There was only one social network … but most of your friends died of dysentery.

Microsoft's produced an Internet Explorer ad that ties an audience of hipsterfied "individuals" to the decade that unifies them: the '90s. Yeah, you may have novelty shoes now, but you still played Oregon Trail, didn't you?

It's the one MSFT ad in a decade that makes you smile -- and not ironically. It may even make you long for the period when times were simpler and Microsoft was, indeed, the shit (the whisper between the lines). If a fond reminder of neon green DOS commands had been tossed in here somewhere, it wouldn't have been out-of-place.

The ad wraps with an invitation to try the new Internet Explorer -- a browser that's grown up, like you. And while the finale music is triumphant and warm, we're brought back to the Current State of Affairs with almost alarming rapidity.

Yeah, we've grown up. We can't try the new IE, because Microsoft's cut it away from the generation that opened its doors and wallets to Mac ... although we still have to reverse-optimise online products for clients that still use IE6, which doesn't endear us to the brand either. Our Word docs still crash and the usability of Surface tablets make us cringe. Our everyday loves and losses revolve around Android and App Store apps. And if we even bother to remember a browser that marks this period, it'll probably be Chrome or Firefox, because they're part of the brigade that constructed the ruling user experience alongside us, instead of forcing us to play by constricting, bug-ridden yardsticks.

Looks like the only thing we have left in common today, old friend, is a general dissatisfaction with what the other's grown into. No hard feelings; that happens. The only problem is, looking fondly back on old times may be fun for a night, but it won't save a relationship. That's another thing we learned growing up.

Via and via and originally posted here.

Google Sure Can Tug a Heartstring.

Loving these new ads for Google Chrome in France (captions available by clicking the "CC" button at bottom). Whenever one appears on TV, I just stop what I'm doing and watch.

Kindle: Cheap, Convenient Poolside Reading. Like a Book, Actually. (Scroll Down for Sexy Poll Action!)

This ad for Amazon's current $139 Kindle went live on YouTube Monday and has already got 1.4 million views. It takes a shot at iPad's glossy screen and, by comparison to Kindle's own cost, its much glossier price.

I always feel uncomfortable about the notion of bringing the competitive arena to low cost. You can be lowballed until there's nothing left from which to profit; it isn't really solid ground.

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Life Moves Fast; Modernista, Not Fast Enough

Word on the street has it that, following the rise and fall of all those surreal ads that gave us Oasis Project nightmares, and consequently bungling the debut of a really awesome product, Palm has given agency Modernista the shaft.

Sucks for Modernista, given that Cadillac recently also cut it loose. A boutique shop can't afford the loss of too many big-label clients in succession. It also sucks for us, because the ad above, which launched last month, tells us Modernista finally found its Palm Pre stride.

Too little too late. It's not exceptional, but it should've been the launch work: anything, really, that showed how using multiple apps at once, on a nice clean interface, can bring method to a multi-tasker's life.

Better luck next product. And if you're an agency on the market for a flub to fix, here's your chance: Palm's looking.

Thanks to Atif, the haut-tech emperor of Ithaca, for passing this over to me.

For All You Flight of the Conchords Fans Out There...

Murray is back! Harrassing Annie Leibovitz, no less, and for Chrissakes will somebody please give this man a naked baby, stat.



Murray knows a little somethin' about a Freudian couch, har har. Part and parcel of HP's latest campaign, Let's Do Amazing -- which is putting our favourite busybody New Zealander to good use. THEY DIDN'T EVEN CHANGE HIS HAIR.

Nostalgia Ravaged in Name of 'Anti-Retro'

The appearance of Citroën's DS3 at the end of each piece above is such anticlimax, especially as you feel yourself get drawn into the grit of the filming, the weight of the sounds. Icons this powerful, speech this rich, shouldn't be used for selling cars -- though to be fair, using them to sell anything is pretty much always a risk, riddled with critique. My heart breaks into a million little styrofoam pieces.

