Gizmodo: Adwatch

Bad Tech Ads: Cisco

Jason Chen — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Wherever this place is, Cisco, we never want to live here. Or visit. Or accidentally drive through on the way to work. [As seen on Crunch]

Leica Ad Pixelates Man's Best Friend

Mark Wilson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:40:00 EDT

In one of the cleverer advertisements we've seen of late, Leica is proposing that you "see it in more detail" with their D-Lux 3 by placing a pixelated dog in various real world scenes. It's a strangely effective technique, but we can't believe that someone would be so cruel to do that to a dog. Shame on you, Leica. Bad! Bad!

Seriously though, from what other shots reveal, the assembly process took hours of precise supergluing:

By the ad firm Philipp und Keuntje. [cominucadores via Core77]

Samsung Entertained Us Enough to Post Their Commercial

Mark Wilson — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

You got us, Samsung. We're suckers for optical illusions, and your "10 Optical Illusions in 2 Minutes" is—even with the Soul advertisement—extremely entertaining. So we're not going to feel used as we post a commercial without any clever commentary picking it apart. Though, to be honest, our brains are still hurting too much from the faces trick to write much of anything. It's just too bad that you clearly hate homosexuals. [via engadget]

HTC's First Big Ad Push Focuses on Fingering

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:30:00 EDT

This is HTC's first big TV ad in the US. Rather than focus on their devices individually, HTC's going for a general "brand" awareness. Seeing as how they've previously marketed their phones under the four big providers' own names (AT&T TilT, T-Mobile MDA, Verizon 6700), it's a smart step in breaking away from their control. This particular ad, one of a few that will hit print and online outlets, is underwhelming. It wants compare the HTC Touch with the iPhone (implicitly), but if you've read any of the many reviews of the device, you'll see that it's nowhere near as usable. If we were HTC, we'd focus more on their slide-out QWERTY devices that are like Sidekicks, but for businessmen.

ThunderCats Were Loose On Palace of Westminster

Mark Wilson — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:32:00 EDT

When most DVDs are released, production studios put up some posters and run a few television spots. However, when ThunderCats Season 2 hits store shelves...lets just say Lion-O isn't settling for an afternoon at Kinko's. Instead, he boldly emblazons the ThunderCats signal onto London's Houses of Parliament. While some surely see the stunt as a subversion to a great tradition of government, others will realize that during the global fight against terror, nothing instills fear into our enemies like occasional real world manifestations of 1980s cartoon superheroes. [shinyshiny]

Bad Vista "Reviews" from Apple's Latest Vista Sucks Ad Not Actually Reviews

matt buchanan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:30:22 EDT

You'll probably be seeing Apple's newest "Vista Sucks, OS X Rules Your Face" ad, starring hilarious John Hodgman and perpetually besmirked Justin Long all over the web soon. Basically, the banner keeps pulling up bad Vista quotes as Hodgman hammers the emergency banner refresh, but neither of them are from actual reviews of Vista—even though that's what Hodgman calls them.

CNET's blurb about Vista being one of tech's "biggest blunders" is actually from an op-ed that Microsoft should dump the OS entirely, while the PC Mag snippet is the title of a column from January that proffers ways for Microsoft to start-over.

It's not a mind-blowing factual error to say the quotes are from reviews, or even that disingenuous—attack ads usually involve a roll in the mud—but it's worth pointing out there's a difference between a position and an actual review. Not to say that the spots aren't amusing—John Hodgman is a riot. Oh, and we're certain its debut the same week as Vista SP1's is a total coinky-dink. [TechEBlog]

Michael Bay, Transformers and Giant Explosions Shill for Verizon FiOS

matt buchanan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:00:17 EST

Verizon's new FiOS ad is a splashy, big-budget popcorn flick compared to Time Warner's cheaper, low-fi satire spot. It even stars the king of big boom summer movies, Michael Bay, blowing a bunch of shit up and hanging out with Transformers, saying the word "awesome" a whole lot. Come to think of it, it's pretty much exactly like his movies, which you can pirate even faster with FiOS. Awesome! [Verizon]

European PlayStation 3 Ad Actually Makes Sense

Jason Chen — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:44:37 EST

Ditching the whole crazy people in a motel motif that dominated Sony Europe's first year of PS3 marketing, SCEE's gone and made a commercial that shows off what the PS3 can do and entertains at the same time. It wasn't easy, but we think firing off the employees that were shooting up during work hours was a good start. Save that crap for your own time. [Crunchgear]

Mr. T and William Shatner World of Warcraft Ads Make Us Want to Be Level 70 Mohawks

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:00:00 EST

Most of my friends play World of Warcraft. I don't. I suspect that these hilarious new spots featuring cult icons Mr. T and William Shatner are aimed at me—if you're not a geek or know nothing about the game, they have little appeal, like an earlier spot. But they're going to be national TV ads, leading me to two conclusions: WoW's popularity is peaking/has peaked. So they're wrangling the offbeat pop cultural status its South Park episode cemented to try to lure in people of my ilk. Or maybe I'm just reading it wrong. Either way, catch at least the Mr. T ad after the jump. It rules.

