...Red Bull does do some pretty cool events/contests though, such as the Red Bull BCOne where they stage 16 of the best dancers in the world against each other. Featured below is Ronnie Abaldonado who was the runner up four years in a row until 2007 when he finally became BC ONE Champion. Also showcased in the recent RB TV ads is Robbie Maddison, a 27 year old Freestyle Motocross Champion who also has a World Record for jumping across a football field of approximately 322 feet during the Red Bull New Year No-Limits event. The last 3 of 3 Red Bull TV ads introduces Ian Walsh and it broadcasts him bombing a wave that's at least 70 feet high. You can find out more about him on the section Red Bull Surfing.
Check this out, saw it on AdFreak and had to share.
With the Democrats back in power, we should have known it would come to this. The Federal Trade Commission has released several parodies of the FreeCreditReport.com ads. The goal: to remind consumers that AnnualCreditReport.com is the only site where they can truly get their scores for free, without having to sign up for trial memberships or pay "hidden fees." The spoofs mimic FreeCredit's popular musical spots, which follow a band that gets lousy gigs because their credit is bad. Actually, rockin' out at the Renaissance Fair seems cool to me (lots of comely wenches and ale on hand), but my credit score is about a 12, so what do I know? The bands in both campaigns exude that so-lame-it's-cool vibe, not unlike Beck or Moby. (Sorry, my interest in popular music pretty much ended in 1995.)
The Super Bowl is perhaps the one television event where people actually look forward to the ads because so much effort is put into each one. And every year, there are a handful of standouts. You can watch the ads plenty of places online, including on Hulu. You can even watch Hulu’s own Super Bowl ad on Hulu, which oddly enough is preceded by a regular Web video ad. That just seems wrong to me on so many levels, especially since Hulu itself (which is partly owned by NBC) probably didn’t have to pay for the spot
I guess you could argue that some of these commercials are now entertainment in their own right, and thus deserve their own mini-commercials. The Hulu spot with Alec Baldwin (above) is certainly one of the better ones. He delivers the line:
They say TV will rot your brain. That’s absurd. TV only softens the brain, like a ripe banana. To take it all the way, we’ve created Hulu.
There were also lots of ads that poked fun at the economic downturn, including an ETrade ad with talking babies and a Cash4Gold.com ad starring Ed McMahon and and MC Hammer. To get people to come into its restaurants, Denny’s decided to offer free breakfast to everyone in America on Tuesday. But my favorite is this one from Monster.com which asks, Need Another Job?
CareerBuilder hit the same theme, but wasn’t quite as funny. In fact, CareerBuilder’s ad which repeatedly shows a woman miserable with her job screaming in her car, is downright depressing.
Then, of course, the trailer to the new Star Trek movie debuted as well, which I will embed below just because I know you will watch it (the trailer for Transformers 2 will also be popular).
These are some pretty funny ads from some short lived show called "The X Show." I'd like to say this ad is completely inaccurate but who am I hockey beer nachos kidding?
Crispin Porter + Bogusky's much-anticipated "documentary" about the "Whopper virgins" debuted last night. It was pretty much as expected. Stacy Peralta has really made two commercials—let's face it, they're just commercials. One is the taste test. This has the native people brought to a semi-civilized location—i.e., somewhere within 15 minutes of fast-food restaurants—for your run-of-the-mill taste test. The video flashes up some select results. I say select because I hope the sample size was larger than about 20. (Surprisingly, the Whopper won in a landside.) Part two is what probably gets at the root of the criticism leveled at Burger King for the project. Peralta and crew trek out to these far-flung locales with a BK grill to cook for the locals. In my initial appraisal of the concept, I found it icky. I still find it depressing. This is a documentary about the making of a commercial that uses "exotic" foreigners as props to sell more trans-fat-laden heart-attack pucks. Judging from what I've read on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, the reaction is pretty mixed—probably exactly what Crispin and BK wanted. See Adweek critic Barbara Lippert's review here. [AdFreak]
Seeking to build on the success of last year's "Whopper Freakout," the marketer tasked Crispin Porter & Bogusky with creating a "pure taste test" composed of "Whopper Virgins" who had never tasted one of the flagship sandwiches.
To accomplish that, Crispin trekked to Baan Khun Chang Kiean, Thailand; Kulusuk, Greenland; and Budesti, Romania. The work, from director Stacy Peralta and production company NonFiction, highlights reactions to the products.
The premise behind the push sparked a backlash among nutritionists, anthropologists and parents, with critics claiming Burger King is exploiting poverty-stricken regions for marketing. "I don't think indigenous people should be used in that way to amuse a bored public that wants a sensation at any price," a commenter wrote on New York City blog Gothamist. [AdAge]
With his 30 minute national TV ad last night and almost double the amount of ads running across the country, presidential candidate Barack Obama is everywhere it seems.
Barack Obama's 30-minute campaign commercial Wednesday night was not merely a tactical decision to carpet-bomb millions of Americans in pursuit of a few thousand undecided voters who can dictate the outcome of the presidential campaign.
Aired on seven network and cable stations, the ad served as a national get-out-the-vote organizing tool for Obama operatives. It offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential, helping to condition voters to that possibility. And once again it proved to John McCain, and everyone else, how Obama's deep pool of campaign cash has allowed him to rewrite the rules of presidential campaigning. [SFGate]
Obama's campaign truly has rewritten the rules on how to campaign for president. He has embraced YouTube and his channel has videos going up everyday. According to Nielsen Media Research an estimated 33.6 million viewers watched Obama's half hour commercial last night. He has done a particularly good job in targeting a younger audience, the video game ads probably helped with that. AdAge even named Barack Obama the Marketer of the Year.
Justifying the purchase of a brand new Harley-Davidson is hard to do during tough economic times but that's where super supermodel Marisa Miller comes in. Pictures for Harley-Davidson's V-Rod Muscle motorcycle have been circulating due to Marisa Miller being in them. I'm sure people aren't posting these because they are actually excited about this new motorcycle but hey good for you Harley-Davidson, having most desired woman on the planet as your spokesman is not to shabby.
“To represent such an iconic American brand is incredible,” said the 2008 cover model of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition. “I have grown up watching my dad and uncle ride Harleys. It’s amazing to circle back at this point in my career, and work with a brand I have so much respect for.”
Culture Catalyst is your home to all things pop culture. From tech news to sports to viral videos, nothing is off limits. An update every day of what's hot now and will be hot tomorrow. From Catalyst SF, the World's First Marketing Capital Firm.
