Mark Wanczak

That Old Spice “I’m on a horse” ad? Excellent. Widely hailed as superb. But no amount of praise equals having your work turned into a folk song:

If you can’t quite see it, the copy on the garage door reads, “*Toyota Owners Only.”

Via

Dodge’s (W+K) original Super Bowl ad:

Women’s response:

I think the original ad is incredibly well-written, but understand the backlash from those offended by the spot. It’s easy to criticize via the internet, but proving your point by creating a response that may be better than the original ad it targets is much more effective.

Here’s some background on the smart female minds behind it.

This Australian Match.com spot has beautiful animation, convincing copy and a catchy tune, but what really caught my eye was the tagline at the end:

“Where you found me”

Some thoughts:

It’s confident: I love the way it’s presented in the ad, as two separate thoughts, giving it meaning depth.

It’s risky: I can’t comment on the reach of this campaign, but the tagline is easy to misread as one single thought, which is largely forgettable and ineffective. Does it translate to print?

It’s simple: If you’ve stopped by here before, you know that I think simple is better.

There’s still something curious about the tagline that I can’t quite put my finger on.

What do you think?

“Better Together” for Match.com from FriendsWithYou on Vimeo.

It’s easier to sell someone what’s in their mind, than what’s in your mind.

- Dave Trott

It’s Friday, we can make jokes, right? Anyways, love this ad:

Copy reads: “Over 50% of all suicides are committed by senior citizens”

Startling stat to match a startling image.

“Epic” is a term thrown around the web too often these days, diminishing its status from “jaw-dropping” to “just another a link on Digg’s main page.” For this video, however, I’m citing the old, biblical connotation of the word.

Can’t find a way to embed it, seems to be protected by copyright vigilantes. Here’s a link to it on Facebook (big screen) and another on AdFreak’s site (small screen).

The game proved to be competitive, but the ads were not with the best ad award undoubtedly going to Google’s third-quarter spot. It’s difficult to say if Google’s ad was remarkably good or if the rest of the ads were so awfully bad, but the storytelling product demo surely stood out.

I see lots of folks on Twitter criticizing the ad for being too simple. The argument is that it seems unnecessary  to show people how to search on Google, it’s something that seems to be common knowledge, almost ubiquitous.

I disagree. Without the search-based narrative running through the ad, yes, I could understand that criticism. But the spot illustrated the nuanced power of Google, proved it to be more than just a one-trick search pony.

If you’d like to view any of last night’s Super Bowl ads again, AdWeek has an easy-to-navigate collection.

Update: AgencySpy has some info on the copywriter behind the ad, Tristan Smith, and notes that it’s his first campaign ever. He graduated in May of 2009. That son of a bitch. Well done, Tristan.

Nick Feltron has for the past few years:

Each day in 2009, I asked every person with whom I had a meaningful encounter to submit a record of this meeting through an online survey. These reports form the heart of the 2009 Annual Report. From parents to old friends, to people I met for the first time, to my dentist… any time I felt that someone had discerned enough of my personality and activities, they were given a card with a URL and unique number to record their experience.

Nick then collects the data, graphically represents these interactions and sells the results in a print version that you can buy on his site. So very cool, can’t wait for mine to arrive in the mail.