This is part 2 of 3 posts showing all the ads TED deemed worth spreading. (Part 1)

The TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) community just released its 2011 Ads Worth Spreading contest winners, and the ads are better than the ones I have seen for the Super Bowl in any year! But what did you expect from a brilliant group who’s moniker is “Ideas Worth Spreading”?

Now these ads aren’t like ones in the Super Bowl lasting 30-60 seconds. These ads are much longer, often being the full version of the shortened ads for TV time slots. However, with ads like these, I could watch commercials in place of TV shows because I don’t notice how long or short they are. I’m actually a little sad once it’s over, alongside whatever mood the commercials left me in.

I have posted a bunch of the ads here because I have found higher quality versions of the ads than the ones available on the TED website. Otherwise, I’d have just posted links to them all on TED’s site.

The link for Part 3 is at the end of the post.

Enjoy and be prepared to be wowwed!!!

 

Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking
The Nike Foundation‘s “Girl Effect” campaign invests in the education and health of young girls
– Wieden+Kennedy is an advertising agency based in Portland, Oregon

It’s all relatively simple animation, which must have saved a bundle on costs, but superbly executed to engage and wow with the copy more than anything else. That’s a nice formula for success in advertising.

 

The Force
Volkswagen is a multinational car company headquartered in Germany
– Deutsch Inc is a United States advertising agency

My favourite Super Bowl 2011 commercial by a long shot. Star Wars will never die, nor will that Imperial March that will liven up any commercial, no matter what the rest of the content includes… though the content here was nothing short of magnificent! The boy in the costume is Max Page, and he has a congenital heart defect, sports a pacemaker, but is now rather famous. What a nice story! And he had never even seen Star Wars before this. What a cutie, too!

 

Beer: The Untold Story
DB Breweries owns and operates four beer breweries in New Zealand
– Colenso BBDO is a New Zealand advertising agency

This is a small history lesson that would lose a lot of critical details that made the story great if edited to a 1 minute or 30 second commercial, but it’s a great story. I wonder if anybody would dare double the tax on beer these days!

 

The Wilderness Downtown
Google‘s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful
– @radical.media is a global company that creates content across all forms of media

Google has a 1 minute version of this music video by Arcade Fire for a commercial, involving the build-up to the chorus and the chorus itself. I’m not sure whether the commercial idea led to the video, or the video got used for the commercial, but it’s very memorable and works, either way and in both media.

 

It Gets Better: Google Employees
The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach… if they can just get through their teen years
– Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful

Google shows its humanity by joining in the It Gets Better Project with a segment featuring its own employees’ stories. Very touching.

 

Living with Robots
Honda makes cars, motorcycles, personal watercraft, ATVs, engines, lawn mowers, generators, marine motors and more
– RPA is an independent, full-service advertising and marketing agency

This short film documentary that spins robots as a force of social good rather than all the other bad raps robots have gotten over the years.

 

Pink Ponies: A Case Study
– john st. is a 100-person creative collaborative that uses design, digital, strategy and creative to market brands

This is a hilarious spoof on some case study I’m not aware of, but it chose to do it using the topic of birthday parties. It’s still hilarious even if you don’t know what it’s spoofing, a quality of universality most commercials lack. Sadly, there are people out there who prepare for their kids’ birthday parties way beyond this spoof.

Please click here to see Part 3 in this series of posts. Thank you.