The Great Towel War

Probably the biggest stereotype about German tourists is the one of the German father who gets up at the crack of dawn to lay towels on the best lounge chairs by the pool for his family, then leaves for several hours of sleep, breakfast, and siteseeing.  

And it's a particularly strong stereotype among the British tourists, who have fought against the Germans for decades in The Great Towel War. Since the 1960s, this war has been fought summer after summer in Spanish resorts. 

In 2005, German attorney Ralf Höcker researched Spanish and German laws, concluding that leaving a towel on a chair was not legally binding.  Obviously this had no impact, as two years later a Welsh tour bus driver took matters into his own hands.  After two days of taking the towels off the chairs, dumping them in the pool, with the German tourists getting up even earlier to claim chairs, he set fire to the towels. 

A few years ago, German travel agency Thomas Cook came up with the brilliant idea to allow its customers to rent a lounger for €3 per day.  You can also rent your strandkorb on Sylt for the day, so I'm not really sure why more places don't do this. Seems like an easy solution to a common conflict!

Anyway... we saw this old Carling beer commercial on a German TV show last night, making fun of the stereotype.  I'm sure we could spend a week or two talking about the stereotypes about other tourists...especially Americans...but for now we'll just enjoy Carling's clever use of this one. 

Essential Football (Soccer) Training

While we're on the subject of sports, here's an old favorite commercial from the 2004 European Cup days. The "secret video" of an Italian national team training session (not real, of course).

Though Italy dives with more style, this could be almost any team these days!

Rube Goldberg and Honda Accord

Last week we saw a great Japanese commercial of a "xylophone" in a forest, and read that it took 4 days to setup and get a successful take for the video.

That might seem complicated, but perhaps nothing will ever match the Honda Accord commercial.  It is called "Cog".  The team created a Rube Goldberg-type machine using actual parts from an Accord (actually, two).  In the end, the commercial required over 600 takes over a week to get it right... this after six months of planning, with total budget of $6 million.  It was created in 2003 by London agency Wieden & Kennedy.

No, there is no CGI here either, although the tires rolling uphill make people skeptical.  It *is* possible using clever weighting.  Final voiceover by Garrison Keillor.  However, although it appears that it was one long shote panning with the action, it is two shots linked together.

Honda followed-up with this commercial in 2006, but although neat, just can't compare to "Cog".  In this video, a 60-person choir makes the sound effects for driving a Civic.  Keep it up, Honda.

Can't-Miss German Childrens Games

Germany is the home of such great games as The Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, and Carcassonne.  In fact, they invented the genre of game known as "German-style Board Games," including these strategy games similar to Catan.  The stores' game sections are full of them here and there is even a highly prestigious annual Game of the Year award.

(btw...you can play a short version of Catan online here)

The German toy industry also is very well known for its stuffed animals (by Steif) and model cars/construction machines (Siku and others).

But for the younger kids, there are some quite interesting toys and games out there by Goliath Toys. I remember Ants in the Pants and Hungry Hungry Hippos, but they've taken the interactive part a step further. My descriptions would be so inadequate....you just have to watch the short commercials.

These are not SNL-style spoofs....they are made for real products you can buy on Amazon.de here.  

Kackel Dackel ("Pooping Dachshund")

Schweine Schwarte ("Pork Rind")

Snotty Snotter (no translation needed) 

Fliese Fliege ("Fly Tiles"??)

Monster Phone Bills

I love this commercial....it's simple and clear, and the monsters are pretty cute.  Especially the bluetooth headseat monster and his friend going through the wallet of the man in the Mercedes convertible!