"Time's The Charm" - An Excellent Animated Promo

Believe it or not, Time's The Charm is a promo for shoes. However it's anything but in your face- It's a pleasant animated romp with subtle references to the product being referenced, John Lobb's latest collection. In collaboration with the folks at Not To Scale, they put together a stylish animated film in which we follow a man's journey through London, accompanied by the excellent music of Northhampton's very own psych-rockers The Temples. In terms of pleasant, creative advertising I couldn't think of a better execution in recent memory.

The New Sunday Times Commercial is Effortlessly Cool

If you've been on the Internet or ever enjoyed any form of entertainment or media lately, you already know what intertextuality is. It refers to the complex interrelationship between two or more 'texts,' usually referring to literature though not in this case; how they allude to, influence, reflect or repulse from one another. Essentially, all art and entertainment is an amorphous pool that feeds on itself. Nothing, no matter how impressive or underwhelming, is born in a vacuum.

The latest commercial for The Sunday Times' month long Culture feature is a extraordinary example of this. A one-minute, single-take video pulling together the iconic imagery of such works as Rodin's The Thinker and Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and putting them side-by-side one another. It really is remarkable watching it all come together. Check out The Sunday Times' Culture site for more.

The Awesome Idents Of Hitoshi Takeyiko

Today we're taking a look at the works of Hitoshi Takeyiko, director at the Japanese Montblanc (Not the fancy pen) collective. Best known for his work on the very unique After School Midnighters feature film. His commercial and ident work showcases an incredible amount of versatility, working in mediums including hand animation, CG and many others. He's gifted with the ability of making advertisements exciting and stylish, which is no easy task. I imagine most commercial makers these days as creatively starved, burnt out husks - Forced to repeat the same style of commercial in a Sisyphean drudge. For the US about 95% of TV commercials go like this: Add generic, appealing people in generic, but clean environment. Add product in plainview and happiness towards it. Add generic ukulele music and whistling. Queue canceling cable plan in disgust.

We've compiled a few of his more noteworthy commercial work, as well as his demo reel- Which you can check out after the break! I appreciate anyone that can push the boundaries of whatever medium they're in. Hitoshi is one of those fine gentlemen.

Subaru's "Attack on Titan" Forester Commerical

It should come as a surprise to noone that we here at Awesome Robo love us some Attack on Titan. Mmhmm. Apparently Subaru does too, because this Japanese commercial for their Forester-model SUV is an unabashed thumbs-up for Hajime Isayama's sensational manga/anime about killer naked skinless giants.

The short itself is directed by Higuchi Shinji, acclaimed special effects artist and newly announced director of the live-action adaptation.The giants themselves are a mix between impressive prosthetic make-up effects and green screen VFX. This only makes the wait for the impending film all the more tantalizing/frustrating. Get on it, Shinji!

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D Has The Best Nintendo Marketing Since The Late 80s

Donkey Kong Country Returns is now out for the 3DS and you should probably go buy it because it's awesome. If me telling you what to do isn't a good enough reason for you to buy the game, perhaps Nintendo's latest marketing stunt for the game will. Rather than simply letting kids try out the new Donkey Kong, Nintendo has taken it upon themselves to to scare the ever living sh*t out of children with a real life Donkey Kong. 

BANNED JAPANESE FURBY COMMERCIAL OMG REAL

I may or may not have lied about this commercial being banned, but that's mostly because this may or may not be a real commercial, either way it doesn't really matter. While I may have been a little harsh on some of Mike Diva's past work, I still really enjoy a lot of his stuff (mostly the work that isn't blatantly being written by a third-party entertainment company), this video included included. The dude has an incredibly knack for some fancy post-production work and his humor is generally right up my alley.

 

Honestly though, when I first started watching the video part of me was insisting that this was in fact a Japanese ad for Furby, especially when the famous Japanese vocaloid, Miku, kicked in. Despite the inclusion of Miku I can promise that from there on all your hopes and dreams will be crushed. Permanently.

The Instruments Of Robot Repair

This awesome video showcases just how many instruments Robot Repair, a studio/music house dedicated to creating music for commercials, TV, film and more have in their repertoire. It's a pretty awesome ad showcasing just how versatile these guys are, with these guys possessing just about every musical output device under the book in a digital and analog sense. I especially loved the circuit bent and hacked together equipment. If there's a sound you're looking for, you'll probably find it with these guys.

L'Odyssée de Cartier

Cartier dubbed this short film as a 'journey between dream and reality, an epic focusing on (Cartier's) history, values and inspiration.' For those unaware, Cartier is a famous jewelry company founded in Paris around 1847. This short is an abstract retelling of the history of the now world renown brand according to Cartier's official page. Its a beautiful short full of some really incredible imagery, directed by Bruno Aveillan who is well known for his experimental, high art approach to commercials.

6 Awesome MTV Europe Idents

"Taste"

Unlike the US, most MTV channels around the world are still mainly about the music and not about the awful reality TV shows. But one thing that ties all the MTV's around the world together are the idents...Short, experimental and fun little clips that tell a little story and usually end with an MTV logo. Artists from all around the world work on these quirky, vivid and creative little videos, and we just wanted to share a few of the really cool ones that were created in the last year or so. Check out 5 more of these awesome videos after the break!

Thank Goodness For New Pac-Man Pasta

There's something incredibly wrong about Baby Pac-Man commenting on how similar she is to the food before taking an enormous bite. Seriously though, chicken flavored? Hell yeah!