Whatever your politics, it's hard not to like a congressional candidate who opens her campaign ad with the line, "I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm."
Joni Ernst is a conservative Republican hoping to replace Iowa's retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin. She's in a crowded field of GOP contenders for the spot, so it's no surprise that she'd go for an attention-grabbing ad. If nothing else, her go-straight-for-the-goolies approach shows she's not afraid to be called a ball buster.
Australian construction workers simply aren't themselves in this amusing stunt from Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne. In fact, they're actors who shout empowering statements to women on the street in a real-world extension of Snickers' "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign.
Instead of sexist catcalls, the hardhats yell, "I'd like to show you the respect you deserve!" and, "A woman's place is where she chooses!" Best of all: "You know what I'd like to see? A society in which the objectification of women makes way for gender-neutral interaction free from assumptions and expectations."
According to Snickers exec Brad Cole, "There were a few nervous moments while we were filming the reactions, but the public took the experiment in the spirit in which it was intended—to charm and amuse them."
There is, of course, a negative way to interpret this execution. By saying blue-collar guys "aren't themselves" when they're being polite, it pretty clearly implies they're otherwise a bunch of misogynistic boors. This seems to be more of an insult to guys than women, but it's still rubbing some the wrong way, like this YouTube commenter:
"So wait, men are only respectful and decent human beings when they're 'not being themselves'? Men should eat a snickers to 'be themselves again' so that they can be sexist, ignorant douchebags that harass women? Great, Snickers. This kind of sexist perpetuation of masculinity is just what our world needs. ?"
If you were a miniature version of Abraham Lincoln, you'd be super excited about modern Illinois, according to the state's tourism campaign, which has brought back MiniAbe for another round of quirky sightseeing.
It sort of makes sense, if you're arrogant enough to compare yourself to one of history's (and the state's) great figures but also humble enough to think of yourself as merely a downsized plastic replica.
MiniAbe channels Joey Lawrence in the new spot, from JWT Chicago, as he utters "Whoa" wherever he goes. The approach also makes the footage of tourist locations a little more rewarding than your average vanity shots. It's hard not to wonder though, if MiniAbe isn't a distant relative of whoever's driving London's little yellow street-cleaning submarine.
The "Be More Whoa-ed" campaign launched Monday in 16 U.S. markets and will reach the U.K., Germany, Canada and national cable later this spring and summer. A second spot in the spring campaign will break in early May.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Illinois Office of Tourism Deputy Director: Jen Hoelzle Assistant Deputy Director: Jan Kemmerling Marketing Manager: Lisa Link
Agency: JWT, Chicago Executive Creative Director: Dan Bruce Creative Director, Copywriter: Gary Korrub Creative Director, Art Director: Terra Hambly Executive Producer: Alec Pinkston Agency Producer: Carolyn James Group Management Director: Erin Clark Senior Account Director: Brendan Riley
Director: Seth Henrickson Production Company: Odd Machine Editor: Steve Morrison Director of Photography: Seth Henrickson Sound Design: Eric Cauwels, Chicago Recording Media: Maxus
First, the Republican senator from Kentucky becomes the meme of the moment after releasing a baffling long-form ad with no words where he mostly just grins dumbly (birthing the hashtag #McConnelling). Then, he goes and releases a new ad that includes a brief clip of University of Kentucky archrival Duke winning the national basketball championship.
McConnell's people quickly blamed a vendor for the clip (at 1:09 in the video below) and scrambled to take the ad down, but not before every sports news outlet reported it. McConnell's staff then put up another ad with a clip of UK's Julius Randle, but neglected to get permission to use it. So, they scrapped the ad altogether.
McConnell's Democratic opponent has even jumped into the fray. She posted an online ad (see above) suggesting he's been in Congress so long, he doesn't know the difference between Duke and UK—and included a quote of hers from February that strangely predicted McConnell's gaffe.
Sports sponsorships rarely equate to more than some choice ad placement and logo saturation. But Allstate and its agency, Leo Burnett, are definitely making the most of the company's partnership with March Madness.
In a campaign called March Mayhem, the official NCAA tournament sponsor is trotting out its likably loathsome ad character to Twitter, Facebook and Vine, where he delights in the millions of brackets broken by unexpected wins like No. 10-seeded Stanford defeating No. 2 Kansas and 12th-seeded North Dakota State winning big over No. 5 Oklahoma.
Read more about the effort in our Q&A with Pam Hollander, Allstate's senior director of integrated marketing communications, and check out some of Mayhem's better Vine installments below.
Please note: Firefox seems to have trouble playing Vine embeds, so we recommend using Chrome, Safari or another browser.
Rather than drone on about product features or provide a demonstration, Gary Oldman instructs viewers to "Ask the Internet" if they want to learn more about the HTC One M8 smartphone in a pair of spots from Deutsch L.A.
The agency just took over the HTC America account, which spent less than a year at Ogilvy & Mather L.A. Robert Downey Jr. appeared in HTC's last big push (from Ogilvy's WPP stablemate 171 Worldwide), which consisted of fast-moving, noisy, colorful spots sending up the ad business itself, with the actor riffing on what the letters "HTC" could stand for.
Deutsch's work with Oldman, who rarely appears in ads, has a very different vibe. The grizzled, bespectacled thespian propels the "anti-advertising" concept by wandering around a retro-modern hilltop pad during a late-night rainstorm.
In one spot, he says "blah blah blah" a lot, interspersed with lines like, "It doesn't matter what I say, because the all-new HTC One is designed for people who form their own opinions." In the other, he takes an uncomfortably long dramatic pause, during which viewers are supposed flock to the Internet to check out the phone. Outside his window, the rain continues to fall.
This cheeky, pseudo-noir approach, awash in blues, blacks and moody reds, provides a counterpoint to the cheerful bent and bright hues of some spots from competitors like Apple, Motorola and Samsung. It's also a big change from HTC's work with Downey. Oldman shines, even though the weather is gloomy.
"Gary crosses genres and is recognized for craftsmanship in his field," said Erin McGee, HTC's vp of North America. "He's aspirational but approachable, if you think about all the roles he's played in movies and cable TV. It's a great fit for our brand."
Still, maybe Oldman should grab his HTC One and ask the Internet when that damn rain will clear up.
CREDITS Client: HTC America President: Jason Mackenzie Vice President, Marketing: Erin McGee Senior Director, Brand: Zola Kane
Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat Group Creative Director: Gavin Lester Art Director: Nick Spahr Copywriter: Alex Flint Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo Executive Producer: Rachel Seitel Production Resource Manager: Evan Aronson Music Director: Dave Rocco
Production Company: Reset, Los Angeles Director: Johnny Green Director of Photography: Mathew Libatique Managing Partner, Executive Producer: Dave Morrison Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall Head of Production: Jen Beitler Producer: Heather Heller
Editing Company: Final Cut, Los Angeles Editors: Jeff Buchanan, Adam Rudd Executive Producer: Saima Awan Assistant Editor: Hilary Ruggiano Producer: Suzy Ramirez
Post Facility (Edit): Final Cut, Los Angeles Editor: Jeff Buchanan Executive Producer: Saima Awan Assistant Editor: Hilary Ruggiano Producer: Suzy Ramirez
Post Facility (Color, Online): MPC, Santa Monica, Calif. Colorist: Mark Gethin Visual Effects Lead: Mark Holden: Compositors: Ben Davidson, Jason Heinze, Arthur Argote, Adrian Leva Executive Producer: Elexis Stearn Producers: Abisayo Adejare, Brian Friel
Music Composition: Human, Los Angeles Sound Design: Henryboy, Los Angeles
Audio Post Company: Lime Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Mixer: Loren Silber Executive Producer: Jessica Locke
End Tag: Laundry, Los Angeles
Additional Deutsch Credits: Chief Executive Officer: Mike Sheldon Chief Operating Officer, Partner: Kim Getty Group Account Director: John McGonigle Account Directors: Lauren Pollare, Megan Prince Account Supervisor: Tanya Oh Director of Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo Business Manager: Georgette Bivins Director or Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo
Earth Hour—a worldwide event where people turn off their lights to raise awareness of energy consumption—will be March 29 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in your local time zone, which Durex says is a great time to use its product.
The condom brand's newest ad is remarkably sweet, which seems to be a trend for the category these days thanks to Trojan's surprisingly subtle creative and Gun Oil's tear-jerkingly romantic lube ad. It features several couples engrossed in technology—tapping on iPads, talking on phones, playing video games—and then shutting it all down for a little old-fashioned adult activity time, without the need for lights or even any live tweeting.
It's a clever way for Durex to capitalize on an Earth-conscious event and the popular lament that our society is a little too digitally connected.
We are, however, a little concerned for the couple on the carousel.
Wieden + Kennedy made quite the discovery earlier this month. The agency says it's "pretty damn pumped" to have finally found the first ads it ever made—which happen to be the first national broadcast ads Nike ever aired. The three spots ran during the New York City Marathon in October 1982. Two of the three had been lost for decades.
For all you ad geeks out there, we're pretty damn pumped to share something very special with you. We've uncovered the first-ever ads made by Messrs. Wieden and Kennedy, Nike's first-ever nationally broadcast work. Until today, two of these were considered lost and never vaulted. Our digital librarian Phoebe Owens has spent the entire time she's been with W+K searching for them, alongside Nike historian Scott Reames, with the help of David Kennedy. Today, some old, poorly-labeled tapes proved to have what we've been searching for.
