Hasta La Creative!

If you find yourself with a few extra minutes each morning, you can now watch a man pretending to be a cranky, salty Jewish grandmother offer you online weather forecasts that are significantly more insane than those on the morning news.

Actor David Krumholtz and the producers behind the new website, Weather From, present Gigi, a character who will tell you, for example, that New York’s forecast is mild and cloudy, a type of weather that the Nazis used to call “Please don’t have sex with your mother.”

In other words, Gigi says whatever she wants to say, without much concern for political correctness or basic decorum.

There are 35 different videos corresponding to various forecasts, and a search tool that lets you get an accurate reading on any location, as provided by the National Weather Service, with commentary from Gigi.

The videos are jam packed with sexual innuendo, outright filth and some racially tinged attempts at humor. Gigi complains in one clip that her son’s black girlfriend’s name, Variola, sounds like part of a vagina. In reality, Variola is the Latin name for smallpox. (While Gigi never spells the name out explicitly, it’s hard to mistake the phonetics.)

She’s equal opportunity offensive, or maybe just dumb, or maybe just addled—in another clip (68 degrees and raining) confusing whether the Chinese, Japanese or Koreans bombed Pearl Harbor on June 6, 1944 (which was D-Day, not the date of the attack on Hawaii).

In other words, it’s more about making fun of Gigi’s stereotype than about getting the weather—and it is not for the faint of heart.

Krumholtz, who’s had roles in CBS’s Numbers and the Harold and Kumar trilogy, introduces Gigi in a clip of his own (posted below), saying he based the character in part on his own grandmother, and other grandmothers from around the world.

Or you can get the intro from Gigi, who in the promo above shows off the makeup job that renders Krumholtz unrecognizable, and cracks a few jokes at Mark Zuckerberg’s expense.

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Artist and barista Gabriel Nkweti Lafitte, who works at the Starbucks across from the British Museum in London, has been taking some pretty awesome liberties with the chain’s “name on a cup” policy for dispensing coffee to customers.

Lafitte incorporates lucky customers’ names into hand-drawn line art on their cups, and some of the designs—which are as inventive and detailed as anything I’ve seen out of a proper design shop—take him up to 40 hours to complete.

I don’t know what his original system was for deciding who got special art cups, but right now he only takes requests (and he’s swamped). Starbucks, which tells Metro U.K. “it’s fantastic how he takes our iconic cup design and makes it his own,” should just commission Lafitte to do a line of ceramic mugs before another company figures out that he’s way too talented to be slinging iced coffees all day.

Check out some of our favorites below and a full gallery on his Facebook page.

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Kingsford Charcoal cooks up some strawmen in this ad from DDB California mocking the high-tech features of today’s newest gas grills, which it dismisses as the playthings of lonely cyberchefs. 

“The Social Grill” centers on the X4 Platinum, a fictional example of voice-activated, selfie-taking, photo-sharing patio gear. As the grill owner fumbles with the machine, his neighbor’s guests look on judgmentally, despite the fact that lighting a grill with a smartphone app would actually be pretty cool.   

Making fun of neighbors who put too much stock in costly gadgets is a trusty old saw in the advertising world, but surely there’s something Kingsford could have done to make its “heroes” a bit more likable? Maybe at least offer the guy a beer and a burger?

Who’s being antisocial now?

CREDITS
Client: Kingsford Charcoal
Agency: DDB California
Group Creative Director: Jim Bosiljevac
Art Director: Tim Stier
Copywriter: Todd Taber
Producer: Bryan Holt
Director: Rick LeMoine
Prod. Comp: Moxie Pictures
Editor: Chan Hacher
Music: Stock Music, N/A

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Stumped for a last-minute Memorial Day getaway destination? Travelocity created a fun Twitter game that might be able to help.

Starting at this tweet, you can interact with the @RoamingGnome by clicking your answer to a series of choose-your-own adventure questions that ultimately generate a recommendation for one of 10 destinations.

Ever the lazy, cheap contrarian, I initially chose “Stay Home” and found myself staring into the gnome’s “disappointed face.” Those sad, presumably ceramic eyes will haunt my dreams. 

