TAG Heuer recently ran an ad campaign for their Monaco brand watch. It was a contest to guess the winner of the above “Duel” between two important figures in the history of the Monaco series, Steve McQueen and Lewis Hamilton. The contest officially closed on June 10th, 2009. Apparently, it’s been one of TAG Heuer’s most popular online contests ever.

According to TAG Heuer, Lewis Hamilton won the Duel… but I don’t think anyone wins with this ad. They sliced up the original footage from the Steve McQueen 1971 film Le Mans to shoehorn his image into the ad, and then used a poor quality voice actor that sounds nothing like him to dub over his lines. Ironically though, McQueen’s shoehorn/voiced over performance is better than Lewis Hamilton’s actual performance. And McQueen’s been dead for almost 30 years. Overall, the ad is fairly lame on that level. Still, it has racing footage, so I can’t call it all bad. Check out the full version:
[Read more →]

Honda’s new commercial for the 2010 Insight has a deceptively simple appearance. A series of shapes and patterns flash across what looks like an old Lite-Brite set, or maybe an LED panel, or perhaps even just a series of computer generated dots on the screen. It’s nice to look at and nice to listen to, due to the pretty music playing along. Simple and nice. The interesting part is that the flashing dots are actually the flashing headlights of 1,000 actual Honda Insights. One thousand full sized automobiles, arranged in a gigantic grid in such a way so they appear to be a perfect rectangle from the camera’s vantage point.

Check out the “Making of…” video near the end of this post:
[Read more →]

I occasionally smoke Djarum cigarettes, and so does my girlfriend. I used to go to a little shop in Northeast Philadelphia called Artifax for them. But unfortunately, after discovering the world’s biggest asshole is currently in their employ, I will no longer be patronizing their establishment.

First of all, I’ll be 30 this week. I’m 6 feet tall, about 175 pounds, and I have a 5 o’clock shadow an hour after I shave. Now, he says I look under 26 so he needed to see my ID. That’s fine, that’s his prerogative, it’s a bit of a douche thing to do since I’m clearly over 18, but it’s fine… IF I were trying to buy cigarettes. The thing is, I wasn’t. Read on…
[Read more →]

Ahhh… Debbie Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas, together at last. Plus this movie has a mega shark and a giant octopus, apparently. How can it go wrong? My answer: In every possible way.

I don’t know what the makers of this movie were thinking. Maybe they wanted this movie to be the next Snakes on a Plane; maybe they had a lifelong vision of a mega shark and a giant octopus doing battle, and finally had the chance to make that vision a reality on the big screen. Maybe this is some sort of tax scheme or ploy a la “The Producers”. Who knows. Who cares. Whatever.

This German ad for Bontrust Finance is… unexpected, to say the least. This sort of thing would never fly in the US. Well done though. Unfortunately, it looks like the Bontrust girl is a total whore. How dare she cheat on Lincoln… and with Mao of all people.
[Read more →]

LaSexta is the sixth nationwide broadcast television station in Spain and, starting this year, the only channel in Spain that broadcasts Formula 1. So they commissioned the creative agency Kotoc to make some intro spots and they came out really nicely. My only complaint is that the ships don’t look like their going fast enough. Other than that, the pod racer feel of the whole thing is pretty interesting and the look is definitely nice.

Check out the rest of the intro spots:
[Read more →]

When the above video came out last month, Samsung issued a challenge:

GUESS HOW WE DID THIS. This clip was shot on an I8910 HD phone, a new camera phone just released by Samsung with an 8 megapixel camera that can actually record and output video in HD format. It was shot in one take, with no post production or special effects of any kind. Everything you see here was done “in-camera”. Our challenge to you is to figure out how we did it. Hint: it’s worth watching in HD…

Now, there were some people who were all like “Bah, this is just viral bait and I’m not biting”, but you have to admit, it worked well. The video has been viewed almost 800,000 times, and there are thousands of people commenting on it. So kudos to them. Remember the candy bar, Kudos? Remember them? They were good, what ever happened to them? Do they even exist still?

Anyway, here’s how they made the video. Check it:
[Read more →]

This is a new feature on AdSavvy, it’s called “Best Ad Ever”. And keeping with our extended overuse of hyperbole, we’ll have a new one every week, or every day. I’m not sure yet. Maybe it won’t be back. Whatever.

Little Mac is back. After fifteen years, he’s ready to reclaim his title as W.V.B.A. champ. Fake documentaries are so ‘in’ right now, and this one is excellent. Well played Nintendo, well played.

Official site

PS- I’ve had the above website in my browser for the past hour and a half. I can’t stop listening to the theme music.

Check out the original Punch Out!! ad:
[Read more →]

The newest of Intel’s “Sponsors of Tomorrow” ad campaign, “Intel Star”, captures the concept of geek chic well. USB co-inventor Ajay Bhatt hits the cafeteria and is welcomed as the rock star that he is. This ad should hit Intel’s target audience directly in their giant brains.

Rock that cafe with your bad self, Ajay, rock it.

Check out the first in the “Sponsors of Tomorrow” campaign:
[Read more →]

Star Wars Weekends is basically the Star Wars fanboy activity of the year. It’s an annual event held at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park with tons of Star Wars themed shows and games and membrobilia and everything possible you can think of in any way related to the series. Picture a Star Wars convention financed by Disney and designed by Disney Imagineers.

This year, Disney had some really clever print ads made up for the event, mostly having to do with all the Star Wars characters making their way to the event. Anyway, here they are, all 13 of the new print ads from Disney’s Star Wars Weekends advertising campaign. Enjoy:
[Read more →]