"F-ing Sponge Cake!?" - Worlds Best Commercials 2008

Had a nice treat this weekend as I hit The Princess Cinema's in KW with Ms Rita at my side to check out the screening of "World's Best Commercials 2008", a showcase of the best international commercials as recognized by the London International Awards for advertising. The Princess is a classic little repertory cinema, with the real popcorn (not the glowing yellow kind) and butter. Settled in to the bucket seats, we laughed and marveled at some of the most creative and funniest commercials of the year, some tearingly funny, some moving and effective enough to take your breath away. Each commercial felt like a short film, some of them 30-seconds, some more ambitious like the 10 minute spot by director Martin Scorsese. For short attention spans and if you could use a laugh, do yourself a favor and check out a screening at a local cinema near you, or spend some time cruising the LIA site which has the award winning spots available for viewing in Quicktime format. You'll lose productivity today, guaranteed.

Be warned though: I don't let advertising influence my decisions, but the first thing I did today was to drink Schweppe's Ginger Ale while buying my VW Golf, which I drove to McDonald's, all funded by the profits I made from investing my Ladbrokes winnings into my E-Trade account. And then I will buy a drum playing gorilla as my sidekick. On E-Bay.

Here's a selection of some standouts:

McDonald's "Boombox" - Silver Winner, Best Use of Music. Try not to smile while watching this spot, with a young boy who is too fly for the dinner table. Rita started doing the electric slide in her chair to this, and you will too.
Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago

E-gaming "Climb", "Parachute"," Shark" - Silver Winner, Campaign. These character feel like they lept out of a Wes Anderson movie. Crazy goofy bastards.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, London

Schweppes "Burst" - Gold Winner, Cinematography. Beautiful in motion and image, with a soundtrack from Cinematic Orchestra. In the words of Ms Rita, "their music will burst your heart". The song is "To Build a Home".
Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne

Cadbury Dairy Milk - "Gorilla" Grand Prize, and Gold Winner, Confectionary. Love the serious look on his face, a slight head nod of commitment and BAM.
Agency: Fallon London, London

Volkswagen GTI "Dreams" - Nicely captures that transcendence between dreams and the real world. Gold Winner for Best Use of Music.
Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town

Herringbone "Henri's Hands" - The Gold Winner in the Apparel category swerved us, posing as a poignant PSA before we started cracking up at a very inappropriate moment.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, Sydney

Louis Vuitton - "A Journey" - A gorgeous spot that will have you yearning to go beyond the places you know. Gold Winner for Cinematography
Agency: Ogilvy, Paris

Human Trafficking - "Radiohead" - Not shown in the collection I saw but worth watching is this Silver Winner for Cinematography. The band Radiohead committed their song "All I Need" to this spot for MTV's Campaign Against Human Trafficking, a music video that tells two stories in parallel, one child in a Western country, one in the Third World. It draws you in and gives you pause, successfully marrying music and message to shine a light on the shame that in this day there is still legitimized slavery and exploitation.
Agency: Colman Rasic Carrasco, Sydney

Volkswagen International Cinema "Toy Story" - Gold Winner, Corporate. Funny, but I don't think I can watch this Pixar classic the same way anymore.
Agency: DDB London, London

Coca Cola "It's Mine" - Silver Winner for Animation -A charming balloon battle for supremecy.
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland

Orange TV On Demand - "Rewind City" - Silver Winner, Editing. Sweetly romantic spot.
Agency: Publicis Conseil, Paris

Nintendo Jam Sessions - "Sponge" - Silver Winner, Low Budget. NSFW, a cheeky Australian ad.
Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland

AMP Energy- "Walk of No Shame" - Silver Winner, Humour. No, I am not familiar with this concept.
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

E*Trade - "Baby Banking - Gold Winner, Humour "I underestimated the creepiness."
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

FedEx - "Carrier Pigeons" - Gold Winner, Humour
Agency: BBDO New York, New York

Glade AutoSport - "Trash" - Silver Winner, Automotive Products
Agency: Draftfcb, Buenos Aires