22squared (Tampa)

The long, tiring struggle between orange growers in Florida and Brazil has opened on its largest front yet... the battle between the top three American orange juice sellers for U.S. market share. Florida's Natural Growers, the Lake Wales juice processor, has initiated the new front with a brand new, kick @$ advertising campaign created by 22squared Tampa (HQ in Atlanta). The purpose of these new ads is to capture a bigger market share by showboating that its brand of not-from-concentrate orange juice comes completely from Florida fruit while other brands, such as Tropicana and Minute Maid mix Florida and Brazilian orange juice. Since consumers often worry about the safety of imported products, this campaign takes all those worries away. They're not saying that their company is any better or worse, just simply different. I absolutely love this commercial because it completely captures the idea of "freshness". When the shopping mother sticks her hand through the bushes and reaches into the luscious green orange tree field you can almost taste the juicy oranges in your mouth. It makes you believe that the orange juice is prepared and then shipped IMMEDIATELY at it's freshest state and put on the shelves. Also, in a time where terrorism is heavy in America, it's wonderful to be able to support AMERICAN brands and not rely on other countries for our products.

Secret Weapon Marketing (Santa Monica, CA)

In 1993, a food poisoning outbreak that killed four people traced back to a Jack in the Box fast food restaurant in Seattle, Washington. Jack in the Box's business came to a screeching halt and the company almost went bankrupt due to all the unrelenting bad press. Jack in the Box decided to bring out its secret weapon (literally) and hired Santa Monica based Secret Weapon Marketing to come up with a solution to get them back on their feet. In 1995, the Jack in the Box campaign begain and has been uninterrupted ever since. Sales responded immediately to the campaign and revenue continues to increase. Today, Jack in the Box has regained their loyal brand following and is the fifth largest national burger chain. The Jack in the Box campaign "Sirloin vs Angus" recently won a Gold Effie in the Fast Food/Casual Dining/Restaurants category. This tv spot below, part of the "Sirloin vs Angus" campaign, highlights the quality of Jack in the Box's Sirloin Burger by using humor and a play on words to differentiate it from several competitors who offer Angus burgers. The commerical throws in a few jokes such as when Jack says "For those of you that are not from Texas...that's the Sirloin area" which makes every Texan and every non-texan for that matter giggle. The most effictive/funniest part of the commerical however is when one of the employees says to Jack, "Our competitors serve Angus burgers...can you point to the Angus" and Jack stares at the butt of the cow diagram and says "I'd rather not." By associating Angus with Anus....WHO in there right mind would go to a competing burger restaurant and order an Angus burger? Jack in the Box's sirloin burgers 100% defeats Angus burgers as a result of this TV spot.

Wongdoody (Seattle)

Seattle-based indie agency Wongdoody was officially named the AOR of Quiznos early this year. Wongdoody has already launched two national 15-second spots this month to promote Quiznos' "Choose 2" menu. The spot below, titled "Shut up" is hilarious, short, and right to the point. This ad goes to show you that a commercial does not have to be LONG in order for it to be effective. The commercial only has 3 main lines of dialog between the customer and the sandwich machine...."How much was all that food?", "five dollars", & "shut the f*** up!". Normally it's risky to put the "F word" into a commercial, however, the way they they inserted it into this TV spot just makes you laugh because it's so unexpected and it completely reminds the viewer of something a person would say if they found out how cheap the prices were for such good food. Despite the vulgar language, the commercial is not vulgar at all...it's 100% comedy.

La Comunidad (Buenos Aires)

This TV spot for MTV, created by the agency La Comunidad (HQ in Miami and Buenos Aires), completely crosses the line . Breast feeding is something special that a mother and baby share and it provides the baby with the best nutrition. La Comunidad makes this commercial look like the baby is being sexual with its mother...which is COMPLETELY inappropriate. The baby reaches out and grabs his mother's other breast and he continuously licks her nipple while looking her in the eyes. The music playing in the background is even very swanky & sexual....something that would be played in a romance scene of a movie. Surprisingly, this commercial has somehow won an award. In 2007, the MTV Latin America spot "Bebe" won the TV Grand Prix.

Mother (New York)

For the holiday season, Mother New York turned Times Square into a collage of holiday greetings interpreting “12 Days of Christmas" with a New York twist to showcase Target's love for NYC. As you can see from the ads below, Mother found creative ways to incorporate the NYC lifestyle into the famous Christmas story.

