Hasta La Creative!

We've mentioned before—notably in last summer's Panera case—how random acts of kindness in customer service can snowball into massively positive PR when the customer involved relates the story poignantly through social media. The latest example comes from Midvale, Utah, where a server and manager at a Chili's restaurant thoughtfully helped out with a mini crisis involving a woman and her 7-year-old sister who has autism. The short story is: The sister refused to eat her burger, which had been cut in half, because she thought it was "broken." The server, in a remarkably compassionate way, offered to made her a new one—and the girl then kissed the new burger repeatedly when it arrived. It's a simple story, but one that the woman, Anna Kaye MacLean, tells evocatively in her post on Chili's Facebook wall. (See the full text below.) Now, Anna's accompanying photo of her sister kissing the burger has gone viral, with three-quarters of a million likes and more than 40,000 comments. Brands can't manufacture or even really plan for this stuff—that's what makes it so sharable—but it's always a joy when it happens. Via Mashable.

I want to share the experience that my husband, 7 year old autistic sister and I had today at the Chili's location in Midvale, UT. Arianna, my little sister, didn't waste any time when our waitress, Lauren, greeted us at our table. Arianna promptly ordered her cheeseburger with pickles, french fries, and chocolate milk before Lauren could even take our drink order. Lauren smiled and told Arianna, "Okay! I'll be right back with your chocolate milk!". When we got our food I was wondering why Arianna wouldn't touch her cheeseburger, but was going to town on her french fries. I asked her, "Arianna are you going to eat your cheeseburger?" She calmly said, "No, I don't want it." Cheeseburgers, or 'Krabby Patties' as we sometimes call them, are her FAVORITE! So this behavior was VERY strange. So I asked her, "Why don't you want it?". She replied, "It's broken. I need another one thats fixed." Then it dawned on me why she wasn't eating it. It's because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly. When Lauren came back to check on us, I asked if we could order another cheeseburger and just add it to our check. She had a concerned look on her face so I explained that Arianna has autism, and that in her mind, because the cheeseburger was cut in half, she thinks its broken and can't eat it. I told Lauren I knew it sounded silly, but if we could just order an additional one we will gladly pay for it because there was nothing wrong with the one that was originally brought out. Lauren was so sweet and just smiled and went along with Arianna, telling her "I brought you a broken cheeseburger?! You know what, I'll have them cook you a new one!" I loved this because rather than just taking it from the table, she actually TOLD Arianna what she was doing. While this seems insignificant, by her telling Arianna what she was doing, we avoided a melt down. The manager, Bradley Cottermole, then came to our table, kneeled down, and said to Arianna, "I heard we gave you a broken cheeseburger! I am so sorry about that! We are making you a brand new one that isn't broken, with pickles! I'll bring you some french fries to munch on while you're waiting, ok?" A couple of minutes later, Lauren arrived back at our table with cheeseburger #2. Arianna said, "OH FANK YOU! You fixded my cheeseburger!" When Lauren walked away, Arianna just sat there for a second and looked at her new burger. She looked like so deep in thought….just staring at it….then she let out a big "OH I missed you!!" and started kissing the burger over and over again. I showed Lauren this picture and said, "I think we glorified the cheeseburger too much!" She busted up laughing, and asked if she could go show her manager. She came back a minute later and said she showed everyone in the back kitchen area too, and that it made them all laugh and smile. I was so touched by this experience. Especially since I know people who have been asked to leave restaurants when their child with autism is being disruptive. I expected a few different things with this scenario based on past experiences, but I did NOT expect such kind and compassionate mannerisms from Lauren and Bradley. Everyone, from the hostess to the chef, played a role in what most people would think isn't a big deal. But this entirely shaped how the rest of our day would go. I know…a cheeseburger cut in half literally could make or break our day. In this case thanks to the professionalism of the crew in Midvale, it made our day. And I'm sure Arianna brightened up at least one of the employees days with her silly little personality. Thank you.

Now that Tiger Woods has regained the top ranking on the pro golf tour, Nike is celebrating its star endorser's comeback with an online ad emblazoned with one of Woods's favorite soundbites, "Winning takes care of everything," along with the word "Victory" next to the company's swoosh logo. The ad has stoked the flames of controversy in social media, with some claiming it sends a bad message in light of Woods's marital infidelities that surfaced a few years back, costing him some endorsement deals, tarnishing his image and threatening to derail his career—not to mention crushing the marriage in question.

There are hundreds of press reports about the ad and countless tweets and comments, all manner of Internet chatter, folks expressing opinions pro and con. Much of the coverage has focused on what impact the ad will have on Nike's brand. That's a fair question, but as anyone who's followed marketing for more than 10 minutes should realize, it's answered almost as soon as it's asked. This is a blip that quickly stirs passions but has no lasting effect. By next week it will be all but forgotten. Nike and Tiger will carry on. (They been here before, of course, when Nike released that rather peculiar Tiger ad following the scandal.)

