Hasta La Creative!

Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, Honda tells the tale of a woman who left her Honda — for another Honda — while Microsoft shows off its new Xbox driving game “Forza Horizon 2.” And DirecTV serves up another spot in its continuing campaign starring Rob Lowe — along with rather unfortunate alternate versions of Rob Lowe.

As always, you can find out more about the making of the best commercials on TV at Ad Age’s Creativity.

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The Bolloré Group is attempting to secure a controlling stake in Havas, the world’s sixth largest advertising company, but has ruled out an imminent sale.

Someone wants the trade press to know that Infiniti will sign with CP&B.

A source told AdAge this morning that the competition is all over, “although a final contract has not yet been signed.”

Way back in July we established the fact that TBWA would not retain the account and that the initial pitch involved seven agencies; a September report claiming that CP&B and GS&P were the last two parties standing preceded a slew of tips insisting that CP&B would be the winner. That happened exactly one month ago — and now it seems that the “source” has succeeded again in planting the story.

Of course CP+B has yet to comment, because no agency can confirm such reports before the official statement is drafted with the client’s approval.

But we have to wonder who has been trying so hard to leak this news — and why the announcement has been delayed so long when our readers told us that the decision had already been made a month ago.

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Does McDonald’s put horsemeat in its burgers? What about pink slime? Would you feed McDonald’s food to your kids?

So many questions. But now, taking its cues from a well-received transparency campaign from McDonald’s Canada, the chain is responding to whatever hate its American critics want to throw at it. And it’s hired former MythBusters host Grant Imahara to be your third-party, completely unbiased, totally trustworthy, quasi-celebrity McMyth investigator.

Grant’s first three videos have already dropped, where he visits a Cargill plant and answers the following: Is McDonald’s beef real (and are there eyelids in there)? Why are the patties frozen (when fresh should theoretically be much tastier)? Why are the burgers so cheap (you get what you pay for, right)?

It’s everything you’d expect from a hard-reboot, Domino’s-style brand turnaround. What I most admire is that they’re letting the comment feed on YouTube be just as brutal as it wants to be. And man, is it brutal. It’s hard to tell the legit processed-food concerns from the horsemeat crazies.

Though honestly, that’s good for Micky D’s. The more they can discredit the really nutty folks by letting them be themselves—and there are some excellent conspiracy theorists blowing up the feed—the less McDonald’s itself actually needs to say.

That said, I’m probably not going to bite the bullet like Grant and munch a Big Mac anytime soon. But those sodium acid pyrophosphate fries, man. Who can resist those fries?

Investment company Bollor Group put forth an offer on Friday to acquire control of the French advertising holding company Havas.

“The Bollor Group has been a historical shareholder of Havas for more than 10 years,” Havas Chairman-Global CEO Yannick Bollor said in a statement. “It currently holds 36.2 % of Havas’ shares. This offer is a step further in the ongoing relationship already existing between the two groups. By strengthening its capital position through this public offer, the Bollor Group underlines its will to pursue its long-term commitment to Havas.”

Increasing his stake in Havas “will raise some questions about whether Bollor’s end-game is to sell Havas to a third party,” Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum Capital, wrote in a note. “Vivendi will also inevitably get linked, especially given its financial firepower post-disposals.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Fashion specialists, YARD in New York City, unveiled a new spot for Timberland. Holy juxtapositions. Hipsters enjoy time spent in the woods and messing around in the city? This is big. And the great thing is said hipsters do not need two uniforms of nonconformity; one will do. “I’m made for this moment. I’m built […]

The post Hipsters In Paradise appeared first on AdPulp.

David Beckham is certainly no stranger to advertising, but as far as we’re aware this is the first time the former soccer superstar has appeared in an ad for booze.

Beckham stars in the new spot for Haig Club Whisky, which was directed by Guy Ritchie. The ad sees Beckham partying it up at a remote estate in the Scottish highland — the kind of swanky real estate its fair to assume he and wife Victoria Beckham actually own — after meeting up with a group of friends. Beckham doesn’t speak in the ad (there’s no dialogue, actually) but he’s still the focus of attention, with Ritchie mostly keeping the camera focused on the star in the well-shot ad. No word yet on which agency was responsible, but we will update if/when we receive that information.

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