Hasta La Creative!

Geico’s “It’s What You Do” campaign, while mildly amusing, hasn’t produced any true gems—until now.

While it would be nice not to spoil the ending of the Antarctic ad below, Geico kinda gives away the punchline by titling the video “South Pole, Dora the Explorer.” Still, it’s enjoyable as hell. 

Check out the spot below, along ith a few other recent installments from the campaign.

Adland’s trend toward weepy gratitude continues, just in time for Mother’s Day, as Hallmark rolls out a series of videos from Leo Burnett in which people express love and appreciation for their moms.

The ads are part of the brand’s “Put Your Heart to Paper” campaign. Hallmark encourages its subjects—who are unaware their moms are watching in another room and will soon join them on camera—to express their deeper feelings beyond predictable phrases like “Thank you” and “I love you.”

This elicits some heartfelt, even impassioned responses.

Alana, raised by a single mother and a new mom herself, says, “If I didn’t have my mom, I think I would be lost.” Emilio says of his mother Floridalma, “She taught me what it is to be a man and what to look for in the mother of my children.”

It’s almost impossible not to be moved by this stuff. Which, of course, is the whole point. Still, the basic concept—thanking those you love—no matter how well intentioned or executed, feels tired, simply because it’s been trotted out so much lately.

Ogilvy’s award-winning “Why Wait Until Its Too Late?” campaign for funeral insurance company Dela got things rolling. Other notable entries include MetLife’s “Who Do You Live For?” spots from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and the recent “Thank List” initiative created for American Greetings by Mullen.

With these mom-themed videos, Hallmark contributes a perfectly fine flight of tearjerkers to the category. At this point, however, I’m a little burned out on branded gratitude, and crying mostly because I wish the trend would stop.

CREDITS
Client: Hallmark
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Susan Credle
Executive Creative Director: Charley Wickman
Creative Directors: Mark Wegwerth, Christopher Cole
Senior Art Director: Kate Sullivan
Senior Copywriter: Adam Ferguson
Head of Production: Vincent Geraghty
Executive Producer: Tom Keramidas
Senior Producer: Rena Dusenbury
Business Manager: Anne Carbo
Senior Talent Manager: Linda Yuen
Music Supervisor: Chris Clark
Music: Massive Music
Managing Account Director: Karla Flannery
Account Supervisor: Amy Walloch
SVP Participation Strategy Director: Kevin Lilly
Planning Director: AJ Livsey
Production company: Chelsea
Editorial company: White House Post
Post Production Company: The Mill
Director: Lauren Greenfield
Head of Production: Adam Guliner
Line Producer: Julianne Maloney
Editor: David Cea
Assistant Editor: Travis Hockswender
Executive Producer: Kristin Branstetter
Audio Mix: Erik Widmark
Colorist: Luke Morrison

Do the Spanish have a tough time pronouncing “Ogilvy & Mather.” Apparently so, judging from this comical video series from the agency’s Spain operation—aimed at getting people to pronounce the agency’s name “like a lord.”

Along the way, we get a little bit of Ogilvy history and one unexpectedly swift kick in the balls. There’s also a website, ogilvyandwhat.es. A funny and peculiar campaign, indeed. See, your work isn’t over when you get that Induction Box.

Via Ads of the World.

Showing crazy trick shots is a pretty good way of getting viral video views, as we’ve seen in branded efforts from Wheaties (bowling), McDonald’s (soccer)—and of course, that old, fake-as-hell Michael Jordan and Larry Bird ad “Nothing But Net.”

Now there’s a new kid in town, Peter Bamforth—a YouTuber who makes “videos about anything and everything.” But he’s particularly adept at trick shots. His “EPIC Ping Pong Trick Shots” video from 2011 got 300,000 views.

And now, he’s returned with more trick shots—starring Oreo cookies.

It’s a pretty impressive feat, not only because of the level of inventiveness in materials, but also for the patience this kid must have. Check it out below.

Earth Day is a special day—a day to think about Mother Earth and how to keep her happy by recycling, by conserving her riches, by protecting her. A number have brands have posted environmental images in social media today, signaling their commitment to the health of the planet.

Glock went a different route, as you can see below.

Happy #EarthDay from GLOCK. pic.twitter.com/T2ypb7WH39

— GLOCK Inc. (@GLOCKInc) April 22, 2015

Needless to say, this tweet caught some people off guard—and, well, brought out some gun-lovin’ crazies to hash it out on Twitter. What does it mean? Some guns are brown, and so is earth? That’s our best guess.

Check out some of the comments below. What’s your take on this odd tweet?

There’s something irresistible about tiny billboards.

We’ve seen them before, of course—for example, there was this LittleBigPlanet campaign from 2008 and this Lego stunt from 2012. And now, the upcoming superhero film Ant-Man is joining the parade, with ant-size billboards popping up in several Australian cities ahead of that country’s July 16 release of the movie.

