"Hear what you want" is the theme of this intense, nearly three-minute Beats by Dre spot starring Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Garnett, who's shown using the brand's wireless studio headphones to cancel out angry, often ugly catcalls from fans on game day. Haters viciously taunt him for being too old, at 37, to lead the team to a championship, and the racist epithet from a red-capped rowdy around the 55-second mark—he calls the power forward a "gorilla motherfucker"—is especially jarring. Aloe Blacc's uplifting, anthemic track "The Man" works well as a counterpoint, and the fact that Garnett and the Nets have stumbled badly out of the gate this season adds power and poignance. I'll be rooting for K.G. to tune out the static and make some noise the rest of the way.
UPDATE: R/GA did the creative on this, with Prettybird doing the production.
CREDITS Client: Beats by Dre Agency: R/GA Production Company: Prettybird Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors Editor: Damion Clayton
UPDATE 2: The Beastie Boys released this statement Monday:
Like many of the millions of people who have seen your toy commercial "GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg & the Beastie Boys," we were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad. We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering. As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads. When we tried to simply ask how and why our song "Girls" had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US.
UPDATE: A rep for the Beastie Boys tells the Huffington Post that the band has not made any claim against GoldieBlox, saying: "There was no complaint filed, no demand letter (no demand, for that matter) when [GoldieBlox] sued Beastie Boys."
Original item below: The feel-good ad of the month has taken a feel-bad turn. The Beastie Boys apparently have a problem with GoldieBlox's version of their song "Girls" in the overnight smash-hit "Princess Machine" commercial, which recast the track with new lyrics as an empowerment anthem for little girls. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the band has allegedly threatened legal action, claiming copyright infringement, and the toy company has preemptively filed its own lawsuit asking that its version of the song be considered fair use—a common defense in cases involving parody material. The sticking point for GoldieBlox may be that "Princess Machine" is expressly designed to sell toys, and thus is a commercial endeavor at least as much as it is a sociological statement, but it will be up to a court to decide. The Beastie Boys, meanwhile, risk looking like they're censoring a worthwhile message that has enthralled millions—though of course it's hard to protect your intellectual property if you're willing to look the other way now and then based on ideology or pressure from the public. You can read GoldieBlox's full complaint here.
This holiday season, there's one thing everyone's sure to be getting on Target.com: a headache.
The recently relaunched Target site is sparking quite a bit of backlash from the design community, primarily due to the site's abundance of drop shadows and overall cluttered-as-crap vibe. The new look definitely puts a lot more product on the home page, but it sacrifices that minimalist "Target look" that the brand has spent so many years perfecting.
While the previous site design also had its critics, this one seems to be beloved by almost no one. Check out a pretty accurate cross-section of recent tweets:
UPDATE: Some on Twitter have suggested that Olson might have been behind the redesign, but agency VP Jeremy Mullman says it wasn't them. "While Olson does a great deal of digital work for Target," Mullman writes in an email to AdFreak, "we did not manage or work on the Target.com redesign." Mullman said he was unsure who had created the new design.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has chosen this year's five nominees for its annual Toady Award (dis)honoring "Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children."
There's a Monopoly game plastered with the names and logos of real advertisers (because the classic version isn't capitalistic enough); a Play-Doh mobile app that basically kills any actual creativity; a truly bizarre fashion-doll site that lets kids throw sparkly makeover parties for tooth fairies; a dinosaur that shoots missiles (just like the real ones did); and iPotty, a workstation that lets toddlers poop and cruise the Internet simultaneously.
Glad I grew up in a simpler age with the timeless classics: GI Joe and Barbie. No harmful social messages or rigidly enforced gender roles there. Via Consumerist.
Dogs "sing" a "We Are the World"-esque power ballad in this ad for Pet Trust, a Canadian organization that's trying to end animal cancer as we know it. Thankfully, they're not joined by Sarah McLachlan at any point. I like that the sound engineer is a cat, because in real life cats are jerks who would totally screw up the vocal mix on purpose just to prove a point. It would probably pee on the microphone covers, too. Print work and credits below.
