Hasta La Creative!

Wieden + Kennedy has hacked the tagging function on Instagram to create an amusingly absurd “Choose your own adventure” social game for Old Spice, filled with robots, retro monsters and meta jokes.
 

 

You awaken in a dark cave. In the distance you see a faint light, in front of you is an open bottle of Old Spice body wash. Go toward the light—maybe it’s a way out? Grab the Old Spice? Tap image once to use tags to navigate.

A photo posted by Old Spice (@oldspice) on Jul 30, 2015 at 10:33am PDT

 
The story opens with the post above. Clicking on it reveals tags that function as the navigation, leading to a maze of newly created Instagram accounts where the story continues. Clicking on the Old Spice body wash in the first scene reveals the first of many comical dead ends, from which you have to backtrack and continue.

The game is pretty much one big joke, undermining itself at every turn and parodying the genre rather than presenting a real “adventure.” The ending, in particular, is intentionally anticlimactic, centered on an inside joke about the ad budget for the project—very much in keeping with the brand’s self-aware ethos.

Give it a spin, or click here to choose a different AdFreak story.

The killing of majestic animals is big news this week. And now, the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd has unveiled a brutal PSA protesting the slaughter of whales by demonstrating how they die at the hands of humans—as acted out by a human.

The spot is skillfully horrific, as Australian character actor David Field mimics getting shot, convulsing, choking and coughing up blood. The PSA aims to draw attention, in particular, to the method of using an explosive harpoon to shoot the mammals, which causes massive internal injuries, and to the time it takes for them to die, which can be up to an hour.

“The cruelty inflicted on whales is shocking, and while most people abhor whaling, I think many don’t realize just how brutally these sea mammals are butchered,” Field said in a statement. “As a supporter of Sea Shepherd, I want to bring this barbaric practice to the attention of as many people as possible in the hope that we can get it stopped.”

As with many animal-rights PSAs, this one aims to evoke empathy by inviting people to imagine how they’d feel in the animal’s situation. This spot goes further by imagining the outcry if whaling were to happen to humans on a large scale. That’s a rhetorical device, yet it undermines the message a bit because it’s so easy to refute—it’s not happening to humans, after all. Yet that kind of hyperbole isn’t surprising following such violent imagery. (The excessive nature of the campaign also extends to the hashtag, #UltimateDeathScene.)

“Those who care about marine wildlife really feel something deeply when they see whaling taking place. We sought to harness this feeling to generate the maximum impact,” said Paul Swann, creative partner at Sydney agency The Works, which created the campaign. “The idea of a human experiencing what a whale does, combined with a graphic execution, will come to life across video, social, radio and print.”

CREDITS
Client: Sea Shepherd
Aegncy: The Works
Creative Partner: Paul Swann
Creative Leads: Adam Bodfish and Leo Barbosa
Digital Strategy Director: Damien Hughes
Planner: Leo Hennessy
Head of Digital Production: Dave Flanagan
Content Production Manager: Tristan Drummond
Senior Digital Designer: Kim Sanders
Social Media Strategist: Vanessa Hartley
Social Community Manager: Anna Lai
Project Management: Catriona Heaphy, Gillian Snowball and Juliette Hynes

Director: Tony Prescott
Director of Production: Robert Morton
Post Production: Method Studios
Sound: Nylon Studios

Have you ever thought to yourself, “You know what would be really cool? What if when I’m hanging with my hipster friends later, eating fried chicken in the park, we could immediately print out photos of our fun times together!”?

If this sounds like something you’d do, well, KFC Canada and agency Grip Limited have just the novelty for you! Introducing the “Memories Bucket”—a KFC bucket filled with chicken that pairs with your phone and prints out pictures.

Agency copywriter Jeff Collins and social content strategist Matthew Stasoff tell AdFreak that the idea for the Memories Bucket came about while they were working on the campaign for the brand’s 60th anniversary in Canada. The campaign is all about “celebrating 60 years of memories in Canada, one meal at a time.”

“Many fans have told us that throughout the years, so many of their family memories have been celebrated around a KFC bucket,” Collins and Stasoff said in an email. “But when we looked at our newest generation of fans and thought about how their memories are shared today, we realized that so many are stored on phones and online, and very few are tangible. We started thinking of ways to offer them the same sort of physical memories their parents might have had, but in a way more relevant to them.”

They said they produced “multiple prototypes” to get the bucket right, but just one bucket was made for the shoot “with some fans of the brand.” But maybe someday soon they’ll be available to the public—and you can realize your dream of changing the photo paper cartridge and troubleshooting your phone’s bluetooth settings after wiping your fingers off on your jorts because you forgot the wet naps.

“Inherently our buckets are much better when they’re filled with our world famous chicken,” Collins and Stasoff say. “So we’re currently looking to work with some franchise owners to facilitate surprise and delight deliveries of the Memories Buckets to some of our more passionate fans.”

CREDITS
Client: KFC
Agency: Grip Limited
Art Director: Anton Ratinsky
Copywriter: Jeff Collins
Account Director: Sascha von Nickisch-Rosenegk
Account Manager: Shawna Powell
Account Coordinator: Nicholas Hillier
Social Content Strategist: Matthew Stasoff
Social Content Strategist: Jacquie Kostuk
Editor: Ben Badger
Producer: Katherina Villa

“I need your clothes. Your boots. And your motorcycle.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger really needs some new material. A quarter-century after walking naked into a seedy bar and uttering that famous line in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Arnie’s still sizing up biker-dive patrons with his robo-vision and ordering folks to strip down and surrender their modes of transportation.

Here, the action-movie icon re-enacts that memorable scene in a fun spot for game maker 2K promoting its upcoming WWE 2K16 title. in which Schwarzenegger’s Terminator is a playable character for fans who pre-order.

“It’s a nerd’s dream: a painstaking recreation of a classic film with a relevant twist to the cast,” says Pete Harvey, creative director at barrettSF, which made the spot. “Our hope is that people pull up this scene with the original to compare what stayed absolutely consistent and what subtly changed.”

The most obvious change is the supporting cast, with real-life WWE stars such as Eva Marie, Daniel Bryan and Finn Bálor playing barflies and waitstaff. (Dean Ambrose is so going to wish he’d used an ashtray to put out that cigar.) There is no sign of Hulk Hogan—and I have a feeling he won’t be baaack anytime soon.

Also, in the cinematic original, Schwarzenegger was a sculpted god whose body epitomized muscly manhood, even if he was all transistors underneath. Today, though still in good shape, Arnie looks more like an aging, confused ex-governor of California, searching in vain for a bill he can veto.

CREDITS
Client: 2K
Campaign: Raise Some Hell – “Biker Bar”

Agency: barrettSF
Creative Director:  Pete Harvey
Senior Art Director: Brad Kayal
Senior Copywriter: Brad Phifer
Integrated Producer: Nicole Van Dawark
Assistant Producer: Heather Bernard
Managing Director: Patrick Kelly
Account Director: Brittni Hutchins
Account Manager: Jillian Gamboa

Production Company: Acne
Director/Director of Photography: Anders Jedenfors
Executive Producer (Production Co): Rania Hattar
CEO/Executive Producer: Line Postmyr
Line Producer: Taylor Pinson
Production Designer: Joshua Strickland

Editorial Company: The Vault
Editor: Kevin Bagley
Assistant Editor: Dustin Leary

Recording Studio: One Union Recording
Engineer: Eben Carr
Engineer: Matthew Zipkin
Executive Producer: Lauren Mask

Sound Designer: Joel Raabe

Animation Company: Oddfellows
Creative Director: Chris Kelly
Animator: Cosmo Ray
Animator: Stan Cameron
Executive Producer: TJ Kearney
Producer: Erica Kelly

Color Correction: Apache
Colorist: Shane Reed
Executive Producer: LaRue Anderson
Producer: Caitlin Forrest

Finshing: Everson Digital
Smoke Artist: Mark Everson

You expect big-budget, slam-bang drama from Hollywood action movies. But doing simple banking chores like depositing checks shouldn’t make you feel like you’re trapped in an out-of-control Michael Bay production.

Ad agency Tierney develops that fun storyline in a trio of spots, using familiar cinematic tropes to illustrate how TD Bank provides a better experience for its customers.

