Kevin Hart’s upcoming stand-up concert film is called What Now? Which is the question he poses to his uninterested wife and son in this Xfinity ad by 72andSunny New York.
Playing a sport well, and becoming a career athlete, doesn’t just mean you’ve studied a list of plays, stuck to a workout regimen and mastered exactly how something should be done, though that’s certainly a part of it.
It means you’ve done all that and found creative ways to make the game your own.
That’s what this high-energy Adidas spot from 72andSunny says, arguing that it is the sports brand for creative athletes—unlike say, Under Armour. Yes, the copy for the new work seems to take a swipe at UA, which has been pitching itself as the brand for athletes serious about training.
“Yeah, yeah, hard work and dedication. But that’s not enough. You look at this cookie-cutter, copy-and-paste BLAH,” the narrator says as the frenetic camerawork—which is the real star of the spot—moves from football fields to basketball courts with what seems to be a reference to Under Armour’s “Rule Yourself” and its hundreds of copies of Stephen Curry.
It’s funny, though. For a campaign arguing for creativity, Adidas seems to be cribbing from its two major competitors. The Under Armour references serve as the advertising version of a subtweet, which is fun and arguably works for what the brand is intending. But the freewheeling, opinionated voiceover, whether intentionally or not, feels a lot like what Nike’s been doing lately, and that doesn’t seem to gel with the ad’s core argument.
72andSunny launched a new campaign for Sonos, presenting the wireless speaker brand as the solution to common home audio problems like weak computer speakers and poorly integrated sound systems.
The 60-second spot at the heart of the campaign touches on all such problems, opening with a scene borrowed from 2009 bromantic comedy I Love You, Man which features Paul Rudd‘s character playing a Rush song for an unimpressed Rashida Jones on his computer speakers. From there we see a man holding his cellphone up to his ears, straining to hear the music, a noticeably grossed-out woman cleaning off earbud headphones she’s sharing with a guy, a man nearly having a panic attack while putting together a complicated speaker system and a rather unfortunate Bluetooth interruption. There’s also the problem of a father straining to hear dialogue while watching a show, only for the explosion in the next scene to wake up his sleeping baby.
It’s a relatable approach as most people who have listened to music (or watched Netflix) anytime in the past decade or so has likely encountered at least one of these problems. The spot ends with the tagline “You’re better than this,” implying viewers deserve a better listening experience. A series of 15-second spots explores each situation and dilemma specifically, and more clearly explains how Sonos offers a solution, something that 72andSunny doesn’t make much time for with all the scenes thrown into the mix.
Yesterday, General Mills CMO Ann Simonds revealed to AdAge that the company has some very specific diversity requirements for its creative review: it wants its agencies’ creative departments to be staffed with at least 50 percent women and 20 percent people of color. Regarding the new quotas, she added, “we are very excited about that. If you are going to put people you serve first, the most important thing is to live up to it and make it a key criteria.”
Simonds is leading that review — which was launched a little over a month ago and originally thought to be closed — along with CCO and former Fallon chief strategy officer Michael Fanuele. Fanuele told AdAge the goal of the review is to find “one core agency to handle the bulk [of the work] but to supplement with other partners, which might be technology platforms or media partners,” or, put another way, “an anchor agency supplemented with a roster of interesting partners.”
According to our sources, the review is now down to three unnamed finalists from a pool including 72andSunny, McCann, Deutsch, Mother, Ogilvy and a Publicis “holding company solution.”
Fanuele told AdAge that McCann pitching as an IPG holding company solution remained a possibility, saying, “The clay is still wet on the proposal,” and “This an exercise in finding the right partners, not the right model.”
The fact that the diversity requirements specifically target agency creative departments is telling. It speaks to recent discussions spurred by groups like the The 3% Conference, whose most recent survey found that just 11.5 percent of agency creative directors are female.
The significance of the diversity requirements and the possibility it may impact other brands in the future is not lost on Simonds. “It feels like a first,” she said. “I think it’s rare and it is important.”
So far there’s no word on how, exactly, General Mills plans to enforce these requirements … or how quickly the agencies in question are scrambling to meet them.
