Hasta La Creative!

In case you doubted that absurdist advertising is now the go-to approach for candy companies, this new spot for Mars Bar should be a good reminder.

Created by U.K. agency AMV BBDO, “Winning” features a soulless ginger who’s trained his dog to jump, only to be outdone by the guy with a Mars Bar.

The ad hits all the typical checkpoints for a modern zany ad: funny animals, a surreal punchline that takes too long to deliver and a retro reference to the 1980s (the song is Crockett’s Theme from Miami Vice).

“Winning” isn’t a bad effort, even if it is built around an Internet term that quickly wore out its welcome four years ago.

This is truly a golden age for the poo emoji, that fecund swirl who’s become the messaging embodiment of all things odious.

For proof, look no further than Betabrand’s popular “Poo Emoji Button-Up Shirt,” which just completed its crowdfunding phase and received nearly 500 percent of the preorders needed to green-light production. The goal was to sell 50 shirts to early backers, but more than 230 had committed by the time crowdfunding closed Wednesday night.

“Our initial production run will be about 800 units.,” Betabrand founder Chris Lindland tells AdFreak.

And there’s more crap to come. In addition to its existing poo emoji shoes, Betabrand is “currently seeking feedback on a poo dress for women,” Lindland says.

Now, you might be on board with poo emojis. But why is the men’s shirt short-sleeve? “The shirts are part of a creative Hawaiian shirt collection we’re developing,” Lindland said. “Our photographers thought it would be funny to shoot like a serious Banana Republic shoot.”

You can check out the results of the e-retailer’s ironic photo collection below and decide if this would be $80 well spent.

This year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue will make history by featuring a plus-size model—in its advertising, anyway.

The gorgeous model, Ashley Graham, will not be posing in the editorial content next to the Chrissy Teigens and Kate Uptons of the world but in an ad by Swimsuits For All—an online retailer for women sizes 8 through 34.

“I know my curves are sexy, and I want everyone else to know that theirs are too,” Graham says in a statement. “There is no reason to hide and every reason to flaunt. The world is ready for more curves in bikinis. Swimsuits For All helps women feel confident and sexy in swimsuits, and I am so thrilled to be a part of the #CurvesinBikinis campaign!”

For those who think she has no place being in Sports Illustrated (“With America’s obesity issues, promoting this is dangerous” reads one comment on Facebook), the size-16 model has also launched a workout video series called The Curvy Fit Club with Net-a-porter.

The Swimsuits For All was made by KraftWorks in New York, which is run by Neil Kraft, the former Calvin Klein creative director who made Marky Mark and his Calvins famous. The photograher is the famed Russell James.

This is reportedly the first time ever that a plus-size model will be seen in Sports Illustrated—much less the Swimsuit Issue—and it took buying power to get her there.

CREDITS
Client: Swimsuits For All
Agency: KraftWorks
Creative Director: Neil Kraft
Photographer: Russell James
Art Director: Karen Lee
Director of Account Strategy: Elisabeth Smith
Videographer: Brian Quist

While you were loving and hating the Super Bowl TV commercials on Sunday, there was a whole other game going on—the radio ads on Westwood One. And now, AdFreak has an exclusive look (or rather, listen) at the winner of the second annual Westwood One Super Bowl Sound Awards, honoring the best radio spots of the game.

The champion this year is Poo-Pourri, the before-you-go toilet spray that can eliminate odors that stink even worse than Pete Carroll’s play calls. The spot itself won’t be accused of being overly sophisticated (this brand’s viral videos aren’t, either), but it was a hit with the fans who voted. Have a listen here:

THE WINNER:

THE RUNNERS-UP:

Last year’s winner, Motel 6, placed two ads in the top five this year, with longtime spokesman Tom Bodett humorously trying to update his pitch for a new generation. The AutoTune one is quite funny. Listen to those spots here:

Finally, Subway and Exergen rounded out the top five:

More than 40 advertisers participated in the Super Bowl Sound Awards. The ads were available on demand for a week before the game aired Sunday on the more than 700 radio stations broadcasting Westwood One’s Super Bowl XLIX coverage, as well as on SiriusXM Radio, NFL.com/Audiopass, NFL Mobile from Verizon and the American Forces Radio Network.

The 1990s were quite the magical decade. And for those of us who were lucky enough to have been around then, we remember the weird commercials that peppered our Saturday morning cartoons. 

