Hasta La Creative!

Peters Riekstins, Back to the Light, 2016. Exhibition opening at RIXC Gallery in Riga. Photo: Kristine Madjare for RIXC

Everyone knows about cybercrime and how owning networked computers and mobile devices makes you a potential victim of bank fraud, identity theft, extortion, theft of confidential information, etc. Data stored on your computer is never safe and its ghosts can come back and haunt you long after you’ve discarded your electronic device, long after even you’ve erased the data it contained.

Unless you take every possible step to make sure that your device is being recycled responsibly and data is erased thoroughly from the hard-drive, your credit card numbers, the classified information of the company you worked for or the records of online transactions you had forgotten about can end up being sold on black markets or used for identity theft, blackmail and credit card fraud.

Artist Peters Riekstins has been investigating data security over the past few years. From the way people trade privacy for convenience, sharing their private data on various platforms, to the way they neglect to properly wipe out the sensitive data they release in the wild when they discard their computers.

To illustrate this never-ending life of data after computer death, Riekstins first looked for ways to obtain and use private data legally. He found it in pawnshops where he bought discarded hard drives for 20 to 40 euros. “The content on most of the hard-drives have been deleted by the original owner,” he said. “Unfortunately, not everyone is aware that it’s pretty difficult to delete data permanently. When you simply delete a file on your computer, it only records this space as empty and available. Physical data are still on the hard drive until the computer itself transcribes new information over the free space.”

Peters Riekstins, Porn Roullete (screenshot from video documentation)

“It’s actually not hard at all to get data from hard drives,” the artist continued. “Unless you want to get something specific, as you would do if you lost something. There are ways to get everything that is stored in magnetic disks, it takes skills, but for now i have plenty information to work with.”

Influenced by the content he found on external hard-drives (mostly pirated movies, TV series, private images and pornography), he made Porn Roullete, an installation inviting visitors to spin the hard drive. When it stops rotating, images from the hard drive are shown on a small display. There is one in 6 chances (as in the Russian roulette) that the image will be a pornographic picture.

Ghost Call [expired]

Another work using found material was Ghost Call, an 8-hour video performance on YouTube. People could call in and summon an image from a hard drive. Just like you would summon a ghost. The images floated on the screen for a few moments and then they disintegrated back to the mysterious place they came from. The soundtrack of the work used music retrieved from hard drives but modified with granular synthesis.

Peters Riekstins, Back to the Light, 2016. Exhibition opening at RIXC Gallery in Riga. Photo: Kristine Madjare for RIXC

The latest series Riekst?š worked on is called “Back to the Light.” The project consists in ‘reawakening’ pixels that have been quietly sleeping on hard drives, forgotten by all including their original owners. The artist brought them back to light not exactly as they had been saved (which would be ethically questionable) but artistically modified. The images, videos and sound material has been processed by programs developed by the artist in order to create a certain artistic esthetics. The work also aims to convey the message that the data could have been used in a very different way had it ended in evil hands.

All the artwork were made using the images that the artist has found in just one disk. It contained many many things. Such as hundreds of copies of passports. Riekstins remixed them so that visually they look like one passport. Video of the work by Raitis Šmits.

Peters Riekstins, Back to the Light, 2016. Exhibition opening at RIXC Gallery in Riga. Photo: Kristine Madjare for RIXC

In a second artwork he mixed together the faces of 1059 people who’ve never met in real life, but who get the opportunity of a kind of post-mortem encounter through Riekst?š’ work. All of the pictures are shown simultaneously so that it results in a forever changing face, one that looks both familiar and strangely alien. Video of the work by Raitis Šmits.

By restoring deleted files and using them in art practice, Rieksti?š hopes to stimulate people to feel responsible for their digital property. Now and after they’ve discarded it. “I want people to understand that it is important to take care of their data security,” he concludes. “If you really want to delete data from your hard drive, the hardware has to be physically destroyed (destroying only the monitor is not enough, unlike what Hollywood would like you to believe.)”

