Hasta La Creative!

(TrendHunter.com) In the top August 2016 design ideas, the look and functions of products like stepping stools, pens, beach towels and drink coolers are completely reimagined. In order to help consumers live with less,…

Citigroup’s ad campaign for the Olympics showcases the benefits of large global banks, and other big banks are trying to soften their image.

A New Jersey resident with a pocket monster in his backyard filed what may be the first lawsuit against Niantic and Nintendo for unleashing Pokmon Go across the U.S., claiming that players are coming to his home uninvited in their race to “catch ’em all.”

The West Orange man alleges the companies have created a nuisance with their GPS-based game and seeks class-action status on behalf of all Americans whose properties have been trespassed upon by players in search of Pokmon Go monsters. The complaint includes references to Pokmon hunters parading into an Alabama cemetery and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and also cites a Massachusetts homeowner visited more than a dozen times within hours of the game’s release last month.

Pokmon Go was developed by San Francisco-based Niantic, with some input from Nintendo. While excitement over the game’s popularity at one point more than doubled Nintendo’s market value, shares have since corrected as the company pared back expectations, saying financial impact will be “limited.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Ascent Protein appointed TDA_Boulder as its agency of record and the agency launched its debut campaign promoting Ascent Native Fuel Whey Protein with “The Official Sponsor of Hard Work.”

“After intense review, TDA_Boulder stood out as the agency that most understood the mindset of our target customer – those who are dedicated at a high level to fitness. We liked that TDA_Boulder is nimble, exceptionally creative and acts like a true partner,” explained Ascent Protein general manager Paul Vraciu. “We knew that by choosing them, we were gaining an extension of our team who would be deeply invested in our mission and goals in bringing a cleaner protein to the market.”

“Ascent is changing the expectations in a confusing and crowded market, we’re simply proud to be working with them,” added TDA_Boulder partner and executive creative director Jonathan Schoenberg. “Our work is 360 – everything from creating their tagline, ‘The Official Sponsor of Hard Work,’ to event activation, print, out of home, video and social engagement. Health and fitness is a part of our ethos, we even work out with the Ascent team monthly to continue digging deeper in the athlete’s psyche.”

The spot “Garage,”  which runs in 30 and 46-second versions,  is about what you’d expect from a spot selling a whey protein product. A muscular bro works out in his garage while imagining a chorus of naysayers telling him he can’t do it. He gets up the will for one last pushup before the spot concludes with a shot of Ascent Native Fuel Whey Protein.

To promote the launch of Ascent Native Fuel Whey Protein, TDA_Boulder also launched a “Surprise Sponsorship” program, which rewards everyday athletes with sponsorship deals. It also named 2015 Spartan Race World Champion Robert Killian as the brand’s first sponsored athlete. 

Here are a couple of the print spots.

Credits

Agency: TDA_Boulder
Client: Ascent Protein

Thomas Dooley, ECD, Founder
Jonathan Schoenberg, ECD, Partner
Constance DeCherney, Director of Strategy
Jeremy Seibold, Creative Director
Barrett Brynestad, Associate Creative Director
Sam Johnson, Media Director
Heather Lee, Media Supervisor
Kate Osborne, Sr. Project Manager/Producer
Lindsey Ritter, Integrated Producer
Michelle Hicks, Production Designer
Christi Tucay Clark, Director of Client Services
Lauren Corna, Senior Account Executive
Roger Ferguson, Assistant Account Executive

Print
Trevor Pearson Photography, LA (Product Photographer)
Dana Neibert Photgraphy, Coronado, CA (Campaign Photographer)
Sunny 16 Productions, LA (On set photography producer)
Andresen Digital, LA (Retouching & Prepress)

Surprise Sponsorship Video
Production: Buck Ross
Director: Ryan Ross
DP: Jeffery Garland
Post Production: Buck Ross
Editor: Lam Nguyen
Sound Mix: Coupe Studios
VO: Eric Singer

Sirens Video
Production Company: The Directors Bureau
Director: Ryan Hope
Exec Producer: Lisa Margulis
Exec Producer: Elizabeth Minzes
Producer: Benjamin Gilovitz
DP: Matt Lloyd
Production Designer: JC Molina
Post Production: Cosmo Street
Editor: Katz
Post Producer: Chelsea Spensley
Online: Shinya
Composer: Ari Balouzian
Graphics company: Brickyard
Animator: Anton Thallner
Finishing Company: Apache
Colorist: Shane Reed
Mix Studio: Lime
Sound Engineer: Zac Fischer

The Olympics pose a programming dilemma for TV networks that aren’t airing the games: Do you offer up your best shows and compete for viewers, or wave the white flag and surrender?

Discovery chose the latter, moving up its annual Shark Week marathon on Discovery Channel to late June to avoid competing in the U.S. against NBC’s Olympics coverage, which starts Friday. It didn’t go well, with ratings down from the previous year, the company said Tuesday after announcing second-quarter results.

“We made a mistake,” Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav said on a conference call. “We wanted to get out of the way of the Olympics, but I think in retrospect I think that was too early. There were a lot of people still working.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Gap has come under fire in the U.K. for a sexist marketing campaign that labels a little girl a “social butterfly” and a small boy a “little scholar.”

The email campaign to promote “first big day” at school styles for toddlers was spotted by Let Toys Be Toys, an online group that lobbies the U.K. toy and publishing industries not to limit children’s interests by gender.

@LetToysBeToys tweeted, “For anyone who thinks that sexist marketing to children isn’t a problem … Really @UKGap?” Popular British children’s author Malorie Blackman responded on Twitter, “What the actual hell?”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

In late April, two New York Times advertising department employees filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, CEO Mark Thompson, and chief revenue officer Meredith Levien, alleging that “the workplace at the Times has become an environment rife with discrimination based on age, race, and gender.”

On Monday, the Times, Mr. Thompson, and Ms. Levien formally responded, asking in separate filings that the lawsuit be dismissed and pushing back on its claims. (At the time the lawsuit was filed, a Times spokeswoman had said it “completely distorts the realities of the work environment at the New York Times.”)

“To the extent any wage disparities exist between plaintiffs and male employees in the advertising department (which defendants deny), such disparities are due to a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, which were implemented for legitimate business reasons, and/or a differential based on factors other than sex,” the Times said in a filing.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Late Monday night, #DonaldTrumpTheMovie became a top 10 trending topic on Twitter, as the Twittersphere piled on the Republican presidential candidate into the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The #DonaldTrumpTheMovie meme comes in the wake of the weekend’s explosion of #TrumpSacrifices on Twitter, another top 10 Twitter trending topic that took on Trump’s statement that “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices” amidst his ongoing feud with Khizr Kahn, the father of a fallen soldier who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week, saying that Trump had “sacrificed nothing” for his country.

Why is Donald Trump inspiring so much pro bono work from Twitter wits, leaving his opponent Hillary Clinton feeling possibly left out?

Continue reading at AdAge.com