72andSunny launched the latest in its ongoing anti-smoking campaign for truth, following its February effort “#CATmageddon” with “#Squadless.” The latest effort is based around research showing that smokers earn an average of 20 percent less than non-smokers. Unfortunately, as with its previous effort, 72andSunny takes the information and builds a logical fallacy around it, making the leap from correlation to causation and assuming ignorance on the part of its audience. That’s especially frustrating when such a leap is wholly unnecessary to its larger point that smoking leaves you with less money to hang out with friends (squadless), since, last time we checked, cigarettes were freaking expensive.
Someone decided to have the narrative delivered musically, via a series of what we might call “raps.” The spot opens with a teenage boy sitting next to his grandfather on the couch, delivering the line “I’m stuck with Pee-Pop, who smells like a foot, while my squad’s at the movies, and they’re seeing something good.” Not really a rhyme, but we know the rules are very loose.
Other suffering “squadless” smokers include a girl who climbs a tree to see a concert and a boy who learns Photoshop skills when broke and stuck in his room.
At least “CATmageddon” had cute cats as a saving grace; this time there’s just bad rapping and elementary Photoshop battle skills. We don’t have any statistics on hand, but we’re guessing most teens who light up hang around friends who also smoke. So while the money-sapping effects of smoking may be a good place to start, the larger message is not really landing for us.
In addition to the spot, which will run during Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, 72andSunny once again teamed up with some “social influencers,” including Timothy DeLaGhetto, Lele Pons and Brent Rivera. The campaign will also include a 60-second spot featuring a Diplo track, which will also run during the VMAs.
Now who wants a smoke?
Credits:
Agency: 72andSunny
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Executive Creative Director: Matt Murphy
Group Creative Director: Mick DiMaria, Justin Hooper
Creative Director: Allbriton Robbins
Copywriter: Matt Garcia, Reilly Baker, Drew Burton
Strategist: Alexandra Mathieu
Strategy Director: Kasia Molenda
Group Strategy Director: Scott Jensen
CEO: Robin Koval
Chief Marketing Officer: Eric Asche
Executive Producer: Molly McFarland
Designer: Mindy Benner, Natalie Seitz
Brand Manager: Sarah Donze
Brand Coordinator: Marie Simoni
Brand Director: Kristine Soto
Sr. Social Strategist: Luke Yun
Director of Marketing: Jasmin Malone, Mary Dominguez
Production Company: Hungry Man Productions
Producer: Craig Repass
Head of Production: Jacki Sextro
Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne, Dan Duffy, Mino Jarjoura
Director: Dave Laden
Partner: Kevin Byrne
Music And Sound
Executive Producer: Amy Crilly
Composer: Justin Hori
Arranger: Squeak E. Clean Productions, Inc.
Post Production/VFX
Post Production Company: CUT + RUN
Visual Effects: Jogger Studios
Senior Producer: Matt Moran
Producer: Annabelle Dunbar Whittaker, Ben Sposato
Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin, Rhubie Jovanov
Creative Director: David Parker
Colourist: Mike Pethel
With retirement looming, Red Sox designated hitter/first baseman David Ortiz is preparing for the next stage of his life the only way he knows how: By making terrible puns as he attempts to name potential business ventures.
Ortiz, who’s already founded Big Papi’s Kitchen, is the new centerpiece of the new SC@Night campaign from ESPN and 72andSunny. The campaign is built around highlighting the fans, athletes and celebrities who watch late night SportsCenter. In this video spot, Ortiz brainstorms new business names while watching Stan Verrett and Neil Everett reel off zingers, much to the chagrin of Eduardo Rodriguez and David Price.
Is Todd Gurley actually vegetarian?
You have to wonder after watching this Carl’s Jr. commercial starring the Los Angeles Rams running back. The spot shows Gurley supposedly biting into the California Classic Double Cheeseburger, but it’s blatantly obvious that the burger isn’t real—it’s a digitally inserted photo that isn’t fooling anyone.
What’s inspiring about a dusty patch of ground in Venice, Calif., populated with a few scraggly weeds and hemmed in by a chain link fence? Plenty, according to the team at 72andSunny’s in-house creative residency, 72U.
The six-member group looked at the forlorn piece of property and saw an opportunity for a community gathering spot and open-air workspace. Using crowdsourced info, they spent eight weeks creating a 1,500-square-foot pop-up park with free wi-fi, portable desks, fences that convert to tables and art installations. The space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, meant to “inspire and connect the community,” its designers say, will be open for nine months.