Agency: Red Urban.
CREDITS Campaign Title: "Keep Cancer on a Leash" Music Video Title: "We Could Be Heroes" Client: Nestle Purina / Pet Trust Vice President, Product and Strategy Communications: Mary Siemiesz Managing Director, Pet Trust: Karen Scott
Agency: Red Urban Creative Director: Christina Yu Art Director: Patrick Shing Writer: Matt Syberg-Olsen Integrated Producer: Terri Vegso Strategy and Development Director: Keith Barry Creative Resources Manager: Mary-Claire Barlow
Production Company: Untitled Films Director: Curtis Wehrfritz Producer: Michael Smith Executive Producer: Lexy Kavluk Production Designer: Matt Hopkins Dlirector of Photography: Kris Belchevski
Postproduction: Rooster Post Editor: Christina Humphries Assistant Editors: Adam Cunliffe, Jawin Laverde Producer: Yumi Suyama Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn
Transfer: Alter Ego Colorist: Eric Whipp
Online: Fort York Flame Artist: Ernie Mordak Assistant Flame Artist: Jason Pereira
Last fall, Norwegian airline Wideroe used a child's glee at his grandfather's airplane-conjuring trick to create one of 2012's best ads. Now, British Airways is showcasing a digital version of a similar concept.
A billboard at London crossroads Piccadilly Circus is programmed to show a virtual boy standing up and pointing at actual British Airways flights as they pass over the ad, which also identifies each plane's flight number and place of origin or destination. It's a nifty illusion, if a little less magical than the Wideroe ad, which managed to capture a credible slice of cross-generational life in an incredibly charming story. Then again, it's kind of apples and oranges—the BA bit is definitely way cuter than your average airline billboard.
"We all know from conversations with friends and family that we wonder where the planes are going and dream of an amazing holiday or warm destination," Abigail Comber, head of marketing at British Airways, said in a statement. "The clever technology allows this advertisement to engage people there and then answer that question for them. We hope it will create a real 'wow' and people will be reminded how amazing flying is and how accessible the world can be."
Maybe next time the marketer just needs to add a twee tortured soundtrack like the Daughter clip that Wideroe used.
Thinking of frying a turkey this holiday season? Hang on a minute, and listen to what Si and Jase have to say.
State Farm has partnered with the popular stars from Duck Dynasty to caution turkey fryers everywhere to think before they fry. All the important tips are there, along with some country color, a delightfully slow delivery and the hashtag #hangonaminute.
Turkey-related mishaps must be a serious problem for State Farm. Two years ago, they commissioned William Shatner to overact a beautiful four-minute drama about the dangers of open flame, oil, and frozen bird flesh. So be sure to defrost that bird, turn off the gas when you slide her in, and we’ll all stay happy, happy, happy.
Considering that Sean Bean can barely make a walk-on cameo without his character being butchered, it's pretty impressive how much he can survive in his newest U.K. ad appearance.
Dinosaurs firing laser beams, pirates, explosive baked goods—just about everything is out to get the British actor in this spot for Fairy dish soap and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The ad celebrates the 10-year partnership between Make-A-Wish and the household brand, which has raised more than a million pounds through its annual holiday fundraiser.
There is one good reason to visit New Zealand (not counting you already happened to be in Australia so why not swing by). It's because you wish you lived in The Lord of the Rings instead of in the real world.
Just ask Air New Zealand, which appears to have conceded this in its latest Middle-earth-themed video—not its first. The new spot urges you to pack your bags with golden baubles and helmets and shields, then board a giant eagle-winged aircraft piloted by bearded dwarves. A man in a wizard's hat will use a gnarled wooden staff to wave the fowl plane down the tarmac. Hobbit-footed and pointy-eared flight attendants will serve you the Shire's crunchiest vegetable produce.
If you do go, be nice to the real Air New Zealand staff, as many of them debased themselves to bring you this fantasy—all because the airline wants you to know that what you see in the cinema is not just "a load of fanciful imaginings." Alternately, you could just use the million-hour flight to marathon all of the J.R.R. Tolkien movies. And then do it again when you get to the hotel, too.
