Balls to adverts

Around this time every year the US is brought to a standstill as Super Bowl Sunday comes around. However, just as important as the plays, the sacks, the wide receivers and the quarter backs are the ads that are sandwiched in between the gridiron action. 30-second spots can go up to a staggering $3 million, but brands arguably get value for money, with last year's ads from Coca-Cola, Doritos and Budweiser et al being viewed by a national audience of around 93 million people. As the sporting and ad bonanza is due to take place this weekend, we decided to take a look at what the brands rich enough to present their wares to a captive audience of millions of football fans offered up last year...and then compare it to our very own FA Cup Final, because we're creative like that.

Let’s ignore the fact that we just can’t compete with the kind of figures I’ve already mentioned above - around 12 million people watched the FA Cup Final in homes last year and over 75% of those watched it on the ad-free BBC – we’re only interested in the ads themselves. The comparison makes much more sense that way.

Last year’s Super Bowl featured a victory for the Indianapolis Colts against the Chicago Bears and, considering American television’s penchant for ad breaks, probably around 100 ads, including Coca-Cola ‘Happiness Factory’, Budweiser ‘Mind of Mencia’ and Chevrolet ‘Car Wash’. Sky Sports 1’s coverage of an exceedingly lacklustre FA Cup Final victory for Chelsea against Man Utd treated us to ads including WKD ‘Robot’, Bulmer’s ‘Born for Ice’ and Honda’s ‘Hondamentalism’. Although we intend to leave the examples at three on each side, a special mention also has to go to the odd/bold (delete as applicable) screening of Flomax ‘Biking’ stateside.

‘Happiness Factory’ pretty much sums up the Super Bowl: much-hyped, big, expensive and spectacular. For our sporting showcase event there was nothing to touch it in terms of scale, but Bulmer’s ‘Born for Ice' is similar in the way CGI is used to create a pleasing ad that is designed to get the predominantly male audiences supping from a bottle (or can).

WKD and Bud Light have three things in common – which we know about, anyway: they’re alcoholic drinks; they’re alcoholic drinks that have a less than masculine reputation; they’re alcoholic drinks with a less than masculine reputation that aired humourous ads in the ad breaks of major sporting events last year. We're not sure about the Bud spot - Carlos Mencia is a stranger around these parts - but The Reel editorial team can attest to the fact that ‘Robot’ was a great creative success, with many friends and family getting out their drills, none of them have drunk a WKD in our presence though. C'est la vie.

Honda’s ‘Hondamentalism’ was another addition to what has been a consistently great series of ads from the creative minds at Wieden + Kennedy, London. Ever since the seminal ‘Cog’ broke in 2003 they’ve been churning out top-notch creative that has put the Honda brand in the hearts and minds of many. Chevrolet, on the other hand, challenged College kids throughout America to come up with an ad to feature in their Super Bowl spot. The winner was University of Wisconsin student Katelyn Crabb; her victorious idea is not particularly subtle, unlike the Honda spot, but then again, that’s not what the Super Bowl is about.

Well, there you go: an intuitive and enlightening case study on the differences and similarities between us and our cousins over the Atlantic, concisely delivered under the pretence of looking at ads. Don’t fret, though, we’ll get back to doing what we do best next week: watching pretty pictures…whilst downing WKDs.

NewsReel 31/01/08

Remember to keep sending in all your adland news - even if it is just shameless self promotion - and we'll do our best to feature it here. Please send all press releases or anything that could fall under the banner of news to sam@thereel.net.

Silence is golden

You may be forgiven for thinking that The Reel have gone Super Bowl crazy, what with our excellent irreverent look at The Super Bowl ads Vs FA Cup Final ads as this week’s feature, and next month’s forthcoming Super Bowl special. However, it’s worth mentioning that Pepsi intend to use their millions of dollars wisely by hitting Super Bowl viewers with a wall of silence this weekend. The ad is believed to be the most prominent ad featuring American sign language and will surely grab the viewers attention when their ears fail to pick up any sound from the ad. We’ll have it for you in our Super Bowl special next month but if you can’t wait that long contact our parent company Xtreme for a special Super Bowl deal:

http://www.xtremeinformation.com/resources/superbowl/superbowl08_info.pdf


Hoxton Sqaure receives (K)KO blow

KKOutlet, set up by the Amsterdam based communications agency KesselsKramer, is now up and running at 42 Hoxton Square.

The multifunctional office combines communications agency with a shop selling products & books and a gallery showcasing artists, designers & photographers.

As the name suggests, it is an outlet for all the different aspects of the agency's work from advertising to product development and design to publishing.

To accommodate the hybrid office, the interior has been designed by architectural firm FAT, who also recreated the KesselsKramer office – a church in Amsterdam. The Hoxton Square space has been sliced diagonally in two to create an unusual division between the different working environments.

KKOutlet is already gaining a strong local team. Yen Yen Ho, the managing director, is in place at KKOutlet with backing from Erik Kessels and Engin Celikbas (respectively Creative Director and managing director of KesselsKramer).
Richard Walker – who worked with KesselsKramer previous to becoming CD at Wieden + Kennedy in Amsterdam – will join as Creative Director in March.


New director pitches his tent at Camp David

Johan Skog has joined Camp David from MFL Film. The Finnish helmer had ‘Fountain of Youth’
for Nokian Reinkaat featured in The Reel way back in 2004.