Hasta La Creative!

Hey there, agency creatives: are you and your significant other expecting yet still struggling to decide whether your first-born will be Jayden, Reagan or Madison?

Damjan Pita and Derek Evan Harms–who both happen to be ACDs at BBDO New York–have a solution: Tinder for baby names.

They started the project in collaboration with “a bunch of friends all over the world.” The team was inspired by another former colleague who described how he and his wife have been making lists of monikers for their prospective kids and comparing their results in the interest of finding common ground.

So they made an app: swipe right if you like the name and left if you don’t. It’s simple and very pastel. As Pita tells us, “finding a name for your baby should be as fun as making it.”

Your own side project may well be cooler than this one, but the app taught us that Gray means “grey-haired” and Yunus means “dove.” Did you know that?!

(TrendHunter.com) With the continued pursuit of integrating nature into manmade structure, many of the July 2015 architecture innovations involve reflecting the natural environment that surrounds new developments….

In addition to selling Trump-brand merchandise, Macy’s has previously featured “The Apprentice” star in ad campaigns, including a 2012 holiday spot.

NBC and Spanish-broadcaster Univision also cut ties with Mr. Trump in light of his remarks, Bloomberg reported. The networks will no longer air the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which Mr. Trump produces. He filed a lawsuit against Univision for dropping Miss USA.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

There’s no better way to kick off the holiday weekend than with a brew ad.

McCann Skopsje, the agency’s Macedonian branch, obliges with a campaign for Skopsko, billed as the oldest and most popular brand of its kind in said country.

Directed by Milcho Manchevski, the :90 film concerns a series of vignettes alternating between intimate moments with friends and thoughts of impending doom leading up to a couple’s nuptials. Despite the language barrier, one gets the point: disasters averted relationships strengthened with a little help from your friendly neighborhood beer brand and some scenery from Macedonia’s capital city, Skopje.

Regarding the setting and tone of the campaign that carries the tagline “Skopsko for Us,” editor Peter Mostert of post-production company Hooligan explains:

 “These spots exemplify Milcho’s knack for creating pictures that masterfully transcend the traditional boundaries of cinema and advertising. While there’s a tendency for beer spots to be overt or cliche, Milcho conceived something refreshing, especially in how these spots contextualize the brand so creatively – from props to situations to environments.”

According to the post-prodco, Mostert is currently cutting a series of :30 spots that will be a continuation of the “Buddies” campaign featuring the same cast.

(TrendHunter.com) The work of Stephanie Wiehle is deceptive. At first glance, the delicate hand-lettered illustrations look as though they would be focusing on beautiful sayings and dreamy thoughts. Upon closer…

In a society of TV binge-watching and bottomless brunches, it should come as no surprise that TGI Fridays “Endless Appetizer” promotion was a big enough success for the chain that it is bringing the all-you-can eat promotion back beginning today.

To re-introduce “Endless Appetizers,” Fridays is launching its first-ever video series — told from the point of view of the appetizers. The first spot, “Unionize,” depicts how the personified apps actually feel about the $10 promotion. The campaign, which includes TV spots, social media and integrated digital efforts, was created by Made, Boulder, Colo.

“Our first emphasis is to always put the product at the center,” said Dave Schiff, chief creative officer of the agency. “So rather than coming up with a crazy story, and then figuring out how to shoehorn the product in, we get started with the apps themselves and we hit on this idea to really turn them into characters.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The R&B star talks for the first time about trying to salvage his career after a $7.4 million verdict against him in a copyright lawsuit.

Travelocity’s parent company Expedia announced the launch of a creative review today.

After serving as the company’s creative AOR for two stints covering more than a decade, McKinney (the agency responsible for the not-an-Amelie-ripoff “roaming gnome”) will not participate in the review. The gnome itself, however, stays put.

From an email written by VP/GM Brad Wilson and quoted in the company’s announcement:

“In the hyper-competitive online travel space, breaking through the clutter with both a trusted brand and a fresh consumer message is of paramount importance. By reviewing our creative agency of record, we are ensuring that Travelocity can continue to effectively perform on both of these dimensions.”

Unfortunately, we do not have any information at the time as to which agencies will compete for the business. Here’s the interesting part:

“We have already shortlisted a number of agencies, so we will not be accepting any unsolicited proposals.”

So the company hand-picked the shops itself. Regarding its mini-Santa spokesman:

“…we look to continue growing consumer recognition and preference for our Travelocity brand, its services and the iconic Roaming Gnome.“

McKinney initially won the business in 2003; after a 2010 review, Travelocity went to Leo Burnett and Razorfish but returned to its rightful owner two years later. McKinney’s most recent work for the client included a clever bit of Shark Week “newsjacking” involving a “How Far Am I From Sharks Right Now” website.

Regarding its relationship with the agency, Travelocity Head of Brand Marketing Brett Steiger writes:

“Starting in 2003, McKinney has been an integral part of Travelocity’s brand and its initiatives. We are grateful for the outstanding work that they have done for us to date, and wish them all the best going forward.”

The review is not particularly surprising given the fact that Expedia acquired both Travelocity and Orbitz in early 2015, positioning itself as the monopoly to beat with 75 percent of the U.S. online travel agency market.

Kantar Media notes that Travelocity spent $80 million on media in 2009 but slashed its budgets significantly in the years prior to the acquisition.

Believe it or not, there are a few situations where dressing up as a giant penis and spraying people with confetti is inappropriate. Promoting condom use on behalf of a sex education charity is one of those situations, according to thirtysomething Norwegians.

To clarify, sex education charity RFSU hired ad agency Involve! to come up with something for a condom use campaign, which began as a response to rising chlamydia rates in Norway. Involve! then hired 19-year-old student Philip van Eck because he was tall enough to fit in the giant penis suit they’d built. Once properly fitted, Philip ran around spouting golden confetti at total strangers in service of the campaign’s tagline, “Tiss kan overraske,” which means “Penis can surprise you.”

If they’d set the ad to Da Vinci’s Notebook’s “Enormous Penis,” it would have been perfect.

Involve! meant for this to be cheeky and fun, and kind of gross, and they succeeded, but not across all audiences. Young people apparently loved it, but the over-30 crowd didn’t like it one bit, and many of them called the stunt pointless and banal.

Philip thought the whole thing was hilarious, because he’s 19. But it wasn’t without a few hiccups. “If I can do a good thing for others, just by being a dick, there is nothing better,” Philip said. “The filming was not unproblematic, as passers-by wanted selfies with the giant penis. Suddenly, lots of people wanted to touch the penis and take pictures with the penis. I almost felt harassed.”

Have I mentioned how fortunate we are to live in this time?