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Verizon Takes the Piss Out of Big Red

"You'll watch YouTube on a horse*!"

Excellent. And I love how it depicts compulsive phone-checkers as complete face-to-face contact cretins, because that's what we've become, plus it totally goes against the get-closer ideal presented in the original Big Red ad. "So kiss a little longer..." Baby, NOT WITHOUT CHATROULETTE ON.

For the .02% of you that'll undoubtedly go, "What's Verizon on about?" -- come on, you know the one!



Unless it plans to do something neat with the whole "Big Red" thing (which I don't really see happening), would be cool to see more kitschy nostalgic hat-tips from Verizon. ("Zestfully Clean" is just askin' for it!) With all the variety in mobile, won't be hard to find the one somewhat-relavant tie-in that brings it all together. (You know, like taking the name of Big Red gum and using it to refer to how the map of the US is covered in "big red!" splotches that represent Verizon's service area.) =P

---

*The horse is definitely the statement-maker this year. Consider. It is almost enough to make you want one, just to have around, you know, as an uncomfortable conversation piece. Or you can actually become a serious equestrian and learn how to ride in the middle of a big urban city, which in some ways would be funnier. My dad did this a few years ago and the goddamn horse bit me. He later sold it to a girl who trains horses for rescue service. So that valiant little nipper is still out there somewhere, maybe in the Swiss Alps, putting Saint Bernards out of work.

Ladies, This is What We Fought For.

Viiiaaaaaaa This is Swordfish.

He's On a Horse!

And I want every man I ever love to smell like him. Which is a lot to say in defense of a brand my dad (and my grandpa!) wore.* Man, taking that batshit-wacky turn with Bruce Campbell, and never looking back, was the best thing you ever did, Old Spice.

See making-of (courtesy of M. M. McDermott over at the Renegade Agency Confessional):

More advert-orgasmics right here. Work by Wieden + Kennedy.

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...and Here's Where We All Cry for the Men Who Have It So, So, SO Hard

Not to say it's not a good position for the Dodge Charger. Quite the opposite. Listening to this long list of unhappy quotidian I will's made me start feeling all American Psycho.

v.

Gaultier Lovers Leave a Scent Long After They're Gone

This ad for Le Mâle, the men's fragrance by Jean Paul Gaultier, has been all over TV this week. It kinda bummed me out until the day I randomly opened the My Little Paris app on my iPhone and saw the variant for Classique (pour femme):



Delectable work that speaks to the respective sexes. See the makings-of here and here.

Previous campaigns reveal Jean Paul Gaultier favors other-side-of-the-coin ads for his dual (and dueling?) fragrances, distilling how vulnerability and predatory instinct manifest in both sexes. This series is called L'Appartement.

You can see what kind of thought went into them, as well as clips from previous series, in this set of videos featuring "maître parfumeur" Francis Kurkdjian:

Kurkdjian on Le Mâle (with English translations):



Kurkdjian on Classique:

Levi's: Love, Lust and Storytelling

In April I got to see an ad:tech talk given by Senior Director Michael Perman of Levi's. It was called "The Art of Storytelling," something at which the company particularly excels.

Anyway, I was doing my usual trawl of exceptional William Shatner videos* the other day when I came across treasure: the two ads that got me stuck on advertising in the first place.

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"Et si Noël durait plus qu'un Noël ?"

"What if Christmas lasted longer than a Christmas?"

This spot for Orange, where a sweltering city breaks out its secret snowball reserves to extend holiday spirit beyond its normal shelf life, is brimming with so much warmth and good cheer that you'd never guess parent company France Telecom is being pummeled by a wave of suicides.

26 (and counting!) since February '08!

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When Did Clean Become So Preachy?

I've always dug method's pure approach to household care, but this "Shiny Suds" ad makes people against dirty sound suspiciously like...

Maybe that's too strong of a comparison.

The ad's an emotional plea for the passing of the Household Product Labeling Act. This would obligate all household cleaning products in the US to bear a label sporting "a complete and accurate list" of their ingredients.

