I'm talking about the new VW Golf commercial.
I heard the idea over 18 months ago, from mates who work at DDB, where everyone was convinced it could be great. So does it live up to expectations? No. It exceeds them, quite considerably.
From a rock-solid line and strategy, they've created a truly top-notch film. It's got tension, energy, excitement, and even moments of humour. Plus the music, which if I'm not mistaken is a 2 Many DJ's job, is just ace.
Well done to creative team Sam Oliver and Shish Patel, CD Jeremy Craigen, and director Ivan Zacharias. I hate you all.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Has The Ad Of The Year Snuck In Right At The End?
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47 comments:
I saw the words 'The Matrix' as an influence and worried it would be awful.
But actually its brilliant. That just screwed up my ad of the year post...
lovely idea, lovely
and it's Jeans Team, "Keine Melodien" featuring MJ Ian - i think - and yes, it's off 'as heard on radio soulwax'
badger
Cute.
Post watershed, I imagine.
But nice.
i really like the idea, not sure if i like the ad.
i think you guys built it up too much.
think i would have prefferd this if i caught it on telly and not an ad blog.
I thought it went on a bit. Definitely not ad of the year. How old's the frickin' Matrix?
No.
10.46
Makes some good points.
Listen to the man.
Effing superb
It doesn't need the Matrix style fight scenes. It is a great strategy - very simple and to the point. It says we're the best without actually saying we're the best.
But why use a film that was front of mind almost ten years ago as inspiration?
The new VW Golf
Designed by "The One"
Definitely ad of the year.
Yes. It is.
The wonderful/rubbish thing about advertising is that at the end of the day it's subjective. I wish it was the ad of the year - I really like the team and it's been a rubbish year. It just didn't surprise me.
without taking anything away from it, i prefer night drive.
maybe there won't be an ad of the year next year either and then three will come along at the same time in 2010.
merry christmas.
and is it not just a tincey-wincey bit honda-esque and generic?
The overall feeling is: "Another character replication exercise."
Very good production/post-production.
Still, another character replication exercise. Which means the idea is weaker than the technical execution.
Yup, thought feels familiar and the execution doesn't surprise. Beautifully shot mind, great music...but the whole concept feels dated. The Matrix? So 1999...almost 10 years ago.
surely this is the ad of the year:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/3117500463_4cc45374ee.jpg?v=0
answer to your question scamp. 'no it hasn't'
What? This isn't even good.
It is just lame kung-fu.
I think the line and strat are great. Lovely.
Matrix tho. Poor.
very poor.
Im in fact crying on my keyboard.
And I've lost my erection.
Don't think the ad does the thought justice. And the fighting is a bit clunky, nowhere near matrix standard.
ad of the year? movie pastiche of the week more like. and it's too long.
but fair play for sticking your neck out for a former employer's ad!
hmmm. It's a good ad but you could predict what the line was going to be five seconds in. that can't be a good thing.
It's an obvious idea done quite well.
Great ad shame about the trying too hard to be clever line. Surely it would have been better to have said "Stay ahead of the clones" or something. But then I haven't been party to hours and hours of interminable research. Happy Christmas :)
10 seconds before the end, thought to myself, 'the payoff had better be good'. It wasn't.
Look, it's an expensively-shot, dated-influenced, generic, overlong, gratuitously violent ad with decent music and the shame in these times of a ludicrous budget spunked up the wall.
It joins the other contenders for 'best of a bad bunch, ad of the year 2008'.
To be honest, it's beautifully done, but the old 'beating yourself' concept is such an old chestnut.
Haven't we seen it in countless sports brand ads?
Of course. It's been done for Nike. So we can add unoriginal to 7.51's list. What a brilliant ad of the year that would make.
ad of the year? the old 'replicated person' idea is so over used (not to mention the matrix thing). nice production yeah, but as far as thinking goes, could have tried harder.
i love the strategy.
and i like the idea a lot.
i actually think the 60 (if there is one) will be better than this flabby 100 that reeks of an indulgent directors cut.
the music's great.
and the casting.
thank god we can all forget that execrable hovis film now.
well done petal and sam.
borrowing interest from a film 10+ years old is not exactly groundbreaking is it?
I can see your lips are still tempted to kiss Jeremy's derriere even after all these years...
Scamp posed an easy enough question:
'Is this the best ad of the year?'
