Hasta La Creative!

Be it never so humble. Facebook is ratcheting up its ubiquitous presence in people's daily lives with its "Home" software for Android devices that more or less turns handsets into Facebook Phones. With Home engaged, the social network becomes the dominant presence on your device, with Facebook messages, updates and big, bright, smiley friend images right upfront, along with the ability to chat while using other apps. A 60-second video from the company's in-house creative department predictably plays the connection card with footage of smiley folks interacting via Facebook Home and lovin' it. The approach is similar to Wieden + Kennedy's mostly maligned commercials for the brand, portraying Facebook as a benign, beneficent presence, minus W+K's metaphorical malarky about chairs and swimming pools. The clip reminds me, somewhat, of the feel-good phone-company ads of yore—Reach out and touch someone, etc.—though Facebook's vanilla flavoring is thicker, and the spot manages to be both grandiose and bland at the same time. Still, the work accomplishes its mission of explaining in simple terms what Home is and why consumers might want to use it. Of course, there's more than UX evolution going on here. Home's economic endgame, as Ovum chief telecoms analyst Jan Dawson points out, is almost certainly "to track more of a user's behavior on devices and present more opportunities to serve up advertising." And the phone "takeover" aspect is Orwellian; even the spot oozes conformity. Still, millions of consumers won't care. They'll be pleased they can go Home again—and if Facebook has its way, they may never leave.

Havas has launched a digital agency in China called Socialistic, which is part of Havas Worldwide Digital and is being headed up by former Wunderman UK chief Brendan Tansey.

And now, your ideal Friday item courtesy JD Beebe, the former Saatchi LA copywriter who over the last couple of years has helped launch dating sites for liberals and conservatives, has a side career in beard-selling, tried to help out laid-off Goodby staffers and is now on a mission to cut the word “awesome” out of the creative’s lexicon. Beebe tells us that “as many copywriters and creative directors can attest, [the word] is the bain of the English language,” adding, that “awesome” is “a lazy fall back phrase to describe anything that has an ounce of positivity.”

So, Beebe along with fellow writers  Andrew Vuilleumier and Daniel Blaser came up with 100 or so alternatives to the apparently dreadful word. Play around on the “Instead of Awesome” site if you have some time to kill as the week winds down. We’ll always fall back on “rad.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Vodafone is launching a global emotive ad campaign to promote its unlimited text and talk phone plan, Red, in a major shift in tone from the telecom giant’s other brand work.

Albion has been picked to handle the branding and advertising brief for the £100m Hackney Fashion Hub development from Hackney Council and property developer Manhattan Loft Corporation.

Advertising Agency: Cossette, Vancouver, Canada
Co-Chief Creative Officers: Matthew Litzinger, David Daga
Creative Director: Michael Milardo
Art Director: Cameron McNab
Copywriter: Kate Roland
Producer: April Haffenden
TSA Stunt Manufacturer: Metropolitan Fine Printers
Group Account Director: Anne Buch
Account Director: Karen Babiak
Account Executive: Shirley Lam
Media: OMD

Mindshare has retained the £400m global planning and buying business for HSBC, four weeks after the bank split its creative account between JWT, Grey London and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Coca-Cola is launching a Coke Zero TV campaign that showcases the brand’s “taste the possibilities” ethos with a novel twist.

“Take adventure with you.”

Advertising Agency: SapientNitro, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director: Scot Waterhouse
Art Director: Dylan Soopramania
Copywriter: Steven Hey
Photographer: Danny Eastwood – The Pool
Retoucher : Derek Leong
Senior Account Manager: Vincent Pleb

Domino’s has credited new product launches backed by an “ever-growing marketing budget” for a double-digit lift in sales, despite the snow in the first quarter of the year.