Shaving commercials have come a long way - Creative Excellence Fridays

Scanning over the top ads of the week I pushed aside all the soccer...sorry...futbol...instagrams and virals.  Gillette's Manscaping commercial won hands down.    And it inspired this weeks Creative Excellence Friday to be dedicated to shaving commercials. Whenever I see a commercial like this it's easy to think it's all special effects.  And for the most part effects are the star of this ad.  But when you break down everything that went into it; set direction, research into old movie effects and the looks of men over the last 100 years, you realize how much effort went into of ad of this kind.



 Note the music too.  The changing styles and instruments cover off the changing times very well. This ad was done by Grey London and has generated an impressive 5.2 million YouTube views, 657 Facebook shares and 63 tweets since its' launch about two weeks ago.  And yes the ad is getting online ad support.  But it's still the most successful viral Gillette has released to date.   Now contrast that with this Australian commercial produced in 1961.

 

 Note how excited they got about the executive travelling case for an extra 20 shillings. And this was the industry's idea of a high tech commercial from 1959.  Taking the crew to the Mohave dessert.



 In the early days of TV advertising there were also some liberties taken too.   Colgate-Palmolive and Ted Bates advertising got into a bit of hot water in 1960 for another commercial.  They claimed their razor would shave sand paper.  The only problem was, the commercial actually featured sand crystals on a piece of glass.  The Federal Trades Commission eventually had the ads pulled.  Here's the whole story here from Museum of Hoaxes. Razor advertising has definitely come a long way baby.

With over 30 years experience, Tim McLarty  currently works out of Toronto Canada as a writer/voice performer, producer and media strategist producing advertising and entertainment content.

Ontrackblog is a division of OntrackCommunications Inc.

4th of July commercials - Creative Excellence Fridays - Ontrackspots.com

Nobody does it up better than the United States when it comes to the birth of their country. I recall being in Niagara Falls New York years ago on the 4th and watching fireworks. The poor guy in the pit lighting the matches got a little too close to one of the flames and needed to be taken to hospital. But in true patriotic fashion, someone else jumped in the pit and took his place. The show must go on. And so must the commercials. In true retail fashion, retailers will take any excuse to have a sale and drive business. Such is the case with H.H. Greg Appliances.

 

 And nothing says Red White and Blue like the Pepsi logo.

 

 I always have a soft spot for animation composites. Payless squeezes a lot of fun into 21 seconds.

 

 Happy 4th of July to our American neighbours. Stars and stripes, beer and ribs and cash registers ringing. Now that's a great weekend.

With over 30 years experience, Tim McLarty  currently works out of Toronto Canada as a writer/voice performer, producer and media strategist producing advertising and entertainment content.

Ontrackblog is a division of OntrackCommunications Inc.