Judging by the negative response, clearly you all disagree.
So what is?
Personally, I'd like it on my reel. But if I could choose only one ad from the year, I'd rather have the live Honda one.
Interestingly, the media year round-up in Monday's Guardian was illustrated by a picture of 'Gorilla', an ad that was made in Sept 2007. I think that says a mouthful.
It was The Guardian who referred to The Matrix.
This spot is satirising so much more than that -- a whole decade plus of films since The Matrix that feature fight scenes in slow-mo.
As for the spot, it's an apt and memorable dramatisation of the idea –– just a shame the idea is more suited to Nike.
to all the assholes saying matrix is old, just imagine the guardian had called it 'bourne' instead and then you will have nothing bad to say about it.
because you are assholes.
Why would they say it's Bourne? It isn't. It's Matrixy. And everything was matrixy about ten years ago. So it feels very dated. They should get Ali G to do the next one. Booyakasha!
I couldn't give two fucks what film it's satirising (ie: ripping off). I'm just interested in the idea and it's not very good. And it's been done before. And it could apply to hundreds of things.
Add that up and it's a long shot of ad of the week.
But anyway, have you seen that new Aviva ad with Bruce Willis and Ringo Starr? Talk about a giant fucking waste of cash from a financial institution.
hey scamp, what happened with the house rules at 10.22?
Tricky one. I guess he wasn't slagging off an individual, but a many...
I'm a Golf V driver and my car is one of the things I love in this world. "Night Drive" was about me, I just do that every once in a while just for the joy of driving and for the love of my car. "It's A Feeling" was also about me. Golf was always about driving one, or about beeing one that owns one.
And this one is nothing.
I knew the entire story after the first 3 seconds of it.
Guys, what's happening there in UK, you're supposed to produce great ideas? So some guy comes up with this "brilliant" Beat Yourself idea that's about a guy beating himself? Then he tells it to some other guy and then to another and then they all dance around it for 18 month believing they've created an ad of an year?! What is this "beat yourself"? Is it new, fresh, unexpected? I don't have anything against ideas that are old as the world but that's when they're viewed from a different angle. I'm not a strategic planner, not a copywriter, not even a native English speaker, not to say that I work for a far poor agency than DDB London, and I think even I could have done it better by putting it maybe like "disagree with yourself" or "only give up against yourself". Adidas did it far better 4 years ago with the same "beat yourself" but the way they put it was "I had to loose" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJzDPOLXtfs
This is so disappointing.
What a pack of absolute ad wank. Sorry but I just found your blog and if this is your idea of quality I want be coming back. Besides being old hat - the slo-mo fight scenes - how they fuck does it really talk to jo punter out to buy a new motor?
All I can think is you must have mates at DDB. Real good ones. That's the problem with advertising...it's all smoke and mirrors...a PR train run by mates.
"All I can think is you must have mates at DDB."
Where on earth did you get that idea, Gerry?
Was it from the bit in my post where I said I had mates at DDB?
Perhaps it was.
In any case, I'm not the only person that likes it.
You do raise a serious point - will this ad convince Joe Punter to buy a Golf?
Actually I think it will. Punters already believe the Golf to be the best small car. What puts them off is the cost. So an ad that says "you knew we were the best, but guess what, we've just made it even better" could make them think it is worth paying the extra. That's my rationale for why it will work.
Do you have one for why it won't?
Just a thought but what if the endline was more about beware of the fakes or nasty imitations or looks can be deceptive but there is only one genuine article or some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
Would the ad still work?
Hey Scamp
I don't think Joe Punter will take from the ad what you suggest. Your comment sounds like post-rationalisation of an average idea that a couple of creatives thought might be fun to make .
John, I guess the ad would still work, but I'm not sure it would then be based on a real truth - are there other manufacturers out there copying the Golf?
Gerry, you're just repeating your earlier assertion that the ad won't work on Joe Punter, aren't you? So, come on, tell us... why won't it? And what do you think Joe Punter will take out of it, if not what I suggested?
Scamp
I take your point but I would hazard a guess that the car manufactures are copying the best of each other or certainly would given the chance. Well if the incident with McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari within Formula 1 is anything to go by!
or is it just pretty ordinary
if it was for kia it wouldnt even get noticed
Yuck. Cheese.
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