Great ads round up: Carl Sciortino and Chipotle

As a marketer, I spend a lot of time actually watching ads. And when an ad comes up several times in my Facebook news feed - posted by my friends, no less - then I definitely take the time to stop and pay attention.

There've been a few such ads lately. The most recent is Carl Sciortino's ad where the openly gay state rep, currently running for U.S. Congress, "comes out" as a Massachusetts liberal to his tea party dad:

Now, of course, I'm totally biased because I already thought Sciortino was a total super star, but seriously, this ad is fantastic. Since launching yesterday, the ad has garnered nearly 150,000 YouTube hits, brought national attention, and landed Sciortino time on Hardball tomorrow night. Not too shabby.

So what makes this ad so great? Well, it's funny, shows a family dynamic many of us can relate to, and is just...human. Not something we've really come to expect from politicians these days. The ad is professionally done, but it doesn't feel overly polished - as if some polling council carefully constructed every word and facial expression.

And it shows political debate as we wish it could be.If only all of us could learn to disagree passionately without disparaging each other personally.If only we could learn to fight for our views with out loosing love and respect for each other. If only we could make it okay to disagree again.

Hands down one of the greatest political ads I've ever seen.

The other ad I've been seeing a lot these days is Chipotle's "The Scarecrow," meant to promote the company's new app-based game:

What I find particularly interesting about this ad is that I've mostly seen it posted by real-food advocates with notes along the lines of, "Chipotle is still corporate evil, but I love this ad!"

It's beautiful, well done, the animation is amazing, and that song from Willy Wonka still kind of creeps me out.

And it has a message you don't expect to see from a fast food chain - that food which is mass produced and processed is not food at all.

Chipotle brands itself as "food with integrity," touting on their website that they find "the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers."

But really, who believes that?

Honestly, I know nothing about Chipotle's business practices, but as a skeptical consumer the idea that a mega company, formerly owned by McDonald's, could sustain such a lofty approach sounds a little suspect to me.

But I'm interested to see where Chipotle goes with this. From what I understand, Chipotle is specifically trying to reach consumers much like myself - Millennials who are skeptical of brands and corporations.

They says that any press is good press - and it's entirely possible that by associating themselves with slow food Chipotle will successfully raise market share by being thought of as slow food.

But as for myself...I think I'll still shop local and go to the farmer's market.