The target story goes as followed: On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

• twelve drummers drumming
• eleven pipers piping (an oil fin heater)
• ten lords a-leaping (men in suits on stairs)
• nine ladies dancing
• eight maids a-milking (meter maids)
• seven swans a-swimming (ice skaters)
• six geese a-laying (parents with prams)
• five golden rings (bagels)
• four calling birds (hotel porters calling taxis)
• three French hens (french horn players)
• two turtle doves (pigeons on a Don’t Walk sign)
• and a partridge in a pear tree!

This outdoor advertising is very effective because thousands of people pass through Times Square a day and are going to see the ads. People are then going to associate Christmas WITH Target, therefore causing them to shop there for their holiday gifts and winter apparel.

72 and Sunny (Los Angeles)

This new commercial, created by LA headquartered ad agency 72andsunny for Nike+, creates a battle of the sexes to see who can accumulate more miles. Starting on March 13, 2009 and ending April 20, 2009 the world's largest running club, www.nikeplus.com, will add up all the miles of men and women who join an official Men vs. Women online running challenge using the Nike+ system. Nike+ running shoes transmit data wirelessly to an iPod nano, an iPod touch or Nike+ SportBand. Then, information about time, distance, pace and calories burned during a run is stored easily on www.nikeplus.com. This makes it easy for runners to stay motivated because they can set their own goals, challenge others to virtual races, and connect with friends/fellow runners. Men vs. Women is currently the most popular challenge on nikeplus.com. I love this commercial because it is empowering to both men and women...it is not bashing men or women by saying that one sex is more athletic than the other...it's simply challenging them to find out fair and square who's the better runner in a fun and friendly way. The men and women play pranks on each other along the way which gives the the commercial a very playful vibe which in turn makes exercising seem fun! By showing Eva Longoria and her MBA star husband, it gives the commercial even more effectiveness because they're both in incredible shape and people will want to do what they do to look like them.

Rethink (Vancouver)

When you think of advertising, you often think of a print ad in a magazine, direct mail, or a TV commercial and we often forget that there are SOOO many different ways to advertise, such as this ad for Coast Capital Savings that was named by Financial Brand magazine one of the 15 best guerrilla promotions in banking. The giant 8’ x 10’ Thank You card, created by Rethink Communications (HQ in Vancouver), was posted outside Vancouver’s Waterfront Station, giving Canadians a chance to write their personal thank you messages to the big banks. The card was part of Rethink’s ongoing campaign for Coast Capital Savings that criticizes Canada’s big banks for the fees they charge. Many people view advertisements as a bother and a burden while they're trying to watch television or listen to their favorite station, however, ads like this make advertising fun and interactive...which in turn makes it EFFECTIVE.

Taxi (New York)

Taxi's commercials for Blue Shield of California began in 2006 and are still running today. The commercials use disembodied heads of actors against a white cyclorama, which shows images of customers telling tales of poor treatment. While Taxi's headquarters in Montreal, Canada, Taxi New York was responsible for these ads. As an extension to the television campaign, Taxi New York launched and experimented with a guerrilla-marketing idea and put outdoor booths, known as "chat boxes", in 4 different cities that allowed anyone to stick their heads in a hole and tell their personal stories/experiences of health insurance mismanagement. People who shared their stories could then go to the website and view their own Blue Shield commercial and send it to friends. This campaign, both the television & guerrilla-marketing campaign is very effective because it really makes you feel that Blue Shield has your back and understands the problems that people face everyday with insurance companies. Blue Shield realizes that bad things happen at inconvenient times....and they're here to help! In this hilarious commercial a 46 year old man loses a tooth... but since Blue Shield includes a dental plan he'll be just fine and won't have to wait around for the tooth fairy.

Doner (Detroit)

On March 30, 2009, The UPS Store, the world's largest franchise of retail shipping, postal and business service centers, launched an innovative advertising campaign, created by Doner (HQ in Detroit). The campaign uses CGI to bring to life a fantasy world made completely of cardboard. The statement, "We do more than shipping," is used throughout the campaign which includes: television, radio, print, online and local store marketing. Through research, it was learned that many people think The UPS Store is only used for one thing...shipping, of course! In order to change people's minds, this campaign focuses on the plethora of business services that The UPS Store offers its customers. By using cardboard (the thing that The UPS Store is known for), Doner created a brand new visual style to make their point: ‘We do a lot more than shipping.'" I love this print ad in particular because it shows in a creative way that they will do everything they can to package your item safely as well as send it. Before seeing this advertisement, I never realized that The UPS Store would actually properly package the item you're sending....this ad gives me faith and trust in The UPS Store to not only send my package, but also give it the protection it needs to make it to point B safely. It was a great idea for them to create this castle only using cardboard because it creates the image/idea that anything can be protected with just the use of cardboard....and that is exactly what The UPS store uses.

