Hasta La Creative!

Yesterday was Victoria Day in Canada, a May bank holiday up north, and Toronto-based agency Entrinsic has released a timely spot for Victoria gin, celebrating its namesake Queen Victoria.

The 30-second broadcast spot, “That’s The Spirit” was created by Entrinsic in collaboration with production company Revolver Films and director Christopher Wahl. It relates a series of unexpected but true facts about Queen Victoria: She ruled the British Empire at 18 while still living with her mom; she married her first cousin and had nine children; she was almost assassinated seven times. “If you were Queen Victoria,” the spot concludes, “you’d be ready for a drink, too.” The visual approach is straightforward, showing Queen Victoria gradually walking toward the camera and then sitting at a bar enjoying some gin. Entrinisic and Wahl also teamed up for the accompanying print campaign, which will roll out later in the year. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Hossein Zare est une photographe iranien qui fait des photos surréalistes dans un style unique et magique. Il retourne les paysages et la ville, crée des symétries, fait flotter un homme dans le ciel et il introduit beaucoup d’échelles et de balançoires. A découvrir en images.

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium hexametaphosphate (preservative), caffeine, taurine, natural flavors, acacia, potassium sorbate (preservative), glycerol ester of rosin, l-theanine, sucralose, yellow 5, calcium disodium edta (preservative), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), yellow 6, guarana, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12)

And you call that a health drink? WTF has marketing and manufacturing come to? Those are the ingredients of Coke’s NOS Energy Drink that’s being touted in a new spot from Mistress which will air weekly during FOX’s The Ultimate Fighter and FOX’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

In the spot, we see a grizzled old man who looks like he’s been through a life of hell. As the spot progresses, he get younger, trimmer, leaner and, generally more healthy looking. Maybe if he hadn’t consumed NOS his whole life, he wouldn’t have ended up looking so beaten down.

As if proud of how those who seemingly consume its beverage, NOS has relaunched its website which now features an app that lets visitors upload a picture of themselves, participate in a lifestyle questionnaire and the app will then reproduce the photo complete with scars and other elements of a “full life.”

Fuck. We’re sticking with water.

Here's a first for Coca-Cola—a TV commercial comprised entirely of short video clips made by fans (aside from some very brief animations).

The spot, produced by Wieden + Kennedy and set to premiere during Wednesday's season finale of American Idol, came out of a contest announced a few months ago. The brand invited teens to submit short video clips sharing what it feels like when they take a sip of Coke. The best clips, they were told, would be featured in a national Coca-Cola TV ad.

Coke got some 400 submissions, and chose 40 for the final cut. The clips in the ad come from all over the world—from Brazil to Salt Lake City to Jacksonville, Fla.

The spot, titled "This Is AHH," will air this week on teen-focused networks including The CW, MTV and Adult Swim. It's part of a teen campaign called "The AHH Effect," now in its second year.

It’s almost becoming standard practice to trash the crap out of a brand for making even the slightest change to its brand. In some cases the changes are big and in some cases they are small but it seems as though every change is followed by an onslaught of social media outcry from people with nothing better to do than craft a witty Tweet that is then featured in the news which then causes the whole thing to spiral out of control.

Sometimes the reaction is warranted. Most times, it’s just bitching. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there used to be a time in which brands could do whatever the hell they wanted to when it came to their brand and there’d be little to no outcry, at least publicly.

Today, a brand’s CEO can’t take a shit in private without someone tweeting about it. The Gap was publicly chastised into changing back to its old logo when it attempted to create a new one in 2010. Olive Garden changed its logo earlier this year and no one liked that move either. And now, McDonald’s is out with a new character named Happy and no one is happy about it.

While Happy has been around since 2009 overseas, he’s making his debut in America this week. And he’s brought with him the usual collection of “epic fail” headlines and angry tweets.

While the new character is supposed to be about “bringing more fun and excitement to kids’ meals, including eating wholesome food choices like low-fat yogurt,” according to a statement, many are saying Happy’s teeth are too big or he scares children or “this makes me crave Burger King.”

We’re not going to join the parade of embedded tweets simply to give those tweeters an ego boost but we are going to say this; It’s a fucking brand mascot. Who gives a shit? Is it really worth getting your panties and jockstraps in a bunch? Do you really care what the hell McDonald’s does to lie through its teeth telling you its food is healthy?

Go take a walk. Leave your computer and phone behind. Enjoy nature. Kiss your girlfriend/boyfriend/mother/father/mistress and tell them you love them. And don’t hold it against us when we get on our high horse in the near future and rail against something as equally inane as McDonald’s introducing a brand mascot.