Wooden Bakery Aces Flour Art With David Myriam [Updated]

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a new TV commercial for Wooden Bakery that clearly stood out from the usual, "good morning neighbor", mushy feel-good sort of ads that we've grown accustomed to on the Lebanese scene.

The ad featured creative live animated work depicting the art of bread making using, what else, flour!


I tried locating the ad but for some reason it was not available neither on their Facebook page nor on their YouTube channel. So I reached out to them and I got notice the video was available now (Published on June 29th)



The TV version I saw did not show the opening credits so my initial reaction was that they got inspired by a highly viral video of an Kseniya Simonova's Sand Drawing on Ukraine's Got Talent and was wondering if and how did they find a local talent that was able to pull this off.

Things became clear when the intro provided special thanks to David Myriam renowned Sand Artist who has been doing amazing work since 2006. You can see some of his work here:





The only thing that seems a bit off is the loaf of bread shown at the end. Shot from above it just looses all appeal and depth. Perhaps an additional frame of with a bit more perspective would have improved this.

Wooden Bakery and their agency really deserve a lot of credit for breaking out of the mold. This is truly creative advertising that is leveraging artwork and introducing a bit of the wow factor we have been clearly missing.

UPDATE (2014-07-11)

Shortly after I released my blog post, Wooden Bakery's Facebook page shared the video. Like any shameless blogger I plugged my piece in a comment under the video. Only a few days later I noticed another comment highlighting another piece of by David Myriam for a...wait for it...yes you guessed it...a Bakery.

Naturally as you see above there was an attempt at justifying this by someone whom I assumed was on behalf of the brand or the agency. Anyway, I let you be the judge of this yourselves by watching the video below. For my part, I can safely retract myself and say "No molds were broken during the making of this ad"

Audi: Not good enough for Admir 2

When a few days ago I caught a glimpse of the new TV commercial, for yet another real estate project about to set-up shop in one of the few green spaces left in Lebanon, I had the usual "meh" reaction. Yet just into the ad, something felt off, so I kept watching, until I reached a scene where two children were disembarking from their parents' vehicle. And then it hit me (the idea not the vehicle).

The ad executed by Adrenaline had repeatedly shown that same car throughout the TVC and in every sequence they had gone into great length to obscure the brand on the front grid.
This was an Audi A4 or A6 with its distinctive nose, as you ca see below from a random picture I picked up from a site using Google images.

Now, I am not debating their right to show or hide the brand of the car, but I find it a bit odd that they think the car is good enough to appear in a TVC that is supposed to promote a luxurious way of life, but not good enough to be shown for what it is.

Kettaneh Motors are Audi's official representatives in Lebanon. I don't know how receptive to such ideas they might be, but it would have been worth a shot for Sayfco to discuss product placement with them.
That would have been a welcome change from traditional advertising tactics we see all the time.

You can watch Admir 2 TVC below

UPDATE (2014-07-03):I don't know how related this is, but three days after I released my blog post, I managed to catch the TVC again on one of the local channels and that version clearly showed the Audi with its logo on the front grid... perhaps someone else also whispered the same advice or was it a limitation set by the broadcaster, I am not sure we'll ever know.

Candia With A Chance Of Meatballs

Libanlait-Candia have recently ventured into the juice industry by launching 4 flavors (Orange, Mango, Apple & Pineapple). They have enjoyed a solid reputation in dairy and the expansion was only a natural step. A large campaign on various channels was orchestrated and crowned with a TV commercial which you can see now on their Facebook page but unfortunately not yet on their YouTube Channel.

The animated TVC is nice and well rounded but something about it was too familiar. From the second I saw it it felt like I had seen this before. Maybe not the exact same thing but the whole feel.
Then it hit me. I did see something very similar and I believe it was probably the inspiration for this ad.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was an animated movie that came out in 2009 (with a sequel in 2013) about a young odd genius who invents a machine that transforms water into food . You can see the trailer here.

I think the TV commercial stays far enough from the original not to fall into plagiarism and close enough to make it familiar especially for younger audiences who might have seen the movie.
Here are two stills from each side by side to give you an idea on what I am saying.

Candia (Left) - vs - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Right)

So what do you think folks? Too close for comfort or just right? Let me know in the comments.