Friday, December 23, 2011

AlexLOGIC's Best, Worst Commercial Awards of 2011.

AlexLOGIC's Best, Worst Commercial Awards of 2011.

Worst / Most Annoying Commercial of 2011, Totino's Pizza Rolls, "Kids in America". But be easy on the kids, they had NOTHING to work with in this commercial.


Most Misguided Commercial of 2011, Clorox's "Do it, Do it"Mom encouraging her kid to slide headfirst down a hill like Superman, really?

Cutest Commercial of 2011, Suzie's Lemonade Stand, Small Business commercial for Verizon. Finishes in a tie for second place for best commercial of the year with AT & T's Romantic Dinner.
Uh oh, AlexLOGIC has just viewed a cuter commercial than Suzie. The late entry cutest commercial of 2011 is called "Honesty", and it is put out by values.com. Suzie gets Runner up for Cutest Commercial of 2011 along with tie for second place for best commercial of 2011.
I'm afraid to tell Suzie, you do it for me.


Sounds Too Good to be True Commercial of 2011, Hyundai AssuranceJeff Bridges does a bang up voiceover job, but does a second time buyer get as much of a discount on their second car purchase as a first time buyer does?

Bad Timing Commercial of 2011, Honda Zombie. Everybody knows that nuclear meltdowns cause Zombies to emerge among the melted fuel rods, but should a Japanese car manufacturer be advertising zombies when they have just suffered a massive nuclear meltdown?


Best Use of Zombies in an otherwise marginal commercial. Toshiba, the Ramifications of Yes. Amazingly uneven commercial, The very beginning and very end of the is commercial is amateurishly done, the rest is very effective. It's like two different entities worked on the same commercial, Zombies probably saved the day, for once.


Back to the Future, but not as Believable commercial of 2011, Audi Pre-Owned. The two Audi Commercials deceptively imply that the Pre-Owned owner is able to go back to the future to remind the original Audi Owner to take care of the car.  A clever commercial because one can easily be fooled by an impossible premise, but AlexLOGIC does not believe in selling sizzle where there is no veggie burger.


Best / Funniest Commercial of 2011, AT&T Ski Lift commercial is basically perfect. Perfect acting, sound, direction, writing, and editing/pacing.  Possibly the only flaw with this commercial is that it was so good it was over played.


Best / Funniest Commercial of 2011, 3 way 2nd place tie, Suzie's Lemonade Stand, Small Business commercial for Verizon and AT & T's Romantic Dinner, and State Farm's "Nostalgia" video starring "Hank" and his nostalgic, almost grieving wife. 


"Romantic Dinner" has all the qualities found in the AT & T "Ski Lift" commercial, really a coin flip between the two and came down to it being harder to film the ski lift commercial on location versus filming in a comfy restaurant setting.
When a company (AT&T) leads in bad customer service, making the very best commercials is even more important... um, I guess?
State Farm's Nostalgia might actually be the best commercial of the year, however because it came out so late in 2011 it's hard for me to be sure if I really like it more than AT&T's Ski Lift Commercial. It should be noted that 3 of the 4 best commercials were basic dialogue commercials with no special effects.
Soft Porn Commercial of 2011, it's a tie! Old Navy "Just Jiggle it"  and T-Mobile " Forgy Wonderland. Either commercial could very well be the opening to a softporn movie.


This is not your Parent's Insurance Company, State Farm Insurance for it's variety of commercials all designed to make insurance fun and cool. Just how much extra are all of these fun commercials costing the customer?


High Speed High Heel Running Scares and Creeps People out Commercial, Target 2-day Sale, She's baaack!  Dozens upon Dozens of google search hits using the phrase, Creepy Target Lady and Scary Target Lady pretty much seals the deal.


Biggest Sellout Award. Capital One "50% more Cash" with Jimmy Fallon. I liked Jimmy Fallon, not so much after this commercial. Not even going to link to it for now.


