MAR/APR AD PICKS

Welcome to March/April's Ad Picks.

I don't know about you, but I've smiled at many people under my mask, then you realise you're wearing a mask and wonder what you actually look like. I love this image from Colgate toothpaste, it captures all the the smiling emotion through the eyes like you're there with them.

Newspapers are known to go up in flames quickly and some fires have even been sparked by them. This brand created the 'fireproof newspaper', a simple but effective product demostration helped share the message.

What a fantastic packaging idea 'The dissolving bottle' for this shampoo, no plastic, the soap is the bottle. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Dove describe this inspiring campaign better than I ever would, making stock more inclusive.

Dove is partnering with women & non-binary individuals everywhere to create Project #ShowUs, a collection of 10,000+ images that offer a more inclusive vision of beauty for all media & advertisers to use. 

Check it out here.

You forget how lucky we are being in Australia. When COVID has locked us down a few times, there's always masks available. In Colombia they don't have this option, so this plastic bottle brand has showed people in these simple steps how to transform their bottles into their own masks. 

It's simple, clever and will save lives.

CAMPAIGN BRIEF AWARDS 2021

Last week we picked up Best of Year, TV single at the Campaign Brief Awards 2021 for our work for Road Safety Commission 'Yeah, Nah'. A big win and a massive team effort by everyone at Gatecrasher and the fantastic team at RSC.

Read about it on Campaign Brief WA.

JAN/FEB AD PICKS

Welcome to 2021.

I always find Christmas ads are over shared, so I skipped December Ad Picks. The good ones went viral and you would have seen them. The bad ones can stay in their Christmas crackers.

It's a strong start to the year, with the first few from the Super Bowl.

I'm a dad of a nearly 2 year old and this ad has really hit home for me from Huggies touching upon a lot of those perfectly timed moments. From what I've seen online, it's got their target market hooked like me.

The Jason Alexander Hoodie for Tide is very simple and effective. The printed face on he hoodie changes throughout the ad as the teen keeps wearing it as he keeps getting it dirtier and dirtier.

'Imagine if Alexa had a human body' they'd say getting the client excited on the concept. 

It's a very well cast and directed spot for the Alexa Amazon device. I've watched it a few times and it makes me laugh, the jealous husband adds a nice touch.

Sport has gone crazy with sponsorship selling every placement under the sun. With so many logos it's hard to stand out.

Rexona deodorant have knocked out the competition with their tick logo under the cricket umpire's armpit for the recent Big Bash T20 tournment. When the umpire gave a wicket (finger up) or a six (2 arms up in the arm) you see this perfectly placed logo. 

I actually saw it whilst watching the Big Bash before this case study video showed up. It's a 'six' from me.

Flybuys is an Australian loyalty scheme for grocery shopping, airlines and other items too. People love getting points and discounts.

This new spot takes a sometimes boring space and makes it cool. It reminds me of Mike Skinner from the Streets song.

Do you 'give a flybuys?'

See you for March/April Ad Picks soon.

OCT/NOV AD PICK

Welcome to October/November's Ad Picks. I've been saving up ads for my blog over the last 2 months to share; these posts are now becoming every other month to give you more content.

A simple illustred ad, that's much bigger than an ad. It's a simple signal for those who need help from domestic violence, who can't ask for help. It's worth sharing, you could save someones life.

I love this Japanese ad. It is a beautifully crafted illustration to sell combs. I don't know what it says, but I don't care. Keep it simple, stupid.

This next ad hits a great insight, if you're watching a movie at home and you're doing something else (usually on your phone) at the same time, you always seem to miss the key scenes and the execution backs it up.

In this scenario a man is trying to iron a shirt, but keeps missing the key dying scene. It's played out by the actors in the scene with them reacting to him as if he's an annoying director. 

Now Amazon's Alexa can rewind the TV for you too. Brilliant.

Calm have recruited Joe Marler (England Rugby Union Prop) to share this message, at first you think it's just a nice graphic approach to what he's talking about, until you go back over the timeline to see the encrypted message. A clever use of YouTube.

Sony Playstation's remote graphics are their USP, so who else could do this clever ambient idea changing up some of the London Underground signs? It's a shame they're running when the UK is in massive lockdown again, but it seems to be getting some well deserved exposure online.

See you next month for my Christmas edition.

AUG/SEPT AD PICKS

Welcome to August/September Ad Picks. In these last two months there's been some of the best future award winning ads I've seen this year. So here's my picks.

Tourism New Zealand have created a walkthrough game to show off the amazing NZ. The craft is sensational and it's nice to see some real perspective shots in a tourism campaign (not another drone shot).  

It's a good structure to show off a lot of other assets and existing content that's on their website too.

I just wish it was a real game, that you could actually play.

This ambient campaign for KFC, 'you won't ever find 2 identical tenders' made me smile. I hope this was plastered along a whole street near a McDonalds.

I wish my commute to work on the train was this fun. This ad for Adobe Photoshop has some lovely details showing off the amazing artwork created in a virtual world being brought into our real world. The music track tops it though.

This next ad from Saatchi and Saatchi Australia is breathtaking in how this was achieved. I met this creative team on a course in Sydney last year and I'll take my hat to them; this is one of those ideas you really wish you'd done. This will be cleaning up award shows when everything is back to sort of normal.

I'll leave you this month with an actor who has never aged, Paul Rudd. Telling you to wear a mask, but in the most engaging way possible.

I hope you enjoyed reading my AdPicks, please share it with a friend or colleague if you liked it.

NEW WORK - PERTH ZOO

The West Australian newspaper brought back its popular 'Best in the West' creative competition, after its last outing in 2012. The brief was simple, showcase how good press advertising can be. Here's our concept for Perth Zoo. 

We didn't win, but it was a fantastic competition with some clever press ads. Rare won, congratulations.

JUNE/JULY AD PICKS

The last couple of months have gone super fast, so I've merged June and July's Ad Picks. Enjoy.

This first spot has the best music track I've heard for ages on an ad. It feels like a Wes Anderson spot, rather than tucking away the brands hero yellow colour, bringing it to the forefront. It's a different perspective from previous AA car breakdown cover ads and I love it.

This print campaign is beautifully simple. Not need for any explanation. I'm sure we'll see it popping up a lot on the awards circuit over the next year.

Paddy Power ads always make me laugh and this is another good one. If you saw how Liverpool fans celebrated when they won the title during COVID, it was crazy. 

They put fans in human hamster wheels, to keep them social distanced. I love the guy celebrating with his beer and getting absolutely covered in it.

I enjoyed the tone in this next one for KFC France. Our deal on Tuesday is so good, you won't want to eat much the day before. I would like to know if anyone took them up on their other offers.

I'll leave you with this cute spot for London Zoo. A lot of the zoo's are struggling for funding without people attending and their running costs are still the same. The zoo enlisted some famous British comedians to voice the animals to spread the messaging in a positive and engaging manner.

Bill Bailey was my favourite (the monkeys hair helped with it a little too).

I hope you enjoyed this months Ad Picks, see you next month.