Arriba Arriba! ...........................

Disclosure: My brother worked on this ad, but that is in no way any reason for the below post.

I love the old Warner Brothers cartoons, they are briliant examples of when cartoons were treated with respect instead of being mass farmed out to Asia while all aspects of creativity are slowly chisled out.

That said, they were also good at creating characters; and the new Virgin Media ad is a great example of how to take an existing character and make it relevant to a brand strategy (as opposed to just shoehorning in a famous character for creative). If you want to suggest fast broadband, then who better than the fastest mouse in all of Mexico?

I also love the use of the anti-ad; the acknowledgement that Speedy is whoring himself out for the advertising industry. The writing is mainly setting up the story but leaves room for a couple of good sight gags and a magnificent cheese pun.

Speedy is on Facebook too, bringing an already vibrant character to life even more. If they get the writing right of course... but they have so far.

My only real criticisms are really more about the cartooning industry in general than this ad, so I'll leave that for another post.

This is great work by DDB. The campaign and strategy have the potential to run and run until they make Speedy Gonzales look like Regular Gonzales (as my brother would say).

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.