Back to the Light was recently part of the RAM (Random Access Memories) exhibition at the RIXC Gallery in Riga. RAM showcased the work of Trihars (aka Rihards Vitols, Peters Riekstins and Kristaps Biters), an artist collective interested in the interconnections between computer and environment. The show closed on 4 September 2016.
Also part of the same show: The Woodpecker: Could fake birds save our forests?

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“What is that?” says a boy at the beginning of Droga5’s new spot introducing Google’s smartphone, Pixel. The ubiquitous Google search bar fills the center of the screen as two boys stare down at something … presumably some strange species of insect, plant or fungi. “Man, I don’t know,” says the other boy, and then offers the only possible way out of this conundrum: “ask Google.”

From there the spot takes off in many different directions, exploring how people have turned to the search engine for a variety of needs over the years. Over the course of the ad, the search bar gradually morphs into the shape of the Pixel, concluding with the tagline, “Life by you. Phone by Google.”

“It has enabled people to get answers to any question, converse with faraway friends and find their way to remote locations—or just their way home,” a Droga5 spokesperson told Adweek. “It’s been the focal point of many great adventures, as well as daily life. And now, the company that organized the world’s information is turning its attention to the most important device in your life: your phone. For the first time ever, all the power and possibilities of Google are now in the palm of your hand.”

That about sums up approach of the spot. There’s little in the way of showing what exactly sets the Pixel apart, what features make it different or make it superior to the competition, perhaps things that will be addressed in subsequent efforts. Instead it relies on hyping the company itself and the idea of bringing its unique features to the smartphone market. Don’t you trust Google? Millions of people do.

The global campaign launched with the broadcast spot yesterday and will roll out throughout the markets where the Pixel will initially be available: the United States, Canada, U.K., Australia, Germany and India.

We’re still not quite sure what to make of Late Late Show bandleader Reggie Watts. He is definitely the perfect musical partner for Comedy Bang Bang and we are kind of surprised that he hasn’t worked with Tim and Eric more often, but dude is on some Dada thing we don’t really understand.

BBDO Minneapolis’s latest campaign for Hormel features the Watts doing his thing via what appears to be an on-the-fly remix of bacon in the pan.

The MJ-like tune comes together after Watts drops his inexplicable British accent, and it’s very much like everything else we’ve seen him do.

The work was directed by Paul Riccio of Traveling Picture Show, who says, “Reggie’s got this fantastic energy and brought something new to every take. The edit was tough because we just had so much great footage, so many brilliant moments.”

In response to the “sometimes I put it in my mouth” line, we might ask what else he could possibly do with sweet, sweet pork. That last “new black” tagline, though…

CREDITS

Brand:  Hormel, Black Label Bacon
Agency:  BBDO Minneapolis

Executive Creative Director:  Noel Haan
Account Director:  Scott Schraufnagel
Senior Account Sup:  Olivia Plaine
Agency Producer:  Bill Smallacombe
ACD:  Allison Brink
ACD/Writer:  David Mackereth
Art Director:  Shannon Murphy
Production Company:  The Traveling Picture Show Company
Director:  Paul Riccio
Executive Producer:  Dawn Clarke
Staff Producer:  Lauren Houlberg
Producer:  Drew Mardis
Post:  Drive Thru
Editor: Mick Uzendoski

Dallas-based agency greenlight hired Todd Lancaster as a creative director, tasked with leading projects across the agency’s client roster, which includes La Quinta Inns & Suites, Gold’s Gym and La Cantera Resort & Spa. He will report directly to chief operating officer Olivia Cole, who was promoted to that position this summer, rounding out an executive leadership team that also includes founder/CEO Erik Herskind.

“We have worked hard to evolve our agency, our services and our approach to connecting brands with customers,” Cole said in a statement. “Todd is going to be a key player in keeping that evolution running, inspiring big ideas and keeping greenlight (and our clients) at the forefront of conversation.”

