My better is better than your better

I am loving Wieden & Kennedy’s “My Better” ad campaign for Nike SPARQ (Speed Power Agility Reaction Quickness) Training. The commercials – featuring LaDainian Tomlinson, Hope Solo, Matt Holiday (pictured below) and other top athletes – all make some sort of impression, whether it be a smile or a little motivation.

The first of the series of commercials to catch my attention features a HARD-hitting track by rapper/poet Saul Wiliams (a Newburgh, NY native) and can be seen here. As a fan of (but by no means expert on) intelligent hip hop, I remember when this song, List of Demands, dropped back in 2004. I was hooked. Its intense base riff and just-as-intense lyrics were, and still are, like nothing I have ever heard. Commercials often seem to blend into one another, and agencies put so much time and money into making their spots memorable, but sometimes a stand out track like this is all that is needed.

The SPARQ commercial that really motivated me to write a blog post, however, was this one:

I find Steve Nash absolutely hilarious in this commercial. Everything he does and says (or rather, the way in which he says it) is awesome. I remember reading in some advertising book about how Nike became cool by being cool, not by saying they were cool. The legacy continues.

Of toilet paper and cell phones

I just want to give some recognition to Cottonelle bath tissue. As much as I dislike taking the subway from Grand Central, Cottonelle’s “Be Kind to Your Behind” nontraditional ad campaign seems to lighten my mood a little bit each day.

The copy on the Cottonelle advertisements posted on the walls inside the terminal (and in subway cars, as seen here) is short enough to read while speed walking (the only brand of walking in New York) and is – for the most part – creatively and tastefully done. The posters feature Cottonelle’s trademark little white puppy dog on a white background with bold blue font. Bold and simplistic: the most effective combination for ad copy read on the go.

On a side note, I saw a billboard while riding the bus the other day that had approximately one hundred words of copy. I think I was able to read half of the first sentence. It looked like it was going to be interesting. Ah well.

Some of the more creative Cottonelle ads that I’ve seen over the past month read, “We shine where the sun don’t,” “Fetch. Roll. Sit.” and the one I can’t remember.

On the topic of Grand Central, there was this woman on the subway today who looked like she was in her mid forties but was dressed like she was in her mid twenties. She was sitting on the opposite side of the train car, singing an unrecognizable song while persistently bouncing her leg up and down. I came to the conclusion that she was on drugs. This led to the conclusion that she quite possibly was in her mid twenties. (I joke, but it truly is sad.)

As we exited the train, I saw the woman reach into her pocket and take out the SAME darn cell phone that I have, the unsightly camera-less phone that I have been meaning to discard and replace for two months now. The ones my friends have called an “ugly ass phone.” And this is when I realized that the whole situation was God’s way of telling me that only crack heads still have my cell phone. He works in mysterious ways.

3/31 Update: The Cottonelle ad that I couldn’t remember – “New Yorkers aren’t rude. They’re just using the wrong toilet paper.” Simple, funny, and appropriate for hectic Grand Central Terminal. I like it.