Ad of the Day: Cape Cod Potato Chips

Full disclosure: I like Cape Cod Potato Chips. I am ambivalent about Flock of Seagulls and mostly like their hair. But I am quite bullish on this new Cape Cod ad from Baltimore agency GKV, which features a flock of seagulls performing "I Ran" by their New Wave namesakes. There's always talk about the uncanny valley whenever CGI video makers try to compete with the real world. But for some reason we've been a lot more successful with computer-created animals than humans in recent years. The gull knocking over the cymbal and his frontman appearing to squawk rather than sing make this spot particularly funny. Are they actual gulls trained to play Flock of Seagulls, maybe? No. They are not. But they are some talented algorithms nonetheless. As always, it's the little things that get me. I remember a couple of years ago when the Coen brothers' A Serious Man came out and the pair revealed in an interview that they'd removed the odd tree from the background to make the place look a little more like 1970s Minnesota, with which they'd had extensive personal experience. That is the only way I can explain the appearance in the background of the lighthouse that looks exactly like the lighthouse on the bag of chips, unless there's some isolated beach on an island privately owned by Cape Cod where they build lighthouses and grow potatoes. It's borderline creepy, but the placement is so expertly done that it's hard to pick on director Tony Petrossian for it. All this is to say that soon we will be coming up the J curve on the uncanny valley, and if you thought Fred Astaire dancing with the vacuum cleaner was chilling, wait until Cape Cod recruits Tippi Hedren for the sequel to this spot. CREDITS Client: Cape Cod Potato Chips Agency: GKV, Baltimore Chief Executive Officer: Roger Gray Chief Creative Officer: Jeff Millman Associate Creative Director, Copywriting: Dave Broscious Creative Team Leader: Mark Rosica Senior Vice President: Dan Collins Vice President: Chuck Fischer Senior Account Executive: Jeremy Grein Senior Broadcast Producer: Kelly Gould Business Broadcast Manager: Sara Russell TV Production Company: Rhythm + Hues Director: Tony Petrossian Executive Producer: Paul Babb Producer: Jon Derovan Editing: Rhythm + Hues Editing Producer: Caroline Heyward Effects, Titles: Rhythm + Hues; Mark Rosica, GKV Mixing: Clean Cuts Music: Flock of Seagulls

Brand Marketing

Ad of the Day: Cape Cod Potato Chips

Flock of Seagulls' songs are always best when sung by actual flocks of seagulls

Sam Thielman

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Sam Thielman