Silent But Deadly

I was watching the news last night and saw this campaign by the Vegetarian Society to try and warn people about the dangerous emissions from cattle, and is apparently more deadly than the transport systems effects on climate change.

"There were approximately 6.5 billion people living on earth in 2005 and as the world’s population continues to grow, our requirement for food will also increase. Worldwide food production requires 30% of the total soil available, 20% of fossil fuel energy and a major part of the fresh water flow. Raising cattle is one of the most damaging components of agriculture. They cause the most environmental damage of any non-human species through over-grazing, soil erosion, desertification and tropical deforestation for ranches, in addition to their gaseous emissions and manure products. Studies on world food security estimate that an affluent diet containing meat requires up to 3 times as many resources as a vegetarian diet.

Global production of meat has risen dramatically from 130 million tonnes in the late 1970s to 230 million tonnes in the year 2000. Meat is now the single largest source of animal protein in all affluent nations and demand for animal flesh is expected to more than double by the year 2050. In order to meet this growing appetite, animals will no doubt be reared more intensively and cheaply with factory farming and aquaculture (fish farming) causing further pollution, water and land usage. If nothing is done, the environmental impact of meat production can only increase."
http://www.vegsoc.org/

I think the idea is quite clever, and the way the ad has been executed is good as well. The ad is nearly almost all in gray scale, and the typeface used on the ad suits the tone of voice the vegetarian society is trying to create. Along with the cow as the main image, with a white background that adds a high contrast between the layers.

New iPod Nano

I just wrote about the new iPod Touch, and just realised today that they also launched the new iPod Nano which is smaller than the original, and has a video function as well.

The new design shows a smaller design that is slightly wider and shorter is length. The main additional function is the video player and this is the reason for the wider iPod, to accommodate for the two inch screen to display the video.

Again I do not think this product meets the high standards of Apple. The pad looks cheap and looks too small, to that size of an iPod shuffle and does not have the sleek edge of the first generation iPod nano. I have not seen it yet so can't comment much on the feel and the materials yet but at the first glance it does not look as appealing as other Apple products.

Cadbury Dairy Milk TV Advertisement

I saw this brilliant advert on TV to promote Dairy Milk, and it is very different to other chocolate adverts. Just the idea of a gorilla playing the drums, listening to music in that way, and the fact that it has nothing to do with chocolate does not mean it is rubbish. The film begins with close up shots of a gorilla, and then the camera zooms out to reveal a gorilla playing the drums to the beat of a Phil Collins song-In The Air Tonight. The advert then closes with an image of the chocolate bar, reading the slogan "A glass and a half full of joy."

The advert seems to have nothing to do with the manufacturer or the chocolate bar itself, other than the lyrics in the song which give a deeper meaning and urge that people feel for the chocolate, and the colour purple in the background that is associated with it. The advert for me was very shocking, and the gorilla playing the drums was very unexpected that will stick in my mind for a long time, and I will always remember the Dairy Milk chocolate bar. The clip will have been very cheap to make, because it simply looks as if it has been made in a TV studio and they have the ability to hire a gorilla outfit, which is fine because the idea is so effective that a massive budget is unnecessary.

The camera work is very minimal, with only a few shots used throughout the one minute and thirty second ad, because it is focused on just one object, the gorilla.I think the advert is excellent, with an effective idea and no camera tricks that will stick in my mind for a long time, and I will remember the Dairy Milk bar.

DAIRY MILK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLr2NEV_7o

Faithless

I heard the song "Music Matters" by Faithless some time ago, along with the video but I am still very impressed with the innovative new video that is used to express the feelings in the song. The film uses a variety of vivid coloured images overlayed on a black background to make them stand out more. These line drawing style images are used to show the feelings towards this song, and how music matters. It is quite clever how the video stays in sync with the beat of the song, and again uses the colours to express the feelings of the beats in the song.

The song is quite upbeat, which maybe played in nightclubs because of the party style rhythm, and faithless is well known for these type of beats. The music video seems to try and express this feeling of being in a nightclub, dark with bright lights, and lots of movement that is in sync with the music, and may also give the feeling of being on a high from alcohol or drugs. The style used could express the genre of the music, and tell people how they are supposed to feel from this type of music. With all this mind we should not excuse the technical work that has gone into the production of the video, with flashing intricate lines, and lots of images that must have took a great deal of time and money to make. The images look hand drawn, like they are done on a drawing tablet, so the images are not precise, but quite blurry at times.

This particular video is quite powerful, and is quite an imaginative way to show feelings and what the song is about.

FAITHLESS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBlwU0MlUSk

Anti Smoking Images

I saw this image in the newspaper that was unveiled for the new anti smoking campaign. This image quite honestly made me sick, it is using scare tactics to try and make people quit smoking, using the line "Smoking can cause a slow and painful death". There are a variety of images for this ad campaign, and they are very hard hitting, that are based on medical facts to get the point across. The images use a great deal of association with babies and children, because these will make people think more and think twice about smoking with children present, or about smoking at all.

The campaign is aimed at youngsters to stop them smoking before thy have even started, and show the harsh realities. The shocking images all come with some text that are very blatant and do not need images there to back them up really, however its the images that get your attention. The text is in two colours, white and red, and the highlighted words in red maybe the most effective, however I am not quite sure.

You have to see these images for yourself to see how shocking they are, and work out yourself how effective they will be.

ANTI SMOKING: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Slideshow/slideshowContentFrameFrag.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/22/smoke/upixsmoke.xml