By Malay Desai
From: USA, Canada
As the National Football League (NFL) held its Super Bowl number XLVIII at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, USA last Monday, various brands unveiled their ad films during half-time. What began as a norm in the annual big game has long become a huge opportunity to grab eyeballs and every year, one of the world’s most watched sporting event witnesses big budget, magnum opus ad films especially of cars, colas and electronics. After 2012’s legendary pack of films (VolksWagen’s Darth Vader spot) and last year’s stunning social media show by Oreo, the quality of ad films on show this time was much worse, with no memorable spot coming our way. That said, we still picked our top three…
What we like
1. T-Mobile’s #NoContract
Celebrity – check, self-deprecation – check, focus on buzzword – check. With 46.7 million customers, the phone network shows a potentially market-changing feature through this witty film – that one doesn’t need to be slave to a contract while buying a new phone or service. The man here is Tim Tebow, a quarterback who is currently a ‘free agent’ (i.e. doesn’t hold a contract with a team and hence is free to play or sign up for various deals). In the one-minuter, he is shown talking to the viewer, saying how he now has more opportunities. He is then hilariously shown using his football skills to deliver a baby, rescue puppies and walk on the moon. Core concept, delivered to the largest audience of the year. Well played, T-Mobile and Tebow!
2. Axe Peace–Make love, not war
Yes, this list does feature an Axe Deodorant spot, something this page always thinks twice before writing about… and it’s only because it’s not like any other women-flinging themselves-on-men Axe spot. The pretty deftly shot film shows a pensive build-up of war-like situations – a suitcase with a button in it being presented to an Asian general, another commander looking at his army building up, a tank confronting a white lady… until the tone and body language changes into celebration – the general presses the button to set fireworks, the commander celebrates his anniversary and the lady kisses the soldier in the tank. We don’t think this departure the Unilever brand is here to stay, but a maturely directed and well-shot film can be a breather in-between bikini girls.
3. Beats Music’s Ellen ad
One of the providers of high-end music accessories, Beats has signed quite a celebrity only Americans would connect with and understand – TV host Ellen of The Ellen Show, which has been running since 2003. Taking off on the folk tale of three wolves and Goldilocks, Ellen is shown trying out various headphones for ‘the right kind of music’. The reimagination of the tale is simply treatment, and that adds the unique character in the spot. For a Super Bowl kind of situation where you’re competing with dozens for attention, here’s a new to-do lesson.
SOCIAL NEWSFEED
Jurnos at Sochi tweet the Games’ shame
Here’s something that will make a lot of us feel better about the near-embarrassment of the Delhi CWG 2010. It has so happened that Sochi, the Russian town which is hosting the Winter Olympics has done worse than what Kalmadi did in terms of preparations for the global event. Last week, as scribes from across the world landed in hotels and venues, they were aghast to see their rooms in shambles, broken lifts, open manholes and other mismanaged things. Soon, pictures were up on Twitter and across other media, which doesn’t really bring too much repute to the world’s largest country. We hope that like us, the Russians (no wonder they’re our old allies!) clean up the disarray before things get worse. Because there are definitely more social networks now than there were during CWG!
Suresh Kalmadilikes this
Have you played ‘Flappy Bird’ yet?
No? Well now you’re curious and perhaps after reading this, you might go to your Android store and download it right away. Don’t hold us responsible for any loss of productivity or show of frustration thereafter, because that’s what’s happened to millions in the past few days. In a typical case of ‘nobody can predict what game can go viral next’, a Vietnamese developer has struck gold with his game being downloaded by the millions as you read this. It features a player who taps on the screen to make his bird avatar pop higher in the air. Tap rapidly and it will climb quickly, stop tapping and it will plummet. Really, that’s it. The graphics too aren’t that spectacular, in fact we tried it out and were reminded of our 108-in-1 hand-held video games of the 90s! C’mon, you know you want to play this. Go for it, it might boost Vietnam’s economy.
Your teen sibling likes this
A week of two letters gone viral
Finally, if you’ve been living under a rock and only read this space for your dose of what’s happening on social media (we love you then!), we must report that open letters are still an in thing. Last week began on a somber, shocking note when we learnt that Woody Allen, 28-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow wrote publicly alleging that her popular film-maker dad was also her sexual abuser. Some reams of blogs for and against her move have since been written since and we’re only saddened that we won’t see Allen in the same light again. But on a happy note, as Hyderabad’s Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, he wrote an open letter to the company’s employees which was amplified socially too, and we thought the man gave a neat pep talk. Nadella also tweeted for the first time in four years – perhaps a tiny reason why he reached the chair he did?!
Manipal University likes this
