Archive for January, 2008
Louis Vuitton predictably teams up with hip hop [yawn]
Posted on 31. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
As a US recession knocks loudly on the world’s door, luxury brands are feeling the pinch of a world economy more concerned with meeting their mortage payments than splashing out on jewels.
Ironically then, in their first ever TV ad, Louis Vuitton have teamed up with hip hop star, Pharrell Williams in a design and marketing collaboration aimed at selling more unnecessary bling.
As the popularity of hip hop globally takes a bit of a dip, we wonder about the wisdom this colab strategy. Or is the vibe in the markets that matter still ‘all hood’?
[via]
For more recent celebrity product endorsement, check out the latest Disney Parks campaign shot by uber-celeb photographer Annie Leibovitz. [thanks Andrew]
The Two Oceans marathon needs one / a couple of these
Posted on 30. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
With the way our training for the Two Oceans Marathon is going, we’re kinda hoping that the sponsors of the famous Cape Town run read and take careful note of this awesome piece of athletic event ADDvertising.
Adidas helped out the 11.000 runners of the Auckland Marathon by giving
them some extra motivation at the 17 km mark. 50 knots of motivation.
Runners had to run into the adiBOOST lane and walk past a custom built,
hurricane fan to get their shot.
Sure, if the wind is blowing the right direction on the morning – it’ll be like an unbranded version the whole way, but a good ‘added-value’ campaign all the same.
The most sophisticated technology you’ll ever be invited to pee on
Posted on 29. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
This Clearblue pregnancy test ad, which features the shocking line ‘the most sophisticated piece of technology you will ever PEE on’, is causing much excitement in the land of the free.
Apparently, the reference to the commonly used [and globally performed] word ‘pee’ is creating quite a stir (and in some circles offense) amongst US television audiences. [video link here]
Pee? What’s wrong with pee? We all pee.
Some do it in public…on the street, in full view of oncoming traffic- while others do it on a fancy white stick, which indicates whether the condom broke or not.
This viral ad thing is pretty damn easy. Use a normal word, most ad suits would never in a million years allow anywhere near their product that requires urinating on… or use excessive nudity… and you’ve got a huge internet hit on your hands. Thanks client – you rock big time.
Next thing you know they’ll be using real poo in nappy ads, or red food dye instead of blue in tampon commercials.
iCatching videos: Pixar-type Kit Kat ads and super slow-mo
Posted on 29. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Kit Kat have been selling their bars with the line ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’ for as long Mugabe has been in power…and they not gonna let that line go any time soon. But they have updated the snappy video treatments they use to express that message.
Check out this Pixar-type short film done by JWT France.
[via]
Another inspirational, innovative video treatment is the super slow-mo video intro for a skateboarding film [Lakai Fully Flared], which was directed by the legendary Spike Jonze. [video link] [via]
The must see spoof of the day is this $%^& Planet Earth spoof of the same named BBC wildlife show. [video link]
Kiteboating for container ships
Posted on 29. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Considering how much fuel the world’s shipping fleet must burn daily, it was only a matter of time until some bright spark, staring at the hundreds of kiteboarders zipping over the waves every time the wind blows in Cape Town, would consider hooking a kite to the front of a container ship and try get it to do the same thing.
SkySails is a company pioneering the reintroduction of sail power back into the shipping industry. According to the company, ships can save up to 50% of their annual fuel bill by attaching a kidnapped kiteboarder kite to the front of the ship.
Sounds like a logical idea, but proof once again that we’re going back in time. Next thing you know – we’re going to be replacing our cars with an innovative horse and cart.
BTW – thinking of wind power, see this Popular Mechanics feature on a new type of efficient wind generator that make a whole lot more sense that the spinning propeller ones we have now.
See video: Windbelt, Cheap Generator Alternative, Set to Power Third World – Popular Mechanics
Traditional power shortage opens a window to our future
Posted on 28. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Perhaps the present power hysteria will deliver the required kick in the sweets to get local architects, designers and developers to update their ideas on sustainable energy design.
