Time Lapse Photography

We linked to a teriffic video ad for Google, and found this not long after.  It's a video of time-lapse photography, in this case city scenes.  Very cool.

As with the Google video, it's interesting to note the huge impact that music has.  A single photograph stands alone fine, but moving pictures benefit tremendously (and you could say are transformed by) the accompanying music.

In this time-lapse video from Dominic Boudreault, you might recognize the music:  "Time", from the musical score to the movie Inception, composed by Hans Zimmer.

Cities included are Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, New York City (Manhattan), and Chicago.

German Ads (Part 4)

There were a few German ads we found that did not fit into the previous posts but deserve mention.  Here they are, mostly self-explanatory. 

Some of you might even have Henckels/Zwilling knives - they want you to know the knives are sharp.

Most of you probably have tried Toblerone too. 

Sixt is one of the largest car rental companies in Germany, and known for their witty ads (and low prices).  Here they can't resist a jab at the French:

"Do what Madame [Carla] Bruni did:  get yourself a small Frenchman."

Google Doodles Quiz - Part 2...Authors

In this prior post we briefly described Google Doodles and had a quiz.

Now it's time to guess the Authors whose birthdays were recognized with a Doodle:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

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Answers below:

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#1    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
#2    Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
#3    Antoine de Saint Exupery (The Little Prince)
#4    Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice)
#5    Beatrix Potter (The Tale of Peter Rabbit)
#6    Hans Christian Andersen (Thumbelina)

Google - Dear Sophie video

We saw some interesting print ads from Germany & Switzerland, but after seeing the video below you have to re-acknowledge that the U.S. still sets the standard for marketing.

In the video, a father creates a Google/Gmail account for his newborn daughter, and is sending her emails as she is growing up (that she presumably will read later).  It's funny, it's personal, and very touching.  I realize that this coming weekend is Mother's Day, but this is too good to wait for Father's Day.

FYI, the music is an instrumental version of Ingrid Michaelson's song "Sort Of".  Lovely.  Enjoy.

Google Doodles - The Quiz! (Part 1...Artists)

Almost everyone uses Google, and eventually notices that the Google logo at the top of the search page changes periodically.  These alternate versions of the Google logo are called Google "Doodles".

In 1998 the founders themselves, Larry and Sergey, were going to attend the Burning Man Festival in Nevada.  They playfuly added a stick figure behind the second letter "o" in the word Google to indicate that they were attending and would be out-of-the-office.  This was the first Doodle.  Here is the official logo and the first Doodle:

The official Google logo 

The first Google "Doodle"

Note:  the official Google logo itself has changed since the company was founded.

About a year later, in 2000, they asked their webmaster  Dennis Hwang (who was an intern at the time!) to produce a Doodle for Bastille Day.  The result was popular, so they made Dennis "chief doodler".  Today, Google has a team of designers, will listen to your suggestions, and holds competitions.  To date they have created over 300 for the U.S. and 700 world wide.

The entire archive of Google Doodles can be found here and descriptions here... but that's not fun.  Se we'll share some in quiz format!

Here are some Doodles that recognized birthdays of famous artists.  Try to guess -- answers at the bottom.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6  (my personal favorite!)

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13  (technically, this is an architect...)

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Answers below:

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#1    Paul Cezanne
#2    Andy Warhol
#3    Edvard Munch (The Scream)
#4    Vincent van Gogh (Starry Night)
#5    Jackson Pollock
#6    Piet Mondrian
#7    Leonardo da Vinci
#8    Pablo Picasso
#9    M. C. Escher
#10  Norman Rockwell
#11  Marc Chagall
#12  Michaelangelo (Statue of David)
#13  Frank Lloyd Wright (Guggenheim, Falling Water)

German Ads (Part 3)

We kept looking after our first posts on German ads, and there is yet more interesting German media and copy out there.  There were photos flying around the Web of the German trucks with almost trompe l'oeil-like paintings on them... it turns out that these were not real.  They were, however, real advertising concepts submitted to a competition.

The urban legend was debunked, as always, by Snopes.

The competition is called the Rhino Awards, and the results were from 2005.   There are other submissions to be seen on their web site, and later competitions from 2007 as well.  But these are still the best. 

Hanging Pepsi...

Double sided / wrong way truck...  ("On the wrong track/path?")

Canvas bag... 

Germans use the word for bread ("brot") to denote fresh bakery loaves, often oval in shape.  For the mass-produced, square-ish, white-bread loaves they use the word "toast", probably because they would never eat this without toasting it first (and it fits perfectly in the toaster).  This is the msot common brand of "toast" in Bavaria, possibly all of Germany.

And an acquarium...

 

Again, check out the web site of the Rhino Awards for more. 

German Ads (Part 2)

We've blogged a little about German sense of humor, and German/Swiss creative advertisements, so it's time to see some more catchy ads.

These ads come from on online jobs site called JobsInTown.  The don't even try to be cute with the message, and just print it directly:  "Life's too short for the wrong job!".  A couple of interesting aspects:

• They put the tagline in English.  Probably because most people using online job sites are proficient in English (and more), and using English also sends different messages (forward/broader thinking, free spirited, etc.)
• They put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence.  Germans put exclamation points at the end of a LOT more sentences than English speakers do (also in German, not just when using English).  Even in the most boiler-plate emails at work, I will see exclamation points all over the place.  It fits to the conflict-oriented cluture here (speak loudly to get noticed).
• These ads really differentiated themselves by placement -- locations beyond the run-of-the-mill billboards. 

Here's the accountant in the bank machine: 

The washerwoman in the washing machine: 

Can I call her a "barista" in the coffee machine? 

And my favorite, the guy underneath the child's ride.

You can see the entire campaign here (a few more... the video game and jukebox are also fun.)  Hopefully it was successful for the company.