“Floodnado” posits a violent deluge of Biblical proportions, but that’s no problem, because TD lets you easily make deposits online from your dry, comfy home. Why crash through shop windows and climb over rush-hour traffic to get to the bank, like the hero of “Closed in 60 Seconds,” when TD stays open longer? And if you’re planning a vacation with a spendy friendy, relax—TD’s mobile tracking will help keep you on budget, as it does for the lesbian couple in “Cash Me If You Can.” (Wells Fargo also used a same-sex scenario in its first ads from BBDO this spring.)

Benji Weinstein, via Tool of North America, directed the 30-second TD commercials, part of the ongoing “Bank Human” campaign. He keeps the pace brisk and the mood light, while the on-screen antics never overwhelm the brand message.

In a clever twist skewering Tinseltown’s facile casting requirements, the average folks in the spots morph into younger, stronger, hipper versions of themselves for the action scenes. These transformations are noticeable, but subtle enough that some viewers might hit replay to confirm what they’ve just seen. (No harm in that, eh, TD Bank?)

Related campaign elements—which in most cases also spoof Hollywood, TV and social-media clichés (from zombies to Kung Fu and dubbed cats)—include pre-roll videos on Hulu, as well as Web banners, BuzzFeed lists and quizzes. In addition, digital billboards in select cities will display personalized responses to viewers’ tweets.

Using multiple platforms underscores “our commitment to delivering leading omni-channel solutions without sacrificing the personal experiences” that keep customers satisfied, says TD CMO Vinoo Vijay. Moreover, he says, the bank strives to tell stories “that address fundamental human truths, recognizing that since our customers’ problems are big to them, they are big to us, too.”

Pulco, a French drink brand owned by Orangina Schweppes, is a default summer drink. (Because when else would you have a cool citrus-lemon beverage?) And amid an epic heatwave recently, it capitalized on that positioning with #LaParesseADuBon. Roughly translated to “Laziness can be good,” it encouraged people to relax and go slow—because what else is there to do when you see mirages while crossing the street?

Earlier this month, with help from agency Fred & Farid, it illustrated that premise by taking seven days to finish posting a single-line Facebook status update. The post unfolded word by word, and eventually read, “It’s too hot to work.”

And while it’s too late to watch it as it happened, you can see the painfully slow progression when you click on the post’s “Edited” button:

While it didn’t capture much attention outside the ad industry (which fawns over itself in France just as much as it does in the U.S.), this is a nice example of how creative can manipulate the mechanics of social platforms to produce something unique and playful—and which, in this case, loyally manifests the brand’s message.

It’s also a tribute to Pulco that it let an incomplete sentence stand for a week without freaking out. It doesn’t look like Pulco spends much, media buy wise, but the post scored at least twice as many likes as any number of its painstaking but minimalist image posts. It won’t win Lions or anything, but it’s evidence that while engagement might be low, the brand is willing to experiment and be a bit scrappy.

Seven days is apparently also a record for the longest amount of time it’s taken anyone, ever, to produce a single Facebook post (at least according to the agency and brand). Other examples of brands who’ve broken social media records, however contrived, can be found on RecordSetter.com’s Social Media World Records subsite.

Adam&eveDDB and Glue Society director Gary Freedman made this British spot for Australia’s Foster’s beer about, of all things, a male rugby cheerleader. The ad is part of a growing trend of faux-documentary ads about people with quirky jobs, though it’s also a throwback to ’80s- and ’90s-style beer ads. (The beer commercial may be the last safe-ish haven for gender jokes like this.)

The male cheerleader here isn’t all that weird, even though he looks like Jack Black’s trash-eating hobo cousin, but he has to put up with ridicule from his parents and unceasing awkwardness at work as the only dude on a cheerleading team full of women. His uniform chafes, too. Still, he has found success on his own terms, and is functional enough to drink in a bar with other normal humans. The “He’s one of us” tone is essential to ads like these.

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The most noteworthy thing here, aside from the cheerleader’s Zoolander-esque uniform, is Foster’s new slogan, “Why the hell not?”, which seems a trifle fatalistic for a consumer product. They might as well snipe from Hot Shots and go with “Foster’s: No one lives forever.”

“Maybe it’s a new chapter in my life.”

