This cloying sweet commercial was made by 72andSunny for Bugaboo, the Dutch stroller brand, to promote its partnership with RED, which implicates that it will contribute 1% of its revenues to support AIDS programs in Africa. Apart from donating money, Bugaboo also designed a special RED-collection – available in different colors. The theme of the commercial is ‘Go and good things happen’. As said, a little too sweet to our taste – especially that song ‘Made up love song number 43’ by Guillemots! But since we’re not pregnant and saturated with hormones that make us extremely sensitive for the vulnerable on this earth, we shouldn’t judge the saccharine level of the commercial. In fact, 72andSunny has used the exact right tone of voice. And by hitting the sweet spot Bugaboo will surely sell a lot more strollers. That’s very smart marketing.

This stylish ad for LG was made by Brand New Telly. It is as simple as effective. Although, we have to say this product can easily sell itself. A watch and a phone in one device! And it even looks sexy! How obvious. And why have we never seen this before?! Except for Michael Knight (“sorry, buddy, gotta do it”), of course, he was already wearing one when mobile phones in the real world were as big as small refrigerators. Finally, today, in 2009, it is available for mass consumption. This is exactly what we need! No more missed calls, no more scratches on your phone by pocket items, no more frantically rummaging through handbags, no more accidently hanging up while struggling to get your phone out of your pocket! This is a revolutionary innovation! Can anyone tell us, why we had to wait for it so long?

This ad in the Amsterdam Vondelpark reads: ‘The park used to be so pretty’. It asks us ‘Amsterdammers’ to clean up our junk when we use the park. Good point. It is amazing to see how many people don’t clean up their picnic spot. We were surprised though by the polluting character of this humongous ad. Indeed, the Vondelpark used to be so pretty…

Though a lot of advertising is based on the principle that sex sells, ads never explicitly show frontal nudity. If you’re selling breast cancer awareness, however, it only makes sense to show the ‘product’ at hand. Grey Amsterdam created this ad with lots of stopping power for Pink Ribbon Magazine, a charity glossy from which all profits are directly donated to the Pink Ribbon Foundation. The work was shot by Rankin and executed with differently aged models – we chose the middle aged model. A very sweet poem about the breasts as a pair of friends, with names, is written across the body (the print ad we’re showing is a translation). And there is also a TV commercial (in Dutch), directed by Chris Palmer (Gorgeous). Interesting detail: a call was put out throughout the Netherlands, asking for volunteers of any age. More than 1000 women, aged 16-72, volunteered to be part of the shoot and show their breasts. Apparently in today’s world it is also charity that sells.