Hasta La Creative!

-A Struthio camelus wearing Gear VR stars in Leo Burnett’s latest for Samsung, which debuted at an event introducing the brand’s new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones (video above).

-The Mexico City Metro installed a “penis seat” (labeled “For men only”) in a subway car to teach guys about the sexual harassment women face daily. There’s also a butt cam.

-Mondelez launched a creative review for its Cadbury brand, which has been with Fallon for eleven years.

-Madras Brand Solutions, the global creative and content agency which evolved out of Ad2Pro Brand Solutions, hired Mark Cerame as head of strategy. Cerame will work out of Madras’ New York offices alongside CCOs Bill Davaris and Andrew Ladden while collaborating with offices in London and India. 

-Cereal Partners appointed Mother as its global advertising agency for its Lion and Cheerios brands.

–Telecom giants are pretty psyched that congress voted to repeal FCC privacy regulations adopted last fall (but not yet implemented).

-CBA London managing director Lewis Jones asks, “In politically divisive times should brands be picking a side?”

-As cord-cutters continue to multiply, ESPN sticks to its cable bundle guns.

–Oracle might acquire Accenture. Or not. Tomorrow is Friday!

Carl’s Jr. and Hardees have dropped the teeny-bikini “babes” from their advertising in favor of a food-focused approach.

A new film from 72andSunny and directed by Hungry Man’s Wayne McClammy tells the story of a company run amok at the hands of its poster child millennial CEO, the fictional Carl Hardee, Jr. (played by comedian Drew Tarver), who slouches in his office chair, gawking into VR headset along with his buddies, a shirtless dude in a hot tub and a young woman riding a mechanical bull. But the fun stops when faux founder Hardee Sr., played by Charles Esten (“Nashville,” “The Postman”) storms in to take back control.

Junior is forced to account for his past “mishaps” — like his “hot chick” advertising — depicted in a huge artwork on the wall featuring former ad star Charlotte McKinney with a pair of burgers hiding her naked bosom and an old spot playing on a TV screen starring Jessica Simpson in her Daisy Dukes.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Dove’s nearly 13-year-old ad campaign is spawning Real Beauty Productions with Shonda Rhimes as its first big-name producer in an effort to bring stories from consumers to life as films.

The brand’s production house part of a growing in-house production effort by Unilever is one of a number of efforts behind its 60th anniversary. But it’s open-ended, with plans eventually to bring in other celebrity producers as well, said Nick Soukas, VP of Dove.

“Shonda has had a fondness for the Dove brand that preceded this project together, and a joint philosophy with the brand about storytelling and the realness that needs to come from it,” Mr. Soukas said. “Telling real people’s stories is a perfect fit with the Dove business.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) The growing number of people who are moving into urban areas has created a newfound need for products and transportation solutions like the Audi ‘Formula Zero’ urban vehicle. Intended to…

Cadbury, the Mondelez International-owned chocolate brand, is reviewing its creative account putting 11-year incumbent Fallon on alert.

In a conceptually odd but undeniably memorable PSA campaign, the Mexico City Metro has installed a “penis seat” in one of its subway cars, featuring a molded likeness of a man’s torso and penis, to get male riders thinking about the sexual harassment that women endure every day. The seat is labeled “For men only.”…

The key aspect of the connected home is the unmolested collection of authentic human behavior and the deep insights that result.

This is the data that marketers dream about: authentic behavioral insights collected over long stretches of time without manipulation and free of fear of an observer effect.

But what is the smartest use of that unadulterated data? Here’s a hint: It has nothing to do with targeting audiences on a big scale.

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Creative Equals has launched a seven-point charter to encourage the recruitment industry to hire more diverse people.

Digital advertising sales surpassed linear TV ad sales in the U.S. for the first time in 2016, pulling in $70 billion compared with $67 billion for national and local TV, according to IPG Mediabrands’ Magna.

The agency expects 3.7% growth in advertising spend domestically in 2017, a slowdown from the 4.7% increase seen in 2016, which was driven by the presidential election and Olympics.

Digital ad sales are projected to increase 14% to $80 billion, led by social and video, while offline media sales will decline by 3% this year to $103 billion, Magna predicts.

Continue reading at AdAge.com