Hasta La Creative!

Luxury retailer Harvey Nichols practically swept the 2014 Cannes Lions with its last holiday campaign, which won a staggering four Grand Prix. Now the brand has returned with its highly anticipated follow-up.

Last year’s effort, “Sorry, I Spent It on Myself,” celebrated Christmas as a time to focus on the most important person in your life—yourself—while giving your loved ones some absolute rubbish gifts like gravel or office supplies. The campaign definitely had its critics, including the audience at the Cannes awards show, where it was the only ad booed by attendees.

So in the year since, has the retailer, like Ebenezer Scrooge before it, learned the true lessons of Christmas?

The new spot “Could I Be Any Clearer?”, again from agency Adam&eveDDB, features a doting niece signing a Christmas card for her dear Auntie Val, a woman who obviously loves her but unfortunately misses the mark when it comes to gift giving. (The camera pans to a puppy throw pillow, an iron and a djembe.)

She delivers the card to Auntie Val, who is thrilled by the visit and the gesture. But, of course, there’s more to it than that.

If for some reason you can’t watch the clip above and don’t mind some spoilers, here’s how it goes down: She opens the envelope to discover a Harvey Nichols greeting card, letting her know in no uncertain terms what her niece wants for Christmas (Charlotte Olympia silver Octavia sandals with a 6-inch heel, size 4 1/2—or 5, if that’s all they’ve got).

As with last year’s “Sorry, I Spent It on Myself” cheap gift collection, the brand’s self-centered holiday cards are real and available in store or customizable online. You can browse the site to find an item you want, design your card, and share it.

It’s the absolutely perfect way of letting your loved ones know just how horrible you are. But chances are, they probably already know.

Commercials about financial institutions are notoriously snooze-worthy, but Nordnet has changed it up with a fun new campaign rich in meta-humor.

The Scandinavian financial institution, operating in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, released a series of short videos poking fun at typical characteristics of banking ads.

The spot getting the most traction on YouTube features lines like, “I’m an actor, and I’ve been paid $8,000 to tell you how great Nordnet is compared to other banks,” and, “I now walk in this modern office, where I have a cup of coffee with another actor whom I’ve never met before.”

The videos have been getting great feedback on YouTube, which is surprising simply because it’s YouTube.

I especially like the spot that seems to reference Cadillac’s much-debated Poolside spot. In Nordnet’s musings on the importance of hard work, the narrator closes with, “I just get paid to tell you that Nordnet is the greatest place to save and invest in the world,” and we hear the director off screen yelling, “No, you can’t say that! You have to say ONE – OF – THE – BEST.” 

While shy-bladder sufferers debate the offensiveness of Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe, DirecTV is plowing ahead with all sorts of other less-than-ideal Rob Lowes—you know, the ones with cable and not DirecTV.

The latest disturbing specimen is Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe. And thanks to some CGI, he certainly looks like a pathetic weakling. Hopefully Grey New York at some point will have time to do a digital composite of all the subpar Rob Lowes, and we’ll get to have a look at Creepy Less Attractive Painfully Awkward Crazy Hairy Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe.

CREDITS
Client: DirecTV
Spot: “Scrawny Arms”
Agency: Grey, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher
Group Creative Director: Doug Fallon
Group Creative Director: Steven Fogel
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff, Amy Rosen
Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky, Eddie Mele
Strategy: Michelle Leo
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Supervisor: Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editorial Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld, Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor: Ryan Steele & Mike Rizzo, Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer + Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer, Mackenzie Cutler
VFX: Method Studios, NY
VFX Supervisor: Jay Hawkins, Method Studios
VFX Producer: Carlos Herrera & Christa Cox, Method Studios
Casting (OCP): Francine Selkirk, Shooting From the Hip
Casting (VO): Nina Pratt and Jerry Saviola, Avenue 3 Casting

Most tweets have a shelf life shorter than a fourth down on the goal line, but a few hundred Emmitt Smith fans will be keeping their tweets around for a good long time.

To help promote Comcast Xfinity’s live sports coverage by “re-imagining the sports autograph experience,” Goodby, Silverstein & Partners arranged a Twitter event Monday night, when the legendary running back signed printed banners made from real tweets.

The #SignMyTweet hashtag was used more than 3,100 times, according to Goodby reps, and about 400 were signed. The printouts will be mailed to the fans. 

The highlight was definitely Smith’s signing of a marriage proposal, which (thankfully for all involved) ended in a yes:

@XFINITYSports @papasmurf2014 Oh there was no question! She definitely said yes!

— Dawn Littke (@Mama_Smurf_85) November 25, 2014

(Sure, we could skeptically note that her account is brand new and therefore the whole thing could be fake, but it’s not unreasonable to think she would have created a Twitter account after Emmitt signed his name across a tweet about her.)

