Nike Courage

Well, I've been watching the Olympic games every chance I can get to a TV, and this is the first commercial I've seen that I actually like. It might have something to do with "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers (one of my favorite bands).

Nike showcases all kinds of athletes, Olympic and beyond, in this emotional spot. Their message is simple... their ad is complex. Split second flashes of everything from animals to comic book stars combined with countless sports icons make you want to go back and watch it again for stuff you missed. It's interesting to get a frame-by-frame by pausing and dragging the marker slowly across the timeline. Check marks galore, huh? Subliminal advertising strikes back!

Here are the athletes featured in the ad: LeBron James, Bill Bowerman, Vasily Alekseyev, John McEnroe, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pau Gasol, Ralph Boston, Ladji Doucoure, Wayne Rooney, Maria Sharapova, Henry Marsh, David Lega, Mary Lou Retton, Zhu Jianhua, Liu Xiang, Carlos Lopes, Daiane dos Santos, Steve Prefontaine, Paula Radcliffe, Joan Benoit-Samuelson, Wallace Spearmon Jr, Julie Moss, Omar Salazar, Miho Shinoda, Lance Armstrong, Kenny Bartram, Garrett Reynolds, Hasely Crawford, Carl Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Bernard Lagat, Mary Decker Slaney, Kerry O'Brien, Pete Sampras, Manfred Naumann, Derek Redmond, Arthur Ashe, Roger Federer, Elizabeth Jackson, Sherone Simpson, Jon Lester, Michael Johnson, Michael Jordan, Romualdo Kubiak, and Oscar Pistorius.

For more, including details on each of these athletes' feats of courage, check out Nike's site.

J.C. Penney vs Sears

It's getting closer and closer to Labor Day and soon all of the kids will be back in their cells. I mean classrooms. The question is: which side of the mall will they get their back to school clothes from? Department store giants J.C. Penney and Sears have released their fall fashion commercials, and both of them are something special.

J.C. Penney - Get That Look
It's a Breakfast Club themed commercial with a cover of "Don't You Forget About Me"! Cute, but will the younger audiences recognize the reference?

Sears - Don't Just Go Back, Arrive
And this, a full length music production featuring real life Disney princess Vanessa Hudgens. Nice, but couldn't they have splurged for the Jonas Brothers?

Channel Surfing: Will.i.am and BlackBerry

This segment features specialty marketing that may go beyond the usual limits of this blog.

Black Eyed Peas sensation Will.i.am has just released the video for his third single off his most recent album. The song is called "One More Chance", and there's something very special about the visual creation that some are calling a music videomercial.

Click here to watch

While Will.i.am sings at the bus stop, he does so in the company of an exceptionally obvious BlackBerry poster. Then he uses his logistic-and-perception-bending powers to grab the phone out of it's two dimensional frame and flip it around in the palm of his hand like he's cooler than a jeweler -- a fairly obvious product placement ploy that's giving this Jamaican American a bad reputation. Bloggers and news sites alike are claiming that Will.i.am is selling out by plastering the cell phone brand across his music video. People are turned off by the blatant corporate presence blaring in their faces when they least expect it... but is the BlackBerry cameo really that terrible?

First, you have to look at the video as a whole. It's a music video before a commercial; not the other way around. There is an enjoyable mini storyline... one that I find more interesting than a good chunk of current music videos' plots. Also, after a few listens the song has actually grown on me.

Next, the connections between Will.i.am and the presented brand should be analyzed. Will.i.am's politically charged website dipdive.com has attracted a lot of attention for its pro-bama 'Yes We Can' and 'We Are The Ones' videos. BlackBerry developer Research in Motion just recently announced their partnership with dipdive, allowing the site's social networking and music content to be available on BlackBerry devices. The decision was established in hopes of making BlackBerry more of a consumer platform, much like the iPhone. Will.i.am must have been thrilled about the deal -- now his fans can access dipdive at any time or place.

So, it's kind of like Will.i.am put one of his friends in the video. His buddy just happens to be a sleek wireless handheld device. It would be a different story if an artist endorsed a product in their video just for the paycheck, but in this case there is a personal connection between the two.

I love it when innovation strikes like this. Advertising in the modern age has become a difficult task, and it takes new and unique ideas in order to breakthrough and be noticed. I think the reason why Will.i.am is causing so much trouble is because he's the first to advertise in this way within a music video. I'm greeting the ad with respect and admiration rather than with distaste and contempt. Give it a chance.

Banned: LG Dare

In this new segment, I will present ads that have been banned from US television networks.
Here's one by Verizon Wireless that has been stripped from the spectrum.



Now to me this ad seemed harmless. When I first saw it I actually didn't really like it anyway. Why would you dare someone to touch something that's just out of reach of a vicious dog? If the dog wasn't on a leash, then it may have been a little more effective... And possibly more accepted by PETA.

Animal-rights activists complained that shackling up the hounds was a cruel and outdated practice that no longer should exist. They said that in the ad the pit-bulls were stereotyped as a violent breed of junkyard beasts, and that man's best friend deserves better than a backyard prison. In their defense, Verizon stated that the ad was "designed to be over-the-top, to break through the clutter and get [their] message across."

Activists Rosa Barks, Frederick Doglass, and Mahatmut Gandhi were the key players in getting the commercial removed. Canines across the globe rejoice.

Skittles: Feet

I swear, Skittles ads and related marketing content are created by people on acid (just check out their website, and don't forget to "Blend the Rainbow" on the bottom left). But just because the creatives were higher than gas prices when they thought of their commercials doesn't mean they're not good. Heck, LSD helped Francis Crick discover DNA, and once even led professional baseball player Dock Ellis to a no-hitter.

Skittles has had some zany spots in the past. Who could forget the one where everything the guy touches turns to Skittles? Or the one with the man getting milked? Oh and the classic with the sheep boys, and the human piñata, and the beard one!

Well today I saw a really weird one...



How do they come up with this stuff? And why do I find it funny?