In a larger and more intriguing sense, the story is a microcosm of the state and price of fame in the digital media landscape. If you start winning in the public eye and achieve some notoriety, you'd better take care and be on your guard about everything, because legions are eagerly watching and waiting and we'll pounce at the slightest provocation. This says a lot less about Woods, Lance Armstrong or other tarnished icons than it does about the rest of us, who live vicariously to varying degrees through such "heroes and villains." Most of us will never experience the life-changing thrill ride of winning and losing on a grand scale, because for whatever reason, we can't commit our whole beings to daunting tasks, athletic or otherwise, and fight through the pain, injury and public pressure to victory. Hell, most of us will never truly win or lose at anything.

So, we cheer on Woods, Armstrong and the rest when they triumph, and weep at their defeats. We damn them when they fall from grace and welcome them back with accolades and big-bucks sponsorships when they've reformed enough for our liking.

In this way, such imbalanced relationships become symbiotic and reciprocal. Tiger and Lance play out high-def dramas with, at times, their careers and livelihoods on the line. We play along on our sofas, remotes in hand, flipping among our thousand channels. Social media intensifies and personalizes the experience. We become actors in their story—mostly in our own minds, of course, but in increasingly more palpable ways than ever before—as commentators and commenters, bloggers, tweeters and pinners. Our input flickers across PC desktops and smartphone screens, shared in real time with thousands, maybe millions, all eager to feel more deeply and understand—if only briefly, and through the exploits of others—what words like winning and everything really mean.

Tiger Woods is a golf nerd, right? Right. But in fantasy video-game land, he destroys you and all your hoodlum friends, fake kung-fu style, because you're trying to steal his trophies. His charming geezer of a sidekick, Arnold Palmer, meanwhile, manages to seem much more badass, rocking his tournament hardware inside his blazer like he's fencing gold watches. Because while Woods is busy being all "intense," ice-cold Palmer clearly just couldn't, you know, care less. For EA Sports's new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. Agency: Heat.

On its website, creative agency mOcean in Los Angeles lists advertising, marketing, branding and production as its four areas of expertise. But I think you will agree: The single thing at which the mOcean guys are ludicrously skilled is shooting baskets at the mini hoop that hangs in their office. The agency claims that absolutely no special effects were used in the making of the video below, which stars agency writers Burke Campbell, Jon Wiley and Bryan Dobrik (made with the as-yet-unrealized hope of having it appear on Tosh.0). Rather, it simply required a whole lot of takes. Lots of agencies can promise great ad work in L.A. Perhaps only one can make a no-look double-bank shot from 20 feet away. A few more credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Julie Pittman – for her help in writing nicknames and overall support
Andrew Wright – for letting the guys use the Go Pro
Cassie Tregellas – for shooting the intros
Wesley Nisbett – obviously for cutting the hell outta the damn thing
Katie Onuma  – for making awesome graphics
Sanaz Lavaedian – for helping the boys find and then license the music

I'm sure some folks will enjoy Cossette's Instagram campaign promoting the Toronto Silent Film Festival, but I think it works better in theory than in practice. The flipbook-style fusion of old and new technologies is a cool concept (check out the trailers here, here and here), but scrolling quickly on my phone in slideshow view to achieve the effect of animating a few seconds of old-timey still images wasn't particularly compelling. Some guy pushes a car! A different guy rides a horse! A man and woman dance! (And it's in black and white. C'mon, at least colorize it!) Boy, films really sucked in 1925, and I for one am glad we live in a glorious cinematic age where creative visionaries like Michael Bay blow up stuff in dazzling HD and obscenities fly off the screen at deafening volume. Now that's entertainment worth $11.50 a ticket! Heck, I'd pay $11.75!

CREDITS
Client: Toronto Silent Film Festival
Project: Instagram Trailers
Agency: Cossette
Co-CCOs, Creative Directors: Matthew Litzinger, David Daga
Copywriter: Sebastian Lyman
Art Director: Pepe Bratanov
Account Team: Jason Melhuish

Considering how much you hear about drones these days, it's surprising we haven't seen more marketing stunts using remote-controlled hoverbots. But Paramount Pictures pulled off an interesting trick this weekend by using glowing quadrotors to create a Star Trek logo over London. The promotion, for the franchise's latest film, Star Trek Into Darkness, was timed to mark the end of the World Wildlife Fund's annual Earth Hour, which encourages cities to turn off nonessential lights for environmental awareness. As the hour of darkness ended, the 30 drones' LED lights (charged through renewable energy sources) turned on to form the insignia of Star Trek's Starfleet. Created by Ars Electonica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies, the result is pretty impressive—when viewed from the right angle, at least. Check out a video below, and enjoy the moment at 1:20 when two of the drones at the bottom of the frame seem to collide, sending one plummeting out of the sky.

