Hasta La Creative!

A young girl in a white dress, walks in slow motion through a technicolor meadow and gets hit by splatters of colourful liquids and foods in an ad promoting the efficacy of Persil Bio Small & Mighty detergent.

Here's an airport stunt from Heineken that truly embodies the brand's adventurous spirit. Twice this week, Wieden + Kennedy in New York set up a board at JFK's Terminal 8 and dared travelers to play "Departure Roulette"—changing their destination to a more exotic location with the press of a button. They had to agree to drop their existing travel plans—without knowing the new destination first—and immediately board a flight to the new place.

On Tuesday, a man played the game and ended up going to Cyprus instead of Vienna. (He had been planning a six-week visit with his grandparents, but soon learned he would be headed to Cyprus on a 9:55 p.m. flight. Heineken gave him $2,000 to cover expenses and booked him into a hotel for two nights.) W+K set up the board again on Thursday, and brought cameras along to document the gameplay. The game is inspired by "Dropped," the new Heineken campaign that launched a month ago from W+K Amsterdam in which four men are sent to remote destinations and film their adventures. We should have footage from Thursday's event next week. For now, Heineken should set this up in the Moscow airport. There's a guy there who would welcome any chance to fly to oblivion.

Oh how we love Rooney Mara. Ever since we first saw her in Tanner Hall, we’ve been infatuated with her work. Rooney, whose sister Kate we also love, is fronting a Calvin Klein campaign for the brand’s new fragrance, Down Town. Helmed by David Fincher, who directed Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network, the one minute ad, a bit overly hipsterific for its own good, is very Audrey Hepburn-esque and features the song Runaway from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Of her participation in the campaign, Mara (or, more correctly, some PR person who wrote the grammatically questionable quote for her,) told WWD, “I am very excited to be included in the group of amazing women that have been featured in the iconic advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein fragrances. It’s an honor to be part of a brand with such a legacy of breakthrough advertising.”

The campaign, which includes a print component, captures the retro glamour of yesteryear beautifully in a wonderfully noirish fashion that mixes mostly retro imagery with elements of today’s culture.

And as a bonus, making a rare appearance in the ad, we get to see Mara’s seemingly very shy teeth, a rarity of epic proportion from the girl who has adopted a very coyly demure, robotic demeanor.

News this week that Interpublic will once again rejigger the operations of Lowe, its global micronetwork, and make Detroit shop Campbell Ewald its U.S. hub has been met with some skepticism in adland.

After all, London-based Lowe’s attempts at having a U.S. market presence haven’t been successful in the past and it’s been through lots of mergers in its past. It’s not even the first time the shop has been aligned with Campbell Ewald. According to the Ad Age DataCenter, CE in the 1980s and 1990s was part of Interpublic’s Lintas worldwide network, a predecessor to the Lowe network. CE joined the Lintas network in October 1987, operating as Lintas:Campbell-Ewald. The agency changed its name back to Campbell Ewald in May 1995, though for a period the agency continued to be part of the Lintas network. In 1999, Lintas (operating as Ammirati Puris Lintas) merged with Lowe, forming Lowe Lintas; Lowe Lintas shortened its name to Lowe in 2001.

Few in the industry recall that partnership. Chairman-CEO Michael Roth — who’s been very hands on, participating in the Cadillac pitch and handpicking shops that work together — claims this time, Lowe Campbell Ewald will go down in the books as a success story. Here, his plans for the newly-combined shop, as well as his thoughts on pitching clients using agency “teams” and the role of the holding company in 2013.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Earlier this week, we covered some Sid Lee Paris video game business. Today, we’re moving back across the Atlantic, as Sid Lee New York debuts a 3-Bee (yup, they punned 3-D) printing project for Dewar’s Highlander Honey whiskey. The technology allows for  80,000 bees to mimic their natural environment in a factory setting and create hives in custom shapes, like a Dewar’s whiskey bottle. The Ebeling Group, which produced the accompanying video, had to do their work in full beekeeper suits. That is how you commit to a project.

The 60-second video offers viewers an artsy glimpse into the totality of the 3-Bee project. The edgy tone comes from muted lighting and  background music that might as well be a leftover composition from Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood‘s There Will Be Blood soundtrack. I’m not sure that this strategy would make me want to purchase a drinkable product, but the creativity involved more than makes up for it with originality. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In this strange ad by Made Movement for Stonyfield, a woman with an Oompa-Loopa-ish complexion and a deeply annoying voice asks her lunchroom friend if she ever wonders about pesticides. Stonyfield fans like myself will recognize that a similar question is contained inside every yogurt container. But our protagonist gives it a good ponder anyway, and we are transported into her mind's eye. A farmer and his son are seen petting a cow, when three neon-colored dweebs wearing costumes that say "Pesticide" hop the fence to cause trouble. So, the Stonyfield farmer breaks out his kung-fu and defeats his brightly colored enemies by employing more cowbell. According to the release, "While most opt for a slick, stylish approach and keep verbiage vague such as 'Pure' or 'Natural,' this high-energy, color-saturated spot highlights Stonyfield's commitment." Indeed, it does look like someone vomited highlighters on it. And it does stand out in a category full of real cows in realistically colored fields. I guess Stoneyfield is finally going for the stoner crowd.

CREDITS
Client: Stonyfield

Agency: Made Movement
Chief Creative Officer, Partner: Dave Schiff
Chief Design Officer, Partner: John Kieselhorst
Chief Digital Officer, Partner: Scott Prindle
Creative Director: Claire Wyckoff
Chief Strategy Officer: Graham Furlong
Art Director: Marybeth Ledesma
Writers: David Satterfield, Claire Wyckoff
Consulting Head of Integrated Production: Chris Kyriakos
Junior Integrated Producer: Isaac Karsen
Visual Effects Company: Ingenuity Engine
Music Company: Beacon Street Studios
Composers: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau
Sound Design Company: Soundelux
Editorial Company: NO6

Business Manager: Jennifer DeCastro
Vice President, Account Production: Rachael Donaldson
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Jim Hosking
Executive Producers: Kevin Byrne, Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Leora Glass
Director of Photography: Marten Tedin

Editor: Dan Aronin
Assitant Editor: Doug Scott
Executive Producer (Editorial Company): Crissy DeSimone

Lead Flame: David Lebensfeld
Visual Effects Producer: Oliver Taylor
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl

Sound Designer: Harry Cohen
Audio Finishing: Lime Studios
Audio Engineer: Sam Casas

“LG Big-In Combo holds a full 12 kg. For more than a regular washing machine. That means you will save up to 100 washes a year.”

Advertising Agency: M&C Saatchi, Stockholm, Sweden
Art Director: Isabelle Österlund
Copywriter: Lisa Sandbladh