Hasta La Creative!

One day, all the world’s persistent infrastructure problems will be obsolete, says Cisco. Indeed, you’ll only be able to see them in museums.

That’s the theme of “Building Tomorrow Today,” a new Cisco campaign by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners that begins today with “The Last Traffic Jam,” a striking 30-second spot that shows a traffic jam—now a remnant of the past—as an art piece in a gallery.

Future ads will depict other “last” scenarios, including the last long checkout line and the last product recall, as frozen moments from the past that are now displayed in an art gallery.

GSP creative directors Justin Moore and Nick Klinkert spoke to AdFreak about the “The Last Traffic Jam”:

AdFreak: This is a clever idea. How did you arrive at this concept of a Museum of Lasts?
Moore: “People talk a lot about ‘firsts’ in tech. So we loved the idea that ‘lasts’ can represent a more interesting view of the future—a way of showing how the Internet of everything can have a real, positive impact on people’s lives. After we got to the idea of ‘lasts,’ the museum concept felt like a pretty short leap.”

Klinkert: “Research found that business and technology leaders feel more and more responsibility to solve exceedingly complex problems in the world, with the help of technology. The ultimate goal is to confine these problems that affect us all to the past. The team quite quickly became interested in a place where all these problems could live—’the museum of lasts.’ “

Where did you film this, and what were the production challenges?
Klinkert: “We shot these in Zaragoza, Spain. They built these massive, beautiful buildings for the water expo in 2008, and they gave us the scale and the look that we were after. The ‘art installations’ are actually real people standing very still (and treated in post) to replicate hyperrealistic statues of people.”

Can you tell me about the visual look?
Moore: We wanted to make the point that technology is ultimately about people. So we spent a lot of time looking at the work of artists like Ron Mueck and researching how modern museums create exhibitions.

Klinkert: Visually, we were interested and inspired by the amazing, hyperreal sculptures of Sam Jinks and Ron Mueck, and the way large-scale installations in museums work these days. A lot of them have an interactive component to them, a lot of them are playing with relative size, and they are very fascinating to look at.

Did you storyboard exactly how the tableaux would look, almost like doing little paintings?
Klinkert: We had a pretty clear idea of how it would look at first, but a lot of exploration went into the final execution of it. The traffic jam is obviously a universal problem that affects a lot of people. We wanted to illustrate the frustration, impatience and the boredom of the people in the traffic jam. We toyed around with a lot of other ideas, but at the end of the day we wanted it to look as if an artist picked up a chunk of congested freeway in a major metropolitan city and put it in an elegant museum space.

Why the British voiceover?
Moore: We’re just looking for something fresh and interesting. We tried lots of voices. But something about the English accent seemed to suit the cadence of the words.

How does this evolve the Cisco campaign from last year’s work?
Moore: Strategically, we’ve got a sharper point of view on what Cisco’s vision is for the future, and how it relates to what they’re doing right now. Creatively, the campaign’s just getting better and better.

Klinkert: It’s really a creative expression of what they are doing right now, Cisco is helping to make the Internet of everything possible. And with that, hopefully we can see the last traffic jam or the last product recall in the not-too distant future.

If the ’80s taught us anything, it’s that exercising can be fun—especially when you’re playing solid gold hits and wearing the glossed-out fashions of the day. Leotards, leg warmers, short shorts, sweatbands and a big ol’ goofy smile—that’s all you needed to participate in Jazzercise, the hit aerobics craze of 30 years ago.

Here’s a little look back, in case you forgot.

Well, in an attempt to update the image of the now-vintage brand, Jazzercise has updated its branding with a new logo. Here’s the before and after:

So, they blasted the serifs off the original logo and italicized it slightly—then took the Pepsi mark and rotated it 45 degrees counter-clockwise and used the Obama campaign’s color palette. OK, the latter is a joke, but it’s a tiny bit uncanny. It’s certainly a new look for the brand, and it looks clean and modern. But it’s also a bit corporate, like it’s meant to adorn the welcome brochure for the gymnasium of a cult or the Others from Lost.

“Some people still think legwarmers and leotards when they hear Jazzercise, but we left the ’80s behind a long time ago,” Jazzercise founder and CEO Judi Sheppard Missett said in a statement. “Jazzercise is the original dance party workout, and 45 years later we continue to transform the bodies and lives of our customers because we know how to get results and keep it fresh. Today we recharged our brand to reflect the edge, energy and intensity of our classes and to reach out to a new audience with a bold new message: You think you know us, but you don’t.”

Call me crazy, but i’m gonna miss leotards and legwarmers—and those delightful serifs. 

Via Fast Company.

