Mar
30
CMOs: an endangered species?
Posted in: UncategorizedI don’t want to worry you unnecessarily, but is the chief marketing officer facing extinction?
Mar
30
Pick of the week: Moneysupermarket "Skeletor" by Mother
Posted in: UncategorizedDespite never having watched He-Man, Omar Oakes was instantly won over by Moneysupermarket.com’s latest (and strangest) TV ad.
Mar
30
Turkey of the week: Samsonite "The serious traveller" by The Full Service
Posted in: UncategorizedSusan Billinge is unimpressed by Samsonite’s latest ad.
Mar
30
Being funny is a serious career move
Posted in: UncategorizedColleagues who make others laugh are seen as more self-confident, more competent, and higher in status, according to a series of US experiments.
Mar
30
Multifunctional Cooking Appliances – The All-Clad Prep & Cook Food Cooking Appliance Does it All (GALLERY)
Posted in: Uncategorized
(TrendHunter.com) The All-Clad Prep & Cook food cooking appliance offers chefs the ability to prepare and cook dishes without having to shift between items in order to simplify the entire process.
The all-in-one…
Mar
30
Indoor Campus Offices – The New Dublin Airbnb Office Was Designed to Look like a School Campus (GALLERY)
Posted in: Uncategorized
(TrendHunter.com) As Airbnb is known for its popularity among Millennials who are on a budget while traveling, or would like more authentic experiences while abroad, the new Dublin Airbnb offices were designed to…
Mar
30
Gifted Youth Signs Comedy Director Alice Mathias for Commercial Representation
Posted in: Uncategorized
Gifted Youth, the commercial production arm of Funny Or Die, is delighted to announce the addition of director/writer/producer Alice Mathias. Having already made her mark in television and web, the multi-hyphenate Mathias recently made her foray into commercials, proving that her comedic flair and natural knack for storytelling fits perfectly across a range of mediums.
Mathias studied film at Dartmouth College and earned her MFA from USC’s famed School of Cinematic Arts, where she was the recipient of The Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award and The Subway Fresh Artists Award. After college, she joined IFC’s Portlandia in its first season as an intern before working her way up to become Co-Executive Producer, and an occasional director. This led Mathias to be nominated for three Emmys as a producer on Portlandia, as well as two seasons of Documentary Now! Mathias has written and directed various projects with frequent collaborator Fred Armisen including Paul Simon at the NY Auto Show, Portlandia Presents: Talkative Driver and the web series The Dominizuelan Consulate for Broadway Video’s Hispanic content division Más Mejor. Recently she also directed the pilot for Comedy Central’s digital series “This Week in Betsy,” hosted by Jo Firestone.
Mathias is adept at blending entertainment and advertising, throwing the two facets in a comedic blender to produce memorable branded content. Most recently, she was hired by Wieden+Kennedy to direct the “Red Zone” tie-in campaign for Secret Deodorant and the NFL leading up to the 2017 Super Bowl. While Mathias has directed, produced, and written brand-direct content for the likes of Amazon, Dos Equis, Hangar 1, Jose Cuervo and Captain Morgan, the signing to Gifted Youth marks her first time being officially represented as a director for commercial work.
Dal Wolf, Gifted Youth’s Managing Director/Executive Producer, first became aware of Mathias from her Red Zone spots, and immediately knew he wanted to bring her talents further into the advertising world, saying: “It’s a really great fit, she’s exactly what Gifted Youth is: Each director we work with is a different shade on the comedy spectrum.”
Wolf adds: “It’s very apparent, by looking at her work, that Alice knows how to tell a story with comedy that is not only smart but also ‘ha-ha funny’ without over-complicating it.”
“It’s a thrill to be joining the Gifted Youth team,” echoes Mathias. “This company has been making me laugh for years. I couldn’t be more excited to start contributing to their exceptional body of work.”
Gifted Youth is a full-service creative production company nestled comfortably in the heart of Los Angeles, in the belly of their mothership Funny or Die. Their directors make content for television, the web, and your phones.
Adland:
Mar
30
Bank of Montreal "Weightless" (2017) :45 (Canada)
Posted in: Uncategorized
The best wish you can make is a wish for someone else. In this case it was the wish of a wife for her husband. Elite wheelchair racer, actor and stuntman Josh Cassidy gets to live everyone’s dream of floating in a simulated zero-gravity chamber. This spot was made to celebrate BMO’s 200th year of business. Want to make a wish for someone else? Go to bmo200.com. If you’d rather go old school, use their finder to locate a real fountain. BY the way, BMO there will be a lot of wishes throughout its 200th year in business. The bicentennial fountain travels from Toronto to Chicago and Montreal. So far, more than 18,000 wishes have been tossed into the bank’s digital fountain with the top three wishing categories being “Family”, “Happiness” and “Community.” Very cool. And a nice way to celebrate 200 years of business for BMO, too.
