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Among the commercials in competition at the Cannes Lions is one Thai ad, bottom row, a television spot for Sylvania light bulbs that features famous Thai ghosts.
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TELEVISION
Entertaining adverts
By Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra
Daily Xpress
Published on June 19, 2008
The best commercials do more than try to sell us stuff, and the Cannes Lions festival will name the winners
What's worse than having a salesman at the door? Having him come in to join you for lunch - but that's what advertising people want to do. They want to find out more about you. "We have to get into the lives of people, get into their homes to get a deeper understanding of what their dreams and fears are," says On-Usa Lamliengpol, the managing director of ad agency Leo Burnett. Ads that tell us repeatedly how white a detergent will make our shirts just don't do the job anymore, she says. And redundancy is deadly in this information-intensive world. "Today's best advertisements are the kind that you don't even know are ads," says Sompat Trisadikun, the firm's executive creative director, who once did a turn as a construction worker to find out what kind of flooring tiles are best. On-Usa says the Leo Burnett team might even try growing rice to learn more about what farmers go through. More conventionally, the Leo Burnett Cannes Prediction is a survey of which ads have the biggest impact. Viewers try and guess which of the ads submitted to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France will win the coveted first prize.
One Thai ad On-Usa says the agency is sending fewer entries to this year's festival than last year's, possibly because sponsors care less now about creativity and more about quick sales. One Thai ad that's gone to Cannes, though, is the television spot for Sylvania light bulbs. At a family picnic, the father tries to spook the kids by describing the different ghosts lurking around them. The light suddenly goes out, everyone jumps, and the tagline appears: "Nothing is scary with the lights on." Most of us probably agree that, as long as the creative people keep us laughing, winning awards isn't necessary - and neither is letting them into our homes.
XTRA
Ad Watch >>The Cannes Lions 55th International Advertising Festival will have its awards ceremony on Saturday in Cannes, France.
>> See www.CannesLions.com.
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