Kafka On The Shore

Japanese ad scored by RAC
No idea what’s going there, but who cares, I find Japanese ads endlessly entertaining.

Cadbury goes Ghanaian

I don’t get excited about cinema commercials the way I used to. I find them stale and unoriginal these days, or maybe I’m just turning into a grumpy old fart. Anyway, as I was sighing my way through some seriously boring and irritating adverts at my local cinema earlier, two of them actually grabbed my attention and made me rejoice in my seat: the Cadbury (featured here) and the Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Macadamia commercials. Both are about going fair trade…Simply put, I want more Africa in my ads.

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I’m with the baby on this one. I hate marmite.

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Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm

Like many others of my generation, as a kid in the 80s, Grace Jones scared the shits out of me. To me, she was this giant mechanical head that could swallow an entire car - with me in it. I’m referring to this Citroen commercial. I would picture her getting out of Studio 54 totally off her head, going on a rampage on the streets of New York, snapping innocent necks left, right and centre. However put off I was by the diva-esque persona, it was impossible not to be in awe of her outlandish style and her growling voice. “Slave to the Rhythm” is simply awesome. Love the video and love this live rendition.

A colleague of mine went to see Grace at Somerset house last night and it seems that she’s still got it.

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“Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet”

Here’s a compilation of just a few of the Hamlet Cigars commercials that ran in the UK between 1966 and 1997.

The concept of the ad campaign was to “present various frustrating circumstances, where a man finds himself in an awkward or embarrassing situation and lights a Hamlet cigar. Lighting and smoking this cigar makes him smile and forget his woes”.

Hamlet cigars ad campaign is hands down my favourite TV ad campaign ever. I have a particular fondness for the 1986 ad called “Photobooth”.

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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

100 Plays

Jacques Loussier - Air on the G String

Jacques Loussier’s jazz interpretations of some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works are awesome. I was introduced to Loussier’s music via the very clever and very funny Hamlet cigar commercials, which all used Loussier’s version of “Air on the G String”.

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Mother

And the award for the weirdest ad agency website goes to…

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British ad agencies are known for being the most creative in the world and Mother’s lastest stunt is a case in point. Mother Advertising publishes a graphic novel in Time Out London, called Four Feet From a Rat. I’ve read a couple of issues and I like it; It’s short, dark, clever, well done and exquisitely apocalyptic.

Want to see some desperate bankers plotting a very hostile takeover of Father Christmas’s business, the pigeon lord bringing the birds back on the streets of London, the little retail guys fighting the big corporate bullies (‘Sucks Coffee’, anyone?), zombies drive double-deckers, and our very own Boris Johnson (real-life mayor of London) as an Indy type saying stuff like “Picaninnis!! If you do not release us, I shall kill the moon!”? Well, then, just download the PDF versions of all 4 issues released so far on the comic’s website.

Sidenote: “[This comic is] named after the London legend that at any one moment you are no more than four feet from a rat.” via The Guardian.

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