Hasta La Creative!

Advertising Agency: Bletchley Park, South Africa
Production: Shoestring Productions
Director: Richard Wall
Creative Director: Kelly Putter
Art Director: Alexi Mccarthy
Producer: Robert McCulloch
Post production: Deliverance

Advertising Agency: Fox Sports Creative Team, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Creative Directors: Alex Mendes, Victor Seabra
Art Director: Victor Seabra
Copywriter: Alex Mendes
Sound design: Patrick Laplan

Creatives: Peter Heron, Walt Connelly
Director: Walt Connelly
Editor: Heather Danosky
Asst: Nat Magee
Editorial/Post: FLUID
Executive Producer: Laura Relovsky
Mix: Mr. Bronx Audio
Mixer: David Wolfe
Music: Bleeding knees Club

Diageo is launching its “biggest ever innovation” drive for the Gordon’s brand with the introduction of a new collection of flavoured gins.

(TrendHunter.com) Taking a kitchen from drab to fab is as simple as choosing a favorite from this collection of ultra-modern fruit bowls. It might seem like an afterthought, but fruit bowls are on your counter more…

The Biggest Climate campaign in History eclipses the elephant in the room.

The Sierra Club, Bill Mckibben’s 350.org fight-climate-change crew, 130 other organizations, plus thousands of Americans from all walks are meeting at Noon on Sunday, February 17 in Washington, D.C. to make “Forward on Climate” the largest climate rally in history. 

Their first goal is to convince Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline once and for all, for it could unlock vast amounts of additional carbon the planet simply cannot afford to burn. But his final decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will only be a test of whether he’s truly serious about walking his talk. The Forward on Climate Rally will put unparalleled pressure on Obama to act on his word, and in an unprecedented way. It is their hope that he will do all in his power to face, and combat, global warming.

But before America can move “Forward” on climate issues – they must “face” the facts. Ignorance and denial abound in individuals and institutions across the country (there are, alas, institutions like Heartland dedicated to perpetuating skepticism and denial about climate change). A 2007 Harris poll found that 71% of Americans believe that continued burning of fossil fuels would cause the climate to change. By 2009 this figure dropped to 51%, and fell again in 2011 to just 44%. According to Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, this is “among the largest shifts over a short period of time seen in recent public opinion history.”

Meanwhile, record droughts, food scarcity, floods, severe super-storms, billions in damage, lives lost, and the hottest year on record in the United States have all come to pass in 2012. The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has increased by 40 percent in a century, due to our perpetual burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. NASA’s James Hansen explains that business as usual – such as burning the tar sands bitumen – will guarantee “game over for the climate.”

But America could be a major leader in a worldwide clean energy revolution, that is, if Obama chooses the people, the land, and the future of the planet, over corporate interest. This clean energy revolution could transform the nation, cut carbon pollution drastically, and resist or even reverse the inertia of impending climate disaster. Forward On Climate states, “we need President Obama to commit to that fight with all the ambition and determination he can bring.” But why do they put so must faith in Obama’s character and power? How are they so easily assuaged by his soaring rhetoric?

The president spoke somberly about climate change for half an hour this Tuesday during his State of the Union speech, earning him brownie points with some, but the eloquence of his promises have never been something to be contested. Despite his rhetoric, and avowal to address global warming and not betray future generations, he fails to face the elephant in the room. With less than five percent of the world’s population, it is the USA that consumes a quarter of the world’s fossil fuels. Where is his “mea culpa”moment? Instead, Obama shows no recognition of America’s five-planet lifestyle . . . no recognition that a small slice of the Earth’s population consumes a lions share, and wrecks the rest.

And yet on an even deeper level, Obama’s invocation of the need for “sustainable energy sources” suggests that he believes fossil fuels themselves are to blame. And perhaps he’s not at fault. This is what most people believe. But what about the root of our climatic, environmental problem: the exploitative economic paradigm we operate, the political stagnation that goes with that, the social inequalities we are forced to endure, the cult of hyper-consumption that defines American culture – it is this systemic destructiveness that endorses ravenous fossil fuel use in the first place.

