Forum Thread
Fallon - top or flop?
by: John Frusciante - 05-05-2008 22:21
I must say I loved the cadbury's gorilla ad. for me it was something totally new and really got me excited. Since then i have been watching fallon more closely, to see what they have been up to and i must say, that they, for my liking, are really trying too hard. the trunk ad never reached the level of the monkey ad and now the new budweiser adverts?! Are they just trying too hard to break new ground, to win the next award?... or am i the only one and i see all of this just totally wrong?
by: Audio Android
Well the Gorilla's pretty iconic. You cant always produce such work.
I've no idea of the process that was involved for the cadbury thing - but it has the feel almost of accidental genius. Something very simple that communicates exceptionally well.
I dont know the Trunk ad' - but have just watched the Budweiser thing. It's OK.
by: Richard Hayter
Fallon are a very very good agency, no doubt. but as Mr Android (above) says, few agencies can be brilliant all the time. Orange, Trucks = bad. Gorilla, Balls = excellent. That's just the way it goes.
by: John Frusciante
ok I agree with that, nobody is brilliant all the time. but are they trying too hard to create some new buzz every time now? i just dont know if that will work in the future. you cant always out-do yourself!
I am a fan of the Budweiser ad - did not realise it was Fallon.
Underselling could be a genre they are going through I suppose
by: Cara Swindell
I thought that the whole point of an agency was to be brilliant all the time! Not sure what the trucks advert is but the follow up to the Gorilla is incredibly dull, it doesn't communicate anything - it isn't executed very well. Maybe the Gorilla ad was an accident but I don't think we can make a decision until we see more work. The Bud ad is awful though - once again badly executed.
by: Graeme Longstaff
Cara an agency doesn't try to be shit. They're always trying to be good even if the idea the client rolls with is rubbish.
I thought Gorilla was ok. I like Trucks better (but i'm a petrol head). Sony stuff nice. Bud, don't really get it. But like the oddness of a bunch of mates and colonel sanders.
by: Audio Android
Well, personally I hated the Gorilla, but thats because I hate Cadburys headachey impure gacky chocolate.
Whilst I hated it though, I was well aware of its genius.
If I remember rightly - I think I'd even heard about the ad' before I saw it. That says a lot.
It's a little bit like that Frog - with the stupid tune.
by: CHRIS ARNOLD
Maybe the bigger questions is, why is there so little good work about?
Fallon and W&K are probably the best two agencies in town at the moment. Both have had hits and misses (as do all creative agencies) but unlike most agencies the strive to think great, push the boundaries, be creative and deliver amazing work. With so many ads being produced weekly, their hits represent less than 1% of what the industry produces.
by: Darren Davidson
What about The Red Brick Road - they consistently knock out top notch work for Tesco and last year's Heineken ad was fantastic. Mother London shouldn't be overlooked either.
by: Rory Sutherland
Blimey, this is a mean-spirited business. Or a mean spirited city, at any rate. Never mind kicking people when they're down - we even kick them when they're up.
It is simply harder - perhaps impossible - to be consistently good nowadays. Never mind client movement, convoluted approval processes plus moronic pre-testing - there is now a variety and volatiliity in public fashion and taste which we have never seen before. This may mean - and I am not joiking here - that agencies should actually aim for a far higher failure rate. Why? Because they know those elusive rare successes will be disproportionately rewarded.
The Black Swan or other books by Taleb will provide a good background to this possibility. As will Life's Grandeur, by Stephen Jay Gould.
by: Under Employed
The Red Brick Road? Are you serious? That Heineken ad with the lobster was apalling
by: L H
Top.
by: John Frusciante
i am not trying to kick fallon. I really admire their work. my problem is, that all this randomness is going a bit too far now. yes do take it to the next level, but arent they just trying too damn hard now. to me it feels like they are just really squeezing it out now, making more and more random and sometimes, with a bit of luck, amazing adverts.
sony (great) cadbury 1(great) cadbury2 (random) bud (just weird)
thats how it goes for me. i guess, as there is always a lot of luck involved, there is not one simple model to base your advertising on.
i am just missing the joy and the feeling in the new ad. fallon have set the bar very high and now have to out-do themselves!
I cant give any constructive criticism, sorry, its just a gut feeling!
by: Andrea McConnell
MMM- this is an interesting! I was disappointed too with trucks. Thinking about it I anticipated a fall in the 'glass and a half full of pleasure' series. I think your right they set out with a lucky success with Gorilla, hard to follow, yet I refuse to believe that the savvy peeps of Fallon didnt anticipate peoples high expectations.
Possible stratagy:- to lower the bar of the expectation with a suitably quirky note worthy advert with a catchy sound track enough to catch attention and sell the bars but without creating a major talk point, ( other than it's dissapointment!), such that the cadburys series falls off the radar a little and they come back full pelt with a gem!
by: Mark Smith
I must say i agree that it looks like the wheels are coming off fallon. every ad they produce these days has the same elements - something floaty or ethereal, a twee soundtrack, hip looking hispanic youngsters and a south american locale. some are ok. some are lame. fallon is not the hit factory it once was. i blame juan cabral (overrated and over indulged) and publicis for sucking the life out of the agency.
by: S J Ruttledge
RedBirckRoad FTW !
by: Ben Bold
I agree with DD's comment about Red Brick Road - the Tesco work is pure advertising - well scripted, pithy and not ashamed it's trying to flog stuff. Gorilla and Trucks strike me as obtuse to the point of tedious. That said, Gorilla would have been a great ad for say drums.
by: Audio Android
"Gorilla would have been a great ad for say drums."
- dunno - Chunky, Purple n Smooth around a warm deep (brown) mammal.
Marketing wise - Does the job for me (a really really really good job)
Personally - I agree, annoying.
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