The new TV ad  launches tonight (17 May) and it aims to explain the lengths that Phones 4U will go to find the right phone for absolutely anyone. The TV ad features a group of Bangkok prison guards, who although should be minding their prisoners, can’t help being distracted by the features of the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 phone.

The ad is booked to air on a number of channels and programmes, aimed at the 16-24 year-old youth market, during popular shows such as Glee, Friends, Britain’s Got Talent and Hollyoaks.

In addition to the TV ads, the new campaign is expected to run across a number of media channels including press, radio (via the KISS FM sponsorship), Facebook , Twitter, PR activity and an in-store campaign.

The new TV ad reintroduces the Phones 4 U hand gestures that were used by the character ‘Jack’ in previous ads where he helps a number of  ‘Fuglies’ find better deals on their mobile phones including the one starring Scary Mary.

Carlsberg, who are the official beer of the England football team (even though they’re Danish!), has unveiled its World Cup ad which features an array of sporting celebs including Sir Trevor Brooking, Nigel Benn, Jack Charlton, Stuart Pearce, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Phil ’The Power’ Taylor, Ian Botham and the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

The 90 second ad was created by Saatchi & Saatchi (groan) and is booked to run until the end of June.

The Team Talk concept has been running since February when Carlsberg asked fans to add their support by creating their own “team talks” and the new TV ad delivers the brewer’s own rousing speech with the strapline “Probably the best team talk in the world…”

Paul Davies, director of brands and insight at Carlsberg UK, says “This ad has been in the making for months and we hope it can help deliver some additional inspiration for the England team and the fans. Pulling the shoot together was an impressive undertaking and it was a real honour to bring all of these sporting heroes together.”

Personally I’m not sure that I would have choosen Stuart Pearce as a good example of giving the best team talk ever and the “do it for Bobby” line was just a little too far in my opinion.

The advert was filmed at the ’The Den’, the home of Millwall FC and the cast members also appear in some behind the scenes filming and interviews that can also be seen at www.englandteamtalk.com.

Should England have an official beer anyway?

Here is a collection of ads (not all good I hasten to ad) that I have stumbled across:

I’m sure that a lot of work goes into creating these flash mob style ads but once you’ve seen a few….you’ve seen them all. T-Mobile did a cracking job with theirs which led them to win the TV commercial of the year accolade at the British Television Advertising Awards last year.

The original T-Mobile TV ad was created by Saatchi & Saatchi and beat competition including Comparethemarket.com’s TV campaign featuring everyones favourite  meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov.

They say that there is nothing new in advertising but sometimes we get flashes of something different.

Under Night In, T-Mobile customers can rent a game and a movie or two movies for two nights, grab some Blockbuster popcorn, sweets and a bottle of soft drink – all for £5.

The ad, created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, asks people to submit audition films to star in future “Night In” ads, which are being filmed over the coming months. Those wanting to star in the ads need to upload a video audition where they invite friends and family over for a “Night In” on YouTube. The best invites will be selected from the submissions, with those picked then having their Night In brought to life and filmed for TV.

Lysa Hardy, head of brand and communications at T-Mobile UK, says: “As the company that got people dancing in Liverpool Street Station and then held a mass sing-a-long in Trafalgar Square, we’re proud of our history in getting customers to be involved in our ads. We’re now really excited to hand over the reins of our advertising to them, letting them be the stars, so they can invite their friends round to enjoy our Blockbuster Night In offer. It’ll be amazing to see the results.”

T-Mobile’s Night In campaign will run throughout the summer, with each TV advert featuring at least one real customer. The TV advertisements will be supported by print and outdoor.

Night In follows the success of the Liverpool Street Station and Trafalgar Square flash mob ads which were brillant, as well as an ad challenging a real-life aspiring musician to form a superband (not so good).

T-Mobile UK merged with Orange late last year in a deal that won approval earlier this year. The T-Mobile brand will remain for at least another year with discussions underway on how the two companies should work together.

