Weekly wrapup: Sea Shepherd FTW, Perodua's 'Buddyz' fail

FTW or fail

Each week we select one campaign or marketing move that we agree is 'FTW' (for the win) and one that...isn't.

FTW: A close race, but in the end the FTW campaign of the week is Sea Shepherd's interactive anti-whaling website, by Cypha, which we covered on Tuesday. Regardless of whether you agree with the group's politics or methods, you have to admire the elegance of this site, which is complex and visually rich, yet extremely simple to journey through. We also commend the overall concept and the copywriting, which are finely tuned to make the reader feel admiration for the group's brave 'defenders', along with just a touch of guilt for not being out there on the water with them. Not too much guilt, though—just enough to soften people up for the call to donate.

Honourable mentions:

• Unilever and Ogilvy's Project Sunlight: Big global ambition and a nice introductory film. We'll see how it plays out.
• Kidproof and TBWA Kuala Lumpur's 'Lollipop bait': Effective scare tactics for parents.
• Pizza Hut's holiday-themed ad by Havas Worldwide: We thought it was just OK, but people seem to really like it.

Fail: The 'winner' is Malaysia's Perodua, with this official promo video for its Buddyz model. What is it with Malaysian car brands and the stilted, awkward advertising? There's a kernel of a good idea here in the young up-and-comer and the car that enables his independence. But the story is executed so poorly—from the first moment where he breaks the 'fourth wall" to address the viewer, right through to the point where he literally gives this rather ugly economy car all of the credit for winning a woman's heart—it's just laughable. 

Dishonourable mention:

• Volvo and the Gate Shanghai for this expensive but empty spot for the China market. It's pretty. And pretty forgettable.  

Top stories

The most-read items on CampaignAsia.com for the week of 15 through 21 November.

1. Four agencies in scuffle for Wyeth's Greater China creative business
2. GroupM names new China CEO
3. DDB Group Sydney, Colenso BBDO New Zealand top Digital Asia Festival Awards
4. Men care as much about parenting as they do about careers: JWT
5. A deep dive into multi-screen planning
6. Sea Shepherd website puts public in midst of anti-whaling action
7. When planners go bad (or sad)
8. Being banned in Singapore is better than sex for AshleyMadison.com
9. Unicef enlists KymeChow to urge parents to stop depriving kids of play time
10. Pizza Hut Hong Kong takes emotional approach in festive-season campaign

Distractions

A few items that crossed our glowing screens this week.

1. GoldieBlox builds a Rube Goldberg contraption and hijacks a Beastie Boys song for a line of toys meant to inspire young girls to engineering greatness.

2. Honda uses crooner Micheal Bolton to awesome ironic effect in a series of US ads (via Adweek).

3. "24 of the most beautiful ads ever made': We're not sure why Gizmodo, a tech blog, posted this, but they're right about the beautiful part. Also, sex sells, even in the 1890s.