it could be that december sucked and i was bored, or it could have been the pain killers, but i have found that the recent freecreditreport[dot]com television advertisements have been hilarious.
caveat: i am not promoting the service and i actually don't necessarily agree with it (as i think there is too much fine print involved and it isn't really 'free' but that is beside the point, this is about the commercials.
their latest one had me cracking up as the guy singing the jingle in what appears to be somewhat of a red lobster type restaurant ("they say a man should always dress for the job he wants, so why am i dressed up like a pirate in this restaurant"):
the previous one is about his girlfriend with bad credit ("so now instead of living in a pleasant suburb, we're living in the basement of her mom and dad's"):
there is another one about a new car, but i don't find that one as amusing. the agency behind these is the martin agency. who are they? well, they are behind some of the more successful broadcast media campaigns around:
- spiketv and the CSI campaign (the humorous ad showing a guy being dumped and he's telling the killer about all his mistakes)
- geico -- they brought geico the gecko, as well as the advertisements featuring celebrities helping tell customer claim stories and the cavemen commercials
- 'virginia is for lovers' campaigin in 1972, which apparently is still going strong.
- wrangler
- launched the UPS 'brown' campaigns
seems like a pretty talented agency balancing their abilities to serve different mediums as well as creative abilities catering to both the stiff corporate customers as well as enabling companies to see some humor in their own brands or bring something catchy to their advertising.
anyhow, nothing of significance here, just a random thought and appreciation for the creative talent. i wonder what the martin agency could do for microsoft?
incidently did you know that the mac vs. pc ads (their agency is TBWA\Chiat\Day) are market specific? check out the ones from the UK and Japan has some, but the link is bad now and i don't read japanese...but they featured a popular japanese comedy duo in their advertisements.