So at the close of the adicolor series, I'm curious to hear thoughts on the chosen roster. Ville poster "daivdbowie" made an interesting point in the previous posting (yellow): "What's interesting to note is that when these directors are asked to come up with something themselves.. they fail. Aside from Charlie White who has already proven himself in "content creation".

Would we have gotten stronger work from a roster of " proven content creators"? Using adidas' methodology: roughly 40k per project, different feel for each one, and color as the only limitation. What could have been a more interesting roster and essentially a better showing of work?

         

And naturally guys like Gondry and so forth would be easy pickins, but approach this realistically, with (I would imagine) less exposed, and less established guns in mind.

Current Roster: White: Tronic Green: Happy Pink: Charlie White Blue: Psyop Red: Roman Coppola & Andy Bruntel Yellow: Neil Blomkamp Black: Saiman Chow

         

The idea of an All-Star team of directors and designers would not make one bit of difference. The work would never be more or less brilliant than from unknown artists... Adidas wanted some "names" involved to gather some interest, but it's quite obvious that it takes a special inspiration to handle these short conceptual pieces and not just a collection of "names".

         

Yeah, it takes a special kind of folk to be particulary inspired by coloured shoes

         

I don't think you ought ot consider whether you could have had a better showing of work: the only way to guage that is to work out whether or not any director might have been better able to sell the product. Given that the current roster have consciously not dealt in the basic adidas content - shoes (& sportswear/gear) there's no scale.

For me the successful directors have created pieces that stick to the less obvious associations of the product - for me that might mean dynamism, aspiration, street (sorry, shtreet if you live in South London). Given that I think that Psyop's Blue and Charlie White's Pink fit the bill. Notice that these are also of typical commercial proportion (i.e. short, no chapters, sections or acts) - so the viewer takes the impression that they exist to promote something beyond themselves, even if they're not told what it is.

         

i didn't even know what adicolor was exactly until lusk posted up that picture.

         

You're all wrong! Adicolor's actually a new dimension in finishes!

         

funny how everyone's gone from assessing these as works of art (as they were being released) to assessing them as works of advertising post-hoc. i'm much more interested in the former but if we're going to get our armchair media planning nerds on, fine: the simple fact that $140k worth of creative has generated this much exposure for adidas makes this an advertising slam dunk, plain and simple, end of story. i mean lusk voluntarily posted a photo of the shoes up there and we're all sitting here debating whether it worked?!

         

(sorry, some of what i wrote above is also a response to the adman handwringing that's happening over on the post about saiman's piece. some of you guys will sacrifice anything just to retain your cynicism.)

         

Slam dunk? They can barely claim a penalty. '... this much exposure' currently equates to 6 people discussing the videos loosely on a dedicated site. None of the pieces have the capacity to propagate themselves virally, let alone get as far as television.

I admit the only way we can discuss the 'what would make them better' issue is to discuss them in some sort of context and the only one available to us is the commissioner - adidas - whether they be in search of product exposure or not. I'd rather be discussing the videos (per se) as well.

         

None of the pieces have the capacity to propagate themselves virally

have you ever heard of email, frames? its this thing.

"this much exposure" was a reference to adicolors' final numbers on this project, which -- trust me -- were huge and went way beyond what anyone anticipated. (nb. i have no professional affiliation with anyone on adicolor.)

         

Its true. All my freinds yesterday were sending me IMs with the link and people were posting it on their Myspace. It gets around fast. The weirder it is the more someone wants to send the link to a friend. Its like "hey friend look at this weird video i found". It works and then they find out it has something to do with addidas. So addidas wins and their 40 dollars or whatever is chump change well spent.

         

i love you all

         

I think they all sucked balls

But in what's quickly becomign a post-tv world, it's interesting to see how brand messages will be propagated in the future. We're living in a kind of creative utopia at the moment, let's enjoy it while it lasts...

         

interesting how these quasi short/commercials have generated such an intense debate on this MUSIC VIDEO site. what do these have to do with music videos? I guess everyone's hoping to get a piece of cheap commercial action.

         

The fact that these corporations are struggling for ways to advertise their products is not incidental. It is an indication of a systemic shift away from a society that takes it's structure from consumption. I know it seems that we're at peak, but it's the the peak before the fall. You want a real peak, it's peak oil. This world is running out of the abundant resources to keep this system going.

         

Come on, don't you guys realize that these types of ads aren't a last gasp, or even acts desperation? They're just trendy. The companies realize there is a niche market of what they'd call "early adopters" out there who want to be presented with the illusion that what they're buying into is indie -- supporting the underground, etc. It's all bullshit, but it works. Just stop in at any of the Vice/Adidas parties around North America and you'll find them filled with 20-32-year-olds wearing kerchiefs and jean jackets, and drinking the free beer. No shit. So wank.

         

Right. going for the fickle Hipster demographic with thier 20 second attention span and total group conformity. The Hipsters turn on and off together 'en mass, quickly. Vice, with thier quasi pornographic / low brow approach have managed to capture them quite well.

did any of you guys read the Harpers article on Flash Mobs?

         

I'm glad Adidas commissioned these people. Kudos to them! I don't pick shoes (or most things) based on branding or ads though.

Maybe it's because I'm in Ohio and relatively happy, but I feel like people make a lot more noise about this 'trendy demo' than it really calls for. It just looks like an excuse to make yourself miserable.

         

Kev: So what you're saying is that you buy into it ;). Perhaps if you were exposed to the other side of this equation (the side that puts the marketing together), you'd feel differently.

         

I don't feel other people making different decisions are being malicious in their intent, even though my silly instincts wish it to be so.

This is getting too complicated to answer in shorthand. Technology v. our brains v. sociology..

         

Not malicious. Poseur/opportunistic.

         

Other people have different needs than you?

n.b. my lunch break is over..

         

If we were all complacent enough to feel that way, there would never be anyone willing to fight for and initiate change -- move forward.

         

interesting that kevathens doesn't "pick shoes (or most things) based upon branding or ads".

either he's totally clueless as to his manipulation by branding and ads, or he's a very original person.

Maybe this says something about Kev's dedication to this site!

         

Don't most people not care about originality? Just us XL dorks? I think we're all in the business of making our culture smarter and our technological environment healthier, but I don't think we should blame other people for their indifference or lack of insight. It just requires work and education on our part.

I'm hoping this is a signal that things are changing and Adidas, for one, is getting smarter. This still doesn't get me to buy their shoes though ;) For me to actively support them, they'll need to show me how they're conscious of worker conditions, and the affect their company has on everything (transport/oil, rubber, recycled materials?).

This gets way too complicated for me to enjoy talking about on antville. Maybe someday we'll write our thoughts down in essays.