2012 British Arrows Awards

I'm glad I remembered to catch the 2012 British Arrows Awards, a compilation of award-winning British TV commercials, playing at the YBCA this weekend. I saw over 55 ads in about 75 minutes. None of them seem like they want to waste my time. Dorito's Dip Desperado, a goofy homage to Mexican Westerns, is a complete movie in itself, as is the wonderfully aw-shucks Commercial of the Year about a little boy's painful wait for Christmas morning.

Many of the spots were downright surreal. T-Mobile's amateur video of the royal wedding was vaguely disconcerting, & I found the ads for Wall's Sausages featuring a tiny rapping dog to be disturbing. The public service announcements were powerful. An ad promoting condom use by depicting a string of nasty sexual partners for a young woman was so scary that it caused some women in the audience to gasp. I liked the animated drawings painted on derelict buildings in an ad against street violence.

Humor is still the dominant approach here. Pot Noodle's pampered footballer's wife is a week's worth of silliness. The phone break proposed by Orange mobile network is brilliant. The high-concept campaign for Aldi does a great job promoting the supermarket's discount brands, but I still have no idea what the little girl says at the end of the canned beans spot.

§ 2012 British Arrows Awards
(formerly British Television Advertising Awards)
Thu, Jan 24 – Sun, Jan 27
YBCA Screening Room