The UK’s two largest commercial channels, ITV and Channel 4, are working together for the launch of a new brand campaign for Alzheimer’s Society – a first for the broadcasters.
W+K Portland introduces both a new menu item and a new celebrity colonel in its latest for KFC.
The 90-second “Announcement” shows Rob Lowe as the latest to play Colonel Sanders, as he introduces the chain’s new spicy Zinger chicken sandwich and announces its plans to send the new menu item to space. Donning astronaut gear, Lowe says, “The time has come to explore beyond our known horizons,” and “to push KFC’s spicy, crispy chicken to new heights” as a variety of characters in sixties-inspires settings watch the address on TV.
The spot eventually gets self-referential, as these affairs tend to, when Lowe answers the question of whether such a launch is possible with, “We certainly hope so, our entire marketing campaign depends on it.”
Apparently, that uncertainty is not feigned.
“I have no idea how we’ll launch a chicken sandwich into space, but the marketing team thinks they can do it,” KFC U.S. president and chief concept officer Kevin Hochman said in a statement.
Somebody get in touch with SpaceX.
The flavor of the month celebrity colonel schtick has been wearing out its welcome for some time, with Lowe just the latest in a long line that includes Vincent Kartheiser (best known for his role as Pete Campbell on Mad Men) as the Nashville Hot Chicken Colonel, Rob Riggle, George Hamilton as the Extra Crispy Colonel and, most recently, Billy Zane. This latest effort at least sees W+K taking the brand in a slightly different direction, even if the space launch approach eventually fizzles out.
Credits:
Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Director: Jason Kreher
Copywriter: Heather Ryder
Art Director: Devin Gillespie
Producer: Jennifer Fiske
Account Team: Jesse Johnson, Kate Rutkowski, Lindsay Varquez
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Lasse Frank
Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkel
Post Producer: Jen Milano
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy
VFX Company: Joint Editorial
Lead Flame Artist: Leif Peterson
Flame Artist: Robert Murdock
VFX Set Supervisor: Pilon Lectez
VFX Exec. Producer: Rebekah Koerbel
Titles/Graphics: Woodshop
Music+Sound Company: Joint Editorial
Sound Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Song: APM “Be a Hero”
Mix Company: Joint Editorial
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
After 30 years as chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, Maurice Lvy will announce his last set of earnings on Thursday at the French holding company’s presentation of first-quarter 2017 results in Paris. Here’s what to expect:
1. It’s Lvy’s swan song, and it may be a long one. The voluble Frenchman, who hands over to successor Arthur Sadoun at the annual general meeting in Paris on May 31, is well-known for his lengthy exchanges with analysts. Earnings calls routinely go on for a couple of hours.
2. Don’t expect great numbers. With fairly weak results predicted, he may not be going out on a business high. At least the numbers won’t come as a surprise: Lvy warned in February that the first quarter of this year would not offer much improvement on the fourth quarter of 2016, when revenues were down 2.5%.
Mars Petcare brand Pedigree’s “Feed the Good” campaign is now digging into history to show how dogs bring out the best in people. A moving film from BBDO New York and directed by Biscuit Filmworks’ Noam Murro recreates an obscure U.S. war story from 1777 when General George Washington and his troops were in the throes of the Revolutionary War against British Forces Commander-in-Chief William Howe and his soldiers. Amid the fighting, a terrier made its way into Washington’s camp, and the dog’s collar identified it as belonging to General Howe. Although Washington’s soldiers had plenty of their own ideas on what to do with the pup, Washington, a dog lover himself, graciously returned it to his enemy.
The new ad “directly reflects the core of our Feed the Good campaign, which is that universal truth that dogs bring out the good in us, and that our job at Pedigree is to bring out the good in them,” said Craig Neely, VP-marketing for Mars Petcare. “This has been such a great platform for us to bring a variety of diverse creative to life. The story shows that the universal truth that I mentioned is just as true today as it was more than 200 years ago during the Revolutionary War.”
