What if we Revisted the Classics?

BRANDS-INTANGIBLE ASSETS, CREATION-MEDIA ARTS Apr 10th, 2012 | No Comments

Who can forget those classic ads like Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” or Avis’s “We Try Harder”? These spots have become iconic in the history of advertising. But what if we were to tailor these ads for digital media? How can these great ideas be readapted for today?

Enter Project Re:Brief by Google, where 4 famous ads from the 1960’s and 70’s are rethought for the era of digital advertising. In addition to “Hilltop” and Avis, Alka-Seltzer’s “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” and Volvo’s “Drive it like you hate it” are also part of the project. What’s remarkable about this initiative is that the original creatives who first brought these iconic campaigns to life work with the team from Google. See below the very interesting and very moving film on the digital re-imagining of Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” ad, featuring Harvey Gabor, the Art Director from McCann-Erickson who thought up the song while in an airport.

Or see how the 1962 “Drive it like you Hate it” spot for Volvo can be adapted as an app for tablets.

I hope that we see other classic ads get the “Rebrief” treatment!

What if we globalized the local and localized the global?

OPINION-HUMOR Feb 10th, 2012 | No Comments

TED talks are a wonderful demonstration of our globalized society. Although the talks began in 1984 in Monterey, California, they have spread all over the world with offshoots like TEDWomen and TEDx conferences in global cities. It is with this in mind that I recommend the talk by Sheika Al Mayassa, art and culture patron in Qatar. Done during the TEDWomen conference, her talk was held in Doha but was live streamed to an audience in Washington DC. Sheika Al Mayassa tackles head on the topic of globalization, local cultures, art, and women’s roles in all of it.

Al Mayassa is in many ways representative of today’s global citizen. Educated at Duke University, with exchange years at the Sorbonne and Sciences-Po, as well as internships at UNESCO, she currently resides in Doha where she sits on the board of the Qatari National Foundation of Museums and the Council of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority. She is also the Director of Fitch Qatar.

In spite of her Western pedigree, Al Mayassa is still very much in touch with her Qatari heritage, choosing to wear a traditional abaya not for religious reasons but as “a diverse cultural statement”, in short, she embodies what she believes: globalizing the local and localizing the global.

In this talk, she outlines our conflicting desires to belong and to stand out; as she says “we don’t want to be all the same, we want to respect and understand each other.” She believes that as we become more global, local cultures, things that make us different, become more important, not the other way around. In a young nation like Qatar, where some 60% of the population is under the age of 30, she sees developing and preserving local artistic and cultural traditions as the best way to do this. Despite Qatar’s enormous resources, cultural development must be done organically and respecting the regions own desert traditions.

Art defines a nation, a culture, and a people. For a young country like Qatar, creating strong institutions that reflect the region’s rich and diverse heritage is essential. According to Al Mayassa, women are essential in this process. As cultural gatekeepers, women understand inherently the importance of national and regional treasures. Nowadays, instead of merely acting as guardians, women like Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, are beginning to create art as well.

She highlights the newly founded Doha Film Institute, which in its second year of existence trained 66 Qatari women in film and video production. She speaks of Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art that as of right now has just opened: the museum represents the full spectrum of Arab artists, some Muslim, some not. She ends by showing a short film made by one of the Doha Film Institute’s students. It lasts one minute but this humorous scene shows us the important of globalization on a local scale.

What if the music video was an ad?

CREATION-MEDIA ARTS Feb 9th, 2012 | No Comments

I loved Chevy’s Super Bowl ad with Ok Go. This very special music video and ad has over 1000 “instruments” in place along a 2 mile strip in the California desert. Driving a specially equipped Chevy Sonic, the brand drove their 4 minute song Needing/Getting along this unique course. This clip took 4 months to prepare, and 4 days of shooting to get everything perfect. A few images from the music video were added into the commercial (below) and the music video’s preveiw was broadcasted at the end of the Super Bowl (above). Amazing!

What if we took a minute?

CHARITY-NGO Feb 8th, 2012 | No Comments

Solidarités International, the association that fights for access to potable water, has launched a new campaign with the help of BDDP&Fils. After last year’s “Water & Ink“, and 2010’s Wall of Water, Solidarités has come out with a new campaign: La Minute. In La Minute, Internet users are encouraged to film themselves in silence for one minute, in memory of the 7 people who die every minute from non-potable water. These video contributions will be shown in Marseille during the World Water Forum (March 12 – March 17) in an effort to raise awareness among politicians. Thus far, 739 minutes have been submitted, and over 100,000 people have signed the petition. So take a minute and do something to help the millions of people without access to clean water.

What if this was the best campaign ad of the season?

CREATION-MEDIA ARTS Feb 7th, 2012 | No Comments

“It’s Halftime in America”, Chrysler’s 2-minute spot for the Super Bowl has been generating lots of buzz. Hollywoord legend (and legendary Republican) Clint Eastwood gives a peptalk for the American automobile industry, the city of Detroit, and the United States. However, this moving ad has riled none other than Republican strategist, Karl Rove, who sees the ad as a repayment “of political patronage” by the auto companies who accepted bail-out money. Although Chrysler denies any political bias, this is a powerful, inspiring ad. Not only does it make a wonderful bookend to last year’s “Imported From Detroit” (see below), but it’s also a grittier version of Reagan’s “Morning in America.”