That’s how Amit (aka, “Mook”), a 44-year-old dude who’s had a thick beard for 14 years, describes the experience of shaving it off in “My New Face,” a remarkbaly three-minute online film by Israeli agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi for Super-Pharm’s private label line of Life M6 razorblades.

Since the M6 competes with better-funded brands such as Gillette, “traditional messaging promoting efficiency due to number of blades” would likely have proven “majorly ineffective,” says BBR’s Eva Hasson. “That’s why we decided to follow a different approach.”

The idea for the film originated with an agency staffer who recalled that as a child, he did not immediately recognize his father after he shaved off his trademark beard. Much to the agency’s surprise, the client proved eager to give the offbeat idea a try.

“We were offering to shoot a documentary, which is not your regular advertising format where things are scripted,” Hasson says. “This format is a lot riskier, and we warned our client that we may ultimately go through all the motions and end up with nothing. Truth be told, we actually shot three documentaries—only one worked out. This was a gutsy decision by the client, who rolled with us, and so far, the movie has garnered over 430,000 views in under a week.”

Agency creatives were also surprised to learn “the volume and sheer power of the emotional attachment men have developed toward their beards,” says Hasson. “Some of the topics uncovered were the fact people like to hide behind their beard. It gives them a sense of security. It is an exteriorization of their virility. They believe it is a source of authority.”

Indeed, in the video, Amit admits that he “can’t remember being so nervous,” and frets about “loss of virility, loss of intimidation power.” Once the six-bladed cartridge has done its work, Amit looks at least 10 years younger and—in my estimation, at any rate—more friendly and approachable than he had before.

The reactions of his family are priceless. And in the end, the special people in Amit’s life heartily approve of the change, and our hero embraces his “new self,” reveling in the nearly forgotten tactile sensations he can once again enjoy. It’s almost as if he’s cut through a barrier he didn’t know existed. “It’s amazing,” he says.

“It’s about the simple pleasures that come from being clean shaven,” says Hasson. “Little things like the ability to feel a gentle breeze and the sunshine on your face, to kiss without tickling, to look younger.”

Few consumers will undergo such an intense sensation of renewal by using M6 blades. Still, the film does a fine job of boosting the brand by transforming a basic consumer good into an almost mystical agent of change.

CREDITS
Client: Super-Pharm
Brand: Life Private Label Brand
Product: M6 Razorblades
Agency: BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv
CEO: Yossi Lubaton
Executive Creative Director: Nadav Pressman
Creative Director: Idan Levy
Art Director: Michal Gonen
Copywriter: Yair Zisser
Digital Creative Director: Maayan Dar
VP Production: Dorit Gvili
Producer: Odelia Nachmias Freifeld
VP Client Services: Shani Vengosh Shaul
Supervisor: Noa Sharf
Account Executive: Stav Hershkovitz
VP Strategic Planning: Shai Nissenboim
Strategic Planner: Roni Arisson
Planning Information Specialist: Eva Hasson
Traffic: Ronit Doanis, Yael Kaufman
Production Company: T GO Tom Sofer
Director: Oded Binun
Postproduction: Broadcast

It was just one Facebook/Instagram post among many, but Bugaboo’s pairing of a running stroller and a bikini-clad fashion model has sparked plenty of laughter and derision from its target market.

In the photo, 23-year-old Dutch model Ymre Stiekema is seen running with her 2-year-old daughter while wearing what appears to be a black-and-white bikini—you know, the sort of thing moms always go running about the neighborhood in.

Immediately after it was posted, the photo became a flashpoint, as (mostly) moms began attacking and defending the model, along with the outfit they put her in. The debate is mostly about how women’s bodies are portrayed in advertising—and actually, it’s the subgenre of the conversation, about unrealistic expectations surrounding post-partum figures where the goal is to look like you’ve never been pregnant at all.

Allow me to summarize the arguments against:
1. This woman’s body looks unrealistic. We want realistic depictions of women.
2. She is also posed/behaving in an unrealistic manner.
3. How can you expect women to buy your product if they can’t relate to the images you’re displaying?

And the arguments for:
1. You are all just jealous haters.
2. It is too a realistic depiction for the target marketing of women who are avid runners and can afford an $800 (yes) stroller.

