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As a car enthusiast who grew up in the Liberal Northeast, I was used to being surrounded by Volvos and Saabs of varying ages and states of eccentricity. It was a surprise, in fact, to learn that much of the rest of the country doesn’t have near as many Swedish cars. Saab in particular seems to be a brand that is anchored in the glasses-wearing, intellectual populations of New England.

This stereotype of Saab owners is the image that long-time owner GM sought to destroy in recent years with its laughable “Born From Jets” campaign. And while, yes, Saab does also make cool military aircraft (actually a different company but whatever), the type of people who are impressed by that weren’t going to get a Saab anyways (they were going to get a Camaro).

After evading death during GM’s 2010 bankruptcy, Saab is back with new owners (classy Dutch!), a new flagship car, and a new, refined sense of self. Here’s one of their new, upbeat TV spots:

The campaign, a joint effort from McCann-Erickson and Sweden’s Lowe Brindfors, calls out all the proper Saab icons in its imagery: Sweden, artistic people with glasses, vaguely environmental sentiments. Bubbly indie music and white tones immediately scream “Apple”, but I think that works well for the Saab brand. It comes off more as an ad for a lifestyle than for the car itself, which is what Saab has always thrived on anyways. The quality of the car is secondary to the fact that Saab is reasserting its Saab-ness after trying to distance itself from its quirks for so long.

What doesn’t work is the “vague keyword” approach, which I think is always a bit of a contrivance, especially with the vague words like “inspiration” and “neighbor”. When ads use keywords, it always feels like agencies are just copying words right out of the client’s marketing briefs. As any college creative writing teach will say, “show don’t tell” – and if you have to say that “ice cubes refracting light” is “inspiration” then it isn’t a good image in the first place.

While I admit that I am pre-disposed to liking Saabs anyways (being Scandinavian and learning to drive in a 9-5 Aero), I think that this campaign can get people excited about Saabs again. And that is what all good advertising should do: get people excited for the product or brand.

(via CHASE)

(via Design You Trust)

Summer movie season is one of my favorite .. seasons of the year. Chilling with a medium root beer in a frosty movie theater, my flip-flops propped up on the back of your seat, riffin’ and laughing and seeing expensive visual effects. But christ almighty, this year’s movie season sucked a venti cup of horse piss. The worst thing was that – aside from Toy Story 3, which obviously was going to be great – everyone saw it coming from miles away. Obviously no one was going to go see Knight and Day or Jonah Hex. And 3D? Unless you’re a Nav’i warrior princess, get the fudge outta my face.

That second bowl of Cheez-its was so fucking awesome

Get on with it (in chronological release order)!

Iron Man 2

What the hell happened? Iron Man was so fun and yet they managed to turn the sequel into a big, derpy, beached whale.
Yes: Scarlett Johansson is still hot yo
No: Shut the hell up Tony Stark, wasted use of Sam Rockwell as tedious villain, almost walked out at drunk Iron Man, the whole thing was blurry like I was supposed to be wearing 3D glasses
4/10 Read the rest of this entry »

I’m will be attending Miami Ad School – San Francisco this fall to pursue my longtime dream of becoming an advertising creative. My focus will be copywriting, but I will be studying art direction aspects as well (me like to draw!). To help me develop my craft I’m going to start writing more about advertising here, on my blog, thrillerverse.com!

I can think of no better place to start than this bizarre new Fruit by the Foot campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi:

I haven’t watched kids programming since I was a kid myself, back when commercials were dominated by kids foiling the attempts of grown-ups to steal their food and fun. The only reason I was even watching Cartoon Network in the first place (and thus being advertised candy crap that sticks to your intestinal lining) is because of a return to the surreal humor and higher-quality animation seen in shows like Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. These shows strike a balance between the old Ren & Stimpy era I grew up with and contemporary “super cool” Adult Swim fair – bridging the gap between funny kids and cynical adults (me!).

This ad really stood out to me because it is embracing the spirit of the weirdness that I’m seeing in these shows. While not the first example of kid “weirdvertising” I’ve seen, it is probably the most self-consciously bizarre, topping examples from Capri Sun and Sour Patch Kids. My first reaction was actually “this is too weird, kids won’t like this”, but then, if kids like shows like Adventure Time and Flapjack (which my friend swears his little brother does), then maybe there is room for creatives to craft more intelligent ads for increasingly world-weary kids (even if the products are still terribly immature).

I have seen few films as beguiling as 1966′s Modesty Blaise. Based on the popular British comic strip featuring a hyper-sexualized female thief-cum-spy, the film takes the post-007 campy-spy scene to dizzying heights. Modesty Blaise out-camps the Flint films, the original Casino Royale, the Avengers, and even Austin Powers all together.

Monica Vitti, Terrence Stamp, and Dirk Bogarde traipse and pose through a non-existant plot about the titular female thief working for the British government for god-knows-why. The film is sloppy and artful at the same time, with caramel pacing and terrible dubbing mixed over a sublime soundtrack and stunning art direction. It is a perfect film to be projected on a wall at a party I would love to host, but unless you’re incredibly into 60s spy films, you should stick to the Avengers for your snappy high-camp.