Do you miss 2006?
Here’s a new Sony ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2DdtkDK7w0
Ah… that takes me back…
Ads with massive pillow fights, or water pistol fights, or entire towns covered in foam or paint or whatever.
Seems a long time ago.
But this ad makes me realise I really don’t miss those days.
Which got me thinking: have I moved on, or have we?
Do these big, costly wankathons belong to a bygone era, or is that just a particularly unimaginative one?
Could we handle more ads with colossal budgets if they were attached to decent ideas, or would it be like the richness overload of a foie gras wagyu stilton burger after a year of living on dry toast? Could we really appreciate the kind of ostentatious vulgarity that makes us look down on oligarchs?
And will we ever find out?
To be honest I don’t know what to make of it. It’s a beautiful film. It’s not an original idea but it’s certainly an original execution.
If you were to look at the responses online you would see the ‘general public’ love it – the people it’s aimed at (if they had a spare £4K lying around. Whereas, a minority of those in the advertising world cant help but point out it’s flaws.
So have we, you and maybe I, lost touch with general public? Are we thinking too hard about something that – given the current ad scene in the UK – is actually quite spectacular? Will it gets people attention? Will it reignite peoples admiration for Sony?
I think so.
It’s not original, and it’s not as good as ‘Balls’ – neither will it have the same impact even if it was – but I’d rather watch it than any other ad that is on TV at the moment.The music is great too. We’ll all bitch and criticise, but anyone spent 60 seconds watching anything more ‘pleasant’ in an ad break this year?
Different agency. Same idea. That seems a little odd.
People will like it. Is that all that matters?
If this does well is it a green light for others to continue/ramp up reusing old ideas?
Never understood this sort of thing. Those bouncing ba… sorry, petal things, look pretty good on my decrepit laptop, let alone my shitty old Hitachi*. So, er, why do I need the real telly? Don’t we all just need prod companies to use better cameras?
Makes you wonder, like the adwanker I am, what the brief said? Was there even an insight? Do insights even exist anymore?**
At least it’s out in time for Christmas, that’s a relief.
*Just kidding, the Hitachi blew up years ago. Piece of crap.
**Apologies, found it on the blurb on the YouTube page: “the ad conveys the emotional power of seeing Ultra HD for the first time and experiencing the deeper, more natural tones of the unique TRILUMINOS Display showing more of the colour spectrum.” That’s told me.
I think a lot of what we might have termed “mediocre adverts” from yesteryear (or back in the day if you are an enormous bellend) would look great today in comparison to the awful tripe that passes for adverts these days (front in the day).
Makes me want to shit on my arms.
I thought ‘they’ had just come up with another way of saying what they have said already, ‘Colour. Like no other’. If the brief wasn’t asking for that then I’m not sure it’s been achieved. Fuck off budgets a la http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABL0VLOkdLc has never been my thang but then again isn’t the only brief to get ‘in between the ears’ whichever way?
I thought it was lame. But then I used to liken every new band with an old band that was from my era. And that also seems lame to people who actually like Vampire Weekend, etc.
Anyway, back to the Sony ad. It’s a bit like a poor tribute act.
More important than all this is the fact that it is your birthday Ben. You are trending globally and I fully expect to see the results in an awards entry film.
It was indeed my birthday yesterday.
I became 40 by watching Thor: The Dark World and eating liquorice catherine wheels.
I regressed.
The ad is probably prettier than anything on TV right now. But I feel Sony missed an opportunity to actually show off 4K. Not anything to do with the content of the spot, but with the technical specs.
YouTube now allows 4K streaming video. So that means that people could “see” the difference between 1080p and 4K for themselves. It might not make much of a difference on smaller screens but it would on massive iMacs like the one I’m typing on.
And it’s probably only people with massive displays like this who will be able to afford the TV at first anyway.
Here’s an example of a YouTube 4K video. It’s gorgeous.
I want to continue the advertising regression by writing a jingle. Or something featuring John Cleese. And a jingle.
It’s hard to advertise the benefits of 4K over 1080p. I watched that 4K video on my retina laptop, and I couldn’t really see a difference. I was really trying to, but instead I just realised how filthy my screen was…
How do you show someone what they are missing out on when they can’t see it?
I’m sure if when they made ball they had made this instead you would have been raving about it for years. And if they had just made balls you’d all be going – It’s not as good as volcano. Who cares if it’s not original, it looks great and the public love it and it’ll probably shift a bunch of TVs
Did you read my post?
If so, you seem to have missed the point.