[Kotaku]

Apple to Run iPod Touch Ad...Made By a Teen Fanboy

Brian Lam — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:08:19 EDT

Arn over at Macrumors points out this cool story of an iPod Touch ad being run by Apple. The thing is, it was made by Nick Haley, an 18-year old student, inspired by "Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex" by CSS. Nick was flown in to the LA offices of TBWA/Chiat/Day to do a HD version of the spot. UPDATE: Apparently this was in a Zune ad first. [NYT via Macrumors]

Smellivision Ads, Coming to Billboards

Mark Wilson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:53:53 EDT

The prospect of smellivision has intrigued Man since he was enjoying the earthy scent of dinosaur cooking over an open flame, wishing He could exploit its musk to sell more dinoburgers. At long last, NTT Communications is incorporating smells into their digital signs. Using one billboard (OK, LCD display) as an experiment this month, visitors of the Tokyo JR train line will get to see beer and smell delicious oranges.

No, it's not what we had in mind either. The sign's smells will change throughout the day, emitting lemon in the afternoon and "woody" aromas at night. The bottles of chemicals are used in various recipes to create the smells, which are ultrasonically sprayed across a 5,400-square-foot area. The sign can gather updated scents through an auto web download. And for the ambitious hacker, we're guessing some nasty pranks could be programmed for unintentional public consumption. [press release via pinktentacle]

Sony Bravia Ad Covers Pyramid in String

Jason Chen — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:30:48 EDT

This Sony Bravia ad that aired in Egypt may or may not "take inspiration" from an uncredited artist (we haven't checked), but it is quite neat. Not to spoil the ending for you (it gets covered in string!) but, well, a pyramid gets covered in string. If actual Sony Bravia refresh rates were this bad, we'd go pick up a book or something. Nah, who are we kidding. [Adsoftheworld]

Sony Bastards Ripped Off the Bunny Tsunami Ad

Brian Lam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:10:01 EDT

What the Hell. When I saw this morning's post on the awesome Sony Bravia Bunny Ad, featuring multi-hued rabbits climbing through a cityscape transforming into a tidalwave, I assumed it was the work of my favorite artists, the LA-based kozyndan. By my front door, I have a framed print of one of their limited edition NYC bunny panoramics, which I've put below. Aside from this, they're probably best known for reworking of Hokusai's "Great Wave off Kana gawa" with bunnies inserted in the place of the white wash, which was featured on a Giant Robot magazine cover. I was only half right about kozyndan's involvement with this Sony project, unfortunately. They were robbed: For pretty damning proof, watch the video, and read on.

Apparently, the Passion Pictures animation studio ripped off kozyndan's after requesting samples of their work and never called them back. Dan just wrote me an email about it to confirm that this is pretty much the story, at least from their side.

I hear this happens often in advertising, but that doesn't make it fucking right. I guess it's not Sony's fault, but they should at least get their money back or get Passion Pictures to give a fair chunk to the artists. I'm pissed and not sure what I, or anyone else can do about it. Thoughts? [Passion Pictures vs KozyNDan]

Symantec Advertises Norton 360 Antivirus in Japan With Ultraman-esque Character

Jason Chen — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:33:23 EDT

We're not passing any judgment on Symantec's Japanese advertising campaign where they take an Ultraman-like character and have it beat up several black "virus" characters on the street to hype their Norton 360 product. Why? Because it's actually pretty awesome. Way more awesome than the crappy anti-virus ads we get here in the US, which lack distinct a "men on the street screwing with people" vibe. Even if it's slightly and subtly touching on Japanese racism to have a yellow-colored man beating up a bunch of black-colored men. We still approve (minus the racism part). [Norton Fighter via Japan Probe]

Michel Gondry's RAZR2 Ad

Jason Chen — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:00:11 EDT

We last saw Gondry working his craft for HP's money, but now he's taken his weirdly fluid visuals and made a 60-second spot for the Moto RAZR 2 as well. If you're a Gondry fan, you'll be sure to enjoy the fact that he takes a boring spec sheet and turns it into a subtle, but interesting montage of cellphone features. I'd like to see the director work his magic selling Windows Vista Service Pack 1 in a similar manner. [Super Punch via Neatorama]

