Hasta La Creative!

If you were a car, and you could travel back in time and kill Hitler when he was a boy, would you do it?

Well, if you were a Volkswagen, the answer would probably be no, since you'd be murdering your own father, and you'd probably cease to exist. A C-Class Mercedes-Benz, however, would suffer no such temporal paradox, and that's the vehicle of young Adolf's destruction in this well-made though extremely odd commercial parody, created as a thesis by some German film students.

In the 80-second clip, the driverless car avoids various kids in Hitler's picturesque Austrian hometown but mows down young Adolf. The vehicle's Collision Prevention Assist technology, we're told, "detects dangers before they come up." The final image of the school-age never-to-be-Führer lying on the ground, limbs splayed out like a swastika, is memorably intense.

Mercedes parent Daimler is understandably miffed, and forced the students to add blaring disclaimers that identify the project as a spoof. The controversy has helped the clip go viral, with almost 700,000 YouTube views since Friday. Couching the film as an ad for a real automaker also provides, perhaps unintentionally, extra layers for interpretation by bringing the global corporate/industrial/media complex into the picture.

The filmmakers—Tobia Haase, Jan Mettler and Lydia Lohse—have said they wanted to explore the morality of technology by asking what would happen if machines had souls. I wonder what the world would've been like had Hitler had one.

Been wondering what Alex Bogusky is up to? He's just put out this little video in his latest push for social good: the Million Jobs Project. Bogusky stars in and narrates the infographic short (with animation and art direction by Scott McDonald) that implores Americans to spend just 5 percent more on products made in America. Apparently, if we shift our buying habits by just that small amount, we will create 1 million new jobs. There are some nice lines ("They call it outsourcing, which is a fancy word for 'You're fired' "), but at four minutes, it's a bit long. Fortunately, there's a short list of some American manufacturers to buy from over at millionjobsproject.us, which is an easy read. Of course, it's not a new message, but it is well told here. Will it work? The video hasn't taken off yet, but maybe that's because the ask is slightly confusing. Are we supposed to always buy American, buy 5 percent more for American, buy just one thing that's American, or share the video with two friends? The answer is all of those things.

There's art everywhere! It's loose in the streets! The onslaught of art will kill us all! possibly enhance our dreary, workaday lives!

The Art Everywhere project in England fuses art and commerce on a grand scale, with reproductions of 57 popular works—ranging from the 16th century to modern times—replacing ads on 22,000 out-of-home ad sites, including billboards, bus shelters, tube-station walls and other locations like shopping malls and office buildings. Innocent Drinks cofounder Richard Reed spearheaded the initiative (it was his wife's idea), and he described Art Everywhere to the Guardian as "a joyful project with no agenda other than to flood our streets with art and celebrate the creative talents and legacy of the U.K."

Some $4.7 million worth of ad space is being used for the project's two-week run—the tagline is, "A very very big art show"—with online donations helping to cover costs. The art was chosen by the public, with pieces selected from a list provided by the Tate gallery and the Art Fund. "The Lady of Shalott," an ethereal, evocative 1888 oil-on-canvas by John William Waterhouse, inspired by a Tennyson poem, topped the vote count. But, d'uh, who couldn't guess that.

It's only appropriate that ad space is being employed, since billboards, commercial posters and advertisements of all kinds are the popular art of modern times, reflecting the contemporary culture as surely as pre-Raphaelite paintings captured the nuances and obsessions of an earlier age.

Not that I'd advocate such a thing, but I'm sure that at some point a few taggers (perhaps even Banksy, England's maverick anti-advertising artist) will see fit to deface the public displays. It's clearly vandalism, but I think they'd be creating valid hybrid works that could say quite a lot about art, human nature and the media-saturated times in which we live. Or else they'd just be acting like jerks.

There isn't a public event that Apple and Samsung users can't spoil by fighting with each other, according to Crispin Porter + Bogusky's hyperbolic but still amusing campaign for the Windows Phone—which continues with the spot below, again directed by Roman Coppola and set to air Sunday during MTV's Video Music Awards.

Coppola directed the earlier spot, "The Wedding," which was a big success (more than 6 million YouTube views), and he brought back many of the same actors for "The Recital." In the new spot, Apple and Samsung users again jockey for position to get the best photos, and are soon ridiculing, head-butting and otherwise trying to take each other down. (On the plus side, at least they seem interested in the school play and aren't just falling asleep.) The spot pushes the Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixels and reinvented zoom, which apparently helps you get better pictures and also just be a nicer person.

