PuppetVision Blog

PuppetVision Archives: Commercials

15 May 2009

Plato is a little blue alien created to promote Sony’s Walkman brand. “Plato” is a blue alien character created for a series of Sony Walkman ads (watch them here and here). It’s always a little hard to tell watching heavily compressed video on YouTube, but I’m pretty sure he was realized as a Bunraku-style puppet....

28 Apr 2009 Burger King "99ers" Marionette Commercial

Burger King Germany’s “99ers” campaign features marionettes. This is a new commercial for Burger King in Germany that features marionettes. The puppets in the ad were built by Hornet Inc. and performed by James Godwin, Tim Lagasse and Steve...

19 Apr 2009 Black / White

Black/White is a stark, monochromatic video that blends shadow puppets and animation. To promote their spring and summer collections this year, Gap commissioned five original songs based on a specific color and a corresponding video for each. My favourite of these is Black / White, which features a song by Danish post-punk duo The Raveonettes...

12 Feb 2009 Tide Talking Stain Commercial

This stain from Tide To Go’s popular “Talking Stain” commercial was performed by Flexitoon Puppets. When I first saw this talking stain commercial for the “Tide To Go” stain remover last year I mistakenly assumed it had been done with CG. It wasn’t. Turns out it was good `ol fashioned puppetry by Flexitoon Puppets (you...

08 Jan 2009 Best Buy Marionette Commercial

A marionette shopping for a laptop? Just another day at Best Buy apparently. This is Best Buy marionette commercial was made back in 2004, but I only recently discovered it. Does anyone know who did...

05 Jan 2009 "Hungry" Weight Watchers Commercial

A monster puppet stars in a recent commercial for Weight Watchers’ Momentum Program. I love Hungry, the mascot of the Weight Watchers’ Momentum Program. We’re seeing a lot of this kind of thing in commercials and music videos and I think that this style of performing is probably the future of puppetry in film and...

04 Nov 2008 Dancing Puppets Sell You Better, Cheaper Cable

Puppets dance and sing to promote cable TV services in a recent commercial for Optimum. This is a great TV commercial for Optimum, which is a regional cable company that serves the New York/tristate area if I’m not mistaken. It that features some really nice Bunraku-style puppetry, but I can’t help noticing that several of...

29 May 2008

Brains – from the classic British series Thunderbirds – is featured in a new viral ad for Drench bottled water in the UK. One of the latest viral sensations on YouTube is an ad for Drench Bottled Water in the UK featuring Brains (one of the characters from Gerry Anderson’s classic Thunderbirds TV series) dancing...

08 Mar 2008 Chicken Transformation

A chicken puppet gets Photoshopped for Foster Farms. Foster Farms: Transformation cleverly promotes Foster Farm’s “Fosters Imposters” campaign by spoofing the famous Dove “Evolution” ad. The chickens in the ad were created by The Character Shop. Special thanks to Paul for the...

24 Jan 2008 Taco Bueno

Puppets appear in a television commercial for Taco Bueno. Taco Bueno – a chain of Tex-Mex-style Mexican restaurants that operates in the southern U.S. – produced this cute puppet...

15 Jan 2008

Puppets are used to raise awareness about environmental issues in a pair of PSAs from MTV. These are two environmentally-themed public service announcements (click here and here to watch) from the MTV Switch campaign. The puppeteers on this included Jason Milligan and Michael Dowell of Moodoo Puppets. Thanks to Michael at Moodoo for the...

12 Jan 2008

Folkmanis recently ran a commercial on video billboards in Times Square. A really cute commercial for Folkmanis puppets was produced last year and features puppeteers Elaine Kollias, Wendy Morton, Lee Armstrong and Kamela Portuges. It ran on the Geoffrytron Video Billboard in Times Square during the Christmas season and can be found on various video...

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