On Advertisements Worth Watching

It's time that marketing stopped interrupting people's entertainment, and instead became entertainment.
To stay relevant, marketing has to be something that people are interested in and willing to watch. Some marketers understand that, but most don't.
To illustrate the point I'm including here some of my favourite dramatic and artistic advertisements.


Launched in 2008, Go On Lad is an advertisement by the agency Miles Calcraft Birginshaw Duffy, made for Hovis bread in the UK. It's brilliance comes from its flawless phasing through 122 years of British history, through the gravity of the wars, inspiring speeches from Churchill, the devastation afterward, then each era of Brit fashion. Changing trends, clothing, technology.. it has it all! It is a beautifully made spot.


Balls, a commercial created by director Nicolai Fuglsig for the launch of the BRAVIA brand, did everything it was supposed to do. It captivated with the beauty of 250,000 real rubber balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. Plus, the song was perfect- Heartbeats, from José González's debut album Veneer. Some interesting practical points of the whole operation- it took 50,000 balls for the first shot, there was a team of 50 interns that had to gather up the balls for each retake, and there were a serious of golfball nets set up at the ends of the street to catch the extra balls. Yes the commercial was big. Yes it was expensive. And yes, it got the attention that the company needed for it's brand.