There's less snappy dialogue this time, though it's a fun moment at the end when the woman who's literally spouting Apple's recent advertising copy gets thumped to the floor.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Microsoft
Spot: "The Recital"
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan
Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Dave Steinke
Associate Creative Directors: Paul Sincoff, Kyle Jones
Art Director: Jeff Hunter
Copywriter: Aaron Cathey
Integrated Head of Video: Chad Hopenwasser
Executive Integrated Producer: Sloan Schroeder
Senior Integrated Producer: Laura Keseric
Production Company: Directors Bureau, Los Angeles
Director: Roman Coppola
Executive Producers (Production Company): Lisa Margulis, Elizabeth Minzes
Producer (Production Company): Francie Moore
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Postproduction: NO6LA, Santa Monica, Calif.
Visual Effects: Method, Santa Monica, Calif.
Executive Producer, Design: Robert Owens
Producer: Ananda Reavis
Editor: Jason McDonald
Music Company: JSM Music
Junior Music Producer: Chip Herter
Arrangers: Joel Simon, Doug Katsaros
Sound Design Company: Henry Boy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sound Designer: Matthew Hedge

Vinny Guadagnino of Jersey Shore stars as a well-endowed yoga hunk in this decidedly unique Benefit Cosmetics spot for They're Real! mascara. The ad opens to hunky dude ogling, which is oh so trendy right now. But it wastes no time focusing right on their man candy, as all the ladies around them become visibly excited. Then the men reach into their pants and pull out … a handful of mascara tubes to toss to the women—delivering the message that their bulges might be fake but your lashes could be nice. Or perhaps the message is the tagline: "Laughter is the best cosmetic."

The agency, Portal A, also roped in actor Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty) and Vine-famous comedian Brittany Furlan to round out the cameos. Benefit is doing exactly the right kind of things to draw attention to its tiny, feisty brand, but the spot doesn't go quite far enough to be funny or outrageous. Vinny, in particular, comes off as inexplicably suave as he winks in tree pose. Maybe they should have just let Brittany make five six-second Vines and call it a day. Her Vines about the spot are hilars.

Microsoft's new back-to-school ad for Windows 8 tablets—here, the Lenovo Yoga in particular—is being touted, at least by CNET, as another huge diss against the iPad. It is, of course, but it's not as harsh as all that. The Yoga's ability to multitask is mostly compared to less impressive classroom behaviors, like fumbling around for a pen as the professor reads aloud from Keats's "The Second Coming," which he wouldn't do in real life. Sure, a lot of the ill-prepared students are using iPads, but the tone is more "The Yoga is great" than "Apple products are crap." Which is good, because it's hard for me to take a product named Yoga (that isn't actually yoga) seriously. How much more white and middle class could that name be? Will we be seeing ads for the Lenovo Mumford & Sons next fall?

Barry Sanders has always been good at the vanishing act. He did it most famously in 1999 by retiring from the NFL at age 30, when he was just 1,457 yards short of the league rushing record. He does it again, comically, in this new Pepsi MAX ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and director Matt Dilmore. In the ad, Sanders, getting a shave at a barber shop, is about to reveal the real reason he retired—but suddenly he goes up in a puff of smoke, and reappears in the living room of some gamer who has "unlocked" him while playing Madden NFL 25, thanks to a code on a Pepsi MAX cap.

Sanders' involvement with Madden NFL 25 goes beyond the new ad. Though he's been retired for almost 15 years, the 45-year-old was recently voted by fans to be the cover athlete of the game's latest edition. "Being on the cover of Madden introduces you to so many new fans that never saw you play," he said recently. "It's been a thrill for me, and I just never saw it coming."

