Monday, November 14, 2005

Having A Ball


Marketers and advertisers go out of their way to get us to consume. Their efforts include all manner of approaches from coercion to pressure. Every now and then the meat grinder that is the advertising world can produce something that is just plain fun. We all have a commercial that we remember and talk about and for me, this is the next one. Sony is a company we are pretty familiar with and can't usually afford their products. Their latest ad campaign if for their Bravia LCD televisions. With the smaller ones going for $1,500 US and the larger ones at $3,500 I can't say as the ads will make me go out and buy one, but I can watch the ad over and over again with envy.

How did they get the attention of this jaded soul? By thinking like kids.

They wanted to focus on colour and have fun at the same time. The concept was to launch hundreds of thousands of rubber balls down a hill in San Francisco. Sounds a little too simple doesn't it? After all, aren't all the good ads dripping with digital CG animations and special effects? Don't we need athletes and other spokespersons in the ads? I think Sony has proven that the answer is no. What they ended up with is a funky visual result and a project that the young at heart would love to be on. I am thinking this would have been one of the best ad shoots ever. Imagine getting paid to play with all those little bouncy balls! No freakin way! I've got to figure out how to get in on these sort of jobs.

Check the clip out at the site. They obviously anticipated peoples' interest in this one as the site also has a photo gallery and a making of setup as well.

16 Comments:

Blogger sands of time said...

It looks really effective.

10:44:00 AM  
Blogger Fizzy said...

we have this ad too.Like you I thought of the fun. Must be the kid in me that thinks like this

11:51:00 AM  
Blogger Marj said...

Just saw the commercial. How serene and cute!!! The adult in me got a hold though... how did they catch all those balls at the bottom! hee hee

But they even had the white swirly colored ball in there. We used to get those in the 25cent machines at the supermarket.

^_________________^

12:56:00 PM  
Blogger Lois Lane said...

I love that one too! Anything that bringsa back the feeling of being a kid strikes my fancy. :)
BTW, what were you doing up so late posting this??? Some "kids" go to bed by 10. ;)
Lois Lane

12:57:00 PM  
Blogger TheatreChick73 said...

I love this ad so much. We had a really steep hill near where I grew up and friends and I used to race our "bouncy" balls down. Or attempt anyway. Man, the skilled knees and bumped heads we got doing that!

1:14:00 PM  
Blogger Leesa said...

That is really cool!

2:22:00 PM  
Blogger glomgold said...

I haven't seen the ad, but I'll take the TV.

8:27:00 PM  
Blogger Jenny said...

Cool! I haven't seen the ad yet, but the pic is awesome!

Have a great week!

11:13:00 PM  
Blogger MummaWalker said...

I love this ad! My fave bit is the frog jumping out and joining in the bouncing, random, but good

5:32:00 AM  
Blogger Stacy The Peanut Queen said...

Oooo...I always loved those bouncy balls! :)

9:13:00 AM  
Blogger Karen Schmautz said...

I wish I could watch the clip but dial-up waiting time is an hour. Boo hoo hoo...bring in the waaaa-mbulance (as my kids would say.)

Looks like fun!

Who has to pick up all those balls? Probably somebody's mother.

11:16:00 AM  
Blogger Rowan said...

I must not be a very fun person .

1) never saw the ad, so can't fairly comment on it.

2) that kind of job would be my nightmare. When I was being recruited for the big co's for programming: microsoft, the banks, the high tech R&D companies, many of them said every friday they go play golf or go to the movies, or bring in well known performers for private shows (rock bands and such) and I told them "no thanks".

To me, work is for work, not play. I didn't even play as a child really, I wouldn't know how.

1:33:00 PM  
Blogger Weary Hag said...

I love the picture (still waiting for the clip to download - dial-up Grrrr).

I think you're exactly right though... appeal to the kid in us and we might actually listen to the commercial instead of staring at it without ever realizing what it is they're trying to sell. This is a strange phenomenon and it happens in our house all the time. "What was that they were selling?" "Hmph ... no clue."

Good post, RP.

5:34:00 PM  
Blogger jon said...

THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I thought the frog was a nice touch too.

8:59:00 PM  
Blogger dan said...

the only advert that ever made me buy anything was the guinness advert.

i didn't buy guinness, though, i bought every rutger hauer film.

8:04:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I've got to figure out how to get in on these sort of jobs."

You are speaking to my heart. I think this EVERYDAY!

2:41:00 PM  

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