Tiffany & Co. made headlines this weekend with a preview of its new campaign, featuring seven real life couples who’ve all popped the question—including a same-sex couple.

The real-life gay couple, a handsome New York City pair, are part of a push from the brand to show diverse love stories, a spokeswoman for the company explained to Elle. 

“Nowadays, the road to marriage is no longer linear, and true love can happen more than once with love stories coming in a variety of forms,” said the spokeswoman. “The Tiffany engagement ring is the first sentence of the story that a couple will write together as they create a life that is deeply intimate and exceptional, which is the message we hope to convey through this campaign.” 

While it’s certainly exciting to see such an iconic brand make a progressive statement with its “Will You?” campaign, it’s also obvious that it makes sense economically. The growing market of same-sex couples searching for engagement rings has many brands courting gay and lesbian couples directly. 

See the full ad below, and click to enlarge.

McDonald’s really wants people to think it cares about community. But go figure, not everyone is convinced.

The brand’s new ad from Leo Burnett, which aired Sunday during NFL games and on the Golden Globe Awards, focuses on McDonald’s franchises that have, over the past 20 years, used their roadside signs to support, celebrate or otherwise acknowledge local and national events, both happy and tragic—everything from 9/11 to the homecoming of troops to a nearby base to Boston’s spirit in the wake of the marathon bombing to the 30th wedding anniversary of a couple who’ve celebrated every year of marriage at a McDonald’s. (The campaign includes a Tumblr page that explains some of the more specific examples.)

The centerpiece spot, part of a broader brand refresh that began with the quite well-liked “Archenemies” ad, got a less-than-enthusiastic response on Twitter during NBC’s Globes telecast.“McDonald’s is presenting itself as the face of corporate kindness? PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES A LIVING WAGE,” said one detractor, in a post retweeted more than 80 times. Said another, “@McDonalds I just threw up in my mouth watching your commercial… Desperate attempt to rescue your image.”

To be fair, some viewers enjoyed the spot. “This McDonald’s marquee sign is fantastic!” tweeted the handle of Des Moines radio station Star 102.5. But the backlash around the fair pay debate is predictable, given the high profile of the recent Fight for 15 protests. And that makes a sign like “Keep Jobs in Toledo” seem kind of tone deaf, even if it technically refers to a nearby factory at risk of closure.

Plus, the soundtrack—a children’s choir covering indie pop band Fun’s “Carry On”—makes such a clumsy grab for the audience’s heartstrings that it’s hard not to think of crocodile tears. In the words of another viewer, “I’m not lovin’ it.”

See more of the Twitter reaction below. What do you think of the ad?

 
LOVIN’ IT

Call me a chump, but I loved that McDonald’s ad. #GoldebGlobes

— Roger Simon (@politicoroger) January 12, 2015

@McDonalds just won the #GoldenGlobes … that was expert. #advertising

— Scott Forshay (@scottforshay) January 12, 2015

Watch this @mcdonalds ad from @dlwahl1 @susancredle @leoburnett everyone. It’s brilliant. http://t.co/ohH0n87HS4

— Cindy Gallop (@cindygallop) January 11, 2015

Best work from @McDonalds in a long time–well done @dlwahl1& team and @LeoBurnett: McDonald’s: Signs: http://t.co/Y3YO4eBD78 via @YouTube

— Jim Stengel (@JimStengel) January 11, 2015

 
NOT LOVIN’ IT

That @McDonald‘s commercial is shameless, vulgar, tasteless, cynical, crass. In other words, as bad as the food. #GoldenGlobes

— Harold Itzkowitz (@HaroldItz) January 12, 2015

Can’t stop thinking about how weird and gross that McDonald’s ad is.

— Zach Floyd (@floyding) January 12, 2015

This McDonald’s ad is like everything I’ve ever had to tell my clients “NO YOU HAVE NO STAKE IN THIS CONVERSATION, BIG BRAND!” Barf.

— dulce calor (@dulcecalor) January 12, 2015

McDonald’s has reached a new, delusional level of grandeur with their “marquee” commercial.

— Greg Shumchenia (@GregShum) January 11, 2015

I really feel we can all come together as a country over how offensively manipulative and cynical that McDonald’s ad is.

— Erika Hall (@mulegirl) January 11, 2015

Kwikset, the keyless entry and re-keying company, unlocks the humor of home invasions in these amusing, mildly edgy tales of suburban paranoia to promote its SmartKey technology.

The ads, running exclusively on YouTube, posit a support group for people who can no longer invade the house of a woman named Amy because she has installed Kwikset locks. “I just can’t move past it,” a middle-aged music teacher despairs. “I’ve never laid my hands on a better piano.” Others in therapy entered Amy’s home uninvited to try on (and steal) her clothes, splash around in her hot tub and enjoy her home-theater system. Once, when Amy was away for a week, they threw a wild party at the house, and some dude secretly lived in the guest bathroom to avoid paying rent.

