Compare the Market: Hollywood (starts at 00:06) – UK
On a trip to Hollywood, Aleksandr Orlov and his trusty companion Sergei suddenly realise that a massive opportunity opened up when EE (née Orange) decided to drop their involvement in two-for-one cinema tickets. The canny mongooses invent Meerkat Movies and are so distracted by the brilliance of their scheme, they nearly run over Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Agency: VCCP
Director: Darren Walsh
Weedol: Weeding Right Now (starts at 01:08) – UK
This is the time of year when our screens are filled with entreaties to buy gardening products to mend our broken lawns and almost all of them are awful. Fair play to London’s mcgarrybowen then for coming up with a decent idea in this creatively barren sector of the market.
Agency: mcgarrybowen
Director: Harold Einstein
Optus: Ricky’s Spent The Money (starts at 01:42) – Australia
When Ricky Gervais is involved with anything, his first instinct is to subvert it in some way and, so far, this trick has kept the wolves from his door. The latest ‘victim’ of his irreverent approach is Optus which gets less than it bargained for when it asked the comic actor to announce the news that they’ve made Netflix available for Australian customers.
Agency: Emotive (Sydney)
Director: Sam Washington
Wilkinson Sword: Swordplay Meets Foreplay (starts at 02:43) – US
This certainly makes for an entertaining change from the usual guff about super hydrating, multi-blade, Wi-Fi enabled razors that generally blight ads for shaving equipment. Playing out like an extended version of Antonio Banderas taking exception to Catherine Zeta Jones’s dress in The Mask of Zorro, the couple battle against a grand backdrop with some great choreography, convincing chemistry between the two leads, and some neat individual moments of wit.
Agency: JWT (New York)
Director: Lieven Van Baelen
Victoria Bitter: Raise A Glass (starts at 04:36) – Australia
The idea of a beer lending its name to a day of national mourning sounds like a barrel of trouble, but fair play to Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne) for providing a film with the right level of reverence on behalf of their client Victoria Bitter. Dozens of young men stand together whistling It’s aLong Way to Tipperary – the song of the 16th Battalion at Gallipoli – before bowing their heads in silence.
Agency: Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne)
Director: Derin Seale
Jason Stone is the editor of David Reviews