There’s even an ant-size bus shelter with an ad on the side.

Check out more images below, via Screencrush and This Is Film.

For its next stunt, the studio might want to enlist the World Wildlife Fund’s horde of leaf-cutter ants to parade the film’s tagline around.

This Trebor Mints ad from Wieden & Kennedy London has a bit of that 1990s Gushers weirdness to it, either as a tribute to nostalgic thirtysomethings or just for shiggles.

It opens with a teen admitting to his father that he prefers soft mints to their harder contemporaries, which makes his dad go all Malory Archer and crush his whiskey glass out of anger. Weird how that never cuts anyone’s hand on TV.

And it only gets stranger from there.

Though the concept is hardly revolutionary, they kept the weirdness to one element of the ad that mostly delivers, so it works. For my own sanity, I won’t get into the Punnett square logistics that resulted in minty dad’s human son. No sense asking questions I don’t want answered.

CREDITS
Client: Trebor
Marketing Manager, Gum & Candy, Mondelez: Elena Germani
Senior Brand Manager, Mondelez: Elena Mallo
Project Name: “Choose Your Trebor”
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Directors: Kim Papworth
Creative team: Max Batten & Ben Shaffrey
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson / Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Andrew Kay
Account Director: Hanne Haugen
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Georgia Challis
TV Producer: Lou Hake
Creative Producer: Danny Wallace
Designer: Michael Bow
Production Company: Hungryman
Director: Taika Waititi
Executive Producer: Matt Buels
Producer: Camilla Cullen
Director of Photography: Bob Pendar-Hughes
Editorial Company: Work Post
Editor: Rachel Spann
Post Producer: Josh Robinson, The Mill
VFX Supervisor: Dan Adams, The Mill
Music+Sound Company: Wave
Sound Designer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell
Mix Company: Wave
Mixer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell

Nike FuelBand may have fizzled out, but luckily the Joe Boxer Inactivity Tracker is here to take its place.

Kmart is promoting its Joe Boxer pajamas with a new digital bracelet that’s just like any of the other quantified-self fitness pieces on the market, only instead of making you feel guilty for missing your workout, it will celebrate you for it.

The brand is giving away the devices with select pajama purchases while supplies last—an accompanying app rewards extended sloth with badges like “Cryogenic” and “You rock!” (in this case, meaning the noun first, and the adjective second).

Even if you don’t snag one of these hot ticket items, you can enjoy the hourlong launch ad below—a window into the “2015 Joe Boxer Lounger Games,” where two guys sit in recliners trying to move as little as possible.

It really goes all in—purportedly focusing on the ninth hour of the fierce completion—and delivering 60 minutes of impressively inane announcer commentary, which makes it just like any other sport, really. (There are plenty of amusing tidbits mixed in if you skip around. Or if you have the stamina to watch all the way through, presumably, you can also tune back in for hour 10 on ESPN 35.)

The whole FCB project pokes some excellent fun at the tech-driven zeitgeist, and the world can always use more paeans to laziness. But any real pro couch potato will tell you it’s better to skip the long pants altogether, especially with summer coming up fast.

If you’re not into Star Wars, you might as well sign off the Internet for the rest of the year. Not only are the filmmakers going to bombard you with content, everybody else is, too.

Case in point: A Craigslist user in California posted a “buyer beware” listing warning people not to purchase the Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer seen in the most recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer.

Fake Craigslist ads are a hallowed genre, and this one is pretty solid—as the user warns that the vehicle is “totally infested with roaches and womp rats” and “there’s no way this thing is ever going to pass emissions.”

Check out the full text below.

BUYER BEWARE: Imperial II-class Star Destroyer – $1 (Mad River)

I just wanted to make sure people are aware, this is a total scam. I drove all the way out there to look at this thing and the guy wanted a huge deposit before he’d even let me take it for a spin.

After looking around a bit I’d be surprised if this thing could even finish the Kessel run, let alone do it in a decent time. It’s totally infested with roaches and womp rats, so when you figure the cost of a 6.2 trillion cubic foot fumigation job, this thing is a total write-off for that reason alone.

I know it’s had Sand People in it, but all the tracks are single file so who knows how many have been in there or what parts they’ve ripped off.

You can’t even get this thing licensed in most states until you remove all 384 turbolasers and the ion cannons will have to be retrofitted with low-capacity magazines (thanks Obama), and there’s no way this thing is ever going to pass emissions.

The “carbon scoring” is conveniently makes the serial numbers unreadable, so I can’t even verify what model year this thing is, but I suspect that it’s the year that no one wants because there weren’t any handrails on the control deck. The whole “open bridge” thing was a terrible idea. It’s like the Pontiac Aztec of star destroyers.