Lancaster joins greenlight following over five years at Fort Worth agency Schaefer Advertising Co., where he served as vice president, creative director. Prior to joining Schaefer he spent two and a half years as a group creative director at Purple@Epsilon, and four years as a creative director at The Marketing Arm before that.

“You can feel greenlight’s energy before you walk in; there’s a passion within these walls that I can’t wait to be a part of,” Lancaster said. “It’s clear these guys are on their way to something big, and I’m ready to jump in and make some great work happen.”

The latest work for insurance company John Hancock by longtime creative AOR Hill Holliday launched late last month, and it celebrates social progress in what we might call the safest possible way (which is very appropriate considering the client).

If we may oversimplify for a moment, the ads concern two things that weren’t widely accepted years ago but are today: same-sex marriage and women in business leadership roles. This is relevant because of all the recent talk about diversity, plus someone really wanted us to post on it.

“Marriage” isn’t all about the SCOTUS SSM decision, but the orchestration does hit a high point when we see two guys tying the knot.

Attendant copy reads, “A different world requires a different approach. While some may sit idly by, see how John Hancock is taking note and doing something about it.”

The campaign website addresses some changing social norms that have nothing to do with gender or sexuality like VR, the rise of full-time freelancers (we refuse to call it “the gig economy”) and even “Living with parents: the new normal for young adults?”

“CEO” is a little more straightforward: it’s about a minority woman who becomes chief executive at a company that had always been run by old white dudes.

The client’s head of brand strategy and advertising Kate Ardini told Marketing Daily/MediaPost:

“Specifically, we’re demonstrating the company’s understanding of how the world is changing all around us and the different ways (across business units) John Hancock is providing solutions for today’s world.

By staying true to our advertising legacy but offering a more inspiring tone, we hope to transform perception of John Hancock from a trusted and respected company known for delivering on real-life needs to a trusted and admired financial services company that has innovative solutions that put customer needs first.”

Same products, different generation. These ads are obviously aimed at people over the age of 35 who have a bit of money to manage.

In addition to the ads and the website, the campaign will include infographics, partnerships with such pubs at the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, and various bits of information about John Hancock’s services.

-AMV BBDO launched a U.K. road safety PSA instructing cyclists to hang back while trucks (or lorries) make left turns (video above). Some cyclists were not pleased with the message, accusing it of “victim blaming.”

-MDC Partners named Ryan Linder as its U.S. CMO.

-Digiday shares “Confessions of an agency search consultant.”

-LBB talks with AnalogFolk Portland partner/creative director Carren O’Keefe “on the Portlandia stereotype, subconscious creativity and why people are more than just ‘resources.’”

-Madison-based UAS Labs hired agency Lindsay, Stone & Briggs to support their UP4 probiotics brand.

-Advertising Week takes a look back at the Nesquick Bunny.

-Adweek explains “Why the Peanuts Gang Is Surging in Popularity After So Many Years.”

-AdAge would like to know “What’s Your Biggest Challenge in Branded Content?“

Nesta semana nos tornamos bibliotecários da “Fundação” de Isaac Asimov. > OUÇA ========   Download | iTunes | Feed ======== COMPRE O LIVRO Saraiva Cultura Amazon ======== COMENTADO NO EPISÓDIO CdH18 – As cavernas de aço CdH12 – Me engana que eu gosto CdH15 – Justiça Nerdcast sobre Isaac Asimov ======== FALE CONOSCO . Email: […]

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People are using Amazon Echo in so many different ways, and asking its AI, Alexa, so many different things, that the brand decided it was perfect for little vignettes. So, it’s rolling out more than a hundred 10-second spots, each with a funny little question or request of Alexa, in contextual and targeted digital, TV and social placements.

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Category: Beyond Madison Avenue
Summary: Undeterred by what could be considered the huge failure of Amazon’s ill-fated 2014 foray into the phone business, Google is stepping up to the plate with its own version, Pixel, and a no-holds-barred campaign from Droga5 meant to push the device as the next big thing — and perhaps steal a bit of the iPhone 7’s thunder.

Per the release video, Pixel has a battery that charges for seven…