Commercials:
Country:
Mar
30
David Droga Will be Awarded Lion of St. Mark Award at Cannes
Posted in: UncategorizedCategory: Beyond Madison Avenue
Summary: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativityhas announced that founder and creative chairman of Droga5 David Droga will be the recipient of this year’s Lion of St. Mark, an award that honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to creativity within the industry.
Droga is one of the most awarded…
Mar
30
Chase Had Ads on 400,000 Sites. Then on Just 5,000. Same Results.
Posted in: UncategorizedThe bank found that limiting its advertising to preapproved hosts, to avoid proximity to fake news or offensive videos, did not hurt its visibility.
Mar
30
Oscars Error Won’t Cost Accounting Firm Its Job
Posted in: UncategorizedDespite the spectacular mix-up over the award for best picture, PwC will stay on the job after a vote by the Hollywood organization.
Mar
30
Wednesday Odds and Ends
Posted in: Uncategorized–Chrissy Teigen is a “plant manager” (get it?) in Madwell’s spot for Vita Coco (video above).
-R/GA New York hired Vin Farrell as executive vice president and global head of R/GA Studios.
–Rebekah Mercer‘s Making America Great organization will spend more than a million bucks on broadcast and digital ads to try and make Donald Trump look good. Has she not heard that advertising doesn’t work?
-San Francisco-based global brand and marketing consultancy Prophet hired former JWT Asia Pacific CEO Tom Doctoroff as senior partner.
-Droga5 founder and creative chairman David Droga will receive the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’s Lion of St. Mark award for 2017. And you will be there.
-A bunch of DDB Hispanic agencies joined forces to win regional work promoting Hotels.com.
-Prod co Community LA added directors Jennifer Phang (winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize) and Cannes winner Husein Alicajic to its roster.
Mar
30
Ultra-Modern Suede Sneakers – adidas Originals Joined for a New Alexander Wang Collaboration (GALLERY)
Posted in: Uncategorized
(TrendHunter.com) The ‘Drop 3’ collection comes from a new Alexander Wang collaboration, in which the beloved designer got help from adidas Originals.
The resulting sneakers have a highly modern…
Mar
30
KBS Hires 2 New Group Creative Directors Away from Deutsch
Posted in: UncategorizedKBS has hired the creative duo of Frank Cartagena and Sam Shepherd, who were both formerly with Deutsch.
Global CCO Patrick Scissions, who has led KBS since last summer, confirmed that they will both be group creative directors working across accounts but declined to comment on specifics in that regard.
“We are excited about all the new hires made and the high caliber of talent that’s joining the agency,” he said.
Those new hires also include global chief talent officer and Barbarian Group veteran Michele Prota as well as ECD Chris Polychronopoulos. The New York office has been expanding its BMW team in recent months after creative leads Jon Goldberg and Marc Hartzman left last November and Critical Mass picked up the U.S. web design and development portion of the account the following month.
The duo spent three years at Deutsch in New York working across several accounts including VW, WATERisLIFE and Krylon, whose “First Pinterest Yard Sale” project won some critical praise last year. They may be best known for the water projects #FirstWorldProblems and “Art Heist for Good,” which attracted both attention and controversy when the artist behind the works in question told The Guardian that he never authorized Deutsch to remove or sell his works.
Cartagena (portfolio) and Shepherd (portfolio) were named to Business Insider’s 30 Under 30 list and The One Club’s “One to Watch” in 2015. They first started working together while both were ACDs at DDB New York from 2011 to 2014.
We hear that there will be more news out of KBS New York in the coming months as well.
Mar
30
Carl's Jr. "Carl Hardee Sr. Returns" (2017) 3:00 (USA)
Posted in: Uncategorized
When you think carl’s Jr, you think T&A. In 2005 they featured Paris Hilton. They had a woman riding a mechanical bull in 2003. And who could forget the stomach churning Kim Kardashian Grilled Chicken Salad from 2009? Point is, Carl’s been sex hungry since the early 00’s.
You’d have thought in an era of safe spaces and micro aggressions they would have dumped this a long while ago but as recently as 2015 when agency 72andsunny gamely tried a shift to an actual selling point like an “All Natural” burger (whatever the hell that means) they still had to show off Charlotte McKinney in the buff.
