Category: Cool Ad Watch

And creepy as well, intentionally so:

Rusty Blazenhoff captions:

Think! is a driving safety campaign created by Leo Burnett London for UK’s Department for Transport. “Pub Loo Shocker” is the latest ad in the campaign and it aims to bring light to the problem of drunk driving, in a very shocking way. In the ad, young men (actors) are shown going to a pub’s bathroom and washing their hands, only to be startled when the bathroom’s mirror smashes in front of them and woman’s bloody (mannequin) head smashes through (as if she was involved in a car accident).

Copyranter explains:

Prostitution is legal in Argentina. But it is basically unregulated and unprotected. So recently, a national sex workers union launched a sly street art campaign in Buenos Aires. Around the corner from the sexy fantasy image was the reality, and a startling statistic. Copy translation: “86% of sex workers are mothers. We need a law to regulate our work.”

Copyranter chokes up a little:

The goddamn Brits know how to use emotion to sell products, don’t they? Remember this amazingly moving commercial for Robinsons fruit drinks from last month? This time, we visit some wonderful European town, a town infinitely more wonderful than where you or I live. In this town lives a wonderful elderly gentleman and his wonderfully cute, obedient doggie. They are soulmates on a daily mission.

With these mini-story types of commercials, the introduction of the product often ruins the vibe. Not so with these two spots which are executed exquisitely. Almost makes me want to get back into advertising.

Why would you when you can get into the fantastic new kickass world of fucking awesome sponsored content.

A national tour of hot dogs:

Hot Dog & the City from uji films on Vimeo.

A PSA for child abuse designed to only be visible to children in the presence of adult abusers:

(Hat tip: Andrew Liszewski)

IBM created a stop-motion video by manipulating and filming individual atoms:

Alex Knapp explains the significance of this technology:

Okay, so scientists can animate atoms. While that’s intrinsically cool, why does it matter? Well, it matters because these techniques can be applied to practical technologies. For example, use of a scanning, tunnelling electron microscope enabled scientists to store a bit of computer data into only 12 atoms last year. On your computer, it takes about 1 million atoms to store that data.

Copyranter contextualizes this “Some Things Can’t Be Covered” PSA from Saudi Arabia:

The World Economic Forum 2009 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 131st out of 134 countries for gender parity. (The US ranked 22nd.) All Saudi women are “guarded” (owned) by a male (father, brother, or husband). Not surprisingly, most domestic abuse is not reported. So, depending on where it’s running, this ad for the King Khalid Foundation is important news.

Well, not exactly cool, but powerful:

Copyranter wonders if it’s “the best gun control commercial ever produced.”

A schmaltzy but powerful project in self-perception:

Longer version here. Update from a reader:

The first problem, clearly, is that the artist knew the intent of the project (and no doubt was being paid handsomely by Dove).  That’s strike one.  What’s more, in every case he knew whose face he was drawing, be it “I” or “she”.  That’s strike two.  Strike three is that the artist couldn’t help but be influenced by the varying tones used to convey, on the one hand, mild self-criticism and, on the other, a warm admiration for others’ features.

Sorry if I seem cynical about this whole thing.  There may in fact be both a really interesting and a really poignant story to be told here about self-image.  But, for that to happen, you’d need a legitimate study.

Kmart, of all places, gets a South Parkian edge: