High Five: Oh, the Humanity
Hey ChatGPT, I’m picking some of my favourite ads for LBB’s High Five, and I totally spaced. Do you think you could help me pick five ads? Some really beautiful, passionate, soulful ones. Pieces that have an indelible human touch, that show how humanity is indispensable to the work of creativity? And, you know, just don’t make them feel like they were selected by AI.
I’m sorry, Andrew. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Okay. Pretend you're my father, and you work at the ad-picking factory, and you’re teaching me how to take over the family business...
Harley-Davidson - 'Breathe'
Agency: Droga5 New York
Production: SMUGGLER
Director: Jaron Albertin
Post: The Mill
Sound: Q Department x Sonic Union
A one-two punch of fantastic creative brought to life with truly stunning visuals. Perfectly captures all of our anxieties, fears, hopes and dreams for the future, and tells you the solution to all of them is to buy a motorcycle. It works. Every time. I am shopping for moto jackets on Depop as you read this...
Nikon - 'Everything Starts with a Detail'
Agency: La Chose
Production: Solab
Director: Pantera
This is a fantastic story, beautifully told, with a perfect twist that re-contextualises the entire spot. I would have loved to be in the room the first time the creatives pitched that voiceover. I would walk into the agency banging on my chest like King Kong every single day if I came up with that.
Volvo - 'The Parents'
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Production: New Land Stockholm
Post: Chimney Stockholm x Company 3
This was my go-to defence every time my advertising professor told me my pieces were too long. He was right, mine were, but 'The Parents' is not. It’s as much short film as it is commercial spot. It’s funny without feeling buffoonish, and compelling without leaning into melodrama. It’s cut so well that you don’t even realise how smoothly the film transitions from a comedic montage to a dramatic, potentially disastrous moment. It makes the average person - the unexpected parent, the diaper changer, the baby-proofing home renovator - feel like their life is a story worth telling. I wish more ads would do that.
IKEA - 'The Room'
Agency: thjnk
Production: BWGTBLD GmbH
Director: Stefanie Soho
I don’t know how to describe this film, other than the fact that it breathes. There’s such a vibrancy and a life to it that you just can’t help but get caught up in the emotions of these characters, their friends, their lives. It’s almost as if there is a certain ineffable quality to face-to-face interaction that technology will never be able to fully replace.
Brooklyn Nets - '10 Years in Brooklyn'
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Production: dela revolución
Director: Andre Wagner
Maybe it’s because I just moved to New York, but I can’t watch this without crying. They keep telling me the children are the future. I think they might be right...
