G2 Amsterdam, together with Perfect Fools, created a website (this is an English demo, in Dutch the site is called ‘fragrances from nature’) for Ambi Pur that tickles almost all your senses – unfortunately not smell. The site, beautifully made with a combination of photography and animation, shows where Ambi Pur’s new ‘National Geographic’ fragrances ‘Japan Tatami’ and ‘Nevada Desert Flower’, come from. The joint promotion together with National Geograhpic (NG) feels a little stretched. Certainly NG is the specialist in showing remote and wonderful sceneries, but what has that got to do with smell? On the other hand, NG is a very strong brand that will certainly give credibility to the sceneries shown. Unconsciously the consumer might very well believe that Ambi Pur’s fragrances are therefore more exclusive, natural and special than those of the competition. Let’s see if both brands can think big and produce the first mass market scent DVD: ‘a fragrant journey into nature’ – or something along those lines.

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.

Here’s one of several mini films, made by by KesselsKramer (KK) for Protest Boardwear. KK asked different young and upcoming filmmakers to give their own interpretation of Protest’s brand proposition: “Every obstacle to the slopes is an enemy of Protest. Protest exists to help riders overcome these obstacles.” This kind of collaborative creativity, where agencies work together with small creative cells outside their own agency, is becoming a trend. Although the film in this post, called ‘Protest Sightseeing’, is the exception to the rule and made by two KK creatives; Ewoudt Boonstra en Zack McDonald. Other films are called Grocery shopping, Obstacles, Traffic jams and Bad weather. Older films can be found on the Protest website. The reason why we chose to highlight this film, is that the old 8mm footage that was used, makes us think of Erik Kessels’ (co-founder of KK) passion for abandoned photographs. Kessels already made several photo books with photographs that he found at flea markets. We were told however, that this is merely a happy coincidence. Boonstra already made a photo book himself with found photo’s, called Anonymous.

Suit Supply – the Dutch retailer, selling tailor made suits for a reasonable price – launched its new outdoor campaign, with photos from the renowned photographer Carli Hermès. Five years ago Hermès was asked for the first time to do a shoot and since then his photos are inseparably part of Suit Supply’s fashionable brand image. This year’s campaign is called ‘Ambition’ and shows ‘real’ South Africans. Real, as in, they were scouted in the streets and didn’t wear any make-up or props during the shoot – except of course for the suits. Interesting detail is that the owner of Suit Supply, Fokke de Jong, likes to boast about the fact that he doesn’t need a marketing plan, nor an advertising agency. He simply decides from the gut and shoots from the hip. But not without success; recently the fast expanding brand was awarded the Marketing Excellence Award 2008 (by NIMA, the Dutch Institute for Marketing).

This portrait is part of an outdoor exhibition, drawing attention to a book by Dutch photographer and art director Krijn van Noordwijk. Van Noordwijk is famous for capturing the essence of the personality of his portraits – something he probably picked up from his previous career in advertising. The book, containing 140 full colour studio portraits of DJ’s from all over the world, is a tribute to today’s musical hero’s.  The outdoor exhibition, created by Bureau Pindakaas, coincides with the Amsterdam Dance Event. The ADE is the world’s biggest club festival, with over 700 DJ’s and acts performing in 40 clubs, bars, record stores and galleries.