According to Neely, the media plan is still being finalized, but it now focuses on digital with a broader roll out this summer.
Print
Fini
Fluffy, extremely fluffy.
Advertising Agency:Miami Ad School/ESPM, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Art Director:Jessica Mantovani
Copywriter:Jessyca Silva
Illustrator:Maria Rigon
The regulatory examination, to consider whether the Murdoch family would gain too much control over Britain’s media landscape, was delayed until after June elections.
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners continued the expansion of its creative department by hiring Daniel Grech and Eamonn Dixon, formerly of AQKA San Francisco, as associate creative directors. (Shared portfolio here.)
The native Australian duo, who apparently come as a package deal, began working together five years ago at DDB Sydney before moving to AKQA’s Bay Area office in 2013 to serve as senior art director and copywriter.
During their tenure, they were best-known for “The Last Shot,” a Jordan brand project consisting of an interactive half court that doubled as a museum to all things Mike.
They also worked on “Bud for Buds,” an app that enabled Facebook users to send beer to their friends via voucher, and “The Bud Light Button,” which functions pretty much exactly how it sounds.
“Dan and Eamonn put creativity and innovation at the center of everything they do,” said partner and CCO Margaret Johnson on Goodby’s newest hires. “They have produced some of the most inventive work in the industry, consistently finding new and meaningful ways to connect brands with people. We can’t wait to see what they’ll do for GS&P.”
The news marks the latest in a string of creative hires at GS&P including copywriter Theo Bayani, art director Miguel Gonzalez and creative technologist Troy Lumpkin (who joined from Grey London and Google earlier this month), Mike Costello of “Van Gogh Bnb” fame, and Jo Cresswell and Sian Coole, the adam&eveDDB duo behind John Lewis’s 2015 “Tiny Dancer” spot.
(The newest ACDs were also part of Adweek’s “Creative 100” list last year, as you all definitely did not know.)
We learned back in October that Droga5 had added The New York Times to its client roster and the agency launched its “The Truth is Hard to Find” campaign for the client in February with a minimalist spot which made its broadcast debut during the Academy Awards and related print, digital and OOH efforts.
For the next phase of the campaign, Droga5 and The New York Times worked with director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) on a series of more visually-focused ads continuing the themes of the importance of journalism in finding truth and difficulties that go into such reporting.
The new ads focus more on the work individual journalists put in to bringing stories to light. In one 60-second spot, photojournalist Bryan Denton describes covering military action in Iraq when the car in front of him suddenly exploded.
Another spot shows how fellow photojournalist Tyler Hicks arrived at an iconic image of refugees arriving in Lesbos, Greece. Two future ads will showcase Daniel Berehula‘s work documenting ebola in West Africa and Andes bureau chief Nicholas Casey and contributing photographer Meridith Kohut‘s coverage of the economic collapse in Venezuela.
The approach calls to mind The&Partnership’s “The Face of Real News” campaign for The Wall Street Journal last month. Aronofsky’s visual style help set the ads apart, however, and the new spots make for a much more dramatic communication of the campaign’s message that “The truth is hard to find” than the launch effort.
“Photojournalists risk their safety, their minds and often their lives in order to capture what is really happening in the most tumultuous parts of the world,” Aronofsky said in a statement. “They rush face first into war, disease and human plight to capture the horrors that are unfolding on and to our planet. Many of their images end up changing us and how we treat each other. Instead of being maligned and mistrusted, journalists should be respected and thanked.”
“For me, it was an honor to speak with them about their methods and some of their toughest assignments,” he added. “I hope the commercials pay tribute to the important work these men and women have done and continue to do.”