“Every 90’s Commercial Ever,” made by digital movie studio RocketJump, is an amazing parody that filters these campy ads through an insanely accurate lens, replicating everything from the absurd acting to the ridiculous shilling of tooth-rotting, gut-busting snacks. Oh, and it also gets super weird. 

Take a look at this commercial promoting some Capri-Sun-like and Bagel-Bite-esque foods, in the oddest thing since “Too Many Cooks.”

Warning: Video is violent and may be upsetting, particularly if you’ve ever been attacked a many-headed mutant.

Dez Dolly, a writer, director, producer and co-founder of RocketJump, is the brains behind the parody and explains his inspiration in the behind-the-scenes video below:

“We were talking about commercials from the ’90s—they’re so incredible—which you can now find on YouTube, and they’re absolutely incredible, they’re so bizarre. And there were these Capri Sun ads that we were talking about, where these kids drink the juice and then turn into liquid metal and splash around and skateboard and shoot hoops. They make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and we thought it would be really fun to start there, and then have the spot take this really dark turn.”

The BTS also gives some insight into how the spot-on ’90s-style glitchy visual quality was achieved and how VGP Effects made such terrifying creatures. Oh, and check out the (slightly more horrific) “uncensored version” here.

CREDITS
Directed by – Dez Dolly
Executive Producers for RocketJump – Matt Arnold; Dez Dolly; Ben Waller; Freddie Wong
Writers – Matt Arnold; Will Campos; Dez Dolly
Producer – Ashim Ahuja
Director of Photography — Jon Salmon
Editor – Joey Scoma @ The Sweatshop
Original Music – Maxton Waller

Cast
Mom – Anais Fairweather
Darius Jackson – Anthony Alabai
Jax – Dylan Williams
Jess – Mykayla Williams
Slade – Hayden Luedde
Brad – D’Arragnan Sloan
Kelly – Anastasia Sloan
Cody – Robert Sloan
Cronenberg Creature – Clinton Jones

Crew
1st AD – Jeremy Cohen
1st AC – John Helms
2nd AC – Thomas Jacobeson
DIT – Daniel Hollister
Gaffer – Tony Jou
BB Electrician – Dominic D’astice
Key Grip – Frank Garbutt
BB Grip – Anthony Barrese
Prop Master – Zachary Smith
Art Assistant – Christian Ramirez
Makeup Assistant – Lisa Carr
Wardrobe Stylist – Layne McGovern
Wardrobe Assistant – Millicent Thompson
Seamstress – Regina Amato
Sound Mixer – Chris Howland
Boom Op – Kelly Ambrow
Sound Design – Kevin Senzaki
Makeup Artist – Erika Frank
Behind The Scenes – Nathan Koepp and Lauren Haroutunian
Photography & Social Media – Benji Dolly
Production Accountant – Jamie Lukaszewski

Makeup effects by:
Vincent Guastini Prods Effects & Design Studio
Key Artist and Sculptors – Jeff Farley & Chris Marchwinski
Silicone Animatronics & Painter – Vincent Guastini
Fabrication – Joshua Ballze
Onset Puppeteers – Vincent Guastini and Joshua Ballze

Visual Effects – Playfight

Additional Post Production Services – Alex Reeves; Point of Blue Studios

Big Game Products logos and branding by Dangerbrain – Alfonso Surroca & Sebastian Surroca

Just when we thought we were Super Bowl’d out, we find something that makes the takes the magic of this year’s ads and reimages it—IN LEGO!

British animation house A+C Studios is behind the Brick Bowl—a three-minute journey through some of this year’s Super Bowl ads, edited together as a story. It took them 36 hours following the final whistle to deliver the video, which it calls “a new take on the world’s most expensive advertising space.”

Take a look below as some of the most memorable spots (nine to be exact), including Snickers, Toyota, T-Mobile and Bud Light, are transformed into Legos! To prove they weren’t cheating, there’s even a mini-Katy Perry halftime show.

They left out the Nationwide kid. But that’s because everything is awesome.

