Prior to January 19th 2012, Megaupload was the most widely used file sharing site in the world. Its content accounted for 4% of the entire internet’s traffic despite little to no advertising presence on the internet. When this Megaupload ad was released on YouTube December 9th, the legal battle that ensued between the company and Universal Music Group was only the beginning … of the end. Upon UMG’s insistence, YouTube immediately removed the mega-star-powered Megaupload song but, as it turned out that the song featuring will.i.am, Kanye West, Macy Gray and Kim Kardashian (to name a few) did not infringe upon any copyrights, the site has since returned the ad to the web just in time to say farewell to the file-sharing behemoth. This simply shot ad, with the support of so many celebrities, would have been a very effective image adjustment for Megaupload, convincing users that the artist’s whose work they download don’t actually mind and in fact, they use the site too.
Will the Star Wars television ads ever end? Not when they’re as viral as Volkswagen’s. Last year’s Super Bowl commercial featuring a determined kid trying to channel “the force” brought on the release of what seems to be a never ending stream of Star Wars themed ads and with so much success we had a feeling Volkswagen would be back for more. This week they released a teaser for their upcoming Super Bowl spot, showing how confident they are that it will be worth the wait. This time a canine chorus barks the Imperial March theme song and, hitting on the recent Internet popularity of Chewbacca and ewok dog look-a-likes, even dresses up some of the pups a-la-The-Empire. The final act features a wandering whippet in Imperial Walker gear. Well played.
Two weeks ago, some local Toronto readers were fans of Type bookstore. Today, almost 2.5 million people around the world have seen and awww’d and shared the viral hit posted by Type earlier this month. Hard work is indeed paying off. The video is shot entirely using stop-motion filming and took a week of working dawn-to-dusk days to produce. Sure, the couple who own the store had some help, but that kind of commitment is impressive nonetheless. The video is not as much advertisement as it is a sentimental homage to the pre-Kindle days, but that’s exactly what makes it so magical. It reminds us of the sweet and quaint comfort inside our local bookstores by using a fun, retro approach. The books look beautiful, each aligned by color and playfully dancing in and out of one another and we predict Type sees a noticeable increase of Toronto tourists popping into their shop while they’re in town.
On a completely different note, we now return you to the rushing hum of the increasingly interesting future. If there was any doubt in your mind that the use of textbooks in the classroom (or anywhere else, really) is completely outdated, this seven-minute long documentary style ad for the release of textbooks for iPad will definitely succeed in convincing you otherwise. Apple uses a slew of interviews and commentary from seasoned teachers, superintendents, techies and even textbook publishers to make the case crystal clear. Most importantly, they show and tell all of the ways that children can benefit from using technology rather than textbooks. We see students interact with new materials, they make notes that can make themselves into flashcards and, no longer deterred by pounds of heavy books, they come to class prepared to learn. The ad is definitely on the longer side, but it reaches out to the older, technologically skeptical core of educators who, by the looks of it, won’t be able to ignore Apple’s advancements much longer. Students, on the other hand, are likely to need little convincing. Hell, we’d go back to high school for an iPad.
Lurpak butter took their branding and turned it around, releasing this spot that actually associates their butter with good health. The video is filled with rainbow-colored close-ups of every sort of vegetable getting chopped and diced and mashed and is incredibly pleasing and interesting visually. The voice-over is also fun as we recognized this guy from the homicidal series Dexter where much more morbid things are chopped and diced. What an ad, what an ad.