National Television – Bunch ‘o Stuff

Nation Television have uploaded a batch of new projects for public viewing, along with a couple of teasers for Nick at Night, Miss America 2006 and Fox sports – all of which look pretty interesting. That said, I’m somewhat ambivalent about this latest round of work from National. In times past there was always one (well, one at least) piece that really made me sit up and say ‘wow’. None of them do that for me this time. They are all solidly produced and designed, but none of them really grab me. Maybe I’m just getting old and bitter.

Absolut “Mix it up” and Houlihans “Taste” are pretty classic National warped 2d/3d with clever transitions – “Mix it up” sharing artwork from the print campaign by Brazilian Benedita that seems a perfect fit for National and “Taste” apparently produced without anyone ever having been there. There are some beautiful compositions and it all meshes nicely, but I’m just not feeling it.

Nike – Total 90 “Hawk” is a continuation of their earlier metamorphosis spot(s) they did with nike, which we previously posted. Much like the first spot, I’m not really a fan. Although I think that would have changed had they been able to make the spot they reportedly first pitched:

“Originally we wanted it to transform into a robot-fist that would punch Zach Braff in the neck. Sadly, Nike asked us to ‘de-Braff’ our treatment…”

I would have paid money to see that.

Finally there are two spots for Nutrigrain “Magic”. Now, in Australia there is a very different product and advertising approach for ‘Nutrigrain’, so this is a little more difficult for me to get my head around. In truth, these two spots are probably my favorite in this batch – they’re rather amusing and the end product treatments are really tightly composed.

You can view and download them all, along with reading the National write-ups on their site. So, agree? Disagree? Think I’ve been drinking too much? Leave your thoughts below.