“It’s easier to give an acquaintance a key than it is to ask for it back when the two of you lose touch,” says Nick Lange, creative director of Nurture Digital, which created the campaign. “We’re targeting homeowners who know their spare keys are in circulation, but who can’t quite justify the hassle and expense of hiring a locksmith to change their lock.”

While using the same fear-response mechanism that drives those disturbing commercials for home-safety systems and related security services, Kwikset suggests the threat in cheeky fashion instead of trying to scare the crap out of us. The comedy—directed in classic sitcom fashion by Shawn Wines—allows the viewer to evaluate the product’s potential without feeling unduly manipulated. “We felt that humor was a way to make the message of these ads fresh,” says Lange. “It’s a fine line when your whole campaign is about breaking and entering.”

Could some folks object to the campaign’s tone (making light of serious crime), or its other un-PC elements, like an elderly neighbor who keeps showing up at Amy’s because she’s forgotten where she really lives?

“The fact that these pieces take risks that might rub some viewers the wrong way was a serious concern,” says Lange. “When viewers look carefully, though, they’ll see that the stereotypes being referenced here are ultimately turned on their heads. The older woman who sometimes forgets which house is hers is revealed to be a master lock-picker who knows exactly what she wants—her neighbor’s hot tub.”

“A lot of our favorite comedy pushes viewers a little outside their comfort zone,” he adds, “and we felt that doing the same would make these ads most worth our audience’s time.”

Ikea’s list of 2014 advertising triumphs is endless: the horny chairs for Valentine’s Day; the awesome RGB billboard; the whirling-kitchen ad; the ethereal ode to sleep for Ikea beds; the climbing-wall billboard; the hilarious pitch of catalog as tech device. Almost no marketer had a better year.

Now, Mother London gets the brand off and running for 2015 with the remarkable spot below, in which a flock of itinerant T-shirts are seen flying around the world before finally finding a home.

It was directed by Blink’s Dougal Wilson—who actually made two of Adweek’s 10 best ads of 2014 (Lurpak’s “Adventure Awaits” and John Lewis’s “Monty the Penguin”). The spot also features some great puppeteering work by Blinkink directors Jonny & Will.

Hopefully it’s just the beginning of another strong year for Ikea. Full credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: Mother, London
Director: Dougal Wilson
Production Company: Blink
Puppeteering: Jonny & Will, Blinkink
Editor: Joe Guest, Final Cut
Postproduction: MPC

A week into 2015, Nike says yes, it is hard at work on the self-lacing shoes that were introduced in 1989’s Back to the Future II—arguably the best movie in the trilogy.

If this sounds familiar, the company did a short run of the shoes—known as the Nike MAG—in 2011, auctioning them off on on eBay. Those shoes, however, were missing the crucial power laces. This time, Nike isn’t messing around—the shoes will have power laces, Nike innovation chief Tinker Hatfield told a trade show on Monday.

The release date, pricing and distribution information were not made public, and Hatfield noted that there are “11 and two-thirds months left in 2015.” So, it might be a while yet.

“I don’t even know if everyone at Nike realizes just how much demand there is for this shoe,” Matt Halfhill, publisher of the sneaker blog NiceKicks, told Mashable.

How could the company not know? We’d bet Nike has been waiting until 2015 to release it, using nostalgia to market the shoe.

Stop the presses. Justin Bieber is making a Justin Bieber face in ads for Calvin Klein, and people are losing their minds.

“Is he actually hot in these pictures?” some people are asking. “Will he ever be as hot as Marky Mark?” other people are wondering. “Can we please bring back David Beckham?” further people are begging (even though Beckham’s underwear pics were for H&M, because Beckham was too good for Calvin Klein).

In any event, these topics—surprise, bargaining, regret—are apparently the relevant considerations when weighing the cultural significance of Justin Bieber wearing C.K. jeans and underwear. (Dutch model Lara Stone also appears in the campaign, but most people seem more interested in Bieber.)

He, reportedly, has been teasing the idea that he might appear in C.K. ads for some time now—almost a year, which has only stoked the fires of frenzy among people looking for a chance to freak out over Justin Bieber taking off his shirt.

“This is so dumb, why are we even talking about this?” was the majority response—31 percent, or 13,200 votes—of a highly scientific BuzzFeed reader poll about the new ads, as measured at 11:24 p.m. on Tuesday night. “I, like, don’t hate it? ¯_(?)_/¯” was the runner up, with 20 percent. “No no no no” followed at 19 percent.