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Pepsi MAX
Spot: "Disappearing Sanders"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
President: Carisa Bianchi
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Creative Director, Copywriter: Zach Hilder
Creative Director, Art Director: William Esparza
Senior Copywriters: Anne Sanguinetti, Kathleen Swanson
Art Directors: Kristina Krkljus, Jenn Tranbarger
Group Account Director: Grace Kao
Management Supervisor: James Aardahl
Account Executives: Erik Wade, Rohit Bal
Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Planner: Drew Phillips
Executive Producer, Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Associate Producer: Stephanie Dziczek
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Manager: Maryam Ohebsion
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Eugene Gandia

Production Company: Epoch Films
Director: Matt Dilmore
Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Head of Production: Megan Murphee
Line Producer: Geoff Clough

Editing: Cut + Run
Editor: Graham Turner
Assistant Editor: Russell August Anderson
Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin
Senior Producer: Christie Price

Visual Effects: Framestore
Flame Artist: Trent Shumway
Executive Producer: Kati Haberstock
Producer: Mary Nockles

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Mix: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber

Chrissy Teigen, whom you may remember from her Sports Illustrated and Maxim appearances, was surprised by a Skittles waterfall during a recent photo shoot that was actually an ad stunt by Olson. It's generally a faux pas to dump candy all over someone without telling them first, but Chrissy took it in stride. She may have even welcomed it as a break from what was essentially the same retro pin-up photo shoot (with the same retro one-piece) that every other twentysomething girl in the country has been doing recently. "Surprise the Rainbow" is still a potentially dangerous piece of advice, though.

Floyd Russ is getting pretty good at gun-control advertising. The Grey New York producer worked on the famous "Ed" spot for States United to Prevent Gun Violence, which won a silver Lion in Film at Cannes this summer. Now he has spearheaded the chilling new PSA below—a personal project involving four Grey staffers but not produced by the agency—that uses audio from 911 calls made on the night of Trayvon Martin's death to protest stand-your-ground self-defense laws in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal.

The spot features a reenactment of Zimmerman's pursuit of Martin, and then calls for viewers to take action to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Russ tells AdFreak that he got the idea for the spot on the night of the Zimmerman verdict. He got Grey creatives Marques Gartrell and Kim Nguyen and account director Cassie Novick on board, and they raised $5,000 in a week online to cover production costs. Final Cut agreed to cover the postproduction work. Russ and his team drew up a list of potential clients for the spot; The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was the first to reply.

"Our laws should protect victims. Not create more," says the on-screen copy at the end. "Stand up to 'Stand Your Ground' laws in 26 states." The spot points to csgv.org, which features a petition through which Americans can call on their state legislators to "oppose this immoral legislation."

Full credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Title: "Stand Up to 'Stand Your Ground' " PSA

Production Company: Narrow Margin Films
Director: Floyd Russ
Writers: Marques Gartrell, Kim Nguyen, Floyd Russ
Executive Producer: Adam Palmer
Associate Producers: Mike Lobikis, Keely Davenport, Emily Darby
Account Director/Art Department: Cassie Novick
Art Director: Marques Gartrell
Copywriter: Kim Nguyen
Director of Photography: Josh Fisher
Steadicam: Billy Green
Assistant Director: Adam Murphy

Postproduction: Final Cut
President: Stephanie Apt
Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss
Editor: Sonejuhi Sinha
Assistant Editor: Dan Berk
Senior Producer: Viet-An Nguyen
Finishing Producer: Alek Rost
Online Visual Effects: Cecil Hooker
Graphics: Phil Brooks
Sound Design, Mixing: T. Terressa Tate
Color: Color Collective @ Final Cut
Colorist: Alex Bickel

Music: Future Perfect Music
Composer: Victor Magro

Officer Baby says, "Put your hands against the waaaah!"

Samsung invents the mustachioed-baby-plays-cop-and-chases-a-vacuum-cleaner trope with this spot by The Viral Factory in London. Thankfully, the little lawman doesn't actually speak, but he's got a flashing blue light on his walker, so you know he means business as he takes off after a Samsung Motion Sync vacuum pushed around the house by his mom.

There's '70s-style cop-show music, action-movie camera angles and even a few "crashes"—though the infant enforcer just harmlessly knocks into some cartons, toys and plastic baskets. It's immediately clear that he's OK, and that's probably a good thing, given the beating this client-agency team took a while back for the cartoon violence in its "computer/puppy" spot.

The petite patrolman's convincing "Where'd that vacuum go?" expression around the 40-second mark is topped only by his brilliant use of the facial-hair disguise. He's a lock to make detective, probably in Seattle. (Perhaps he could investigate why there just happens to be a fake mustache lying around.)

This is a well-made spot, but the concept seems kind of random and weird, and it's tough to hang in for the whole two minutes. The focus is never really on the $600 vacuum cleaner being advertised. I guess the unit looks spry and maneuverable, though not as cute as the kiddie constable. Once the pursuit is finished, he's all tuckered out and ready for ba-ba and nap time—just like a grown-up police officer.