These aired during the NYC marathon. They were shot and cut within a couple of weeks, with a skeleton crew. They were a tiny team and they made it happen, and the rest is history.
Cat and budgie—sworn enemies in the real world, last time I checked—join forces to tout British TV service Freeview in these extremely silly spots from Leo Burnett London.
Kitty paws open the birdcage and the pair perform a soulful duet of of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell tune "You're All I Need to Get By." Their owner's thoroughly baffled, and a voiceover tells us, "Entertainment—it's even better when it's free. Ninety-five percent of the nation's top TV, no monthly cost. Freeview. How good is that?" Not nearly as good as a singing cat and budgie, I'm sure. (Or a singing cat and kid, but that's a different ad.)
Phillip Meyler and Darren Keff, the Burnett creatives who crafted the campaign, tell AdFreak they took their inspiration from examples of real-world entertainment that people enjoy all the more because they are free, such as watching pets play together. A cat and budgie were chosen because the grandmothers of both Meyler and Keff have this particular "classic" pairing of pets.
The fun effort from director Ne-O at production house Stink is exceedingly cute—and cute critters almost always score in ads. But there's implicit tension that gives the commercial something extra. On first viewing, I wondered if the cat would ultimately eat the budgie. Or vice versa. Maybe in the sequel. Or else Freeview could add a Kinky tadpole from last year's spot and make it a trio.
A series of 20-second clips introducing the "Budgiecat" are even stranger than the minute-long centerpiece spot. Here, the creatures don't just duet, they physically meld, like a matter-transporter experiment gone awry, into a mischievous feline-faced feathered freak. You know you want one.
Police often find themselves in high-stress, high-stakes scenarios—facing unruly drunken mobs, drivers stuck in cars about to explode and knife-wielding maniacs.
This series of videos from ad agency Brain Candy for the Scottish Police Federation, a professional trade group, wants you to consider how you'd handle yourself in a cop's shoes. The ads work hard to build the sort of suspense that will actually make you feel uncomfortable. They do a pretty good job of it, too—particularly the first brutal spot below.
The personal details about the officers help anchor the ads. The only question is whether they could have done it a little more quickly. The ads clock in at between 1:45 and 2:30, which means what you might do is nod off before they get to the kicker.
Warning: These ads contain violence and may be upsetting.
Someone at Subaru of Wichita knows how to make lemonade out of union-squeezed lemons.
Local union workers recently came out to protest the dealership with a large sign that read, "Shame on Subaru Wichita." The dealer then created its own banner that said: "For Having Unbeatable Prices."
"We fully support every American's freedom to exercise their First Amendment Rights, but when we disagree, we're going to exercise ours (and have fun at the same time). Stop by and see for yourself!" Subaru Wichita wrote on its Facebook page.
But there's more.
The protesters, chagrined, moved their sign to the right in an effort to break up the sentence. But the dealer added a comma to its sign and posted a new photo with the caption: "Don't hate, punctuate."
AdFreak spoke with Aaron Wirtz, marketing and media manager at Subaru Wichita, who said that in the past week, he's seen a 50 percent increase in Facebook likes and Twitter followers, and more than 20,000 YouTube views on videos about his sign.
In what may actually be a decent metaphor for dating, a sweaty, red-faced bro who calls himself the L.A. Beast elected to keep chugging a gallon of hot sauce, even after he'd clearly had enough, until his body turned on him and rejected all the habañero-flavored Tabasco he'd just chugged.
And it's an ad for a dating app?
The 10-minute video below may teach a lesson about perseverance for the single women and men who might check out Hot or Not's dating app. But even with what sounds like inspirational piano and the use of time lapse, we can't imagine too many people sitting through all the vomit. There's a lot of it.
The app, which looks like a carbon copy of Tinder, is deemed by the L.A. Beast himself to be "an ingenious way to pick up the ladies." We can't say the same for the video.
Well here's a truly unfortunate ad placement. Right above the headline "Malaysia Says Jet Went Down in Ocean" on today's New York Times homepage, readers saw a large animated ad with divers using the Apple iPad Air underwater.
"See the unique ways people are using iPad around the world," notes the ad's closing headline, which lingered onscreen for several minutes above the update on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The ad was up for about two hours this afternoon before appearing to be removed around 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
Do black people and fat people deserve to earn less money than skinny white people?
Well, no, but the arguments in favor of such a wage gap are somewhat entertaining in two new spots from equalpayday.be, a Belgian organization whose mission is to raise awareness about equal pay for … another demographic. (You can probably guess where this is going, but we won't spoil the surprise.)
