HEMA Dutch department store

[wonderwrench]

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4,
1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands .
HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany . In June of
this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.
Take a look at HEMA's product page . You can't order anything and it's
in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.
You will never see anything like this in the US.
HEMA - online winkelen

[k0NG0]

Yeah, it's totally great.

[TQ]

That is AWESOME.

[gest00b2]

Originally Posted by wonderwrench

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4,
1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands .
HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany . In June of
this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.
Take a look at HEMA's product page . You can't order anything and it's
in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.
You will never see anything like this in the US.

I registered just to call you out on your statement that we'll never see anything like this in the U.S. What's that supposed to mean? We can't be clever? That's not even an operational product page. It's just an animation with zero functionality.
So, hey buddy, "Yes we can!"

[wonderwrench]

Originally Posted by gest00b2

I registered just to call you out on your statement that we'll never see anything like this in the U.S. What's that supposed to mean? We can't be clever? That's not even an operational product page. It's just an animation with zero functionality.
So, hey buddy, "Yes we can!"

I never stated that the USA could not do it but they do not.
This is because we as in the USA are to conservative and closed minded.
Look at are commercials then look at other countries commercials.
US commercials suck by comparison. We have to many rules.

[TQ]

U.S. commercials suck by comparison? In what way? The video stuff I saw from this year's Superbowl was mostly brilliant, if not at least good.
And in what way are we "conservative" and "close-minded" when it comes to creativity? Cite some examples of the overwhelming creativity that we don't live up to, please. I'd like to see it.

[wonderwrench]

Originally Posted by TQ

U.S. commercials suck by comparison? In what way? The video stuff I saw from this year's Superbowl was mostly brilliant, if not at least good.
And in what way are we "conservative" and "close-minded" when it comes to creativity? Cite some examples of the overwhelming creativity that we don't live up to, please. I'd like to see it.

Sure we have had a few entertaining commercials over the years and IMO are getting better as time goes on. The problem is not really the people in the US its the control over the media, we can see and use. No swearing on TV, no **** and *** etc. This is taboo in the US because a few people would be offended. Its just like in many parts of the country you can't get any X rated cable programing because the local government will not allow it. This mentality causes the US to lack artistically compared to many other countries.

Lets see this commercial in the US.
YouTube - Sensodyne (Comercial)
or YouTube - Oddset Euro 2004 Germany vs. Holland commercial
or YouTube - Best European Commercial
or YouTube - Funny Phone Call(European Commercial)
or YouTube - funny European car commercial
or YouTube - Killzone tv advertisement PS2 reklama cf pub werbe european
or YouTube - European VW Polo Commercial. Never allowed in North America

[polonyc2]

so you're saying that nudity, sexual innuendo, violence and swearing is the only way of making a 'creative'/successfull commercial?

[TQ]

Just so you know the "terrorist VW" spot was a hoax. As funny and creative as it is, it wasn't sanctioned as advertising by VW.

As far as the other spots go, yes, they're quite good and effective but I see nothing superior to anything I saw among the best of the Superbowl ads.

I'm not sure how you arrive at the conclusion that they exceed the levels of creativity demonstrated by the beauty of the Budweiser "Rocky" ad, the clever wit of the Bud Lite spots, the stunningly brilliant FedEx commercial or even the hilarious baby trader on the E-Trade spots. Not to mention the Bridgestone, Cars.com, CareerBuilder.com, Planters Nuts, the Timberlake Pepsi spot and if you want to talk about sex take a look at the 4th quarter Victoria's Secret spot.

You have obviously not been paying attention. The United States invented television advertising in 1941 and we're still the best at it.

Heck, my business partner wrote and produced a sexy spot that makes that Sensodyne spot look limp. And it ran on the air. I suggest you get your facts straight about what can and can not run. Considering that I'm in the business of advertising and have been for twenty-eight years you might drop me a note and ask.
Are there limits? Of course, but not as limiting as you seem to think they are.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

so you're saying that nudity, sexual innuendo, violence and swearing is the only way of making a 'creative'/successfull commercial?

Apparently he is, yes.

[TQ]

By the way, I have the nutcracker scream sound effect they used in the Sensodyne in my sfx library. It's a good one.

[TQ]

Oh, one more thing...if any more Islamics move to Europe and Sharia Law is enacted (as the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested should happen) you can forget about Europe being the bastion of tolerance.
Give it fifty years or so and it'll make you long for the days of Jerry Falwell.

[k0NG0]

Surely even considering promoting light beer has to mean something's horribly horribly wrong. Especially Budweiser, which even in its non-light form is "meh" at best. There's a Czech beer called Budweiser (it's called Czechvar in the US and Canada) which has my dad's seal of approval, which means it's pretty good. If I really feel like a beer and there's only Bud available I'll drink it, but I'll know I could be drinking real beer the whole time.

I might add that I live in Sweden, a country that's a lot less concerned with the notion that an exposed nipple will turn kids into morally bankrupt adults than the US (a frequent "ah, those crazy yanks" topic) but the commercials still suck 99.9% of the time. I've been without a working TV for a year now, and I don't miss those rare twice-in-a-year commercials that don't suck for a second. Whenever I catch a slice of TV at my parents' place the commercials just tick me off 'cause they're loud and stupid. Basically all they do is make me want to buy the product to use as a bludgeoning device on those who build and promote it.

Also, comparatively, I'd say there's much more violence in US productions than in Swedish (I'm talking movies and TV now). I've always found it hilarious that the US system sort of favors violence over nudity when it comes to decisions having to do with "morals".

[ctal]

One of the more enjoyable and memorable movies I've seen was in the mid-1980's, a film that lasted an hour and 40 minutes and consisted of 100 TV commercials played one after another without interruption. I don't remember the name of the movie. The commercials had been voted by some advertising group as the 100 best from around the world during the year 1984. There were a goodly number from the U.S., and many more from all kinds of other countries. I sensed no particular correlation between quality, cleverness, amount of humor, etc., and country of origin. But nearly all of them were extremely good, and watching the film was a lot of fun.

The film started with the one that was voted number 100, and counted down to number 1. This being from 1984, number 1 of course was the famous take-off on the novel "1984" that introduced the Apple Macintosh, which was given its only official airing during the Superbowl in January 1984. Given its context and timing (at the start of 1984), it is considered by many to be the greatest commercial ever made, and it was subsequently played countless times on news shows, etc., as a newsworthy item in itself. You can find it easily on YouTube, and read about it here:

1984 (television commercial) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll mention also that its impact when viewed in a darkened movie theatre on a large screen was vastly greater than when viewed on a small 1980's TV set.

-- Al

[TQ]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

I've always found it hilarious that the US system sort of favors violence over nudity

Personally, I prefer both.