Hasta La Creative!

With the 2016 Rio Olympics two weeks away, Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam launched a campaign for Amnesty International Netherlands designed to show viewers “The Other Side of the Medal.”

After opening on a shot of the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeior, the spot cuts to the back of a young man running as gun shoots off in the air. The message “In Rio, Matheus Silva ran the fastest 100 metres of his life,” appears onscreen, at which point viewers might expect yet another story of an athlete triumphing over adversity. But this isn’t the case. Instead, it shows the young man running away from cops with a group of friends before being shot in the back. The 19-year-old victim, “Killed in 2014. Innocent and unarmed.” was one of the over 2,651 people in the city killed by police violence since the games were awarded to Rio, the majority of which were young black men.

“The police are breaking records in Rio,” the spot concludes, mentioning the over 2,500 people killed by cops in the city in the past seven years and asking viewers to sign a petition calling for an end to police violence in Rio. 

The “#PoliceBreakingRecords” campaign arrives at a time when racism and police violence are still very much on the minds of Americans in the wake of recent shootings, and undoubtedly people in other countries as well. Its parallel between the celebratory nature of the Olympics and police violence in the city is a striking one, and should garner attention for an issue that hasn’t received much attention, but is all too familiar.

“The film is based on a real story, a story of a young man in his prime, who’s life was cut brutally short. A story that touched us,” explained Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam creative director Jacques Massardo. “The events surrounding the shooting closely mirrored to a sprint, connects the world of the Olympics to police violence in a powerful way. Which gives it the potential to do more than just generate awareness, but hopefully also trigger people to take action and sign the petition.”

“Despite the promise that Rio would be a safe Olympic city, the amount of deaths as a result of police bullets increased over the last two years. We ask people all over the world to take action and maximize the pressure on Brazil. The Olympics should be seen as a celebration, not a place for excessive police violence,” added Amnesty International Netherlands campaign coordinator Jan Willem Dol.

Credits:
Client: Amnesty International Nederland
Account: Pauline Landa (Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam)
Creatives: Djajant Hanenberg, Helen Fernando, Jacques Massardo (Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam)
Production: DPPLR
Direction: Daniel Dow
Producer: Lotte Kwak
DOP: Aage Hollander
Focus Puller: Justus Engelbracht
Line Production: Soulkitchen
Composition & Sound Design: Audentity
Off-line/colorist: Ruben Labree
Creative Producer: Nils Vleugels
Compositor: Bas Wijers
Production assistant: Titus Vriend
Styling: Nadine Rodenburg
Aerial Cinematography: Ricardo Malaguti
Broadcast/cinemacopies: Captcha!
Camera: Camalot & Camaleón
Bioscoopmasters: Haghefilm Digitaal en Cinemeta
Media Sanoma | SBS, Jan Mineur Mediavision, STER, RTL

John Loughlin, chief executive officer of magazine subscription service Texture, is setting his ambitions high, even in a highly competitive media market in which consumers are loath to open their wallets.

“The objective here is this should be a mass consumer service,” said Mr. Loughlin.

But Texture still has a long way to go, and is focused right now on increasing product awareness and making sure more potential consumers know about the so-called “Netflix for magazines,” which charges $9.99 per month for the basic plan or $14.99 for the premium plan, which also includes unlimited access to weekly magazines.

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(TrendHunter.com) It’s not uncommon to see croissants that are dressed with powdered sugar, nuts and drizzles of chocolate to make them extra decadent, but Churned Creamery is out to create a new kind of…

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Made Movement, the Boulder agency Alex Bogusky joined as an investor and advisor in 2012, launched a new digital spot for TGI Friday’s which seeks to capitalize on the tremendous success of Hamilton, that perpetually sold-out musical.

In “Check,” Made Movement plays off of Alexander Hamilton’s appearance on the ten dollar bill. After promising to set up his friends with his “wig guy” a waitress comes to their table with the check. Feeling generous, the nation’s first Secretary of Treasury tells them he’s got the check, falling backwards on the table, as the scene shifts to a ten dollar bill being set down in his place and the voiceover promoting the chain’s “One Hamilton, one full-rack of ribs “deal.

“When we were doing ad testing for another product promotion, the agency came back with the idea that everyone will talk about money in different denominations—what if we leverage Hamilton?”  TGI Friday vice president of marketing activation Cindy Syracuse explained to Adweek.

The approach makes sense for the brand, as TGI Friday’s continues to try to appeal to millenial audiences, in this case leveraging the Hamilton phenomenon. Unfortunately the humor falls flat, as the references feel sophomoric (a musket balls joke, really?) and only detract from the eventual connection to the brand with the “One Hamilton, one full-rack of ribs “deal.

“Check” will run in 30 and 8-second versions online and on social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and a 15-second version will air on broadcast. Additionally, there’s a series of digital spots featuring Hamilton weighing in with “Meaty Thoughts” on topics including his wig and man buns.

Syracuse emphasized to Adweek that despite the heavy digital push, the brand was not cutting its broadcast spending, saying, “I don’t cut TV weight to have digital—we don’t want to reduce our footprint in television, but it’s important to understand and be efficient in how you use digital media.”

Sources have confirmed today that Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish recently went through a round of layoffs across its North American offices that started late last month and carried through to the first weeks of July.

