Hasta La Creative!

It’s one thing to prank unsuspecting consumers as a marketing ploy. It’s another to prank one’s own employees for the same reason. But that’s exactly what Dutch insurance company Centraal Beheer did to its call center employees.

The pranks begin mundanely enough with the caller pretending to be hard of hearing. They continue to ramp up the craziness scale and, finally, the stunt ends with the caller pretending to give birth while seemingly in a vehicle on the side of the road.

Bu what’s really funny is watching the pranksters actually go through the motions of giving birth…to a doll. The stunt seems to be gaining a fair bit of traction with 327,526 YouTube views since the video was posted December 26.

Passionné par la culture américaine et aussi par l’état du Texas, le photographe français Remi Noël nous invite a découvrir une série d’images prises de Houston à Dallas, mettant souvent en scène une figurine de Batman, compagnon de voyage de l’artiste. Une série en noir & blanc très réussie à découvrir en images dans la suite.

What do you get when you combine the soulless, artsy advertising imagery of CK One with the doughy, balding, angst-sweaty magnificence of Louis C.K.? One awesome Tumblr, that's what.

Louis CK One is a mashup that combines images of the comedian, famous for keeping it real, with the plastic, hyperstylized aesthetic of Calvin Klein. Bogus billboards and faux magazine spreads display his pot belly and shiny pate in close proximity to stylish "Louis CK One" bottles, creating an image so oxymoronic it becomes social satire.

Refinery29 guesses at the "Louis CK One" bouquet: "Aniseed and pizza grease? Citrus and flop sweat? Baby powder and righteous rage?" Hey wait, that's what the real CK One smells like!

The joke ads posted so far are great, but I'm hoping for a parody of Calvin Klein's pretentious commercials. Imagine a Louis C.K. impersonator (or the real deal) rocking a black sleeveless number, wagging his Doritos-smeared middle finger at the camera and lamenting, as he did last year to Conan O'Brien, "You never feel completely sad or completely happy; you just feel kinda satisfied with your product, and then you die!"

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is making some management shifts at the dawn of 2014. Among the moves the Boulder-based, MDC-owned agency is the promotion of 10-year vet Steve Erich to president. In addition to Erich (pictured), who most recently served as partner/managing director at CP+B, the agency has also appointed Mike Saunter, a Warner Music/EMI alum, to chief operating officer while also moving one of its four original partners, Jeff Steinhour,  to the role of vice-chairman.

As for new prez Erich, after joining CP+B in 2004 to help relaunch the Burger King biz, the exec moved up the ladder to partner in 2008 and subsequently was appointed managing director two years ago. CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “Steve is a rare combination of incredible intelligence, reliability and great market knowledge with a proven ability to lead, unify and inspire both his team and our clients. Mike’s financial expertise and his experience in the music industry, a creative industry that is overflowing with opportunities yet in the midst of profound changes – as is our industry, will be invaluable to us. And Jeff is a key to continuing our culture, what makes us great and what continues to be the heartbeat of CP+B.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When Nissan offered to sell its Versa Note on Amazon last fall, it promised to ship the cars to three lucky buyers in actual Amazon boxes. Well, this weekend it was delivery day!

A Reddit user on Monday posted this photo from Madison, Wis., noting: "What's the largest item you can have shipped from Amazon? Because I think my neighbor just got it." A commenter soon pointed out the Nissan partnership, which seemed to be the most obvious explanation of such an epic delivery. AdFreak then reached out to Nissan, and Erich Marx, the automaker's director of interactive and social-media marketing, confirmed that the Redditor had captured the delivery—which was meant to be kept under wraps until a video could be released next week.

The original idea, he said, came from Nissan agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. "They mentioned it, and we all kind of laughed and thought, 'Wouldn't that be funny?' " said Marx. "But over the course of a few days, we kept coming back to it and said, 'Why not deliver a car in an Amazon box?' … It's never really been done. I think the visual is pretty hilarious. Everybody knows the Amazon box. We thought it would capture people's imagination. It certainly captured ours." In the end, Marx added, Nissan decided to deliver just one Versa Note, not three as originally planned.

The Redditor's photo, which hit the site's front page on Monday, came as a surprise to Nissan. "We were filming the video this weekend and a neighbor noticed what we were doing and posted what amounts to a spy photo," said Marx. "The best laid marketing plans, right? We were going to do a press release and a video and this whole thing next week. But the photo got out there, and people started buzzing about it. So we had to scramble."

The first 100 people to order the Versa Note on Amazon got $1,000 gift cards. Nissan contacted many of them, and then chose the Madison customer as the winner. "Quite frankly it was the enthusiasm of this winner—they were so thrilled and thought it was hilarious," said Marx. "We were all voting for someone in Hawaii. We were like, 'Madison, Wisconsin, in January? That's going to be cold.' But this winner was so into it, we knew it was going to be great."

Nissan is keeping the winner's name private for now. He or she will be revealed in the video, which is still set to be released next week. "We wanted to keep some of our original plan intact," said Marx.

Does Marx envision a day when a Nissan could be delivered by a fleet of Amazon drones? Laughing, he replied, "No, I think this a really fun onetime execution. We have a great dealer network, and we want our dealers to be involved in the marketing and delivery of our cars. We certainly don't want to step on their toes."

More photos below.

Dennis Publishing, the owner of The Week and Men’s Fitness, is showcasing some bad car buying advice in the first above-the-line advertising campaign for Carbuyer, its car review website that relaunches this week.

Napoleão lutou contra exércitos inteiros e aterrorizava seus inimigos. Mas poderia ele pedir permissão a esposa para sair com os amigos? Poderia ler um livro de Paulo Coelho em público? E pedir uma Coca-Cola Light? Joana d’Arc comandou batalhas épicas em busca da vitória, mas poderia ela suportar uma depilação a laser? Poderia cuidar de três filhos e retomar uma carreira depois de anos dedicados a maternidade? E pedir uma Coca-Cola Light?

Com esses dois personagens históricos enfrentando problemas triviais, a Santo de Buenos Aires coloca o refrigerante como uma opção para os homens e mulheres de hoje, heróis modernos, com uma atitude light em momentos autoindulgentes.

A campanha estreou em setembro passado no México.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Pour près de 8£, This Studio vous propose un superbe calendrier 2014 imprimé au format A1 paysage. Un graphisme de qualité, proposant de réunir les 365 jours sur une seule image, classant chaque mois sur une ligne. Un projet visuellement réussi à découvrir en images et détails dans la suite de l’article.

Jon Goldstone, vice-president, brand building, foods and ice cream at Unilever, reveals his predictions for 2014.

Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer announced a handful of new media launches for the company at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday.