Will live commercials save TV?

May 30, 2008

honda385_345748a.jpgPredictions of the death of the traditional 30-second advertising slot have been doing the rounds for a couple of years. By common consent, the rise of diverse forms of new media in the Web 2.0 landscape has made TV commercials look tired and stale. How, then, does a brand go about harnessing television’s reach and yet appealing, in a fresh way, to viewers?

For Honda, whose strapline is “If it’s difficult, it’s worth doing”, the answer is in the heavens. Literally. As this Press Association report explains, the car manufacturer staged a live television ad involving a skydiving jump. As PA says:

“The commercial, screened during the channel’s dinner party series Come Dine With Me, saw 14 daredevils jump out of a plane before forming the letters H-O-N-D-A. With only three minutes and 20 seconds to spell out the message the skydivers appeared to struggle over the letter “N”, but it all came together in the end.”

There was even a bit of quasi-ambush marketing, as one of the skydivers delivered his own message. Fortunately for Honda, it was merely “HELLO MUM”.

While Honda’s deployment of a team of parachutists was both high risk and innovative, live commercials are not new. They were a staple of television in the 1950s, and their appeal then was perhaps as now. The spontaneity and danger of the medium – the ‘what if?’ question on every viewer’s lips – may just hold attention long enough to compete with the many and varied allures of the Web 2.0 world. Watch this space – Honda might have made a relatively small step as a corporation, but a giant one for contemporary television advertising.

 

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Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.

An excellent ad if ever there was one

January 25, 2012
legovader

We seem to be visually led this week but sometimes words proliferate far too much and letting an image do the talking is no bad thing. That’s another way of saying that ACCESS Agency’s work with Lego is absolutely top drawer.