Category: Cool Ad Watch

A reader writes:

The clearest signal yet that the marijuana mainstream is here to stay: fast food marketing is turning to the growth market of stoner diners.  The latest evidence is Jack in the Box’s rollout of their “Munchie Meal Menu,” marketed as the “cure to mellow even the meanest manifestation of the munchies.”  Carmel Lobello describes the marketing tactic and explores other ways in which the fast food industry has begun to embrace this customer base.

More commercials in the “Munchie Meal” series here.

This clever viral video had a lot of people fooled:

New Yorkers understand unconventional living situations, but this one is a little too crooked to be real. A documentary called Man in a Cube features a writer named “Dave” who claims to live inside the Astor Place Cube, an iconic New York City sculpture by artist Tony Rosenthal. … The video ends with a blatant plug for Whil, a self-proclaimed “brand about nothing.” The idea behind it is a 60-second technique during which one should meditate and power down from the chaos of the connected world.

Update from a reader:

There was a National Lampoon short story in the mid-1970s about a guy who lived in the Astor Place cube. If my memory serves me correctly (highly suspect for all the usual reasons), he had the gift of being able to poop a kind of super marijuana and supported himself by selling it around the neighborhood. “Hilarity” ensued.

Copyranter considers it “the only 9/11 ad to ever get it right”:

It’s not an ad in the traditional sense, but it is an ad, make no mistake— but you can call it “branded content,” if it makes you feel better. And granted, it’s a lot easier to be classier with a ballet 9/11 ad than say, a 9/11 ad for smartphones.

But, as a New Yorker, this video hit me hard. It is beautiful. It is moving. It is New York. “New Beginnings” features NYCB principal dancers Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour performing on the 57th-floor terrace of Four World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, according to Adweek. The music is part of Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain” pas de deux — signifying new beginnings in New York City. The video was posted at sunrise on 9/12/13.

A hypnotic zoom through Manhattan using 41 photos taken between 3 am and 7 am:

Copyranter proclaims that “New Zealand produces the best PSAs in the world”:

Titled “Blazed — Drug-Driving in Aotearoa” (Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand), this spot is an instant Advertising Hall of Fame Drugs PSA classic. The ad was just launched on Māori Television. These kids are so perfect, so natural — this is how you do a drugs ad, unlike all the laughably ineffective, preachy American drug PSAs. …

Back in 2011, Kiwi ad agency Clemenger BBDO created one of the best drunk-driving ads I’ve ever seen, “Legend.” Watch it [here].

Yglesias, a long-time booster of Chipotle, is impressed with the innovative ad:

The twist at the end gave Copyranter goosebumps. Likewise:

Copyranter calls it “the best insurance ad in recent years”:

Now, the [Geico] Cavemen were hilarious (especially “Therapy Session”), but this spot for John Lewis home insurance actually, you know, SELLS INSURANCE. Because frankly, this whole “let’s get ha-ha about insurance” ad movement (I’m looking at you, Allstate “Mayhem”) that Geico helped jumpstart is just getting so fucking tiresome.

by Chris Bodenner

Copyranter spotlights a campaign that he calls “the best beer advertising in the world”:

The “No Bollocks” tagline is perfect: It gives you a taste of the beer’s blue collar British heritage without cramming it down your throat, and it serves as a challenger brand positioning against pretty much every other beer in the world. It’s especially brilliant when placed side-by-side with the bad base beer advertising of America’s big spenders Budweiser, Coors, and Miller.

Head here to watch several more TV spots.

Well, not cool exactly, but powerful:

Copyranter captions the ad from Lebanon:

Not all violence is physical. The scars are shaped like the sound waves of the violent words [e.g. “bitch” and “whore”] — pretty shocking and effective.

More “Brutal Domestic Violence Awareness Ads” here.