Consuming Too Much Info? You Might Be Infobese, Say These Very Strange Ads (NSFW)

There’s more than one way to feel the flab. But however much time you spend on the treadmill, French ad publication Influencia hopes to draw your attention to a more insidious fitness foe you may be overlooking—infobesity. 

It’s getting the conversation started with a surreal campaign from Glory Paris.

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Need a Little Sausage Support? Johnsonville Experts Are Now Just a Phone Call Away

Sooner or later, everyone’s sausage needs some support.

If you find yourself in such straits between now and this Friday—say, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central time—go ahead and call Johnsonville HQ at (844) 9-SAUSAGE. Company employees will be serving up all manner of advice on pork-pipes and cow-casings as part of the marketer’s “Sausage Support Center.”

Live! Unscripted! Sausage talk! That number again: (844) 9-SAUSAGE.

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How the Title Sequence Can Become the Single Best Ad for Any TV Show

What makes a good TV title sequence?

YouTuber Ryan Hollinger of Screen Smart explores that question in a video of nearly seven minutes, using the starting sequences of American Horror Story, Twin Peaks, Stranger Things, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Game of Thrones and many more. What you’ll learn here, though, can apply to any title sequence you watch—and will definitely up your geek cred at future binge-watching fests.

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Columbia Sportswear Is Making Job Candidates Literally Climb Mountains for Interviews

There’s been no dearth of dubious job titles in the recent years, thanks in large part to the tech boom. But outerwear marketer Columbia Sportswear is reaching for new and awesome heights with its tongue-in-cheek “director of toughness” role—and this time around, it’s really making candidates work for the gig.

A new ad from agency North shows potential hires interviewing for the position, largely by taking a surprise, semi-coerced trek up to the top of a mountain, only to suffer the verbal abuse of an HR rep camped out 8,000 feet above sea level. Because if they really are qualified, such trivial exertion and feeble taunts shouldn’t faze them at all.

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Who Is Louise Delage? The Troubling Truth Behind an Overnight Instagram Success

We all know a girl like Louise Delage. You’ve been on Instagram for years and are scraping by with 50 likes on a good day—then she appears on the scene, with her fun little life, and cultivates over 16,000 followers in a few months.

In the years following LonelyGirl15, we learned to be wary of that kind of success. Who is this girl, and what does she do? But “personal branding,” Instagram stardom and the overall pressure to demonstrate the most photogenic parts of our lives has perhaps blunted our critical knives. Aren’t we all stars for somebody? 

So when Louise Delage arrived on Instagram on Aug. 1, bearing drinks and a cheerful, sun-soaked smile, few wondered who she was. Many assumed she was one more chic Parisian. Maybe she had one of those depressed Instagram husbands whose sole role in life is to capture their muses for an insatiable audience.

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U.S. Cellular Made a 7-Hour Preroll Ad That Just Lets You Watch Grass Grow

U.S. Cellular sets a new standard for tedium with this preroll ad that lasts seven hours.

It’s about as exciting as watching grass grow. In fact, that’s mostly what happens during its 420-minute running time: Grass grows … and grows … and grows. Imperceptibly. As grass is wont to do.

Crafted by MullenLowe, the ad opens with brand spokesman Darien riding a lawnmower across an expansive green field. “Switch to U.S. Cellular,” he says, “and get seven gigs of data for just $49 per month. You’ll have so much data, you can stream almost anything. Even hours and hours of grass growing. Enjoy!”

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Step Right Up and Watch This Air Acrobat Attempt the Most Irresponsible Circus Act Ever

One December day at the International Scene of Contemporary Dance in Stockholm, Sweden, a man named Olle, one of the best air acrobats in the world, did a triple-somersault jump. It was a jump like hundreds of others he’d done before, but this time was different. 

He fell on his head. 

“Within that second I heard my neck break. A moment devoid of time,” Olle writes. “The sound of the neck break echoed in my head, itself an endless, dark, spherical space in which I was hovering weightlessly.” 

Olle crushed several cervical vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors couldn’t say how much brain functioning he’d regain, or even whether he would walk again. One thing was sure: He’d never jump again.

It’s been 10 years since then. Olle has miraculously recovered. Many people like him would count their blessings, move to a quiet town and take up gardening. But in what’s being dubbed “the most irresponsible circus performance ever,” Olle is gearing up to repeat the same jump, with just one difference. This time, he’ll do it from up to 12,000 feet in the sky.

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New York City FC's First Brand Spot Is a Gritty Paean to the City It Calls Home

When Major League Soccer began play in 1996, those of us who lived in New York City had only one team to root for—the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. But despite their odd hybrid name, they were pretty solidly a New Jersey team. They played out at Giants Stadium, and those of us coming from Manhattan would often arrive late to games, as they never scheduled enough buses from Port Authority. Intentional or not, the indifference to fans east of the Hudson was palpable. 

That franchise has since cleaned up its act, and become the formidable New York Red Bulls. They still play in Jersey, though, at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison (which is, admittedly, a lovely stadium). But luckily for New York City fans, there’s been another option over the past two seasons—New York City Football Club, a new MLS franchise that plays its home games at Yankee Stadium. 

NYCFC clinched its first-ever MLS Cup playoff berth this past weekend, and is celebrating with a gritty new spot from Johannes Leonardo, its first-ever brand commercial.

The poetic spot, called “Along These Lines,” is as much a tribute to the city as the team—rallying New Yorkers to get behind their soccer team, using a theme of connection that’s both literal (the subway system connects everyone, and of course stops at Yankee Stadium) and figurative.

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For Love or Money? One Couple Doesn't Have to Choose in This Lovely Spanish Lottery Ad

The lottery may not have much to do with fate, but it’s a lot like love—if you don’t play, you won’t win, says a new ad from Spain.

