I'll Bite

Normally, TV advertising is the necessary scourge of my existence that delivers my free network TV. Lately, there have been some truly brilliant - and, I must admit, enjoyable - ad campaigns, one from Subaru and the other from the Toronto Zoo. The Toronto Zoo ads, a spoof combining The Hunt for Red October (complete with the October Revolution theme!) and the sightseeing "I've never seen America!" captain from The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, and a Barrier Reef exhibit spot involving a one-eyed pirate who doesn't know how to share, are truly effective in their level of entertainment. They can be viewed here (the sub ad) and here (the pirate ad). Subaru's "Sexy SUV" campaign, a fantastic television spot I'll put at the end of this post and some newspaper ads designed to look like pinup calendars, has to be the best car commercial in my memory - we've come a long way from Saturn's ludicrously blasphemous (and narcissistically stupid) "The Car that will Save Your Soul" mid-90's campaign.

You'd think that in this age, where the contemporary consumer has a greater awareness and level of information regarding products and advertising - and violent hunger for constant entertainment - than ever before, more companies would put effort into commissioning ads that generate interest in their product because they (the ads) are entertaining. There's no excuse for any sufficiently profitable company to be putting out lazy, irritating ads that rely on base humour or stereotypes. Other companies that have recently been upping the bar in their TV spots are bottomless wallets Pepsi, with their "A Better Way to Feel Young" and Justin Timberlake ad series, Mars (bars), with their riff on medicine commercials, and Coke, with their current spot featuring a tongue and an eyeball arguing until the brain lays down the law (writing that, I realize how unappealingly bizarre it sounds, but trust me, it's brilliant).

Maybe Mad Men - which I'm sorry to report hasn't gotten better with time; more on that in another post - has upped my attention to advertising. Or maybe it's just because, for the first time since the conception of the Hershey's Kiss figure skating ads, there are actually several ads on TV that don't make me reach for the remote. Advertising this good and effective deserves some recognition, no?

The promised Subaru commercial: you won't be sorry.