today's AMAZING TV AD : honda's "cog" 2 minute tv spot

for more on this, go to this post : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/cog-honda-tv-spot-another-amazing-ad.html; april 14 post.
the inspiration is mount pinatubo when some years ago, all of a sudden, after decades of being dormant, it decided to erupt, spewing debris and ash several kilometers high, blowing ashes to float everywhere, far and wide, turning the skies gloomy gray as far away as metro manila, hundreds of kilometers away, covering metro manila streets and rooftops with thick ash. the pinatubo eruption was so powerful that its ashes changed the color of sunsets not only in the philippines but also worldwide.

that's what happens when clients and advertising agencies decide to run ads not worthy to be called advertising. its dark, its huge and very irritating and unfortunately, everywhere!


all they are doing is wawam! what a waste of advertising money!


here is a first row view of Philippine Advertising and Philippine Marketing.

mount pinatubo erupts shooting ashes several kilometers high, then floating to blanket many other towns hundreds of kilometers away

new comments from WAWAM! readers

click to view comment in full. also, give us your own comment on any of the posts.

please note that comments are being posted here on a delayed basis, unfortunately, by a few hours from time of posting, so it seems. that is due to two things : (a) all comments are being moderated and (b) this program shows the comments on a delayed basis, not real time.

if you want to read the latest comments, go to the post itself and click "comments".

Sunday, December 20, 2009

evian babies have fun

watching sci-fi and adventure movies, one of the things that impresses you is that there is now nothing that movies cannot do. putting into movies the super heroes we love to read in comics are now on screen in their smallest detail, erasing the divide between real and man-made.

this evian commercial is one commercial that fits the description above. and it is enjoyable


Thursday, December 3, 2009

this was posted by "anonymous" here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2009/08/magician-21st-philippine-advertising.html

The magician was imagining a full house because as a performer... that was what he wanted to see. *Every* performer longs to live in the limelight, to be acknowledged and cheered on by a crowd. The sad reality for him was, the 'standing ovation' was nothing more than an illusion, a thing he conjured up in his own mind OR it could have been a memory of his former glory days. Hence, with a flicker of the light, the hurrahs are replaced with yawns, from a less than ecstatic audience.

In this way, it is creatively intellectual, (as opposed to "just being creative for creativity's sake"), for its irony, for he, who gives illusions to please others, creates an illusion for himself, to keep his spirit alive. You may see this in Psychology books filed under the subject: "Coping Mechanism." You see, performers die a little inside every time they realize that nobody gives a crap about their "art". However, he also knows that the show must go on, and that he must prop up that smile because that is what 'professionals' do. How can you not get that?

no, i did not get that at all that the magician was imagining a full house. how did you even get all that from the tv ad? where is it in the ad that all that you said is shown or said? you must be writer of the ad to know all that.

that says to me that aside from the weakness in the copy-writing of this ad, there is a bigger weakness in the directorial treatment of the ad.

the director failed to execute that idea from a visual and movement standpoint. the directorial treatment failed in establishing the visuals being shown come from different perspectives. in the ad, it was just a flash of light that was supposed to signal the change in perspective. that is a very weak visual treatment.

the copy also did not help. it hardly had copy in the first place but the the change in perspective visual was shown just before the copy said "witness this death defying act". the story is about a magician making a woman disappear, it will confuse the audience- what is supposed to disappear, the woman or the audience.

because of the very bad directorial treatment, i don't think anyone will get there is a change in perspective but will rather stick to the story in the ad.

one of the thing i remember about effective ads is this - "what you see is what you get". in this ad that is what i got because that is what i saw and it was in fact what was given visually and copy-wise.

more on this later. it is a WAWAM!