180 (Amsterdam)

The Adidas Jose + 10 commercial, created by 180 Amsterdam, was not surprisingly voted as the best commercial for the World Cup in 2006. One year later in 2007, this commercial won a Gold Effie! The commercial stars famous soccer players: Zidane, Beckham, Beckenbauer, Platini, Cisse, Kaka, Defoe, Kahn, Lampard, Klose and two boys; Jose and Pedro. Because this commercial is in spanish (and I just happen to be fluent in Spanish) I am going to explain exactly what is going on for those of you who don't speak spanish. This commercial shows how José and Pedro, two little Spanish-speaking kids, get to choose their own team because they are the captains. Instead of picking kids from their local neighborhood, Pedro and José get to pick their dream team consisting of international football stars from the past and present. Their impossible fantasy quickly turns into reality and José and Pedro’s teams are actually lining up. José and Pedro have picked their +10 and are preparing to play the biggest game of their lives! I believe that this commercial became SO popular, effective, famous because in Spain, and European countries in general, soccer is not just a sport, it's a culture. This TV spot lets us in on the big dreams of José & Pedro that one day they will play with their idols and we see their dreams come true....This is a very uplifting and inspiring commercial and this is why people responded so positively to it.

Team One Advertising (Los Angeles)

Normally I do not usually blog about TV ads that are as old as I am (21) because I like to talk about current advertisements, however, this 1989 advertisement "Balance" for the Lexus LS 400, is an exception. This commercial, created by Team One (HQ in LA), was the first commercial to introduce the luxury car, Lexus, to television audiences. The ad was designed to strictly promote the engineering of the Lexus sedan. The advertisement shows the Lexus LS 400 on rollers with a set of champagne glasses stacked on its hood. The engine was then set to top speeds of over 145 mph. and amazingly didn't produce any vibrations and none of the champagne glasses spilled, not even one drop of champagne. This commercial has caused other car companies such as Nissan and BMW to emulate what Lexus did and mention the champagne glasses test in their ads. Ads that scientifically demonstrate and prove the quality of a product are always more effective....people have to see things to believe them!

Richards Group (Dallas)

The Dallas-based advertising giant, known for its hilarious Fruit of the Loom grape and apple guys, outshines everyone in the workplace in Dallas-Fort Worth. The Richards Group is now the largest independent branding agency in the nation, with 615 employees and annual revenue of $167 million! Below you can see for yourself how the clever Fruit of the Loom commercials make the Richards Group shine. In 2005, the Richards Group created a song entitled "You Can't Over Love Your Underwear" on the "3-Pak Records" album "Ripe for the Pickin'" that spoofed country music videos with the following lyrics (sung by Collin Raye):

Daddy wears his tee shirt in the cold Kentucky rain
While a boy in pure white briefs looks out
The foggy window pane
And even though his hamster died
He finds comfort, this I swear

'Cause you can't over-love your underwear
'Cause comfort ain't just found in teddy bears
There are no labels hanging anywhere
No you can't ever over-love, over-love, your underwear.

The Richards Group was genius. Because underwear is always a funny, semi-embarassing subject to discuss, they created an incredibly catchy song and music video that makes you laugh until it hurts. This commercial has been stuck in my head for years, long before I was in college actually studying advertising!

Bartle Bogle Hegarty (London)

In 2008, British Airways ran ads in the British press that used photos that were taken the previous day at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. The airline got a lot of flack and criticism earlier in the year because the terminal was plagued with delays and bugs when it first opened. The idea of this ad campaign, created by BBH London, is to show how confident the airline is that T5 is now operating smoothly. A photographer was hired by BBH and went to the terminal at 6:30 AM to look for passengers. At 1 PM a team assembled at the agency in London selected 4 of the best pictures and emailed them to British Airways in order for them to select one for the advertisement. The ad was completely finished by 5:30 PM was sent to U.K. newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, Independent and Evening Standard. A 30-second radio spot was even cut and sent to radio stations by 4:30 p.m.

