Brands love telling consumers their products are lifesavers, but rarely does the claim hold as much water as when Aircel’s Mumbia billboard rescued stranded citizens during India’s monsoon season.
The weather can turn very quickly in India during monsoon season, often with fatal effects. Flash floods have claimed the lives of many in the past. It was this knowledge that prompted Aircel to attach a life-raft to its billboard, with the instructions: in case of an emergency, pull rope.
On July 15th, flash flooding, as expected, occurred. The Milan Subway beneath Aircel’s billboard became virtually impassable. Six lucky Mumbians, taking advantage of Aircel’s foresight, cut the rope and rowed themselves to safety aboard Aircel’s branded dinghy.
The innovative idea gained major press coverage in India; Aircel was crediting with achieving where the government failed. It now plans to extend the billboard scheme to Delhi and KolKata as well.
In early July they tethered an inflatable dingy (complete with ‘cut rope in emergency’ instruction) to a billboard in an area of central Mumbai notorious for its flooding problems. Within a couple of weeks, it monsooned, the rope was cut and pedestrians were paddled to safety.
But hang on, this wasn’t an impulsive ‘power to the people’ moment, a second glance at the photos shows that blokes with Aircel branded t-shirts were in charge of the whole operation.In one way this is kind of sweet, the brand making sure that their boat was used properly to really help people – and in another way it makes me a bit cynical, with images in my head of a marketing team sat there waiting for the heavens to open so they could dispatch their branded team of helpers – plus of course a photographer to document it all.
Brilliant coverage achieved, but it all feels a little bit too planned and manipulative to really connect with cynical old me – then again I’m not exactly Aircel’s target audience – and I wasn’t the one getting my feet wet.
Cadbury is linking Dentyne gum with making “face time”, encouraging internet users to allocate time to be with friends, face to face. The advertising campaign, launched in 2008, includes a television commercial, a series of print advertisements, and an interactive site (makefacetime.dentyne.ca) which can only be accessed for three minutes at a time.
Power down. log off. Unplug. Have mercy on your thumbs. Browse the world wide something else. Send some not-so-instant-messages. Undo/hit cancel. Be together. Make face time.
The Original Voicemail (power down, pucker up, make face time). The Original Instant Message (hang up, listen close, make face time).
Friend Request Accepted (close browser, open arms, make facetime). Send and Receive (log off, latch on, make face time.)
Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)
Credits
The Dentyne Make Face Time campaign was developed at McCann Erickson by agency executive producer Toni Lipari, executive creative director Craig Markus, associate creative director/art director Tracey Smith, copywriter Don Wilhelmi.
Filming was shot by directors Arni & Kinski via Awhitelabelproduct with executive producers Annique Decaestecker and Ellen Jacobson-Clarke, line producer Amanda Clark, director of photography Darius Khondji.
Editors were Holle Singer at Consulate Editorial, Post/Visual Effects Artists/Online Editor Sarah Mackinney (Titles), and online editor Michael Dwass. Colorist was Tim Masick at Company 3, New York.
Sound and music were designed and mixed by Steve Rosen at Howard Schwartz Recording, New York. Music is “Summer Day” by Coconut Records, an indie pop solo project from Los Angeles, California featuring actor Jason Schwartzman. Jason’s debut album, Nighttiming, was released on Young Baby Records in 2007. The album had musical contributions from members of Incubus, as well as guest appearances by Zooey Deschanel from the band She & Him, and actress Kirsten Dunst.
Using the Web can still be a very annoying experience!
Poor Design
Illegible text. I can’t read that, it’s too small. And what on earth is that font called?
Busy backgrounds. Oh MySpace, why do you allow users to create profiles like that? My eyes hurt.
Obscure links. I’m confused, can I click on that or not? Oh I get it, you don’t want me to view other pages.
Flyouts that are too large. Holy crap Yahoo! This is a page within a flyout!
Drop-down menu navigation too many levels deep. OK, if I slowly move my mouse this way first… dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a magician!
Complicated navigation. I just want to get to that page, the one over there! Oh I see, you want me to complete the maze first.
Abused centerpieces. Aren’t centerpieces supposed to serve as mechanisms for promotion, rather than areas to cram an entire page’s worth of content into itself? Call me an idealist, I guess.
Poor navigation labels. Give me a clue and use labels that make sense!
Clutter & chaos. With no emphasis or information hierarchy, it’s difficult for me to know what to look at, and what to do next.
Ugly WAPs. Many companies treat their WAP sites like a deformed step-child they keep in the basement.
Splash screens. Nice, a road block between your user and your home page.
Unfindable Information
Dysfunctional site search. (Sigh) Why didn’t this site just use Google?
Too many blog categories. Isn’t this what tags were meant for?
Contact info. I just want to speak to them on the phone! And when I say “them” i mean a human.
Invisible sign in. OK, so I registered, but how do I sign in?
Hidden account closure. I guess I’m a member for life now?
Unscannable info. I want to quickly know if this article is relevant. But alas, huge paragraphs, long headlines and no subheadings make for an unscannable chunk of data, and an indigestible piece of gristle.
No Content Strategy
No focus. Yada, yada, yada. Get to the point, what’s your message and what do you offer?
Spelling & grammar. Spelling mistakes are hard to forgive and really hurt credibility.
