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Olympus Cameras
Photos That Look Like Memories
TV/Cinema
isadn 79238
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Nowhere Man
but used to be big in business
but used to be big in business
Fri 20 November 2009
In the good old days when clients wore shiny suits and lunch was the most important part of the working day Olympus used to do great ads. They were all over the awards like a rash. They had David Bailey in them for God’s sake, how cool was that for a camera? But they weren’t up themselves, they were a right laugh, and “Give us a twirl, Lionel” became a bit of a catch phrase as I recall.
Nowadays the clients are better dressed than the agency folk, nobody has lunch anymore, and the Olympus ads aren’t much cop. I’m not saying that these things are directly connected, but there might be something in it.
They’ve got Kevin Spacey who is a bit over-exposed (get it?) at the moment, but is still a good actor, and they’ve got what looks like a cool camera, they’ve even got a funky little end line “Don’t be a tourist.” but somehow they don’t really add up to a hill of beans.
The ad sort of wombles along in an arty farty kind of way with Kevin doing his homespun philosophy schtick, and the cute endline just arrives out of nowhere. I don’t think it’s going to be getting many awards, or selling many cameras, in fact I think it’s a bit up itself to be honest. Shame really, it could have been good, and in the old days it might have been.
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The Sun
40 Years of Big Headlines
TV/Cinema
isadn 79225
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The Fool on the Hill
sees the world going round
sees the world going round
Fri 20 November 2009
One should never underestimate the power of time. Its capacity to change things is quite extraordinary. Here we have, amazingly, a tasteful and restrained advert from the Sun newspaper celebrating 40 years of their headlines that were often viewed as tasteless or moronic, and caused outrage and uproar in their day. They were seen as signs of national decline, imminent social collapse, dumbing down. and possibly precursors of our so called 'broken society'.
Now, it seems, with the passage of time, they can be legitimately presented as part of a rich and vibrant national heritage. It is in it’s way similar to the corporate embracement of one time punk anti-heros like Johnney Rotten and Iggy Stooge who now variously advertise Country Life butter and Swiftcover insurance.
The Sun itself seems to understand this transformation, hence the somewhat less raucous presentation of their headline activities. I would have expected a more shouty affair, full of arse and noise, but we have here something that could possibly have run for the Observer. This newspaper, as far as I can remember, and despite its best efforts, has never produced a headline of real vulgarity and memorability.
For the Sun, ‘Up your junta.’ and ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster.’ are both celebrated but noticeably absent is one of their most infamous headlines - ‘Gotcha’, their comment on the questionably legal sinking of the antiquated Argentine battleship Belgrano during the Falklands war. Perhaps they felt it was just a bit too tasteless to include in their new tasteful ad.
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Toshiba Home Entertainment Range
Armchair Viewing with Altitude
TV/Cinema
isadn 79207
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Dear Prudence
she's out to play
she's out to play
Fri 20 November 2009
This is definitely a cool ad. It has all the elements of cool - stylish, yet dramatic, quirky and understated, and oh, so enigmatic. If it was a bloke you’d be very tempted by this mixture, I know I would, and indeed I have been. Trouble is, you often find that these blokes have very little going on behind this cool and enigmatic façade, or sometimes, even worse that they have very un-cool secret aspects. Like the fact that they are not actually called Xavier at all, but Reginald, or in the case of this uber cool Toshiba TV, Regza.
I’m afraid this advert just fell apart for me when they announced that the TV in question was called Regza, which just sounds like the worst sort of blokeish Australian nick name for someone called Reginald. “ Fair dinkum to see you Regza mate. How’s it hanging, crabs still biting?” You know how it goes.
I just don’t think you can adopt this kind of level of enigmatic coolness with a name like Regza, it just doesn’t work – you look like a wally. In fact the more cool you are the more you look like a wally, and that’s a shame, because they’ve done it all so nicely. I was genuinely interested to see who was behind the flying chair and the plinky-plonky soundtrack, and Toshiba is fine, and the telly may be fine, but if you think I’m going to go into a shop and ask for Regza you’ve got another think coming.
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Pfizer
No Rats with a Real Prescription
Langland
TV/Cinema
isadn 79397
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Dr. Robert
he's always on the case
he's always on the case
Fri 20 November 2009
I’ve seen this ad before, and I have to say that it is quite effective in its shocking way. Personally I think it is one of the more sensible health related messages that emerge from our tellies in ever increasing numbers.
There is an enormous amount of medicinal rubbish out there on the internet and people have always been terribly gullible when it come to their health. With the advent of some sort of public health care, and proper controls, the quacks and snake oil salesmen of old took a bit of a nose dive during the latter part of the last century, but thanks to the internet they are back in business big time.
This ad has no doubt been rolled out to try and prevent the worried well ( always the most gullible section of our society) from rushing onto the web to buy fake Tamiflu from thoughtful Russian mobsters who are knocking up dustbins of the stuff in garages in Sverdlovsk and points East.
The only problem is that this ad comes not from the Department of Health but from Pfizer, the manufacturers of the genuine, but debatably effective Tamiflu. As major suppliers of highly profitable ‘legitimate’ drugs, their pitch is somewhat queered, and one can only say that “They would say that, wouldn’t they?”
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Iceland Frozen Food Centres
Rope Trip Trick - Sponsors of I’m a Celebrity
TV/Cinema
isadn 79394
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Mrs E Rigby
the voice of common sense
the voice of common sense
Fri 20 November 2009
I don’t think that the people at Iceland have been paying attention. I saw these little sponsorship adverts when they came up on the telly, and I thought that’s a bit daft. I know that they might like to sponsor I’m a Celebrity, but they ought to have done something a bit different in my opinion. If the adverts had come through our focus group, I’d have told them, and my friend Val, who’s in the group too agrees with me.
It was only a few months back that Iceland had to get rid of that Kerry Kantona who was doing their adverts when she got caught with all that cocaine. I’m sure they were paying her loads of money, perhaps that’s why the poor girl got in such a terrible state what with all the drugs and late nights, and if that isn’t partying like a celebrity I don’t know what is. It was all over the papers and I’d have thought that they’d want to steer clear of partying like a celebrity for quite a while.
But here they are again, telling us to Party like celebrities, they seem to have forgotten all about Kerry and her celebrity parties and what a mess she got into. I don’t think it’s very sensible of them at all, and Val thinks it’s a bit insensitive too, and that they’re having a bit of go at Kerry.
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Hoping to be one. 
she's out to play 