Even though I think that this advertisement is an excellent idea, if something happened to go wrong at T5 and delays occurred, the ads would have to show that. I feel that these ads won't be very effective because BBH is not going to choose a picture that shows a negative situation...they are going to pick the very BEST picture and use that for the advertisement. If anyone has had a bad experience that day in the airport in T5, they are going to lose trust/respect for British Airways AND advertising in general.

Cramer-Krasselt (Chicago)

Cramer-Krasselt recently beat out fellow Chicago-based agencies TimeZoneOne and Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnet for the account for the footwear manufacturer, Crocs. Cramer-Krasselt's Chicago office will handle brand strategy, creative, interactive, online, media planning and buying, as well as PR for Crocs. The CEO of Cramer-Krasselt said that its aim for the new campaign will be to give existing customers other reasons for expanding their Crocs ownership and also to educate new people who really don't know much about Crocs as well.

When Crocs first surfaced, I thought they were the ugliest shoes in the world. After watching this Crocs commercial, "Feel the love", I was surprisingly won over by them. Not only have they improved the look of the shoes in this commercial, they also show how incredibly comfortable they are! The shoes in this commercial are made to look like little pets that are there to comfort you when you get home from a long, stressful days at work. I went from viewing Crocs as hideous to cute in the time length of this commercial. I think that Cramer-Krasselt achieved its objective to give existing customers other reasons for expanding their Crocs ownership and also to educate new people who really don't know much about Crocs. I didn't know much about Crocs before this, but now I realize that they are a luxury (even though they aren't the most fashionable shoes) because they make your feel feel great. A nice change from 5 inch heels!

Dentsu (New York)

Canon lead the digital camera market for almost 10 years. With increasing competition from rival, Sony, a campaign highlighting just product specs and features would simply not be enough to differentiate Canon from its competitors. Canon needed to find a way to get consumers to reconnect with Canon on an emotional level. Canon hired Dentsu America/New York to do EXACTLY that. The Dentsu HQ is in Tokyo but it was obviously easier to use the American based Dentsu. They chose the beautiful tennis superstar Maria Sharapova to represent the Canon PowerShot brand because she's bold, stylish and at "the top of her game". The campaign showed Maria taking pictures of her spunky dog, Dolce, in everyday situations. The message resonated well with consumers because they can easily see themselves and their families in the advertising. The campaign was used in TV, print, online, out-of-home, promotions and events. Having a celebrity endorser can sometimes be risky, however, with a beautiful, talented, and criminal-record free star like Maria, choosing her was definitely a smart and safe move! Consumers will now associate this camera with being cool, fun, and the best of the best!

Weiden + Kennedy (Portland)

Wieden & Kennedy Portland took home an Emmy from the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Celebration in 2009 for its Coca-Cola spot titled "Heist". The TV spot shows an animated group of bugs marching to the mischievous tune of Peter and the Wolf stealing a sleeping man's coke. This commercial is part of the "Open Happiness" campaign and wowed viewers during the last Super Bowl. This TV spot creatively resembled a picnic scene from many of my childhood storybooks/movies where ants would march in to steal the tasty picnic food. Instead of just using ants, W+K used a variety of funny looking insects and instead of tasty pie they used sweet sweet Coca-Cola. This pleasant-to-watch ad keeps you interested the entire time and wanting to see what happens in the end. The bugs even use their unique physical qualities as creative ways to transport and open the Coca-Cola bottle. This ad was fun to watch AND socially responsible....Coca- Cola could have easily took the easy way out and used sex appeal to sell their product, but instead the created an innocent and unique commercial for the whole family to enjoy.

Kirshenbaum Bond (New York)

This new commercial for BMW called "Practice makes perfect" is from the campaign "Joy Of BMW". Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, New York, USA was the advertising agency that was responsible for the creation of this spot. This ad shows the excitement and adventure some BMW drivers feel from being an owner of this amazing car. The BMW owners literally try to find ways to literally jump into their cars because according to the tag line, "Joy Never Misses". The creative director for this commercial was John Boiler, who actually spent 11 years working for Wieden + Kennedy and was a co-founder of Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam. With such an experienced man in the picture as the CD, you would think that a commercial for luxury car company BMW would have been a little better. I found the tag line "Joy never misses" to be quite confusing...is it trying to say that if you buy a BMW you can jump through it easier than if you own a Honda? Also, the TV spot does not make the car look glamourous and luxurious; this ad makes BMW seems cheap and for recreational use, rather than spotlighting its unbelievable engineering and beauty.

