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Favorite Brands NIKE Nike is a very optimistic brand - one that says self-improvement is inevitable if you bust your ass. I love optimism, and I love how Nike has always used the world’s greatest and most magical athletes (most notably Michael Jordan, my childhood favorite) to give us glimpses of what’s possible. I think we all want to get better and we all want to be great, and Nike has done an exceptional job of tapping into these desires. From the early days of Just Do It and before, they’ve succeeded in developing a very personal and reciprocal relationship with their consumers. One that says, “If you invest in the greatness of these shoes, these shoes will invest in the greatness of you.”
HBO HBO has always been ahead of the curve, consistently creating or redefining genres. Television is in its golden age, and that is mainly due to the efforts of HBO and shows like Sopranos, Sex and the City, and even the Gary Shandling Show. The Sopranos ushered in the era of the hour long, long-form narrative after which all the great TV shows of the 2000’s and beyond followed. This includes everyone’s favorites The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones and so on. It’s true that attention spans are waning, but that doesn’t mean that long-form content is dying. That’s why we’ll sit for hours on a Netflix bender. If the content is good, we will pay attention to it all day. Check out their intro from the 80’s. https://youtu.be/iGPRWePIUUI
LEGO Like Nike, Lego is a brand of possibility. A brand that taps into our innate desires to create and use our imagination. I remember sitting around as a kid with my
family, building stuff with my Dad, my Mom, my Brothers and Sisters. Those were good times, and I’m sure most of us share the exact same memory. That’s an awesome thing that a brand or product can say for itself. I love how, even though technology enables us to create astonishing innovations - in the beginning it all starts in our hands. Plus there’s this. https://youtu.be/vx5n21zHPm8
WHOLE FOODS Talk about wonder and possibility, every time I’m in Whole Foods I just want to bound up and down the aisles like a gazelle and daydream about the raging dinner parties I could throw. “Oh dear lord is this organic tri-color bulgur quinoa? Just think of the free-range salmon and oaky chardonnays I could pair this with!” I know, Whole Foods is expensive and it’s fun to make fun of them. But Whole Foods cares about healthy living and sustainability, they are pro-local, they provide ways for the community to get together, and they have recipes all over the place and a fun experiential environment. Have you ever done the tomato test? Grab a Whole Foods tomato and an HEB tomato. Taste the difference. You’ll see where the money went. SOUTHWEST Southwest is fun, friendly, has excellent customer service and is much cheaper the majority of time than its competitors. Bags fly free, the flight attendants are always cracking jokes over the intercom, and if they F something up they fix it fast. Case in point, they mishandled one of my bags on the last flight I took. The bag was on the next flight, I got it two hours later and they gave me a hundred dollar voucher.
Ads I Love Chipotle’s “The Scarecrow” https://youtu.be/lUtnas5ScSE
This one made me realize that advertising can be an awesome art form that blends all the best of whatever other art forms are out there. You can wear any hat you want. Filmmaker. Photographer. Comedian. Teacher. Tour guide. Take your pick. This one wears the filmmaker hat. This film paints a terrifying picture of the state of the union of food production and manufacturing. Then it positions itself as the opposite of all that. I used to think Chipotle was just some garbage that was owned by McDonald’s. But after seeing this I really thought otherwise and started to eat there. Good job, Advertising!
DirecTV’s “The Settlers” https://youtu.be/ASyhJ0lRIU0 Luke Sullivan talks about the thrill of a simple idea being transformed into a campaign that can span any medium. This is a perfect example of this. Somebody said, “Hey that word ‘Settle’ means two things.” And then they pushed that idea just a bit further and related it to the difference between their product and it’s competitor. Just like that a funny, clever ad campaign was born. From here, the agency could do some guerrilla stuff, like have the Settlers in their horse and carriage trotting around the subways or streets of New York. Then they could film it and have videos for social. There are all kinds of marketing possibilities, just from making a simple comparison between a word with two meanings and the difference between having DirecTV and cable.
Volkswagen’s “Synchronicity” https://youtu.be/DcfW_hlYZ5k This is a 90’s VW ad from their “Driver’s Wanted” campaign. It was just a very unique idea and execution about music, movement and life getting in sync with one another. The commercial is groovy and interesting, and it works well without even saying anything about the product. That cassette deck is pretty sweet, too.
Burger King’s “Maybe You Do Wanna Be a French Fry” https://youtu.be/gm_n76Dsl0c This one embodies some of my favorite kinds of humor. It’s ridiculous, absurd,
and unexpected. We should all have the courage to be French Fries.
Nike Football’s “Fate” https://youtu.be/jlXRengzZoc I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of, “Your whole life has been leading up to this moment.” That life might just be preparing you for your big test. Your big chance. Your big moment. Where you get your opportunity to prove yourself. This commercial plays on this. I love how it shows these guys from when they were born until their destinies cross paths, and how it seems that their greatness was always a foregone conclusion.
Ads I Hate Dollar Shave Club’s “Sick” https://youtu.be/eqCqRio-pp0 This is not a bad ad. It definitely gets its point across. But the razor is just too much. Education Connection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYS5NtRXlZQ This one is bad funny. Trivago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRmLcUIqCHI Look how many buttons this guy has unbuttoned on his shirt. Verizon’s Colored Balls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=785YQKmgiTo It’s just a bunch of balls running down a ramp, how is that interesting? Every single Kay’s “Every Kiss Begins with Kay” commercial ever
https://youtu.be/ltA50HKyM14 Terrifying.