Hasta La Creative!

Ad agency Jung von Matt/Neue Elbe and directing duo Alex & Steffen stage an orgy of CGI insanity, referencing various effects-driven fantasy blockbusters from the past 20 years, in this lighthearted yet heart-pounding German spot branding Fanta as "The official sponsor of FANTAsy." When a giant Transformers-type cyber-terror lays siege to a desert castle, a pro wrestler gets catapulted into the fray, bouncing harmlessly off the bot's metal hide, and a plucky princess slides down a saurian's back to save the day. Turns out the action—superbly staged and worth several viewings—is taking place in the imagination of a little girl at a family picnic. The intricate sandcastle they've built sits nearby, its parapets manned by action figures. Some might say it's a sad commentary that a kid's imagination is fueled by soda-pop-culture/Hollywood hype, though in our media-saturated age, this seems about right, and the melee she envisions provides more thrills than most mega-budget flicks can manage. Good thing they didn't probe her brother's imagination. That little devil would've used the robot to conquer the world and hogged all the Fanta for himself!

Alicia Herczeg

Facebook hashtags are less than two weeks old, but while they’re still growing we thought we’d take as many shots at them as we can.

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We’re getting word from those in the know that Arc Worldwide, the marketing services arm of Leo Burnett, has lost its retail agency duties for Comcast’s high-speed internet/digital TV unit Xfinity, which was launched by NBC Universal’s parent over three years ago. We’ve put in inquiries to the comms/biz folks at Xfinity (still not sure about that name), but from what we’ve been told on the Spy line, the review has begun and RFP’s have already been sent out to other agencies.

Arc’s relationship with Comcast on retail marketing dates back six years, when it was named a partner on said component by the media giant. Comcast’s move seems kind of odd considering that Arc won big at the Outstanding Marketing at Retail Achievement Awards a few months ago. Anyhow, we’ll fill in the blanks if we hear more from the client as the agency isn’t providing comment.

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Jo Malone, the creator of the eponymous fragrance brand, has opened up about the difficulties of starting another business after leaving the brand she founded in the 1980s.

Le photographe Rakesh JV réalise des clichés magnifiques, y compris des moments de la Shivaratri festival, à Maha en Inde, une célébration annuelle hindoue afin de vénérer Shiva. Une sélection de photos et une très belle série de « Face Painting » à couper le souffle, sont à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

With the Federal Trade Commission and the State of California breathing down the necks of mobile app makers, mobile app privacy is a growing concern. A small video game industry privacy group, the Entertainment Software Rating Board aims to fill the mobile app privacy gap by unveiling a privacy certification program for mobile apps today.

Privacy is an issue particularly when it comes to apps made for kids. The FTC last year updated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to require more transparency on data collection by mobile-industry players, and conducted a study that found nearly 60% of the apps aimed at kids it studied sent device identification data to app developers or third parties such as ad networks and analytics, a sign of how pervasive mobile-data collection has become. The COPPA update defines mobile device IDs as personal information.

“We were doing lot of the things that were already in the amended [COPPA] rule, however translating that to mobile is a challenge and the biggest challenge is probably parental consent,” said Dona Fraser, VP of the ESRB Privacy Certified program.

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O2, the communications network, will work with Future Publishing’s brands T3, TechRadar and Gizmodo UK on a six-figure campaign for its O2 Gurus technology advice service.

Catering to current trends of craft and crowdsourcing, Clear Channel Outdoor commissioned two “high-profile billboard muralists” to handpaint people’s tweets on a giant canvas during Cannes. And by smushing enough ideas together on a 16m x 4m screen, they’ve set a couple records: This was the world’s first hand-painted micrography billboard made entirely of tweets, and also the world’s first gigapixel image searchable by tweet.

To gather relevant words, CCO started Twitter debates with questions like, “Who owns the creative agenda?” and “Is technology redefining creativity?” People were into it: over the four-day period, the campaign delivered a total campaign reach of 15.7 million impressions on Twitter. “Who owns the creative agenda?” trended number two worldwide. As the responses streamed in, social media visualisations of the #canvas Twitter content were displayed on CCO’s website, digital screens at the festival, and a high-resolution projection to a separate 18m x 5m canvas located on the roof of the Le Grand Hotel.

It’s a sweet reflection of the spirit of Cannes, one that could have only been more accurate if it involved alcohol. See if your tweet was chosen here.

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Well, this is news to us, but Carl Warner, who’s spent the last several years in Atlanta, first at JWT then briefly at Engauge, has returned to his old stomping grounds at Dallas-based The Richards Group, where he now serves as creative group head. We’ve been told this is actually Warner’s third stint at Richards, where he initially started in the ’80s as an art director.

Most recently, as mentioned, Warner had a seven-month stint at Engauge after spending nearly six years at JWT ATL, where he last served as co-president/ECD before the latter agency parted ways with him in summer 2011. No word yet on what Warner’s current title exactly entails or what accounts he’s “head” of, but last we heard from Richards Group, of course, was when the Texas stalwart put out the Ram “God Made a Farmer” Super Bowl spot this year.

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