The SCRABBLE Brand trademark has been around since 1948, but video advertisements for the popular board game didn't appear until the start of this millennium. Although there may be a few SCRABBLE video spots out there that predate 2000, I haven't come across them.
Aside from the popular Ogilvy & Mather commercials for Mattel SCRABBLE in 2000 and 2001, Ogilvy & Mather also produced 3 videos (see below) based on their "Beautiful Word" print campaign for Mattel in 2009. They're animated, practically music videos, and attract the youthful, hipster generation of SCRABBLE players. These are my favorite SCRABBLE commercials, although that political smear campaign video against Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (see below) is just odd enough to be at the top.
Aside from Ogilvy & Mather's Mattel videos, Hasbro has also made some here in North America, albeit, less interesting, more straightforward and less adventurous, but Uproar & PES's stop motion ad for the 60th Diamond Edition (see below) is pretty nifty.
There's also some commercials here that were not made for Mattel or Hasbro, but for other companies that decided to go with a SCRABBLE theme in their adverts. These include Subway's SCRABBLE game, Sagatiba Cachaca Spirit, Lotterywest's Scratch 'N' Win SCRABBLE tickets, and AT&T, to name a few.
Check out my other posts for more SCRABBLE adverts:
Ogilvy & Mather SCRABBLE Video Ads: Syphilis... Constipation?!?
Ogilvy & Mather's Mattel SCRABBLE Prints
All of the Other SCRABBLE Prints & Posters
Commercials for MATTEL
These are all of the commercials I could find that were made for Mattel SCRABBLE... okay... one of them isn't a commercial, but an interview, but I felt it was worth adding because it deals with JWT's print and poster campaign, which won them a few CLIO Awards. These ads were made from JWT, Young & Rubicam, and Ogilvy & Mather, and like I said above, my favorites are the Ogilvy & Mather ones, entitled "Hula", "Yoga", and "Sumo".
"The Block Project" for SCRABBLE Trickster
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Paris
Creative Director: Chris Garbutt
Creatives: Baptiste Clinet, Florian Bodet, Nicolas Lautier
Production Agency: Laure Bayle
Board Director: Marie Charlotte Lafront
Production Company: Paranoid
Director: Les Vikings
Music: Apollo Studios
Commercials for Hasbro
Unlike Mattel, Hasbro's commercials for SCRABBLE tend to be a bit mediocre. Blandness says it all, except for one... the stop motion one directed by PES Films for Uproar Youth Marketing. This is definitely the best North American commercial I've seen. The other spots are to promote the School SCRABBLE Program from Hasbro and the NSA (National SCRABBLE Association).
Commercials for SUBWAY
Mmm... these ones make me hungry. Although I'm not a big fan of the SCRABBLE game at Subway, I am a fan of Subway (yum)... and obviously a fan of SCRABBLE, so there's no reason why they shouldn't be here. There all pretty much what you'd expect from Subway, but the first one made by FAKE Studios is definitely the highlight.
Miscellaneous Commercials featuring SCRABBLE
These are all the rest—commercials not made directly for Hasbro or Mattel SCRABBLE, and not for Subway either. These are the ones that aren't specifically for SCRABBLE, but feature the board game as a theme, like AT&T's text-speak advert or the political smear video from the Minnesota DFL Party (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) condemning Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty for tax hikes.
Also, the videos from WorldWinner (SCRABBLE Cubes web game) and Lotterywest (Scratch 'N' Win instant game) didn't quite fit under Hasbro or Mattel's section, even though they obviously had a part in them, so they're here to stay.
Sources: Coloribus, YouTube, Vimeo
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2 Comments
WOW. thats a lot of commercial scrabble
I did a commercial for Monty Computer Scrabbke in 1983. Can anyone find that commercial? It was broadcast on cable in Saint Louis and Boston.
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