Cliff Freeman & Partners (New York)

The demise of Cliff Freeman & Partners, once a creative hotbed located in NYC, is such a shame. Even though there were not many clients and employees left at the company, it was once a very influential agency. Cliff Freeman & Partners, famous for creating Almond Joy's slogan "Sometimes you feel like a nut", and Wendy's "Where's the beef?" closed its doors in November of 2009. The commercial I am going to show below is from one of Cliff Freeman & Partner's main clients, Baskin Robbins. This TV spot plays up the chain's point of differentiation--its variety of flavors. The ad shows kids bombarding a plain ice cream truck with colorful explosions and utilizes the tag line "Don't be so vanilla." Research was conducted and showed that consumers often saw soft ice cream and hard ice cream as separate eating occasions. This commercial was very effective because it showed that Baskin has 31 one ways to do soft serve as well as hard ice cream. Why go to another ice cream chain when you can get BOTH soft serve and hard ice cream at Baskin Robbins?

Crispin Porter + Bogusky (Boulder)

In 2009, Burger King and Crispin Porter Bogusky (HQ in Miami) were awarded the Grand Effie Award for the “Whopper Freakout” campaign at the 41st annual Effie Gala. With the 50th anniversary of the Whopper approaching, Burger King decided to conduct a social experiment and remove the Whopper from the menu completely. For the first part of the experiment, they used the deprivation strategy to see how people would react if America's most beloved burger was banned from the menu without warning. The second part of the experiment consisted of giving customers competitors' burgers. Burger King launched a series of TV spots to drive traffic to ‘Whopperfreakout.com’ where people could view a full-length 8-minute documentary on the experiment. This campaign skyrocketed Whopper's quarterly sales...they increased by double-digits! I absolutely love this campaign because its very creative and unique. You don't see many commercials that utilize the deprivation strategy and by doing so, you can physically see how good the Whopper must be if customers freak out if they are deprived of them.

VitroRobertson (San Diego)

In December, 2007, San Diego-based ad agency Vitro-Robertson LLC put a big divot in ad giant Universal McCann's client roster when it was hired to handle the $80 million account for IHOP Corp. Tom Sullivan, president of VitroRobertson, apparently isn't one to brag but he said one of the things that will make it easy to launch the campaign is that publicly-traded IHOP, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IHP, liked what VitroRobertson brought to the table during their pitch to IHOP. Robertson said that a great deal of what they used in the pitch will be used in the ads. One of the major aims of the campaign was to increase IHOP's different "day parts", advertising both lunch and dinner. This commercial achieves just this because it stresses that breakfast is served ALL day AND that they also offer dinner entries.

McKinney (Durham, NC)

Nationwide Insurance, one of TM Advertising's former biggest clients, has recently named Durham, NC-based McKinney as its new advertising agency. This change has left many people completely confused because TM did EXCELLENT work for Nationwide. Below is a new commercial for Nationwide Insurance created by McKinney....it will definitely make you question why Nationwide Insurance switched to an agency that created this TV spot (McKinney)......

.....from an agency (TM Advertising) that created this famous super bowl commercial "Rollin VIP"

featuring Kevin Federline.

Euro RSCG (Singapore)

This cheeky print campaign for Nikon, created by Euro RSCG Singapore recently picked up a win at the Cresta Awards. According to the Cresta Awards website, "To win a Cresta means you’re hot, because Cresta stands on its promise of adhering to the highest standards of creative excellence and it delivers the reputation and value that top-level creatives seek. Cresta’s name is becoming synonymous with “achievement” among the worldwide marketing communications industry". The campaign promotes the Nikon Coolpix S60 Camera and apparently has one of the bests face-recognition-technologies…as you can see. This print ad is absolutely awful because it is basically child pornography. Showing two young girls in sexually promiscuous positions is both unethical and to some degree illegal....I'm very surprised that this ad was not immediately banned.

