Hasta La Creative!

In a campaign that launches tomorrow KFC Russia and agency Perfect Fools are offering KFC customers the chance to star in their own television commercial.

Perfect Fools created MovieMatic, a machine designed “to direct, shoot, edit and post the footage to YouTube.” KFC customers can use the MoveiMatic to insert themselves into a KFC ad that will be uploaded to YouTube. Once their video is uploaded, “a receipt is printed with the URL and a reminder to watch their creation, share and invite friends to vote.” A “panel of experts” (your guess as to what that means is as good as ours) will then select the best of the bunch to air on Russian television. Technology utilized in the MovieMatic includes: “professional photography lights, two Canon 5D Mark III cameras, computers with bespoke software, storage drives, wifi router and phidgets for the control buttons, plus smaller light emitting gadgets and microphones.”

Piotr Rozanski, marketing director for YUM! Brands Russia said, “KFC is the first brand in Russia to star a customer in a TV campaign. The aim is to captivate, inspire customers, generate lots of brilliant videos showing off their acting and dancing skills, then get them involved in a popularity contest to make them a hero across Russia.”

The MovieMatic will be in Moscow for the next week, and then make a two week tour of St. Petersburg starting on February 19th. Contestants have five days following the creation of their video to generate as many votes as possible. The television commercial featuring the winning contestant will air on March 31st. You can view results here. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Communications minister Ed Vaizey says the advertising of legal highs will be scrutinised by a Home Office-led review into the potentially fatal drugs.

(TrendHunter.com) These extravagantly crazy shoes will make you look fabulous, but might also ruin your diet.

If you really want to steal the show at the next party you go to, these killer candy heels will…

How do you get your ad to the top of Reddit? Try erasing all the audio and bad copywriting, leaving only a few silent scenes of a sweaty, stripping tutor.

At least, that seemed to work for European thermostat app Wiser, whose new ad, "A Very Hot Afternoon," soared to Reddit's front page this week after a user converted the spot from agency Being into an animated GIF.

As you can see below by comparing the original YouTube clip to the silent animation, this translation really highlights how mediocre and pointless the actual ad's final 30 seconds are.

Also, as with any scene from the "hot for teacher" trope, it's always funny to imagine how disturbing this spot would be if the genders were reversed. A sweaty guy slowly undressing next to a young girl? Watching that kind of clip is likely to get you a visit from the feds, or at least Chris Hansen.

Newcastle Brown Ale, which didn't buy airtime in Sunday's Super Bowl but is doing a wonderfully silly campaign about how it almost did, rolled out more content from Droga5 this week—including the hilarious endorsement below by Anna Kendrick.

Just like last week's Newcastle trailer was the year's best Super Bowl teaser, Kendrick's performance will surely be the funniest among this year's celebs.

Newcastle has done a lot of great stuff around this faux Super Bowl campaign, including a brilliantly self-mocking native ad on Gawker as well as bogus focus-group videos and another endorsement video starring Keyshawn Johnson.

"It seemed like the obvious thing we had to do, and unfair to the world if we didn't," Newcastle brand director Quinn Kilbury said of the Super Bowl ambush. "The Super Bowl is great. The game is amazing, everyone loves the game. But it's become much more about marketing in some ways, and the over-the-top ridiculousness that surrounds it. I saw a lot of that when I was doing the real Super Bowl marketing stuff over at Pepsi, so it's close to my heart, and it is a little ridiculous sometimes. For a brand that likes to poke fun at marketing, we had to poke fun at Super Bowl marketing at some point."

He added: "The brief to Droga5 was, essentially, hijack the conversation around Super Bowl marketing. We had a couple of ideas, but essentially that was it. At first I think we saw doing something around the game itself, but then we thought if you're going to do the Super Bowl, or the Super [Bleep], as we're calling it, you have to be true to the whole marketing show. You have to treat the commercial like it's a $100 million blockbuster."

See the rest of the content below.

Neil Lopez (a copywriting student at Miami Ad School NY), Steve Torres (an art direction student at MAS NY), and Tim Noble (a copywriter in the industry) created “Side Projects Get You Jobs,” a side project offering up free side project ideas for others looking to expand their portfolio with side projects.

The creative trio points out the importance of side projects to help creatives stand out, while acknowledging that “coming up with the perfect idea can be tough.” So they offer up some of their own side project ideas for free (and because it makes an impressive side project). Visitors to the site are immediately met with an idea, such as “Make a Rocky style video of yourself training for the creative week ping-pong tournament.” They can then click on the “More” button for more ideas from Lopez, Torres, and Noble. Some highlights include: “Draw Middle Earth style maps of your booty calls,” “Stage a Tamagotchi Vs. Giga Pet death match,” “Start a Jesse and the Rippers cover band,” and “Write Mad Men spec pitches.” So if you’re looking for a side project to build up your portfolio but seem all out of ideas, head on over to Side Projects Get You Jobs and take one of theirs.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When our dear friend Shannon Stephaniuk from glossy sent us this video, directed by Leblanc + Cudmore who just signed with Revolver Films, for Timber Timbre’s Hot Dreams, we had to whip out the Oban, light up a cigar and pretend we were at a very elegant strip club. Because, where we live, there are no elegant strips clubs so we had to use out imagination.

Thanks for distracting us and filling our head with dirty thoughts, Shannon!

We’ve hooked up with Pavone’s SpotBowl, a Super Bowl ad poll site that’s been doing its thing since 2004. It’ll be home to all things Super Bowl and it’s where you should be at this Sunday night.

Everything you could ever want to know about the Super Bowl advertising can be found on the site. Who’s running what and when. Reviews of Super Bowl ads that have already aired. A poll to determine which ads you think are the best. Downloadable score cards. And even recipes you can enjoy on game day.

You can vote during or after the game and can view up-to-the-minute results after each voting session. Polls close on Monday, February 3, at 3 p.m. EST.