Hasta La Creative!

When this Nutchello ad popped up in my feed, it melted my brain into a delicious puddle of chocolate pouring onto a gold cougar statue. You know, in a good way.

The ad, from Fallon, throws one quirky headline after another at you while you stare at giant type superimposed over impressively weird CGI. You are assailed by alternately relaxing and terrifying images.

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A new anti-Trump ad from the Clinton campaign, released Thursday on social media, cuts right to the chase: It opens with a news clip from an interview with a man in a white robe ID’d on screen as “Imperial Wizard, Rebel Brigade, Knights of the KKK,” who says “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in.” Over a soundtrack of menacing instrumentals, endorsements for Trump from white nationalist/white supremacist quarters are also cited, and Steve Bannon, the Breitbart News exec Donald Trump appointed as CEO of his campaign last week, is called out for Breitbart’s association with the racist “alt-right” fringe.

But the video, titled “Trump and the extreme right-wing” on the Clinton campaign’s The Briefing channel on YouTube (and also released on Twitter and Facebook), was only part of a relentless social media attack on Trump for the way his campaign has subtly and not-so-subtly courted racist voters and organizations. The barrage — which also included slide shows of disturbing Breitbart News headlines and longform posts on Medium and HillaryClinton.com — was designed to set the stage for Clinton’s so-called “alt-right” speech on Thursday in Reno, Nevada (CNN: “Clinton: Trump campaign built on ‘prejudice and paranoia'”).

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Continue reading at AdAge.com

-RPA launched its latest Apartments.com spot featuring Jeff Goldblum as Brad Bellflower, “Apartment Alert” (video above).

–Colle+McVoy launched a new design firm called 10 Thousand Design in Minneapolis. Clients include Target and Invisalign. 

-What has been smelled can never be un-smelled: Adweek tests the Nosulus Rift.

-The Drum is holding a Dogerati vote to crown the top dog in marketing for National Dog Day.

-Flixel shares “5 Ways to Use Cinemagraphs in Digital Marketing Campaign.”

–EpiPen explains why its prices went up: marketing expenses, of course.

–The Coal Project helps news orgs identify their very best commenters. Can we vote for all you guys?

-The Drum explains “Why Ryan Lochte might unintentionally be the best ambush marketer from Rio 2016.”

Category: Beyond Madison Avenue
Summary: US Olympian Ryan Lochte has managed to find a brand that still wants to sponsor him after he admitted to making up a story about being robbed at gunpoint at the Rio Olympics earlier this month.

The swimmer has signed a deal with Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops, Adweek reported.

Lochte confirmed the deal on Twitter, saying: “Thanks to all the folks…”

Ms. Johnson took over leadership of the creative department last year. Since then the agency has seen one of its most award-winning and creatively diverse periods, earning 13 Cannes Lions for five different clients. Among the standout efforts were ideas like Frito-Lay’s “Rainbow Doritos” supporting LGBT rights, a Dali Museum VR project that took viewers “inside” the artist’s paintings, the Ad Council’s “I Am a Witness” anti-bullying campaign, the stirring “Unacceptable Acceptance Letters” addressing rape on college campuses and Sonic’s “#SquareShakes” campaign, for which it tapped a chef to create specially-designed Square Shakes sold through Instagram. Ms. Johnson was also named to Ad Age’s Women to Watch this year.

“We’re kind of like ‘Law and Order: CSI’ — we’re ripping our plotlines from the headlines,” said Ms. Johnson of the agency’s approach. “We are pulling things that are happening in culture, and that’s driving the work that the company’s doing.”

Agency co-founder Jeff Goodby said Ms. Johnson’s promotion is simply a nominal recognition of what she’d already been doing since she stepped into her executive creative director role. “The thing that Rich and I did was three people in the room, whereas Margaret stepped in to run a big, world-class complex creative department,” he said. “We made it up as we went along, she had to do something much bigger right away. One of the great things about her is that she grew up with us and she understands the culture. Her changes have been much more understanding of the people and the traditions here.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

How did marketers convince people that masculinity meant never being around sharp objects?