Lloyds
- “You’re not alone…..”
Sometimes an advert will
have more than one version and after a few months a shortened edit will be
aired presumably to acknowledge that people do get tired of seeing the ad again
and again. Other times there is a longer version and in the case of the current
Lloyds Bank ad this is being shown only in cinemas. Lloyds adverts seem aimed
to position the bank as the dependable friend of the family, an enabler to
happy developments. Their previous ad played on the emotion of big events with
a large horse running through slow motion events like the birth of a baby, a
marriage proposal and so on. Of course if a huge horse really started to run about in
a hospital it would be a health and safety disaster.
The animal has always been
Lloyds’ symbol - their old ads referred to “the sign of the black horse” and the
latest ad uses them again. This time a
whole village gets up early in the morning to head for the beach where a lot of
horses are running along the shoreline. Naturally these wild untamed animals
stop to nuzzle the villagers probably in the hope of some breakfast or at least
a few oats.
Directed by Sam Pulling of
Pulse Films, `The Running of the Horses` features twenty of the animals enhanced by additional CG horses created by effects company The Mill. Despite
having shot previous ads in Wales, this one was actually filmed at Tomahawk
Beach in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South island. It reinforces the theme of the bank’s
recent ads as the advertising company who made it adam&eveDDB put it themselves showing that like
horses Lloyds are “powerful, dependable
and there for every generation”. Lloyds staff however do not go for a dawn run
along the beach each day as far as we know.
The film is soundtracked
by a new version of the Olive song `You’re Not Alone` performed by Jennifer Ann
(aka Astrea) something of a regular on advert songs having sung the well -known
version of `Mad World` for a 2016 Lloyds ad as well as the version of
`Everybody’s Free` that’s featured on Boots adverts.
Audi-
“If I only had a brain…”
The latest Audi car creeps
along in the rain in slow motion while a series of infographics show us just
how many clever functions it is performing such as adoptive cruise control,
interior climate control, drive select and adaptive air suspension. Like most
car ads it is beautifully shot and edited, the slow mo rain looking particularly
impressive. The choice of song is interesting as the car itself is just a
series of technical and engineering operations; it doesn’t actually have a
brain though the suggestion is the latest model is so clever it’s almost as if
it does.
The ad by the London based
agency BBH is directed by Alan Bibby who said: “I was instantly
drawn to the concept from the moment I read the script – it’s the sort of
challenge I find the most intriguing. Visualising the amazing, complex amount
of calculations and decisions the Audi is making at each moment but in an
elegant and visually compelling fashion.”
The music is a new version
of the Wizard of Oz classic performed
by a group called Faultline specially for the ad and unusually is not commercially
available in its own right depriving them of the sort of boost those John Lewis
ad singers get. Faultline is essentially producer David Kosten who makes albums
of mainly instrumental music with occasional guest vocalists such as Chris
Martin or Michael Stipe. This is the second Audi advert he’s soundtracked
following a previous cover of `Send in the Clowns` with vocals by Lisa
Hannigan.
PPI-
“Make a decision- do it now!”
You can see why this
advert making people aware of a final deadline for PPI claims was made; it is
squarely aimed at the middle aged. Younger viewers may not even realise why there
is a head trundling around urging people in broad Austrian to “make a decision-
do it now!”. I’m not sure anyone
knows why it bursts out of a shopping trolley! Even for those who are familiar
with the man may puzzle as to the presentation. Why the head? What is it trying
to tell us? Use your head? Why not have Arnie himself as the Terminator appearing
to tell people to make a decision? Some may find the results unnerving, others
may be baffled. Try and picture famous Arnie scenes and then imagine if they’d
just used the animatronic head on tank tracks and not the full Arnie!
The campaign by Saatchi is
believed to have cost £42m paid for by the banks and is apparently doing its
job causing a large spike in the number of enquiries about PPI. It has also
been called “disturbing” by some though at least it’s not as shocking as the
first ad from last year in which disembodied Arnie popped out of a supermarket
veg stall and seemed rather irritated if not dangerous.
The advert is part of an increasing
trend for companies to hijack cultural icons for their own purposes- the likes of
Scooby Doo, Thunderbirds, Skeletor, Top Cat and even Action Man have lately
been deployed to sell things. At least it shows the long term future for the
personalities young people today like. Imagine in 30 years’ time we’ll have the
animatronic head of Justin Bieber reminding us about something or other.
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