advertising archives

I love these new commercials for the 2012 Kia Optima with Blake Griffen. I can’t remember the last time I saw an NBA player do so well in a commercial. Somehow Blake Griffen is able to give a performance that fits the overall mood of the commercial perfectly. So if Fantasticnous is tied up in someone’s basement I’m pretty sure Kia came and kidnapped it from that basement and has unleashed it in this fantasticly brilliant campaign. Enjoy™

SOURCE: 2012 Kia Optima Blake Griffin Commercial “Easy to Fold” (by KiaMotorsAmerica)

posted by shane on Wednesday, Feb 01, 2012

“Great ideas can’t be tested.
Only mediocre ideas can be tested.”
Legendary advertising icon George Lois, from the t-shirt series
The Ten Commandments of George Lois.

posted by jason on Tuesday, Mar 30, 2010

Great piece of emotional advertising from the UK.

posted by rick on Friday, Feb 26, 2010

Interesting examples today of innovative internet advertising. In this economy™, companies are finding ad space on the cheap, and Vitamin Water and Apple have two similar but very different approaches:



On ESPN.com today, Vitamin Water has 5 ad spaces for their “Great Debate” campaign pitting LeBron against Kobe. Too bad these ads aren’t as good as their TV ads (“You can’t check him!”), and not nearly as awesome as Nike’s Jim Henson throw-back (“whooo!”). Each ad by itself looks fine, but the 4 ads together overwhelm the page and is uninspired and tired, if not annoying.



Apple, on the other hand, took over NYTimes.com today with a totally different approach. They’ve got 3 ad spaces here, and each ad interacts with each other. The PC and Mac characters point up to the bar graph, and the Hair Growth Academy guys start pitching in with their opinions mid-way. They’re clearly having some fun here, and employing a much more interesting and engaging experience.

Apple clearly takes the cake on this one, and my guess is they’ll see a better return on those ad dollars as viewers’ eyes stay on their ads for longer and that little Apple logo gets burned ever so deeper into our brain matter.

posted by jason on Monday, May 18, 2009

Motrin provokes mommy bloggers with an insensitive ad, gets nailed on twitter, removes the ad and issues and apology, and it all happened over the weekend. The best part – when a few bloggers contacted the advertising company, they had never heard of twitter and were totally clueless as to the online backlash.

Sounds eerily similar to a few of the ad agencies we’ve worked with..

posted by jason on Monday, Nov 17, 2008

Continuing the rash of content today.. KayaKing jumbo peanut ad.

posted by jason on Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008

Sony Walkman advertisement via adgoodness

posted by kaleb on Monday, Sep 15, 2008

I just watched an ad before an ad

I know TV is all about advertising, and what with DVRs all the rage these days, TV studios are scrambling to figure out how to make money. Hulu.com seems to be getting it right, with totally unobtrusive ads that don’t get in the way of watching TV. But on NBC.com, home of one of the founding studios behind Hulu, totally obtrusive and irrelevant ads litter the site like the offerings my neighbor’s little dog left in my yard before he mysteriously disappeared. I even had to watch an ad before I watched one of the new Olympic-themed ads for the Office.

Yes, I had to watch an ad before watching an ad.

I have to think NBC is getting paid way more for ads on full episodes of the Office than the small annoying ones they show before ads of the Office. Taking 8 minutes out of my half hour to show ads is one thing – taking 20 seconds before a 30 second ad is another. Is NBC a little too focused on making money?

Perhaps they are falling victim to a classic blunder – target fixation. Being so focused on an end goal can make you forget to pay attention to what’s happening around you, and what you might be doing that is detrimental to achieving your goal. Oftentimes target fixation can result in actually colliding with the target (not applicable to archery).

How could NBC fix things up? Maybe NBC.com doesn’t have to generate revenue on its own, maybe it can simply advertise NBC’s core business of making good television. Or maybe following a simple rule can help us all avoid a similar fate: paying attention to our surroundings and how our work is effecting people. Does NBC know their website reminds me of my backyard?

Do you know how your work is being perceived? How many people has your product alienated today?

posted by jason on Monday, Aug 11, 2008

posted by john on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008

Speaking of Contextually Unaware Advertising:
The ad on the bus reads: “If you don’t have GIO Third Party Property Insurances, we suggest you don’t hit this bus.”
(via etre)

posted by sam on Thursday, Nov 08, 2007

Jeep parking spaces.
Chris’s car could never do this.

posted by jason on Monday, Oct 29, 2007

posted by jason on Monday, Oct 22, 2007

Very cool ad interaction you point out below, Jason. Make sure you turn the sound on (if trumpeting elephants won’t disrupt your neighbor).

posted by ted on Sunday, Sep 16, 2007

Fun and relevant integration of ads in this Gamestop.com XBox 360 page screenshot (full size). Ads don’t always have to be annoying. This is a huge full page ad, with nice integration in the top banner, but it’s relevant to the audience and for NASCAR fans it’s exciting to see the new game released. What’s more, when the page is scrolled, the side background ads don’t lose their meaning. Similar integration on the homepage and Nintendo DS pages. Well done.

posted by jason on Thursday, Aug 02, 2007

Great ad for Sony’s PSP. Via ibelieveinadv.

posted by jason on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007

posted by jason on Thursday, Dec 14, 2006

“I can be humble, but I can’t be quiet.”
Yao Ming, from a string of surprisingly well-designed (and worn) Reebok ads, via one of my new favorite blogs, I believe in adv

posted by jason on Saturday, Oct 28, 2006