The folks at Toronto-based agency Blammo, which in recent times has showcased Canadian ad players and gave us a kooky Halloween campaign for Arby’s, now induces a little shudder with this effort for a chatline company called QuestChat. Don’t let the hot and heavy fool you as the end result is not, uh, the gratifying one you’d expect, the buildup can be considered both sensual and amusing or all/none of the above. Take your pick and enjoy the 3am ad while we refrain from pulling out several stereotypical/cliched jokes from the bargain basement of comedy. Credits after the jump.

Read more

Grammys. Oscars. MTV Music Video Awards. Cassies. Some award shows are more popular than others, but at the end of the day, they are all irrelevant except to those who win. Instead of asking nominees to cover up their curves, as was protocol at this year’s Grammys, the best approach is to let it all hang out with some good old fashioned self-deprecation.

Here are three clever promos created by Toronto agency john st., which introduced us to “Buyral” not too long ago, for the 2013 Cassie Awards, which apparently have been billed by the parties involved as the Canadian Effies. If nobody else cares about your commercials, at least you can add a trivial trophy to the banner of the agency website only clients will know about. I’ll leave you to the other two spots and the credits after the jump before the imaginary orchestra cuts me off.

Read more

From Toronto-based agency Red Urban comes the above spot for Volkswagen Canada, which tells car-buying consumers that the 2013 Jetta is as fresh as fresh meat. You know, fresh as in hip or cool, while being fresh as in new and edible for consumption, like steak that isn’t old.

To be honest, it seems that Red Urban was just wondering if it would be possible to dangle cars behind a butcher’s counter like slabs of steak that Rocky would punch. Red Urban ECD Christina Yu says, ““The big challenge was to hang the cars so that they would sway a little. To accomplish the stunt, we removed the engine, transmission and fluids from both vehicles to reduce the overall weight.” Hey, look, it is possible, and here’s the making-of video to prove it:

The agency settled on Castle Loma, a historical castle in Toronto, as the shooting location for the spot, because it’s large enough to dangle two cars from its ceiling. Yes, they apparently have castles in Canada. The more you know, right? Credits after the jump.

Read more