It’s the latest project from 72U, which gathers creative thinkers from outside the traditional ad world, tosses them together for three months and challenges them to create art-meets-technology-meets-culture concepts. Other fruits of the program’s labor include a Craigslist-style interactive music video and two four-story murals about privacy in the digital age.
In 1990, a group of disabled people pulled themselves up the steps at the U.S. Capitol building to advocate for the Americans With Disabilites Act, protesting delays in an event that became known as the Capitol Crawl.
Now, a new outdoor ad campaign from Google and 72andSunny marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark legislation by featuring painted portraits of key figures in the disability rights movement on the steps of major cultural buildings in Washington, D.C.
Posted from July 24-27, the billboards featured a range of notable activists—like Claudia Gordon, the first deaf female African American attorney in U.S. history, and Ed Roberts, a leader in the drive for the ADA as well as the movement more broadly—at buildings like Gallaudet University and the National Portrait Gallery, respectively. They also celebrated legislators like former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.
A quote accompanied each portrait. “This vital legislation will open the door to full participation by people with disabilities in our neighborhoods, workplaces, our economy, and our American Dream,” reads Harkin’s, posted on steps in the Newseum.
The steps leading up to the Carnegie Library also feature a quote—sans portrait—from President George H.W. Bush, who signed the ADA into law.
72andSunny hired artist Darren Booth to illustrate the campaign. An accompanying website features more in-depth tellings of each figure’s role in the movement, including, in most cases, video interviews with the subjects themselves. It also ties more directly back into the brand’s products, with a Google Map offering a “tour” of the locations that hosted the portraits.
Here are all the paintings and their locations:
Claudia Gordon at Gallaudet University
Tom Harkin at the Newseum
Patrick Kennedy at Woodrow Wilson Plaza
Justin Dart Jr. at Woodrow Wilson Plaza
Tia Nelis at the National Museum of American History
Kathy Martinez at the National Museum of American History
Ed Roberts at the National Portrait Gallery
Judy Heumann at the National Portrait Gallery
Tatyana McFadden at the National Portrait Gallery
CREDITS
Client: Google
Agency: 72andSunny
Artwork: Darren Booth
If you were looking forward to drooling over whatever hot, near-naked model would grace Carl’s Jr.’s notoriously lascivious advertising next, you’re in for a disappointment.
In a new 30-second commercial, the crass burger chain plays on its reputation for portraying women as pieces of meat who love to eat smaller pieces of meat in the most ridiculously carnal way possible. But here, it turns out the sweaty, glistening curves belong to something way less titillating.
Titled “Natural Beauties,” the concept is essentially a rehash of one of the older jokes in the book, if cleverly tailored to poke fun—in a nonetheless leering, winking sort of way—at the brand’s history of scantily clad talent including Charlotte McKinney, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.
In the end, it’s all just part of Carl’s Jr. attempt to make its products seem less terrible for your health—i.e., natural. Everyone knows that’s a nonsense classification to begin with, and seems particularly half-hearted here—which is fitting, because each time you eat one of the brand’s hot-dog-and-potato-chips-on-a-burger burgers, half your heart is probably liable to just give up.
CREDITS
Client: Carl’s Jr.
Chief Executive Officer: Andy Puzder
Chief Marketing Officer: Brad Haley
SVP, Product Marketing: Bruce Frazer
Director of Advertising: Brandon LaChance
VP, Field Marketing, Media & Merchandising: Steve Lemley
Director, Product Marketing & Merchandising: Christie Cooney
Product Marketing Manager: Allison Pocino
72andSunny Team
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Group Creative Director: Justin Hooper
Group Creative Director: Mick DiMaria
Creative Director: Tim Wettstein
Creative Director: Mark Maziarz
Sr. Designer: Marcus Wesson
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategy Director: Kasia Molenda
Strategist: Eddie Moraga
Group Brand Director: Alexis Coller
Sr. Brand Manager: Scott Vogelsong
Brand Coordinator: Anthony Fernandez
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Executive Film Producer: Molly McFarland
Jr. Film Producer: Kira Linton
Film Production Coordinator: Taylor Stockwell
Business Affairs Director: Amy Jacobsen
Business Affairs Manager: Jennifer Jahinian
Business Affairs Coordinator: Ryan Alls
Coast Public Relations:
Founder and CEO: Jeanne Beach Hoffa
Group Director: Melissa Penn
Director: Kate Franklin
Production Company: Strange & Wonderful
Director: Will Hyde
Executive Producer: Celeste Hyde
Producer: John Gomez
Editorial: 72andSunny Studio
Editor: Doron Dor
Executive Producer: Jenn Locke
Producer: Becca Purice
Online Finishing: Brickyard VFX
VFX Producer: Diana Young
VFX Artists: Patrick Poulatian & Mandy Sorenson
CG Artist: David Blumenfeld
Telecine: Beach House
Colorist: Mike Pethel
Producer: Denise Brown
Audio: On Music and Sound
Mixer: Chris Winston
Sound Design: On Music and Sound
Sound Designer: Chris Winston
Music:
Track name: “Beastie”
Written and Performed by: The Blancos
Used courtesy of GODIY Music
Following a seemingly endless stream of ads following the supermodel in skimpy outfit formula, including its recent “The Most American Thing Ever,” 72andSunny changes things up with two new ads for Carl’s Jr promoting the chain’s Ding Dong Ice Cream Sandwich (made with the Hostess treat) and Grilled Pork Chop Biscuit.