Walkers is promoting its range of 15 World Cup-inspired national crisp flavours with a new C-list celebrity-laden TV ad campaign.

It will, of course, feature crisp-munching Gary Lineker who appears in each of The Walkers Flavour Cup ads which feature famous faces dressed in national clothing to support a particular flavour.

The new Walkers TV ads by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO star TV presenter Melinda Messenger and actor Will Mellor dressed as French maids to support French Garlic Baguette flavour and magician Paul Daniels dressed as a martial arts fighter in a TV ad for Japanese Teriyaki Chicken flavour.

Former ‘Corrie’ actress Julie Goodyear wears a carnival outfit to support Brazilian Salsa flavour whilst Stuart Hall appears in the new Walkers TV ads as a commentator.

Other flavours include American Cheeseburger, German Bratwurst Sausage, Australian BBQ Kangaroo and English Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding.

Ian Ellington, Walkers general manager, said: “At Walkers, we’re passionate about creating great-tasting crisps, and this time around we’ve really pushed the boundaries by coming up with a massive 15 new flavours at once.”

The first 60-second ad will air tomorrow (5 May), with others to follow over the coming weeks in the build-up to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

I’m a fan of the crisps but the jury is out on the ads.

It’s not the first time that Walkers have used the football to promote crisps and you may remember this one:

Or even these ones from the eighties:

The ad was created by CHI & Partners and features one of favourite tracks -  The Universal by Blur – and was one of their weirdly animated ads.

The TV ad depicts a family’s comings and goings  interrupted when a voiceover states: “Oh, the boiler’s not working”.  A British Gas van appears and a man walks from it into the house as the voiceover continues:  “Sometimes you need a little help there”. Then the sound of gas ignition is heard, followed by a cheer from the family.  The voiceover adds: “Which is why you can reach us every day. Even over Christmas”. Finally, a Christmas scene appears and the voiceover says: “Look after your world this Christmas with British Gas”.

Those who complained are likely to have been disgruntled customers who questioned whether British Gas would carry out repairs on the same day, particularly over the Christmas period.

In its defence, British Gas said it did not believe the TV ad stated or implied that it would attend call-outs and carry out repairs on the same day, particularly over the Christmas period. It added that the voiceover clearly stated “which is why you can reach us every day, even over Christmas”, and said it never intended to advertise its speed of response. The aim of the ad was said to demonstrate the efficiency of its call centre service and that its high-level of service did not fall over the Christmas period.

The ASA adjudication ruled that the ad implied a same-day call-out service that formed part of the British Gas package and was likely to mislead.

Kelly Brook to star in new Sony TV Ad

Being both human and male, my ears pricked up when I heard that Kelly Brook (voted sexiest woman in the world in 2005) was to star in the new Sony ads. Sony will use the ads to promote its latest scrappage scheme in the build up to the World Cup, allowing football fans to upgrade their television sets, DVD players and video cameras.

The new Sony TV ad has been created by HS&P, which already handles relationship marketing for Sony but won the brief for the ad in a process led by Sony marketer Matt Coombe.

The scrappage campaign starts this Thursday (29 April) and runs until 11 July, and will allow consumers to trade old DVD recorders and other Sony electrical products in exchange for up to £150 off a 46-inch LCD telly and £5 for headphones.

The campaign will be led by the TV ad featuring ex-England star Stuart Pearce, former manager Graham Taylor and Kenny Dalglish sitting round a 70s TV set while being nursed by Kelly Brook in a footballers’ retirement home. It is thought a look-a-like of Sven Goran Eriksson attempts to chat up Kelly Brook and a look-a-like of Steve McClaren appears in his famous “umbrella” pose.

The first ad will be shown tonight (19th April) and is called “History of Celebration,” and is inspired by 1990 FIFA World Cup star Roger Milla and his corner flag dance goal celebration. Milla was 38 at the time and the star of the Cameroon team in 1990 who scorer four goals to make them the first African side to reach a World Cup quarter-final.