A few other highlights:

Favorite @EmmittSmith22 #SignMyTweet moments 4) @JustJaymess establishing his candidacy for ‘Brother of the Year’ pic.twitter.com/tJRusgzAFk

— XFINITY Sports (@XFINITYSports) November 26, 2014

PROBABLY THE LUCKIEST DAY OF MY LIFE LOL JUST WON AN EMMITT SMITH AUTOGRAPHED TWEET #SignMyTweet @EmmittSmith22 pic.twitter.com/hi19oljLL3

— Cam’Ron Perkins (@DREAMCHASER_336) November 25, 2014

It’s on! Signing Tweets for the next 2hr with @XFINITYSports Tweet us with #SignMyTweet & I could sign yours! http://t.co/tHeeNqU1zI #ad

— Emmitt Smith (@EmmittSmith22) November 25, 2014

Old Spice this week unveiled “Dadsong,” its second lunatic 60-second musical via Wieden + Kennedy—the sequel to the award-winning “Momsong” from a year ago. Clearly, the music on a commercial like this isn’t just an important component—it’s the main component, around which everything revolves.

AdFreak caught up with Sara Matarazzo, owner of music company Walker, which coordinated the scoring and recording of the music, to ask how it all came together.

AdFreak: What was the brief for “Dadsong”?
Sara Matarazzo: We worked on the “Momsong” campaign, so the idea for this one was to create the second single off the “album.” The challenge was to create a track as good as the first while keeping the campaign consistent and cohesive.

Sara Matarazzo

How is “Dadsong” different from “Momsong,” creatively?
The key difference with “Dadsong” is that we introduced a new perspective to the story. We needed to juxtapose the moms’ feelings with the dads’ through the music. The main melody of “Momsong” was written in an unusually low female vocal range, which contributed to our purposefully homely performances. However, “Dadsong” utilizes a more traditional female range in order to allow the full male register to shine through. The new arrangement of voices helped accentuate that back and forth and allowed us to build the song up to a bigger climactic moment with voices hitting notes all over the pitch spectrum.

Walk us through the creative process.
We worked with Bret McKenzie and Mickey Petralia from Flight of the Conchords on board to compose the music. We have worked with Bret and Mickey on several ads over the years, so this was a nice reunion. We actually wanted to work with him on the first Old Spice spot but he was busy writing music for Muppets Most Wanted [following his Oscar-winning work on 2011’s The Muppets]. I told him, “We have the perfect campaign for you,” and he was available. Of course, he nailed it.

The process started with Bret and I going back and forth with the creatives at the agency to refine the music, melody, chords and arc. When we got to a place where the team was happy, Old Spice gave us the green light and production on the spot began in Prague with director Andreas Nilsson. Once we had rough picture, our music producer Abbey Hickman worked on [voice] casting with the agency to match our actors. Walker engineer Graeme Gibson oversaw working with our casting and creating demos to show all the possibilities and different directions our vocals could be, which helped to choose our favorite takes and piece together the elements. After the singers and musicians were selected, we went to Vancouver to direct and final record with them.

Musically, the spot feels a bit like the end of a big musical, when the entire cast does the last song. Is that something that was mentioned?
Yes, that was a reference. Mainstream musical theater nowadays is largely based off the past century of popular music (except for Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown musicals). Take Spring Awakening or Mama Mia, for instance. Both infuse contemporary rock and pop styles with dramatic content to be more relevant to the modern musical watcher … and sell more tickets. Furthermore, the most passionate songs in a musical are the numbers that bookend the acts and those songs usually utilize the entire cast. “Dadsong” is like the end of one of these musical numbers because it’s passionate, dramatic, musically modern and features a large ensemble.

Which particular musical styles or genres is the spot based on?
Classic rock ballads and operatic recitative.

How is working on a project like this different from other ads you do?
These spots are special because we are involved not just in post but from the beginning of the job and throughout the process. You collaborate on ideas that end up in the campaign. Music can be subjective and go through many mutations, but with this campaign, the song and the spot are one and the same.

Wieden + Kennedy recently created a pretty incredible out-of-home tourism installation for Travel Portland: the tallest freestanding cuckoo clock in the U.S.

Chainsaw sculptor J. Chester Armstrong carved the clock, made from a single Oregon maple, in the national forest just outside Portland. It took three months to make—with help from metal sculptor Nicolas Gros, clock designer/gear consultant Laurent Worme, electronics consultant Mark Keppinger, and local illustrator Patrick Long (who did the illustrations for the clock face). The clock features references to a number of Portland icons—Mt. Hood, Portlandia, beer, wine, bikers, farmers markets, roses, rivers, bridges and even Sasquatch.

W+K recently took the clock—which thematically ties into the “Portland Is Happening Now” campaign—to Seattle and Vancouver for tourism events in those cities. Every hour on the hour, hand-painted, wood-carved miniatures appear when the clock chimes. The events also featured “Portland-themed surprises, like coffee and donuts, a poet reading, a comedian performance, a tax-free tea party and naked bike riders,” the agency says.

The clock is 24.1 feet tall by 9.5 feet wide and weighs more than three tons. W+K is now looking for an indoor location in Portland to house the clock through the winter months. Check out more images below, all courtesy of the Portland Oregon Visitors Association/Travel Portland.

