At least he's trying. Spitzer's second ad.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFZqtGAzTA] Gosh I wish Elliot Spitzer could run ads from now till 2014.

I'm not sure this is a great ad, not even sure I like it, but at least the guy (well probably Jimmy Siegel) is trying.

What I like about this ad is it doesn't hit you over the head with it's message, doesn't feel the need to fill the quiet space nor pump you full of talking points. It keeps you waiting, and doesn't reveal itself till the end and even then, it doesn it with a crinkled newspaper headline. I really appreciate that they trusted their concept.

I'm not sure the music is right, but again, think of how this ad vould have gone: Elliot Spizer has spend a career going after Wall Street... Blah... blah.. blah... Instead of the usual talking points, they engage you with a reveal, and let your imagination fill in the rest (gosh, he has been a thorn in Wall Street's side) to my mind that's worth a 1000 talking points.

A Bridge too far....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTZMTTcvTm8 Wow that's a lot of production values for a political ad.  I love the pledge zombies concept, too bad the creators of the ad seem to not know what to do with it. There's this big build up, then you have what's a pretty standard political ad. Seems like there are two ads in here, a concept spot about "Pledge Zombies" and a standard to camera ad about the Pledge and why it's bad for business.

The concept ad could be hilarious, imagine a standard political ad with the pledge zombie, meeting voters, working at their desk, with their family.  (I can see it in my head, it's pretty funny there at least.) In this ad, it feels like it's wasted, there's no payoff to the concept, so why go through all that work?

The failure of this ad isn't from a lack of creativity or execution, both are very good, but a lack of courage on the part of the consultants (or the candidate) to follow through with a brilliant concept. They came up with something interesting, and instead of playing it, trusting the concept to deliver the message, they go half way, so the ad is neither a good concept ad or a good political ad. (Ok, it's actually a pretty good political ad, that was a little harsh, it's just aspires to be something more, and it fails in that aspect.)

I remember reading a book when I was younger, "A Bridge too Far," by Cornelius Ryan. It a historical account of the the audacious allied plan to end the war, by capturing a series of five bridges behind enemy lines and  opening up a northern route into Germany.  Despite all sorts of problems, the Allies captured four of the five bridges, prompting General Montgomery to proclaim it a success, and others to say, they went "a bridge too far."

This ad is like Operation Market Garden (the name of the plan in the book), four of five bridges isn't actually a success, judged by the standards it has set up, it's a failure, which is too bad because it's so close to being awesome.

What more do you want?

If you follow my twitter feed, I mentioned how much I loved this ad. I was going to leave it at that, but a friend of mine has been encouraging me to blog more (guess they don't follow Twitter), so here goes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDGrfhJH1P4

I loved this ad.  First of all it's a great execution of a good concept. The production values are top notch, but more than that, they really trust the concept, going all the way, and allowing the concept to speak for the brand.  They show the values of the Guardian rather than have a narrator who tells you, "The Guardian, the whole picture -- our voice and yours..." or some other bullet point.

The details are nicely done as well from the copy (the police raid yelling "little pig, little pig let us in") to the way they inter-weave the story between web, headlines, user commentary, to the graphics -- seriously this is top notch stuff.

Also, its both telling a compelling story, but maybe more importantly a familiar story with a twist. Using the three little pigs is a clever way to spiral out a story we've all seen before -- the crime, the commentary, the reaction and counter-reaction, the eventual fallout to larger issues.

Storytelling.

Show don't tell.

Great execution.

What more do you want from an ad?

Guilty pleasures

We all have them, those movies or TV shows that we enjoy even though they're maybe a little goofy or silly.  We know we shouldn't enjoy them as much as we do, but we enjoy them anyway. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNEvpRGwMT0&feature=player_embedded]

I enjoyed this ad immensely, though it's effectiveness comes down to the the simple fact: How much viewers believe it and how much they care?

They really went for it, the concept is clever though not a new one, but the execution is pretty tight, and they really stick with it through the entire video.  That's what separates a video like to to one that starts with a good concept but quickly veers off into political speak or message. This video never breaks the concept to make the point, it stays on-message but also in character.

Now my quibble is the message, "Joe & O" is catchy, but is attacking Machin for being Obama really going to work in two years from now?  There's something that feels petty to me about the message, I can't quite put my finger on it.

Still, the video made me smile. They carried the concept all the way even into the usual disclaimer language at the end. Nice job, pisses me off, but nice work.

Now this little piggie

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnxn_3w1rYo&feature=player_embedded] This one is pretty good. It's 1:30 so it's not a TV which is too bad, hopefully they can cut it down to :30 because I think it's devastating. Especially given Quayle's overly ernest ad that I reviewed last week.

Here's a great example of trusting the concept. Think of all the ways they could have screwed this up, too many CG's, trying to put to much wonky stuff in there, instead the humor is organic to the situation.  Great job.

Sometimes the best ads

Come while you're watching TV. The summer months are where I watch the least TV, and I realized today that I was missing seeing the ads I usually catch on prime time.  Tonight watching a re-run of one of my favorite Next Generation episodes, I caught this ad: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s]

Maybe it's because I'm a dad, but I loved the simplicity of this ad. I'm not sure it'll make me buy a subaru, but I enjoyed the story telling, the way is sucks you in with the unexpected, even the punchline isn't overdone. In fact one of the things I really appreciate about the ad is the acting is well done both by the dad and the young girl, it's not overplayed.

It's also the kind of ad that plays well on paper. One thing I've learned with concept ads is this: If it doesn't work on paper, it won't work on the screen.

BTW, the ad also follows Dan Heath's three rules that I listed in this post.