Firebrand

It looks like someone’s finally going to do ‘a TV channel for adverts’. But it’s wrapped up in language that is the bastard offpring of 90’s marketing bullshit and Web 2.0.

Check out their introduction video on YouTube.

(Sorry, for some reason I can’t seem to embed YouTube videos on this blog anymore. I need somebody technical to help me. Pleeaassee!)

My favourite bit is at 01.57. ‘All this is a multi-platform service targetted to GenY – the new millenials. It’s QVC for the MySpace generation’.

More here.

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Innocent’s puzzling new ad

The wonderful Innocent Drinks have got a new TV ad on air.

Now, personally, I don’t feel that the Peter-Gabriel-Sledgehammer-video aesthetic really captures what I feel the Innocent brand should feel like. But I’m hardly qualified to discuss that, and I’m sure they’re taking it in a new direction for very good reasons.

What I do find quite puzzling though is their strategy. The message of the ad seems to be ‘drink smoothies, not juice’, Their own research backs this up. So my questions are:

• Is juice really the right target, given I’m not sure that the battle against fizzy drinks is over yet in the country at large?
• Is juice really the right target, given you’re unlikely to stop even the most heath-concious people drinking it? Juice is nice. In the morning, I tend to buy a smoothie and a juice, because the juice is easier to drink.
• Is juice really the right target, given Innocent themselves sell juice? Well, Juicy water. I’m sure they used to sell just juice.

I’d love to know what they’re up to.

World Cup failure opportunism

I was sent this ad today by LoveFilm, giving me a free DVD rental, to fill the void now England have been knocked out of the World Cup. It’s quite nice (although I think I’m going to go and enjoy the sun now rather than watch more telly), and it casts their brand in the role of comforter, which I think is quite appropriate.

It reminds me of an ad my friend Lou wrote for Orange when we were at Interbrand in 2002. Rather than wallowing in misery, it demonstrated the brand’s optimism and belief in the future by naming all the exciting young players who would be contenders for the England squad in 4 years time.

I think this is a much nicer form of opportunism. Of course Orange never ran it, because only advertising agencies can do advertising, isn’t that right?