Time travelling Polo cool

Tim Burrowes

October 1, 2009 9:46

It often feels like car company VW has never commissioned a bad ad.

This latest example – a dash of Back To The Future with a soupcon of Grease is for the new Polo and is by DDB Barcelona.

(hat-tip: Ads of the World)

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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5 COMMENTS

Anonymous 4 Oct 09

This Polo spot, posted on Bahrain based AdsoftheWorld’s YouTube page on October 2, was on http://www.bestadsontv.com on September 23, and was one of our Top 6 of the Week (as such also on the Bestads podcast). It was sent to us by Michel Parra from the production company Agosto.

So if you want to feature more current work on Mumbrella, feel free to link to bestads, which is based in Sydney. Most of the top ad agencies and production companies in the world upload their best work to only a handful of top ad sites first, including Bestads – and other sites pick them up from there.

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Lynchy 4 Oct 09

Sorry, forgot to fill in the name and contact details for the 6:23am post above.

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Drama 4 Oct 09

Boo hoo, Michael Lynch.

Did somebody take those ads that you didn’t make and put them on their website? And did they make them freely available (and on YouTube) rather than locking them behind a registration page? Oh nos.

And what’s with the bahrain reference? Got somefink against the Arabs?

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mumbrella 4 Oct 09

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your comment.

When it comes to discussion of ads, it’s a case of each to their own. In my case, I wouldn’t usually choose to talk about an ad unless a) it interests me for a particular reason and b) my readers can see it, which means being able to embed it right here on the site. Most video sharing engines support that.

Overall, I’d rather talk about an ad that’s been out for a week that my readers can see as I discuss it, than one that’s out today and I can’t. But as I say, each to their own…

I’m a big user of YouTube, where Ads of the World has a channel. ( https://www.youtube.com/user/adsoftheworldcom )

For me it’s all about convenience. For anyone who’s got a YouTube profile, subscribing to the Ads Of the World channel is an easy way to see global breaking campaigns without having to register for sites or dowload on YouTube. I’m sure there are similar services I haven’t yet discovered, and I’d welcome any further pointers.

I did briefly subscribe to your video podcast for a couple of weeks, but I’m afraid the high bandwidth was a bit demanding compared to streaming via YouTube and the like, so I’m not currently doing so.

Well done on being ahead of Ads of the World with the VW ad though.

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

Lynchy 4 Oct 09

No worries Tim, it’s your site. I was just trying to be helpful as this posting could have been up 10 days ago rather than now.

Other ad sites often grab work from Bestads, which is annoying for us and the agencies concerned (US and UK clients sometimes dictate which industry sites can have the work).

As to registering on Bestads, it’s free (unlike most of our major competitors who charge $100 a year or more) and takes about 10 seconds. Registration is important as each user gets a free ‘Your Space’ page (500meg) so creatives and directors can upload their work.

It’s a pity you are missing out on the weekly Bestads podcast, which is of great interest to everyone who wants to keep abreast of the latest and best ads in the world. It’s been consistently in the top video podcasts charts on iTunes in several countries (currently #14 in Australia, #6 in New Zealand, #40 in Canada, #94 in the UK, #14 in Finland, #21 in Greece, #18 in Portugal) and there’s been nearly 15 million downloads since it launched this time last year.

I don’t use my YouTube channel anymore for commercials because all it takes is one copyright infringement flag (even if you have the right to upload the spot) and you lose all your videos. It happened to CB back in 2005. Ever tried arguing with Google?

Anyway, keep up the good work.

Lynchy

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