This very pretty girl doesn’t seem as smart as the phone she is hypnotized by. But fortunately you only need MTV Mobile to get her into bed. We couldn’t decide whether this commercial is weird or attractive. So it’s probably both. And that makes it typically MTV. The only thing that annoys us a little is the over the top Dutch-American voice-over – though this might proof that we’re not the target group the commercial is aiming for. Created by Nothing and directed by Elwin Bles.

Last March we wrote about the beautiful idents director Mischa Rozema created with his production agency PostPanic and sound production agency Massive Music for alternative rock channel MTV Rocks. MTV liked them so much that Rozema was asked to make some more. Again the idents (Fly-by, Bugs, and Loop-the-loop) clearly carry Rozema’s signature; imaginary landscapes, surreal characters, and a visually stunning mix of live action and CG. It took PostPanic five months to create them. Which shows once more that the more creative freedom you give your agency, the more energy it will put in your project. Or maybe it’s just a case of: the less you pay, the longer it takes. It doesn’t matter, it’s great work anyway.

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.

With this fantastic idea about global warming for MTV Switch, Ogilvy won a golden Outdoor award at the New York Festivals. Last week we were slightly disappointed with the meagre Amsterdam-score in Cannes (except of course for the wonderful Grand Prix by Tribal DDB); we only won a few silver and two handfuls of bronze – no gold! Fortunately we scored better at the New York Festivals. Although we have to say that their website is so crappy that we doubt the quality of the awards. Anyway, EuroRSCG 4D won four awards – two gold, one silver and one bronze. Gold (2x) was for Volvo – we’re not sure what exactly they made (couldn’t find it on the NYF website), but the awards were won in the categories ‘Art & Technique’ and ‘Interactive’. This doesn’t surprise us, since 4D has won a truckload of prizes in the past years for Volvo already. 4D’s online partnership with Volvo is surely one of the more successful ones in the business. Creatiefteam.nl won gold for DHL and New Message silver for promoting a program called The Phone. The program is an Augmented Reality Game (inspired by the great movie The Game) with hidden phones, assignments and the chance to win a big sum of money. New Message hid some ringing phones in TV and Radio programs, which of course generated instant word of mouth. Simple & Smart. It also won bronze in Cannes last week.

MTV has a rich tradition of showing creative short bumpers that brand the channel with an edgy tone of voice. To give this some more awareness MTV asked several Amsterdam (production) agencies to give their interpretation of ‘Oooh! MTV’. Most times it was translated into ‘a tribute to MTV’. As from today the results are shown on a dedicated website and on the music channel itself. Most creative shops really made the effort. We were especially impressed by the ones made by …,Staat (embedded) and PostPanic (I’m everything all of the time).

This commercial for Chupa Chups Magics was made by MTV Networks. We like animation, but we’re especially fond of the pun; ‘waiting sucks’. A tag line that matches the target group, has mileage and lots of potential to further exploit. And that is exactly what’s being done on this dedicated website. Here you can design your own (branded) t-shirt with […] Sucks. Strangely enough though, the Chupa Chups Magics are not shown on the site… In any case, interesting about this ad is that the middle man – the advertising agency – was cut out. So apart from broadcasting, MTV Networks – owner of brands like MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central – offers its media clients an extra service – which should save quite some money. A smart move that only makes sense when you realize that MTV Networks likes to employ a mingled, creative crowd and has more strategic knowledge of its many specific target groups than the average advertising agency.

This happy ‘Green Song’ is made by 180 Amsterdam for MTV Switch, a platform raising global warming awareness among the typical MTV target group. A very noble initiative – although a cynic might say it is exactly the kind of ‘green painting’ the commercial talks about. Anyway, the commercial itself is of course very well made and a delight to watch. Interesting though, is that this video immediately made us think of ‘Grrr‘; a divine peace of art made for Honda by W+K London – winning a Grand Prix in Cannes in 2005. To be precize ‘Grrr’ was made by Sean Thompson. And coincidently Sean joined 180 in 2006 to become Creative Director. Apparently he loves to make animated feel good films that sell a greener environment. Fair enough.