Keeping track of inspiration is tough stuff. The world is full of cool things that deserve to be cataloged and shared. I'm no archivist and this is no archive. But I hope to share what's blowing my mind at the moment.
So wow. That's all I have to say about this nugget of awesome. Stop motion photography has fascinated me since I was a kid. Can't really explain why, but it has. And skateboarding has been a monumental influence on my life for over 15 years now. So when those two worlds meet, it's like being shot in the brain with a pure bolt from the happiness laser.
This guy took a collection of old skateboard magazines (I have a stack waist high myself) and cut out sequence shots—then animated them using stop motion. Brilliant. Freaking brilliant.
Video games are an emerging story telling vehicle. And let's not kid ourselves, they provide a good platform to tell a compelling story. But video games have to live a duplicitous life. They're first and foremost games and need to be enjoyable as such. Now, they have the added pressure of presenting an original and interesting story. It's not enough to just save the princess and jump on some mushrooms along the way anymore.
To illustrate my point, here's a promo for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, an upcoming game from Ubisoft. It's awesome by the way. I've never played the previous game and had no plans to. After watching this, my curiosity is engaged. The story is front and center—there's zero game play footage. That seems like a big risk for a video game to take. It looks like games are trying to grow up a bit and not just by upping the mature nature of their content.
Game developers are redefining their industry. They're not just interested in pixels and user interfaces—it seems they are more interested in user involvement and engagement. And what better way to get humans invested in your product then to get them invested in your story?
I've noticed a trend lately. The return of wow. And it's not a bad thing. I really enjoy both of these spots. The George Takei spot for Sharp is just plain hilarious. George Takei's voice is amazing by the way—why hasn't he been doing Jeff Bridges amounts of voice over work? The first time I saw this I laughed until my stomach hurt.
Now the second one is controversial. Lots of people are hating on the Staples wow guy. The argument is that he's too over the top. Well, duh. That's the punchline. Staples has prices so low it will blow your mind. Thus, the 10,000 volt head jerking "Wow! That's a low price!" I think it's awesome. And I'm not just saying that because my sister agency in New York created it. So enjoy the current zeitgeist of wow.
It must be my lucky day. First, I decided to wear a green shirt to work today only to discover it's St. Patrick's day. Then I begin my morning routine and check out Ads of the World and come across this beauty of an idea.
(I couldn't get the video from Ads of the World to embed, but this one is from JWT, Atlanta. You get the basic idea. Hit the link at the top for the Ads of the World page. That video is much better.)
JWT, South Africa launched the effort last summer and had a lot of success with it, as evidenced by the video. The thinking behind this effort is what really gets me boiling. I've seen piles of old stock photo books just gathering dust in my office for years, never giving them much attention. "That's just a pile of old useless books" I'd say. Someone came across those same stacks of unused paper and saw opportunity. That is finding a pile of lead and turning it to gold. That is inspirational.
Okay, Okay—I've been away for a long time. Life is like that some times. You're just going along all smooth and steady and then a rogue wave pins your rudder starboard and you just spin in circles for awhile. I've been feeling guilty about not posting so I decided to share one of my favorite campaigns from Unicef.
These popped up on Ads of the World a long time ago and I was moved by the message. This is clear, concise messaging at its best. Click on the images to see a bigger picture and read them. The copy will break your heart.
I think it's important to remember that ads can do more than just make us laugh. I'm loving W+K's Oldspice work right now, super stuff—really. But sometimes ads can land a sucker punch to your heart and these do that extremely well. Hope they inspire you like they did me.
