LatinWorks is what it sounds like... well, not really, but I like adding "is what it sounds like" to names that sound like they should mean what they sound like, does that make sense?
Anywho. LatinWorks has been named AdAge's Multicultural Agency of the year - congrats guys! It's headquarters is located in Austin, Tx and from what I can tell from perusing their work is pretty much awesome.
I think this ad is pretty cool, too. No, it's technically not foreign or latin or whatever, but I think that it speaks to a culture of its own, that of the quintessential hard-rock Harley owner or, in this case, the wanna-be's. It is different from the other Harley ads I've seen because it is geared towards those who want to be a Harley person, but either don't think they have what it takes or don't want to do it full time. The other Harley stuff I've seen goes straight for the hard-core, die-hard, Harley-for-lifers, and focus on exclusion. On the other hand, this ad changes its tough-guy attitude to one a bit more welcoming, even if it is only until you return the bike.
Dieste Harmel & Partners is "one of the leading providers of advertising to the Hispanic community" according to Hoovers. It was founded in 1995 and is part of OMNICOM's Diversified Agency Services division. It's headquarters is in Dallas, Tx (my hometown). What's strange is that I really cannot find any other information about Dieste online (that's in English, that is.) So, I guess I'll go straight into the ads:
This is absolutely one of my favorite ads. There's nothing really special about it in the sense that it presents information that everyone already knows, but it derives its power from forcing the audience into the perspective of someone struggling with anorexia. To show Dieste's diversity I have also included one of their ads geared towards the Hispanic community.
I like this ad because it takes a different approach to laundry detergent, making it whimsical and unexpected. I honestly didn't know what the ad was advertising until the little boy appeared. It's interesting to see how the same product is advertised for different target markets or ethnicities, showing the diversity in approach to each group.
Honestly, there are a lot of ad agencies with really obscure and long names, but this one kind of bothers me - four letters AND an additional descriptor? Did they really need to be that specific? Anyway, despite my disapproval over thier choice in title, I actually like a lot of GSD&M's stuff (it even takes a long time to type the whole name out!). GSD&M Idea City was founded in 1971 by UT graduates and has been a part of OMNICOM since 1998. The headquarters is located in Austin, Texas (guess they didn't want to leave their Alma Mater!). GSD&M is known for their "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan - a personal favorite of mine, as well as work for AT&T, Southwest Airlines, U.S. Air Force, and BMW. Funny enough they have done work for Texas A&M University - guess they aren't too connected to UT...of course, they have done pro bono work for UT. I wonder if SMU will expect me to do free work for them once I graduate?
I absolutely love Southwest Airlines ads. They also portray a genuine sense of southern-hospitality that has become characteristic of the airline. Although I don't think this commercial is necessarily the best example of GSD&M's work for SW Airlines, I still think it does a good job of representing the brand personality that they successfully created. These campaign reminds me of independent films like Napoleon Dynamite and Juno, very honest and quirky.
Superbowl Sunday wouldn't be as special without the ads!
The 3 Best:
My personal favorite was the VW "Punch Dub" ad by Deutsch LA (its new agency). I thought that it worked because it used the classic "Punch Bug" game to explain that VW has more than Beetles, in fact is has "15 different models" according to the ad. It was funny, cute, and didn't bore us like most other car commercials. It was very VW, and I very much appreciated that.
Number Two for me was the very simple yet powerful Google ad by ______ (can't find it on google, funny enough.) It is brilliantly poetic. Simple, but interesting enough to keep your attention. I'm quite jealous of the copywriter... It was also drastically different from the other flashy Superbowl clutter which made it even more powerful.
Number 3 ironically for me was the Dodge Charger "Man's Last Stand" ad (usually I hate all car commercials). By Wieden+Kennedy Portland, this ad definitely was NOT your basic car ad. I actually couldn't even figure out at first what exactly it was an ad for... and that's why I liked it. Usually you can tell a car ad from the intro music or the first visual, but this one caught me off guard. It was the concession of all men - "I will do whatever you want, just let me drive the car I want." Afterall, cars are a man's best friend.
The 3 Worst:
By far the worst of them all was the "Boost Mobile Shuffle" by 180 LA. It was corny, brash, looked to be of low-quality, and then to make it worse it actually insulted my intelligence by asking me to visit the website to download the rest of the "song". I understand they were trying to play off of the other infamous Superbowl Shuffle, but come on! Really? And 180 LA of all agencies... very disappointed.
The Taco Bell $5 Box ad by "Draftfcb Orange County, which created it in conjunction with House of Usher, Hatch and Method Studio" (according to mediapost.com) was not as bad as the Boost Mobile Shuffle, but I pair them together because they seemed to be banking on the same things - the audience to accept the message because it was accompanied by music sung by famous people. Sadly, the sheer fact that you can get all that food for only $5 will probably work better than the ad itself. So, I guess it was successful, in a sad, unfortunate kind of way.
Last on my list, but most certainly not the last awful Superbowl ad this year, was Monster.com's Beaver Violinist by BBDO New York. I honestly thought that the ad was gonna go somewhere great, until it hit me that this poor taxidermic beaver was supposed to represent how WE as consumers can get better jobs... WHAT? When I saw the Monster.com name come on screen I almost felt gypped. It seemed like it was going to be a Skittles or Starburst or another Doritos ad judging by the bizzare absurdity, but I was sadly mistaken.
I honestly have never heard of this agency, although I haven't heard of many from the "list", but this one I most definitely have not heard of, even Dr. Alvey hadn't heard of it. So this blog post will mark my investigation to discover what the heck this agency actually is. So far I have determined that the agency is located in Amsterdam and was founded in 1998. There client list includes Seventh Generation (one of the girl's in my Concepting class used it as one of her products), Adidas, Sony, Amstel, BMW Motorrad, and Motorola. The agency's concept is to do a "180" with their clients, looking at the products in a completely novel and interesting way.
(180 Amsterdam - Amsterdam)
I've seen many commercials for Adidas so I am quite familiar with the "Impossible is nothing" tagline, however; I have never seen this ad before. I would never have thought to show a court with only lines and nothing else. I could see this idea being played out really poorly, but 180 executed it really well! It reminds me a lot of Nike ads... almost a bit too much to where I would assume it to be for Nike if it didn't show the Adidas logo and tag... which I think poses a small problem.
Goodby Silverstein was found in 1983 by Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein. It is located in San Francisco, California. According to Wikipedia, the following list shows many of their clients, past and present:
I really like a lot of the campaigns for these clients. For example, the Sprint 4G ads are pretty cool (I'm sure it led to an increase in google searches of "Miracle Banana Diet") as is the infamous Got Milk? campaign. The following is a commercial for HP that I absolutely LOVE by Goodby Silverstein San Francisco:
The idea of "playing with photos" was taken literally in this cute and clever ad. Honestly, it speaks for itself. I like that it took something potentially boring like a photo-printer and turned it into something fun and inspiring.