CREDITS
Director: Dan Richards
Story: Josh Hicks, Dan Richards
Producer: Liu Batchelor
Executive Producers: Robyn Viney, Julian Hirst
Animation Director: James ‘Jamesy’ Harvey
Production Manager: Sim Bhachu
Editor: Stuart Clark
Sound design: Jareth Turner, Karl Aiden Bourne
Voice: Dave Eric Smith
Additional Voices: Stuart Clark
Storyboard Artists: Dayle Sanders, Josh Hicks
Stop Motion Animators: James Harvey, Barnaby Dixon, Dave Cubitt, Roos Mattaar, Laura Tofarides, Jordan Wood
Model Makers: Jess Linares, Astrid Goldsmith, Tiffany Monk, Becky Smith, Kyle Roberts
Stage Build: Martin Richards
Production Assistants: Bobby Sparks, Chad Mihaylov, Charlie-Evaristo-Boyce
Digital Animation and VFX: Stuart Clark, Dayle Sanders, Oliver David Lister, Kim Dunne, Nat Urwin
Catering: Rory Fletcher

Here’s one way to get attention with a gender-themed advertisement.

The fashion website Parisian Gentleman just unveiled its first commercial, and it has an unusual premise indeed: It posits that in a “world without gentlemen,” women would lose all refinement and act like uncivilized creeps—farting, puking and pissing their lives away in an death spiral of self-debasement.

But not in a bad way, says Parisian Gentleman! Indeed, the site claims the ad, from DLV BBDO in Milan, simply captures the “humor, courage and spirit” of its brand. The tagline at the end of the film explains the thinking more directly.

Whether you read it literally (men don’t exist in this fantasy world) or figuratively (they exist but aren’t “gentlemen”), the message seems to be that women rely on men to set the example—and would be lost without it. Or maybe it’s saying that without elegance, everyone just turns into a dude.

Have a look, and see what you think. The spot is NSFW because of brief nudity.

Pampers is doing a good job of cornering the baby schmaltz advertising market.

A new spot from the diaper brand focuses on the whirlwind of new experiences—challenging and delightful—that parents face when they have a child, especially their first. There are sonograms, there’s exhaustion, and naturally there are hero shots of diapers. Mostly, there are lots of cute babies.

It’s not as irrefutably moving as Pampers’ personalized celebrations for Japanese mothers on the first birthdays of their children. But for an ad that insists on pandering at length to base sentimentality, the minute-and-a-half list of firsts, some earnest and some hyperbolic, can’t help but make you feel kind of happy, anyways. (At last count, it had over 1.3 million YouTube views.)

Pampers also makes sure to check the various ethnic diversity boxes, and offer a nod to breastfeeding. (No love for the formula warriors, though—really, it’s missed an opportunity to represent the more granular factions of moms and dads.)

The tagline—”May we join you on your journey?”—goes so far out of its way to be polite and self-aware that it’s almost patronizing, since really what it means is “Please buy Pampers,” which at that point doesn’t really need to be said. But compared to Luvs’ “Poop There It Is” from a few years back, the low bar for diaper ads, anything shines.

And as Coca-Cola, of all brands, best illustrated, new parents may get worn out, but they’ll still find a way to amp themselves up for the second go-around.

Savannah, Ga., lawyer Jamie Casino had a big hit last year when he ran the most absurdly badass local Super Bowl ad of anyone—an epic two-minute tale of crime, death and retribution that got more than 5 million YouTube views.

Casino, of course, had to return for an encore. And you can see it below.

There are so many questions. (For one, why is this two-minute Super Bowl ad three-and-a-half minutes long?) Plotwise, the damn thing is barely coherent, unlike last year’s spot, which was ludicrous but at least easy to follow.

This time, we have Casino talking about all the personal bullies he’s encountered in life and how he overcame them—childhood tormenters, cancer, his younger brother’s murder and local strong-arm government in Savannah. Casino is heard cross-examining a character, “Injustice,” who symbolizes the broken Savannah city leadership. “Bullying is bad. Silence is worse,” says the line at the end.

We can’t wait for next year’s ad, when Casino fully transforms into Batman.

Faking out your followers on Twitter is quickly becoming a tired tactic for attention, but Monster still deserves a round of applause for its Super Bowl social stunt.

BBDO New York worked with the job listing site (which wasn’t a Super Bowl advertiser this time around) to create a tweet celebrating the Seattle Seahawks’ victory. The problem, of course, was that the New England Patriots won the game 28-24 thanks to a last-second interception.

As you can see above, most Twitter users saw a cropped version of the congratulatory image. But clicking through to the full image revealed the punch line at the bottom:

Congratulations Seattle from http://t.co/sPr4G1gHup! #biggame pic.twitter.com/eAa59yw1om

— Monster (@Monster) February 2, 2015

In addition to sparking more than 4,000 retweets and 2,400 favorites, the stunt increased discussion of Monster by more than 1,500 percent compared to the average day, BBDO says.