As we approach the end of the year, we begin to look forward to Christmas television; one of the highly anticipated shows in the apt office is “Advert of the Year” (yes, we are that sad!). We’ve gathered a few of our favourites and voted, so without further ado, here are apt’s top five adverts of 2012:
In fifth place, Nokia’s promotional ‘The Amazing Everyday’, created to announce the release of their Lumia 800 mobile phone. We particularly admired the incredible stunts, especially rowing on wheelie chairs (one we may have to try out). We all loved the creativity and talent of the people featured in the videos and recommend you take a look, you will be amazed.
In fourth place, a very simple yet effective ad; it comes from McDonald’s and advertises the value of their Saver Menu. Depicting characters being late for important events and then blaming their postponed arrival on a visit to the fast food restaurant, they use the low price to defend themselves. We applaud the audacity of each character, despite not agreeing with their reasoning. It is however a very easy and effective way of promoting their product.
In third place, this advert collected an award at the Cannes Film Festival, but didn’t do enough to claim the top prize from us. The Guardian’s “Three Little Pigs Advert” follows a shocking twist in the well known children’s story of the three little pigs; the pigs are convicted of murder and stand trial for boiling the wolf alive, claiming he was an intruder. The advert shows the open nature of journalism, with many avenues of the web being explored. There are clever developments of the story throughout and the advert does a brilliant job at showing off what the Guardian does best.
In second place we have an unexpected high flyer from Virgin Media - which includes a cameo performance from none other than Usain Bolt himself, impersonating Sir Richard Branson. By using arguably the most widely loved athlete on the planet, the advert suddenly appeals to a much larger audience. Here at apt we appreciate the clever play on words such as “I’m famous for being fast”, and combining this with some charismatic lines and moves from Bolt to make this advert a real success.
Now for the grand finale; our most successful advert of the year by far has to be the John Lewis Christmas Advert, “The Journey”. The success of the advert has also seen it’s soundtrack “The Power of Love” by Gabrielle Aplin reach number one in the UK charts. We can’t imagine the sheer amount of work that was must have been done to achieve the snowman in so many different landscapes, and with so many fantastic facial expressions, but we are glad to say that all of the hard work has paid off, with the final product being spectacular. It is heartfelt, moving and comical all in one. We love it!