Last year Getty Images released a video, created with BBDOAlmap, called "From Love to Bingo." The video uses a mass of images to tell a wonderful little story in about a minute.
Getty Images just released a similar video, again partnering with BBDOAlmap, called "85 Seconds." This video uses a string of video clips to tell a story. It's really well done and I had to watch it about 10 times to catch everything.
I think it's a brilliant way for the company to show the variety of images/video clips they have available without stating it directly and creating a really meaningful, lovely story.
Well done Getty and BBDOAlmap, you've done it again!
If you have been paying any attention to the world of college athletics or the branded world you may have noticed that there has been a surge of new college identities, most of which have been created by Nike's Graphic Identity Group.
In a way it makes sense, the logos are clean, streamlined and modern. And Nike also designs some pretty snazzy uniforms/gear as part of the rebrand. Most of the logos are vast improvements over their predecessors and I quite enjoy them. I'm just a little concerned that every college and college sports team is going to start looking the same. And with my beloved Beavers on the forefront of the Nike rebrand kick, I feel this is a valid concern.
Here are some of the Nike rebrands thus far, and it seems like a new one comes out every week.
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, HUSKIES
Before and after typography/mark:
Old
New
New
Old
I do have this to say, the before Husky looks a bit too much like a pomeranian.
And some of their sweet duds:
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, BULLDOGS
Before and after typography/mark:
Old
New
CAL STATE, GOLDEN BEARS
Before and after typography/mark:
New
Old
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY, BEAVERS
Before and after typography/mark:
Old
New
UTAH STATE, AGGIES
Before and after typography/mark:
New
Old
Old
New
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, SUN DEVILS
Before and after typography/mark:
Old
New
So, as you can see there are definitely a lot of similarities. From the blocky, simple style most of the mascots possess to the chunky typography with alternating colored outline stroke. I don't think it's such a bad thing, it's just a thing.
It looks like W+K has done it again. In 2010 Wieden & Kennedy
redesigned the face of Old Spice when they launched the "Smell like a man, man" campaign. The over the top clever writing and originality of
the campaign was an Internet sensation and garnered numerous awards.
Many copycat advertisements shortly followed from all walks of advertising. As the campaign with Isaiah Mustafa was starting to get a little tiresome, Old Spice has now launched their Wild Collection with a fresh new spokesman.
Old spice has a new marketing chief, Mr. Wolfdog. Meet Mr. Wolfdog.
Highly skilled in all things marketing, Mr. Wolfdog is already doing wonders for Old Spice with his delectably tacky and wonderfully bad marketing skills.
Mr. Wolfdog has his own tumblr site, www.mrwolfdog.com, in which he boasts about his latest achievements and mountains of success. For example, the creation of a Pinterest page which features items of interest to Mr. Wolfdog and Old Spice.
And websites such as www.worldsbiggestchart.com which demonstrates Old Spice's projected sales for the year in a convincingly gigantic format.
Amassed with animated GIF's that appear to be from the 1990's of money falling, SIMs like avatars running in place, and marketing jargon popping out at you, the site really is one to behold. There is so much goodness in its badness. I very much enjoy the 10 or so links to oldspice.com that line the side of the page.
Some of Mr. Wolfdog's banner ads for Old Spice:
And a long string of videos with tips and tricks from the CMO genius.
How to give constructive criticism:
How to operate computers:
How to give raises:
Basically Weiden is embracing everything that is bad and tacky about the marketing world and creating a hilarious parody of it. Really quite brilliant. Not to mention Mr. Wolfdog is a wildly hilarious and loveable creature right down to his voice translator and gold watch.
Oregon State University, to which I am an alumni, recently partnered with Nike's Graphic Identity Group in the recent revamp of the Oregon State logo and iconic mascot Benny the Beaver.
The school , established in 1868, has seen a few evolutions of their identity. The days of old used this friendly critter (1951-1999):
In 2000 the logo was redesigned to what is often referred to as "the angry beaver". Although really I think he looks a little confused and frightened. But sure, let's call it angry.
Accompanying the angry beaver was an interlocking OS. Dropping the U in what I imagine was a strategy to separate the school from other large school's going by OSU, particularly Oklahoma State University who coincidentally has the exact same colors as well. The OSU of the midwest. Or south. Or whatever Oklahoma associates itself with.
Which brings us to the new logo. The sleek beaver? The fast beaver? The slightly terrifying beaver? While I do like this logo and think it is a definite improvement over its predecessor, there is one thing that bothers me every gosh darn time I look at it. And that is what I imagine to be his ear. To me it looks awkward and out of place. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey, should we put an ear on this thing?" Followed by what I imagine to be a pin the tail on the donkey type effort. So maybe I'm exaggerating a little, it's not so bad. It has apparently grown on me in the time it has taken me to gripe about it in this paragraph, so I digress.
And a new typographic treatment of which I am a big fan. The script resembles that of the old angry beaver logo, but is sexier x1,000.
The new logo and type are also accompanied by brand new snazzy uniforms.
Pretty sharp. Hopefully the new sleek look will help Oregon State Athletics to attract new recruits and build their brand image to be comparable to that of our neighbors down south.
Thanks papa Phil and the Nike Graphic Identity team!
In what was a rather long and drawn out acquisition, Comcast
took over primary ownership in NBCUniversal officially in 2011. The company now
boasts 2 separate ventures. The first being the widely hated Xfinity, formerly
Comcast Cable, that encompasses high-speed Internet, video, and voice services.
The second and more recent venture being its operations of NBCUniversal.
Including stations such as USA, Bravo, and E!, NBCUniversal is one of the
world’s largest entertainment companies.
In a rather confusing maneuver, Comcast has assumed the NBC
peacock as their own in their latest logo redesign. This leads anybody who sees
it to think, “NBC Comcast? That’s odd.” And further more to take negative
experiences with the Comcast name and associate them with the beloved NBC
channel.
I haven’t quite been able to wrap my head around how this
move could be strategically beneficial. You would think they would want to keep
the names and brands separate thus preserving their respective images and what
each stands for. The NBC peacock should stand for entertainment as it always
has. Now it just feels like it was abused and stands defeated. Poor guy.