“Steam” (featured above) shows the makings of the chain’s new breakfast sandwich. Filmed in an actual Carl’s Jr. location, with a biscuit-making employee the spot shows the doughy origins and steamy, crunchy finished product. Directed by Claire Thomas, the spot provides close-ups of the biscuit over a voiceover waxing poetic over “the steam that rises from in between the flakes and folds of a biscuit that was just born from the oven.” The other spot, “Eclipse” is set to Richard Strauss‘ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (which most viewers will recognize from 2001: A Space Odyssey) and shows a ding dong eclipsing a scoop of ice cream Beyond showcasing the product food porn style, it also delivers the implication that the new creation eclipses other cold summer desserts.
While it would be jumping the gun to assume Carl’s Jr. has abandoned the tired supermodel approach (but we can hope, right?), it’s nice to see 72andSunny offer up a reprieve from the typical sexual objectification. Notably, the ads promote products other than the chain’s burgers, so it’s likely we’ll see more of the same when the chain returns to its more familiar offerings. For now though, the simplistic product-centric approach of “Steam” and “Eclipse” is definitely an improvement.
Credits:
BRAND: CKE
Project: Ding Dong Ice Cream Sandwich
Chief Executive Officer: Andy Puzder
Chief Marketing Officer: Brad Haley
SVP, Product Marketing: Bruce Frazer
Director of Advertising: Brandon LaChance
VP, Field Marketing, Media & Merchandising: Steve Lemley
Director, Product Marketing & Merchandising: Christie Cooney
Product Marketing Manager: Samantha Deese
Director of Public Relations: Kathleen Bush
72andSunny Team
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Group Creative Director: Justin Hooper
Group Creative Director: Mick DiMaria
Creative Director/Designer: Tim Wettstein
Creative Director/Writer: Mark Maziarz
Designer: Ryan Davis
Jr. Writer: Reilly Baker
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategy Director: Kasia Molenda
Strategist: Eddie Moraga
Group Brand Director: Alexis Coller
Sr. Brand Manager: Scott Vogelsong
Brand Coordinator: Anthony Fernandez
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Executive Film Producer: Molly McFarland
Film Producer: Brooke Home
Film Production Coordinator: Taylor Stockwell
Business Affairs Director: Amy Jacobsen
Business Affairs Manager: Maggie Pijanows
Business Affairs Coordinator: Calli Howard
Production Company: Christina Productions
Director: Justin Hooper
Executive Producer: Christina Ritzmann
Editorial: 72andSunny Studio
Editor: Nick Gartner
Producer: Becca Purice
VFX: Brickyard VFX
VFX Supervisor: George Fitz
Producer: Diana Young
Telecine: Brickyard VFX
Colorist: George Fitz
Producer: Diana Young
Audio: On Music & Sound
Composer: Chris Winston
Sound Design: On Music & Sound
Composer: Christ Winston
MUSIC
“Also Sprach Zarathustra”
Written by Richard Strauss
Performed by Badische Staatskapelle Orchestra
Published by C.F. Peters Corporation
Used courtesy of Antes Edition
BRAND: Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s
Project: “Steam”, Grilled Pork Chop Biscuit
Client: CKE- Carl Karcher Enterprises
Chief Executive Officer: Andy Puzder
Chief Marketing Officer: Brad Haley
SVP, Product Marketing: Bruce Frazer
Director of Advertising: Brandon LaChance
VP, Field Marketing, Media & Merchandising: Steve Lemley
Director, Product Marketing & Merchandising: Christie Cooney
Product Marketing Manager: Allison Pocino
Director of Public Relations: Kathleen Bush
72andSunny Team
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Group Creative Director: Justin Hooper
Group Creative Director: Mick DiMaria
Designer: Sarah Herron
Writer: Rebecca Ullman
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategist: Eddie Moraga
Group Brand Director: Alexis Coller
Sr. Brand Manager: Michal David
Brand Manager: Ali Arnold
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Executive Film Producer: Molly McFarland
Film Producer: Brooke Home
Junior Producer: Kira Linton
Film Production Coordinator: Taylor Stockwell
Director of Business Affairs: Michelle McKinney
Business Affairs Manager: Maggie Pijanows
Business Affairs Coordinator: Calli Howard
Director of Communications: Jeff Sweat
Communications Manager: Ginny Adams
Production Company: Splendid & Co.