Microsoft's Rap History Continues Past Windows 386 to MS-DOS 5

Jason Chen — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:30:07 EDT

I'm glad I never have to watch that Windows 386 video again, but this MS-DOS 5 promo video is just as bad. If not worse. Okay, it's probably worse. [YouTube]

Serena Williams and HP Ads

Brian Lam — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:22:16 EDT

More US Open/gadget combo posts. Here's a new HP ad by Serena Williams. Fact: I recently discovered that these commercials were made on HP workstations at the Goodby Silverstein agency in SF, not Macs as I'd assumed all ad agencies do. This comes by way of an HP exec, but only the people at Goodby know for sure. Great ad, either way, especially when Serena tosses the competition away like a little gnat.

Heineken Beer Robot Oozes Sexuality, Beer

Jason Chen — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:00:19 EDT

Beer companies have been using regular women to sell their product for a while, but when they get into robotic women, that's when we start to pay attention. Thanks Ray!

Sprint Offers The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition, the First $10.5 Million Cellphone

Jason Chen — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:40:36 EDT

This $10.5 million cellphone from Sprint comes with many nice features we've covered before, but has a delicious bonus that you can't find anywhere else. We're in for five. You win again, advertising. [Sprint]

Old PS3 Online Banner Ad Now Banned in the UK for Glamorizing Violence

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:50:19 EDT

While this clip isn't the ad at issue, it's from the same series of "This Is Living" spots you might remember Sony put out months ago. The banned banner features Kovac (the guy in the tub) simply holding a knife and gun below the lines, "You on my side? Listen up, I've killed for less. The music plays Puccini in my head."

A whole 23 complaints (and an eternity after the campaign) later, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority decided it "condoned" violence and banned it, even though it was only displayed by Yahoo to registered users (who at least claimed they were) over the age of 18.

One of the other ads in the series reviewed by the authority (the one you probably remember) showed a women chilling on a commode in her underwear. It was given the A-OK, presumably because it only condones using the potty properly. [Destructoid]

Paul "Boner Jams" Rudd is a Huge SNES Fan

Jason Chen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:30:55 EDT

Anyone else remember this ad for the Super Nintendo from the early '90s? It features Paul Rudd, better known as the "Boner Jams" guy from 40 Year Old Virgin, or the dude they jammed in on the last season of Friends, or the guy from Knocked Up, or the guy you've seen in a bunch of parts all over the place. He jams the cartridge in much harder than the manual indicates is proper, but plays the hell out of a bunch of games as his buddies all watch behind a chain-link fence. Oh, how we envied Paul Rudd. [Game Videos via Joystiq]

Nokia N95 Ads Portray Laptops as Crazed, Jealous, Violent Exes

Jason Chen — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:30:38 EDT

What better way to portray your so-called laptop-replacing smartphone than to make fake videos and images detailing how laptops are attacking people who use it? Take this ad, showing a new college student being bitten by an unnamed laptop as she's making a movie with her parents with the Nokia N95. Then there are the "medical pictures" of various laptop-inflicted wounds. We're thinking this is a swing and a miss for Nokia, but what about you? [Jealous Computers]

Psychedelic New Zune Commercial Airs This Saturday

Charlie White — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:33:38 EDT

Here's a new commercial for the Microsoft Zune that's just been completed. Directed by Ryan Dunn for Vitamin Pictures, our insiders tell us it'll air this Saturday. The graphics were created in Adobe Illustrator (and a bit of Photoshop, too) and then animated using Maya 3D, Sketch Toon (a plugin for Maya) and Adobe After Effects. Wow!

Not sure what the Zune has to do with a guy and gal floating around, taking pictures of each other and falling in love, but we like the way the music works with the visuals. Where's the Zune? Is this a branding exercise? Oh well, it's art.

Japanese Famicom (NES) Ads

Jason Chen — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:00:25 EDT

After watching this collection of old Japanese Famicom ads from the '80s, we can pretty much say there's not all that much difference between these ads and the Wii ads of today. There's definitely more of a focus on the games and accessories compared to the "what do people look like while playing them" ads of today. But in the end, you're not seeing some crazy console alone in a room with a demonic baby. [PlasticBamboo]

Adobe's Interactive Wall Is Like Minority Report Future Sans Apple and Microsoft

Wilson Rothman — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:07:23 EDT

See Adobe's interactive wall, featured in the New York Times and in fact on Giz, fewer than 24 hours ago. See nerds trying to get exercise they wouldn't otherwise dream of, in the hopes of triggering one of Adobe's—what was that, infrared?—motion sensors. Enjoy the man-on-the-street critiques of this cutting-edge technology, and most of all, without a doubt—Look, flying toasters! – Video by Nick McGlynn

Adobe Pimps Creative Suite 3 With Interactive Wall in Union Square

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:00:37 EDT

Adobe is shilling for its Creative Suite 3 with a 7x15 ft. interactive wall outside of the Virgin Megastore in Union Square that debuts this morning. The display grants the closest passerby control of a slider button on the bottom that manipulates what's projected based on their walking speed and direction, producing different effects in the animation. It also reacts incidentally to the crowd around it, which should make the glorious pedestrian congestion in that area even more awesome.

