People in office jobs find ways to make cubicle dwelling tolerable. Humble three-wall enclosures often feature weird toys, movie/music posters and photos of good times had elsewhere. Lulls in activity often result in the sending of YouTube videos, cute photos of animals that are photoshopped and links…like this one I just received.
Each week, the Gruen Transfer, an Aussie panel-style TV show and Web site dedicated to the advertising industry, challenges two ad agencies to pitch an “unsellable” campaign (this is particularly entertaining for those of media, advertising or couch potato/commercial-loving varieties). Now, this week’s Australia-invading-New Zealand pitch is really funny, but the Dallas tie-in came when we went browsing through the past pitches.
We checked out the competition for “Make the humble plastic bag fashionable again” and discovered a familiar voice coming through our shitty PC speakers...
New South Wales’ The Brand Shop went for disturbing and fairly disgusting when it came to lauding the merits of secondary uses for plastic bags—there’s fish guts, car sickness, dog poo and a goldfish that hopefully made it home safe. And, over all of these various images (click "Pitch-1 video"), plays Salim Nourallah’s plaintive yet poppy “I Miss You (So Come Back)” from last year’sSnowing In My Heart.
Use of the sensitive tune turns what could be just vomit-fodder into something funny and not-quite-but-almost accessible. Kudos to him on that feat (not to mention a grand pond hopping). Check it out if you dare and compare The Brand Shop’s work to its opponent.
And remember: Recycle those old plastic bags, OK? --Merritt Martin