Daniel Harmon

My friends Kenny Hammond and Brandon Crockett, an art director and copywriter at DDB Chicago, worked on this YouTube video titled “Something’s Missing” for State Farm Insurance. They used hidden cameras to get candid reactions from their unsuspecting…eh, victims. I think it turned out great. Have a look.

Ice Cream Truck

I can just imagine how my wife would flip if someone tried to pull a stunt like that with one of our kids. I’ve included the rest of this series as well. The car wash one was pretty funny too because the chubby guy nails his role so well.

Car Wash

Shoe Shine

Hot Dog

Foot Massage

Bike Rental

What do you think?

One of my favorite athletes is Tiger Woods. He’s arguably more dominant in golf than Michael Jordan ever was in basketball. I don’t follow golf as a sport, but I follow Tiger as an athlete. He has an uncanny ability to perform under extreme pressure that I find entrancing. His play in the US Open last weekend bore all the marks of an ageless classic. Almost our entire office was in the kitchen glued to the TV during the final holes of Monday’s playoff against Rocco Mediate—even the bosses were watching.

This Nike ad, titled “Never,” aired during the tournament.

I love this one because it doesn’t stoop to clichés or schmaltz, even when it has every opportunity to. Somehow they managed to pick just the right footage and music to turn what could have been a disrespectful commercialization of Tiger and his late father into an inspiring piece of art. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that his father’s bold statement, “Tiger, I promise you that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you…in your entire life. And he hasn’t. And he never will.” turned out to be prophecy—at least on the golf course.

Here’s some highlights from the US Open, in case you missed it.

Here I go, blogging about beer ads again. This time it’s Bud Light Lime, a new beer from Anheuser Busch. DDB Chicago (where I interned) made these spots. Apparently, they were intended as much for an online audience as broadcast TV, so the director tried to give them a YouTube-ish feel.

The Mascot thing isn’t a new concept. However the drastically shortened, headless CG torso on “Limey” is. One look and you’ll be saying, “that ain’t natural!”

Limey getting crazy with coasters

Limey Skateboarding

It’s almost like someone gave one of the little M&M guys a set of nasty bare legs and forced him through citrus purgatory. Then bah-duh-bing-bah-duh-boom!—the resulting freak-of-nature instinctively knows all sorts of tricks with a skateboard and coaster. And why not! I for one have always wanted to know what would happen if a lime sprouted appendages and came to life possessed by the combined spirits of Tony Hawk and a ninja bartender. Thankfully, my mind now rests in ease.

With the tag line, “It’s amazing what a little lime can do”, they get their message (beer with lime) across effectively, and the videos are funny/bizarre enough that you might even want to show them to a friend or two. So they probably work. But since I don’t drink, I really have no idea.

Thoughts?

I found this poster series on the Communication Arts website.  In collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation, the in-house design team at Nebraska Book Company made these to promote the purchase of used text books.

I love the balance of color, the paradoxical concept, and the way the illustrations use negative space, allowing your eye to instinctively complete the image forms. And notice the clever use of the inverted recycle logo to create the v in save—a nice little touch of visual wit.

Ironically, the tag line, “Buy a Book, Build a Forest,” reminds me of an anything-but-politically-correct bumper sticker I saw as a teenager in Idaho. Its message aimed to achieve the same end, just through different means. It read, “Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver.”

Skittles has put out some pretty wacky commercials lately. This one’s no exception.

The piñata man is funny and memorable; however, will it sell? As entertaining as this concept is, I also found it rather unappetizing—not exactly the emotion you want to elicit when convincing people to buy candy. On top of that, the thought of Skittles combined with chocolate wigs me out. Sounds like a bunch of small, over-hardened Tootsie Rolls. But then again, I’ve never met a Skittle I didn’t like.

If you’ve ever wanted to watch a water balloon explode in slow-motion (I know I have), now’s your big chance. The most incredible thing about this ad is that they did it all sans CGI; they used a camera that shot 10,000 frames per second instead.

The result? A very elegant and imaginative way of communicating what I love most about soda (or pop, if you’re from Idaho): the tongue tickling bubbliness. And I have to admit, the shots and song are so beautifully mesmerizing, it makes me want to expunge my memory of everything I know about carbonated water’s adverse health effects. Strong bones, joints and muscles? Who needs ‘em! Gimme some of that fizzy drink!

The Caterpillar corporate site I’ve been working on for the past few months went live today. Check it out here. There’s a link on Cat.com’s homepage too. The site focuses on the progress Caterpillar is making possible around the world.

I wrote a lot of the copy (an advertising term for text) on the pages. And I even helped with the writing on some of the scripts for the videos (voice over stuff). The designers did a great job, don’t you think? If you see anything that would improve the site, leave me a comment. Thanks.

The ads inside the train always add a little flavor to my often-insipid morning commute. During my 12-minute ride, I can take in every ad (within legibility) that canvases the walls of my train car. However, only the good ones stay with me. And sometimes, when they’re really good, they command my attention for nearly the entire ride.

A few days ago, this ad for the Financial Times kept me staring.

It communicates one clear message with a captivating visual concept completed by the tag line, “World Business in one place.” It took me a minute to figure out what city I was looking at. The illustration is fantastic. And I think it’s an appropriate concept for getting their message across. You can find an interactive version of this ad on the Financial Times site.

Any thoughts on this ad? Have you ever seen a similar concept in an ad?