While definitely slick, the implementation of the idea actually seems somewhat limited, and doesn't make full use of its potential—imagine a 20x20 foot version of Microsoft Surface that people could just walk up and draw on. If it recorded every stroke made over the display's duration, it could turn into a really interesting mass art project, for instance. Sure, you'd probably wind up with more than a few obscene renderings, but it's New York, people can handle it.

That said, Adobe is at least slightly savvy to its users, immediately torpedoing the idea to stick the demo in the tourist hellhole (or just general hellhole) that is Times Square, despite its heavier foot traffic.

If you want to check it out but don't feel like rushing out right now to beat the sweating masses to 14th St., don't worry, it'll be there for a month. [NYT]

New Parallels Ads Ape "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" Spots But Actually Feel Fresh

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:30:08 EDT

While poor PC users still get the insulting end of the stick as Mac cozily snags their features, overall these spots feel less mean than Apple's and surprisingly un-stale. John Hodgman's presence is missed, but the Mac guy comes across as slightly less smug than Justin Long (probably 'cause he's way old). Complete collection after the jump.

Coexist With Parallels [The Official Parallels Virtualization Blog via MacSlash]

Wolves+Lasers= Blu-ray

Mark Wilson — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:45:14 EDT

Sony's commercials have transcended the bounds of normal advertising, and Sony's newest Blu-ray commercial (after the jump) is no exception. Purposefully esoteric, their clarity of message sits somewhere between Cirque Du Soleil and a Jean-Luc Godard film. If we are to take this new Blu-ray commercial literally, the technology scans retinas...of wolves, plays music...through water, and will drop a car on anything that fucking moves. Oh, and Blu-ray is named after the one color it reproduces on the screen.

50-100 years from now, college courses will study the Sony commercials of this era. And they will be regarded as the most awe-striking failure in history, the Hindenburg disaster over and over again— but with lots more lasers.

New Sony Blu-ray commercial [i4u]

Nicole Kidman DS-ing It Up On Video

Jason Chen — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:30:52 EDT

If Nicole Kidman being cutesy with a DS was your thing, now you can see her do it on video.

Go Nintendo [via Kotaku]

Nicole Kidman Spokesrobots the DS Lite in Europe

Jason Chen — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:00:07 EDT

Nintendo Europe's just picked Nicole Kidman to rep them in the upcoming Brain Training 2 game. Why her? It should be obvious. The shot above shows her deep in thought, trying to remember what 9 x 3 was while using the stylus to clean out the last of the CRAZY from her teeth—which still remains even though she left Tom years ago.

Although that picture is sexy, the fact that they made her face as plastic as the DS Lite she's holding is kind of disconcerting. With her, it'd be like having sex with a robot, which, in all honesty, is the goal all Gizmodo is striving toward. So no complaints here.

Nintendo Europe [via Kotaku]

Videos: Lenovo Ads Make ThinkPads Look Indestructible

Jason Chen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:45:38 EDT

We had a sneaking suspicion after IBM's sale of their Thinkpads to Chinese PC maker Lenovo, that the ads for the laptops would be tacky and cheap. We were wrong.

These four Lenovo ads tout the durability of the laptops while keeping a classy and business casual appeal. No smug Mac Guy vs. PC Guy here—just showing off their roll-cages.

– Jason Chen

Adwatch: Wonder Why the Xbox Didn't Sell in Japan?

Jason Chen — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:30:39 EDT

Microsoft has a gigantic hole to dig itself out of when it comes to the Xbox in Japan. Perhaps if they didn't make strange-ass commercials for the first Xbox (strange even for Japan's standards) with a woman and a pie machine, there'd actually be an audience for the good games they're putting out on the Xbox 360 now.

