The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Hey Rob, you already know what I think of this ad… watching it again, I’m drawn to the moment where the close up of the leaf comes into focus. Coupled with the music continually moving to a higher range and the voice over, it’s brilliant. Congrats to you and the team. I hope to see it running on TV in Australia!!!

Oh, I’m on the market for a HD TV at the moment (thanks to Fifa 08 on Xbox360 for your insight!), can you ask Sony to release a nice 32inch Bravia that isn’t $2000?!

thats the sort of comment campbell that normally puts me in a violent rage, but you actually do deserve some of the praise. for once.

its a nice spot, not the best ive ever seen (then i didnt write it) but for hd, sony and asia its yet another great stride forward so well done to you all.

lets hope certain people have learnt some valuable lessons from this whole episode and if they havent, im sure youll never miss the chance to fucking remind them. 🙂

Lovely spot my dear, but please put me out my misery and tell me who the voiceover artiste is.

Hi Rob,

I love the idea of ‘ordinary to extraordinary’. Especially when ‘extraordinary’ is always out there and people just miss noticing it!!

This idea really does put ‘boring HD’ in new a perspective of what it is / does, and for me this is what makes it nice to watch and stand out.

[Super execution, my fav part is the woman’s head / hair with the building in the background; as if something interesting is gonna happen right at that moment]

Somehow I feel that this idea cab be exploded [apart from traditional medium] and that’s what you guys are gonna do 

Cheers

I like the idea of “a higher definition”, to try and hint at the benefits of 1080p.

Its nicely produced, and the message is good. Some of those shots are really effective.

I dont think its shit, not the most amazing ad ever; but for Sony (esp in Asia) its a great piece of work.

Its early morning… difficult to be enthusiastic then!

I’m bored of this kind of stuff. Sorry. I know it’s not meant for the European market, and I know that I know fuck all about the Asian market but it, surprisingly, doesn’t ring my bell.

I do, however, like the pace of it and I think the script is kind of ok, but for me it doesn’t stand out from the HD crowd (but again, that maybe different in Asia, I don’t know).

I really like the orginal idea that got basted by the client. It surprising that noone has actually played with the technical difference between the old and new. If my memory serves me right, I heard a story about a TV show, where a chrachter held up a sign with a message on it – but you could read what was on the sign if you had a HD TV.

If those of us over 35, who could possibly forget watching snooker in black and white; “the dark grey ball next to the light grey ball”. I can actually remember when dad brought home the colour television it was an amazing experience and one I’m missing in this segment.

Morning.

if you could ask all the krauts to fuck off, ill be there with bells on.

i understand what youre saying about the ad but i still think youre being harsh, but the original strat was a fucking killer as were some of the subsequent ones but common sense isnt that fucking common in corporateland so i still tip my hat to rob and the team for getting this brand moving in the right direction for seemingly the first time in a decade.

(remember that campbell, im being nice to you)

you could have been a contender np, but theres no way im being fucking friends with a german supporting planner. what next, sensitive australian media people?

I have to agree with Andrew…ahem 😉

As we’re basically addressing a technical benefit, I really like the directness of Marcus’s “now you see it now you don’t” idea, but I also really like the strategic idea and the images here.

Not being a wizard advertising exec myselfand because he seemed to be asking for them, I sent a couple of knit-picking questions to Rob based on my immediate reaction to viewing it at 12.30 last night. He now wants me to put them here (probably to see how much they get slammed). They were

1) Starting the voiceover with the adjectives plain and ugly jarred a little with me – I think because they conjured up the phrase “plain ugly” and because ugly more than the other adjectives is loaded with potential nastiness rather than a genuine visual reaction since it’s most normally used as an insult. I can’t rationalise this any more than that.

2) I also wondered why the voiceover didn’t start at the top of the spot – I can guess at the reasoning but my thought was that when you start hearing the questions, you start thinking about them and the implications straight away so the impact of the idea is elongated and the beauty of the images is more evident. I may be wrong but I think if people aren’t grabbed right away they can zone out and miss the message entirely because our eyeballs are far less glued to the screen than they used to be – even if we’re seemingly watching an any risk of losing them should be avoided.

What do the experts say?

Who will take on John’s questions?
With Andy lurking on this blog, it’ll be a braver person than me. 🙂
Jemma x

I like it.

I’m with Marcus in that I much prefer the original idea of creating crappy looking/sounding ads, and on seeing Balls and Paint wondered why on earth they didn’t do that instead, but I can understand it’s an idea that would be hard to get through.

I love the area of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary and I love the script.

I would need the rest of the package that you hint at in order to overcome those barriers that exist in me – thinking all HD is the same and thinking HD is just about visuals and mainly on TV – but this is lovely work that pulls me in.

Well done Rob and co.

I still, however, want more clarity on what Sony stands for. Believes in. Is. And if this is now it – ordinary into extraordinary – brilliant, go for it, bring it to life even more. But until now I don’t yet have clarity on why Sony, other than, ‘feels like it’d be better quality’ which feels a bit bland. That might just be me. Or a regional thing.

Oh man, I am always late for commenting. But here are my words of warmness. In some points I have to agree with Marcus. It’s not groundbreaking or absolutely different to what other competitors say and do (but that’s my limited European point of view even more limited by my unbelievable limited brain). Especially to Samsung or Panasonic (not sure) who have the “see more” campaign.
BUT I like the pace and atmosphere of the ad. Especially as I am really bored of all the funny illustrative, colourful explosive or highly expensive “let’s put a whole Roman army into that blue light to show how many hours of entertainment fit on a Blueray…” kind of ads. To be quiet and poetic definitely is a great way to communicate the “feel” idea.
To cut that short: it’s good to try a different way to communicate HD than just roll big. Maybe it could have been more poetic but I guess the original script was as far as I know Andy. that romantic hack.

For Asia this is superb, you’re right Rob. But don’t undersell it. It’s good stuff.

Thanks Bazza, will check that out. As I said, I’m aware that my confusion about Sony might be a regional specific thing.

I just read the stuff around the feel campaign. If anybody wants to read more about the phenomenon of media and technology making us feel, you shoulf read thomas de zongotita’s mediated. it’s been around a while but it explored just the thing, that people experience nowadays only via media and tech.

Thanks Niko.

Hey Rob, you going to update us on the MTV stuff you said?

I think something incredibly interesting in this area is looking at people and how they have reacted to the Nintendo Wii.

Suddenly games are physically immersive. As we mentioned before about digital age kids craving the tangible, the Wii is connecting people and making them feel games in the most literal sense.

There have already been prototype smell devices made, there were stories about a smell output device being released for the PC a couple of years ago!