Here’s a recent Olympic-inspired commercial for the AT&T Yellow Pages. I guess being owned by an official sponsor has its perks. This commercial, which was conceived by AD/CW duo Bryan Pudder and Mark Ray from GSD&M Idea City, shows us a party where the hosts use random house-hold objects in the place of traditional party supplies. For example, the hosts use a framed wedding photo as a dip-container and one guest makes the mistake of using a dirty dust pan as a plate.
GSD&M Idea City was the agency responsible for this spot with Karen Jacobs as the Executive Producer (Steve Miller and Brent Ladd were the Group Creative Directors). Rocky Morton directed this spot for MJZ with Jon Hopp as the Editor.
Visa has been running a whole slew of commercials as part of their 2008 Olympic Games Go World campaign. Created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, they incorporate a microsite - www.visa.com/goworld/ - into the campaign that features the background story and video (including the commercials) of each of their selected “American Hero’s.” You can view all 10 athletes and their commercials below. Morgan Freeman, who just recently was injured in a car-crash, is the narrator for the entire campaign. Only the initial Michael Phelps commercial is included in this list as the second and third follow-up videos that were produced to celebrate his Olympic victories can be found here: Visa - Go World - The Michael Phelps Commercials
If you’re looking for any other commercials that aired during the 2008 Beijing Olympics (or are even just Olympic-Themed), go visit www.Olympic-Commercials.com. It’s a great resource for current Olympic advertising.
Here are the included athletes in the Visa - Go World campaign and their associated commercial: Read the rest of this entry »
Visa and TBWA\Chiat\Day’s creation, Go World< /em>, has been a widely talked about campaign celebrating Team USA in this years Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China. The most talked about of this series has been three commercials centered around Team USA swimmer Michael Phelps.
Visa first had a Michael Phelps spot as part of their over-all Go World campaign that was nothing out-of-the-ordinary compared to others in the series (as shown above). However after Michael Phelps won his 10th Gold Medal on August 12th in the 200 meter Freestyle, it made him a world-record holder for most Gold Medals won. No one in the history of the world has ever won as many Olympic Gold Medals as Michael Phelps has. To celebrate, immediately after airing Michael Phelps’ victory in the 200 Meter Freestyle, Visa aired a promo congratulating him on his accomplishments.
As Morgan Freeman narrates:
Congratulations Michael, on having won more gold medals than anybody…ever.
Visa - Go World - Michael Phelps - Congratulations:
TBWA\Chiat\Day has mentioned that the idea of a Visa ad commemorating the victory (if it happened) was something that they had conceptualized “as early as April.” They had already purchased the media in case they could use the concept even. Great job, especially for having to turn around the footage into a spot in less than 24 hours!
Shortly after that though, Michael Phelps shattered yet another world record by winning the 4X100 Meter Medley Relay, securing his 8th Gold Medal for the 2008 Summer Olympics. That’s more Gold Medals than anyone has ever won in any single Olympics! To celebrate, Visa aired the following spot shortly after showing his record-breaking performance.
Morgan Freeman once again narrates:
One Gold Medal is amazing. Two is, well, incredible. Three, practically unbelievable. But eight? Eight Gold Medals? Thats… thats, well, we’re going to need some new adjectives for whatever that is. Congratulations Michael.
The latest series to come from mega-corporation GE and BBDO NY tries to combine the brand’s eco-friendly research and their olympic sponsorship through three new commercials: Discus, Dragon and Crane.
Crane, shown above, starts out by showing us a crane taking off from a beach with the background audio being of a pilot getting permission to take-off from the tower. It then pans to a shot of a commercial jet mid-air with the narrator talking about how GE provides an aircraft engine that saves gas and has less fuel emissions. They forgot to mention price though, I wonder if this engine costs 5X what most currently used engines do and whether or not I’m covering the difference via the high price of airline tickets (or by me having to pay for a pillow/blanket)?
Discus, found below, starts off with an Olympic Discus thrower competing in Roman times at one of the first Olympic Games. His powerful throw makes the discus soar into the air, only to drive straight into a pillar due to an interfering gust of wind. The building soon collapses (cheesy!) and the voiceover tells us about GE’s eco-friendly wind energy that is helping to power this years Olympic Games.
Dragon, the third in the series and shown below, takes the Olympic tie-in a little too far. It takes place in what appears to be “ancient China.” Villagers hike up bundles of grass and other flammable objects into a cave where, you guessed it, a dragon lives. The dragon, after noticing the villagers, sets their amassed pile of grass/plants on fire. The camera then pans away to show them running back to town, with steaming pipes leading from the cave to the village. What do the pipes lead to you might ask? An above-ground jacuzzi built right behind their thatch hut. Wow.
The narration then tells us that: Read the rest of this entry »
This was first released a few weeks ago, but better late than never for stuff this good. Here is a BBC commissioned commercial for their Olympic Games coverage set to original music from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s dramatic remake of the Chinese Legend Journey To The West. As for characters, those of you in the USA may not recognize them but they’re from the cult British TV series Monkey. Named The Journey To The East it shows the animated characters on their quest to “The East” or rather the Olympic stadium.
Damon Albarn, famous for being the creative mastermind behind bands Blur, Gorillaz, The Good The Bad And The Queen and various side-projects, is once again reunited with fellow Gorillaz founder Jamie Hewlett for this 2 minute advertisement. They had both just been involved with a massive stage adaption of the Chinese novel Journey to the West which premiered at the inaugural Manchester International Festival in June of 2007. Called Monkey: Journey To The West, Albarn composed the play’s score, Hewlett designed the costumes, set design and visual concept, and the resulting stage adaption was directed by famous Chinese opera leader Shi-zheng.
