A Purrfect Campaign

In a funny series of PSAs, the advertising agency Draftfcb promotes pet adoption in Chicago.

In these short TV spots, pets examine the eccentricities of their owners. A cat attempts to figure out why a woman is texting all day, a dog is amused at how bad his owner is at hide and seek, in addition to two other scenarios.

They're cute ads, playing to emotions for animal-lovers, yet interesting and rational in the sense that the dogs and cats are criticizing their owner’s “strange” ways.

This campaign is extremely different than any Humane Society commercial that I have ever seen, and I think that’s a huge strength with differentiation.

Pet owners: beware! You might not want to know what your pet is thinking about you after all!

The FedEx Effect

         FedEx has released a new TV spot, showing how easy it is to ship with their company from Canada to the US. Through portraying a goose in Canada sending a little hockey stick to a puppy in Florida, FedEx’s goal is to show viewers it’s “that easy” to ship through them.

         The floor is painted to resemble the geography of Canada and the U.S. "We make less urgent shipping to the U.S. awesome," says the onscreen tagline. The simplicity of the tune in the background adds to the fascination of watching the complex domino structure fall. Dominoes have been used in ads before, but the idea of using FedEx boxes is fresh and new. I found myself laughing out loud at how creative it was, and it was definitely an effective campaign.

Beard Prepared!

            It seems that the Boy Scouts of America have taken their own spin on No-Shave November!

            This new campaign, "Be one with the wild" was created by Ogilvy for the Atlanta-area Scouts. Although scouts are widely known for their camping and nature-related activities, these bearded boys definitely make the ad-viewers stare.

            Between their glassy stares and Rip Van Winkle-worthy beards, I find this ad to be slightly frightening. On a positive note, the tagline, “Be one with the wild” is catchy; catchy is necessary for a group trying to up their numbers. Starting in 2005, Boy Scouts of America’s numbers fell by almost 2.5 million members. Hopefully this campaign will get them back on track.

         To all the boys still saying "Scout’s honor": shave the beards. 

November is a month for the men.

A Hot Topic

            "Combustible," is a new and amusing online video for the Global Climate Change Initiative. The short PSA depicts a loudmouth business man on a city street yelling into his cell about how global warming's a load of bunk. He seems confused as he bursts into flame and disintegrates into a smoldering pile of ash. The message: "Climate change doesn't need you to believe in it." The TV and Internet spot was created pro-bono by New York agency ‘Realm’.

            I thought that this advertisement was very interesting, but I did not find it to be the most convincing of arguments. When I read the information underneath the YouTube video about how “it’s the global change deniers who have the loudest voices”, then began to understand the clip and campaign a little bit better.

            If I were a part of this campaign, I would try to focus more on the facts of Global Warming versus trying to reach a younger demographic with the use of humor. The facts are truly undeniable, and I think that would be more hard-hitting as a PSA to play with emotions versus laughter.

            Overall, I think Realm did a good job, especially for pro-bono work. Hopefully the campaign will get good face time on television and start to wake people up about the critical condition of our planet.

Global Warming is real.

It’s time to wake up and help save the Earth.