It's been a while since I published an ADdicted feature, mostly because I haven't seen many ads worthy of sharing with you.
But this week I spent some time as a judge for the Effies, helping to decide which marketing campaigns will earn Bronze, Silver, and Gold this year. I can't share any of those amazing campaigns for confidentiality reasons, but it put me in an advertising-judging mood... and I discovered two campaigns this week that I thought were worthy of a share.
The first is the very cheeky (if you'll pardon the wordplay, given the visual on the left) ad below:
Durex is all about protection, so jumping on the "wear a mask" train makes sense for the brand. The visual is striking, the message is timely, and personally, I love when brands take a stand.
My only criticism of this ad? It appears it may not be an original idea, which I discovered only after searching online to see if this was an actual Durex ad or some creative "fan art". I searched Durex's social channels and couldn't find this ad posted, so it might not be legit. Still, it's pretty good.
There are also these related ads I also discovered while on my fact-checking mission:
I like these (admittedly very risque) ads -- and I think they would be a hit with the target audience, which really, is far more important than whether you or I like the ads -- but as a marketer, I love the fact that they appear to be crowd-sourced with proper credit given. You know you have a strong brand when your consumers will do your marketing on your behalf, for free.
And speaking of strong brands, if you haven't already seen it, you absolutely must check out the LOL-inducing video below, brought to you by one of the strongest brands in the world...
This is seven minutes of pure comedy gold.
My favourite part is when Dave has to speak with Mike from Finance -- "Are those...swords?" -- possibly because I've been in more "your budget's been cut" situations than I care to remember.
The spot not only touches upon the many trials and tribulations that those of us working from home have likely experienced over the past few months but also does a nice job of showcasing Apple's products and features along the way. When brands create content, there's always that fine balance between making it entertaining (so people will watch and share it) and delivering a message (so it has a positive impact on your business.) This spot strikes that balance well.
When I tweeted out this spot yesterday, a Creative Director friend of mine said the ad was "fine". Surprised at his lacklustre reaction, I asked him to elaborate, and he did: he said it was "too late", referring to the fact that we've been in lockdown since mid-march and that this spot should have been released months ago.
Fair point. Although I suspect many people are only just now, after five months, able to find humour in having to WFH every day.