Bestads Top 6 of the Week reviewed by Roger Baldacci, ECD, Arnold Worldwide, Boston

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Winner: Smart Car – Facelift. As always, a simple idea executed simply always does the trick for most judges and me. The only problem I have with this Smart Car advert is that the hideous face-lift models actually look better than the new Smart Car. I do have some questions for the productions folks. Did you use some CG or did you actually cast for people with botched face-lifts and how much would you have to pay them to admit they have ugly faces on national TV? Just curious. Runner up: Arcor Auction Guy While I generally hate uber-hyperbole spots like this one (and every Axe commercial ever made), I give this a nod as runner up because it features hot women. (also like every Axe commercial ever made.)

I think the print category should be renamed forever to: “Nobody Does Real Paid Print Anymore So Young Creatives And/Or Aging Creative Directors Seek Out Scam Work To Win Awards to Build And/Or Maintain Their Creative Reputations”. A bit cumbersome, I know. Sao Paulo Jewish Film Festival. Really? Selling Bonjela teething gel to moms by promising to stop the pain now because your kid will have a lifetime of pain and humiliation ahead of them. Really? A quick visit to Bonjela’s website and you’ll find that the tone of the site does not match the cheekiness of this spread ad. Winner: Children’s Defense Fund. Simple idea, but I think they should have used a school-aged kid to talk about how “early education” cuts can have an impact later in life. Runner-up: The other ad that seemed the least scamtastic was 3M.

Three of the six outdoor choices have a case video featuring a public stunt and then show everyday people (not agency staffers) filming the stunt with their cell phones because they were so amazed by the brand’s innovative ways to write code and build motherboards. In fact, if I see one more case video showing people filming the “viral stunt” on their camera phones, I will shoot myself. And I will film it and call it The Shoot Shoot. And the case video will show everyday people (not agency staffers) filming it because they were so amazed (and likely delighted) at my innovative new way to brand my death. I will then put the video on a truck, and if you tweet the Shoot Shoot truck (Shoot Shout Out) to come to your location, you can see what it would be like to shoot yourself using facial-recognition technology and something with Google maps. The best of these videos would be uploaded to the Shoot Shoot Facebook sapplet contest where makers of the video that got the most votes would win a replica of the Smith&Wesson gun used in the actual Shoot Shoot.

In other words, I think they should be in a different category called Experiential. Of the remaining non-technology driven outdoor, my favorite would go to the True Blood board although I’m skeptical that the “courageous” local underwear company would sign on for it. I don’t have a runner up because I can’t comment on the totally awesome Jack poster because it came from my agency and I don’t dig the China Environmental Protection Foundation piece.

Winner: Samsung Smart Park – Once you allowed the Facebook app, this was simple, engaging, fun and well executed. All of which are great attributes for any brand to be associated with. While using your Facebook data, images and friends isn’t entirely new, this was well produced. For runner up I went with Intel: Me the Musical as it was mildly amusing but I don’t think it lived up to their previous effort: The Museum of Me.