Andy Tran, executive creative director and creative lead marketing at Commerzbank, chose PlayStation’s “Mental Wealth” for LBB’s “My Most Immortal Ad” series. The 1999 commercial’s enduring force, in Tran’s view, comes from its idea and uncanny imagery—not from the tools used to make it.
What is the PlayStation “Mental Wealth” ad?
“Mental Wealth” is a 40-second PlayStation television commercial. PlayStation’s retrospective of European TV advertising dates it to 1999, while the History of Advertising Trust catalogues the spot as 1999–2000. Those records use different date precision, rather than establishing a single more exact release date. PlayStation’s retrospective places it in the brand’s European advertising history; the History of Advertising Trust catalogue supplies the duration and production metadata.
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Why did Andy Tran choose it?
Tran’s LBB feature makes the commercial a case for judging advertising by the idea it leaves with viewers, rather than fixating on whether it was made with CGI or AI. He writes, “The idea won. Everything else is just noise,” and urges readers: “Stop auditing the tools; start worshiping the canvas.” These are Tran’s opinions about creative work, not conclusions backed by audience research: his feature cites no study or market statistic measuring responses to this ad or to CGI and AI generally. Read Tran’s feature at LBB.
Who made the commercial?
The History of Advertising Trust catalogue identifies Sony PlayStation as the client, TBWA GGT Simons Palmer as the agency, Chris Cunningham as director, RSA Films as production company and Trevor Beattie as copywriter. The British Arrows archive spells the agency name “TBWA GGT Simon Palmer,” a slight variation between the two records.
#1 Best Overall
- CPU: x86-64-AMD Ryzen Zen 8 Cores / 16 Threads at 3.5GHz.GPU: AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine.
- 16GB GDDR6/256-bit Memory; 825GB SSD Storage Capacity
- Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.1
- HDR technology, 8K output,4K TV gaming, Up to 120 fps with 120Hz output, Tempest 3D AudioTech
- What's Included: Sony PlayStation 5 Digital Edition; DualSense; USB cable, HDMI cable.
What awards did “Mental Wealth” receive?
The History of Advertising Trust catalogue notes a 2000 British Arrows Bronze award. The British Arrows’ 2000 archive record lists craft gold awards for computer animation and video post-production, plus bronze awards for European advertising and computer hardware. The catalogue’s Bronze listing and the archive’s category-by-category awards are distinct pieces of record-keeping; the archive specifies the categories.
Quick Recap
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- Includes a slim 500GB PlayStation4 system, a matching DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, Power Cord and HDMI Cable.
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Rank #2
- Model Number CFI-2000
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- Vertical Stand sold seperately
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