Vladimir Cole / Vlad Cole / VC

Finished Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us last week. Inspirational, but fluffy. Reminded me a lot of Tom Peters’ writing style. My takeaway: don’t be scared to take a leap; passionately lead and the rest will follow. Four stars (not five — it’s ultimately just business erotica).

It’s sometimes nice to spend a whole afternoon with Creativity Magazine and follow all the links and suggestions. Here’s the best of what I found in the December issue of the magazine.

• There can be only one (NBA): Neat splitscreen application. Supposedly won tons of awards. I’m not sure it’s *that* good.
• Wario Land: Shake It: Best video game advert of the year. Amazing work. Too bad the game’s metacritic score hovers in the high 70s.
• White Gold - Do You Love My Hair? (Milk): The whole concept (of which this is just one video) was really well done.
• Fate: Leave Nothing (Nike): Nike’s commercials are so inspirational. They make me want to get out there and exercise. Or at least buy some shoes. If I buy shoes, I’ll automatically be healthier, right?
• The Great Schlep: Best political ad of the election season. Sarah’s so cute.
• Moodstream (Getty): Awesome interactive tool that allows users to dial a mood for inspiration, ultimately selling more Getty images. Getty should sell moodstream as a service for digital photo frames and LCD television sets. Slick. Helps Getty transform from purveyor of images to creative partner.
• CNN Shirt: get wacky CNN headlines in t-shirt form. I wonder if the reporters get a cut of revenues from successful headlines? Unlikely. Also, nothing against CNN, but the British tabloids would sell way more shirts. I hope they’re copying this.
• Aviator (JC Penney): I love it when little girls dream big. Great ad. Really sad when you consider what happens when dreams meet biological reality.
• Slide (Old Spice): Ridiculous.
• Lumberjack (HSBC): Hrmm. I’m not sure if I like being manipulated like this. The ending is too neat and clean, and therefore too crassly commercial.
• Burst (Schweppes): I’d love to get ahold of a camera that can do this. So gorgeous.
• Slots (Monster): Monster doesn’t disappoint.
• Horse Head (Audi): Funny gag.
• Perfect Mom (Lucchetti): He was about to ask for something else besides a nose, I think. This one’s good too.
• I’m a PC (Microsoft): This response to Apple’s nasty Mac vs. PC campaign walked a delicate line between response and repositioning. It was well done. Apple’s new Mac vs. PC ads now look mean-spirited and cheap.
• Last Day Trailer (Gears of War): I love the song and the editing, but for some reason Devotchka’s “How it ends” doesn’t twang my heartstrings like Jules’s “Mad World” that accompanied the original Gears of War trailer.
• Art blogger takes a tour of Faile artists studios: wow. I’d love (but can’t afford) to buy some of that massive art they’re making. Beautiful.
• Music video: Sweet Lies (Booka Shade): makes me miss NYC.
• Bring on the Trumpets! (National Confectionary): You know it’s good when users create music videos remixing your advert (great one here).
• Absolut Machines (Absolut): Musically creative robots!
• XXX Party (Diesel): Seriously funny.
• Take It to the Next Level (Nike): Goosebumps. Guy Ritchie directed it.
• I Love the World (Discovery): Optimism is a nice emotion.
• Pinata Man (Skittles): So much wonderful emotion and humor.
• Damn Tasty (New York Pizza): “fuck” is an underused word in advertising.
• MTV Backchannel: the website game is very, very cool.