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Gaming Aesthetics As Ad(Business & Finance Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Gaming Aesthetics As Ad The latest Coke campaign succeeds in tapping in to the form and content of video gaming, while Irish architects did themselves proud at Venice. Sometimes an advertising campaign does that magic trick when the creative geniuses come up with a concept that works straight across the line between advertising, the below-the-line agency and a client. In its creative zenith, such a campaign has virtually no chances of passing the test of the elusive national brand manager. Yet, some campaigns aim even higher, "going glocal" (for those who know Coke's marketing-speak, that means globally local). Case in point, check out www.cocacolashadows.ie, which hosts a competition to make your own shadow art that is just like that found on the Irish outdoor campaign. But why would the average target market bother making the effort? This is a brand stretch for Coke. The above-the-line image is a clear stock shot rip-off from many similar executions. Coke is about refreshment and fun. What the brand needs is to get out of the shadows and pay attention to what our European and American neighbours are doing. And they're doing it with originality and brand relevance. Younger consumers love the latest Weiden and Kennedy "The Coke side of life" ad spot that is just like the video game Grand Theft Auto. As the animated reality "dude" seemingly turns from bad guy to good and saves the world from thieves, street thugs and some menacing looking Village People lookalikes, the play unfolds and "The Coke side of life" gets both close to teenagers' everyday reality (games) and the imaginary life of adults (action movies). Very creative, highly entertaining and above all, it uses shadowy figures as they should be used - in a clever and relevant way. Venice Biennale On board a vaporetto heading for the Academia Bridge, en route to the American Biennale party, Business & Finance was having a casual chat with two fellow Biennale visitors from a renowned UK architectural firm. "Ah, the Russian exhibit was boring - too many dead communist leaders and Stalinist baroque," said one. "And the Belgians - well, you know they are obsessed with Modernismo," quipped another. "The American exhibit on rebuilding New Orleans is a bit too contrived - with all these water marks on die walls and suburban planning sketches," suggested Business & Finance. "What really surprised me," returned one UK architect, "was the Irish show. Instead of boring the crap out of the viewers with all the stats about urban-suburban living, like the British organisers did, the Irish stated the problem and then went on to have fun with it." That problem, of course, is the fact of everyday life in Ireland - what does our preoccupation with living at the limit ("SubUrban") or beyond the urban context ("SuperRural") mean for our future? Are there new models for development to which we can aspire? And where will our grossly mangled bunglow-centric countryside blunders be in next 25 years? The Irish organisers of the 2006 Venice Architectural Biennale - architectures equivalent of the Oscars and Cannes combined - asked these provocative and real questions from Ireland's nine architects. Curated by FKL Architects for the Irish Architecture Foundation, Ireland's exhibition in Venice featured projects and scenarios that imagine and illustrate a vision of how our "SubUrban" island can evolve into a "SuperRural" one between now and 2030. A book was produced to document the event, with contributions by Frank McDonald of The Irish Times and Business & Finances Constantin Gurdgiev. The Irish exhibit was devoted to presenting the imagery of the ideas - sometimes whimsical (ODOS Architects), sometimes sub-practical (Boyd Cody Architects), occasionally hyper-realistic (dePaor Architects), humourously referencing de Valera's ideal of self-sufficiency (FKL Architects), intra-connecting meaning with functionality (Henchion+Reuter Architects), challengingly intellectual (heneghan.peng.architects), futuristically maritime (MacGabhann Architects), and simply mobile (Dominic Stevens Architects). With Jennifer Keegan's Detached - a film commissioned for the exhibit - providing an unobtrusive, yet formative, background, the Irish contribution to Biennale was wonderfully different from the more traditional drawings-plus-stats shows prepared by other countries' curators. Copyright 2006 Belenos Publications Ltd Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Europe Intelligence Wire. |