amalgam of views and opinions, no matter what truths we as marketers know or try to get across.

So is it right to use John Lennon in this way? Well I find it no more offensive than the Nike Instant Karma ads, no more so than Blackberry's All you need is love ad, no more so than the treatment of Elvis or Hendrix in tv shows and ads.

If his estate approved it who are we (with all the good intention in the world) to disapprove?

A nice ad, an interesting thought provoking message that is right on brand and spot on for the market. It also helps that the car is bloody mad, I love it.

Tyre'd of this bluntness

Always proof that huge media spend, big budgets and amazing celebrity endorsements don't buy you good creative; Gillette have sunk to a new low with what I can only describe as an appalling piece of work.

Not content with being the only brand able to make Thierry Henry lose his natural suave, they feel like forcing a blunt message down our throat (oh the irony) is the only way that we will absorb anything.

For fucks sake.

The latest compares using a blunt blade with using a worn tire. Makes sense in a way, though whether people actually don't know this or they are just trying to sell more blades I'm not sure.

Either way the ad is cheesy, dull, looks weird, and is so so damn annoying. So bad that I can't find it online to show you.

I don't want to point blame at the creatives or agency because the brand has suffered from this crap for years... But Proctor and Gamble didn't pay billions of dollars in brand value for the company in order to see it systematically damaged and knocked by work that would shame a two graduate startup agency let alone a multi national group.

At least the 80's stuff was full of pride and boldness in its quest to bombast us with positive male imagery. It's was overblown and American, but at least it felt like a real statement of the brands desire to keep us looking good.

The new stuff almost apologetically trips over itself in trying to mix a bit of creative with a blunt sales message. It fails to do either and makes the brand look half hearted, loud and old fashioned, like an 80 year old crazy man rambling at volume about something incoherent before falling over his shoelaces.

The agency does much better work, P+G do better work, the brand deserves better, why does it just not happen? Surely someone must see this and think 'my god this is awful'?

Spinning The View

As much as I creatively like the new anti alcohol ad by Wieden and Kennedy, it feels like it suffers from the same major flaw of all of these campaigns. It only speaks to one of the two audiences.

It tries to speak to kids and parents, but just ends up talking to the parents. Kids already know about the dangers of alcohol, maybe not in full detail but they know they might do silly things and end up having a crazy night; that's half the reason they do it.

All these anti-alcohol campaigns ever do is alarm the parents, which in some senses is worse because will just encourage the kids to rebel even more.

What really seems to be needed is something that make taking stupid drunken decisions seem a really uncool thing. This ad gets closer than most, but why not show old hideously unfashionable adults doing the same thing? Why not make kids think that being drunk and stupid is their parents idea of a damn good crusties night out?

Kids are kids. You can't say 'you musn't do that' and expect them not to be interested!

W+K Spin the Bottle ad

Impossible

I don't normally post student or spec ads but I like this one from Gevorg Karapetyan and Francis Pollara.

It's effects heavy but it gets the Adidas atmosphere spot on, and the idea of challenging yourself not an opponent is nice.

Adidas Commercial from Gevorg Karapetyan on Vimeo.

More Rabbit than Sainsbury's

Before we start, I should get out of the way the fact that I love Innocent smoothies. In fact I am drinking one right ... now ...

Yet despite the cutesy nature of their new ads, something about them just doesn't quite work for me. They feel a bit flat and a bit dull sadly.

Innocent as a brand has still not found a good way to make it's brand work on tv; which is a shame. If they ever get it right it could be brilliant.