The Grey Room

Get your Basketball on

Posted in Cool Shit, Creative by James Fraser on June 17, 2009

Brands can be very serious sometimes. So it’s nice to see a campaign which is, well, just an awful lot of silly fun.

This from Nike, merges Mr Motivater and Rick James into a fully fictional basketball player called Leeroy Smith.

And it’s great. Loads of very funny content, games, opportunities to get involved across all social platforms etc.

And it’s fun to see a real story being built around this one fictional character – fingers crossed it will continue and evolve for a period of time. My only complaint; not enough people participation. Surely this is crying out for a full and proper Leeroy James fitness videos, Leeroy James gym partnerships, 2 on 2 competition etc etc

Maybe I’d even be willing to get involved…

Enjoy it here

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Film Posters – remixed

Posted in Creative by James Fraser on May 27, 2009

Simple concept, nicely executed. From Olly Moss

der

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Cold War Kids – ‘I’ve Seen Enough’

Posted in Cool Shit, Creative by James Fraser on May 26, 2009

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Click and play. Great fun…

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House Party at mine….

Posted in Creative, Media by James Fraser on February 23, 2009

There something quite mythical about the house party; an event, episode or experience which lives long in the history and comes to define a group friendship or social circle. Of course, these are often remembered to be slightly more significant than they actually were. I drank three times as much as I did, was involved in incidents which were half as funny as I now recount them, and, in truth, I definitely didn’t sleep with the whole of the Brazilian volleyball team.

But why do we hold the house party in such high esteem? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some awesome experiences of them, as, I’m sure, have you, but I wonder if the likes of Skins or the stream other fanciful American teen dramas filled with the kind of country estate style gatherings which make your mouth water fuel this desire to place the simple house party on the experience pedestal we do. (In saying this, I really hope I’m not showing myself to be the type of person who watches American Pie with a sense of endless longing)

Anyway, this leads me nicely onto the Adidas ‘Celebrate Originality’ spot. Maybe the above is simply a caveat to the fact that I love this advert, or maybe I’m a bit ashamed to like an advert without rhyme or reason as much as I do. Because I know why I like this advert so much, a reason so transparent and shallow as to be a smidgen embarrassing. Looking logically, there seems to be absolutely no link between the execution and strategy. Ok, Run DMC, Missy Elliot and a few other faces who appear could claim to be ‘originals’, although I’m not sure how Estelle justifies her position, but beyond that, it seems to be nothing more than a house party with a few famous faces in.

And this is enough. Because although I have never been to a house party like the one depicted, I really wish I had. And in my weaker moments I may even pretend that I’ve been to a couple of nights which were quite similar and I really should make the point of going to more of these parties as if I have that option on a daily basis. But as all great adverts do, it makes me believe that parties like this do exists, parties like this are accessible to me, and that, actually, there’s a whole world out there where doing the funky chicken with Missy Elliot is just the ‘done thing’. But only, of course, if I go out and purchase a pair of Superstars…

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Charity Advertising… which doesn’t make me sick

Posted in Creative by James Fraser on February 12, 2009

God, I get so painfully fed up of the typical ‘tug on the heart string’ advertising for charities. One more adorable African child with saucer plate sized eyes and malnourished tummy and I’ll…

So, credit to Shelter for this rather beautiful potrayal of the reality of house reposession without a single hungry kid in view.

You gotta love the Chinese…

Posted in Creative by James Fraser on January 25, 2009

billboard_hanging_man

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I love these both..

Posted in Cool Shit, Creative by James Fraser on January 9, 2009

But maybe, I love this more (For full effect, add sound)

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook

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Ad of the year..

Posted in Creative by James Fraser on December 16, 2008

billboard

Scamp has some other contenders….

What Obama could teach us all..

Posted in Creative, Media by James Fraser on December 16, 2008

Taken from Blackrimglasses.com

Worth a read. Great blog, also.

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Beautiful Losers

Posted in Cool Shit, Creative, Media by James Fraser on December 16, 2008

I heard about this through Nike’s and Protein OS’s involvement with film’s release. Nike have put together a number of DIY workshops together with many of the artists featured in the films for kids to get involved in. Very nice. But enough of that, enjoy the trailer. It’s a fascinating little insight – and let’s be honest, uber cool.

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