“Elf Yourself” is back—its creators (Toy and EVB) are not

 

Attention Shoppers! discussed Office Max’s “Elf Yourself” viral campaign a number of times last year. While one may or may not agree that it was an incredibly successful viral campaign, it was without a doubt among the most popular online campaigns of all time. Millions and millions of people elfed themselves last year.

Well, a new and improved version of the site is back for 2008. But Toy (the agency that created it) and EVB (the agency that executed it) are not back at all. This year, Office Max gave the job to Jib Jab. It was probably a pretty easy decision, since Jib Jab offered to do the job for free. That probably explains the VERY heavy Jib Jab presence on the experience.  All and all, doesn’t seem quite fair that the folks who were responsible for coming up with the idea and bringing it to life are no longer involved. But advertising (like life) is unfair. Here’s more info from BrandWeek.

This year, instead of just a single take, straight-on angle of yourself elfed, you come to life in a music video with lots of cuts and action. You can choose several different styles of music and dances.

And you can even buy merchandise—coffee mugs, mousepads, etc–of yourself as an elf.  Perhaps that will quiet those who said the original campaign did nothing to drive Office Max business.

A Robot Menage a Trois, Brought to You by Norelco

Not long ago, I wrote about the latest viral video from Smirnoff. It was for their new Green Tea product, and was very, very similar to the wildly successful original Tea Partay video. I don’t know the results produced by the second video, but I am pretty sure that Green Tea Partay was not nearly as successful as the original. 

Another extremely successful viral campaign from last year was the shaveeverywhere.com effort from Philips/Norelco. But unlike the Smirnoff effort, the latest work from the folks at Philips, Robot Skin, has NOTHING to do with the huge hit they had with shaveeverywhere. Perhaps it is because the new work was done by the London office of Tribal DDB, not the American one.

Lost in translation, in my opinion, is the singularity and freshness of the last year’s opus. The shocking simplicity of a guy describing the advantages of shaving his privates was priceless.  

The first-person perspective of a futuristic detective story in “Robot Skin” doesn’t feel so fresh. Still, there are nice production values here–a manga-style animation with decent writing and a nice soundtrack. But the product is so lost in the experience, that I am pretty sure most folks won’t walk away with much of an understanding about what the new razor actually does. In any case here is what another blogger had to say about the work. I agree with much of what they wrote.

 Oh, and if you are looking for the robot Menage a trois, go right to episode three.