Hasta La Creative!

There are plenty of PSAs targeting texting and driving, but the majority (if not all) of them deal with things from the driver’s side. McCann Mexico just launched a campaign for Chevrolet which flips the script, cautioning viewers, “Don’t Text a Driver.”

In a 50-second spot, a man sitting on the toilet and texting is transported into the middle of the road. As he goes along his way, drawing in viewers with the absurdity of the situation, he continues obliviously texting. Finally as he approaches a curve, the driver he’s texting (who is looking at his cell phone, rather than the road) has to brake and swerve to avoid hitting him. The spot concludes with the message, “When you text a driver, you become the hazard. Don’t text a driver.” Three supporting print ads deliver the same message in similar scenarios: one also employing a man texting from the toilet, another from a copy machine and a woman texting at the hair salon. It’s nice to see an agency taking a slightly different approach to the subject, as it’s all too easy to ignore these messages when they all sound the same. We’ve included one of the print ads below.

Credits:

Agency: McCann Mexico City
Client: General Motors
Product: Chevrolet
Campaign name: Don’t Text a Driver
Chief Creative Officer: Javi Carro
VP Creative Director: Jorge Aguilar
Creative Director: Javier Echevarría/Joka Alquicira
Copywriter: Javier Echevarría
Art Director: Pablo Motta/Ricardo Montes de Oca
Production Team: Juan González/Rafael López
Production House: Antídote MP
Director: Edgardo Abon
Executive Production: Juan Aura / Mark Castro / Gabriela Goela
Musician: Héctor Ruiz /MCO Studios

Lawmakers at a Senate hearing did not dispute the benefits of broadband, but said the current Lifeline program for poor Americans had been mismanaged.

Well, we suppose this is one way to effectively get your name out there–albeit in one of the oddest, most annoying ways possible. If you haven’t heard of online Asian grocery store BapMart.com, well now you know thanks to a pitchman–Mr. Bapmart, natch–who doesn’t just sidle but emerges from out of nowhere and whose vocabulary is seemingly limited to the brand name itself.

Directed by Valiant Pictures’ Vincent Lin, the three spots in the campaign highlight our hero whose fashion sense fits his bizarre personality as he appears then interrupts random strangers’ conversations. We believe it’s his slow whisper that truly sells BapMart, which specializes in discounted items ranging from Korean ramen noodles and Japanese curry to Sriracha sauce and seaweed. Check out more of Mr. Bapmart’s in-store encroachments below.

Credits:

Production Company: Valiant Pictures
Creative Lead/Director: Vincent Lin
Executive Producer: Matthew D’Amato
Art Director: Melissa Choi

(TrendHunter.com) With vending machines, innovative services and apps, many of the top June 2015 business concepts prioritize creating convenient experiences above all else. Two of the best examples of this include a…

Pinterest has confirmed that it will introduce Buyable Pins, the company announced at an event at its San Francisco headquarters Tuesday.

A buy pin had been reportedly been in the works in recent months, but the company declined to comment at the time and it was unclear how the company would implement purchases and what other parties would be involved.

But the company Tuesday made it a point to illustrate that security and anti-fraud measures were in place. Pinterest is working with Stripe to handle payments, and is also working with Braintree and Apple to make sure “Pinterest’s servers never touch customer’s credit card information.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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, a woman in a Birchbox commercial is chased by makeup salespeople who want to douse her in perfume samples and self-tanner. And a sleepy white dog is filmed with an iPhone 6 in the latest Apple spot.

Meanwhile, LeBron James shows his classy side, dressing in a crisp white shirt and a bespoke suit while Eartha Kitt plays. For a piece of flair, he dons his Beats Solo2 headphones. (The spot instantly shot up to No. 2 in the engagement column, just behind Supercell’s “Ride of the Hog Riders.”)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

BBDO New York launched a series of new broadcase ads for FedEx, promoting FedEx Ground as a way for small businesses to save money.

Four 30-second spots present humorous scenarios where FedEx Ground can help small businesses, presenting the service as a better alternative to other money-saving practices. In “Bed & Breakfast” for example, a startup resorts to moonlighting as a bed and breakfast, with disastrous results. When one employee suggests they save money with FedEx Ground instead, everyone agrees, although it may be too late for the plumbing. In another spot, the service is working well for a company, unlike it’s open floor plan. “Hotshots,” meanwhile takes a look at a kid-run business, while “Family Business” shows how the service can make you take your business more seriously. The humor works better in some cases than others (the ridiculousness of “Family Business” notably falls flat), as the ads straddle a difficult balance between product integration and lighthearted narrative. As far as ads in the category go, however, these are fairly memorable. And haters of open floor plans will get a kick out of “Open Floor Plan” in particular.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: BBDO, New York, USA
Chief Creative Officers: David Lubars, Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Directors: Gianfranco Arena, Peter Kain
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Justin Bilicki
Associate Creative Director / Copywriter: Matt Herr
Group Executive Producer: Amy Wertheimer
Executive Producer: Tricia Lentini
Group Planning Director: Sangeet Pillai
Managing Director: Kirsten Flanik
Senior Account Director: Kathryn Brown
Account Director: Amanda Cruz
Account Manager: Joshua Mesquita
Account Executive: Trent Lyle
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Executive Producer: Scott Howard
Line Producer: Emily Skinner
Director of Photography: Jo Williams
Edit House: Mack Cut
Editor: Ian Mackenzie
Assistant Editor: Mike Leuis
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld
Visual Effects House: Schmigital
Sound Mixer: Philip Loeb/Heard City
Casting: Francene Selkirk

(TrendHunter.com) The hot weather is inspiring people to revamp their wardrobe and homes; this collection of top June 2015 DIY ideas will inspire many to embrace a more fun and frugal way to do just that. Although…