Ad Roundup – September 2022
The BEST music and sound from adland last month.
Lizz Harman’s monthly review of the best music and sound to come out of the advertising world. Life changing stuff.
DFS – ‘What’s your thing?’
Creative Agency: Pablo
Production Company: DROOL
Director: Freddie Powell
Kind of hard not to be taken with this one… the concept is great, the visuals are stunning and the track is spot on. The advertising holy trinity!
A fantastic find by the music supervisor.
The campaign features a quirky cast of animal characters who are unapologetically themselves. Viewers are offered a window into the animal’s habitat, with each creature feeling perfectly represented by their interior stylistic choices. We’ve got cosy hedgehogs in a cottage-like setting, metal loving bats in a dark and gloomy castle, flamingos amongst pink tropical beach vibes – complete with #blessed neon sign (lol), each scene is a colourful celebration of individual tastes and styles.
The 60 second spot is flawlessly crafted, mixing CGI, puppetry, live animals, animatronics, miniature sets.. the list goes on! An immense visual spectacle that lends excitement, fun and creativity to what could be considered a somewhat stale brand… no offense DFS but I have been inside your stores and… they are dry. That being said I am currently writing this sat on my DFS sofa so who am I to judge!
The track itself is light, sweet and perfectly encapsulates the ads purpose of championing of individuality with lyrics like “Be yourself, you can’t be nobody else”. A fantastic find by the supervisor.
The Gym Group – Gym Face
Creative Agency: Lucky Generals
Production Company: Biscuit
Director: Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe
Yeaaaah this is brilliant. Spot on. No notes.
The 1 minute 30 second spot feels like a skit straight out of SNL. Funny, original, relatable… and the original composition – banger.
Gymtimidation – what better way to highlight this issue than the medium of song?
The spot aims to tackle gymtimidation, which is absolutely a real thing that I’m certain is felt by even the most seasoned gym-goers. I mean, we must all feel kind of stupid watching ourselves do squats in the mirror, right?… right!?!? Well, I do, and it’s nice to feel seen for once!!! And what better way to highlight this widespread, absolutely felt-by-all issue than through the medium of song.
Written by agency Lucky Generals and music partner Leland, the electro-dance track is a perfect match for the gym setting, but the real star of the show is, of course, the lyrics, lead by a stellar vocal performance from comedian Will Hislop (remember the “Your Aunt at the clap for the NHS” video guy?). The track is even available on streaming services… which is kind of cool I guess.
So girls, be free of fear! Book onto that spin class! Stroll into the weights area with confidence! Because it doesn’t matter how hot you are, you will always ALWAYS look ridiculous doing hip thrusts.
Samsung – Join the Flip Side
Creative Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam
Production Company: Bacon
Director: Matias & Mathias
Why is this so funny to me! Every perplexedly expressed gesture made me giiiggleeee. When she closes the book, opens the fridge door, waves her hand in an exaggeratedly folded motion… honestly, academy award.
Kind of crazy the way advertising sometimes works
Very clever to target iPhone loyalists like this. I mean, yes, I am one of the many people who has adamantly proclaimed they would NEVER switch to Samsung, and yet.. I am rather intrigued by the Galaxy flip phone… gotta admit, it does look prettyyyy cool. I even checked out a YouTube review to find out more about it… kind of crazy the way advertising sometimes works.
It’s got a great composition working alongside it. Haunting atmos, creepy strings, brass and… castanets? All work to provide an eerie soundtrack, sonically signifying the inescapable obsession our hero character finds herself having with folding objects. There’s even a great kill bill style wild west guitar & whistle moment in the middle. On paper you’d think.. does this really make sense as a sound style match? But the weird musical moments do feel the perfect tonal fit. Kudos!
John Lewis – Stuck on You
Creative Agency: Adam&EveDDB
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Juan Cabral
Ooook why am I crying..? Stop being emotional towards me!!
ASDA – Rewards
Creative Agency: HAVAS
Production Company: STINK
Director: WATTS
A supermarket ad that features people pushing their shopping carts round the store? Not exactly a groundbreaking concept… and ASDA’s answer to the ClubCard is not the easiest thing to make exciting. But this ad successfully breathes new life into a tired trope. It’s bright, fun, engaging and features the killer track It’s Money (That’s What I Want) by The Flying Lizards. And, hey, it’s true, I think we can all admit that IS what we want. And that’s ok!!
