Brandcast Media

Hats off to the creatives on this one! Great concept and execution from Saatchi & Saatchi.

The centre-piece of American Football, NFL, the Superbowl XLV, is considered by many brands as the number one place to get your ad shown. With a monumental guaranteed TV audience both domestic (US) and overseas – this year is estimated the most watched Superbowl of all time with an estimated 162.9 million viewers, many brands pull out all the stops for a place in one of the ad breaks (costing an estimated $3 million for 30 seconds.) With competition amongst brands so high to produce something memorable, Superbowl Sunday usually turns up a few gems. Here’s our pick of 2011…

And Contender for the most over the top…

This is the latest RKCY/Y&R spot for Virgin Atlantic, directed by Traktor. It’s follows on from their previous spot celebrating the airline’s 25th anniversary. With reference to James Bond title sequences I guess it’s looking to put the some the allure back into flying. However, it’s so far removed from the actual reality of flying, coupled with the flat dialogue at the end, dispelling all notion of glamour and making it more reminiscent of a spoof of the dream sequence from The Big Lebowski than a Bond.

Graphic Design behemoth, Peter Saville has been charged with designing Umbro‘s new England shirt. It’s like a streamlined version of the former one. No collar, with the Umbro logo blue instead of white. The multicoloured crosses no doubt symbolising the multiculturalism of modern England. Well, it can’t make them play any worse than they did at World Cup, can it?

EPIC. Who said TV advertising is dead? Needs several viewings to appreciate the complexity of what Nike have done here. The gauntlet has been well any truly thrown down to other sportswear manufacturers (any just about anyone else) in the run up to the World Cup.