Hasta La Creative!

The notion of being secretly photographed, digitally manipulated and publicly displayed might make some folks shudder. But the furtive surveillance in Adobe's "Street Retouch" stunt, via Swedish agency Abby Norm, seems almost jolly. While waiting at a Stockholm bus stop, people were surprised and, judging by the video below, mostly delighted to see themselves Photoshopped by retouch wizard Erik Johansson (operating from a nearby van) into various scenarios on a seemingly typical outdoor ad panel. One particularly crabby-faced gent steals the show, his sour demeanor sweetening as he watches himself transformed into a city-smashing monster on the electronic billboard a few feet away. The guy winds up smiling, and like others caught up in the stunt, promoting Adobe Creative Day this Tuesday, he snaps a picture of the panel as a keepsake. Unlike more malevolent ad stunts that hinge on provoking fights, flight or just plain fear, this prank gives more than it takes—instant gratification, a novel and positive experience and a cool product demo. So, despite the invasive setup, the stunt succeeds because the people involved seem less like "targets" and more like partners in the campaign. That righteous vibe pervades the highly viral clip (9 million views since Friday) and helps put viewers in the picture about Adobe's creative potential.

Humans have a burning desire to verbally communicate with dolphins, especially when it comes to ad folk. First it was Megan Fox, Acer marine biologist, taking a scientific approach to dolphinspeak, and now we have a Dolphin Translator app from Green Works, the eco-friendly arm of Clorox, essentially creating the digital version of the Oxford English/Dolphin Dictionary. Created by Omnicom-owned Critical Mass, the dolphin-themed approach weaves its way into a campaign meant to help consumers avoid getting lost in translation when it comes to environmentally-conscious lifestyles.

As you’ll see on the Green Works website, you can type just about anything (up to 120 characters) into the translator to hear the dolphin version. What you do with the cute, squeaky response is up to you, unless you are already fluent in Flipper. Odds are, the dolphin noises will just sound like, well, dolphin noises: indistinguishable and vaguely babyish. But, if you’ve ever been curious how a dolphin would say tomato, then this is the app for you.

Credits and a behind-the-scenes video after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(TrendHunter.com) Instead of spending hundreds of dollars upgrading your phone every year, you can now use the ‘XTRUD’ cellphone and never buy a new phone again.  The XTRUD was designed to allow you to…

Lindsey Evans, the president of TBWA\UK Group, is leaving the Omnicom agency to return to Australia.

We’ve received confirmation that auto/home/life insurance brand Liberty Mutual is putting its creative and media accounts into review. Both have been handled since 2005 by Boston-based Hill Holliday, which sources say will defend. HH isn’t commenting on the matter, but we’ve been told that the Liberty Mutual creative and media reviews will be handled separately. Sources add that Liberty Mutual has recently brought on a new CMO and the brand is looking more closely at the metrics and ” moving the sales number,” hence its move.

Some of Hill Holliday’s notable work for the brand over the years includes the Webby-winning “Responsibility Project” and the more recent  “Humans” campaign (spot above), which kicked off during last summer’s Olympics. As has been reported, Hill Holliday, which recently welcomed a new CEO, is also still vying for the Cadillac creative biz (no update as of yet on this).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Just For Men, the men’s hair dye brand, has signed a six-figure deal to fund a new topical panel show, ‘The Manuscript: A Foolproof Guide To Being A Modern Man’, on Absolute Radio.

The best part of the following video occurs in the first few seconds, when a woman’s jaw drops as she’s told she can buy Google Glass for 40 times the price of her Slurpie ($40.00). It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, for a product that normally sells for 1500 times the price of a Slurpie. Too bad the product on offer is obviously-knockoff “GooOgle Glass,” sold earnestly by comic Ian Fridance in a project by GS+P alum/man of many projects JD Beebe and Translation copywriter, Deanna Director.

I barely cracked a smile during this anti-ad. Maybe it’s just my sense of humor, but I think this idea is tired, and it’s hard to believe that anyone in NY has heard of Google Glass and believes they are the eyewear equivalent of an interstellar propeller hat.  If you want to poke fun of the new technology, check out whitemenwearingoogleglass.tumblr.com or watch SNL. Those comedic attempts are a bit more nuanced, and at least rooted in reality.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 knows when you’re looking and when you’re not. A CLP billboard with built-in S4 offers the phone free to those who can keep their eyes fixed on the phone for 1 hour.
Sounds easy enough. Enter a string of distractions that try and divert our player’s focus. From Hotdog sellers on fire, to Tourists asking for directions, stunt motorcyclists, buskers, arguing couples, cleaning staff and police dogs. A hilarious series of distractions using professional actors doing their best to cause a scene and steal away the attention of the contestants. Even a few celebrities dropped by to try and break player concentration – including former Miss Switzerland Xenia Tchoumitcheva.

Advertising Agency: Heimat, Berlin, Germany
Chief Creative Officer/Founder: Guido Heffels
Chief Creative Officer: Myles Lord
Group Creative Director: Michael Schachtner
Copywriter: Raphael Hermann
Art Director: Lucas Schneider
Assistant Copywriter: Luis Jähner
Agency Producer: Alexander Münzer
Managing Superviser: Daniel Münch
Account Director: Christina Müller
Production: who’s mcqueen?
Director: Kai Sehr
Technical Production: Perfect Fools

Rapp, the London-based integrated agency, has promoted its associate creative directors Jacob Kirk and Clare Wilson to creative directors.