The comparison certainly isn't perfect, and this tactic likely won't win over many who are unconcerned with the real wage gap at issue. It also probably won't go over too well with people who earnestly do feel held back in their careers because of their race or weight. But with ads so joyously sarcastic, it's hard to hold too much of a grudge.
Banksy's "Balloon Girl" provides a fitting image for the children whose lives have been ravaged by Syria's civil war, which just entered its third year.
The British street artist drew some criticism in October for the "awkward politics" of his satirical video about the conflict. His balloon imagery in this new "With Syria" awareness campaign, however, based on his stencil from 2002, has met with considerable praise, and rightly so.
"With Syria" is no less powerful, and its duality is striking, encompassing both hope and regret. The hopeful message of kids lifted above violence and strife toward a better future (represented with soul and simplicity in the "With Syria" video) has received the most attention.
The regretful message is subtler. A child clutching for a balloon suggests a childhood lost. Forever. That fate has befallen far too many Syrian kids already. More will suffer if we don't rise to the challenge and bring about meaningful change.
The animated spot was written and created by Sunshine, and directed and produced by RSA Films. Idris Elba does the voiceover. Elbow contributed exclusive music.
If you like to cook, eat or look at pretty things, enjoy this gorgeously hypnotic bit of food porn from French coffee brand Carte Noir.
Created by Proximity BBDO and two directors from Le Potager, the visual craft is on par with Wieden + Kennedy's bar-setting 2012 paean to vegetables for British butter brand Lurpak. Someone more savvy to kitchens than I will have to parse exactly what's happening when, but basically it's about baking delicious little pastries filled with coffee-flavored cream to eat with your coffee ("Chou" also means cabbage in French, but don't be confused).
The ambitious among you can find out how to make them, in French, over at the Carte Noire website, along with the following message. "Discover Rose by Carte Noire, greedy video reserved for women. Exclusively for men, this recipe is to enjoy with friends. But you resist the urge to share these adorable cabbage with your lover?" OK, maybe Google Translate didn't nail the details, but you get the idea. "Download the recipe without waiting!" is pretty clear, though.
Overenthusiastic copywriting is always better in languages you don't actually speak, because you don't mind that ads are talking to you like a 3-year-old.
CREDITS Client: Carte Noire Agency: Proximity BBDO, Paris Directors: M. Roulier et P. Lhomme Production Company: Le Potager Food dDesigner: Emmanuel Turiot Style Designer: Sylvie Bagros Editing: Bruno Herlin Music Supervisor, Composer: Aymeric Lepage Sound Design: The Hot Line
A miniature bulldozer, a tiny log loader and a little yellow submarine. Those are some of the fantastical machines that a London visual-effects house believes get the city's streets clean.
Created by the computer graphics team at Rushes—a company that's done work for brands like Mercedes-Benz, Red Stripe and McDonald's—the video manages to be both cute and captivating. But it would probably be better if watched while listening to Magical Mystery Tour … and tripping on whatever psychedelic the artists were when they conceived it.
This latest in a string of bus-shelter advertising stunts is one of the more demonic. Unsuspecting bus passengers are terrified by a glass screen showing the street scene overlaid with apolcalyptic scenes of mayhem and destruction.
At first, they appear genuinely suprised, then skeptical, then mostly amused. Kudos to Pepsi MAX for showing people deconstructing the hoax and hacking it somewhat, too.
Mother London has cooked up Chipotle's first British campaign with print ads and posters that explain how to pronounce the burrito chain's name. "Chi-Pole-Tay," "Chi-Pottle" and "Shi-Pot-Lay" are wrong. (Now they tell me. All those wasted years.) "Chi-Poat-Lay" is correct. Thanks, Chipotle!
"Delicious however you say it" is the tagline. Hey, thanks again! Cue "Farmed and Dangerous." Crank up Willie Nelson. Now, Brits can rest assured they've got the name right and savor that addictive, gut-grinding Chi-Poat-Lay bliss as the sun sinks yet lower on their once-mighty empire.
In an age when social media has made us even more aware of how we look at any given moment ("A picture? Now? Wait, how's my hair?"), asking women to take photos of themselves without makeup and upload them to social channels seems risky. And yet, thousands are doing it in the U.K. in the name of cancer awareness.
A "No makeup selfie" campaign grew organically in Britain in recent weeks, and ended up raising several million pounds for Cancer Research U.K., even though the group initially had nothing to do with the effort.
Author Laura Lippman apparently started the trend to support actress Kim Novak, whose looks were criticized at the Oscars. Others picked up on the idea, and somehow the hashtag #breastcancerawareness and donation links to Cancer Research U.K. started getting added to the selfies. "It's brilliant it's raising so much money. It's totally unexpected because it wasn't something we planned," a rep for the group tells Britain's Telegraph newspaper.
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