Then again, pies and beautiful Japanese women is 80% of the reason why Ashcraft moved to Japan in the first place. The other 20%? Fleeing the law. – Jason Chen

Selling The Xbox in Japan: Pie In Face Edition [TVINJapan via Kotaku]

Unofficial iPhone Ad Invades New York

Louis Ramirez — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:15:00 EDT

Chances are I'm a little biased here (being a born and bred NYer), but this is my favorite iPhone ad to date (even if it's not official). It shows NYers throughout the city talking about Apple's incoming baby. Yeah, it has a lot of NY stereotypes and it assumes NYers have nothing better to do that sit in Union Square waiting for the iPhone, but I think it beats the official cutesy ads. And the song is catchy. What do you guys think? – Louis Ramirez

Ad: New York Loves the iPhone [TUAW]

Another New iPhone Ad Touts Browser Features

Jason Chen — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:22:26 EDT

Adding to the three iPhone ads we've already seen, this new Apple ad brags about how great the browser is. Is it really that great? The world will see come June 29.

Still, we have to commend them on doing a good job showing off what could just be a line item on a tech spec sheet in a way that regular people can relate to. – Jason Chen

Thanks Liam!

2001: A Space Odyssey and iPhone Fan Fiction

Brian Lam — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:28:12 EDT

This fan fiction ad shows the iPhone sitting in for the Monolith in this 2001: A Space Odyssey mashup. I don't need to see more fake iPhone ads, when the hype is already so high. But the attention to detail in this one is phenomenal. It dials Mission Control, shows the moon on Google Maps, actual shots from Space Odyssey, and freaks the astronauts out when it starts playing music. – Brian Lam

New iPhone Ad [Youtube via Reader Cliff]

The Three New Apple iPhone Ads Teasing Us With the June 29th Release Date

Brian Lam — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:54:47 EDT

Here are those Apple iPhone ads, seen on 60 minutes just now. They all confirm the iPhone's June 29th release date and they all show lots of gorgeous video of the iPhone in use. This video is called "Never Been an iPod," and talks about all the new things you can do on the iPhone, like coverflow, widescreen movies, and of course, make calls.

The other two videos are great. One is a better quality version of the "Calamari" video, showing movie playback and Google maps search and call functionality. The other is called "How To," and it shows a lot of iPhone use, and how simple it is to work.

Apple has full -es, including HD versions, over at the site. They're recommended watching for any iPhone freak.– Brian Lam

New iPhone Ads [Apple, thanks Damien]

Sony Ericsson Adwatch: Beautiful Japanese Phones and Women

Brian Lam — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:35:46 EDT

I stumbled across this ad for Sony Ericsson Japan's handsets for their FOMA SO7033i phone. That might mean very little for you, like it does for me. But I did like the ad's mosaics of hundreds of handsets flipping from one side to the other, behind a few faces that were not too hard on the eyes. There is a bit of Japanese at the end, which Ashcraft from Kotaku translates as "Cellphones found the gentle beauty." The tagline: Beauty Renaissance. – Brian Lam

Sony Ericsson FOMA SO703i [Youtube]

AdWatch: Xbox 360 Elite Commercial Runs Out of Bullet Points

Jason Chen — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:10:40 EDT

Usually, when you're making an ad for a new product you have on the market, you make a bullet-pointed list of ways that it improves on the previous generation. In this case, all Microsoft could come up with was HDMI, a 120GB drive, and that it's black. They even said pointed out that it was black twice, since they really don't have many other features to tout.

And if you're looking for our own coverage of the Elite, there's where it is. – Jason Chen

Watch first Xbox 360 Elite commercial [DigitapSpy via Kotaku]

And the Best Ad of the Year Is: A Washing Machine Spot?

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:40:11 EDT

The best-in-show winner of the Grand Clio (Clios are like the Oscars for advertising) went to this ad for the Aqualtis washer. While it's clever—and definitely better than Sony's PS3 spots—I'm not sure it's better than their paintball Bravia ads, which also got a nod. What were your favorite spots this year? Breathe a word of any Geico caveman ad and you get executed. – Matt Buchanan

A dispatch from the Clio awards [Slate]

Adwatch: Pioneer's "Project Kuro" LCD-Killing Plasma Tech by Apple Ad Agency

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:00:00 EDT

Here's a 3:40 film montage featuring Spike Lee and some other directors, cinematographers and photographers talking about films, and the essence of kuro, Japanese for the color black, but also the "deep or endless nature of black." It's part of Pioneer's new "Project Kuro" marketing campaign celebrating their kick- ass new plasma technology that is 80% darker than before. The ads will be announced today and gain momentum this fall.

The firm in charge of these better ads is TBWA, better known for making the Apple ads since before the 1984 campaign. They couldn't go with someone better.

After the jump, there's another video, Pioneer's "Passion." No, nobody gets nailed to a cross. But the visuals are so impressive you might want to take your favorite recreational substance and enjoy.

– Wilson Rothman