MAD MEN

Today I am going to write about my favorite TV series, which is directly related to the advertising world: MAD MEN.

This is a highly acclaimed award-winning drama series that chronicles the beginnings of one of the most prestigious advertising agencies in the sixties, and covers one of the most mysterious, but with a great talent, company executives, Donald Draper. "Mad Men" is a look at the men who shaped the hopes and dreams of the American newspapers of the time.

In 1960, advertising was considered one of the most glamorous professions of the time. It was a high boiling point in every sense; the professional manipulation and sexual harassment were part of the work and business. And Sterling Cooper Advertising was better than anyone designing advertising campaigns. His slogan was: "No matter what you are. The important thing is how to sell it."

It's a classic and elegant series, cruel and ironic. The main character (played by actor John Hamm), an excellent creative director shows the two sides of the American dream: a perfect shave, a sleek coffee made by his lovely wife and a delicious Lucky Strike, but when he leaves his apparently quiet home, the life ceases to be like in the ads.

In my opinion, Mad Men is the best thing that have happened on television in recent years. I think that in some ways the writers have more merit than 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire' because it is a simple story, without vengeance mafia or police chases.

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING 2/2

And here comes the second part of the review of the campaign "Impossible is Nothing"

This commercial makes an impression in everyone; the amazing football Brazilian player Kaká broke a vertebra many years ago. There are many ways of facing a situation like this, you can fall to pieces and feel sorry for yourself and forget what you really want to do with your life. Another path is the one Kaká took, to keep fighting for your dreams, to keep trying, and knowing it will be even harder, never think about giving up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poc1NwIl8FI

David Beckham shows his fury in a moment he just got what he deserved, what he had being fighting for. That’s the face you get when you think impossible is nothing and you experience that.

This campaign was for promote the Olympic Games in China. The ad talks us about the importance of the teamwork in sports like football and basketball.

When everyone else sees impossible as a fact, you and your teammates see it as a dare and you emerge out of the crowd, you get to prove them wrong and you change the reality. That’s the spirit of a great sportsman, to try what’s on his mind and not let the others change it.

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING 1/2

Adidas is one of my predilect brands because always create great campaigns based on brilliant ideas. Today I am going to write about my favourite one.

“Impossible is nothing” is about exalting the self-improvement spirit. It’s a very useful lesson about never giving up, a call to get up when you’ve fallen and to try it harder. They let us realize that we need to risk to win and we have to make an effort to live our dreams. In this campaign we can see people we look up to, and that’s always because they lived that way.

This first commercial is the perfect example of the spirit Adidas is trying to transmit, Laila Ali is one of those women who don’t believe in impossible, she proves herself and everyone else that we can do whatever we want as long as we are determined to give our best every minute. She became a great boxer following her father’s example of self- improvement. (1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOe2jZ1T1qg (1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsaVHJlOUko (2)

In this one we can remember some people who make the “Impossible is Nothing” more easy to believe. Those who never assumed that, who never gave up, who always fought for they dreams, who always wanted to win. With Ali encouraging other famous athletes, we can feel encouraged too and be motivated to do what it takes to succeed. (2)

BENETTON'S CAMPAIGNS

After talk about Toscani and his life, I want to analyse some of my favourite ads of him.

This explicit ad is about life and birth. In spite of show the beautiful side of the babies, Toscani decided to impact us with the crude reality about the first minutes of baby’s life. Toscani convert something cute and lovely into a disgusting image that creates a lot of polemic reactions.

This ad is about savage sex and explicit eroticism. Toscani pretends to show us the animal world in a way that we usually don’t see. The election of the animals is particular, because people usually likes horses, and see them in sex action causes a strong impact.

There are many rages in the world, but we are totally equal at least. Toscani reflects this idea show us three real human hearts (although he used pig’s heart in the ad). A person can be black, yellow or white, but all of ours hearts feel emotions in the same ways. In a fair world, all the people have the same human rights, and of course, there isn't racism and discrimination.

Although this ad talks about racism, the main idea is that a family can be strange, but they love each other like if they were a traditional family. Moreover, he uses two women in spite of the classic couple. This fact creates controversial, because many sectors of the population think that a homosexual couple can’t educate correctly.




In his Benetton’s career Toscani has shown us a lot of different topics, and he couldn't forget religion. All the questions about religion confront people quickly, and in this ad Oliviero gets it easily. Everybody understand this photo at first sight. One more time, Toscani plays with the conventional rules.




This is one of his most famous campaigns: a man dying of AIDS, lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by his grieving relatives. That picture was controversial due to its similarity to a pieta painting. This ad was published when the AIDS disease was a taboo subject.

This campaign supposed a break point in his professional career and his relation with Luciano Benetton. The campaign includes 26 photos of real people sentenced to death. The intention was try to abolish the death penalty. The campaign wasn’t accepted and was his last creation for the brand. Oliviero accused Benetton because he wanted to create a social demand, and Luciano only was interested in sell his products.

OLIVIERO TOSCANI

Toscani, son of a photo – journalist of the Corriere Della Sera, was born in 1942 in Milano, Italy. He studied photography an design in Zurich from 1961 to 1965. From 1982 to 2000 (18 years), he built United Colors of Benetton into one of the world's most recognized brand, giving the company its corporate image, identity and communication strategy.

His work includes corporate images and advertising campaigns for brands like Valentino, Chanel, Prenatal and many more. He has also work for fashion magazines as Elle and Vogue.

Toscani has been considerated more than a simple creative director because his work has been elevated to the category of art. In fact, many of his ads has been exhibited at Biennale of Venice and other museums around the whole world.

Luciano Benetton, the chairman of Benetton, took an enormous risk choosing Toscani for elaborate his advertising campaigns. At first, everything were awesome, and Luciano could see how his brand become one of the most famous fashion brands in the world.

The controversial ads created by Oliviero scandalized thousands of people, but at the same time, other people really loved the campaigns and felt identified with the message of the graphic adverts.

Toscani reached a difficult objective: all the people that saw their ads, talked about it, and many people bought Benetton products just for the provocative brand’s character.

WELCOME & DAVID OGILVY

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog, Brand On Demand, a place to share with you my views and ideas about one of my passions: advertising. I will talk about my favorite campaigns and about several people who have made history in this sector.

For my first entry, I want to speak about David Ogilvy, a genius who laid the foundations of advertising as we know it. A creative whose relevance is an inspiration for all the advertisers and the future generations.

Probably the most important publicist of the twentieth century. The son of a ruined family who could not complete his studies at Oxford, he worked as a cook, salesman, farmer and British secret service agent during the Second World War.

An experience that, once settled in Madison Avenue, the birthplace of modern advertising, brought him to create some of the best advertising campaigns in history and to work with brands such as Schweppes, Dove, or Rolls Royce.

Creative, charismatic, moody, and above all great, was also a business leader who instilled in her agency a unique corporate culture and transmitted to the advertising industry all his good taste, quality and professionalism. Ogilvy & Mather became a global company with offices around the world and always advocated the concept of branding, market research and direct marketing. His maximum was making announcements that not only entertained, but mostly sold.