Apple is harnessing the value of poetry in a new ad that aims to promote the iPad Air. The 90-second spot couples an excerpt spoken by Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society with video footage that showcases the splendour of human endeavour. PLUS: see which other brands have dabbled in verse to flog products.
Part 143 in an occasional series, this time starring Tenfold Creative and Jennian Homes, Mission Hall and Arthritis New Zealand, JustONE and the Topp Twins, Levi’s and Wieden + Kennedy and a ‘social-film’ by Toshiba and Intel.
After last year’s big haul for the Kiwi agencies at Cannes, 2011 is looking decidedly average. But there’s still a chance for some late glory after DDB and Colenso picked up two nominations each in the film category.
Colenso BBDO is an agency that prides itself on creating work that’s interesting enough to create conversations. It probably doesn’t pride itself on having work pulled for breaking the rules, but that’s happened twice in the past few weeks, first with the DB Export TVC that was removed from television, cinema and online after a complaint was upheld by the ASA and then with the massive viral video Rear View Girls for Levi’s that, after more than seven million views, was pulled from YouTube for violating its terms and conditions.
Who’s it for: Levi’s by Colenso BBDO
Why we like it: It’s easy to make a viral ad. It’s much more difficult to actually make that ad go viral. But at well over five million views on YouTube, that’s exactly what Colenso did …
Colenso is always harping on about the conversation economy; about creating content that’s interesting and/or mysterious enough to get talked about by the masses. V’s Rocket Man succeeded in this regard, but the agency’s latest foray into the dark viral arts, a production/social experiment called the Rear View Girls that aims to promote Levi’s new range of Curve ID women’s jeans, has taken it to another, more international level.