The Solar Ark [pictured above] was built for Sanyo, and is an impressive 630 kW solar-collecting building that boasts over 5,000
solar panels and kicks off over 500,000 kWh of energy per year and is built using mainly reject solar cells which were destined for the rubbish dump. [more]
Ann Arbor is a small city in Michigan state in the US. Last year, Ann Arbor joined forces with LED manufacturer Cree, Inc, on an ever-expanding citywide LED initiative to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
With a recent retrofit contract signed with Lumecon, Ann Arbor is on its way to being the first U.S. city to light up its downtown with 100% LED technology! [more]
Perhaps something for Helen Zille to consider for all of those city lights that burn throughout the night.
This [pic above] is billed as the world’s greenest building and is scheduled to be built soon in Paris.
The Energy Plus office building,
to be located outside of Paris, is designed to consume no electricity
other than that which it creates itself. This zero-energy building,
according to the designers, will be the greenest office building ever
created.How does this building achieve its goal? For starters, the building
will be heavily insulated – enough to reduce its energy use to about 16
kilowatts per square meter, which is considerably lower than that of a
standard building. Cold water from the Seine river will be pumped
throughout the offices eliminating the need for a standard air
conditioner unit. And to actively contribute to the highest standard of
energy efficiency, designers have engineered the building to have the
largest solar array in the world installed in the roof. It is this
solar array which will provide all the energy needs of the building, as
well as providing additional energy to be fed back into the grid. [more]
These are just three first-world examples of how design can help with the growing world-wide problem of diminishing resources and environmental damage. Like a heroin addicting kicking the habit, we need to wean ourselves off outdated forms of energy production and evolve.
[all examples via Inhabitat]
Mystery of the ’strange place name billboard’ solved
Posted on 28. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
This ‘un-branded’ M5 billboard bothered us for weeks. ‘Welcome to Mannestantia’ it read; and confusion it spread.
Mannestantia? Could this be the bastard secret love child of two city suburbs, which are worlds apart – or a proposed name change for Plumstead?
Turns out the billboard was an 80’s-style ‘teaser’ campaign for local radio station Good Hope FM and a new marketing initiative to connect Cape Town.
The Isle of Good Hope [pictured here] could well be something you might soon see in Dubai.
2008 South Africa Blog Awards – site is alive
Posted on 25. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
This year’s SA Blog Awards site is now live – with initial nominations opening up on the site on Monday 11 February [put that in your diary now].
All last year’s categories are still up for grabs, as well as a few new ones.
The new categories include: Best Group Blog – Best Website Promoting Blogging – Best Sports blog – Best
Green/Environmental Blog – Best Blog about Design – Best African
Language Blog (other than english) – Best Social Upliftment Blog – Most
Controversial Blog – Best Travel blog -
Best Undiscovered Blog – and a category for the Best Post about the SA Blog Awards.
For more on how it works check out the site: SA Blog Awards 2008
Shockvertising: Blatant nudity cleverly used to promote South African property website
Posted on 25. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
We would have paid good money to have been in the presentation where local agency The Jupiter Drawing Room sold the idea of using loads of nakedness to build the brand of the website; Propertygenie.co.za.
Having been amused by the company’s print ad, which we noticed at the back of the property magazine, it has now become apparent that it is part of an overall campaign of skin – the latest addition being a TV ad entitled ‘Trimming the hedge’.
Words seem rather pointless at this stage – but if it gets flighted on television, we’ll put the dairy farm on it that the ‘blue rinse brigade’ will be onto the ASA faster than they leap with glee holding a winning card at the local Bingo tournament.
[thanks Nadia]
TV ad made with ‘recycled’ film clips
Posted on 24. Jan, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
EDF is a British energy supplier that took the concept of recycling to heart in the production of their latest television commercial and made the thing from old recycled clips which they stole from YouTube [naah - their intentions must have been all good].
The ad uses "recycled" film clips from the Wombles, Thunderbirds and
John F Kennedy. The soundtrack is an adapted version of Sesame Street
song "It’s Not Easy Being Green".
Nice idea – there’s enough old stock footage out there for thousands of other marketing departments to do exactly the same thing.
[video link]
[via]
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