Jimmy Kimmel’s promos (costarring Oprah) spoofing the boombox serenade from Say Anything were dumb too. But I heard his show that night was hilarious.

If I had to find a winner among the Oscar ads I’d say it was the Diet Coke spot.

Their softer, subtler ode to the people behind the movies was elegantly done and I loved the touch at the end with the logo rolling up like the final credits.  It will be interesting to see if the Oscars continues to evolve into advertising’s next big event. Probably not, because the show’s ratings keep dropping whereas the Super Bowl’s climb year after year.

Touches the heartstrings doesn’t it? This setup is a fantastic use of metaphor. “It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half. It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game.” And this conclusion makes sure you know that you’re watching a car ad.  “How do we win? Detroit’s showing us it can be done. And, what’s true about them is true about all of us. This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines.”

I have never once bought an American car in my life, but I found myself believing in Chrysler or at least hopeful that someday they’d put out a product worthy of my hard-earned money.  And if some American auto engineer stumbles upon this, that would be one with great gas mileage that will last at least a decade. NOT one that can bungee jump like in that god-awful Chevy Sonic ad. Goodby, Silverstein, & Partners get nearly as many mocking jeers from me as W&K gets accolades.

But they weren’t the only ones to strike out. Every Budweiser ad was atrocious and a waste of 3.5 million per 30sec as well as what seemed like unlimited production costs.  Freaking Budweiser Platinum is bound to fail anyway. You want a fancy beer, you don’t look to Bud. Anybody remember Budweiser Select? It’s still out there somewhere, I think. Anheuser Busch (or should I say InBev) ought to just stick with their old model. Make money in the budget beer aisle and buy up a stake in good craft beers like Dominion or Red Hook. Better yet, don’t. You’ll only ruin them.

But back to the commercials. Like always its was beers and cars.  Deutsch LA did a decent follow-up to their excellent “little Darth Vader” Volkswagon ad. The dieting dog was interesting enough. But the Mos Eisley cantina scene at the end was disjointed and egotistical. “Let’s pat ourselves on the back for last year, ha ha. That’s worth a million bucks.” The  Chevy Silverado \”Apocalypse\” spot was pretty good but the blatant stab at Ford came off as childish compared to the universally appealing All-American vibe from Chrysler.   Personally, I’d much rather all the manufacturers in Detroit stop infighting and push either other to beat the real competition from overseas.  Put your differences aside for America, Chevy. Then maybe some Japanese people will start importing Silverados.

Speaking of the Japanese car companies, I am torn on the Toyota “Reinventing” ad. watch?v=k9L-8372A3w Yes, “Reinventing the DMV” and “Reinventing Rain. It makes you skinny,” are funny lines, but what the heck is Toyota redefining. Its the same damn car. All I’m gonna remember is the look on the guys face after the couch turns into a bunch of dudes.  I wouldn’t even have known the sponsor unless I looked it up for this post.

But I guess funny is better than nothing. Pure entertainment value it works. That’s more than GoDaddy can say. They make me roll my eyes and I’m a guy. Doritos “cat killer” ad was pitiful. Century 21 was atrocious.  So my kudos go off to Chrysler. Good luck making me that green car I’m waiting for. And good luck topping that ad next year.

Web marketing is the way of the world now and has been for a while, so its nice to see that some clients are finally letting people break the mold a bit.  Standard navigation structures and user experiences aren’t the only way to go anymore. Thank goodness. And that means there’s more room for creativity.  Here’s a nice site promoting our sister agency that really brings our creative platform of “We speak your language” to life.  I’ll add a few more sites as the development gets completed and products get approved for launch.  They don’t all live up to their potential though. I am proud of the content on this equine site, but the client’s digital agency didn’t really bring the energy of our campaign to the web like we envisioned. And the Million Heart Challenge has a very nice motive–to raise awareness of canine heart failure–and has a charity pledge to boot, but the goal of a million clicks is a really, really lofty one.

The problem is most owners don’t recognize the clinical signs in their dogs soon enough to get treatment so we also had to create an educational brochure for owners of at-risk dogs. The target was owners with dogs that haven’t been diagnosed. We needed them to recognize the risk and look out for the signs.  Our crosswalk signs visual elements lent itself to that idea quite nicely. See below.

Also shown below is a fun, motivational bookmark that was given to reps as part of a vacation getaway contest used to promote the launch campaign.

I’ve now worked on Apligraf at 2 separate agencies and have helped them truly transform the brand and elevate its benefits to an emotional level. Enclosed is the master sales aid that centers the new campaign. The content is just as essential as the concept on this one. We had to make wound care specialists rethink the wound, and rethink the way they have always used Apligraf. The detail aid tells the whole new story and is supported by a new selling process, and sales training tools.