Google Re:Brief:

Or: How making-of films are less real than 41 year old tv spots.

In what's written like a campaign rip for award shows, a tidy little video explains Google Re:brief. Which dares to ask the question, what if we could take the original creatives who came up with iconic work and transform those ads for the digital space?

It is a treat watching the Harvey Gabor video, seeing the original Mad Men era creative waxing nostalgic about the good old days making Coca-Cola's "Hilltop." and working hard to use those old creative muscles to explore new territory.

But you know what? It's also fun as hell watching Harvey Gabor pwn these Google schmucks, some of whom condescend to the old man when they're teaching him about apps like he was four years old. To be fair, many others are much more well-meaning but they still somehow miss the point.

To wit:

Gabor after singing the Hilltop song and discussing with Google employees: "The most important thing is that we get enough people in there. The rest of the stuff, the doves, and all that stuff, the real subject of 'Buy The World' is the PEOPLE."

A few minutes later, a Google employee teaching Gabor about technology: "If you were consuming an interacting with my brand and my content on a tablet, the things you expect the ad to do will be slightly different than what you would expect on a laptop and on a film. And based on the device, I also know a little bit about what kind of environment you might be in..."

This also might help explain why Re:Brief been out a almost two weeks and the 'teaser' doesn't quite have 42,000 views. And with only two videos available, making us sign up to wait for the next installment is a major fail, too.

And while we love the idea of showing the old dog new tricks, the thing is Google isn't. They're showing the old dog how to take his old idea and put it on the web. The medium is not the message. A good idea is a good idea, regardless.

Still it's nice to see these guys get exposure again.

Spoiler alert: The creatives like these? They never lose the spark. Even when they don't know the technology. Even when they have to babysit.