“I love milk. I do.”
This week's most interesting videos, made by and for organisations.
The summer slowdown has seemingly started, with something of a dearth of interesting videos doing the rounds these past couple of weeks.
Never fear though – I’ve still found a few crackers for your delectation, although I’ve been down some spectacularly strange rabbit holes along the way. You’ll see what I mean when we get to the Uzbek granite reel…
Let’s dive in!
Oatly takes on Big Dairy with fun faux outrage (2m 30s)
I sometimes find Oatly’s “aren’t we crazy?” marketing a bit grating, but I thought this was very well done. There’s a Michael Moore vibe to its Big Dairy exposé, and it manages to involve well-meaning members of the public in a way that doesn’t feel exploitative.
Oatly seems to jump between campaigns pretty quickly, but I would be interested to see where they take this idea if it’s given room to develop. (Watch on YouTube)
A concise guide to a graphic design great from Twos Studio (50s)
I’m a fan of a format with wordy but perfectly descriptive titles, and Twos Studio’s Graphic Designers You Should Know About in 50 Seconds more than delivers on its promise.
This video introduces S. Neil Fujita, who’s the guy who designed the famous book cover for The Godfather. But it positions him as more than “the guy who designed the famous book cover for The Godfather,” and explains why he’s considered such a pioneer of mid-Century design. (Watch on Instagram)
Wimbledon aces its tribute to the retiring Andy Murray (4 mins)
I’ve talked before about the pressure on creative teams to deliver when they know, way ahead of time, that the video they’re making will be a big deal. So it is with Wimbledon’s tribute to British tennis legend Andy Murray, whose retirement is a big deal here.
In just four minutes, it charts his rise from surly teen to national treasure, weaves in great tributes from other tennis stars, and captures why he’s so loved among British sports fans, with just the right amount of gravity. (Watch on YouTube)
Bristol City goes with a manga-style unveiling for its new Japanese star (20s)
There has been an explosion in the creative ways that football clubs announce new transfers, and it’s often lesser-known clubs that embrace the most novel ideas. Enter, Bristol City.
They used this short but stylish manga-inspired video to unveil new signing Yu Hirakawa this week. It’s so good, even rival fans piled into the comments to express grudging respect. (Watch on Instagram)
The artist, the bestseller, and the conceptual book project (28 mins)
When a Swansea charity shop asked people to stop donating The Da Vinci Code because they already had 900 copies, it sparked something in the artist David Shrigley.
He set about collecting thousands of second-hand copies of the much-discarded novel, pulped them to create new paper, and printed George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four on that stock.
This short documentary tells the story of that project, and it’s a treat. I like that it doesn’t sneer at Dan Brown, the book, or the many people who read it, and I enjoyed seeing the logistics behind a conceptual artwork like this, as well as the creative ideas. (Watch on YouTube)
What this? Just a woman dressing up as a massive shoebill stork… (1m 30s)
“Person dresses up as an animal to care for a sick animal” easily makes my top five types of news story, up there with stuff like that Willy Wonka experience fiasco.
This CNN film is a classic of the genre, featuring a woman who dons a full-body shoebill stork suit – designed by a maker of Muppets no less!– to look after chicks that might otherwise be killed by their siblings. Life-affirming stuff. (Watch on Instagram)
Marks & Spencer does a great job with its ‘Mark and Spencer’ schtick (45s)
Many UK readers will have seen that high-street store Marks & Spencer made waves by unveiling celebrity influencers Mark Wright and Spencer Matthews as the faces of its new menswear range.
Much was made of this sometimes staid brand embracing such a silly idea, but the accompanying assets were on-point too. The giddy “see-what-we-did” energy of this launch film shows a creative team having a lot of fun. (Watch on Instagram)
Inside fashion star Olivier Rousteing’s Paris home with to the Sunday Times Style magazine (15 mins)
I’m very interested in what captures people’s imagination online, and was struck that this at-home-with Balmain’s Creative Director Olivier Rousteing racked up 600k views in a couple of weeks.
He’s obviously a massive deal in a world I don’t know anything about, but this is also a good example of this format. It swings between creative insights – about his love of marble, and the colour black – and more prosaic, human things, like how do you get a massive palm tree into a central Paris house? Turns out you break the door down… (Watch on YouTube)
Wanna see some massive granite slabs being cut? Course you do… (1 min)
I assume we’re all following this Uzbek granite company on Instagram? What do you mean, no?
Well lucky I’m here then, because this is an oddly-gratifying look at massive granite slabs being cut, set to a slightly haunting choral soundtrack. YOU’RE WELCOME. (Watch on Instagram)