The photography—and/or Photoshopping—certainly has some aesthetic appeal, for people willing to embrace or at least overlook the fact that it’s Justin Bieber making a Justin Bieber face. On the other hand, Calvin Klein probably likes the fact that Justin Bieber’s face comes with 59 million Twitter followers, many of whom like Justin’s Bieber face, and might want to buy Calvin Klein jeans and underwear after looking at it.

So, all in all, it seems like a pretty good plan.

Agency life is different everywhere, of course, but mostly it’s the same. And few art projects capture the clichés and peculiarities of that existence quite like Derrick Lin’s photographs.

Lin, a brand strategist at Resource/Ammirati in Columbus, Ohio, has been taking photos over the past year of miniature figurines in typical agency situations, from the mundane to the slightly less mundane. The results are amazing: funny, beautifully crafted, oddly poignant—and relatable to people in office jobs everywhere, not just in advertising.

Lin spoke to the Daily Mail earlier this year, and explained the project this way:

I have always been fascinated by all things miniature and by small details, so it occurred to me that the miniature figures, with the contrast of their size and their lively poses, could be a great medium to express our many emotions.

In the advertising industry, every day moves fast, and sometimes it can be stressful. Our work days are never short of those little moments any agency person will immediately understand. But I realized that those moments were actually universal and that anyone who works in an office could easily relate to them.

I try to find the amusing light out of our daily frustrations, be it stress, escape or imagination. I actually start with the captions. I look for a humorous and straightforward way to visualize each idea, and then I think about how to plant the punch line alongside the picture without being too obvious.

I use my iPhone and office lighting to take the photos because I want to achieve a friendly and “everyday” style. Shortly after starting my Instagram page, I had co-workers cheering for me and volunteering to be in the pictures, they are always encouraging me to share my series with the Internet.

Check out some of his recent photos below, and the whole series on Tumblr and Instagram.

Via Design Taxi.

 
“Can’t believe we still have to come to work when it’s this cold.”

 
“Well, everyone is back in the office. Now what?”

 
“After counting the number of pitches won, campaigns released, and potential disasters avoided, we are ready to flip over the last page of the year.”

 
“Sometimes it takes a lot for ideas to be noticed.”

 
“Office holiday parties can be fun unless you happen to be an introvert.”

 
“Office fridge cleaning day.”

 
“Fetching the best ideas from our memories can be challenging some days.”

 
“We’re thankful our clients are spending quality time with their families.”

 
“Sometimes we wish the client can see what we see.”

 
“Waiting to see if we won a pitch makes time go by so slowly.”

 
“At the end of each week, it’s time to track all the work we did.”

 
“Working in advertising means we are always ready to jump in and help put out the fire.”

 
“Every vacationer knows there is a mountain of work waiting for them to come back.”

 
“Our work is subject to rigorous internal review before the client sees it.”

 
“On some days we wish there is more excitement in the office.”

UPDATE, Jan. 10: Justin Bieber’s team insists the unretouched Calvin Klein photo below, showing a scrawnier, less well-endowed Bieber, is fake. The photo was posted to BreatheHeavy.com, but after getting a cease-and-desist letter, that site has now removed it and published a retraction. “Bieber denies the photo is real, and I respect that and will believe him,” the writer says.

See our original story below:

Well, it looks like Justin Bieber’s controversial Calvin Klein ads aren’t quite what they seem.

When Bieber’s ad campaign launched earlier this week, the Internet went wild over how chiseled (and fake) his body looked next to model Lara Stone. The pop star has apparently spent years preparing for the campaign, telling Women’s Wear Daily, “It’s always been a dream. Last spring, I posted a picture on Instagram in my underwear, using the #mycalvins tag. Thankfully the brand saw it and liked the reaction it was getting, and a relationship started from there.”

Website BreatheHeavy.com has now gotten its hands on an untouched campaign and uploaded it to Instagram.

As you can see, CK bulked up the pop star’s biceps, torso, chest and ahem—package—pretty significantly. Bieber’s head was also scaled down to fit the new buffed-up body. Yes, in this campaign, Justin Bieber has less of a big head.

BreatheHeavy.com’s photo came from a source who claims Bieber was a pain to shoot the spot with. “He was basically a douche,” the source told the pop music site. “He hit on Lara several times, and she had to stop him, basically calling him out on being just a child.”

While Photoshopping is nothing new to the fashion industry, it’s come under quite a bit of scrutiny lately. In August, Modcoth vowed to do away with the photo-retouching tactic when it signed the “Heroes Pledge for Advertisers” petition. And when American Eagle-owned Aerie decided to ditch Photoshopping last year, sales went up 9 percent.