Arnold Worldwide (Boston)

2010 marks the ten-year anniversary of the country's most successful youth smoking prevention campaign--Truth. In the past 10 years, the Truth campaign by Arnold Worldwide (headquartered in Boston, MA) has succeeded in keeping hundreds of thousands of teens from smoking , saving them from years of addiction and tobacco related illnesses. These shocking and sometimes disturbing TV spots are far from pleasant, but they do show the reality of the dangers associated with tobacco use. In this spot, you can see how these ads turn teens away from smoking....instead of simply just saying "don't smoke" the ad uses body bags to symbolize all the deaths that tobacco causes. Seeing mountains of body bags is way more effective than simply just showing a percentage.

Leo Burnett (Chicago)

This is the latest ad campaign lunched by Leo Burnett Chicago for Altoids breath mints. The advertisement campaign revolves around the different explicit expressions people make when eating an Altoid. The Altoids "Initiation" campaign ("Hairy Chest," "Oh, the Shame" and "First Time") has won Bronze at the ANDYs, four Gold at the Addys, Merit at the Art Directors Club of New York and four meri recognitions at the One Show. In total, the Altoids brand won six Clios at this year's festival. I'm not quite sure that I like this campaign for two different reasons. First of all, the expressions that the kids are making in the ads are NOT that pleasant. Their expressions make Altoids look like they have a painfully awful taste. Secondly, these ads are sexually charged.....they all have a double meaning. I feel like kids won't respond well to this ad campaign because these are all situations you hope to never find yourself in.....and mothers won't support it either because they won't want to support a brand who's ad has sexual content.

Kaplan Thaler Group (New York)

This commercial, created by Kaplan Thaler Group (headquartered in New York) for Dawn soap in my opinion is a perfect example of a company that promotes social responsibility. When the viewer sees this commerical, he/she learns that the best thing about this product is that it is used to wash and help save animals that are caught in oil spills. Something so thick and gooey as oil can be defeated by Dawn soap without even slightly harming the delicate little feathers of the duckling. Not only is Dawn promoting its soap, it is promotiong animal safety and stressing the importance of being enviornmentally friendly. Sometimes animal cruelty commericals can come off as corny and overly dramatic, however, this commerical keeps it upbeat (thanks to the music) and shows how the animals are being helped rather than seeing them suffering in the ocean covered in oil.

On the flip side, many Animal Rights activists are suprisingly infurated with the ad. The commercial claims that thousands of animals caught in oil spills have been saved by being washed in their dishwashing liquid. The TV spot shows a duckling covered in oil being bathed with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Animal activists are outraged because in tiny letters at the bottom of the screen, it says, "simulated demonstration" meaning it was not actual footage from an animal rescue. In order to make this commerical, they intentionally covered an animal with paint and corn syrup to simulate oil, just so they could wash them on camera.

Fallon (Minneapolis)

Fallon, Minneapolis has done some of the most groundbreaking auto work in the past decade. They are highly respected for their BMW Films series because they set the standard for the emerging branded-entertainment field. It was very exciting to hear that Fallon, Minneapolis, is finally back in the car business after four years without an auto account. In December 2009, Fallon Worldwide was chosen as Chrysler Brand's offical advertising agency. The commerical below is for Chrysler's 2010 Town & Country...it uses a similar vibe as the BMW Films in that it appears more like a movie trailer than an actual advertisement. The TV spot was filmed in black/white to give it an old black & white movie feel and the music chosen takes us back to the 1940s. The commerical is slow paced and is accompanied by the voice of the slowly speaking narrator so that the viewier can take in all the awesome new features, such as the table in the back seat and the chairs that face eachtoher. If I was a kid and saw this rolling down my block, I'd definetly be begging mom for one!

Saatchi & Saatchi (Los Angeles)

This Toyota Prius 'Harmony' commerical by Saatchi & Saatchi LA captures the escence of "enviornmentaly-friendly" with its performers costumed as blades of grass, churning white water, trees, and blooming flower pedals. Personally, I believe that having thousands of people in costumes to represent features of the earth is a symbol that every single person can do something to make a positive change for the enviorment. If every single person does something small to help, it will make a BIG change all together. The commerical really encompases what Prius is all about...saving and maintaing our Earth by elimiating polution in any way possible. This TV spot was so effective that it earned the honor of being in Nielsen's Top 10 Most-Liked New Ads.

