Forget the Honda Odyssey Viking spot

The Honda Odyssey Viking spot isn’t all that cool. Oh yeah, sure I think I’ll buy an Odyssey because it reminds me of the old van culture of the 70s + 80s. But van culture is so much cooler now, right? Nothing says cool better than a Honda mini van.

I know men who are cringing right now at the thought of even owning a mini van. Because they’re probably thinking “Hey, that commercial was pretty cool.” “If I purchase that mini van, I probably won’t feel like a soccer mom driving it.”

Commercials over the years have certainly become more entertaining. Agencies will use bands you never thought would end up in commercials. They use humor as the main hook. They dig deep and deliver a result that has you saying “what the heck was that?” I still haven’t seen anything as cool as the Honda “Cog” spot. It’s nothing short of brilliant. The funny thing is that the commercial is two minutes long and I remembered that it was Honda. How many times do you see a spot and cannot for the life of you remember who it was for. Only in Europe does an agency get to produce something so cool that it becomes an instant classic.

Isn’t it nice when things just work…

What a load of… crap?

The other day a random conversation broke out about what it would be like to be a worker who cleans septic tanks. As you can imagine, the jokes ensued. A crappy job with crappy wages. What do you do? I work with crap all day, and you? So after about 5 minutes or so, all jokes were exhausted.

Speaking of crap, here is an ad that makes a point… I guess. I especially like the title “There are better ways to make career”. Click here to see different angles.

You would never be able to get away with anything like this in the states. Everyone is far too PC and uptight.

Failed campaign has Bono seeing (RED)

The (RED) campaign, which celebrities like Bono, Christy Turlington, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Rock, Steven Spielberg endorsed, has apparantly failed miserably. The campaign’s intent was to raise millions for Aids in Africa. Even myspace.com got in on the act as a media sponsor.

The campaign has only brought in 18 million to date. Seems like a pretty good figure, right? Well compared to the advertising budget of up to 100 million – it turns out it’s not such a good take.

According to Advertising Age:

The disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing experts and even executives in the ad business. It threatens to spur a backlash, not just against the Red campaign — which ambitiously set out to change the cause-marketing model by allowing partners to profit from charity — but also for the brands involved.

Maybe bono has an extra $18 million lying around to match the dismal figure. Buy less crap has put up an outstanding site which mocks our boy Bono and the whole red campaign with a simple message – Buy (Less). Give more.

Right on.