Repetitive / Obnoxious / turn the channel everytime it comes on commercial of 2011, Big Big Big Smart Car commercial. Does not bear repeating, but this was the one commercial where I automatically changed the channel everytime it came on the air. When a commercial resorts to repeating any word over and over, it's crossed a line in my opinion, and this is one instance where a commercial being remembered is not a good thing.


Most Pretentious Commercial of 2011, Fiat "My World" starring Jennifer Lopez. I am a huge Jennifer Lopez fan, but the voice over in this commercial desperately needs a minor, yet major rewrite.


Most Pretentious Commercial of 2011, Runner up. Samsung The Way We're Wired.  Would have been the winner but Lopez is such a huge star that that tipped the award to Fiat's "My World", how pretentious of me!


Best Single Camera Angle, no Editing Commercial of 2011. K-fee.


That's AlexLOGIC's Best, Worst Commercial Awards list for 2011. Don't forget, AlexLOGIC is available for commercials consulting BEFORE you make your commercial, or after its been edited.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at
Super Bowl Consulting

Friday, December 16, 2011

State Farm breaks the Geek Barrier and the "This is not your parent's insurance company barrier" with their 2011 commercials.

It must be fun to be an insurance company with advertising dollars to spend. State Farm Commercials in 2011 seem to be all over the map, the map of.... fun.

Be it Jerry Newman who seems to magically bend his car around telephone poles like Kreskin used to bend forks, 


space aliens that don't like the neighbor, (but let the neighbor live to tell about it),

the state farm magic swami (if you can dream it, you can flee it), 

or, you can do that on television, but not in real life (late 2010)

and lets not forget Aaron Rogers, aka Mr. Discount Double Check, 
and one of the best commercials of the year, Nostalgia.
It seems as if State Farm is trying to keep their advertising agency so busy that the agency can't court any other customers.

So if there is to be an "I'm too cool to be a geek or your dad's insurance company" award, I would give the award to State Farm Insurance.

Now, if State Farm hired me as a commercials consultant, I'd give them an idea that is so beyond all of these commercials that State Farm executives would hit themselves in the forehead (but not too hard) and wonder why they didn't think of the idea first.

Of course the answer would be, you can't have "AlexLOGIC", you can only hire one.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Toshiba, the Ramifications of yes, or "how I learned to drop my computer and cause zombies to appear."

And God said, "Let there be humans" as he dropped his Toshiba Satellite laptop. Seven days later little zombie humanoids came forth, or something like that.
 
If only God had waited for the impact smart hard drive, if only.


Technically speaking, I feel this Toshiba commercial falls short in a couple key areas. First, we see the technician drop the laptop, but nothing really "breaks", like the screen maybe flashing on and off, nor do we "hear" the sound of a hard drive going wonky.


The final shot is not really what I would call a "beauty shot", nor is it reinforced with a "winning" impact smart hard drive sound effect either.


One final thing, I don't like to pick on actors in commercials, but the one lady in the commercial seems to have the giggles. I think they should have cut away visually by at least a second or two earlier from the opening scene while we still hear them talking, and given more screen time to the actual dropping of the lap top and how that causes the power outages to occur. This would be called a "voiceover". (yes, you can giggle if you like).


As much as I enjoy the overall zaniness of this commercial, I feel the editing and sound could have been more fully constructed in both the front and back of the commercial, and the final "hero shot" of the product should have felt zestier, more alive. The final shot of the laptop now has an Impact smart hard drive inside, and we should all feel the betterness caused by that innovation.


Just how much trust can I put into the designer of a product who thinks spoiled milk creates zombies?


Everybody knows that spoiled milk creates werewolves, not zombies.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Best Single camera angle commercial of 2011.

Perhaps this is the best one camera angle commercial of 2011? In 2010 that honor would have gone to the Old Spice Commercials, but I don't think Old Spice did any in 2011 that would qualify as the best.


Probably don't want to be holding any type of beverage while watching this commercial. 


One might ask themselves, do you remember what the commercial is still about after seeing it?


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Samsung's Galaxy S II commercial, The Way We're Wired, not as good as it sounds.



