Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of clutter-breaking creative ads. This week: ads from Nedbank, Apple, Sony Entertainment Television and more.
Nedbank: Meet Anna & Yuto
Many popular ads tell interesting stories – long before ‘storytelling’ was marketed as some sort of new invention in the era of digital campaigns or some rare skill which has to be learnt. Nedbank tells the story of Anna & Yuto in a format that has seen some great advertising: lead the viewer up a garden path only to reveal a twist in the tale.
The viewer is made to believe that Anna is a ballet dancer by profession and Yuto, a photographer. The surprise reveal of who they actually are and the link the advertised service (free travel insurance on a credit card) brings a smile. A story well told. I loved the line:
You work hard for your money. She works hard for your money too.
Agency: Joe Public
Apple: Shot on iPhone, drawn on iPad
Think of it as ‘two for the price of one’. The ‘Shot on iPhone’ series was meant to be show & tell: proof of the camera quality without listing the technical specifications of the phone. It was made even more interesting by sharing pictures taken by ordinary folks and not just professional photographers. Now a new outdoor campaign does a showcase of another Apple product: the iPad – specifically it’s capabilities in creating art. Apple commissioned several artists from around the world to use the creative power of an iPad and the Apple Pencil to add magic to images ‘shot on iPhone’.
IBM: AI built for business
This campaign is three months old. Wonder how I missed it and why it’s not being talked about more. Many in advertising dread to work on B2B as it is considered ‘boring’ with limited scope for creativity. This campaign proves them wrong. What I also liked about it is that each ad focuses on a specific issue with data being interpreted by AI and how IBM can it better.
Agency: Ogilvy
Volvo: 3-point safety belt
The 3-point safety belt is standard in all cars now. Not all cars would have had it without some far-sighted magnanimity from Volvo. The safety belt was created by engineers at Volvo. In 1959, they made the patent available for every other automaker. A new campaign highlights this nugget with a clever line which also owns ‘safety’ – an attribute associated with Volvo.
Agency: Grey
KFC: Sorry Manners
Pitting two contrasting ‘worlds’ against each other makes for interesting cinema (commonly expressed as rich guy, poor girl or vice versa). A new film for KFC in Canada celebrates the “Finger Lickin’ Good” property in an over-the-top, unapologetic manner. What works is the setting: the world of royalty, refined dining and proper dining table etiquette set against food meant to be enjoyed by eating with your hands.
Agency: Courage
Irish Road Safety Authority: blood on your hands
Smoking and drinking are irrational habits because those people know that smoking is harmful and drunk driving is dangerous – yet they continue with such. I have believed that advertising which sets out to change behaviour – especially when it has to do with irrational habits, has to be hard hitting – no mollycoddling or reasoning with logic. That’s why the brutally honest depiction of pitfalls of drunk driving like in the campaign from Traffic Accident Commission, Australia worked. A new ad from Irish Road Safety Authority takes a leaf from the same book – bringing alive ‘blood on one’s hands’ in a social setting of a night out in a pub.
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Tesco Mobile: Gen Z language
It is a universal insight that there is a chasm between the world of parents & their kids, especially teens. According to research commissioned by Tesco Mobile in the UK, almost half of parents not confident in understanding the language that children use online. Such a situation could be dangerous in the context of online safety. The Netflix hit, Adolescence also highlighted this fact too.
With a series of OOH, radio and display executions, the campaign aims to decode some of the common terms that young people use online, ensuring that parents have the tools they need to start conversations, but also helping them to pick up phrases that could signal a chat about online safety is needed.
I liked it because it has the potential to forewarn parents about potential online safety issues.
Agency: BBH
Heinz: lost in love
There are two recurrent themes in food advertising, both based on taste: going to great lengths to get it and ‘lost in the taste’. Pepsi has some famous commercials to demonstrate the former. Cadbury’s 5 Star took ‘lost in the taste of…’ to another level by dramatising the effects of indulgence. A new ad from Heinz is of the latter kind – where a protagonist is lost in the taste unmindful of the context where a certain behaviour is the norm.
Agency: BBH
Motrio: The Western
Motrio is a brand of automotive spare parts and a network of multi-brand repairers created by Renault. A new ad dramatises the claim (a pretty generic one at that for the category) that they ‘take good care of your car’. It is made endearing by creating an analogy with westerns where a cowboy bonds with a horse which is initially untamed.
Agency: Buzzman
Apple Intelligence: the cat
Another ad from Apple which showcases the benefit in a simple, focused and interesting manner. It reminded me of the famous ‘RIP Leon’ ad back from 2023.
SET India: KBC Season 17
Quite like IPL’s theme film, the team behind KBC has a big advertising challenge every year. How to tell an interesting story that feels fresh even though it’s mostly ‘the same old show’ every year. It takes creative strategy and great execution which stays core to the show’s core promise. I liked this year’s theme of ‘jahan akal, wahan akad‘ (loosely translated as ‘where there is knowledge there is attitude’) without it sounding haughty or arrogant mainly because of the context: where a protagonist humbles arrogant folks with her ‘knowledge’.
Prime Video India: what kind of funny
Channel promo ads were a template. Many of them used clips from actual movies or shows to stitch together a montage. Typically it would have a voice over saying ‘Star Movies has lined up a great month ahead’. Cut to some character in a movie or show going ‘Really?!’ and so on. It worked initially but became predictable. A new promo for Prime Video’s repertoire of shows features characters from their popular show ‘The Family Man’ proving that even funny has ‘many kind of funny‘ mapped to various shows.
Agency: Manja
Central The 1: points
How I wish advertisers and agencies around the world studied ads from Thailand. Most of their ads have a product story smack bang in the centre – something all advertisers love to have. But they take such risks by way of zany humour, self-deprecating stance and a storyline that somehow tangentially connects to the main proposition in the end, all the while holding viewer attention. In most cases, advertisers place so many restrictions that its impossible to think unfettered while being focused on a brand sell.
A new ad from Central The 1 promoted its reward points with some word pun. But its not just reward points – the emphasis is on ‘dynamic points’ where the accumulated points increase based on the brand (and price tag, I suppose).
Agency: Wolf BKK
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.