Any product in defiance of the ruling "shall be treated as a misbranded hazardous substance."

Sounds like a good thing in theory. Method would come out looking like a rose, but under the light of these lecherous scrubbing bubbles it doesn't quite smell like one right now.

It just crosses a line, you know...?

...is that anything like a Royale with Cheese?

There aren't many ways you can bring hot throbbing sex appeal to an assembly line hamburger, but McDonald's tries hard with Le M, a moan-infused food porn piece for the French market.

The money line: "Le M, sans doute c'est la plus belle création de la McDonalds." ("Le M, undoubtedly McDonalds' most beautiful creation.")

But wait for the plug for Le M Bacon -- when zoomed-in shots of lavish, languid bacon slices appear on three sides of this sin-tillating beef patty! Hissss.

For the track junkies, AdVerve partner in crime Bill Green obliges with info on the music: Flying Lotus' Camel (Nosaj Thing Remix).

'Baby Baby Baby' Leaps Atlantic for Sizey Cups

Heh. The day starts with news that American band Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks gets a French ad debut -- and ends with news that French band Make the Girl Dance's Baby Baby Baby goes American with Victoria's Secret.

The ad's for VS's new Miraculous push-up bra, which promises to gift its bearers with two additional cup sizes. Baby Baby Baby pulsates in the background as three supermodel standbys strut across the screen.

Their mighty-mighty demeanour draws a weird parallel to the original Make the Girl Dance video, where three girls strut naked, one after the other, down rue Montorgueil in Paris. The difference: you're left with the sense that the size of their basoomas has nothing to do with their bite.



I guess it's cultural.

Grizzly Bear Penetrates Peugeot's Hot-Track Lineup

It mesmerized us, it inspired fan art, and now Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks makes its debut into banality.

Say hello to "The Doors," an ad for the Peugeot 5008. After a day at the fair, a dad packs his family into the car and swings open the drivers side door repeatedly, only to find that someone else -- circus performers, his kids, his wife, a double of himself, a sad clown -- has commandeered his seat.

Slogan: "La meilleure place est aussi celle du conducteur." (The best place is that of the driver.)

While the spot itself may be a little "meh," French blog Mixedtape says Peugeot is well-known for introducing some solid ear candy in its TV spots. Some examples: Bhangra Knights' Husan for the 206, The Film's Can You Touch Me? for the 407 and The Caesars' (I’m Gonna) Kick You Out for the 407 SW.

Suitably eclectic company for Grizzly Bear. And knowing Peugeot has an indie ear gives the brand a streak of appeal it previously lacked -- for me, anyway.

Discreet Packaging

Liaison dangereuse, une e-boutique de lingerie fine, viens de lancer la pub "Sexiness for Everyone" ("Pouvoir sexuel pour toutes, partout"), où une femme s'habille d'une manière séduisante avec les culottes hyper-sexy -- et termine avec une burqa.

Peut-être que c'est un cas typique d'un pays d'Europe de l'Ouest montrant le côté fétichiste du Proche-Orient. Mais franchement j'adore la thèse que la burqa lèche les flammes qu'elle est chargée d'éteindre.*

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'Tic Tac tu craques!'

After over a month frozen on one non-working channel, I finally got the TV working again. And the first thing I see is this spot for Tic-Tac by agency Supamonks.

Tic Tac tu craques!

It ends. And I'm left sitting here thinking, Wait a minute. You're supposed to bite into Tic-Tacs?!

Why didn't anyone ever inform me of this crucial data?

Scribe: Life as Blank Canvas

SCRIBE MUNDO DE PAPEL from ladies on Vimeo.

Writers, and maybe creative people in general, have a special relationship with paper and ink, which is at least one reason I find this Mexican Scribe spot so magnifico.

Beeg said in private discussion that it would have been funner as a Sharpie ad, and I agree. But that's probably because nobody our age buys these kinds of notebooks; we've all graduated to costly (but buttery soft!) Moleskines.