So wow is it refreshing that all of a sudden Carl Sr has stepped in to take the reigns back from his perma-adolescent son and his VR-wearing snowflake friend, give us some history of the brand (like, you know, real advertising stuff) and then ride off into an unknown tomorrow. The acting is superb and of course they still manage to show plenty of skin in the ad but we are reassured that will change. Carl’s Jr is delightfully smarmy and kudos to the brand for poking fun of itself like that and referencing past ads (including the bull riding one) that let’s face it, put them back on the map more than a decade and a half ago. It’s great to watch Carl Sr wresting control away from the man-children and righting the scales so to speak. There are some good laugh out loud moments here. But the editing is this side of atrocious. And I can’t help but think that as they ride off into camera we’re in for more of the same only more boring because they’re only going to get more retail as they start to push specific products. I hope I’m wrong.
Refreshing? Indeed. And ironic, too. 72andsunny is known for chasing after the endless superficiality and narcissism that supposedly represents the millennial psyche. How else would you explain taking the once great anti-smoking Truth and turning it into a “Don’t smoke cause you’ll get left-swiped,” message? So it’s interesting that the agency known for chasing the millennial dragon is all of a sudden throwing millennials under the bus in this spot by suggesting they are the reason Carl’s Jr’s sexist ads have been the cause of their flagging sales. It’s also inadvertently admitting 72 is as much at fault for this as Carl’s Jr is.
You’d have thought in an era of safe spaces and micro aggressions they would have dumped this a long while ago but as recently as 2015 when agency 72andsunny gamely tried a shift to an actual selling point like an “All Natural” burger (whatever the hell that means) they still had to show off Charlotte McKinney in the buff.
So wow is it refreshing that all of a sudden Carl Sr has stepped in to take the reigns back from his perma-adolescent son and his VR-wearing snowflake friend, give us some history of the brand (like, you know, real advertising stuff) and then ride off into an unknown tomorrow. The acting is superb and of course they still manage to show plenty of skin in the ad but we are reassured that will change. Carl’s Jr is delightfully smarmy and kudos to the brand for poking fun of itself like that and referencing past ads (including the bull riding one) that let’s face it, put them back on the map more than a decade and a half ago. It’s great to watch Carl Sr wresting control away from the man-children and righting the scales so to speak. There are some good laugh out loud moments here. But the editing is this side of atrocious. And I can’t help but think that as they ride off into camera we’re in for more of the same only more boring because they’re only going to get more retail as they start to push specific products. I hope I’m wrong.
Refreshing? Indeed. And ironic, too. 72andsunny is known for chasing after the endless superficiality and narcissism that supposedly represents the millennial psyche. How else would you explain taking the once great anti-smoking Truth and turning it into a “Don’t smoke cause you’ll get left-swiped,” message? So it’s interesting that the agency known for chasing the millennial dragon is all of a sudden throwing millennials under the bus in this spot by suggesting they are the reason Carl’s Jr’s sexist ads have been the cause of their flagging sales. It’s also inadvertently admitting 72 is as much at fault for this as Carl’s Jr is.
Commercials:
Country:
Mar
30
The Visual Meme that triggered Russia’s protests
Posted in: Uncategorized
Since Sunday, anti-corruption demonstrations in 100 Russian cities and towns have attracted thousands, despite the government declaring the demonstrations illegal. The protests, considered the largest in Russia since 2011, were triggered by a Youtube video which exposed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s astonishing corruption.
The video was published by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti Corruption Foundation and features documentation of $1 billion in property that the Prime Minister apparently accumulated through the use of ‘puppet charity foundations’. In the video, Navalny explains how an email hack allowed investigators to expose the Medvedev’s lavish spending. Starting with a pair of Nike sneakers, the video delves through the Prime Minister’s vast properties, including a Tuscan vineyard, a ski chalet and two yachts. This powerful video has been viewed over 15 million times, sparking the outrage that led to Sunday’s protests.
The post The Visual Meme that triggered Russia’s protests appeared first on Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment.
Mar
29
REEL Canada: The Woman Who Can't Lie
Posted in: Uncategorized
As a signature event celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary, this year’s National Canadian Film Day 150 will see more than 1,500 screenings in schools, theatres and public squares across the country and in consulates and embassies around the world.
To help promote and drive participation in the festival on April 19, Reel Canada, the nonprofit that hosts NCFD, is launching a Canada-wide campaign developed by Leo Burnett.
The campaign kicks off with two Cinema spots that came together with the help of Canadian film industry icons. ‘The Woman Who Can’t Lie’ was directed by Don McKellar and stars Sandra Oh.
In addition to cinema, the campaign celebrates that ‘our films come from here’, with screen installations and markers across the country celebrating the places, people and things that inspired Canadian cinema. For example, the burger restaurant where a scene for Room was shot will have tray liners about the film, while Indigo will have bookmarks celebrating books that inspired films.
The campaign launches on March 23rd and runs through April 19th.
