Guest Critic

Anyone who has been heralding the death of the :30 TV spot over the past two years should sit back and watch the reel I was handed last week. On it were dozens of spots ranging from fun to funny to tragic to charming to breathtaking. Sure, there were some clunkers in the bunch. There always are. You should see my reel.However, the overall quality of message and excellence of execution should give great pause to the trendy TV R.I.P. crowd. It's still the biggest, best, most impactful medium we've got. Guess the folks who created some of the gems below don't read the obituaries. Apple: Who knew that two guys talking could be so damn interesting? The current Apple-meets-PC campaign is as brilliant a product demonstration as it gets: informative, innovative and charming all at the same time. Humanizing these two megabrands is a far more effective approach than showing the standard gorgeous hardware footage. Oh, and have you ever come across a friendlier "you suck we don't" competitive campaign in your life?Domino's: Domino's took a big risk here in fusing appetite appeal with grotesquely enlarged body-part humor. It's a risk that pays off beautifully. The idea is dead simple. Domino's new Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza appeals to all the senses, in a big way, as shown by guys with giant noses, mouths, eyes and ears celebrating this new offering. The brilliant editing never allows the viewer to get grossed out by the wildly enlarged extremities. One step in the wrong direction and this could have easily been "My Dinner With Elephant Man." Nicely tightroped, everyone.Nike: Don't lie—we've all sat around wondering when this brand is finally going to run out of brilliant television ideas. Well, it's not happening this month. This musical masterpiece features the beautiful, devastating Maria Sharapova and seemingly the entire city of New York as her adoring chorus. Fun, funny, epic and whimsical. Nike makes show tunes cool—now that's a talent.Orbit: I just don't know what to feel about this campaign. Yes, it stands out. Yes, the whole clean-feeling approach is a unique positioning for gum. Yes, it's better executionally than the so-bad-it's-good Mentos work. It's just that they're trying way too hard to be weird for weird's sake. Weird.Sara Lee: Client loved the rip-a-matic. Guess what ran? A tragic lesson for all of us.Sony: If you're not watching a Sony SXRD HDTV, what are you watching? The premise couldn't be simpler. The spot couldn't be more wonderfully bizarre. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think I saw two sheet cakes racing around a basement-scale Nascar track, and somewhere along the line the whole thing erupted into an ultra-violent, handmade puppet melee. You gotta see this thing.Southwest Air: Southwest was the original Friendly Little Airline. They're not alone in that category anymore and apparently they're none too happy about it. The spot is funny enough: A flight attendant on "another" airline rattles off the in-flight surcharges for everything from pillows to call buttons. I just don't know if Southwest needs to get down in the mud with a not-so-subtle anti-Jet Blue message. Keep the high ground, Southwest. You've earned it.

Brand Marketing

Guest Critic

Marty Donohue

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Marty Donohue