Can bad advertising save the world?
In a society that is becoming more and more divided each day, Toronto ad agency john st. thinks that humanity’s shared hatred of terrible advertising might be just the thing brings us together.
The ad shop’s latest video, called “Make Humanity Great Again,” is a note-perfect parody of Heineken’s “Worlds Apart” social experiment, except in this case, it’s not beer that gets people talking to each other, but awful ads.
The film, which debuted on Thursday (11/9) at Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Year show which salutes the best in Canadian advertising, is another in a long line of john st. parodies that started with Pink Ponies: A Case Study, and continued with ExFeariential, Buyral and most recently, Jane St. Director was Taso Alexander of production house Skin & Bones.
“We have this big mural on our wall at john st. that says ‘people hate advertising,’ so the idea for this film kind of came off our wall,” said Angus Tucker, co-ECD of john st.
“No matter who you are or what party you vote for, whether you love guns or hate guns, love dogs or hate dogs–everyone hates the ads where they talk about these weird side effects for 50 seconds,” added Tucker. “We think even Donald Trump and Angela Merkel would look at each other and go ‘I hate these stupid ads.’ So once they can agree on that, then maybe, who knows, they could agree on climate change or something.”
CreditsAgency john st. Stephen Jurisic, Angus Tucker, executive creative directors; Stephie Coplan, writer; Lia MacLeod, art director. Production Skin & Bones Taso Alexander, director. Editorial Saints Mark Paiva, editor. Audio Vapor RMW Postproduction The Vanity Michael Medeiros, online. Casting Jigsaw Casting Shasta Lutz, casting.
Top Spot of the Week: Samsung, BBH Singapore, Director Rhys Thomas Get Fit For A Surf Holiday
Samsung’s new global campaign from BBH Singapore, featuring Samsung Health and Galaxy AI, tells the story of a young professional couple who compete to get fit for a surf holiday.
Titled “A Samsung Health Story: Racing to Fiji,” this film taps into Gen Z’s wellness dilemma and the fact that they can often find health information overwhelming; in particular, BBH Singapore took inspiration from young people who reference their “quarter life crisis” on social media. This film tells the story of Stacey and Steve who decide to go surfing in Fiji, something they did five years ago but haven’t done since they started their jobs. However, there’s one problem: they need to get fitter first.
Featuring a range of Galaxy products powered by Galaxy AI, they rebuild their fitness to prepare for the trip, competing playfully to spur each other on. We see them comparing their Energy Scores (a new feature on the Samsung Health app), recording their runs and swims on their Samsung Galaxy Watches, trying and failing to get fit at work and on their commutes and striving to improve in the run up to the trip. When they get there, however, there’s a fun twist, and the film ends on a cliffhanger.
The ad is expected to be the first in a series, which will develop the characters and their “world” in future episodes. This longform (two-and-a-half-minute) version of the spot delves deeper into the storytelling, in a fresh approach for Samsung’s product campaigns, while the shorter edits focus on driving exposure to specific features.
BBH Singapore also leaned into the entertainment aspect of the spot; it was directed by comedic specialist Rhys Thomas at Stink Films, who has a major TV background. Best known for his work on Saturday Night... Read More