Adidas reach deep into global culture for a lot of their ads

Tech Week: The Wisdom of Serena Williams & HP

Beyond Urban Branding opens Tech Week with a true banger of an ad. We'll look at tech ads from time to time on our blog. But this week its gonna be all tech brands, all the time. We will begin with HP's ad featuring Serena Williams. When we did the first soft launch, we reviewed the precision HP crafted their ad with Jay-Z . It's easily one of my favorite tech ads. I actually feel like HP and a lot of other well done ads don't get their proper recognition because Apple gets so much props for their ads. OK, so this ad is actually better than the Jay-Z ad for one reason in particular. Strategic co-branding. In one commercial Serena craftily pitches, her video game (never played it but apparently shes got something going on with EA Sports) her designs with Nike and most importantly- her clothing line Aneres . Now, I don't know why or how Andre 3000 and Uno were able to get shout outs in the ad. Was she just giving them props or did somebody have to pay to get them i...

Gap ad wins with Hip-Hop dance

Here is an ad for Gap khakis. Its a few years old I think. I like it because there is such a diverse range of races getting their groove on. Makes you wanna go get some, eh? But seriously, Hip-Hop dance, DJ's and graffiti art are still underused in advertising. I feel like everybody thinks Hip-Hop is just rap. For those that don't know Hip-Hop is composed of a few elements: Rap or MC'ing, DJ'ing, Graffiti, B-boy'ing and other forms of Hip-Hop dance. The second ad is a cool holiday ad featuring Common. Gap knows how to use rappers right in advertising campaigns. Both Gap ads shows that someone inside Gap knows that. Great look!!

HP's Uphill Battle with Apple

QBert De La Soul Tony Hawk HP's new campaign with Dr. Dre is no joke. Its major. Its corporate WAR at its best and I love it! Since I dropped the Dre-n-HP vs. Apple story lots of folks have emailed me, called me and smoke signaled me their thoughts. The essence of it- Apple ain't going out soft. They have arguably the most loyal followers of any tech brand ever. The other basic reality- PC's are for work, and Apples are for fun. But there is something else going on at HP. For lack of a better word for it, lets call it the "Jordan Strategy." Dr. Dre's Detox is possibly the most anticipated rap album in the history of the genre. I think HP is going after the NEW generation of beatmakers. They don't want Apple defectors. They want kids coming up now who see Dr. Dre as Jordan of rap. "Be like Dre" is the short version. Nike never said other peoples shoes weren't cool, comfortable or fun to wear. "But Jordan wears Nikes" was the bottom...

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