To promote Motor, my new favorite alternative ad-free German radio station, Jung von Matt/Neckar washable-sprayed these pooches with the station's call letters and "No Mainstream." Click their Motor FM Player to listen to the likes of Goldfrapp and Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah.
They're not geniuses. Apple/TBWA messed up again. The blatant ripoff of the Postal Service's video was unauthorized and the band was completely unaware and did not receive compensation. Adrants points us to Adpulp pointing to a statement by band member Ben Gibbard on the Postal Service's website: "It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new
television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot
recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same
filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this
commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that
this was executed without our consultation or consent." This isn't just indie bitching. The band and the label had to pay for the video. They spent months concepting and producting i, only to have it co-opted by a major corporation. As revealed by the many comments on this issue, some people assumed that it was the result of some backend cross-promo deal between the Postal Service and Apple, an assumption potentially damaging to the Postal Service's rep. Any way you slice it, it's underhanded. Any way you slice it, it's created brand confusion, as Adreak notes, "More than 100 people have reviewed the video on iTunes, but a number of
them seem to be confusing the ad and the video, leading one exasperated
visitor to write: “Reading some of these reviews wants to make me punch
myself in the face. ‘Making computers’??? Where in this video do they
make ONE single computer? … Most of you need to stop writing reviews
and start blogs instead.” No statement has been forthcoming from Apple or TBWA. We demand answers. Though, perhaps the answer is that TBWA is just a big piarate ship. An Adpulp commentor notes, "...Chiat has always been masters at hacking the obscure. Remember the Taco
Bell Chihuahua law suit? Or "The Stuff of Life" campaign for Kmart?
(Actually you wouldn't remember that because it was ripped straight out
of a student portfolio and when the school threatened to sue Chiat,
Chiat threatened to blackball every student graduating from that
school)." Bad ass pirate ship or ship of fools? The market will decide.
Bad Apple! First Lugz, now Apple's new spot rips off the Postal Service. Guess you're not more creative on Mac after all. View them FIGHTING EACH OTHER side by side.View the Original Apple Ad. View the indie-dancerific Postal Service video. via and via. Cardboardmonsters will eat them both.
UPDATE: (via) Josh Melnick and Xander Charity directed both videos. "However, Sarah Moody of Sub Pop Records, The Postal Service's Seattle record company, writes: "... the Apple commercial is indeed very similar, it wasn't licensed in any form, and was made by the same directors as the Postal Service video. We weren't alerted to the fact that it existed until the day it came out."...Apple's ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, didn't respond to a request for comment." But they will have to soon!
Virgin Digital has an awesome new promo out for its music service featuring a smorgasbord of musical references. See how many you can get. Pictured is an easy one, Hotel California and White Rabbit. Tight spot.
UPDATE: Check the comments for the cheat sheet to (most) all the references.
UPDATE 2: There's also an interactive game (with different bands) on Heavy.com where you can win an Alienware (an extremely tricked out) laptop.
This is a music video for Heavy Blinkers, "Try Telling that to My Baby." It's full of magic and cupcakes. Movie theaters should play it before the previews to encourage concession sales. You will watch it and feel a snuggly sugar buzz coursing through your veins. Production by Flourescent Hill of Montreal, a directing team comprised of Mark Lomond, Johanne Ste-Marie and Darren Pasemko. Lomond writes about the production of the video: "The video is made from several thousand photos of
candy, which were then digitally painted and composited together.
Animation was completed with cg cutouts, stop motion, video, and plain
ol' drawings. The mouths are all 2d and although we were tempted to go
3d for the bulk of the project, we opted for ulcers, headaches, and
passion."
The New York Times gets to play catch up today with the blogosphere (and the New York Post) in "Is Imitation Flattery, Theft or Just Coincidence?", reporting on the Eminem i-pod ad story broken on Adfreak and reported here on The Spunker and a pile of other places. To recap: Eminem i-pod ads by TWBA look extremely like these Lugz ads three years ago by another agency. The blogobuzz prompted the senior creative of Avrett Free Ginsberg, original creators of the Lugz "Arrow" spot, to write Apple and TBWA, "It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and
in most cases I would agree...But sometimes, imitation crosses the
line." In a statement, TBWA repeatedly denied stealing the ideas, " "We can assure you that the
'Detroit' spot was created without any reference by TBWA/Chiat/Day to
the 'Arrow' spot. Our intention was to develop a campaign
that was a natural and independent evolution of the 'Silhouettes'
campaign. Any similarities between the two spots
are regrettable." Reading the conversation over in the Adfreak comments section of the original post might have you thinking otherwise. Pretty swell that an idea floated on a bunch of blogs provoked real-world controversy.
Quite swell commercial for Napster by the ever jelly, dripping with awesome psychotropic unicorn magic, Psyop. It's brainwashy and trippy with a Big Brother feel, like if they made video art in Brave New World. I've seen 01 (pictured) but am uncertain if 02 and 03 have yet received airplay.
Catchy mini-site for Tiga's new single, "You Gonna Want Me," featuring vocals by Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears. Props to a dance dj for putting up an artist statement for his song: "We live in the age of cruelty and everyday I struggle to find my place in it. All I know I can offer the world is a thousand more adventures through dancing and light." A rare modesty, there. The site features a suave video by French Director Oliver Gondry with a nice use of digital long exposure effects while the dancers throw shapes. E-card by Eject. Nice pacakge, disco boys.
As part of The Spunker's celebration of IKEA-land week, here are some juicy new interstitial promos for Swedish MTV. The spots are loosely wrapped around the transmogrative powers of a "MTV Me" popcan drink. Pop music, pop soda. Click the links of goodness: Hand | Skate | Scary | Change | Rock | Nose | Strange | Pain | Produced by Vardagfilm, which also made this quirky electro-lego-lovin' music video.
LA Times: Doors' drummer John Densmore's still won't allow Doors' songs to be used in TV commercials: "People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music," Densmore said. "I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent." When Cadillac offered $15 million for the rights to use "Break On Through," the surviving members of the band wanted the money, but Densmore held out. "Everyone wanted him to do it," said John Branca, an attorney who worked on the Cadillac proposal. "I told him that, really, people don't frown on this anymore. It's considered a branding exercise for the music. He told me he just couldn't sell a song to a company that was polluting the world (via BoingBoing).
