What Recession? 10 Sumptuous New Ads Show Madison Avenue Is in a Golden Age
Heineken's new TV commercial, "The Date," is the second in its chain of epic party entrance ads, and it's more fantastic and unlikely than the last. Words don't do the spot justice, but here goes: A couple enters a super-cool party via the back entrance, Goodfellas-style, and is accosted by a series of increasingly bizarre characters while a band plays "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" from the Bollywood movie Gumnaam.
It doesn't make a lick of sense, and that's the point: The ad is an exercise in senseless sumptuousness. It's part of a trend on Madison Avenue -- the country may be in recession but the ad business is not, and agencies are making commercials that are as elaborate, big-budget and luxurious as possible. Here are 10 ads that typify the over-the-top trend, beginning with the new Heineken commercial.
There's a special treat on the last page of the gallery -- a jaw-dropping Japanese ad for Docomo's Touch Wood cellphone featuring the longest xylophone in the world.
Heineken - "The Date"
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Coca-Cola - "The Great Happyfication"
Coke has done some terrible advertising recently -- its Christmas campaign was dismal -- but it is making up for that with this epic animated spot. The conceit: What happens to your coins after you push them into a soda-dispensing machine.
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LG Kompressor Elite - "Something Lurking"
One of the best ads of 2010, LG seems to have commissioned a sinister combination of Toy Story and Inception to show the drama lurking at carpet level when your kid's toys are confronted by a vacuum cleaner.
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Heineken - "The Entrance"
This was Heineken's opening shot in its new campaign. It was an eyebrow-raiser when it first aired, and set a high bar for the company to leap with "The Date."
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Scion - "Zeus"
This ad looks dumb but there is a lot more going on in it than you think. Aside from the obvious joke -- that this is the Greek god Zeus endorsing a mid-range automobile -- I counted at least eight visual and aural jokes in the spot, many of them spoofing the nature of car advertising itself. Very clever.
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British Airways - "To Fly. To Serve."
It's borrowing some interest from the current Mad Men/Pan Am/Playboy Club vogue that's afflicting TV right now, but it overcomes that by taking the history seriously. And look at those lovely old planes.
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Virgin Atlantic - "Your airline's either got it or it hasn't"
BA's spot is a response to Virgin's super-modern commercial from last year, which appears to have set off a creative war in the airline category.
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Weetabix - "Dancer"
Another deceptively simple but difficult-to-make ad, this is the new campaign for Weetabix in the U.K. Aside from the choreography/animation mashup, the campaign is social-media genius -- it asks kids to click on a link if they want to learn the dance.
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Old Spice - "Questions"
You've seen this one already but it's worth a second look once you know that it was filmed by ad agency Wieden & Kennedy in a single take, including all the costume and scene changes. The agency declines to describe how it was achieved, but has admitted it took many, many attempts before getting the shot it wanted. This is what expensive advertising looks like.
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Touch Wood SH-08C - "Xylophone"
Is it the world's longest xylophone? Who cares? It's still astonishing.