Director: Claire Thomas
Executive Producer: Taylor Ferguson
Executive Producer: Erin Tauscher
Producer: Ursula Baird
Editorial: Union Editorial
Editor: Rachael Waxler
Producer: Joe Ross
Assistant Editor: Ryan Khoury
VFX: Brickyard
VFX Supervisor: George Fitz
Producer: Diana Young
Telecine: BeachHouse
Colorist: Mike Pethel
Producer: Denise Brown
Audio: On Music & Sound
Composer: Chris Winston
Sound Design/Mix: On Music & Sound
Composer: Christ Winston
72andSunny launched two new spots in its “Progress Report” campaign for anti-tobacco group truth today, examining recent developments in changing attitudes towards smoking.
One spot (featured above) calls out Camel for not allowing employees to smoke at their desks. It mendaciously conflates allowing smoking indoors to “It’s okay for their customers to smoke…but not their employees?” accompanied by an annoying “mind blown” GIF, employing the kinds of manipulative tactics truth once called out the tobacco industry for. Another spot applauds Syracuse University’s recent decision to become a tobacco free campus, emphasizing that less money on cigarettes means more money for “school supplies.” The spot ends by inviting viewers to sign a petition to ban smoking on their own campuses. Both spots are clearly aimed at a young audience, inspired by Internet culture and targeting short attention spans. That makes sense, since this is the demographic most prone to take up smoking, but it doesn’t make it any easier to watch for the rest of us. And with tobacco companies still wreaking havoc elsewhere in the world, you have to wonder if truth’s efforts would be better spent on targeting these shady practices, rather than focusing on the dwindling appeal of smoking domestically.
Credits:
CLIENT: Legacy
CMO : Eric Asche
VP, Marketing: Nicole Dorrler
Marketing Director: Mary Dominguez
Marketing Brand Manager: Jasmin Malone
AGENCY: 72andSunny
CREATIVE
CCO, Partner: Glenn Cole
GCD: Mick DiMaria
GCD: Justin Hooper
Lead Writer: Beau Unruh
Lead Designer: Allbriton Robbins
Writer: Rebeccca Ullman
Designer: Sarah Herron
Designer: Brianna Lohr
BRAND
Group Brand Director: Judson Whigham
Brand Director: Kristine Soto
Brand Director: Max Kislevitz
Brand Manager: Everette Cooke
Brand Coordinator: Chelsea Gilroy
PRODUCTION
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Film Producer: Thomas Martin
Film Producer: Esther Perls
BA
Director of Business Affairs: Michelle McKinney
Business Affairs Director: Amy Jacobsen
Business Affairs Manager: Amy Shah
STRATEGY
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategy Director: Kasia Molenda
Strategist: Alexandra Mathieu
PRODUCTION
72Studio
Director: Roberto Serrini
Producer: Jonny Edwards
Production Manager: Michael Bergin
POST-PRODUCTION
72Studio
Editor: Jason Lewis
Executive Producer: Jenn Locke
Post Production Producer: Benjamin Bragg
MUSIC
Syracuse: Dawin: Just Girly Things
RJ: The Grouch & Eligh “Say Eligh! Say Grouch!”
Music Supervisor: Marisa Wasser
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.