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Friday, April 21:
So today I’ve got good news (see Nos. 1 and 3, below), possibly good news (Nos. 2 and 7) and bad news (Nos. 4 and 5) — and, uh, news that I just don’t know what to do with (No. 6). Anyway, let’s get started …
1. Entertainment Weekly is soooo excited! “The X-Files returns! Fox orders 10-episode event series.”
Mars Petcare brand Pedigree’s “Feed the Good” campaign is now digging into history to show how dogs bring out the best in people. A moving film from BBDO New York and directed by Biscuit Filmworks’ Noam Murro recreates an obscure U.S. war story from 1777 when General George Washington and his troops were in the throes of the Revolutionary War against British Forces Commander-in-Chief William Howe and his soldiers. Amid the fighting, a terrier made its way into Washington’s camp, and the dog’s collar identified it as belonging to General Howe. Although Washington’s soldiers had plenty of their own ideas on what to do with the pup, Washington, a dog lover himself, graciously returned it to his enemy.
The new ad “directly reflects the core of our Feed the Good campaign, which is that universal truth that dogs bring out the good in us, and that our job at Pedigree is to bring out the good in them,” said Craig Neely, VP-marketing for Mars Petcare. “This has been such a great platform for us to bring a variety of diverse creative to life. The story shows that the universal truth that I mentioned is just as true today as it was more than 200 years ago during the Revolutionary War.”
According to Neely, the media plan is still being finalized, but it now focuses on digital with a broader roll out this summer.
As for the specific tie-in to ESPN, that’s easy. ESPN NFL Live host Trey Wingo will host all seven rounds of the NFL Draft for the first time. He will be joined by Mel Kiper Jr., Jon Gruden and Louis Riddick in Round 1 and Kiper, Riddick and Todd McShay for Rounds 2-7. Chris Mortensen, Adam Schefter and Suzy Kolber will also be part of ESPN’s coverage from Philadelphia.
This spot was done by CreativeWorks, ESPN’s marketing team.
In the latest step in an ongoing restructuring, Publicis Groupe is creating a country president role, starting with France, where Agathe Bousquet joins from rival Havas to lead all four Publicis divisions.
Ms. Bousquet, who is currently chair and CEO of Havas Worldwide Paris, will take on the newly-created position of president of Publicis Groupe in France, leading Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Health in that country. (The four global divisions were created in late 2015. Publicis Communications, for instance, includes the creative agency networks like Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Publicis, and is headed by Arthur Sadoun).
More countries are set to follow. Ms. Bousquet starts on Sept. 1, and once she has established a method of working across the French operations, Publicis Groupe hopes to appoint other executives to take on the position of president in other markets.
During the company’s first-quarter earnings call Friday, Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth said “increased competition” from adjacent industries is “not as evident to us as the headlines would have you believe.”
Traditional consultancies, like Accenture and Deloitte, as well as tech companies like IBM and Facebook, have been increasingly pushing into the advertising business. Roth said the holding company is “not seeing them in a big way,” but when it does face them in digital pitches, IPG agencies “do pretty well against them.”
“Our integrated offering and creative firepower is something at this point that gives us a strong advantage over those system integrators,” he said. “Innovative thinking, our ability to reach across all agencies at IPG and strong creative talent coupled with our media side of the business is something that other providers don’t have.”
Imagine living a childhood without possibility of running with friends, playing ball in the yard, or even a mother’s embrace. As hard as it is to picture, this is the life of little Nastya, Max and 4,000 other kids all over Russia. They are called “the butterfly children” — those who were born with a rare genetic condition epidermolysis bullosa that occurs once in every 100,000 births. Their skin is so fragile that even the slightest touch causes pain and great damage.
However, now with the help of latest banking technologies, people can help the butterfly children without a single touch.
In December 2016, Citi and Mastercard launched an initiative — “The Untouchables” — with the aim to help BELA Fund raise donations to improve the lives of little patients all over the country. Even though currently there is no cure for epidermolysis bullosa, there are still ways to support butterfly children and their families in the lifelong endeavour that is living with this difficult diagnosis.
To this end, a series of customized posters with built-in technology of contactless payment has been created. A person can make an instant donation in the amount of 100 Rubles by simply waving a bank card or any other payment device in front of the poster. No touch required.
The posters can be found in the most popular 50 places around Moscow and St. Petersburg — restaurants, hotels, shopping malls — as well as in all Citibank branches in these cities.
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