From the Bottom of Everything

I think these are the best commercials running on TV right now. Sonic hits home run after home run with this series. From what I’ve read all of these commercials are improvised. If that’s true these guys are comedy genius. If they’re written, then some copywriter out there needs some recognition. What’s your favorite sonic commercial?

Labels: funny, great ads, sonic

Jai and Wal over at Creative in London have posted a conversation they had with Matt Keon of Fallon London. He's got some great advice on portfolios and getting a job in general and it's worth a read. (above picture is a "help sheet" Matt gave them at their last meeting, click it to see it in a bigger, readable size)

Labels: advice, aspiring creatives, creative in london

Sukle has created the poster above to help fight cancer. The unfortunate truth is that pretty much everyone has been affected by cancer in one way or another these days so it's great to see people doing what they can to help in the defeat the disease. If you're interested in helping out contact andy@sukle.com to set up a transaction. They're asking $25 a poster and they've only printed 48 of them, so if you're ready to fight, now's the time. (via Lunchmeat Underpants)

Labels: cancer, sukle

200 posts.

A minor milestone for this blog. But maybe you haven't been around for all of them. Maybe you aren't subscribed to my RSS Feed. Maybe you don't know that you can contact Justin at justinmccammonblog (at) gmail (dot) com. Just in case you're new around here I've compiled a list of my favorite posts so it'll be like you've been reading since the beginning. For those of you who've been around a while, what are your favorite posts? Dig back into the archives and post them in the comments.

My Favorites:

• An Advertising Story

• Pure, Powerful Copy

• How Much of Advertising is Really Just Chance?

• A Polaroid Every Day for 41 years

• See Your Favorite Scenes in Type

• Bush in Ads All Over the World
  

• New Belgium: Awesome Ads from an Awesome Company

• MTV's FurTV Sex Tape

• Nike Football by Guy Ritchie

• Meatloaf and AT&T: Paradise by the GoPhone Light

• VW Sounds Good

• Ugly Mug Coffee: A Fresh Jolt of Copy

• Volvo takes a shot at Cadillac's Pursuit

• Student work for Powerhouse Gym is no lightweight

• Nutrigrain: I feel great!

• VW: Building websites like cars

• Mr. W

• If you only do one thing today...

• I'd be offened but I can't stop laughing

• Las Vegas: Now with 50% more Douchebags

• This is what happens when you drink and drive

Labels: a look back, best of the interweb

Perhaps you've been following along with Joker from Why Advertising Sucks and his series 20 on 20. Or perhaps you've been living under a rock. In case you have, 20 on 20 is Joker asking 20 questions to 20 bloggers. I happened to be #11 on the list. See my answers and read more on Why Advertising Sucks here.

Labels: 20 on 20, justin mccammon, why advertising sucks

Christopher over at ChangetheThought has a great collection of images from the Manifest Hope Gallery. If you weren't there, go take a look. If you were there, see it again.

Labels: awesome stuff, changethethought, manifest hope

The NYT chimes in with it's medal count on commercials from the Olympics and I've got a few bones to pick with their choices. Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

First, a glaring mistake: They forgot to include Nike, which in my opinion had some of the best commercials that aired.

My favorite is "Courage"


There's also this one with Marvin Gaye's national anthem and the USA Basketball Team:


So on to the other companies:

Anheuser-Bush:
Justin's score: 2 (of 10) NYT "Tin" (as in worse than bronze, but not as bad as lead)
I don't want to see old Superbowl commercials eight months later. I'm also sick of the re-branding of Michelob. First it was low carbs, now it's craft brew. I still don't care.

AT&T:
Justin's score: 3, NYT: Tin
Mundane, ordinary ads. Nothing to remember. At least they were new, though.

Coca-Cola:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
The Coke side of life animated ads continue to impress me. I agree with the NYT on this one.



Exxon Mobil:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Tin
I'm sorry, but corporations like this need to put their money where their mouth is before I'm going to listen to this crap. You know what would work better than these commercials? How about actually donating $1billion or more to curing diseases or how about developing an alternative to oil. Obsolete yourself before someone else does. There's a lesson to be learned there (look at Kodak if you need proof).

GE:
Justin's score: 5, NYT: Gold
This is a mixed bag. I hated the discus tossing Greek commercial (for the execution, not the message) and liked the clumsy Chinese romance spot.

GM:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Without sidetracking onto a rant, I'll just say this: it's great that the Chevy Volt is coming out in 2010, but wouldn't it have been even better if GM had the foresight to push alternative vehicles before we demanded them? (*cough* Prius)

Lenovo:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
Funny stuff. And not re-run 500 million times. Good work.



McDonalds:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Lead
Olympic athletes do not eat McDonalds on a regular basis. Find a new message or STFU.

United Airlines:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Frickin' bizzare. I had no idea what I was watching the first time I saw the sea orchestra one. The commercials are OK, but honestly United is a shit airline. I'd be happier if they put that money to use reducing asinine fees.

Visa:
Justin's score: 9, NYT: Gold
These were great. A common gold-tint, fantastic VO by Morgan Freeman and a message we can get behind (Go World). Outside of the Nike ads (which really struck a chord with me) these were my favorite.


