We didn’t know MTV has a sister channel called MTV Rocks – in fact, we didn’t even know that MTV has 5 more specialist channels; Classic, Dance, Base, Hits and Shows. MTV is rebranding these channels and commissioned a total of 32 TV idents, to be created by motion/audio studios from around the globe. Amsterdam based Post Panic (motion) and Massive Music (sound) created these surreal idents for MTV Rocks – currently MTV Brand New in the Netherlands. It is obvious that the alternative  character of the channel inspired script writer and director Mischa Rozema to make these five 12 second idents. He used surreal characters and moods to make people wonder what they are looking at – as if they were flicking the remote and coming across something really weird. Even though we’ve never watched MTV Rocks, this ident definitely gives us the impression that it does.

Asics launches a new range of women’s sportswear, called AYAMi – the perfect fusion of fashion and technology, as Asics explains. And in Japanese AYAMi means ‘feminine’, ‘design’, ‘colourful’ and ‘beauty’ – all at the same time! So we can imagine where Amsterdam Worldwide came from when developing this campaign. The agency recruited (pretty) amateur female runners who were shot by world-renowned sports photographer Robert Wilson. A fashion studio backdrop was created in the amateur’s natural running environment and they were photographed while cooling down. It thus became a sort of visual testimonial. We love the photography, but are slightly disappointed by the ‘real beauty’ message. It made us immediately think of both Dove and Nivea. And apart from the fact that these are not the hippest brands on earth, this amateur runner can do without the marketing talk. If there’s one reason why for her “beauty is not inside a make-up bag”, it is because she looks awesome in an AYAMi outfit.

Between 1966 and 1986 Californian sports brand K-Swiss sold only one model tennis shoe without ever changing it. Today K-Swiss reverently calls it the ‘The Classic’, because every other tennis shoe that followed was derived from it. And 44 years after its launch, and with the help of Amsterdam based agency Lemon Scented Tea, K-Swiss shares the shoe’s rich history in a story of 8 chapters. Under the campaign motto ‘You gotta know your classics’, every chapter highlights one of the unique aspects of the white leather tennis shoe. On top of that K-Swiss asked 8 designers across the globe to graphically interpret the ‘chapters’ on a poster; Mario Lombardo (Berlin), Value and Service (London), Cobbenhagen & Hendriksen (Amsterdam), Mark Owens (Los Angeles), Non-Format (US), Grand People (Bergen), Fabian Jenny (Zurich) and Sung Min Choi & Sulki Choi (Seoul). Only 400 copies of each poster were printed to give the whole project limited-editionesque exclusivity. We chose to share chapter ‘K’, since we guessed most people would like to learn where the letter ‘K’ comes from. The artwork was done by Sean Murphy at Value and Service. Here’s a passage from the copy that accompanies it: “K is for Kalifornia. We know, it defies all logic, deliberately misspelling the name of our home turf like that. But to the two Swiss brothers who designed the first Classic from their L.A. garage, calling their company Kalifornia-Swiss was the most logical thing in the world. It was their way of paying homage to a place that had welcomed them with a progressive, creative and playful culture – and limitless tennis courts”. You got to love this kind of designvertising that adds heritage, profile and sophistication to a brand.

Normally we don’t show typical Dutch commercials, because the humour is often culturally challenged and thus not very funny for an international (and critical) crowd. But this guy telling his girl she still owes him money for the burger he bought her during a ‘romantic’ dinner at McDonald’s made us laugh. Especially because it highlights one of the most famous preconceptions about the Dutch; they are all stingy bastards! And since McDonald’s – with its think global act local strategy – sells a ‘Dutch Deluxe’ this week (on a brown bun, yuck!), the execution is spot on briefing; “deliciously Dutch”. Created by TBWA\Neboko and produced by CZAR.

This is quite an innovative ad for Samsung. We’re a bit late showing it, since the Olympics are already over, but the mechanism of this ‘spectacular’ is quite impressive. The video basically speaks for itself; you can film and mail yourself directly from the interactive tram halt. The content is a bit lame, but we’ll forgive Samsung. At least we’re getting the message that de Samsung Omnia has an app that allows you to follow the Winter Olympics wherever you are – although we have to say that we could do the same with the offcial Vancouver App on our iPhone. Anyway, it was made by Media Republic and 2010 in collaboration with JC Decaux.

Although not everyone that writes for this blog will support the Dutch this summer at the World Cup Football in South Africa, the second ‘Bleed Orange’ commercial for Nike, made by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, does get us properly excited. It introduces an un-Dutch ‘Just do it’ swagger to the Dutch team. An attitude the orange lions will need, since ‘a beautiful loss, is still a loss’ – as the copy reads insightfully. As in the first bleed orange commercial (the Dam square take-over) the tape art is used as a distintive style element to glue all the campaign assets together. The film – featuring Van Nistelrooy, Van Bronckhorst and Van der Vaart – is shot on 8mm and 16mm by Johan Kramer to create a voyeuristic look behind the scenes. And the persuasive music by Junkie XL finishes it off nicely. If anything will persuade  the Dutch to bleed orange this summer, it will be this kind of advertising.

Amsterdam based 60 Layers of Cake opened a new franchise in Capetown this week. At the same time Blender 57 was founded by Colin Lyon. Both brands challenge the traditional agency structure and work with a collaborative model; for every creative job the right team of specialists is compiled. 60 Layers of Cake was founded in 2006 by Rodger Beekman. It already has offices New York, London, Tokyo and Istanbul. 60 Layers Capetown will be lead by Ben Wren and Michael van den Heerik – both formerly The Jupiter Drawing Room. Colin Lyon’s Blender 57 calls its model ‘fit-for-purpose expertise’. Among other entities, the agency will partner with One Big Agency (founded by Erik Wünsch and Peggy Stein), Tina Grace Research (product innovation) and Freedom of Creation (3D design). Blender 57 will focus on ‘go-to-market solutions’, which sounds a little vague. But when you think of it, the creative hub will be able to make any product a client asks for. If these kind of agencies will be able to successfully incorporate the social network trend into their business model, the creative industry will enter a whole new exciting era.

“Erection? Veridian Dynamics is looking for test subjects with balls”. In this outdoor campaign Comedy Central teases its audience to watch the new TV series ‘Better off Ted’ about a dubious research institute called Veridian Dynamics. After a week the Comedy Central logo was slapped on top of it to reveal who was behind it. But of course that wasn’t clear from the start. No less than 4000 curious guinea pigs called the number to find out how they could earn some extra money – welcome to Holland. Other ads asked the Dutch test subjects to be deep frozen or launched by a rocket. Comedy Central also built a (bit of a crappy) dedicated website that links to the TV series on Comedy Central. The striking campaign was created by Dare.

Here’s another example of Vodafone’s ‘Life Insights’ campaign  – made by THEY. A campaign that revolves around insights on mobile phone usage. With these insights Vodafone creates products that match its different consumers. Last time we showed an ad that talked about accidentally sending text messages to the wrong person (read: sending dirty text messages to your grandma). This time we see a lady that angrily throws a glass of wine in your face. Why? Because 107.440 Dutch men (only men!) check sports results on their phone during a date. How rude! Although emptying a glass of wine because of that certainly isn’t normal behaviour either. In fact, if that happens, you know straight away that a relationship with this person is probably not such a good idea. So thanks to Vodafone’s thorough research, we can now get a mobile contract that allows us to find the right partner. We still like the design of these ads, for that matter.