CREDITS
Client: Travel Portland
Project: “Portland Is Happening Now”

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Hal Curtis / Antony Goldstein / Jeff Gillete
Copywriter: Becca Wadlinger / Jared Elms / Ian Fairbrother
Art Director: Nate Nowinowksi
Designer: Patrick Nistler / Cassandra Swan
Media Team: Wieden + Kennedy
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Media/Comms Planning: Stephanie Ehui
Strategic Planning: Lisa Prince
Account Team: Ken Smith / Kristin Postill
Production: Byron Oshiro / Kristin Holder / Heather Hanrahan
Project Manager: Danna Dolich / Shannon Hutchinson
Studio Manager: Abby Marten
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff

Event Partners
Social Agency: Edelman Digital
Public Relations Agency: Lane PR
Digital Agency: Rally Group
Event Producer: Sue Cool

Design & Construction Team
Project leader and metal sculptor: Nicolas Gros (Nico),
Chainsaw carving: J. Chester Armstrong
Clock and gears design development / consultant: Laurent Worme
Microprocessor and pneumatic consultant: David Butts
Electronic consultant: Mark Keppinger
Welder: Cameron Visconty
Lead Carpenter: Matt Sykes
Fabricator: James Harrison
Lighting and carpentry assistant: Julia Zell
Carpenter: Dave Laubenthal
Sign paint: Ardis Defreece
Miniatures and Clock Face Painting: José Solis

Behold! The lowest of the low-budget hidden-camera pranks has been created for discount retailer Ocean State Job Lot, and it is steeped in local commercial magic.

The chain, with 116 stores in the northeast, hired MMB in Boston to make this spectacle whose meager production budget perfectly matched the message that the store is committed to low prices. In fact, if they had spent much more, the video wouldn’t have been nearly as good.

In the clip, several bewildered customers are given the option to go on an Adventure Quest to win a heater. It starts when they ring a bell and get a blast of fake snow to the face. Then, Old Man Winter, a character from OSJL’s TV spot, tells them that Santa has been captured by the wicked Markup King (the guy who works at the mall) and they need to set him free.

Setting him free and winning the heater, however, involves an obstacle course with light-string barbed-wire, wreath tires to run through, a snowball catapult, and more fake snow to the face while a mildly deranged elf named TutTut does her shrillest drill sergeant impression.

Once through the course, they’re led to what is clearly the employee room, welcomed by Santa and forced to search the mailbox block/advent calendar and get more snow in the face before Santa’s true game is revealed!

And of course, there are lots of trumpets. Because everyone loves trumpets.

Lots of agencies do interesting things for new hires—like Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners, which has been known to carve their faces into the heads of crayons.

McGarrah Jessee in Austin, Texas, did something quite a bit more grandiose for Elliot Nordstrom’s first day. See, he is the agency’s 100th employee, which called for quite the celebration. Check out the video below.

The agency explains: “When we founded McGarrah Jessee 18 years ago, we were clear on what mattered: a uniquely productive and collaborative work culture. That meant slow and careful growth, adding the right people at the right time. Today, we added our 100th McJer at just the right time and thought it was fitting to celebrate that milestone with a twist on our usual new-hire orientation.”

Ever wonder what Harry Potter would do with an ad campaign? Have a look at this.

The Quebec City Magic Festival wanted to make sure people noticed its billboard, so ad agency lg2 sprinkled a little magic into the board itself in a playful feat of meta-vertising.

Take a look below at “Magic Mop,” a delightful little document of this whimsical stunt. And unlike regular magicians, they even reveal their secrets at the end.

CREDITS
Quebec City Magic Festival
Advertising Agency: Lg2, Quebec City
Creative Director / Copywriter: Luc Du Sault
Art Director: Vincent Bernard
Illustrators: David Boivin, Vincent Bernard, Marc Rivest
Accountant: Eve Boucher
Agency Producer: Julie Pichette
Director: David Poulin
Production House: Nova Film
Producer: Dominik Beaulieu
Engineer: Sébastien Bolduc

In this holiday spot from Dick’s Sporting Goods, part of the chain’s “Gifts That Matter” campaign, a father buys his young daughter a basketball hoop, presumably for Christmas. Through the years, it becomes part of the family’s daily life and a focus of neighborhood activity during pickup games, parties and even bittersweet goodbyes.

There’s a basic truth at the core of the minute-long clip that makes it especially appealing and, for most, I assume, instantly relatable. We all have certain possessions, which often enter our lives as gifts during childhood, that play important though at times almost invisible roles in our development. At best, these things help us mature and can shape our outlook about the world and ourselves. Sometimes they simply provide a few minutes of happy diversion when we’re feeling down.

Such connections are especially strong when the items in question are sports-related, owing to the physical nature of games and the shared experience they provide.

Given this dynamic, the commercial, well directed in montage style by Jake Scott through RSA Films, can’t avoid some sentimentality. Even so, when it comes to illustrating the transcendent, transformative power of gifts that really matter, this spot’s all net.