by Jonathan Marshall

To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. DDB Stockholm, the agency behind the campaign, considers these mediums to be effective Stunt or Ambient advertising. The idea is to get people talking about those crazy piano stairs in the subway, or the weird whistling trash can – word of mouth.

These are just two of the many efforts that appear on the carmaker’s Rolighetsteorin.se or “Theory of Fun” website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun. Additionally, the ideas are centered around activities that are not normally fun but still productive – like encouraging people to get more exercise by choosing to walk up stairs instead of an escalator, as well as by throwing away their trash.

Volkswagen already has a lot of brand recognition, they don’t need to get their name out there or be cornered into a specific advertising approach. Generally, the bigger and more recognizable the brand, the more potential creative slack the advertising agency has to experiment with new mediums.

by Les Kollegian

I wonder why Canada has the hootzpah to run this campaign and the US doesn’t. Perhaps our overly politically correct society feels it may be offensive to our conservative viewers. At Jacob Tyler, we say GO FOR IT!!! Sometimes you have to be a little edgy to connect with potential customers. This is especially true with the advent of TIVO and the now typical attention deficit disorder (ADD) our younger viewers are living with.

This Bud Light Lime tv spot centers an entire advertising campaign around a camouflaged sex joke. Whether or not you like the campaign, its undoubtably clear that this is perfect material for the Jacob Tyler blog – so here you go. Give it to someone in the can this week by sharing this video.

Perhaps one of the most direct, in-your-face (literally) examples of interactive advertising Nikon has ever pushed. The popular technology-giant received inspiration from our celebrity-glamorized paparazzi culture to launch the brand’s D700 model in Korea.

At a heavily-visited subway station in Seoul, Nikon mounted an enormous interactive, light-box billboard with life-size images of anxious paparazzi. Completely jammed together as if the subway station was a premiere, the paparazzi look like they are fighting for the best celebrity pic.

All of the passersby became instant celebrities when the motion of them walking by the billboard automatically triggered a surge of flashing camera lights. The newly-crowned, on-the-spot-superstars then continue down the red carpet that leads out of the station and into a mall – directly into the store where they can buy the camera that they are still thinking about only mere seconds after walking past the billboard. Textbook execution. Thumbs up on this one Nikon – interactive advertising superstars.