Tonsillitis

I’ve been couch-ridden for the past few days. First time in my life I’ve ever gotten tonsillitis. I thought I was actually rid of this a few weeks ago when I first got it, but I think my laziness and naivety caused it to resurface with a vengeance.

I’ve never experienced this type of pain in my life. It literally hurts to swallow anything. Food, medicine, even water. The pain is like needles piercing the back of your throat every time you move. Quite torturous. However, I did discover that warm milk and turmeric works pretty miraculously — although it’s not nearly as potent as I need it to be.

I’ll be visiting my first New York doctor tomorrow. First time using my Medicaid as well. All these mundane little things are acclimating me more to this New York life of mine. I suppose that’s a good thing in a sense. I’m just sick and tired of being sick, and I miss actually being able to speak.

Pain, you can go away now.

Beauty Has Its Limits

This new Pentax camera spot is indeed very beautiful. Shot and edited well, but it leaves me with a feeling they didn’t intend.

A man walks around one of the ‘most romantic cities in the world’ and experiences everything through his viewfinder. That’s incredibly sad if you think about it. He is immersed in so much culture, entertainment, and love yet he can’t be bothered to look up and away from his monitor. He doesn’t live. He exists through technology. Why make that the point of your advertising?

After watching this spot, I’m left feeling enclosed, cut off, and wanting more. I wish he would have thrown his camera aside and started enjoying his life. This spot has succeeded in making me understand more about the brand: Pentax limits and enslaves you to its fancy buttons. More of a burden than anything else if you ask me.

Hong Kong is Convenient

This isn’t advertising related at all but incredibly amazing for all those frequent travelers out there. I can really relate because I’ve been living out of my suitcase for the earlier half of this year.

Hong Kong has devised a system where you can check-in your luggage from inside the city. That frees you up to explore more and not waste an entire day. It allows you to spend your last day without being constrained by your luggage. You no longer have to lug your bags through cavernous metros and tight turnstiles. You no longer have to pay an expensive as hell taxi fare.

Checking-in in the city essentially functions like a satellite check-in booth at the airport. You go through the same procedures you would, and your luggage goes straight through to the plane. You don’t have to worry about any additional steps.

The only semi-caveat is in order to qualify for this service, you have to purchase an express metro train to the airport. That’s $13 USD. The train also has free WiFi onboard. There really is no downside to this system aside from trust. Personally, I can’t wait until this system gets implemented in other cities around the world. The sooner the better.

Source: Business Insider

Clever Girl

Posting this Heineken stunt not because I think it’s a particularly cool execution or anything. I was more impressed by how this girl managed to silence the entire crowd. She tapped into a very good insight and observation on how everyone gets quiet when there’s something important to be said. She realizes how people by nature are nosey. She capitalizes on their weakness and wins the tickets for herself. Clever girl. Very, very clever. Most impressive aspect of this video.

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Now on to the actual inspiring campaign.

It’s beautiful how a simple execution can be so lovely. Encourage digital reading by reading under trees. Install free wifi in places you normally couldn’t get service, and just make it a novel experience as possible. Given, this campaign would have only succeeded during beautiful weather, I still think the thought behind it is super clean, quick, and sweet.

Combine and implement technologies in places you wouldn’t normally find them.

Brand Partnerships

When the stars align, brand partnerships can be amazing. It’s like watching a cameo in your favorite movie. It’s like playing a Marvel character in a Nintendo video game. This is a big reason why the Avengers was so awesome.

That’s why I love, love, love the partnership between Airbnb and IKEA. So smart, smart, smart. They’ve selected a date for people to book an evening in one of three IKEA showrooms. Guests will get to try out the furniture but also get a unique housing experience. It just sounds so freaking cool. I’d love to book it right away. Unfortunately, I live nowhere near Sydney.

Cheeky Newcastle Bastards

I’ve been a fan of Newcastle’s No Bollocks angle for a while now, and it seems like they’ve been able to develop a series of hit-after-hit fun little additions to extend the campaign. I opted in their last effort, and I support them this time around as well.

The #NewcastleAdAid campaign is a simple social integration where people submit their lame photos via tweet. Images will be randomly selected and photoshopped into ridiculous advertisements that any intern could do. The tackiness is what makes it funny. That’s what makes this whole campaign a dream for execution and manpower. Everything is just so stupid. Stupid to a point that it’s brilliant on many levels. This concept is the gift that keeps on giving.

Here’s the case study for it.

I Used to Be Sony Loyal

I remember the days when I used to only want Sony Ericsson phones. That brand loyalty has long faded, but my love for this little campaign rekindles it slightly. W+K has created a series of little apps to showcase the waterproof features of the new Xsperia.

I guess the solution was obvious. The result is pretty simple and entertaining. How do you best convey to the customer that these phones are waterproof? Well throw them underwater, of course. I love how they took the most clearcut answer and paired it with beautiful executions. Who says not to put any apps in your portfolio?

To see the array of films, I defer to AdWeek.

Apple Returns to the Top

Even though it’s been pointed out that this twist has been done before, the sentiment still remains. I can’t help but be touched by this spot. It nabbed an Emmy for Best Commercial 2014 for good reason. Every time you pull at the heartstrings, it’s hard to go wrong. Well. Admittedly, if your client is cigarettes then you’ll probably be more likely to still piss people off. But under very difficult circumstances can you go wrong with this approach normally haha.

Also as an observation, I notice I have been posting mostly video spots. I need to widen my range and explore more kinds of advertising. Surely more stuff is making its rounds around the interwebs for me to discover. I’d like to find more ambient. More writing. More radio. Let’s see what the hunt will yield with new objectives in mind.

Mind Your Skin

I notice I’ve been attracted to a lot of social cause related advertising lately. On the other hand, maybe it’s mostly issues like these that get picked up by the media. That’s also insightful to realize what kinda work gets most talked about by the press.

My inspiration piece of the day is ‘How the Sun Sees You’.

Visually beautiful and very interesting to see the unseen effects the sun has on you. Makes me worried about myself actually because I tan so easily. This is an easy sunblock ad done in a mature and artistic tone that brands like Coppertone aren’t really known for. Maybe the client could have been a high-end sunblock. Who knows. That’s the strategist in me talking now.

I believe the creator just did this for the sake of art. Which makes the piece so much more appealing. Another lesson to take away from this is that you should just aim to create beautiful work. There will always be an aim and objective to plug in later. If it’s done nicely, everyone will want to jump on board.

Fart Goes the Weasel

Who doesn’t love a good fart gag? These guys take it to the next level and turn it into a social cause.

It’s just something silly and fun. That’s what makes others want to do it. Too bad its release parallels with the whole ALS ice bucket thing. Overshadowed.

What I also like about this campaign is that it implements a feature I’ve been trying to explain to all my team partners for forever now. One day I’ll be able to sell it by using this as a case study. Much like YoutubeRepeat.com. I don’t understand why people aren’t using this feature more. Hopefully this will spark the inspiration.