by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Don’t you love it when intelligent people apply smart thinking to innovate solutions to social problems? If you’re like me, you’ll love what the team of clever clogs at M&C Saatchi Abel have come up with to try and help Cape Town’s needy — a pop-up Street Store for the homeless!
Tag archives: by Oresti Patricios
Ad of the Week: Be the man you want to see (Sapeurs)
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Too often, one finds that creative directors try to manufacture emotion in the ads they produce. Then again, when something does come along that strikes a nerve, and cuts through the dross, it really makes me take notice. The Guinness Sapeurs spot by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO — celebrating a Congolese social phenomenon called “Sapeur” — is a case in point.
Ad of the Week: Richelieu’s rollicking round up
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Just when you thought you’d seen all the “Best of 2013” lists and articles, here comes Richelieu with a loony parody of Katy Perry’s “Roar” that takes more than a few pot shots at the events of the past year.
#AdoftheYear: South Africa’s 10 Best Ads of 2013 (Part 2)
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) [2nd 5 of 10] And the winner is… Here is the second half of my entirely subjective countdown of the best of the Best Ads of 2013. It was a good year, so everyone’s a winner (as they say).
Ad of the Week: Airbrushed into nothingness
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) The Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper is well known for its oppositional stance in South African politics, and once again has made its position clear with its latest print campaign, “Freedom is Knowing”, prepared by TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg.
Ad of the Week: Where’s my name? #ShareACokeZA
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Since the beginning of November 2013, South Africans have been able to buy cans and bottles that have the wording “Coca-Cola” replaced with 600 of the country’s most common names. Produced by Draftfcb with Velocity Films, the television commercial (TVC) that goes with this #ShareACokeZA campaign is called “Share a Coke with Bobby”, featuring a gorgeous black-and-white border-collie-cross-pit-bull.
Ad of the Week: How to Wrangle a Kreepy
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) In an online campaign, Pentair, the US company that now owns Kreepy Krauly, has embraced the South African ethos and allowed agency Ebony and Ivory to have fun with a very “local is lekker” campaign.
Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Mnandi-licious
A no-nonsense fast food product that caters to the Everyman, the King Pie brand could retain its crown with a new ad that is fun, watchable and plays strongly to local culture. In terms of advertising, King Pie has been absent from television screens for quite a while.
A part of the South African fast food landscape since the dawn of democracy (which makes the brand 20 years old), King Pie’s ads haven’t always been this great. Previous attempts included a few “candid camera” style scenarios that didn’t quite hit the mark. But I think that this television ad is right on the money: it’s funny, it’s relevant, and it has a clever twist.
Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Satirical ads sell the Times
Newspapers have come under increasing pressure recently. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), circulation figures are falling year-on-year for most dailies and weeklies. The exception is, of course, the so-called ‘vernacular press’, with titles like Isolezwe holding firm despite economic pressure.
English and Afrikaans papers have to increasingly compete with digital, and at this stage many of them are in a fight for their lives. Lowe CT, agency for Independent Newspaper’s Cape Times, has produced a spunky radio ad campaign that does a great job (using humour) to market its brand.
Imagine getting people like Helen Zille, Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema to read news articles about themselves. Well, of course, that’s not going to happen, but with the help of impersonators, you can create the desired effect.
The choice of news article is key, and part of the humour is in hearing these voices referring to themselves in the third person. That, and the fact that these impersonators are really top-notch.
Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – you keep your eyes on the road
Mercedes Benz has developed yet another pioneering, high-tech innovation, aimed at improving road safety. Studies show that around one quarter of all serious motorway accidents are attributable to sleepy drivers in need of a rest, meaning that drowsiness causes more road accidents than drinking and driving.
This latest piece of computing wizardry works on several levels to analyse a driver’s behaviour in order to detect if they are getting sleepy at the wheel, and then sound an alarm that brings their attention back to reality.
Of course, just showing this technology would probably induce sleep in today’s low attention-span TV audience, so ad agency Net#work BBDO came up with an amusing take on two ‘Walter Mitty’ type characters. The first features a good looking executive type, who catches his own reflection in the mirror while driving. He’s clearly in love with himself, as each time he looks in the mirror, his gaze lingers a little longer.
The music, a Sinatra/Perry Como-style song (created for the ad by Pulse Music New York) that harks back to the sultry lounge-lizard era, is a ballad about “You’ve either got it or not,” – something that this driver seems to think is the case.
As his hand reaches up to run his fingers through his hair, and you’re about to snarl “Keep your eye on the road,” a loud beeping snaps him back to reality. It’s a reality that is a bit of a shock, because now we see that he is, in fact, balding, and maybe slightly older than the ‘mind’s eye’ picture that we previously had of him. The beeping sound was, of course, the Mercedes Benz Attention Assist technology, that picked up the fact that the driver wasn’t paying enough attention to the road, and quickly brought him back to reality.
The byline is: “‘When your mind wanders, ATTENTION ASSIST brings it back.”