Because you, Bilbo Baggins, sure aren't going to defeat that dragon while sitting comfortably in the Bag End replica you've built in your girlfriend's mother's basement.
A dreary rainstorm and a friend's apparent death might not seem like promising raw materials for an uplifting ad. But this one takes place in Ireland, so it all makes sense. The two-and-a-half minute spot for Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey was made by New York ad agency Opperman Weiss and directed by Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films. It features four friends all dressed up and trudging through the gloriously bleak countryside of Ireland, bottle of booze in hand, seeming to eulogize a fallen friend by singing the Irish folk song "A Parting Glass." Lovely stuff. Fast Company has an interview with creative director Paul Opperman, who says the men recorded the song in Saint Kevin's, the stone church in the film, known for its great acoustics. The film tries to capture what Irish music is like, he adds—"that sense of both melancholy and victory at the same time."
CREDITS William Grant & Sons Marketing Ltd Shane Hoyne – Global Brand Director
Opperman Weiss Paul Opperman – Writer Jeff Weiss – Art Director Mark Johnston – Executive Producer
Duotone Creative Director/Arranger: Jack Livesey Vocal Arranger: Eamon O'Leary Executive Producer: David Leinheardt
Bug Edit Andre Betz Editor Caitlin Grady Executive Producer
Kanye West takes no prisoners, as displayed during his rant against Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on novelist Bret Easton Ellis's podcast on Monday.
"I got into this giant argument with the head of Zappos that he's trying to tell me what I need to focus on. Meanwhile, he sells all this shit product to everybody, his whole thing is based off of selling shit product."
Zappos swiftly responded by launching a new item on its website called "Sh-t Product," a $100,000 plunger complete with product photos and a video demonstration. Item information includes the bullet point "The perfect gift for the man who has everything"—which is linked to Kanye's tirade. Zappos enthusiasts are leaving rave reviews: "Yo Zappos! Imma let you finish … but this is the best Sh-t product of all time!"
In an interview with AdFreak, Hsieh says, "We don't have a formal process or team to respond quickly to media events … the Kanye thing was just a random fun idea that someone came up with yesterday morning and then a bunch of employees from different departments jumped in to help make it happen quickly. As for Kanye himself, I admire him for always being on brand."
Soliciting testimonials from alumni isn't a new way to advertise a university, but this example definitely takes it to a new and charming extreme.
Canada’s Royal Roads University decided to let alumni speak for themselves by physically embedding them in what passers-by assumed to be digital ad kiosks.
In the case study below, the university and agency Cossette Vancouver show how they constructed a special display box that hid a live alumna inside. When people pressed a "Connect" button on the display, a panel dropped down, revealing the actual woman they thought they'd be hearing from digitally.
Some were so surprised that they thought she was a very realistic video or perhaps a robot.
Nothing screams "I love my university" louder than a woman’s willingness to stand in a claustrophobic box all day and talk to surprised strangers. But the clip would obviously be more effective if we saw high schoolers or even parents praising the approach rather than hearing seniors talk about how nice it was to talk to a "real person." Still, I look forward to other inventive executions in this campaign.
CREDITS Agency: Cossette Vancouver Client: Royal Roads University Creative Director: Michael Milardo Art Director: George Lin Copywriter: Pierre Chan Director of Account Services: Chris Miller Strategic Planner: Ute Preusse Account Supervisor: Robyn Smith Account Team: Philippa Groom, Megan O'Rourke Producer: April Haffenden
Not since Kill Bill has there been a wedding this disastrous and darkly mesmerizing. As some adorable gingerbread people prepare to wed, a duck descends on the scene in savage fashion, mutilating the wedding party and attendees alike.
Obviously, it's an ad for Oatmeal Crisp.
The link between concept and product is tenuous at best, but luckily there's an angry Scotsman around to explain that as crunchy as that situation was, it can't compare to Oatmeal Crisp. Check out three more spots from the campaign after the jump. Via Adrants.
