The Oscars (they don’t seem to call them Academy Awards any more) commands the second-biggest 30-second rate after the Super Bowl ($1.8m ratecard) so there were some interesting new offerings aired last night (Sunday).
Here’s one for Samsung’s tablet Note 10.1 featuring wacky film director Tim Burton from 72andSunny. All their current stuff has a nice confident air.
It was directed by Michael Downing for Epoch Films and artfully edited by Will Hasell for Arcade.
If 72andSunny carries on like this it might actually inch owner MDC Partners into the black.
I see, by the way, that Google has moved its global Chrome account to 72andSunny from BBH New York despite the latter producing loads of good ads. Why can’t BBH New York hang on to accounts? Culling the staff last year probably didn’t help.
Diet Coke chose to reprise last year’s effort from Wieden+Kennedy and why not? It’s a classy piece of work and actually says “Oscars.”
But BETC London’s new ‘Gardener’ ad also got an airing. BETC London now has Diet Coke’s global account although it will be aware of W+K lurking in the wings.
Troubled US retailer JC Penney debuted a new campaign from The Bureau (which now works only for JCP apparently) called ‘yours Truly.’ It has bits of the UK’s John Lewis approach with a nod or two to W+K’s ‘Americana’ school of creativity.
JCP is trying to move up-market, with mixed results so far.
Does this stuff work for retailers? It certainly does for John Lewis but the emotional approach is underpinned by its ‘Never knowingly undersold’ platform (although it sometimes is).
Maybe there’s a tip there for JCP.