Lorem Ipsum for the Video Age

Peter-Paul Koch is a front-end developer based out of Amesterdam; he runs QuirksMode.org and he’s perhaps most well known for his work with JavaScript. (In particular, I’ve been thinking about giving his JavaScript-based image-replacement script a try.)

He also has a mailing list where he sends out short announcements on new scripts and articles that he’s written. And, in his most recent message, he wrote about his completion of a Ubachs Wisbrun site is all in Dutch and, as far as I can tell, they’re an advertising agency. Interestingly enough, they also have some of their commercials posted in their portfolio.

I stumbled into their section for Rabobank and I actually quite liked many of the commercials there. Sure, I didn't understand a word of what they were saying — for the most part — but that allowed me to enjoy them for their composition, diction and tempo.

And, after viewing a few of them, I realized that it reminded me a bit of “Lorem Ipsum”. Lorem Ipsum is a standard set of placeholder text that web & print designers often use in their mockups. By using what's essentially gibberish, designers can can create a design for client review without concerns that the client will nitpick the text itself (and, in the case of a design mockup, the text is only a component within the deisign and not intended for critique).

Obviously, these commercials for Rabobank are not gibberish, but I don’t speak Dutch so I can’t understand a word of it. And, with the narration out of the way, I can concentrate on the on my impressions of the commercial as a whole. All the same, I’m still curious what the heck they’re saying in that one commercial where everyone keeps banging his/her head as he/she is waking up.

Ad Council’s “Campaign for Freedom”

The Ad Council — the group that puts out all those public service announcements on TV — has a new collection of commercials that they call “Campaign for Freedom”.

For example, the “Library” PSA shows a young guy asking for a book from a librarian, who informs him that it is no longer available and then asks him why he wants to read it. They pan the library and all these government agents pop out of hiding.

The idea is something along the lines of “Look at what could happen if we weren’t protected by the Constitution — it’s a good thing are freedoms are intact in the U-S-of-A!” Really, the ads end up saying “Look at the direction we’re heading”. The Library spot in particular ends up frightningly close to the mark:

Those of us in the library community find the pro-liberty ad in which the young man is approached by unidentified security types after asking for particular library book interesting, particularly in light of the fact that the PATRIOT Act allows the FBI to access any library records on demand (books checked out, computer sites visited...), and forbids library employees from telling anyone that such information has been provided in response to the demands.

Connie Jo Ozinga, Library Director
Elkhart Public Library Elkhart, Indiana