Unilever asks a heavy question—"Why bring a child into this world?"—in a four-minute video touting Project Sunlight, its new global sustainability initiative. The consumer-goods titan created the short film in collaboration with acclaimed director Errol Morris and many of the same folks from Ogilvy's South American office who created the award-winning "Real Beauty Sketches" for Unilever's Dove brand.
Actually, this is a film within film, as real expectant parents share their hopes and fears about the world their kids will inherit. They also react as they watch a movie that mixes footage of violence and despair with hopeful messages about the future. The tone is emotional, but positive, backed by a pensive piano cover of The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?"
"Your child could have more possibilities of having a healthier heart than any living person today—and the same chance of a broken heart," the narrator says. "No one can escape that. … And by the time they find the right person, our children will have better chances of meeting their great-grandchildren than we ever did."
Nearing 2.5 million YouTube views in just two days, the clip clearly resonates with many viewers, such as this commenter on Unilever's Facebook page: "I cried at this video. … Righteous work! I hope more people see this video and are inspired."
Of course, not all viewers were won over. One YouTube commenter scoffed at the premise of a consumer brand helping save the world: "So they claim they 'save lives?' They make soap, people. Look, if they really cared they would invest all the billions of euros they make in profit into cancer research or something … Unilever is once again trying to take credit for something they have no business taking credit in by putting together some overdramatic commercial to fool people into thinking they are not in business to make those billions of euros."
The existential implications of the central question—"Why bring a child into this world?"—are so intense, I give Unilever points for having the guts to go this route in the first place.
But do we really need a big company to ask such questions? Is it Unilever's place to curate such a conversation which, no matter how well intentioned, is ultimately designed to improve the image of its brand and boost the bottom line?
The single most amazing thing about this insane ad? It's actually running on TV.
Mike Mixson, owner of Mike's Golf Shop in Chattanooga, Tenn., has already racked up nearly 100,000 YouTube views for the commercial he shot on a camera phone. While it begins awkwardly enough, the video only truly hits its stride when he begins yelling, "We buy golf clubs!" so many times, the sentence begins to lose all earthly meaning and becomes a sort of ritualistic chant.
"I was at my desk doing some work, and I just hear a guy shouting on TV," local talk radio host Brian Joyce told community news site Nooga.com. "I turn and it’s just a guy filming his own commercial on a flip-phone camera."
Joyce sent the clip to a friend who writes for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and it has since been featured on several viral-video roundups. As for Mixson, he seems pleased with the success, telling reporters that he buys golf clubs, he buys golf clubs, he buys golf clubs, and, also, he buys golf clubs.
Kmart has a big viral hit with the guys playing "Jingle Bells" with their privates. Now, another retailer, JCPenney, is trying to draft off that popularity by tweeting a coupon for pants in Kmart's general direction. A back-and-forth ensued, with the phrase "twigs and berries" eventually being used. This is what American corporate retail has come to, people.
You've seen most of the big viral ads of the year, but not this one—because it was made for the Turkish market by Unilever's Cornetto ice cream brand. It's a short film about a fateful teenage romance, set to a track by Turkish pop singer Yal?n. It's gotten more than 26 million views on YouTube since April, which is pretty incredible, given the market. Notably, though, the spot doesn't even feature ice cream—it's simply presented by Cornetto.
The brand did some similar films in the U.K. this year; the Turkish work was the pilot program. Ben Curtis, senior brand development manager for Cornetto, told Marketing Week: "The short films allow us to take more time to develop a deeper connection with teenagers in a way that we can't in a 30-second spot. Also we know that our teens are always online, and are so creative."
Christmas is coming, and along with it comes the worst part of the year: ironic ugly sweater parties. Formerly the sole domain of grandmothers and Bill Cosby, ugly sweaters are some kind of awkward hipster mating plumage now, so it's only ill-fitting that Coke Zero has capitalized on it with the Coke Zero Sweater Generator, built by Droga5. You design a sweater with minimal Coke branding, and it goes into an online gallery where other people can vote on the best/worst designs. The top 100 will be made and sent to their creators, who will probably model them on Facebook. Above is the one I made.