The three-and-a-half minute commercial for EuroMillions, the country’s national cash raffle, offers a twist on a classic romance—boy meets girl, boy chases girl, boy and girl win gigantic sum of money in long-shot gamble, boy and girl live happily ever after.

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Airbnb Set Up Marnie the Dog in Her Very Own Pet-Friendly Beverly Hills Mansion

Travel can be rough on animals. So, to celebrate National Dog Week (Sept. 19-25) and promote its 600,000 pet-friendly homes, Airbnb shined a light on social media star Marnie the Dog, a senior pet who just moved from New York to sun-soaked Beverly Hills.

Fame is packed with perks … even for dogs. To ease her transition, Airbnb checked her into a luxurious $5000-a-night mansion, where she spent a pampered stay under the care of her “hosts,” Hugo the Butler and Teddy the Dog. 

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Katy Perry Votes Naked in Funny Or Die's 'Everyone Votes!' Campaign

You could probably use a little levity after last night debate’s, so here’s some political comedy from Katy Perry, who suggests that you vote in November no matter how you look or what you’re wearing (or not wearing).

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Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally Revisit the 1991 Clio Awards, Advertising's Most Surreal Night

It remains the most notorious night in advertising history—June 13, 1991.

The Clio Awards were scheduled to hand out their radio and print awards. But as Adweek later told the story, “what ensued was less an ad-award show than a tawdry circus, an event so grossly mismanaged that its trajectory from embarrassing to appalling seemed, in retrospect, almost destined—’beyond the beyond-o,’ as Ruth Ayres of DDB Needham put it.

“The ceremony started late, was hosted largely by the caterer, featured presenters who (when they weren’t singing Irish lullabies) tried to guess the agency winners since they had no list, and was aborted when fevered, greedy ad types rushed the stage in a mad grab for Clios they hadn’t won.”

It was quite the shameful scene indeed. But now, at least, Clio can laugh about it. 

On this 25th anniversary of the 1991 debacle, Clio got Funny Or Die to re-enact that fateful night in an amusing video starring Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman—the latter acting as host of a fictitious show called Unresolved Mysteries.

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The Official Name of Volkswagen's New Car Is a Hashtag: #PinkBeetle

It’s not every day that an automaker launches a new, brightly colored car based on social media demand. Or names the model after the hashtag that helped bear it.

The 2017 Special Edition Volkswagen #PinkBeetle (its official name) hits showrooms this fall, and the brand is celebrating with a blatantly magenta ad from agency ISL, running exclusively through marketer-owned channels like Facebook.

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Oreo Is Now Making Tasty-Style Recipe Videos for Some of Its Stranger Flavors

If you’re looking for a low-calorie dessert that mixes avocados and chocolate, then Oreos has a video for you.

To promote new special-edition mint and strawberry-cheesecake flavors of the classic sandwich cookie, packaged-foods conglomerate Mondelez is now making its own versions of the BuzzFeed Tasty-style, hands-and-ingredients recipe shorts that have exploded across Facebook feeds in recent years—because clearly, there weren’t enough already.

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McCann Created an Escort Service That Had a Macabre Surprise for Anyone Who Tried It

Prostitution has always been fraught with the risk of violence, but today the internet provides broader scope and anonymity. Alongside the sense of entitlement that some people get when they pay for something, this both strengthens the industry while making it harder to see its victims.

That’s why French organization Le Mouvement du Nid launched its own escort website, with help from McCann Paris.

Wait, what…? 

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The Stars of Will & Grace Just Reunited for a Hilarious Pitch to Get You to Vote for Hillary

Can Will and Grace convince you to cast your vote for Hillary Clinton this November? 

A new mini-reunion episode of the sitcom that starred Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally appeared just hours before tonight’s debate. 

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Parents Will Love This Sweet, Heartbreaking Ikea Ad With a Kid Picking Out Furniture

The first trip a person makes to Ikea is often with his or her parents. Buzzman Paris brings that bittersweet visit to life in “My Son,” an ad that opens on a mom strolling the store with a boy who can’t be more than 10 years old. 

For someone so young, the kid proves oddly precocious. He makes a beeline for a kitchen island, admiring the surface material. He lauds the practicality of slide-out drawers, and measures furniture while his mother wistfully observes. 

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Jack Daniel's Puts the Townspeople of Lynchburg Front and Center in Its New Ads

If you don’t know jack about the townsfolk of Lynchburg, Tenn., that’s about to change.

Lynchburg’s most famous resident, Brown-Forman brand Jack Daniel’s, puts the spotlight on some of its less-renowned neighbors in new ads from Arnold Worldwide created for the distillery’s 150th anniversary.

An anthem spot breaking today opens on a sun-kissed field of tall grass, with locals popping in and out of the frame as a Southern-fried fiddle plays in the background.

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Tecate Will Ambush Tonight's Debate With This Trump-Mocking Ad About Building a 'Beer Wall'

Tecate thinks building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico is a great idea—as long as it’s 3 feet tall and is used as a meeting place for guys from both sides of the border (and all sides of the political spectrum) to get together and have beers.

The spot below, from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, will get a perfect media placement, too. It will debut Monday night on Fox News, Univision and Telemundo during the presidential debate between Donald Trump—who has proposed a much higher, less beer-friendly wall separating the nations—and Hillary Clinton.

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Audi Made One Hell of an Entertaining Ad for Tonight's Debate That Everyone Will Love

There’s one thing almost everyone watching Monday night’s first presidential debate will be able to agree on—that this new Audi commercial, “Duel,” airing during the telecast, is a brilliant bit of perfectly timed entertainment.

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