Two points.
One: There’s a lot to like here. And today, you need a lot to like to be even liked a little.
When you get down to it, with the shifting ways that people consume information, successful ads are really just successful bits of incredibly interesting film. The Comcast work here does focus on the features and benefits of a product, but it does so with such richness that you kinda want to watch them over and over. It’s what makes “Trucks” and “Gorilla” and even the LeBron Pool ad so nice to watch that you’re excited when they come on as a break from your programming. Not that I ever saw “Trucks” and “Gorilla” in the shows I watch, but I sure would have been thrilled if I did. There are so many things out there that are diverting my attention; if you’re a brand and you want a slice of that pie, give me something filled with beautiful details that I can keep noticing every time I watch.
Here are the :30s from the campaign.
Two: When in doubt, re-mix.
They say that creativity is the ability to bring together disparate sources of information/inspiration and create something new from those parts. Just like chefs all use the same/similar tools and basic raw materials, and all musicians use the same set of notes, we work from a palette of what we experience. And what better colors to paint with than those you know to be popular with people? These ads are clearly a mix of the The Sims and Juno, as mentioned in the post I grabbed these videos from, but the important thing is that both are already popular icons of our culture.
Juno is a natural. And more people can sing along to tunes that are already a bit out of, well, tune.
And the Sims thing…starting with Will Wright’s first version of SimCity in 1989, it’s a franchise that’s now over 20 years old. The remixes of that look are everywhere. As a side note, I highly recommend opening all of those links. Very cool stuff.
That’s all. Have a good week.
4 Comments
Print misconnect: am checking out their double truck spread in the 3/16 issue of People magazine, which depicts the wide shot of the town and the big COMCAST DREAM BIG bubble letters. The illustration doesn’t really mimic the spot very accurately - looks much more cartoony in watercolor or pastel, inconsistent with the sharper SIMS-style illustration in the spot. Very strange - why would they have used a different style here? Looks like a fail whale, to me.
I thought of Juno immediately when I first saw this ad. Maybe Napoleon Dynamite is another source of inspiration.
Jen -
Weird. Wonder how that happened. I know Comcast has a ton of different creative running at any one time, given their corporate/regional structure. And Multiple System Operators (MSO) always seem to have some sort of disconnect happening, somewhere. It seems to be a fundamental difficulty for their business model.
Bill -
Yeah, it’s pretty Juno-esque.