Thanks to YMCA (and TWBA Vancouver)

On Sunday I went to the supermarket with my 7-year child and tried to buy a pack of beers.The cashier picked them but his machine didn’t allow them out.After a couple of seconds he turn to me and said: “In Florida we cannot sell those before midday”.Well, besides the fact it was 5 minutes to midday, I didn’t wait those 5 minutes for a simple reason: I couldn’t explain it to my daughter.How could I tell her that, by trying to purchase beer in that precise moment, I was considered a drunk man?How could I explain the importance of of those five minutes, which could transform me from a drunk man to a normal person?I think the same reasoning applies to this commercial.It’s a marvelous piece of creativity. It shown the subject of communication, it explain naturally the reason-why, it makes you smile, it “force” you to think and act (if you were in The Nederlands).But, if you wish to share it, if you want to re-publish it on your blog (as I’m doing), then you have to conceal the main subject.Why? Well,

• because some of us think that those two “friends” are only a se…l object;
• because some of us forgot they started their life feeding from those;
• because natural is only “calories free” (which is not the case, fortunately);
• and because we advertizers have to exercise how to tell the truth directly in one market and indirectly in another (like me, now).

Yes, I know, rules are set to prevent people to act in a not-standard way.But, we know, even creativity is a way to do things or to communicate in a not-standard (or not-common or … simple and natural) way.So what, is this the reason-why we often refuse creativity as it let us travel to uncertainty?Hopefully no, at least those who wish to buy a beer 5 minutes before the standard time.

There’s a bit of English humor beneath this “global” PR activity:This is what we can call “viral” and “corporate”.And I think it reached at least one target: to spread the news of this product all around the world, to make people nod and pass it over, even to make it memorable.Unfortunately it didn’t reach the direct target, with one yelling from the stand and others leaving the room.

To hype a limited time free coffee offer from McDonald’s, Cossette West created this custom designed lamppost to mimic a pot of coffee being poured into a coffee cup. So simple. So effective. So wonderfully creative.

Per sottolineare un’offerta temporanea di McDonalds’, Cossette West ha modificato questo lampione.
Semplice, efficace, meravigliosamente creativo.