Super Bowl LII adverts
It was the Super Bowl LII in the US which means a festival of TV advertising
If Super Bowl LII had a star it would be Tide’s ad as the most interesting because of the way it let the audience ‘in’ on the advert playing off against the cliches used in US advertising:
- The car ad
- The pharma ad with its disclaimers
- The beer ad
- Perfume ad
- The rustic setting based ad (for conservative folks)
- The car insurance ad
- The luxury ad
Brittle Chinese sensitivities
Less about enjoyment and more about interest in social campaigns. Chinese netizen outrage at perceived slights is now affecting channels blocked in China.
Mercedes-Benz put up a filler motivational post on Instagram quoting the Dalai Lama. Instagram isn’t available in China, but that didn’t stop the Chinese web getting angry. Ok when I said the Chinese web, I meant a particular faction of it young people with extreme nationalist tendencies called 愤青 fenqing (said fen-ching). They are a diverse group in terms of beliefs, but a simple view would be to think of the nationalism of Britain First supporters, but with Chinese sensibilities.
Expect the threat of a Chinese government inquiry. Mercedes for their part apologised on Weibo:
..extremely wrong information
Which caused further outrage as netizens wanted an apology on Instagram. So Mercedes apologised again. Mercedes is stuck between a rock and a hard place, an apology like that on Instagram would blow back on them outside China.
What you are likely to see is a greater degree of self censorship by brands.
Lunar new year
Talking of China we’re starting to run into the lunar new year advertising season and my favourite so far has been this one by Nokia. It also ties quite nicely into a campaign that they ran online over Christmas.
The focus on family moments shows a maturity in Nokia’s advertising versus many competitors who talk about features.
Taiko
Taiko versus a vintage big band sound
Mark Moore
I have been exploring mixes by London clubland legend Mark Moore.