I just love the next Univé (Dutch insurance company) commercial as it shows moments where people help others just for the sake of it, nothing more, nothing less. It are these kind of little moments that can make my day!
From a communications point of view I think this commercial is spot on as well. Univé is an insurance company that isn’t in it for a profit. You can debate whether that business model is successful, but it results in lower prices for their customers. The title of the commercial is ‘Niet voor jezelf leven’ (‘Don’t be in it for yourself’), which fits their mission statement perfectly. I love that title as it is something I strive to live by as much as I can (sometimes more successful than other times). What goes around, comes around ftw!
Sometimes I buy a concert ticket just because I like one song by the artist. This can either be risky (it might suck) or it can be your next favourite band. I only knew Great Escape at the time I bought a ticket to Patrick Watson’s concert on May 26th in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. I haven’t regretted it since the concert was quite amazing!
Luckily you can see for yourself as well, since 3voor12 has recorded the brilliant concert. Watch it here!
As it’s been broadcasted quite frequently in the Netherlands the past week, I’m pretty sure some of you already have seen adidas’ new commercial. First thought that came to my mind is that they have put down a whole lot of money to create this star studded commercial. The following incredible list of celebrities are in the featured: Katy Perry, Estelle, Young Jeezy, the Ting Tings, DMC-Daryl McDaniels, Method Man, Redman, Afra, Ryukyudisko, Russell Simmons and Missy Elliott, athletes Kevin Garnett, David Beckham, Ilie Nastase and Mark Gonzales, and designers Kazuki and Jeremy Scott.
The commercial is part of the largest global brand campaign they have done – ever! 60 years after Adi Dassler registered the iconic 3-Stripes mark, adidas Originals is promoted under the banner of Celebrate Originality. “The campaign is set against the backdrop of a house party hosting an eclectic mix of people from the worlds of music, fashion and sport.” Hermann Deininger, CMO adidas Sport Style Division: “This is a campaign that celebrates all of them and offers an open invitation to consumers to come and join in.” For me they succeeded because the following video is a party I definitly would have wanted to be at!
The “house party” was directed by NimaNourizadeh and features the track Beggin’ remixed by Pilooski.
While writing my thesis and spending 10-12 hours a day working on it, there were many times that I needed some good music to keep going. Since I worked at my university library computer, I could not rely on my own iTunes music. Therefore I used YouTube a lot, and I found some great music and rare live versions that I wanted to share with you.
During my high school years I was a big fan of the singer-songwriter Jewel, which I hadn’t heard much of the past years. My favourite song by her was ‘Deep Water’, and Jewel’s live performance at the Woodstock festival of ‘99 is the best version I’ve ever heard.
While working in London this summer, I really liked Robyn’s UK no.1 hit ‘With Every Heartbeat’. Her follow-up single ‘Handle Me’ I loved even more though! I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to it already, and I still love it and I love the creative video (and no, I won’t discuss her remarkable looks like many YouTubers do).
Another person I discovered was a yet unknown singer from Denmark performing under the name TanjaLuise. You should check out her videos, I really like most of her songs but my favourite so far is ‘Don’t Make Me’.
Tina Dickow is another singer-songwriter from Denmark, who currently is gaining popularity outside Denmark more and more. I absolutely love the live version of her song ‘My Mirror’ in Joe’s Pub in New York. Check it out for yourself:
I was browsing through YouTube when I came across this video of Bruce Springsteen. The video was taken in 1988 on a street in one of my favourite cities, Copenhagen. According to the comments, Bruce was walking down the street shortly before at concert at a local stadium when he heard a street singer perform his own song. Bruce borrowed a guitar and performed three songs together with the street singer. How cool is that? I wanted to share it since he’s really good live, in this video he’s singing ‘The River’.
A post on Molblog pointed out to a video which is a collection of facts and figures which are interesting and even amazing many times. It addresses how the world changed and keeps on doing so. The design is a great example of how good and useful design can make the messages even more powerful. Definitely worth a few minutes of your attention!
Around a month ago I posted an item about the new advertising campaign by the vodka brand Absolut. Since then, many people have found their way to my blog looking for more info on this topic. Since the campaign hasn’t started in The Netherlands, only today I came across three commercials which are part of the campaign. The first one is called ‘Protest’, accompanied by the song ‘Boum’ by Charles Trenet.
The second one (Moon) is nicely made, the shot where people are running up the winding stairs I find really cool! Go see for yourself… The third one (Swim) is just really funny :-)
I was listening/watching to MTV this morning, and to my surprise they were playing a song by Wir Sind Helden! They are huge in Germany (best selling band the past years) and happen to be one of my favourites. Last year they toured in several European countries, and I ended up seeing them three times; twice in the Melkweg (Amsterdam) and once in Tivoli (Utrecht).
I first heard of them when living in Copenhagen, where I had a German flatmate. He asked me if I could download some songs of them for him, and after I did, I wondered why people would voluntarily wanted to listen to such music. But again, after hearing it more often and hearing other songs I started to like them a great deal. In the beginning, it was maybe just weird to listen to German lyrics, since in The Netherlands it is not always considered to be the most ’sexy’ language :-) Every time I listen to music in German, my friends react in the same matter.
But things seem to be changing, since their new song is aired on MTV and they’re playing at a big Dutch festival called Pinkpop for the second time this weekend. Later on this year, they will be playing in the Effenaar and Paradiso as well. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go, but first I will have to get their new CD Soundso which they released yesterday. The first single I don’t like that much, but I can’t wait to get the CD and hear the other songs! If you wonder what they sound like: Nur ein Wort has a really cool video and Denkmal was the first song I liked in the beginning.
