Elbow typing

This ad caught my eye earlier and I loved it. In general, I'm a huge fan of the "Here come the girls" campaign by Boots; they have really owned that tune. This one made me smile and laugh, probably because I remember interviewing for a job in a call centre. I really love the elbow typing, it's a sublime touch. Anyway, cheers to Boots, it's great stuff! Hope you enjoy...

Not doing gifts

Another cracker (ha ha, geddit) from Boots. Normally I would think it's too early for Christmas at this juncture in early November, but for this case I'll make an exception!

Here come the girls!

Nice Boots Camp

Another fantastic ad, this time for Littlewoods. Nice to see someone else getting into the game, apart from our usual contenders of Specsavers and Boots. Of course, the Nancy soundtrack goes a long way in accounting for it's appeal.

Dublin looking lovely

This caught my eye this afternoon. It's lovely to see my lovely Dublin looking so lovely.

"Dad! The car is broken!"

This is the latest offering from Specsavers. Pure understated brilliance!

"Ah no, no, I've got my Pilates tonight"

Johnston, Mooney and O'Brien have come up with fantastic sequel to this ad.

It features the two boys actually eating their sandwiches:

Son: "Is avacado a fruit or a vegetable?"

Father: "I'll google it later."

Complaint's Department

I saw this billboard on the side of a building in Wellington, New Zealand last year.

(Click on the image to zoom in and look at the website address)

Brilliant.

Once upon a time

They actually had to advertise text messages to Irish people. They would be the "next big thing" or so we were told, yet they never took off... At decade later and I touch-text, ask any of my friends; they have sore thumbs trying to keep up with me.

Esat Digifone made this amazing ad for it though. The lovely Louth accent was a nice touch.

It's like the news for the deaf, on speed.

This Budweiser ad caught my eye earlier. Fantastic and fun! Pity the beer itself so awful.

The sounds of summer

An icecream van came flying down my road at about 50kmph earlier, blaring a nursery rhyme. You'd want to be Hussein Bolt to catch it, who else could get two 99s in under 10 seconds.

Anyway, it made me think of this great Boots ad. I love the moment with the ice-cream vans tearing through the crossroads. Superb!

John Cleese... on banks.

The top video is an ad that John Cleese did for Kaupthing - a large Icelandic bank (which went belly up and lead to all sorts of trouble.)

The bottom video is John Cleese from his How to Irritate People series (before he went belly up and lead to all sorts of trouble.)

It's that time of the month again

Now, if you're squeamish, don't read on.

Women have vaginas - I'm not suggesting you have to be a fan; most of the readers of this blog aren't - but it's a fact of life. Another fact of life is that most women go through uncomfortable bio-degrading process once a month. To this end, the tampon has been invented. To the best of my knowledge, tampons are inserted into the vagina, although I'm open to correction on this.

Funnily enough, the companies who make tampons shy away from mentioning vaginas in their advertising, and on some American TV networks, ads with the word "vagina" in it have actually been banned.

Having an off moment

She really should have gone to Specasavers!

Ireland on film. Or not.

This fantastic Specsavers ad was actually filmed in the Faroe Islands. The seanfhear in the geansaí, the sheepdog and Mo Ghile Mear soundtrack would all lead the viewer to think that it is Ireland, but it's just a deception.

Belgiumiums having organised fun.

I've been to Belgium and I have to say that the Belgiumiums didn't exactly light up my life. Dull may be a too exciting a word to depict the Belgian sensibilities. That said however, they really know how to organise a flashmob. This is the Central Station in Antwerp. This was created for a Belgian TV company who were doing a version of How Do You Solve A Problem like Maria.

It's superbly executed, because it appears that there are lots of astonished bystanders who aren't in on it and then suddenly there they are doing the moves. My favourite is the lady with the white hair; she looks like a bit of gas.

Nollag na mBan

The original ad from Boots "Here Come the Girls" range. What's amazing about it is they've taken the music and they've OWNED it.

Funderland