Until Obama, and the activists putting pressure on him, stop confounding the symptoms with the disease, there will be a stark limit to how effective, enduring and powerful a revolutionary movement can be.

Read more on Adbusters.org

“Your Favorite Books, Just a Little Used.”

Art Director: Ben Egnal

Web designer Frank Jonen, who did web design work for Fitness SF, claims he wasn’t paid properly so he hijacked his client’s site replacing it with a damning message telling Fitness SF customers the company doesn’t pay its bills.

This might be the perfect example as to why no brand should completely hand the keys to its website over to a third party without retaining at least enough control to access the site and correct situations like this. Alas, not everyone knows how to manage a website. And besides, if Fitness SF hasn’t paid its bill then this is probably what they deserve. We just hope Jonen requested payment several times through normal channels before resorting to this method.

Below is the full text of the website message.

Dear Fitness SF customer,

Fitness SF preferred to ignore our invoices instead of paying them. As a result this website is no longer operational.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause for you as a customer of Fitness SF, however it is a necessary measure in getting what is rightfully ours.

Half a year’s worth of work, including gallery featured logo renderings with over 1,300 views a piece.

While some of that got replaced in an attempt to cover up our work, other parts, like the base design (CSS) of the site were still used, illegally as they’ve not been paid for.

Normally there is no question of paying one’s dues. It is simply a matter of morals. Having morals and acting upon them or not having any and just betraying the people that got you started. Sadly we’ve come to know what Fitness SF stands for, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Your word on their Facebook accounts will go a long way. We’re a small company in the heart of Europe, which is probably why Fitness SF believes they can sit this out till we perish. Can you support a company that acts like this?

Do you hear the people sing, who will not be paid again…

I am also writing this on the behalf of the tens of thousands of freelancers and small businesses out there facing larger corporations who can afford to starve them out. In the movie / visual effects business this is already prevalent. Large studios awarding work to smaller studios or freelancers in the hope they won’t stand up to them when it comes to loads and loads of unpaid work.

What Fitness SF is trying here is exactly the same ploy. Give a barren advance, rake up a huge bill and ignore every invoice. Rush fees, heavy overtime and weekend work are expected to be free.

You don’t get to sleep for days on end, but you do get to wait on your money forever.

It’s people like this who cause company after company to go bankrupt.

An injury to one is an injury to all of us. We need to make a stand against crooks like this. If you’d like to join us in this fight, cancel your gym memberships, post on their Facebook pages, Tweet about it or even pass this on to a journalist. Fitness SF used the press once before to paint themselves as a savior.

It’s time the truth got out on what they really are. Doesn’t it makes you wonder what really drives their publicized “commitment” to the LGBT community? Can somebody who thrives on betrayal in one side of their business be honest in another side?

I hope you are with us. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Frank Jonen
owner frankjonen.com • vfx & imagineering

(TrendHunter.com) Clad in mod outfits that are at once youthful and sophisticated, model Cara Delevingne for Vogue China puts on a rather moody face. The sunny day doesn’t seem to help, she stubbornly insists…

Some of the most creative work that an agency does takes place when people get together and start talking about what happened after a big pitch. “They loved us.” “I noticed a lot of buy signs.” “The CMO said ‘good job’ in the bathroom.”

We scrutinize every word and gesture for a sign that we’ve won, or lost. Eventually, you realize that you’ve got no idea what’s actually happening behind those closed conference-room doors once you pack up and drive away. Switching roles, I recently learned exactly how mind-bendingly unpredictable the client decision-making process can be and that it is more irrational than in my wildest imagination.

As a board member for a large nonprofit cultural institution, I was on a committee to select an agency for a strategic initiative. We drafted an RFP, sent it out to half a dozen firms, and selected three with a national presence to come in and share their ideas.

Continue reading at AdAge.com