Publicis (New York)

The U.S. Army's "Boost Up" campaign created by Publicis New York was the winner of the Create for a Cause contest from Yahoo and the Ad Council. As the winner, the high school dropout prevention effort will receive $750,000 in Yahoo Mail inventory and is the first campaign to run in the new Yahoo Mail ad unit Tandem.I truely loved this ad because it accurately spotlights how some children are smart and want to learn but they must work just to make ends meet. Children should be spending their time learning so that they can one day go to college and make something of themselves...they can not do this when more time is spent working than focusing on school. This ad connects emotionally with the audience and makes you actually want to go to boostup.org and help these poor teeenages who truely have it rough.

T.A.G. SF/Agencytwofifteen (San Fransisco)

After three years with the McCann Worldgroup, San Francisco-based agency T.A.G. left the mothership to become a full-service agency called agencytwofifteen. McCann however is not completely out of the picture. Agencytwofifteen will use the McCann Worldgroup network for any international work. The new agency recently launched a campaign for Microsoft's new product "Kin". This documentary style campaign is embarking on a storytelling journey to answer the question: Are your friends really your friends? I think this campaign will be very effective because everyone will want to follow this girl and see what happens. Also, everyone can realate; we all have hundreds of facebook friends/myspace friends that are in our network that we don't even know.

Campbell Mithun (Minneapolis)

When you see this commercial for Burger King's "BK Kids Meal", created by Campbell Mithun Minneapolis, you will notice that the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is heavily advertised as well as Burger King. Something very cool that I learned about this commercial is that it was actually DIRECTED by MICHAEL BAY, the actual director of Transformers. This TV spot will be a hit amongst children/young fans of the movie because they will believe that if they go to BK and get a kids meal, the toy that they receive will actually turn into a real life transformer from the movie.

Mullen (Boston)

Mullen Boston faced the challenege to evoke the emotional experiece of the world's leading luxury hotel brand, The Four Seasons. Mullen decided that the solution to this challenge would be to focus on the tangible and intangible things that please discerning guests. The type of traveler who stays at Four Seasons appreciates the finer details in life. They appreciate a well-kept room, a perfectly mixed cocktail, and experiencing moments that perfectly resemble a dream. This is exactly the type of approach Mullen took with Four Seasons latest campaign. They focused on the little things that make for a unique, luxurious travel experience to create an emotional connection with the consumer. "By capturing those moments when everything comes together, we hope to share Four Seasons’ vision of the perfect vacation". The scene in this print ad looks like something out of a movie. Riding elephants in the wild is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that only FEW people will experience....however, by choosing to stay at the Four Seasons you can live your life to the fullest and experience all these special little moments in life WHILE living in luxury. Four seasons makes it easy to achieve your wildest travel dreams, and this is exactly what Mullen conveys in their campaign. I give this advertisement an A++!

Deutsch (Los Angeles)

General Motors has decided to change a TV commercial, created by Deutsch LA, that had shown an assembly-line robot jumping off a bridge after making a small mistake. GM previously said that their company was sticking with the spot despite the massive amount of criticism. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention said that the ad that first aired during the Super Bowl sends dangerous and insensitive messages, and it requested members of the public to write to the automaker and ask that the ad be canceled. After meeting with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, GM decided to remove the ad. I am very happy that GM decided to act ethically and remove this ad because this TV spot portrays suicide as a viable option when someone fails or loses their job. I am not really sure what GM was thinking with this advertisement...I'm sure that someone who has lost a close friend or family member to suicide did not appreciate this TV spot which would ultimately lead GM to lose customers for its complete lack of judgement and sensitivity.

Hill Holliday (Boston)

Once in a while you come across a terrible print ad. This ad for Dunkin Donuts Flavored Iced Coffee, created by Hill Holliday, Boston, is just that. This type of ad, where the main ingredient/idea of the product fills the shape of the product, has been done over and over again. Not only is this type of advertisement cliche/overused, these two ads do not even look appetizing. While choosing the Iced Coffee Carmel ad to blog about, the girl next to me in class said, "ewww, that looks disgusting"....instead of showing smooth, creamy carmel, this ad shows pieces of chunky hard carmel (even though it doesn't really look like carmel) clustered together with a straw jabbed in the middle. The ad looks messy and appears as if it was thrown together in 5 minutes.

The advertisement below is another example of this overused shape advertising. This ad, promoting heart health, was done by Greenroom Advertising, Mumbai, India. "Don't treat diabetes to your heart" is the tag line. They incorporated the heart into the ice-cream scoop just as Dunkin Donuts incorporated the carmel blocks and blueberries into the coffee cup.