Apple have been making top notch tv ads for 20 years. There is no shortage of Apple evangelists. Being a user of Apples since 1982 I feel a sense of belonging to the Apple family – even though I have always been bilingual, using PCs and Apples.
Adidas Olympics TV Ads designed for Athens
TV is saturated with ads relating to the Athens Olympics at the moment. Adidas have a campaign around the theme, “Impossible is Nothing”. 180 Amsterdam have woven together a campaign using three spots with digital trickery matching present day athletes with previous champions. Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie takes on the seemingly impossible challenge of beating himself. Nadia Comaneci ‘reappears’ in a choreographed routine on the uneven bars with 13 year old Russian Nastia Liukin. St. Kitts and Nevis world 100m champion Kim Collins plays the role of the latest sprinter who goes out there to attempt the impossible, running with the 1936 quadruple Gold medal winner Jesse Owens.
Continue reading “Adidas Olympics TV Ads designed for Athens”
iPod Your BMW
Apple are developing a movement around the ipod, something like Sony’s Walkman culture last century. BMW is running classic TV spot promoting the seamless connection between the ipod and BMW. My daughter tells me she would just love to buy a BMW so she can use the ipod with it. Mmm…. the seduction of advertising. The ad starts with a guy in an underground parking lot listening to his iPod through his earphones. As he gets into the BMW he connects the iPod to the car’s sound system. Immediately the music bursts to life. He browses through a range of genres, including grunge, hip hop, disco, jazz and industrial. As the music changes the musicans line up to get into the back seat.
Budweiser True Wassup Campaigns
Ever seen the Budweiser “Wazzup” “Wassup” or “Whassup” ads, or just heard it yelled incessantly around the room? If so, you’ve connected with the “True” campaign of Budweiser. You can find the ads at Whassup! – the ultimate whassup collection at trevc.net/whassup/hidden.html. This site has the Bud ads along with a huge number of takeoffs. There’s the Jewish ‘shalom’ ad for fish, and the English ‘Hello’ ad for tea, just for starters! Alternatively you can take a look at the budweiser ads online at:
www.visit4info.com Just do a search for budweiser and you’ll be given a couple of pages of cool ads to view for free. If you want to download higher quality you’ll need to join up for 15 English pounds a month, and then pay from 2 pounds per download.
Love Matters Most in Life with Purpose
“No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
1 Corinthians 13:3b (The Message)
Rick Warren lays it on the line in Day 16 of The Purpose Driven Life: Life is all about relationships. Everything else is secondary. The two big mandates given by God – love God and love others as we love ourselves. And the challenge for followers of Jesus? Loving his people.
Life without love is really worthless.
This is where the quote above comes in. You can be great at anything, but without love you are nothing. Larry Norman picked that up in his song, Righteous Rocker, way back in the 1970s. Lauryn Hill did in the 1990s.
Love will last forever.
Love leaves a legacy. Rick talks about being at the bedside of people as they die. They don’t call for their diplomas, they call for the ones they love. I’ve seen that too. But I’ve seen people dying who have during their lives have lost the capacity to love and be loved. It is tragic. There is so much truth in the catch cry of Moulin Rouge: The greatest thing is to love and to be loved in return.
We will be evaluated on our love.
This is a challenge. We don’t take our bodies, achievements, doctrine or education beyond death. It all gets left behind. It is our character that marks us as who we are. And that character is almost entirely to do with how we relate to other people. True, true.
The best expression of love is time – focused attention, Rick says. I wonder how that relates to the five languages of love: quality time, gifts, loving touch, affirmation, practical service. Rick tells us that what really counts is what we give of ourselves.
Purpose Formed for God’s Family
“God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory.”
Hebrews 2:10a (New Century Version)“See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are!”
1 John 3:1 (New Living Translation)
“God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.”
Ephesians 1:5 (New Living Translation)
A good start for Day 15 of The Purpose Driven Life – using translations that emphasise the relationship we have as children of God – not just ‘sons of God’.
We enter the privilege of being in God’s family through faith in Jesus. That invitation is open to everyone. Its a universal invitation that needs a response.
Rick Warren draws our attention to the benefits of being in God’s family:
The family inheritance: being with God forever, being completely changed to be like Christ, being freed from all pain, death and suffering, being rewarded and reassigned positions of service, and sharing in Christ’s glory.
Rick then goes on to remind us that baptism publicly announces our membership of God’s family. He describes the instant baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch, the 3000 on the day of Pentecost, and the Philippian jailer and his family. In other words, “don’t put it off”. A bit simplistic I think to say baptism must happen immediately. More of this ‘instant obedience’ thing. Though I think people can procrastinate on the baptism issue. But for generations of people rightly sceptical about the number of once-converted now back slidden or ineffective born-agains, baptism is like marriage – not to be entered into lightly.