In the new Coca-Cola ad the minute-long spot opens with the original footage of Roga Milla’s goal and subsequent dance celebration at the corner flag, followed by a montage of players showing off their celebratory moves, representing the evolution of goal celebrations.

A second animated advert called “Quest” depicts the journey of a young footballer playing the game on a dusty pitch in Africa, where he encounters animated versions of other players and “robots” all with their own stlyle of goal celebration.

The third advert, “Border Crossing,” was created in support of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola. In this ad, a Coca-Cola delivery truck is stopped at a border crossing by serious guards who want to inspect the cargo. They find the FIFA World Cup trophy and are jubilantly dancing, cheering and photographing themselves with the ultimate accolade of  football.

The ads are part of a fully integrated marketing campaign that will run in more than 150 countries around the world and have been created by creative agency Santo and all three tv ads  feature a music speciallycreated by hip-hop artist K’Naan.

“Our entire football campaign was designed to amplify the global ’Open Happiness’ campaign for Coca-Cola,” said Emmanuel Seuge, group director, worldwide sports and entertainment marketing, The Coca-Cola Company. “By tapping into the joyous feelings that are expressed in goal celebrations we bring to life that moment of happiness and uplift that is at the heart of our brand.”

The ads are ‘typical Coca-Cola’ and depict a utopian harmony that it real life does not exist – least of all within football. The first tv ad is definately the stronger of the three and uses the nostalgia advertising element rather well . Nostalgia advertising is being done to death by most brands so it is refreshing to see Milla’s clip used intelligently.

Their latest offering to the small screen proudly declares that they now offer a ‘100 Day Guarantee’ on their clothing. I have two problems with this latest boast.

1) 100 days is a little over 3 months…….I would expect any item of clothing to last 3 months at a very least so this is hardly a major guarantee now is it?

2)  If they are only just starting to offer a ‘100 Day Guarantee’  just how crap were their clothes before that they didn’t feel they would last 3 months?

I can’t help feeling that this slight departure from the usual arse slapping could back fire if consumers actually think about it.

The justification babble on the corporate website claims “George has invested £40 million in the past 18 months on improving the quality and durability of the entire range. Asda hopes that the guarantee will set the bar on the high street, halting the rise of ‘throw-a-way’ fashion that has been fuelled by the availability of cheap, poor quality clothing from competitors”.

They have invested £40 million and can still only manage to guarantee their clothes for 100 days…………someone is having a laugh surely. But the question is who is laughing at who?

Is selling clothes that will last 3 months really raising the bar? I have a pair of £9.50 jeans from M&S that I have worn for 2 years that are still going strong. Come on Asda, stick to what you do best – keeping Tesco on their toes and stop thinking that you can fool us that clothes lasting 100 days is in some way a novel idea in the world of retailing.

Ant & Dec to promote Nintendo

The first round of TV adverts start to air on 16th October and features Ant and Dec challenging members of the public to play Nintendo games. They  will be asking people of all ages who play the mammoth  Brain Training game, what it is about Nintendo they love.

However these are not just random members of the public as Nintendo launched a  national recruitment campaign to find members of the public to star with Ant and Dec in the TV spots.

Apparently Nintendo chose Ant and Dec as the new faces of the brand because they are genuine fans of Nintendo and they appeal to a broad range of people, just as Nintendo aims to.

The TV duo are latest celebs to promote the brand andwill take over from the Redknapps who have been helping to promote the Nintendo for the past few years. Other celebrities to have worked with Nintendo include; Nicole Kidman, Ronan Keating & family, Girls Aloud, Phillip Schofield & Fern  Britton, Beyonce, Vernon Kay & Tess Daly, Zoe & Johnny Ball and Olivia Newton John to name a few.

Here’s some of the past ads………