One Plus One Equals Three

'Burst' & 'Orchestra': TV Ads of the Year (So Far)

The Sony Bravia 'bouncing balls' may have started a delicious trend. Above is the new TVC for Schweppes created by George Patterson Y&R and director Garth Davis. Shot at 10,000 frames per second and featuring the sublime music of The Cinematic Orchestra, this is simply stunning and quite deserving of the praise being heaped upon it about the place.

Read more at indents.tv. If you like what you see, The large QuickTime file there is worth the download.

Related (created by the same agency and the product is a fizzy drink): the new Victoria Bitter Orchestra TVC. How to make a memorable ad for a well-known 'blokey' product that has a famous associated signature tune? Have some skilled musicians play the beer! See below:

Best Film Posters of 2006

We* design film posters. They're always challenging, both creatively and in terms of satisfying all the stakeholders involved in selling a film. Creatively, we artfully integrate words and images and attempt to communicate (or hint at) the film's mood, tone, character and key concepts (and if Gwyneth Paltrow or Gérard Depardieu is in it or not). We also endeavour to satisfy our sometimes 'three-headed client' (yes, they're actually a hydra – but I mean that in the nicest possible way). Our film poster client is a film distribution company (head no.1), and we often also need to satisfy the film's production team (head no. 2) and the film's director (head no.3). Quite a job, but one we relish.

I really like film posters but my co-designer and colleague Julian Pang loves this film promo medium. He collects (digital) film posters. Alongside his photos in iPhoto are hundreds of film posters in all languages. 

Who better to ask to pass verdict on the best film posters of 2006 and to list some of the more 'interesting' ones?

Visit Pang's choice of 2006 film posters. (And yes, the Borat poster above has no type on it).

Bibendum: Now Lo-fat!

I'm an unabashed fan of Bibendum (the Michelin Man). I've always loved the idea of Bibendum being a constantly changing, flexible, character-based 'brandmark'. You'll see him cycling, strolling along, doing gymnastics, smoking a cigar, juggling tyres, doing all sorts of things – yet still identifying and communicating 'Michelin'. For Bibendum, according to Per Mollerup, "variation has become part of his identity". Other brands (as Mollerup mentions) have used characters to promote and perhaps 'soften' the perceived coldness of their corporate mark: IBM used The Pink Panther and there was the Esso Tiger (which originated in Norway) but for me they don't get close to the goofy charm of the rubbery guy. In 2000 the Financial Times named Bibendum the 'advertising icon of the century'. I'm inclined to agree.

Clearly, he's a well-known, highly recognisable, bouncy figure. And he's now toned up and lost weight. He's slimmed down "to appeal more to healthconscious 21st-century viewers"!

Grassroots Beauty

You Are Beautiful: an art/activism project. "The intention behind this project is to reach beyond ourselves as individuals to make a difference by creating moments of positive self realization in those who happen across the statement".

"Advertising elicits a response to buy, where this project elicits a response to do something. The attempt with You Are Beautiful is to create activism instead of consumerism. You Are Beautiful uses the medium of advertising and commercialization to spread a positive message". Via PSFK.

The Diamond in the Desert

What was once the world's largest advertising sign (between 1972 and 1991) is now readily available via Google Maps. The famed Readymix concrete sign was a familiar sight for people flying to Perth in decades past, but it seems that current trans-continental flightpaths now use other routes bypassing the 'diamond in the desert'. "Each side of the diamond measures 1.8 kilometres. The letters that spell out "READYMIX" are 240 metres high by 180 metres wide, with each stroke estimated to be about 12 metres wide." How do you make a sign this huge?: "...the signage has been in place since 1965 when a grader driver carved it into the ground, exposing the white limestone bedrock." Read more of this XXL typo-tale at The Age.

I had come across this sign via a copy of Qwerty magazine a few years back and had heard apocryphal stories of 'this bloody big sign on the Nullarbor'... well here it is.