Samsung Galaxy S II commercial, The Way We're Wired, seems to have a tone to it that is similar to the Nike Commercial from the Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt movie, What Women Want.

Beyond that, I found the Samsung Galaxy S II commercial highly pretentious specifically because it seems like it is an inspirational commercial, when it is really an important sounding commercial that fooled Samsung into using the wrong visuals. 

Video editors usually strive to match visuals to the soundtrack, sometimes video editors will try and create an opposite effect, in which the visuals and soundtrack clash with each other. In this instance, I would have gone for a third option.

I believe if I had been a consultant on this commercial I would have been able to get them to see that the glittery words were forcing them to choose the wrong visuals. The voice over could stay as is, but the voiceover, in this instance, should not be used to determine the visuals. 

Let's just say that the Way We're Wired could be easily spoofed and leave it at that.

My question to Samsung is a simple one,
....did your employees who worked on the Samsung Galaxy S II visualize their greatness as being Cell Phone designers when they were dreaming of their own personal greatness and success? 

If your answer is yes, that your employees dreamed of being  scientists and researchers, then why is your video full of images of people jumping around trying to be physically great?

If your answer is no, that your employees dreamed of being famous and instead "settled" for second place by working for your company, then may I ask, why would I want to buy a phone from your company and your second place settling workers?
Philosophically speaking, if a company makes a commercial that gives the appearance of being a powerful, message driven commercial, when it has actually fallen well short of what it could have been, is that still considered a successful commercial?


Welcome to second place.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Monday, November 28, 2011

AT&T "Romantic Dinner" 2011 commercial of couple talking at Dinner while husband sneaks a peek on his his I-Phone 4 is very well done.


If you want to see one of the best examples of a perfectly executed dialogue based commercial with no special effects, the AT&T "Romantic Dinner" 2011 commercial is probably as good of an example as you will find.

There is virtually no flaw in this AT@T commercial. The pacing, acting, sound, editing, direction and humor are top notch, and, no special effects!


I'd vote this the best dialogue based commercial of 2011 if not for another AT@T commercial from the beginning of this year, the one with the two guys stuck on a ski lift.

Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Aaron Rogers wants his discount double check move back State Farm Dance Contest.



Aaron Rogers wants his discount double check move back, so State Farm is giving the public a chance to submit their own discount double check dance move and apparently win a trip to the super bowl. 

Dance Ants, dance! 

State farm could have probably generated more publicity if they had limited the contest to their policy holders only, as that would have upset others who just want to dance. 


I'm not suggesting that State Farm limit who can enter, just that it would have been an interesting ploy, even if it generated some negative publicity it still would have been publicity, especially if State Farm then expanded the contest to include one of each. (hee hee hee)


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Thursday, November 24, 2011

It's Official, the Target Lady in Red is, "Scary" and "Creepy".

The google votes are in and the Target Lady in Red has produced a surprising number of search hits that use the word "scary" or "creepy" to find the Alex LOGIC Lady in Red commercial review.  My first Lady in Red Target commercial article used the word "scary" to describe the Target Lady in Red, and evidently I am not alone. Creepy has now settled into a close second, right behind scary, among google search words for the Target Lady in Red commercials.

I really think the final shot of this women in red running like a track star at full speed, while in high heels, is scary. I certainly would dive out of the way if I saw a women in heels running at full speed towards me. The thought of that high heel spike landing on my shoe is, scary.

The Target Lady is also hunched forward while running in her high heels and it may be subliminally reminding people of a deer with their antlers descending as they are about to ram somebody in their way. Pepper spray anyone? 


The tone of the Target Lady in Red's behavior is more reminiscent of a stampeding throng of shoppers than visiting your local store on Black Friday and being, nice. Now, there's a concept, people being nice to each other on Black Friday. 

The Target Lady in Red sure seems determined to run at full speed in high heels just as if she was wearing running shoes is, scary indeed.

Scary, Scary, Scary.  Maybe kids will be too afraid to visit Target on Black Friday just in case the scary lady in red is there waiting to lower her antlers and make a run at them.


