Funny, Sexy, Clever

Here's a fun spot for Centrum Silver.  Spins a familiar concept in a clever direction.  Not your father's Chevrolet. CENTRUM STRIP POKER

Short and Clever: Pizza Pops

This is quick... a 15 second commercial.  It's funny, fast, it tells the story in a clever way, end first, and it has good casting.  Not easy to tell a story that gets your attention in 15 seconds, makes you laugh, and you remember the product name.   I guess using a monkey is always a doorway to winning possibilities.  PIZZA POPS    Note:  My previous blog entry is about an extremely long commerical for Australian tourism.  Wonderful juxtaposition.  This commercial is part of a campaign using the same template and story telling devices.  All silly.  

Big Film: Australia Tourism - COME WALKABOUT

You gotta love a 90 second commercial.  It's a dream that not many ad folks get to realize.  Hallmark used to give us a 90 second commercial once or twice a year when I worked on the business at Ogilvy.  It was a dream.  It's a chance to develop a big story instead of a a little story (aka a commercial).  This commercial by the Australia Tourism Board is lyrical, and beautiful, ambitious in its story, abstract in its imagery, and essential in its message.  Perhaps its a little off in the sense that the economic times are so tough, worldwide, but maybe that's just their message?  Lovely simple music track too....  but this spot did not come cheap.  COME WALKABOUT: AUSTRALIA TOURISM.

CNN Rules Cable News Ratings and Obama Rules YouTube

My alma mater, CNN, kicked some butt yesterday in its cable coverage of all things inaugural.

Here's the quick data: Nielsen's Fast National data.

11am-2pmET:  Total Viewers:   CNN - 6,941,000    FNC - 4,438,000     MSNBC - 2,571,000

25-54 demo:   CNN - 2,811,000     FNC - 1,379,000     MSNBC - 924,000

One other impressive note.  YouTube's top rated video yesterday was the twenty minute clip from CSPAN of the swearing in and inaugural speech.  More than 2 million views yesterday beating the nearest competitor which had 350,000+ views.

Starting with a Bang: Obama White House Web Site

At noon today the new White House web site went live (even before 44 was sworn in) showing the Obama Internet Communications team has not been slacking off: WH Web site.   Like it or not, it delivers the change message with a crisp simple design.  There's a BLOG and a Weekly Video Address area (nothing there yet) and lots of other fluffy information about the White House and Air Force one, but there's also content about policy in the AGENDA section and profiles of key players in the ADMINISTRATION section.  Will be interesting to follow how the administration uses the web site moving forward.