So save yourself a trip. The guy just wants this crap off his farm but doesn’t want to pay the Jawas to haul it away.

Believe me, this isn’t the star destroyer you’re looking for.

Somebody get this kid a bike! (And snowshoes, while you’re at it.)

Orri, the plucky little dude in this fanciful 90-second ad from Wieden + Kennedy London introducing Arla’s Skyr Icelandic yogurt to the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands, really has it rough. Most of the action takes place in 1968, as the boy braves storms and covers vast distances, always on foot, to deliver messages that arrive via his remote village’s only telephone. (Often, these communications are of a less-than-urgent nature, such as, “Your trousers are ready for collection.”)

Does he even draw a salary? Or get tips?

On the plus side, Orri enjoys heaping bowls of Skyr to power his travels.

The low-key, humorous film, W+K’s first work for the brand, is expertly directed by Dougal Wilson, who placed two spots (“Monty the Penguin” for John Lewis and “Adventure Awaits” for Lurpak) among Adweek’s top 10 ads of 2014.

This Skyr ad, “The Messenger,” really delivers, subtly touting the brand as a hearty snack or meal while keeping viewers engaged and smiling. W+K’s Thom Whitaker, who wrote and art directed the work with Danielle Noël, chatted with us about the commercial:

Where did the idea come from?
Skyr’s full of protein, so we wanted to tell a story of extraordinary Icelandic strength, but one which people weren’t familiar with or had heard before. We’d heard about young Icelandic kids working as telephone messengers back in the ’60s—which we thought could be the perfect story to tell.

Why go this route with the creative?
Because of Iceland’s tradition for Viking sagas, it felt right to create our own epic story for this Icelandic yogurt. We wanted to go back to the old tradition of classic storytelling—a bit like the old Stella Artois work.

Skyr has got a pretty wide appeal. It’s very much Scandinavia’s answer to Greek yogurt, and in Iceland it’s part of everyone’s daily diet, so we thought the story of the little boy was universal enough for everybody to enjoy.

Why keep the product mostly in the background?
We wanted to weave Skyr into the story in the natural way, while giving as much screen time as possible to the boy’s epic journey, so that the final payoff becomes even stronger.

Some have likened the approach to Wes Anderson. Agree or disagree?
It does have a bit of a Wes Anderson vibe to it, but that wasn’t really intentional. The brightly colored houses and the retro wardrobe might have something to do with it. We should have set the titles in Futura!

Any amusing anecdotes from the shoot?
The lighthouse scene was pretty interesting—a full-on Icelandic storm was battering the cliffs and it felt like we could be swept away at any second. I don’t think we’ve ever been so happy with a first take.

Skyr’s got more work coming out soon?
Short films [not by Dougal Wilson] are out next week on YouTube and Facebook and are called “Skyr Guides.” They’re also from W+K, but Toby Moore and Selena McKenzie are the brains behind them, not us [Thom and Danielle].

They’re basically two short portraits of modern-day Icelanders who exhibit the same sort of strength as Orri does in our film: Kolla, a cyclist who braves the Icelandic climate every day, and Joi, a modern-day Viking who’s a doorman at one of Reykjavik’s oldest nightclubs and who’s not averse to putting Skyr on his steak. They’re all about introducing us Brits to Skyr—the history of it, what it’s good with, how it’s pronounced.

CREDITS
Client: Arla Foods
Project Name: Arla Skyr
Media Channels: TV, OOH, DOOH, Online Films
Lead Client Name: Sam Dolan
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Directors: Dave Day, Larry Seftel
Copywriter: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel
Art Director: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson / Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Katherine Napier
Account Director: Will Hunt
Account Manager: Maria Kofoed
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Theo Izzard-Brown
Planner: Rachel Hamburger
TV Producer: Matthew Ellingham
Creative Producer: Michael Winek
Production Company: Blink
Director: Dougal Wilson
Executive Producer: James Studholme
Line Producer: Ewen Brown
Director of Photography: Karl Oskarsson
Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Joe Guest
Post Producer: Julie Evans
Post Executive Producer: Julie Evans
VFX Company: MPC
VFX Supervisor: Bill McNamara
Flame Artist: Tom Harding
VFX Producer: Julie Evans
Colourist: Jean-Clément Soret
Titles/Graphics: MPC
Music+Sound Company: Alex Baranowski
Composer: Alex Baranowski
Sound Designer: Anthony Moore
Producer: Becs Bell
Mix Company: Factory
Mixer: Anthony Moore
Producer: Becs Bell
Online Films:
Art Director: Toby Moore, Selena McKenzie
Copywriter: Toby Moore, Selena McKenzie
TV Producer: Greg Hemes
Production Company: TrueNorth
Editorial Company: WracK
Print Production:
Art Director: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel, Kelly Satchell
Copywriter: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel
Head of Design: Karen Jane