AlexLOGIC could fix these Target Lady in Red commercials with just a few clever ideas, but alas, Target is one of those "too big to fail" types of companies that would never listen to the little guy, and probably doesn't care that many many many hits about the Target Lady in Red refer to her as creepy, and scary, and that may be scariest of all.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

T-Mobile wishes you a 4Orgy (4G Wonderland).


Sigh, wink, wink, nudge nudge. Can I bet a million dollars that when the choir was singing walking in a 4G wonderland that some of the singers were either singing Orgy Wonderland, snickering about it between takes, or laughing their snow angel arses off afterwards.


On a sound note, when I listen to this version on the internet, the F, as in four, is pretty clear, when I hear the 4G wonderland commercial on television, the f is not that clear.  Oops.


As a consultand I catch these kinds of things, but you have to hire me to get the benefit.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Friday, November 18, 2011

Why the Target Lady in Red Scares me.

What I find scary about the Target Lady in Red commercials is that she runs in high heels.

The Hunched Back is a Motoring Dame.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO


That final shot of the Target Lady in Red running in high heels is just wrong, it's freakishly wrong. The high heels makes her running look strange. 


The running with high heels on causes the Target Lady in red to slump her shoulders forward, it's a very odd look. She kind of looks like a hunchback reindeer about to lower her antlers and gouge anyone in her path.  (edit note, I've gotten google hits within hours of posting this article that use the word "scary" and "creepy" in reference to the running red target lady).


Keeping the Target Lady in Red in high heels while running is also a bit abusive in my opinion. If she is to run, let her run in some quality running shoes. Why aren't the running shoe companies that Target sells in their shows up in feet over this?

An entire Target commercial could be made showing the Target Lady in Red putting on her favorite running shoes and then getting ready to run into a Target Store. 


Target could do a pre-sale sale and sell comfortable running shoes for those who are seriously going to Target Target during their initial pre-christmas sale. (I had this idea a year ago, that's how far ahead I am of these so called advertising "experts").

Target could let those with Target running shoes on, first into their stores during their big sale. The comfort of the running shoes would probably induce those customers to do even more purchasing.

It sometimes pains me to write such incredible stuff knowing this information is literally worth millions of dollars.

sigh. 

I'm starting to feel a bit of scorn and contempt towards the advertising industry people who think they don't need my services yet could obviously benefit from my intuition and experience. 

I think I'll raise my consulting prices.


By the way, the rest of the commercial is clever and well done, which makes the final shot that much more annoying, and scary.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Creepy Time on Jay Leno with both Barack Obama and Kelsey Grammar.

Jay Leno in my opinion has had three of the touchiest moments within the television talk show genre in just the past few weeks. The first two uncomfortable moments involved Barack Obama. 

Jay congratulated Barack Obama on assassinating Osama Bin Laden without mentioning that just a very short time later virtually every Navy Seal that was involved in that assignment died in a helicopter crash.

Barack Obama seemed pleased with the Osama Bin Laden mission when I think the loss of the navy seals involved so soon afterwards should have been of even more importance. Sad to see our president shuffle off the navy seal deaths so easily while still being pleased by the assassination.

During that same appearance, Barack Obama also seemed quite pleased that even though his approval rating was below 40%, it was still three times higher than congress. It was as if Obama was saying, I may suck at my job, but as long as congress sucks worse, I'm in the driver's seat for re-election.

Just now, Kelsey Grammar was on and told his pursuit of his latest wife. What was conveniently left out was that Kelsey was still married at that time!

If this had been a woman in the same situation as Kelsey, telling a story of how she pursued her latest husband even while she was still married to her previous husband, the audience would have probably booed her. 

Kim Kardashian has been the butt of many jokes for divorcing after 72 days, and rightly so (she allegedly made 10 million dollars off of the publicity of getting married). Why does Kelsey Grammar get to romanticize his pursuit that was done while he was still married?

