First Class Shoes & Spaceship Crews: 5 Ads You Should Watch Right Now

Another week in Adland has flown by and with it a whole new batch of ads have been released for our viewing pleasure.

But what if you don’t have time to watch them all? Luckily, Unruly is here to share the five latest and greatest bits of creative with you.

This week’s selection sees the continuation of Dior’s long-running campaign with Charlize Theron, as well as a high-flying stunt from Virgin America Airlines and a new spot from adidas and Paul Pogba.

There’s also the long-awaited reveal of Nintendo’s latest piece of hardware, the Switch, which promises to bring together the company’s handheld and home console divisions.

Rounding out our list is an exciting and evocative ad from Duracell, which capitalises on the Star Wars brand ahead of Rogue One, which is set to hit theatres in December.

Enjoy,

5. Christian Dior – J’adore Dior: The Absolute Femininity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaJ-TE1xZVA

This latest ad from Dior continues the brand’s longstanding relationship with actress Charlize Theron and director Jean-Baptiste Mondino. The ad is fairly standard fare, featuring lots of beautiful shots that swirl around a lone Theron as she walks through the desert, and then on water. Although perhaps not the brand’s most memorable ad, it’s certainly noteworthy as the actress has been tied to the brand for over a decade, first signing up in 2004.

4. Virgin America – First Class Shoe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yrfn3ikAIg

After the success of Nike’s ‘Back To The Future’ shoe stunt last year, it didn’t take long for another high-profile brand to jump on the bandwagon. This cool project from Virgin America aims to fit every feature of their first class cabin into, you guessed it, a pair of sneakers. The ad manages to avoid being too cynical by only creating a single pair of the trainers and setting up an Ebay auction, with all the proceeds going to non-profit Soles4Souls, a charity that fights poverty through the distribution of shoes & clothing.

3. adidas – Football Needs Creators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkky0mmayj8

adidas released a number of spots earlier this year with football-golden boy Paul Pogba, all featuring a kinetic, fast-paced tone that spread across all of its marketing campaigns. This latest ad features the same star, and similar energy – but it’s tone is surprisingly uplifting and enthusiastic. We follow the origin story of Pogba as he goes to school, plays football, kisses a girl and does all the things you‘d expect from a young footballer.

2. Nintendo – Introducing The Switch

Nintendo came close to breaking the internet on Thursday as they released the first ad for their long-rumoured gaming console The Switch, due out next March. The ad is notable for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, it shows off the product’s home console/handheld hybrid design, but what’s really attracting attention is its ad’s cast. Nintendo’s recent hardware efforts have focused almost entirely on families, children and ‘casual’ audiences. In this ad we see almost nothing but millennials and 30-somethings, indicating the audience Nintendo is going for – or rather, the one they are aiming to win back.

1. Duracell – Star Wars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA7xYeiWg54

Star Wars is pretty big right now, if you hadn’t noticed. This surprisingly elaborate and impressive ad from Duracell shows off the power of imagination and the joy it can bring to children when they need it most. Set in a hospital, the ad sees a bunch of kids pretending to be Rebels, packing fully-charged blasters, droids and plenty of spare batteries.