Commentary

Out to Launch

Honda performs its Civic duty. PlayStation 3 has powers. Wal-Mart bows 17 holiday ads. Let's launch!

This campaign has yet to launch and part of it is already dated. Blumegirl.com, a company that uses name tags to customize underpants (hey, it's easier to replace than a tattoo of your boyfriend's name), is slated to launch a print and online campaign in Us Weekly and Star using celebrity couples' names. Brad and Angelina, Barbie and Blaine (I'll admit: I had no idea Ken was out of the picture) and the just-filed-for-divorce Britney and Kevin!!! Talk about perfect timing. The tagline of the ads is "when you're almost sure it's gonna last forever." Click here, here and here to see these chock-full-of-pop-culture's-guilty-pleasures ads. Look closely. They do not disappoint. My favorite was finding Ken's customized undies in the trash. Wexley School for Girls handled all aspects of the campaign.

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Honda Civic launched a TV, print and online campaign on Monday and even themed one TV ad "Freedom," around Election Day. The ad compares the freedom of choice found in the Civic to freedom in general. The spot ends with a variety of different Civic drivers uniting at the polling station to vote. "Freedom... is choice," says the voice of Kevin Spacey. "The Civic from Honda. Reverse your thinking," concludes the ad. Click here to watch "Freedom." "Game" places the Civic in the primitive CGI world of science fiction movie Tron. Very cool. Watch it here. Ads will air on spot TV and cable networks, including MTV, FOX and Comedy Central and during NFL and NBA games. Print ads will appear in Car and Driver, ESPN the Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Maxim and Rolling Stone. RPA handled all aspects of the campaign.

"What makes you special?" is the question posed in a series of ads for IBM. "The Big Idea" illustrates the evolution of an idea from possibility to reality with the help of IBM. Watch the ad here. "Big Small Businessman" shows a small idea morphing into something big, with the realization that "you don't have to be big to have a big idea." Click here to watch the ad. "Education" highlights ideas that encourage thinking in today's youth. See the ad here. "Rumble" is the sound of the next big idea. Watch it here. Each ad drives users to the IBM.com/special Web site. Ogilvy New York created the campaign and MindShare, Neo and the WOW Factory handled the media buying.

Wal-Mart launched a series of 17 TV spots last week along with in-store, online, print, and cinema ads. The holiday ads use the theme "Be Bright" and will run until January. "Turkey Nap" shows a family readying to eat Thanksgiving dinner when the father comments on the wealth of food and how expensive dinner must have cost. Once he finds out that everything was purchased from Wal-Mart, he eats himself into a tryptophan stupor. Watch the ad here. Another ad, "Conversation," shows a man trying to converse with his grumpy father-in-law. The elder man cracks a comment about the cost of the son-in-law's flat screen TV, but is silenced when he learns it came from Wal-Mart. See it here.Bernstein-Rein handled all aspects of the comical campaign, a swan song for the agency, now that DraftFCB and Carat were awarded the $570 million account.

PlayStation 3 has some freaky ads. But I like them. TV, outdoor and print ads promote the Nov. 17 launch of the new console. "Doll Master" shows the PS3 owning a doll--to the point that the doll calls the console "mama." Watch it here. Eggs follow the lead of PS3 in "Egg Master," and eventually turn into black crows, to promote the system's wireless controllers. Click here to view the ad. A Rubik's cube loses its colors in "Rubik Master"--after they're properly arranged, of course. See it here. The outdoor ads are equally good. Click here and here to have a look. TBWA/Chiat/Day created the campaign and OMD handled the media buying.

Mullen has launched its first consumer-targeted online, print and in-flight video campaign for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9, speech recognition software produced by Nuance Communications. The agency won the account in September. The campaign launched this month online at Yahoo, MSN, CNET and Wired.com. Video will run on American and United Airlines flights, and print will run in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Fortune Small Business, PC World, PC Magazine, Business 2.0, and Time Global Business. Creative demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of the software that can produce up to 160 words a minute and allows users to create letters and e-mails faster than typing by hand. The best part of the campaign is the company's online "typing test." I'm a bad typer. mediaHUB handled the media planning and buying.

Sprint can do a lot, but not everything, according to the latest ads in rotation. "Lawyer" features actor/Sprint spokesman Ron Livingston conferring with a lawyer to ensure that everything he says about Sprint is accurate: It has the largest broadband mobile network, but it can't protect you from meteors, no matter what you've heard. Watch the ad here. "Time Travel" promotes the network's moving back its unlimited calling time from 9 p.m. to 7 p.m. Click here to watch the ad.TBWA/Chiat/Day created the campaign and MindShare handled the buying.

The Chipotle restaurant chain launched an outdoor and print campaign over the summer hyping its all-natural ingredients in a not-so-natural way. Tongue-in-cheek ads feature a chicken squawking, "No one cares that your kid is an honor student," along with the tag line "Honest Ingredients." See the ad here. Another humorous ad shows a cow saying, "She's not coming back." Click here to see the ad. "We use aluminum. A material found on the Space Shuttle" and "We use the same ice recipe that they use in the White House" highlight the inedible products used by the company. The campaign ran in 13 major U.S. markets. TDA Advertising & Design created the campaign and media buying was handled in-house.

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