Hasta La Creative!

DDB Canada launched a pro-bono PSA campaign for Toronto Crime Stoppers examining the dangers of ecstasy use, entitled “Cookin’ with Molly.”

The spot, whose full-length version online runs 90 seconds, is presented as a cooking show with a drug dealer. Molly is a name for pure MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy), but, as the video shows, pills presented as “Molly” are often adulterated with substances ranging from methamphetamine and cocaine to heroin and even bath salts. “Welcome to ‘Cookin’ with Molly,’” says the host of the show at the beginning of the ad, “today’s secret ingredient is meth.” He adds just a pinch of bath salts to some ground up MDMA, a bunch of meth and finishes up with his “signature” blue color and some binder before pressing the pills. The online version of the spot ends by directing to viewers to the campaign landing site for more information. There are also 15 and 6 second broadcast versions of the spot. DDB Canada hopes the tongue-in-cheek approach of the campaign, which launched today and will run through the end of February, will resonate with the target audience of people between the ages of 15 and 25.

“These party-type drugs have been a growing concern, and Toronto Crime Stoppers wanted to tackle this head on without being heavy-handed, so the cooking show format is intended to be tongue-in-cheek,” explains Craig Ferguson, senior art director, DDB Canada Toronto. “At the same time, this creative still allows us to educate people on the harmful, hidden ingredients found in MDMA which was our key objective.” (more…)

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adam&eveDDB London has a fun new campaign for Temptations, in which they unleashed hungry cats on packs of the treats.

The results were, of course, completely predictable: the cats destroyed the bags in an attempt to get at the goodies inside. adam&eveDDB London not only captured their shenanigans for an online video (above), but used the wrecked bags for print and OOH ads. The video, which was just uploaded today, is all but guaranteed to go viral, since cats+destruction is a pretty winning formula. At the beginning of the spot, the hashtag “#PackAttack” appears onscreen, and the brand is calling on cat-loving viewers to submit their own photos of Temptations bags destroyed by hungry felines. It’s a nice way to bring in social engagement and get everyone excited about the “#PackAttack” effort — especially the cats.

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Today we hear from multiple sources that staffing cuts occurred this week at Detroit’s Lowe Campbell Ewald.

The last few months have witnessed several big changes for the agency: in September, news broke that Hill Holliday had lost the Cadillac account, that IPG would be folding its Rogue unit, and that LCE would handle creative for the client moving forward. After that shakeup, Managing Director Kevin Wertz assumed the role of president reporting to CEO Jim Palmer in a move that also saw the departure of longtime COO Kathleen Donald and the promotion of several other executives.

The client, however, surprised many in the industry one month ago, confirming rumors that it had been “quietly talking to other agencies“ by choosing Publicis Worldwide as its AOR.

Lowe Campbell Ewald has not responded to multiple requests for comment, but more than one source lists the total number of employees who are no longer with the agency as of this afternoon at 30; another source claims that this group includes Group Digital Creative Director Iain Lanivich of 2013?s “We’re moving to Detroit and so should you” video. Since the agency employs approximately 500, these numbers would amount to less than ten percent of its total workforce.

Updates as we receive them.

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