Bestads Top 6 of the Week – reviewed by Roger Baldacci, executive CD and EVP, Arnold, Boston
TV Winner: VW ‘Old Lady’. This is just a simple idea of turning an old convention on its head with a classic story telling narrative. I’m sure the father, son, old lady and car all have Facebook pages and you can probably follow the old lady on twitter and see which Bingo hall she checks into with Foursquare, but this is a nice old-school TV commercial that makes a great brand statement.
TV Runner-Up: Snickers ‘Focus Group’. Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I enjoy lampooning focus groups–since more clients trust the few verbatims of focus group attendees than the years of expertise from all of us. That said, it’s not my favorite because it’s a bit of a lay-up. It’s yet another whacky ad for candy and it features talking animals. Still, I like the writing and the “performances” of the sharks.
We’ve all seen print (or ‘press’) take a huge hit since the digital medium has taken off and sadly this trend is represented here. You know things are bad when a calendar is featured in the print section.
Print Winner: Since I have to pick a favorite, I’d go with First Ascent Backpacks. Nice idea but the execution was too broad. The headline is see-say and in case you didn’t miss the joke, they put it right near the frostbitten thumb. This would have been much better with a real climber who lost a real thumb to frostbite sitting in a tent at base camp two. But they probably had no budget to shoot.
Print Runner-Up: The runner-up would be Audi. Not a big idea, but a stark, clean design befitting the car.
This was another weak category for me. I know I’m supposed to like the homeless ambient idea, but I don’t. The idea comes across great in a video – by the way, can we all agree to stop showing “pedestrians” taking pictures of your work with cell phone cameras to show how “viral” it became? Great. Thanks. Anyway, it just looks like another ad talking about the homeless issue. I would have put the real names of the people who used to occupy the spaces where the faceless mannequins sit. Speaking of which, showing faceless homeless people runs counter to the entire campaign idea.
Outdoor Winner: Anyway, my favorite would be the Heart of the City rubbish bags. Taking something that exists and making it better is a nice way of making your point.
Outdoor Runner-Up: Colgate Pizza Box. This is an interesting, albeit disgusting , way to make a simple point. I wonder what effect this campaign had on the pizza restaurants since it looks like you’re taking a pizza right out of someone else’s mouth.
After talking about how weak the print and outdoor mediums have become since digital blew up, I was expecting more, well, “interactive” ideas. Honorable mention goes to Sebastien International, but I didn’t understand what his product was and didn’t really care about watching him travel across the globe promoting himself.
Interactive Winner: Happiness ‘Gift a Stranger’. I wanted to pick Pink Ponies as my favorite, but it’s just a brilliant spoof film posted online. At least Gift a Stranger has an intriguing idea, uses a website and actual technology to pull it off.
Interactive Runner-Up: john st. ‘Pink Ponies’. All I can say is thank you Simon and Andrew, thank you. I laughed when someone sent this to me and proceeded to send it to other people. What a brilliant send up with impeccable writing and production. If only you guys were here to film me taking a picture of Pink Ponies with my cell phone. This is going to be a hit with award show judges who have to sit through dozens of interactive campaign videos that follow this exact script.