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on this development, but others confirmed that the downsizing did occur and that it ultimately affected less than 1 percent of global staff. Given that the company currently employs several thousand in dozens of offices around the world, it’s difficult to determine how many individuals were let go. But the overall total was almost certainly in the low three digits with offices in the East, West and Central regions of North America affected in turn.

Sources tell us that this move did not reflect a “restructuring” or any significant operational changes and that it did not include any major shifts in Razorfish’s North American leadership. At this time, it cannot be tied to any specific pieces of business but rather reflects what at least one party described as “[ongoing] difficulties with Razorfish” that caused North America to lag behind other regions in terms of organic growth.

The primary reason for the round of changes that started last month, then, was a combination of the failure to meet unspecified revenue goals for North America and the after-effects of Publicis Groupe’s December 2015 global re-organization.

In this week’s Q2 earnings report (full text here), holding company CEO Maurice Levy told investors that 2016 has been and will continue to be a challenging year, predicting that 2017 would be far better financially for the holding company. The reason for this trend is a combination of various deals that have yet to deliver in terms of revenue due to a combination of international markets’ reactions to the Brexit vote, a series of account losses and “clients canceling and postponing campaigns last year.”

Levy’s predictions for a better 2017 are predicated, at least in part, on wins like the recent Walmart consolidation, which he and others hope will counter losses like P&G’s shift from Publicis to Omnicom for its North American media business and Walmart’s decision to end its relationship with Starcom MediaVest earlier this year.

The CEO said, “The third quarter will be the most affected by contracts lost last year. Organic growth will be weak in the third quarter, but it won’t be a negative number.”

In terms of Razorfish, the organization is still adjusting to the large-scale restructuring that included the creation of the Publicis.Sapient hub as well as the late 2015 death of CEO Tom Adamski. Sapient Inside, a project in which every Publicis agency will establish an in-house team of consultants, is still in its early stages. As Levy has stated repeatedly, the ultimate goal is to break down silos in order to better facilitate collaboration between the data-heavy Sapient organization and Publicis’ varied creative/digital shops, Razorfish included.

Moving forward, expect to see Publicis.Sapient groups (DigitasLBi, Razorfish, etc.) that once pitched against each other to work together in the interest of winning new business. The outcomes of several ongoing reviews will also play a role in determining how the next 6-12 months unfold for the Razorfish organization.

In the meantime, the network continues to release projects, like this week’s Patron/Amazon Echo collaboration, that showcase its digital capabilities.

In its 20 years, the network has provided a path for Republican politicians and candidates to raise issues, set agendas and shape opinions.

Leo Burnett Chicago and Leo Burnett Sydney worked together to launch an Olympic spot for Samsung entitled “The Anthem.”

The broadcast/digital spot combines parts of different national anthems from around the world into a cohesive anthem of its own, in celebration of the international camaraderie of the Olympics. It opens with the text “One world, one anthem,” followed by a girl singing the opening of the national anthem of Botswana while on a rocky beach overlooking a city skyline (with Samsung Galaxy S7 in hand, naturally).

As the location changes, it contrasts with the anthems sung by different people around the world (among them U.K. diver Tom Daley, U.S. track athlete Alysia Montano, French paralympian Arnaud Assoumani, Sudanese track athlete Margret Rumat Rumat Hassan, Australian boxer Shelley Watts and Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina), including the national anthems of Australia, the U.S., Malaysia, Australia and Canada. The Malaysian anthem, for example, is sung by a young woman in Paris. When taken together, the words form their own, international anthem.

It’s a nice sentiment, and the pacing of the ad works well to underscore the message, as does the decision to contrast the anthems and locations. The message is a fitting one for a mobile company, allowing the ad to do more than just promote the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, aligning the brand with the international goodwill of the Olympics. 

“‘The Anthem’ is a reflection of the Samsung brand and our continuous pursuit to break down geographic barriers and unite the world through technology and borderless communication,” Samsung Electronics executive vice president, global markeitng and communications business Younghee Lee said in a statement. “By singing one anthem, fans and athletes across the globe can feel a shared sense of pride and unity and together celebrate collective progress, which is integral to the spirit of the Olympic Games.”

Adweek went ahead and complied the lyrics in full, and we’ve include them below:

Through our unity and harmony, we’ll remain at peace as one.
For we are young and free, with glowing hearts we see thee rise.
The day of glory has arrived, oh say can you see, a vivid ray of love and hope descends to Earth.
The people living united and progressive, join together all of our hearts as one.
Happy and glorious, listen to us gently with the infinite love.
Unity and justice and freedom, stand unchanged by wind and frost.
Offer peace to friends, and united we shall stand.

Ad blocking is a high-stakes issue in China, which has 688 million people online. And it’s already widespread. That’s partly because a web browser popular in China — UC Browser, owned by Alibaba Group has it built in as a default; it promises users they can browse faster and save data. By one estimate, at least 159 million people in China use mobile browsers that block ads.

Will all that change? With new regulations announced this month, China seems to be cracking down on online ad-blocking, or possibly just certain forms of it. The language of the rule is ambiguous, causing some debate among experts about what is being targeted, and how much ad-blocking might actually be affected.

New guidelines mentioning ad-blocking were buried in Article 16 of interim online advertising regulations released about two weeks ago by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. They didn’t draw much notice until Adblock Plus wrote a blog post saying China had banned blockers, labeling the country a “bully.”

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