Pom-tonking Season

You know it's summer in Australia when the grass fades to a lifeless PMS 616 and you start to hear a distant thwok on television sets, radios and online broadcasts about the place. The thwok is the sound of a willow bat hitting a very hard ball with great force (often followed by clapping and sundry crowd noises). It's the sound of cricket and is very much a part of our summer – whether you happen to like this curious sport, or not.

Normally I'm not much of a cricket fan. Local and state cricket I find not terribly exciting. But an international test match, especially one between old rivals Australia and England, is something to savour. I'm no expert, was quite terrible at the sport myself, but taking on the Poms* is a mainstay of our summer every few years. In this era of high-tech sports-gizmos and gadgets, cricket is a bit of an anomaly. It's a civilised sport played by men in pressed white trousers, that stop their game for tea and lunch and enquire 'how is that?' when an opposing team member may be so unfortunate as to be given 'out' for some reason or other.

Why do I like this so much? I can't quite explain. I really enjoy The Ashes test matches. And so do our advertising companies.

Lose Myself? Gladly

I recently happened across a copy of Fairfax's The (Sydney) Magazine (similar to The Age (Melbourne) Magazine but with a focus on the harbour city – duh). Same aspirational content same silly bracketed title. Same glossy stock, glossy chefs-as-celebrities and glossy car ads. Stuck to the back of the Sydney magazine was The (Melbourne) Guide, designed in the same way, with its 16 pages full of places to see in Melbourne – with a focus on our laneways and alleys. Our laneways are quite unique amongst Australian cities – no other city in Oz has such a maze of small thoroughfares weaving through their CBD chock full of bars, cafés, restaurants, bookshops, boutiques, etc. They're one of the things I love most about this city.

The Melbourne Guide is really an extension of a tourism campaign aimed at (duh again!) attracting tourists to Melbourne. So, if you are a Melburnian, try and hunt it down (some examples are in the continuation of this post) – because it's particularly good – and you may never get to see it.

Subtle, simple, whimsical and quite idiosyncratic. Quite a bold departure from the norm for a tourism campaign. Nice type too. I think it works beautifully.

'Get a Mac' in Japan

Apple Japan has launched a Japanese version of the 'I'm a PC. I'm a Mac' Get a Mac campaign. Interestingly, if you spend a little while on the main US Apple site, you'll see that no other countries have their own dedicated version of these ads (yet) – most are simply dubbed. Thanks Ben Greig.

Bloody Hell! Australia the Top National 'Brand'

From The Age: "Australia has the world's most marketable country brand, according to an index released in London at the World Travel Market.

The 'Australian brand' topped the United States and Italy, which were ranked second and third respectively, on the second annual Country Brand Index 2006 (CBI).

The CBI identifies countries as brands and their rating within emerging global travel trends in travel and tourism."

I guess it's inevitable (yet somewhat uncomfortable) that countries are thought of as 'brands'... practically everything else is. It also appears that the controversial Bloody Hell ad campaign well and truly worked and contributed to people's positive perception of Australia.

An Eggscellent Idea

STOP PRESS: Late breaking egg news
In the last week or so many blogs have been reporting on the new laser-based egg-etching process developed by Eggfusion. Logos, brands, special announcements and expiration dates can be happily and safely etched onto the surface of eggs.

The self-timing, or thermochromically-branded smart egg is another recent egg-development. This UK invention helps people cook their 3-6 minute morning egg by telling them when it's ready to eat. The egg is "imbued with the powers of heat-sensitive invisible ink that turns black the minute that it is ready. All you need to do is decide whether you prefer your eggs soft, medium or hard-boiled, and buy accordingly".

The Times article goes on to describe various procedures for cooking the 'perfect egg'. Interesting to note that Delia Smith's approach is not universally accepted and is deemed very controversial in some egg-sectors. Smart Egg link via Boing Boing. And apologies for terrible puns in headings above.