On a side note, why did the NYT only hand out gold, tin and lead medals? Why not stick with silver and bronze? At first I thought they added those two onto the existing Olympic medal progression, but no, they just changed them up.

Labels: great ads, olympics

I admire the cleverness behind these ads from the UK. Tilt your head to see what I mean. The line "You'll either love them or hate them" is a nice touch too. While not awe-inspiring, it makes me want to try one of these snacks. After all, I'll either love it or hate it. (via Coloribus)

Labels: clever marketing, marmite snacks, uk

Due to some mechanical difficulties I won't be able to make it down to Denver to see the craziness that is the DNC. The part that bums me out the most is missing out on the Manifest Hope gallery. The best I can do is visit Obey Giant and check out some work from Shepard Fairey, who I am apparently way behind in totally adoring. The image above is called Evolve Devolve and it's my new favorite. I think it's great how such a simple image can say so much.

UPDATE: View the Manifest Hope Gallery Online Here

Labels: awesome stuff, manifest hope, obey giant, shepard fairey

Zeus Jones of Minneapolis is kicking it up a notch in the agency website department. Their new site features live feeds (twitter, delicious, etc) from employees, something called "From the Head of Zeus Jones", and basically a whole bunch of information and fun stuff that is putting most other agency sites to shame. Agencies take note: no flash intro or lengthy mission / vision statements. Rather it's a real time look into the agency along with a source of some interesting info about Zeus Jones that you'd expect on a site. In other words, I actually want to come back from time to time to check it out and see what's changed.
(via AdFreak)

Labels: great site, minneapolis, zeus jones

Every time I see another Tabasco ad I'm not sure whether I love it or hate it. They seem so obvious, but yet smart in a way. Maybe that's what makes 'em great. (via Coloribus)

Labels: great ads, tabasco

Modernista! does. Their rolling out this billboard as part of a campaign to educate people about the gun show loophole. What is the gun show loophole? I'm glad you asked. It's a loophole in the law that allows people to buy guns at a gun show without an ID or background check like you would normally go through at a regular dealer.

Also, look for this flyer below on the streets of Denver during the DNC. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one "in the wild" next week.
(via Adrants)

Labels: denver, gun show, modernista

Looking for something awesome to hang on the wall? Look no further than Change the Thought's poster collection, now for sale. Each print is hand signed and numbered, so you're getting a personal piece of greatness. So quit reading this and go buy one now. (also check out the t-shirts, at the time of this post there was a sale on that made select shirts $10 if you bought 2)

Labels: awesome stuff, changethethought, posters, t-shirts

You're going to like this. Check out www.upl8.tv It's a continuous feed of random youtube clips. The only option you have is to hit spacebar to switch to the next video (although you can double click the video itself to bring it up in youtube). You can get some pretty random stuff. It feels like DIY Robot Chicken that's a little more miss than hit. In any case, it'll keep you occupied for a while and maybe help you get over some writers block.

Labels: cool sites, random stuff, up late tv

Okay, so maybe you won't die, but if you don't enter you won't win either. So check out this sweet promo from Citizen Pictures then hop over to The New Denver Ad Club to enter. Deadline is August 22nd.

Labels: citizen pictures, denver 50, new denver ad club

My obligatory Olympics post:



(via Adverganza)

Labels: espn, funny, olympics

Smart.

(via Coloribus)

Labels: great ads, lasik

It's still possible for advertising to inspire:



(via Dear Jane Sample)

Labels: courage, nike, olympics

Get all your unnecessary knowledge here.

Labels: usless knowledge

The biggest glass of Guinness is truly alive inside. See the commercial here. There's probably about a million more applications of this idea for Guinness and just like I enjoy a good pint, I'm enjoying theses ads.

Labels: great ads, guinness

An incredible opportunity has presented itself and in order to make it happen I need to work my ass off. So that means the blogging will be light until I get this thing going. Details may be forthcoming. Thanks for reading and stay tuned.

Labels: justin mccammon

This October Oliver Stone will release a film titled W about, well, George W Bush's life. In case Mr. Stone is unaware, Bush's term as president doesn't even end until January 20th! You would think that when making a movie about an American president and their life you would want to include details from their entire time as president in such a film. Apparently not. I wish this was fake, but it appears all too real, here's a trailer for the film.

Labels: george w bush, oliver stone, wtf

I feel like the whole "Pimp my..." thing is a bit played out. But something about this made me laugh. (From Clemenger BBDO, Austrailia)

And from www.pimpmykettle.com, the ridiculousness continues:


(via Coloribus)

Labels: funny, pimp my kettle

It's just one great idea after another for Denver water over at Sukle. Their latest is the shirt pictured below that reminds you that every drop counts. You can get one free (if you get your water from Denver water at useonlywhatyouneed.org) See even more great ads from this campaign over at Sukle's blog: Lunchmeat Underpants

Labels: denver water, great ads, sukle

Check out my latest post over at Kodak's 1000 Words Blog, it's about frickin' laser beams and how to make sweet photos (like this one) with them.

Labels: Kodak 1000 words, lasers