Hasta La Creative!

Campbell Soup Co. on Wednesday unveiled a major new cost-cutting initiative as it battles what CEO Denise Morrison called a “a mounting distrust of so-called Big Food.”

The soup, snacks, meals and beverage marketer will target $200 million in annual cost savings over three years, representing 2%-3% of its annual sales. The savings will come through a variety of means, including eliminating “excess layers of management,” while adopting a “zero-based-budgeting” approach, according to the company. The budgeting method, which is emerging as a popular tool for struggling food companies, involves making departments justify all of their expenses every year.

The announcement, which came at this week’s Consumer Analyst Group of New York meeting in Florida, follows Campbell’s move late last month to reorganize into three divisions. The new structure seems aimed at pouring profits from the company’s sluggish, but high-margin shelf stable soup and meals business into its faster-growing fresh food brands sold at the store perimeter. Last week, the company lowered its 2015 full-year sales and earnings guidance.

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It makes sense that Vice had something to do with it.

Vice Media CEO Shane Smith paid for a $300,000 Las Vegas dinner last month, according to a person who asked not to be identified because the meal was private. Mr. Smith, a Vice co-founder, had been on a lucky gambling run, the person said.

Brooklyn-based Vice has grown from a free Montreal monthly into a media titan. Technology Crossover Ventures and A&E Networks each invested $250 million for 10% stakes in the company last year. After Gawker published complaints about Vice’s low wages and freelance pay last year, the company released a statement describing the insurance, vacation days and stock program for its employees.

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Paul Parker a réalisé cette étonnante vidéo à l’aide du logiciel After Affects. Après avoir filmé des paysages de la côte, survolé par un nombre incalculable de mouettes, l’artiste a décidé de les dupliquer autant de fois que possible, jusqu’à que leurs déplacements dans les airs dessinent de subtiles arabesques dans le ciel.

Air New Zealand worked with agency True on its latest brand campaign, “Calling All Travelers.”

After pushing its connection with Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit films for the past several years, culminating in the brand’s “The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made” sendoff, Air New Zealand looks beyond Middle Earth following the conclusion of the trilogy. While the airline hasn’t been totally dependent on The Hobbit-related ads and promos during those years, it has a had a hard time finding its footing without references to Middle Earth, as in the ill-received Sports Illustrated collaboration “Safety in Paradise.”

The hobbits aren’t completely gone from “Calling All Travelers” either, as the Baggins home makes a brief appearance in a montage of New Zealand’s attractions. Of course, New Zealand does a pretty good job of selling itself, with its astounding biodiversity and beautiful locations. True leans heavily on the island country’s natural beauty in the spot, while positioning it as “Far away from expected and nowhere near ordinary.” And if the spot’s attempt at humor (through the true source of what initially seems to be a voiceover) falls a bit flat, it still should entice curious viewers, and especially the “serious travelers” it targets, to consider traveling to New Zealand. The campaign also includes a contest inviting participants to build an itinerary for a chance to win the ultimate New Zealand vacation.

Smuggler has signed director Miles Jay to its roster. Jay’s interactive short film ‘Carly’s Caf’ earned him both the Young Director and Silver Lion awards at the Cannes Lions festival in 2012, and his film “Hollywood + Vines” won a Silver Pencil from the One Show. His reel includes the short “Allshare” for Samsung, and interactive music video “White Doves” for the Toronto indie band Young Empires, which utilized Facebook Connect to take viewers on a personalized experience through Facebook profiles.

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