Catching the attention of an increasingly distracted audience, is … well… really hard.  We’re being inundated with advertising from all sides.  Interspersing them in online videos, the obvious television and radio commercials, and of course, product placement in our movies and television shows, are all methods that have been done in the past.  They continue to be used, though to varying degrees of effect.  Stunts are rare, and sometimes backfire.  But when they work?  That is advertising gold.

Edelman is particularly good at cutting through the noise.  This isn’t a surprise or anything.  They’ve been in business since 1952, after all.  And as a global communications firm that partners with some of the biggest businesses out there, they’ve learned a thing or two.

Their campaign to introduce Taco Bell in the UK, is being featured in the Cannes Film Festival this week – and I can definitely see why.  This is clever advertising at its finest.  But not only is it good advertising – it creatively uses the environment where it’s being presented – namely, the fact that Big Ben is silent for a while.  So who else can provide a worthy bell?  I’ll give you three guesses – and the first two don’t count.

Here’s the video (and though I don’t know the voice actor that was used, he does a stellar job!):