Private View: A wedding, an odd banquet and a verbose buffalo

In Private View, we ask two creative leaders to comment on recent work from around the region. 

Participants:

• Andy Flemming, group creative director, M&C Saatchi, Sydney (left)
• Kenneth Kuan, chief creative officer, 180 China (right)

Opening remarks:

Flemming: It’s always tough to write this just before Adfest, especially when you’re judging. And as I’d prefer not to be knocked out by a team I’ve bad-mouthed (again), I’ll go slightly lighter than usual.

Kuan: These ads make me wonder how much finished work stays true to the original proposals, given the twin considerations of ‘time versus brainpower’ and ‘budget versus quality’. In the second equation, I know the former doesn’t guarantee the latter.

1. Tanishq — Rivaah brides
Client: Tanishq
Agency: Lowe Lintas Bengaluru

Flemming: I’ve always wanted to go to an Indian wedding. They seem so different to English weddings that typically end in a punch up. This is sweet, soppy, and does the job with lashings of sentimentality.

Kuan:

Time vs brainpower: They used as much time and brainpower on this as you might on a movie. I wished the film was a bit shorter.

Budget vs quality: The quantity of the gold gives away the budget of the film — doesn’t it?

2. Believe in change
Client: Australian Psychological Society
Agency: Cummins&Partners

Flemming: I liked this. It sells the benefits of psychology to cynics who think it is only for people with mummy issues.  By showing life changes and moments we might need to offload it might just help a viewer talk to someone — a good thing, in my book.

Kuan:

Time vs brainpower: Loving the use of moments of quality time to tell this story. Good use of brainpower through varying the camera POVs.

Budget vs quality: A good script attracts good directors: quality work even with minimal budget.

Campaign's take: Powerful ad attempts to demystify psychology

3. For a world of understanding — World of Hyatt
Client: Hyatt Hotels
Agency: MullenLowe

Flemming: This is either a clever comment on the state of a post-Trump world or an example of yet another brand leaping on the ‘Come on guys, we can live together!’ strategy. I feel it might be the latter as the Hyatt brand is sort of slammed on at the end.

Kuan:

Time vs brainpower: Why choose to depict race issues if your brand is selling services? My brain still hasn’t joined the dots.

Budget vs quality: It looks like this had an expensive budget, reflecting the quality of the hotel.

Campaign's take: Hyatt uses Oscars stage to launch campaign on understanding

4. All-star restaurant
Client: Volvo
Agency: Dentsu

Flemming: Two Westerners cruise Tokyo eating restaurant-quality food in a Volvo thanks to Uber Eats. It’s all very confusing. Why Westerners? Why the back of a car? Why isn’t the suspension mentioned, as it’s probably the one thing that’ll stop you getting covered in seared salmon when you hit a pothole? 

Kuan:

Time vs brainpower: An average salary-man in Japan only has 20 minutes to eat his lunch. It’d take a lot of brainpower to deliver this meal in time.

Budget vs quality: Big budget, like the car. The film looks as good as the food — but the taste?

Campaign's take: Meals on wheels: Volvo offers rolling dining in Tokyo and The inexact science of foreigners in Japanese advertising

5. A letter from a buffalo
Client: Tesco Lotus Pracharat
Agency: Grey United

Flemming: Reconnecting Thai families by investing in crops other than rice is a great idea, and the spot is convincingly emotional. But when our city hero receives a letter that seems to be from his buffalo, it takes him a whole minute to realise it was actually written by his father. I think I’d work that out faster.

Kuan:

Time vs brainpower: Getting a buffalo to write a letter required endless brainpower. The time spent on the acting … hmm.

Budget vs quality: Lives true to a budget-brand, Tesco; but hey, it’s quality creative work.

Campaign's take: This buffalo's letter may bring a tear to your eye