This just blew our mind. What a fantastic idea: The Big Internet Museum, the world’s first museum with a very diverse collection completely dedicated to the internet. The museum has opened its digital doors today and can be visited – as a true online museum – for free, 24 hours a day. The museum displays the web’s most interesting artefacts. And just like a real museum it houses specialised wings – seven in total. Each wing is categorized. For example, there’s the ‘History’ wing, where you can view and read about ARPAnet, the very first form of internet. In the ‘Meme’ wing you can find out more about ‘Chuck Norris’ and ‘Nyan Cat’ (picture). As museums also need to make their own money nowadays, commercial parties can also buy a wing and display their own collection. MediaMonks - who built the whole thing – is the first company to expose their own collection; The History of Flash. What we also very much like about the museum is the fact that the public co-curates the museum; people can submit their own piece and visitors vote whether it should be allowed to be added to the permanent, ever growing collection. The Big Internet Museum is an initiative of Dani Polak (art director, 26), Joep Drummen (copywriter, 36) en Joeri Bakker (accountmanager, 31) – all working at TBWA\Neboko. Congrats, guys, we’re sure this concept will fly very high!

Pensions are intrinsically complicated. So when people talk about your pension, it would be nice if they speak your language – not Chinese as in this film. An attractive way by Delta Lloyd to tell its customers they answer “financial questions in normal Dutch.” The film was created by TBWA and directed by Bart Timmer and Willem Bos of Czar. Here’s another one with two flight attendants speaking Swahili – representing mortgage-talk. The only thing we don’t get is the pay-off “Critical at the right moment” – what do you mean ‘at the right moment?’ “We speak your language” or something would have much better wrapped up the film, so we’re guessing the current pay-off was developed for a different campaign.

What a nice ‘infographic’ (click to enlarge). It depicts the best agencies in town by comparing them with different ships. We shouldn’t take it too seriously, the introduction tells us, since it is not science and “therefore absolutely not measurable.” Glad we got that straight. The infographic is quite nicely designed (though the body copy font is a touch too small) and compares TBWA with a tanker; “It’s capable to ship a lot of work at the same time.” BSUR is a powerboat; “It needs space to go fast.” And Tribal DDB a submarine; “Fully equipped with the latest techniques.” Doom & Dickson is compared with a Ferry: “It will safely ship you to your destination, something many marketers still appreciate.” And Red Urban a pleasure yacht “about having fun, not too complicated.” We received this piece anonymously so we cannot hand out any credits. In any case, it seems as if the person or agency behind it could use some extra work – let’s say it’s comparable to the proverbial raft; very crafty, but completely surrendered to the waves of our feeble economy.

Albert Heijn (AH) and its agency TBWA have launched a Facebook platform that let’s sustainable products (in this case a sustainable chocolate bar and fish) battle each other. With some witty copy (fish: “now fuck off with that rod, it makes me nervous”) the products try to sell themselves as the most sustainable. The one that gathers the most likes ‘wins’ a 50% discount. The platform is very much in line with AH’s typical style of advertising, always featuring lovable ad properties. Strategically though, this sustainability battle speaks with quite a different tongue. It shows that the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands is getting serious with sustainability. Of course we – as critical admen/women – instantly think AH is simply jumping into a trend; if it has a conscience, it’s profit-driven. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a smart move. What’s more, as a side-effect, it could easily inflate the brand value of all dedicated sustainability labels – also sold at AH. Which is why it’ll be interesting to see how these brands are going to fight back.

Mark Sloan becomes ECD at Anomaly Amsterdam after having worked at TBWA/ Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles, where he was Associate Creative Director on Apple. Sloan is returning to Amsterdam; before TBWA he worked as head of design at W+K Amsterdam. Hazelle Klønhammer, MD at Anomaly – who knows Sloan through Wieden where she has been CSD – about him: “Mark is renowned for outstanding design and visual storytelling across a wide range of mediums from branding and identity systems, packaging, book, retail, environmental & web design, photography and, of course, advertising.” Together with the recently hired digital CD Gaston Serpenti (coming from Boondoggle) the Amsterdam office of Anomaly expects to become the truly integrated agency the brand is globally known for.

After The Entrance and The Date, this is the third Heineken commercial in the ‘Open Your World’ series – with fantasy, glamour, and music playing an important role. The one thing that struck us is that this commercial is not made by Wieden+Kennedy, but by Heineken’s local agency TBWA. The most important difference with the previous (Wieden) commercials are the two somewhat dorky characters accompanying the better looking one – is it because the Dutchman needs someone to identify himself with? In any case, again a crafty and attractive commercial that makes Heineken look premium and international – even in Holland. The soulful song, Love Letter, is performed by the Australian Amy-Winehouse-look/sound-alike-band Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes. The film was directed by Martin Krejci from Stink.

Heineken has a history of launching premiums – to be obtained through a crate of beer – before the European and World Championship of football. The last 4 tournaments Heineken’s agency TBWA created all sorts of hats that enabled the audience to make some noise during the matches – last time, in South Africa, it was the Pletterpet. This spring – getting ready for Euro2012 – Heineken (and TBWA) not only exchanged the hat for a shirt, it also changed the tone of the commercial around the event. The advertising now feels weirdly incongruent; it starts with three guys that seem to have walked out of a bad Italian car commercial. And then it continues with ‘international’ shots. Even the ‘drinking-with-mates-in-a-bar’ shot is anything but Dutch – with fake bar and exotic models. The only thing that is really Dutch about the commercial is the KLM plane wearing an orange shirt and the ‘haha’ joke with ex international Ronald Koeman at the end. It feels as if the Dutch beer brewer was in a split between being the global, cosmopolitan brand and a chauvinistic football friend that wants to sell as much beer as possible in the supermarket. Well, in our opinion, it’s none of the above and stuck in the middle. And when you ask yourself what’s up with the numbers, you have to guess, cause the voice-over only speaks of supporting Orange with ‘your legendary deed.’ Oh well, whatever, we’ll probably drink a few Heinies during Euro2012 anyway.

Imagine you enter a hotel room before visiting a Champions League match and you find the trophy ‘with the big ears’ in your room. Wow! Nice! Yep, that’s how we would react. Though we always doubt the authenticity of case films – they almost never feel entirely real – we have to say this makes quite a sympathetic ad. Especially the guy taking a quick picture before he opens the door, made us smile. The concept reminds us of of the Italian Heineken ad that won a golden Lion in Cannes in 2010. The concept: football fans are taken to a classical concert by their girlfriends during the Champions League final. But not really; they get to watch the final on a big screen. Clearly a strategy/concept with mileage. Created by the United States of Fans.

We learned a new word today; ‘captcha’ – the text you need to fill out in an online form to make sure you’re not a bot. TBWA used it to promote a free eye exam at Pearle opticians. The hard to read captcha on the left changed into the banner on the right; ‘Time for an eye exam’. The banner directed the consumer to the Pearle site where an appointment could be made. Simple but sweet.

A guerrilla make-over to promote Holland’s largest DIY, Gamma’s wallpaper. The pay-off: “Isn’t it beautiful?” Well, if you’re asking our opinion; no this wallpaper is not beautiful. But the idea is though. Created by TBWA\Neboko.