Tag Archives: Youtube

Write It In Your Own Voice

Write It In Your Own VoiceBrilliant series of adverts from Uniball which highlight the merits of sending a handwritten letter and cleverly illustrate what misused fonts say about your message. An advertising campaign which is all about communication and implicit meaning – so meta!Uniball Pen Advert Comic Sans joke Uniball AdvertMy favourite one is ‘Pappy Is Dead‘, which makes fun of Comic Sans (the underdog of all fonts) and there is also quite a camp skit deriding the Broadway font, too. The ‘Bust You Out’ version is probably the most effective, because obviously slang sounds so ridiculous when it’s read out in the Queen’s English! It reminds me of the time when James Blunt had to read out some Sean Paul lyrics on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Great work from TBWA South Africa.

The Bilinda Butchers – Careless Teens

ImageImageImageImageAww. This video for ‘Careless Teens’ by The Bilinda Butchers is really priddy and makes me yearn for a lazy sunny day where I can just do whatever I feel like. I discovered this band a couple of months ago when I first heard ‘The Lovers’ Suicide’, which also made me think of the weather. It was March and still snowing a lot in London, so it felt strangely appropriate to be listening to the lines: “Like a flower can’t bloom in the snow / We can’t hide, we can’t grow!”

Don’t you think that this video is almost like a lookbook for some kind of hipster fashion brand, like Wildfox or Cheap Monday, or something? When I saw it, I felt that it evoked a real girly ‘Tumblr’ aesthetic. Hopefully the maker of the video, Vanesa Capitaine, won’t be offended by that description – she does seem to use Tumblr a fair bit!

HAERTS – Wings

HAERTS BandHAERTS are female-fronted band of four guys and one girl, who hail from Brooklyn, New York. Their first single is a beautifully tender piece of lo-fi pop, set to a montage of home video-style clips. I’ve looked for other stuff by them, but this song is the only one I can find. I’m guessing that as it’s on Vevo, they are already on the brink of mainstream success. Judging by ‘Wings’, they sound pretty great and I hope the rest of their songs live up to expectations. Lead singer Nini Fabi’s vocals are sweet, but powerful – like a mixture of Gwen Stefani and Stevie Nicks.

This song is sort of what I was hoping for when I first listened to HAIM. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.

Still Corners – Berlin Lovers

Berlin LoversThis video for Still Corners’ new single ‘Berlin Lovers’ is lovely. It was directed by Christian Sorensen Hansen and reminds me a bit of Christiane F, but without the heroin. Imagine that Christiane F. and Detlev are a lot more innocent – just two regular teens who don’t inject smack into their veins, or give strangers handjobs for drug money – and this is pretty much it. Considering the song is called ‘Berlin Lovers’, perhaps the similarities aren’t even a coincidence. Either way, I like it.

Dead Gaze – I Found The Ending

Dead GazeLove this song. The accordion in it reminds me of ‘This Is The Day’ by The The…except I think I actually prefer this song by Dead Gaze.

They Sent Their Briefs Back

TBWA South AfricaWhat’s the best way to piss a client off?

Perhaps you could ignore the brief they sent you? You might just decide that the agency knows best and go against their wishes completely? But how about going one step further. You could tear up the brief completely, make a bit of poncy origami with it…and then use extra resources to make your own self-promotional video, documenting the whole ‘fuck you’ process!

This is exactly what TBWA South Africa did. Although, I suppose they did have a valid point to make…

I’m guessing that while they were making this video, their ATL department probably were taking care of those original briefs, though. A nice idea if you have the resources, but probably not a possibility for most small agencies.

Tyler The Creator Directs Mountain Dew Ad

ImageNo, seriously. Tyler, the Creator has directed and starred in an ad for Mountain Dew. It gets weirder, though – he voices a female goat called Felicia…a really violent goat, who gets some kind of hallucinogenic kick out of drinking Mountain Dew.

Grumpy Cat in TIME Magazine

Grumpy Cat Time MagazineTardar SauceGrumpy Cat TimeTardar Sauce, known to most as ‘Grumpy Cat’, is in TIME Magazine. She’s been photographed by Elizabeth Renstrom doing her thing – looking simultaneously pissed off and cute as a button.

UNKLE – Hold My Hand

Miss CrashOne of my favourite UNKLE tracks has a brand new music video featuring performance artist, Miss Crash. I hadn’t heard of Miss Crash before I saw this, but her act is pretty unique! I don’t want to spoil the video, so just watch it and you’ll see what I mean. Don’t play this at work though – it’s got generous helpings of tits, latex, leather and tattoos. If any of your co-workers see you watching it, they’ll just think you’re one of those weirdos who watches porn in the office.

The video was co-directed by UNKLE frontman James Lavelle, and is part of an ongoing creative partnership between him and Black Dog Films.

Creepy Panda Hotel Is Creepy.

Panda Hotel PianoPanda Hotel BedroomThere is something quite uncanny about these photos of a panda-themed hotel that opened in 2011 in Hong Kong. The way that these panda mascots are just casually inserted into the hotel’s plush interior gives a chilling, eerie feel to these otherwise dull press shots. These characters could be a sinister mix of the Scream killer, that rabbit from Donnie Darko and Pedobear! The idea of this hotel definitely doesn’t appeal to me, although it is probably more targeted towards families with children.
Also, my thoughts on these images might have been significantly influenced by this hilarious Egyptian campaign for Panda cheese…