Best of the Decade # 6 - #4

After a brief Christmas break, it's back to my blogging. Now up Six through Four.  Nine through six were all amazing ads, but had some faults to them, as we get closer to the top of the list, these ads are not only brilliantly executed, but form and function combine to present the message in a compelling way.

#6

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U&feature=player_embedded]

You can be groundbreaking in form -- movies like Star Wars, the Matrix, fall into this category.  New technology, new ways of doing things.  You can also be groundbreaking within a genre.  I've talked about this before with car ads.  Think about the Saturn ad that sits at #7, a car ad that doesn't show the car, inconceivable. This ad a lot of these ads take the genre and turn them on their head, computer ads that don't tout specs, car ads that don't show the car, and then there is this ad:

A beauty ad that shows you the truth behind beauty ads.

What's wonderful about this ad isn't the execution, but the concept.  It subverts beauty all beauty ads while building up the Dove brand.  Every time you see one of it's competitors ads, you can't help but think of this one, at least I can't help it.  By being the first one into the space, Dove owns it in consumer's minds (read the classic book "Positioning" for more on this theory), everyone else is just fighting for second place.  Dove becomes the brand that cares about women, cares enough to be truthful, and honest, imagine pitching the concept to the Dove executives, I can imagine the looks that passed between the executives.

But this strategy and its execution move Dove from just another beauty product, a commodity if you will, to something special, it now has personality for lack of a better word, and so it differentiates itself not by features but by emotion.

#5

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw&feature=player_embedded]

This ad directed by Spike Jonze falls into the same genre busting template.  It's all about emotion, about a feeling of a brand.  I admit I'm probably ranking this one higher than it deserves, but it's just so damned well made.  The shots, the music, the POV (point of view shot) of the lamp looking into the house, watching the new lamp, while it sits hunch over in the rain.  As Boris would say, "Guys this is film."

I like the unnamed guy at the end making his appearance, breaking the forth wall, and calling the audience on it's connection to the inanimate lamp, but I have trouble with connection to Ikea..., unboring? Ok.  Don't know what happened to this campaign, and I don't remember much from Ikea after this ad, but this one is a mastercraft in film making and storytelling.  You're never told to feel sorry for the lamp, the lamp never voices it's sadness, but you're made to feel it nonetheless, that's brilliant storytelling.  Jonze leads us, but our minds fill in the gaps. adding story and emotion.

This ad is the ultimate form over function, but it's about as good as form can get.

#4

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtaXjzQQGE8&feature=player_embedded]

Another great ad from VW, and another genre buster.  You see the car at the end, but it's wrecked. That's a pretty bold choice in a car ad.

This commercial is about shock value.  You don't see the accident coming (isn't that why it's an accident), so it puts you in the mind of the characters, to quote Boris again, "Guys, this is experience." The banter at the beginning lulls you, you don't where this is going, a beer commercial maybe?  It breaks our guessing machine, gets our attention, and then bam, surprises us.  Remember negative emotions are easier to burn into our primate brains than positive ones (I still have this sinking feeling everytime I cross a railway track because of the Coyote and Road Runner).

I tend to discount shock value, comparing it often to spitting on the table, but in this case it works.  The shock is directly related to the message.  Quick who makes the safest cars...?

You probably said Volvo, know for their safety. How to break that link with consumers, to dislodge the first one into that space?  I don't know if VW replaces Volvo as the safest car in my mind, but it certainly enters the conversation after this ad.  Sure it's a stunt, it's shocking, but it works. To me that's effective.