https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLYDSVvOzXw

Then again, I do have a mental age of 12.

(Thanks, S.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWlxuGxxJg

It was shot entirely on an iPad.

Hats off to a great team who put this together.

Damn Gaslamp Killer aint just “in” the ipad commecial he is IN THE FUCKIN IPAD COMMERCIAL. Tight!

Top grannies (thanks, J).

Best Guardian Soulmates ads (thanks, J).

Amazing Russian Mafia gravestones (thanks, J).

Top dad (thanks, J).

Superbowl ads remade in Lego in 36 hours (thanks, A):

Naughty kids get old man hair cuts.

Delightfully insane 90s commercial spoof:

Standing on the precipice of the future (thanks, A).

Ace banana art (thanks, J).

I only ask because I think I’ve seen things happen every which way:

Brilliant scripts made into bad ads.

Nothing scripts made into great ads.

Throwaway briefs that won pencils.

Great budgets, good clients and the best director in town fucking up something so badly it didn’t even run.

Leftfield nonsense making the whole planet laugh.

Leftfield nonsense leaving the whole planet cold.

Risks failing.

Risks succeeding.

Experienced creatives being 100% sure of decisions that turned out to be completely wrong.

Happy accidents.

CD interventions that saved ads

CD interventions that destroyed ads.

Client comments that everyone fretted about for ages, then implemented with no detrimental effects.

Client comments that turned so-so ads into award-winners

Dead ads brought back to life by sound engineers, editors, Flame operators, assistant producers, junior account people, planners or spouses.

Etc. etc. etc.

So what combination of circumstances are we trying to achieve to create repeated success? After all, surely that’s what we’re aiming for.

Are we just playing the odds that suggest the more the CD gets involved, the more numerous the improvements? That deeper preparation and harder work will lead to better results? That collaborating with those who have the best track record will be most likely to bring excellence?

Or that a good CD will step away and just let talented people get on with it? That loosening things up and leaving them to chance is the only thing that will create real magic? That taking a chance on a newbie will bring an essential freshness of perspective?

Perhaps we need to take a step back and say that none of the above are guaranteed keys to top work; more that the best thing you can do is develop a good sense of when to take which path – when to hold and when to fold.

The paths to greatness are many, varied and, if you try to work them out, contradictory.

So don’t bother. Or bother a lot.

Whatever works.

I now live in a country where people actually say ‘Happy Super Bowl Day’ to each other as a greeting.

I love that, and wish people in England would say ‘Happy FA Cup Final Day’ to each other on the appropriate date.

I also live in a country where the ads that run during this game are heavily scrutinised by all sorts of people who should probably have something better to do with their time.

Anyway,  I thought I’d post a few ‘spots’ (we say that over here as well) that caught my eye for various reasons.

First up is a massive, throbbing turd. Mercedes have created a strange story where both of the main characters are massive bells. That ain’t easy. What’s even harder is getting lots of people (CDs, clients, directors etc.) to keep that vision consistent all the way up to its $9m media spend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF–p4Dkv_Q

By contrast this one is excellent: a great idea that seems to have far stronger legs than I expected, married to a great execution with a fine, expensive twist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqbomTIWCZ8

Here’s a lovely bit of perceptive piss-taking (marks off for feeling strangely dated, as in it feels like it’s making a point from the first dot com boom):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZnUG0EFPkU

This one seemed to light up Twitter with utter revulsion. I think it’s an interesting idea, but its depressing tone was entirely out of place for the occasion, and the message seems to be, ‘If your kid dies in an accident – something that’s quite common – we’ll give you some cash. Hope that takes the sting out of things’. No, not really. Odd that the people involved thought it would go down well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY

Finally, if you’d like to spew rich, pungent vomit through your nose and mouth for the next three hours, watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCmh8cBjUeM