If you've been under a rock, violence against women in India has been all over the news since last December following the horrific gang rape of a young woman who had the audacity to take a bus. She died from her injuries, sparking protests across India. So now when I tell you Ford has had to apologize for ads created by JWT India that depict women tied up in the back of a Ford Figo, you won't be quite so surprised. The ads never ran, but were picked up when the Internet, always on the lookout for something to be offended about, found them on Ads of the World. In one illustration, Paris Hilton has tied up the Kardashians and stuck them in her boot. In another, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has roped himself three scantily clad women. The tagline: "Leave your worries behind with Figo's extra-large boot." For those who say some people are just too sensitive to hilarious cartoon violence against women, let me explain a few things: 1) It's not less violent because it's a cartoon. 2) It's not less violent if the violence is perpetrated by another woman. 3) It's about time people got upset over casual violence toward women, which is all over the place. The sad thing is that it has to be triggered by extreme events for people to notice what's been there all along. 4) Yes, there are ads that show violence against men (though they're a lot fewer). No, people are not saying violence against men is acceptable in ads just because they're saying violence against women is unacceptable. 5) Yes, it's obviously intended as a joke. But jokes exist in context, and right now, it's really, really, superbly unfunny. It's just too bad for Ford that the brand will suffer for ads it didn't even approve. It's a good reminder that the Internet doesn't know the difference.

When it comes to paperwork, the designers at TBWA\South Africa in Johannesburg are a cut above. As an exercise in self-promotion, the design group transformed some of the agency's creative briefs—those not specifically requiring design recommendations—into three-dimensional paper sculptures using the pages of the documents and their nondescript envelopes as raw materials. The results, intended to capture the essence of the brand from which each brief was received, are amazing. My faves: the dress shirt for Bio Classic washing powder, with one corner of the garment composed of billowing soap bubbles; the insanely detailed ship in a bottle for Mainstay vodka; and the heaping bowl of shredded-paper noodles for Fatti's & Moni's pasta. Snatches of text from the original briefs peek through here and there. Such brand-specific words and phrases provide intriguing visual flourishes for these fusions of art and commerce. More images below. Via The Inspiration Room.

CREDITS
Client: TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg
Executive Creative Directors: Matthew Brink, Adam Livesey
Art Director: Jade Manning
Copywriter: Vincent Osmond
Creative Directors: Sacha Traest, Mike Groenewald
Design: Sacha Traest, Leigh-anne Salonika, Katleho Mofolo, Graeme Van Jaarsveld, Ilze Venter, Jason Fieldgate
Typographer: Hazel Buchan
Photographers: Graeme Borchers, Des Ellis
Account Manager: Vanessa Maselwa
Director: Brett de Vos
Sound: Cut and Paste, Opus
Production: Craig Walker, Simone Allem, Ingrid Shellard, Gillian Humphris

From flatulence to fancy perfume, I've had a fragrant week at AdFreak. Prada has commissioned a short film by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola to tout its Candy L'Eau scent. Two guys star with Lea Seydoux, who made an impression a few years back by bouncing off walls, rolling on floors and flashing her panties in a Prada commercial. For now, the client is teasing the new effort via 12-second previews—see three of them below—that follow the fabulously coiffed and smartly attired trio to the cinema, a surprise birthday party and a beauty salon. "How much longer can we possibly all be so happy together?" Seydoux asks while enjoying a mani-pedi treatment. The three-way relationship in Truffaut's Jules and Jim was an inspiration, though the slightly muted, dreamy images here play more like Anderson's own style with dashes of Fellini and David Lynch (at their most playful and benign). The trailers work fine as mini-films, and the super-short format seems perfect for Prada or any high-end fragrance purveyor—providing slightly surreal, sweet suggestions of story line and leaving no time for the hyper-stylization to sour or the stench of pretentious commerce to creep in. For more Wes "Branderson," check out our collection of the director's top 10 commercials.

You're sitting down, doing your taxes, just trying not to hate the universe, when a pocket-picking smoke monster reaches into your jacket and steals all your cash. This is "The Price of Carbon," the latest clip from the Climate Reality Project, Al Gore's environmental advocacy group. Created with the help of D.C. communications shop Glover Park Group and Brooklyn production company m ss ng p eces, the clip uses charming—if a little arty—visuals to draw a line from oil and coal pollution to climate change to taxpayers' wallets via relief packages for the victims of natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy and last year's Midwest drought. The playful, minimalist aesthetic helps a fairly complex argument seem simple. The sing-song narration, delivered by comedian and musician Reggie Watts, also helps. So, you could do what the spot wants you to do and complain about the problem to your friends, or write a letter to Congress, or something. But if you take the crux of the video to heart—Earth is getting really pissed off at humans, the incredibly well-financed energy industry doesn't care, but c'mon, the government should try to make carbon barons pay for the damage anyway—then now might also be an appropriate time to throw on Watts's essential anthem, Fuck Shit Stack. Especially if you really are still doing your taxes.

CREDITS
Director: Dark Igloo
Executive Producer: m ss ng p eces
TV Weather Illustration: Ana Benaroya