The Brands & Humour Top Ten Competition
...Your chance to laugh *and* win fine chocolate truffles. Hey, what’s not to like?
I love what I do.
But this week, for once, I’m handing the baton over to you.
Over the past 12 months all of the 10 ads below have appeared in Brands & Humour. I’d just like to know which you’ve enjoyed watching the most.
Just email me back, telling me your top three favourites. There are no right or wrong answers: just the ones you like the most. E.g.:
1: H
2: J
3: B
Then, in the last Brands & Humour this year, I’ll reveal the most popular ones. I won’t reveal your names — just the voting.
What’s more, there are fine truffles at stake. I’ll put all the replies into a hat and then send three random winners — wherever they are in the world — a box of these rather delicious chocolate truffles, to say a big thank you for reading Brands & Humour.
For all your votes to count, please get back to me by this coming Friday, the 3rd November.
Here are the ten to pick from1:
A.
Yard Fitness: Basketball Game (US, 2002)
B.
Boddington’s: Perfume (UK, 1992)
C.
Volvo Trucks: The Technician (Sweden, 2013)
D.
Aldi: I Like Waiters (UK, 2014)
E.
Wendy’s: Soviet Fashion Show (US, 1985)
F.
Volkswagen: Pizza (Germany, 2015)
G.
King Price: Roadblock (South Africa, 2022)
H.
Newcastle Brown: Great Times (UK, 2013)
I.
Carlton Lager: Beer Chase (Australia, 2013)
J.
Mates: Chemist (UK, 1987)
***
Before signing off: in November of last year I did a little project called 30x30x30. It helped a good few brands, so I’m doing this same this year.
It works like this:
There are 30 days in November
…so I’m offering 30 people
…free consultancy sessions of 30 minutes each
It’s that simple. You can ask me any questions about using humour in your comms, and I’ll suggest ways of helping.
What’ll it cost you? All of $00.00.
Interested? Just pop here and book your half hour. There are only 30 sessions on offer. Early-birds can call me Paddy; for late-comers, it’ll be strictly Mr Gilmore.
***
Many thanks for reading — and voting!
Paddy
Book a meeting with me here
pg@studiogilmore.com
+44 7866 538 233
LinkedIn: here
Twitter/X: @mrpaddygilmore
A footnote on how I chose the ten. I had six rules:
Firstly, is it funny? I could write a definition of what funny is (hey, just give me 100,000 words) but the definition I used was McGraw and Warren’s: does it invoke the ‘psychological state characterized by the positive emotion of amusement and the tendency to laugh’ and does it use one or more of the classical humour mechanisms? If yes and yes — and I found it personally amusing — it got in.
Second, these aren’t the latest ads — deliberately. One ad is from 1985; because it’s brilliant, it’s in.
Third, I gave myself the rule that no brand appears more than once (VW were the particular losers here).
Fourth, I tried to get a good geographical spread (so the UK, US, South Africa, Germany, Sweden).
Fifth, I didn’t think: is the ad for a B2C or B2B product? As it happens, one ad is for a B2B product (Volvo Trucks), but because it’s a very good ad, it’s in.
Sixth, I decided to focus exclusively on video. This isn’t to say these are more humorous than, say print or experiential ads, but for an even playing field, I felt it had to be the same medium.