I'm a Kelsey Grammar fan when it comes to the work he has done on television, perhaps that is why he gets to tell his story his way, even if it means leaving out significant details like pursuing his newest wife through an airport even while still married to his previous wife.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at... 
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Grounded for Life, I've never seen a sit com with so much yelling in it.

I don't understand the sit com Grounded for Life. I know it's not in production anymore, but it is in syndication and I can't understand how this show lasted as long as it did with all the yelling.

Just now, one of the kids climbs into the car and yells at his mom so loud he actually distorted the audio! 

In generaly, Yelling is not that funny. 

If you want to learn the difference between great directing and acting, compare the brilliant way that shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens got their anger on, versus how poorly Grounded for Life did it. I would have called the show "Grating for Life".

I really try to avoid being mean on this blog but the director of the episodes that have yelling on the tv show Grounded for Life equals big time hack in my opinion. 

I don't even know who the director is but if I were that person I would try once a week to find out where the masters are to this show and destroy them.  sheesh.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Jennifer Lopez "My World" Fiat Commercial has a glaring error in it.



I'm a huge Jennifer Lopez fan. Besides all of Jennifer Lopez's known talents, Lopez has a spectacular speaking voice. Yet it is that spectacular speaking voice that lends itself to a huge faux pas in Lopez's voice over for the Fiat "My World" commercial.

A voice over mistake so embarrassingly obvious to me, yet I have not come across any bad publicity over the mistake. It's moments like this when I know I have a lot to offer as a commercials consultant to those too big too fail.

Before reading on, please view the youtube commercial for MY World and focus on the voice over to see if you can catch the mistake in Lopez's voice over. It's the kind of mistake that I would never have allowed in my own studio back when I was doing low budget projects for people who only had two nickels to rub together.

Yet, in the multi-million dollar ad campaign world, this voice over mistake was allowed to fly???  Nobody caught this voice over error by Jennifer Lopez, really? 

Jennifer Lopez Voice over transcript for My World to follow.

Here, this is my World. This place inspires me... to be tougher, to stay sharper...to think faster. They may be just streets to you, but to me, they're a playground. 

Did you spot the faux pas?  If you appreciate the friendly, confiding tones of Jennifer Lopez in this My World voiceover, do you really want to suddenly be the bad guy, the outsider, the person not good enough to hang with Jennifer after she invited you into her world?  I felt like I had ice cold gatorade dumped over my head, but in a bad way.

"They may be just streets to YOU... (you stupid, thoughtless, insensitive dullard who doesn't get it), but to me, they're a playground.

Thanks, Jennifer, thanks for making me feel like I don't belong on the same planet as YOU.

My Broken heart could have been spared if you had just used the word SOME instead of YOU.  

Here, this is my World. This place inspires me... to be tougher, to stay sharper...to think faster. They may be just streets to some, but to me, they're a my playground.
I find a lot to like about Jennifer Lopez's My World commercial for Fiat. The pacing, visuals, the sound mix, the way the music comes in at the end and lets the commercial fly high, however all of those good points just makes those two glaring voiceover errors even more off putting.

AlexLOGIC would have caught these two glaring errors, but you have to contact AlexLOGIC, to get AlexLOGIC.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Super Bowl Consulting

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Smart Car Big Big Big commercial, one of the worst commercials of 2011 according to AlexLOGIC.



In my opinion, the big big big smart car is one seriously stupid commercial. Back in the 50's, subliminal advertising in which one frame of a product was inserted into a movie were outlawed.


Repetitive advertising, in my opinion, is no different, and actually worse, than subliminal advertising. 


I'm offended any time I am exposed to a repetitive phrase, you should be to, if you have a brain, a soul, and don't want to be turned into an automoton. flip the switch when this loser of a commercial comes on unless you like being repetitively manipulated by stupid crap.


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Old Navy goes Soft Porn with "Don't Jiggle it"... when you wiggle it.



Is this Old Navy commercial not the very depiction of a soft porn movie trailer?


Check out AlexLOGIC's best and worst commercials of 2011.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at... 
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
commercial critiques
by Alessandro Machi at

Super Bowl Consulting

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