First we thought about not showing this website. We think it’s corny and it embarrasses us a little. Even if you ask a cool character with smoky voice and countless tattoos to sing ‘Happy 2010′, it’s not cool. But then we realized it advertises Amsterdam – or at least, that must have been the objective. And if your blog is called Amsterdam Ad Blog, it’s not something you can ignore. It was made by Amsterdam agency Beyen Meyer. We preferred their Queen’s Day poster.

A few weeks ago Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool criticized Amsterdam’s city marketing, because it would lack creativity. Quite ironic when ‘creativity’ is supposed to be one of Amsterdam’s USP’s. The only thing that connects the city’s scattered marketing activities is the brand ‘I Amsterdam’. And though these two words are quite visible throughout the city, no one really knows what it means. Responsible for building this brand – or not building it, if you will – is Amsterdam Partners, an ‘agency’ solely responsible for the exploitation of I Amsterdam. One of the most recent I Amsterdam ads, is this film through the eyes of a tourist. It asks tourists to explain (in video or writing) how they would spend €1000. The best submission wins *tada!* €1000. Indeed, not what we’d call creative advertising. We do think however that the catchy film makes Amsterdam look sexy and exciting – though we wondered why the Red Light District is more representative than a coffeeshop, another very important USP. The ‘commercial’ was created by Big Shots, an online video production agency that put itself more or less on the map with their wonderful anti-O’Reilly (Fox News) video ‘The truth about Amsterdam’ – the best piece of city marketing we’ve ever seen.

The Giro d’Italia – let’s say, the Italian Tour de France – is coming to Amsterdam from the 8th till the 10th of May. That’s what this poster, made by Rich for ‘I Amsterdam’ is telling us. The JC Decaux outdoor furniture is made pink for the occasion, because that’s the colour of the theme ‘Giromania!’. We’re not sure why they chose pink. Maybe because Amsterdam is gay capital of Europe. Or maybe because professional cyclists shave their legs. In any case, to be honest, we’re not really that excited about it. The reason is that we always doubt whether these kind of events make more money than they cost. Besides, it will turn Amsterdam into a big mess. And we have enough of that already; the never ending Amsterdam metro drama and the restoration of the Rijksmuseum – they would have been better off rebuilding the whole thing. The only mess we like in Amsterdam is Queen’s day – on the 30th of April. And speaking of sports events that will cost a lot of money and make a mess of the city; we strongly hope that Amsterdam won’t win the Olympic Games in 2028 – sorry, just had to get this off our chest.

As everyone is enjoying their summer holiday, there’s not too much happening in advertising. So we’ll simply share two outdoor campaigns that show some of Amsterdam’s cultural events; a tribute to Alain Delon in the film museum and the international fashion week. For those of you who haven’t heard of Delon, he was the European George Clooney of the 60′s. The poster was created by Van de Jong. We don’t know who made the AIFW poster, but it’s endorsed by I Amsterdam (the city marketing brand of Amsterdam). We assume there wasn’t much budget…

Once a year, on April 30th, Amsterdam throws the biggest, best and craziest party in the world to celebrate the Queen’s birthday – hence the name: Queensday. And while most world leaders try to stay sober in public, on this special day even Berlusconi and Sarkozy don’t mind losing their decorum. Since Obama is not much of an alcohol man, he usually sticks to the local ganja – while Putin tries hard to look sober after his first e has kicked in. Made by BeyenMeyer for I Amsterdam.

update: The French ambassy told Amsterdam Partners (I Amsterdam) that they are not amused. However, Amsterdam Partners was not impressed; there won’t be a recall.