365 Days of Creative Rants

Friday, November 8, 2013

exFEARiential is mocking my research to sh*tbits — I feel

Sad to say, but ExFEARiential here is mocking my research to sh*tbits, intentionally.

Its hilarious as hell. As the world moves on to the Experience Economy, it's no surprise at all experiences are going to be commoditised just like everything else. I guess, as gets things slowly get commoditised, you have to make a satire video of it to have a good laugh before sh*t gets serious.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Virgin America's "Glee-full" Safety Video

Stumbled upon this while filling myself up with much Ad-Juice from Ad-Age's Media News.

My two cents worth is: This is actually pretty good! I love Glee. Come on. You have to be some sort of sour and glum bitter puss to hate Glee. And, making an in-flight safety video this much fun and joy, why not! I don't even need to be looking at the awkward flight steward and stewardess anymore, I'd rather have them be fetching me some Coke and peanuts as I sit back to enjoy this 5minutes flight prelude! I can't help it but "move into the stratosphere" totally got my full on attention. I simply love the wit and that strange kind of humour. In fact, as I'm writing this entry I'm watching this for the sixth time. Yes, its such shame for me to say this, BUT I LIKE IT.

On the art direction note, I love the aesthetics of it. How this whole thing takes place in a sound stage or a hanger. How the whole plane is established by a couple of items that brings out the essences of an airplane. The lighting feels absolutely modern, and apt to the whole airplane direction. I absolutely love the cuts and quick editing pace, there's constantly something new to be looking at and something to pay attention to.

By the way, I'm sorry, did you check out this guy's expression here?

CLASS. I FEEL YOU BUDDY.

Sometimes you end up sitting beside a clueless f* you just want to slap yourself and that is ABSOLUTELY the kind of clap I occasionally want to give to my neighbour. Especially when I'm flying solo in coach.

So, on a personal note, I think the video hit me at a couple of personally relatable spots, along with the kind of wit and humor I would like my content to be embedded with.

And, if I need to be watching a couple of times if I'm a frequent flyer, true enough I will get very bored by the time I've seen this some umpteen times. But who wouldn't?

Sure this video does not work for everyone. Fortunately, it worked for me.

Before anyone escalate this matter and greet it with a burning torch, perhaps we could really sit back and think about what sort of safety video we want to be watching. So far I've seen a handful, and I'm not very impressed.

Virgin America and team, you get my two thumbs up.

Teehehe. Behind the Scenes gets me kinda excited. I love TV sets. That's one of the reasons why I pursued my Diploma in Film @ NP, anyways.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Tour the Little Tikes Factory

I absolutely LOVE this spot by Little Tikes.

It's just cute, hilarious and just leads me to believe how much Little Tikes are so much fun. That's what toys are supposed to do ain't it? Bring about fun and more fun for the little ones. This spot just takes the cake for me.

Quoted from Adweek:

A commercial nearly always has a leg up when it stars preschoolers in suits and wingtips spouting business-world cliches. Throw in hipster glasses, coffee mugs, co-worker trash talk and random firings? Winner!

Little Tikes helps kick off the flood of pre-holiday toy advertising over the coming weeks with a faux behind-the-scenes spot, created in-house. The full-length clip below is for online only, with a shorter edit running on TV.

Kids run the show at the Little Tikes factory in Ohio, according to the ad, though they're under the watchful eye of the company's CEO. (Insider tip: That's not really MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian, he of the famous $300 million battle with Mattel over the Bratz dolls. It's just some white-haired dude with a posh accent).

And kids, of course, come up with the best ideas, including this year's potential hot toys: the ride-on GiddyUp N' Go Pony and fluffy Lil' Blabberz. So parents, you'd best familiarize yourself with these items, if you want to know what to dive for on Black Friday.

But I need to question who is the target audience here? Parents? Children? I'm not sure.

If it's parents I'm thinking why would parents be watching this spot? Quite lame isn't it? I don't think I'll be watching this spot on Youtube as a parent, in fact I don't think I'd have the time to be watching such stuff on Youtube I'll probably be looking at other educational stuff for my little ones.

If it's kids, I'm wondering if the demography is right. After all Little Tikes are meant for toddlers to ages up to an estimated 8 years of age. I highly doubt children older than that would be enticed by Little Tikes toys, they would be craving for other toys with higher complexity and sophistication.

Thus, as much as I love this spot, I'm wondering if this spot might be flawed if this floated about just cyber space? Or am I missing out the possibility that it might be shown at Target, other hypermarkets retailing toys, toy stores, and television during kid's prime time? And indeed I over-sighted this: Little Tikes helps kick off the flood of pre-holiday toy advertising over the coming weeks with a faux behind-the-scenes spot, created in-house. The full-length clip below is for online only, with a shorter edit running on TV.

In a nutshell, GOLD.