Adobe has recently released CS3. Yep, your versions of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop are now officially out of date and old, loser. At least Adobe was nice enough to offer some upgrades that only cost you half a grand. But if you're a serious designer, the Mac daddy (pun so intended) is the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection, which gets you InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3, Acrobat, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, Soundbooth and a kitchen sink.
What the hell happened here? Is there some sort of glitch in the new Photoshop CS3 software? Did an intern have some down time and start playing with agency files? Did a creative director smoke himself stupid? Possibly all of the above, or possibly these ads are completely intentional. Copy reads, "100% Bananas"; exactly what the campaign was going for.
This little Millimetres Matter video is so awesome, wow. Tiny, like really tiny, pastries were created and flung at insects such as flies and roaches. The cakes clobber the bugs, and it's awesome. The video is a viral for Samsung's Ultra II phone.
The whole melting ice sculpture thing is becoming a bit repetitive. First it was melting mommies, now it's melting penguins. This time, thought, the video just directs you to a website that I can't read. Any clues to it's purpose?
Heineken has a new online promotion/game called Secret Final. You upload a picture of yourself and they shoot you out of a cannonball towards basically anywhere in the world you want to go. Watch yourself fly through the atmosphere and land on a nice couch somewhere in the world. It's part of a contest to win a trip to a secret location to watch the UEFA Champions League Final (that would be a soccer match).
The May/June 2007 issue of Communication Arts gives us the results of their 2007 salary survey among the creative industry. They've compared the results to those of 2005, showing that earnings among most disciplines have increased. The low down is that creative directors are still eating steak dinners, while entry-level designers are still eating Ramen noodles. You can check out the complete survey, as well as past years, over at the AIGA website.
The ad world of the 1960s will soon make a comeback on TV. Mad Men is a new series by the writers of The Sopranos that will debut on AMC in July. The show will follow the professional and personal lives of New York advertising execs in the 1960s. Let's hope they highlight the popularization of cigarettes and the degradation of women in the ads of those days. Gawker has a comical post about the show.
Great idea. At an auto show, Jeeps were fitted with window stickers that created the illusion of driving through mountains to people who sat in the vehicles. Very nice.
The Williamsburg Kite Festival took place in Brooklyn today at McCarren Park. It was a fun atmosphere with lots of kites, kids, music and colors. Enjoy the video from the event.
Today I was walking around Union Square and stumbled upon these DJs spinning for a little dance party. People were going nuts for the music, some even dancing on stilts. The mini party was promoting the upcoming Dance Parade 2007, taking place May 19th. The parade will boogie down Broadway into Washington Square Park. Participants can then dance the day away from 4-8pm. Sounds like a great time to me.
This is a great commercial. I love the atmosphere it creates simply through the art direction and music. Tells a good story centered around Lux, as well.
I was pleasantly surprised when a nice young girl in a Hummer shirt handed me a Hummer for free today. What a great promotion to give grown men toy trucks at the NFL Draft. Thanks Hummer!
I happened to walk by the NFL Draft today, happening at Radio City Music Hall. In the streets outside the building was the fan zone, with lots of events going on. I caught a glimpse of New York Jets running back Leon Washington being interviewed (shown above), and even got a free Hummer. Gotta love sports.
Back in February, I posted about a user-generated billboard Pepsi was asking for. Now, the billboard is up in Times Square. Not bad for something designed on a website, I like all the colors and chaos in it. It looks like Pepsi was even nice enough to leave the name of the winning designer off of everything. Glad to see they are giving credit where credit is due (that would be sarcasm that I am using there). You can also see in this billboard that Pepsi isn't done milking its drinkers for all they're worth. Now they are asking you to design their can. Good luck in all your attempts to give Pepsi more free design work.
While roaming the streets of Manhattan today, I stumbled upon some sort of Sikh parade. I'm not sure if today was a holiday for the religion or what. All I know is there was tons of people all over the place and lots of color.
The AAF's National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) is underway in New York City this weekend. In the program, colleges compete against each other by developing a campaign for a client, this year Coca-Cola, and presenting it to judges at the competition. Months of work goes into developing the campaign, organizing the presentation and finally presenting to the judges. I watched Penn State's presentation today. It was very well done and professional. They had a lot of ideas, all wrapped around a central theme.
The winner of Penn State's district will be announced tonight at an awards ceremony. Tomorrow another district will compete. The event is being held at Baruch College (55 Lexington Ave) this year, with teams presenting throughout the day. I think the NSAC is a great way to give students a sense of how the ad world works and also give potential employers an arena to see up and coming talent.
Kinda good, but almost just creative for being creative's sake. I get the bumblebee connection, but there's not really any reason to connect it to music.
I like this commercial just based on the single element of the way it was shot. It's one single viewpoint the whole time, but somehow they take you from inside an office to eventually circling a field from a helicopter. Great work.
This is one of those ideas that shouldn't have even been written down. Copy reads, "Borderless Printing." It took me a second to get it, and when I did I was pissed that I had wasted my time on something so stupid. I demand you give me back those three minutes, Xerox!
I just really like the art direction in this ad. WWF does such a great job with their campaign. Copy reads, "Rain forest cries out. But the chainsaws don't let you hear it."
I'm kinda on the fence with these. I like the visual of a giant paper airplane (with which I was obsessed as a kid) at an actual airport, but the ads really don't make much sense. They are just giant paper airplanes, not DHL branded, not letters, not packages. Maybe I'm just completely missing the message they are trying to get across, or maybe they just completely forgot to try to send one.
Simple is better a lot of times. It definitely works here. The hair style of a white man is placed next to the hair style of a black man with their attributing salaries to highlight the unfair difference. I like the use of the mirror.
Love this spot for Lazer Helmets. A flower's life flashes before it's petals as it is crushed to pieces by the strong helmet. Great idea and even better execution.
Anyone in the hunt for a great advertising focused podcast needs to look no further than American Copywriter. The show is hosted by two creatives, John January and Tug McTighe. They are entertaining as they tackle the news of the industry. The guys also have a blog to accompany the podcast. I suggest you check out both, if you know what's good for you.
Here's another YouTube user-generated commercial contest. This time it's Heinz Ketchup with their Top This promotion. All you have to do is create a good ol' Heinz Ketchup spot and you could win the $57,000 grand prize. The top 5 videos will all run on national TV. Grab that red stuff and get started.
Mr. T is back with a vengeance in this new Snickers campaign. It's not the most genius campaign out there, but I still like it. Any commercial where a candy bar is hurled at someone's head is alright in my book.
Adobe has recently released CS3. Yep, your versions of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop are now officially out of date and old, loser. At least Adobe was nice enough to offer some upgrades
that only cost you half a grand. But if you're a serious designer, the Mac daddy (pun so intended) is the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection
, which gets you InDesign CS3
, Photoshop CS3
software? Did an intern have some down time and start playing with agency files? Did a creative director smoke himself stupid? Possibly all of the above, or possibly these ads are completely intentional. Copy reads, "100% Bananas"; exactly what the campaign was going for.