I just gave birth to my second child a couple of weeks ago, and yeah, I understand the feels—from intense personal pressure to bona-fide self-loathing—you can have when you look at a Prada model running in a bikini behind a stroller. As an advertiser, I could also recognize why you’d hire the most attractive person you could find to hawk your goodies and sex up the pictures to whatever socially acceptable amount you can get away with.

So, it comes down to deciding which makes your brand happier: a plethora of negative attention, or a smattering of positive. Because people pay a lot less attention when you give them an ordinary, realistic depiction of anything.

Of course, these sorts of images are so everyday, it can be hard to even muster a frustrated comment. And when you see yet another difficult-to-obtain image, maybe the only thing you can do is laugh. Which is probably why the comments with the most likes are the jokes, including the highest-ranking one: “I prefer running naked with my children.”

Check out more from the Facebook thread below. And yes, it seems Bugaboo only replied to the person who asked about the stroller’s suspension system.

Honey Maid’s campaign featuring inclusive depictions of American families takes another step forward today with a spot showing a disabled aunt and her niece making apple and cheddar melts together on their graham crackers.

It’s a simple, quiet 30-second spot, Cheerios-like both in its simplicity and its unspoken embrace of all types of families. Honey Maid has become one of the most famous brands embracing such diversity in its ads with same-sex couples, mixed-race, blended and immigrant families, and more.

The aunt in the ad is Stephanie Woodward, a disability rights lawyer and activist who is currently director of advocacy at The Center for Disability Rights. She signed on for the project, Honey Maid says, because she—and many in the disabled community—want real disabled people featured on TV and in the media, not actors playing disabled people.

Here is the 30-second online version of the spot:

Woodward was also drawn to the simple realism of the ad in a media landscape where disabled people are often portrayed “in either a pity or a superhero light.” (By the way, while there is much debate around the language of disability, Woodward prefers the term disabled person to person with a disability. “I am a proud disabled woman and prefer not to identify with ‘people first’ language as it separates me from my disability identity,” she says.)

The latest spot coincides with this weekend’s 25th anniversary of the signing into law of 1990’s Americans with Disabilities Act. Honey Maid says the ad is also one of the first to include audio descriptions on the 15-second TV version—describing what’s happening on screen for blind and low-vision audiences—along with standard closed captioning. The audio description will run on Bravo, E!, Nick @ Nite, Lifetime, LMN, CBS and ABC.

“The ‘This Is Wholesome’ campaign launched in March of 2014 and has been committed to featuring a cross-section of the American family,” says Gary Osifchin, portfolio lead for biscuits at Mondel?z International. “From a same-sex couple and single dad, to a mixed-race military family, a blended and an immigrant family, the sweet moments between a disabled aunt and her niece are just another example of Honey Maid’s commitment to feature real American families and the wholesome connections they share.”

Here is the 15-second TV version:

CREDITS
Client: Honey Maid / Mond?lez International
Senior Director, Biscuits North America: Gary Osifchin
Senior Brand Manager: Mikhail Chapnik
Senior Associate Brand Manager: Jared Moran
Campaign: “This is Wholesome”
Title: Honey Maid: How to Make Apple & Cheddar Melts
Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Executive Creative Director: Kevin Brady
Associate Creative Director: Tara Lawall
Associate Creative Director: Devon Hong
Copywriter: German Rivera Hudders
Art Director: J.J. Kraft
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Associate Broadcast Producer: Goldie Robbens
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Matt Springate
Senior Communications Strategist: Taylor Hines
Senior Social Strategist: Kat Popiel
Social Media Manager: Rob Engelsman
Data Strategy Director: Katty Lein
Data Strategist: Annie Corbett
Group Account Director: Brett Edgar
Account Director: Amanda Chandler
Account Manager: Jasmine McDavid
Associate Account Manager: Amy Rosenberg
Project Manager: Andra Johnson
Production Company: Variable
Director: Jonathan Bregel
DOP: Stuart Winecoff
Executive Producer: Tyler Ginter
Producer: Alex Friedman
Production Supervisor: Paige DeMarco
Editorial & Post Production & Audio: D5 Studios
Music: de Wolfe Music