I didn't like the T-Mobile "flash mob" Dance ad at first.
I annoyed me that it was a blatant You Tube "Improv Everywhere" rip-off with less charm than the original. It felt forced and a little fake. Everyone who I spoke to who worked in Advertising or Digital seemed to feel the same way.
And then something happened: I stopped asking people's opinion who worked in the industry and started to listening to people outside of the industry. Everytime that we went to the cinema and the T-Mobile ad came on the entire audience always seemed to be captivated, they laughed, in fact often there were little spatterings of applause. My mum loved it. My brother's girlfriend emailed it to me. My husband would stop what he was doing to watch when it came on TV.
There was a heated debate over at Scamp Blog which really got me thinking. It seems that this was a case of an ad that real people genuinely enjoyed, whereas the advertising media village didn't.
This week Saatchis filmed their latest "flash-mob" ad in Trafalgar Square. I actually didn't mean to go, I was on my way to She Says but I got caught up in the crowds of thousands who had turned up to be a part of the ad and the experience.
Hmmmm - the world is falling apart financially, everyone's fretting about swine flu so maybe what we need from our brands at the moment is a little light relief and a bit of fun. Human beings are by nature sociable, we enjoying being a part of something, we enjoy enjoying ourselves. The filming of the T-Mobile ad was quite simply enjoyable.
And by the way, totally delivers on the brand thought "Life's for sharing."
Congrats Richard and team, I actually think it has the makings of a great and popular ad campaign.
Recent Comments