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There’s nothing I can say about these ‘scratch posters’ that the video doesn’t say better.  Except maybe:  “Why do we never see stuff like this in Toronto?”

They’ve started running some cheesy new commercial for Aero chocolate bars, featuring (I think) that horrible woman from the Ebates spots riding around on her kid’s bicycle, because of course the bubbles in Aero bars somehow make you feel like a kid again.  Riiiggghhhht.  I’ll tell you how to feel like a kid while eating a chocolate bar:  Eat one without afterwards feeling guilty about it.  You don’t need an Aero for that – you just need to forget about those extra 10lbs you’ve been trying to lose for the past 3 years.  

I wish Aero would just run this spot again.  It’s quirky, it’s got a bit of a non-sequitur vibe (“Milk is perfect on cereal.  Aero?  Why not?”), and the voiceover is excellent.

 

I’ll never forget the first time I saw this:  In Gary Prouk’s office at Lowe SMS in 1995.  I was very new to advertising, and had no idea that there were so many creative, hilarious commercials out there that never made it onto Canadian tv screens.  I wasn’t even familiar with this Desmond Dekker track, but that didn’t matter – the ad made sense anyway.

If you were working in advertising in the late 1980s or the early 1990s, you’ll remember this spot for British Airways, which showed up on every  SHOTS reel and Cannes summary.  

It was the first time in a long time that airlines had used a high-concept ‘aspirational’ approach, and the custom-but-classical-sounding music was a huge change from the cheesy jingles that had hitherto filled our ears.

Given that there’s a currently-running toothbrush ad which basically uses the same concept, I’d say this spot definitely counts as a classic.

I know it’s been pretty quiet around here lately, but I have a good excuse:

New babies are great and all, but they don’t leave you much time for Creating Original Content On The Interwebs.