Bedsider.org, a free online resource for birth control, has teamed up with BET Networks to target African-American women ages 18-29 through a series of TV spots from Havas Worldwide portraying painfully awkward discussions about sex and birth control with family and friends. The idea is cool. Talking about sex can be awful, but checking out a website about sex and birth control is awkward free, as long as you're not in a library or synagogue or elementary school.
The three spots feature a young woman having cringe-worthy conversations with 1) her grandmother, 2) her boyfriend and 3) her mother.
A little old lady delivers the line "Oh, you're very supple" to her visibly uncomfortable granddaughter in the best of the three ads. The spot featuring the IUD conversation with the boyfriend doesn't do it (pun!) for me. You guys are having sex, but you can't ask your boyfriend to tell his dog to stop humping your leg? Strange. The video featuring the daughter—wrapped in a towel, fresh out of the shower—and the overeager mother is the weirdest of the three. The line "We should talk, like, vagina to vagina" is seriously grossing me out.
Bedsider's goal is to make us all cringe; mission accomplished. I've maxed out my quota for hearing the word "vagina" today. Nobody talk to me until tomorrow.
CREDITS Bedsider 2013 Awkward Campaign
Agency: Havas Worldwide New York Chief Creative Officer Global Brands: Lee Garfinkel Chief Creative Officer: Darren Moran Executive Creative Director: Lisa Rettig-Falcone Creative Director: Jeremy Pippenger Art Director: Thomas Shim Copywriter: Catherine Eccardt Global Chief Content Officer: Vin Farrell Integrated Producer: Candice Vernon Group Account Director: Tamara Goodman Account Executive: Alexandra Litzman Senior Content Strategist: Shawn Shahani Strategy and Analytics: Chris Lake
TV Production Company: Director: Clay Williams EP: Scott Howard Producer: Debbie Tietjen DP: Stefan Czapsky
Editorial:Mackenzie Cutler EP: Sasha Hirschfeld Producer: Evan Meeker Editor: Dave Anderson Telecine: Company 3 NY Colorist: Tim Masick
One of the most anti-feminist songs of the 1980s, "Girls" by the Beastie Boys, is recast as an empowering theme for young women in a new toy ad looking to break gender stereotypes.
The spot is a holiday promotion for GoldieBlox, a construction-themed board game that nearly doubled its Kickstarter goal in 2012. Game developer Debbie Sterling designed GoldieBlox to combine young girls' love of reading and characters with the engineering themes of toys typically more popular with boys, like Legos and erector sets. To that end, the ad features a massive Rube Goldberg scenario, designed by OK Go contraption collaborator Brett Doar. As the machine's workings unravel, the girls sing modified Beastie Boys lyrics: "It's time to change/We deserve to see a range/'Cause all our toys look just the same/And we would like to use our brains."
And this is just the start of what could be a crazy few months for GoldieBlox, as the company is one of four finalists angling for a free Super Bowl ad paid for by Intuit as part of a small-business contest.
CREDITS Client: GoldieBlox Title: "Princess Machine" GoldieBlox CEO: Debbie Sterling GoldieBlox Creative Director: Beau Lewis GoldieBlox Machine Creative Director: Brett Doar Production Company: The Academy Director: Sean Pecknold Co-Director: Zia Mohajerjasbi Executive Producer: Harry Calbom Production Designer: Jason Puccinelli Editor: James Lipetzky (Foundation Content) Assistant Editor: Jesse Richard (Foundation Content) Post Producer: Stacy Paris (Foundation Content) Line Producer: Mark Campbell Production Supervisor: Sarah Archuleta Steadicam: Ari Robbins First Assistant Cameraman: Canh Nguyen Gaffer: Osha Mattei Key Grip: Michael Moeller Swing: Bobby Bradshaw Prop Master: Eric Lathrop Art Intern: Chris Hannemann Stylist: Alina Harden Location Manager: John Schaunessy Music: Pico Sound Animation: Ed Skudder, Lynn Wang, Mike Holm
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