Ineffective product pages: What am I buying? Why should I buy this? Help me understand, and I’ll move down the purchase funnel!
Outdated. There’s nothing more thrilling than seeing a blog frozen in time. At some point, a landfill for websites is going to be needed.
Small photos. Why would I buy something I cannot see?
Auto-Behavior
Auto-playing home page video. Take note ESPN.com: the first thing I do when coming to your site is scramble to find the video pause button. And that’s when I’m surfing from home.
Auto browser resizing. And you did that because?
Customer service nags. Ironic really. Chat pop-ups appear like genies out of a lamp when I don’t need them.
Theme tunes. Got to love that auto-play music, especially when it cycles over and over and over, and over.
Auto opt-ins. It seems like an automatic opt-in is a contradiction in terms to me. No I don’t want your newsletter, and if I did, I’d opt-in.
Evil Forms
Unreadable captchas. Pure Evil. If I had a brick, why I would…
Too many fields. This is utterly exhausting. Oh forget it, I’m going to abandon this form.
Cryptic error messaging. OK, so I made a mistake. If you used English, I might be able to fix it.
No confirmation. Was I successful or not? I’m looking for anything here, a “thank-you”, a “job well done”, a “good boy”… anything that confirms the form was indeed a submitted form.
Too many constraints. I want to add my Canadian zip code, but you’re validating against the US format only!
Too small fields. How I’m supposed to enter my street address in that state-sized field?
The reset button. Do we really need this? I especially love it when I accidentally press “reset” instead of “submit”. It’s especially satisfying when it’s a long form.
Intrusive Advertising
Pop-ups. And that includes those fancy, flashy, moving, hard-to-close ones. Are you serious? This is 2009.
Interstitials. Thanks for adding another click and creating a barrier between me and your content! Give me a reason to leave, I dare you.
Flyouts via links in content. Oh darn, I didn’t know that was an ad! Thanks for punishing me.
Too may Google ads. I know there’s some content around here….
Long video pre-rolls. Is this ad ever going to end? Hang on; I forgot what video I clicked on.
The bus stop. Home pages that resemble bus stops — flyers, posters, graffiti all shouting at me. Sometimes, I swear I can even smell urine.
Accounts
Remembering user names and passwords. Seriously, how many do I need to keep track of? Just give me Facebook connect already!
Being forced to register for purchases. I just want to buy it, OK? Forget it, I’m going elsewhere.
Forced password reset. I just want to know my password! The one I chose but have forgotten. I know you know.
Getting locked out. I get the three-attempts-and-you’re-out idea, but it would be nice to know the rules before hand!
Password sent by “snail mail”. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Should I expect a scroll to be delivered and read by a messenger?
Abuse
Spam. We still cannot cure this disease?
Viruses. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the anti-virus companies were creating these. You know, supply and demand and all.
Phishing. Particularly sneaky; and definitely a step beyond annoying.
Trolls on messageboards/blogs. Oh well, that’s life I guess – art imitating life and all.
Fake profiles. Am I following the real Steven Hawking on Twitter? It says here he went bowling last night.
Facebook app invitations. For the thousandth time, no I do not want to play Mob Wars, and no I don’t want a “pet in an egg” either.
Technology
Explorer 6. I speak for all developers here, if there’s a plug attached, please pull it. RIP Explorer 6.
Plug-ins. Not only do I have to download another plug-in, I have to keep these things current!
Entire sites built in flash. I don’t get it, why?
PDF overuse. Why couldn’t this PDF just be a web page?
Dell’s Netbook trackpad. Designed to be web browsing device, Dell’s Mini 10 trackpad has a trillion bells and whistles, but cannot fulfill basic tasks like moving the cursor from point A to point B without going to C first.
Small netbook screens. While mobile devices have optimized views for their screens, Netbooks and their 9 and 10 inch screens are caught in a weird place.
Inconsistent colors. Optimizing colors and contrast across both Macs and PCs is a designers nightmare.
Charging for Wi-Fi. Provide it free of charge, and the patrons will come!
Waiting
Slow page load. OK that’s it, I’ve been patient and their 3 seconds are up.
Comment approval. I thought, I articulated, I commented, I waited. Nothing. That will teach me to contribute.
Black-hole between ordering and shipping. I took me 5 minutes to order this laptop, why isn’t it getting shipped? Should I place my order again? Should I cancel this order? What’s the order status?
Twitter is down again. I’m starting to think this is a feature. One akin to a long line outside a trendy night club.
Customer service. Since I cannot get a human on the phone, a 24 hour response time to my e-mail is not acceptable. Well look at that, I guess you just quantified the value of my business.
Submission timers. I saw this really great article! I know, I’ll post it on Reddit. And there’s another one, I’ll post that on Reddit too. What, I have to wait 10 minutes to post another article? That will teach me to contribute.
The Facebook hub for Gap's "Born to Fit" 1969 premium jeans launch campaign.
The site delves into Gap's 1969 denim collection with a virtual runway and fit spotlight that show 360-degree views of the various jean styles and outfit suggestions, accompanied by commentary from designer Patrick Robinson.
Also featured are videos from Gap models and actors appearing in Gap ads. Users are also invited to upload their photos into a gallery with their own "born to" looks and share their own styles through Polyvore, an online image-mixing app.See more of the 1969 campaign here.