Mar
29
REEL Canada: The Man Who Was Always Late
Posted in: Uncategorized
As a signature event celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary, this year’s National Canadian Film Day 150 will see more than 1,500 screenings in schools, theatres and public squares across the country and in consulates and embassies around the world.
To help promote and drive participation in the festival on April 19, Reel Canada, the nonprofit that hosts National Canadian Film Day 150 (NCFD), is launching a Canada-wide campaign developed by Leo Burnett.
The campaign kicks off with two Cinema spots that came together with the help of Canadian film industry icons. ‘The Man Who Was Always Late’ was directed by Atom Egoyan and stars Vinay Virmani.
In addition to cinema, the campaign celebrates that ‘our films come from here’, with screen installations and markers across the country celebrating the places, people and things that inspired Canadian cinema. For example, the burger restaurant where a scene for Room was shot will have tray liners about the film, while Indigo will have bookmarks celebrating books that inspired films.
The campaign launches on March 23rd and runs through April 19th.
Mar
29
Books of The Times: ‘Richard Nixon,’ Portrait of a Thin-Skinned, Media-Hating President
Posted in: UncategorizedThis elegant and sympathetic biography by John A. Farrell arrives as a current president makes comparisons unavoidable.
Mar
29
Man Forced to Make ‘The Decision’ in Venables Bell & Partners’ Latest for Audi
Posted in: UncategorizedVenables Bell & Partners followed up its Super Bowl spot for Audi tackling the gender pay gap issue a little over a month ago with the testosterone-fueled “Monster” in support of the Audi S5. Now the agency is back to promote the new Audi Q5 SUV with “The Decision.”
The spot raises the question of what to do in a situation where you must choose between your safety and driving a flashy SUV.
A man is being placed in a witness protection program, given a new identity, home and bank account. But driving a “perfectly inconspicuous SUV” is a step too far for him, so he decides to risk his life by driving a Q5 instead.
That’s…a pretty dumb move, dude. Plus, the guy clearly is using the car’s GPS, making him easily trackable.
As an audience are we supposed to identify with the guy’s need to show off or is it just supposed to show how addictive it is to drive the Q5?
At any rate, it’s a pretty roundabout way to promote the powerful SUV, which a press release describes as a “progressive vehicle that literally leaves the competition in the dust – with a 2.0-liter TFSI engine that can propel you from 0 to 60 mph in just 5.9 seconds.”
That all sounds pretty impressive, so why isn’t that a more clear selling point in the ad?
“The Decision” makes its broadcast debut April 1 during coverage of the NCAA Finals.
Credits:
AGENCY: Venables Bell & Partners
FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN: Paul Venables
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Will McGinness
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Justin Moore
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: Rich North
COPYWRITER: Rus Chao
DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED PRODUCTION: Craig Allen
SENIOR PRODUCER: Brian Stanley
HEAD OF BRAND MANAGEMENT: David Corns
GROUP BRAND DIRECTOR: Chris Bergen
BRAND SUPERVISOR: Justin Wang
BRAND MANAGER: Abu Ngauja
BRAND MANAGER: Hope Stadulis
GROUP STRATEGY DIRECTOR: Tonia Lowe
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Quynh-An Phan
PROJECT MANAGER: Leah Murphy
PRODUCTION COMPANY: MJZ
DIRECTOR: Dante Ariola
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Eriks Krumins
PRESIDENT: David Zander
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Janet Nowosad
PRODUCER: Natalie Hill
EDITING COMPANY: Final Cut
EDITOR: Rick Russell
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Dillon Stoneburner
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Suzy Ramirez, Eric McCasline
PRODUCER: Barbara Healy
MUSIC COMPANY: Human
MUSIC COMPOSER: Matthew O’Malley
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Craig DeLeon
PRODUCER: Kamela Anderson
SOUND DESIGN: Therapy Studios
SOUND DESIGNER: Eddie Kim
ASSISTANT SOUND DESIGNER: Dillon Cahill
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Allegra Bartlett
FINAL MIX: LIME Studios
MIX: Loren Silber
ASSISTANT MIXER: Lisa Mermelstein
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susie Boyajan
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Kayla Phungglan
VFX STUDIO: Electric Theatre Collective
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Adam Watson
VFX SUPERVISORS: Adam Watson, Thomas H Smith III
2D ARTISTS: Thomas H Smith III, Brendan Smith, Krystal Chinn, Nick Hiegel, Fefo De Souza
2D ASSIST: Gretchen Capatan, James Aguilar
CG ARTIST: Corinne DeOrsay
AFX: Ken Pelletier
EP: Kate Hitchings
VFX PRODUCER: Catherine Yi
COLOR SERVICES: Company 3
COLORIST: Stefan Sonnenfeld
SENIOR PRODUCER: Katie Andrews
MOTION GRAPHICS: VB&P Lumberyard
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.