When I selected West, but nixed a Vegas gambling spree, the gnome grew a tad impatient and asked, “What WOULD make you squeal with joy?” Eventually my ideal #MemorialDayRoam was found to be Dallas, where I’m told “giant steaks await.”

Wherever you end up roaming this weekend, hopefully you won’t suffer the fate outlined in this week’s other entertaining Twitter game and wake up in a rat-infested prison cell.

@ThisIsStep1 You’ve got a 3day weekend to go anywhere, ready? ?http://t.co/kqqgEyZcNe ?http://t.co/9CxwMZBCG0 ?http://t.co/OyF4bNlVkt

— Travelocity Gnome (@RoamingGnome) May 19, 2014

Via Adrants.

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Beck's recently made an unorthodox contribution to New Zealand's Music Month by unveiling a touch-activated street poster that lets passers-by play or even remix tracks from local musicians.

The posters are made with conductive ink and special sensors that react to human touch like an iPad screen would, with audio coming from a rear-mounted speaker. Most of the music provided is feckless indie rock, but it's a nationally sponsored music festival, so no one should be expecting Meth Drinker or anything.

The posters were a collaborative effort between Novalia and the Shine agency, and one of the posters has been put up for auction to benefit the New Zealand Music Foundation. You may recall that Beck's came up with a playable beer bottle last year, which makes me wonder if Beck's has a hidden agenda to make music come out of anything. If so, I eagerly await the singing toilet seat.

Red alert! William Shatner is back as Priceline's Negotiator, delivering the first "online commencement speech for online universities" in this spot from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners.

"Your diploma isn't just some PDF that you print out and frame," Shatner says, sporting a tasseled cap and hamming it up in his signature style for nearly two minutes. "I know that we've set the bar very high by saving travelers dolla dolla bills on Priceline.com, but I am confident that you can join me in the World Wide Web's Hall of Fame."

The ad was directed by agency creative director Steve Mapp, who tells AdFreak the spot had the perfect setup for Shatner: "The Priceline Negotiator epitomizes Internet greatness, so giving an online commencement speech to celebrate others achieving it was a no brainer, not to mention timely for graduation season. It's always best to go in with a lot of stuff for Shatner to riff off of and make his own. And sometimes its good to throw in lines that are unexpected, like 'dolla dolla bills.'"

There's also a brief Star Trek reference which, Mapp quips, "pays homage to Shatner's second most famous role."

Sure, it's just more of Bill's predictably silly schtick. But that's why he'll always be my captain. I'll never tire of watching him boldly go where he's gone before.

Up for grabbing some Arby's? No? Would a 13-hour TV commercial change your mind?

The fast-food chain is cooking up a record-breaking TV buy promoting its Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich, which viewers will be able to watch prepared in real time as the brisket cooks low and slow in a Texas smoker for more than a dozen hours.

The spot will only air on one station in Duluth, Minnesota.

According to The New York Times, the ad begins with the brisket being loaded into a smoker equipped with an internal light. Then it just sits there and cooks. Finally, half a day later, any viewers still tuned in will see the arms of Arby's chef Neville Craw as he removes the brisket, slices it and compiles it into a sandwich with some gouda, fried onions and barbecue sauce.

The ad will reportedly begin at 1 p.m. Central this Saturday on MyNetworkTV affiliate My9, but those of us outside Duluth will also have a one-time-only chance to watch the meaty magic when it's streamed on 13HourBrisket.com from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, May 28.

Once complete, the ad will have secured a Guinness World Record currently held by Nivea, which ran a (now paltry in comparison) 60-minute ad in Switzerland in 2011.

Banana Boat for Men is putting sunscreen in terms guys can understand, with words like "bacon" and "nap."

You, lazy pig that you are, will turn into crispy pork parts if you fall asleep in the sun—but only if you don't use the brand's product, says one spot in a new series of four.

Each spot from JWT in New York is tightly written and neatly shot. One, for example, packs in a charming little cut of a tortoise, while urging you to be bold. Small freedoms are the common thread. Banana Boat's "Triple Defense" offering will also protect your bald spot while you're golfing hatless, and your beer gut while you're riding your lawn mower shirtless, and your hairy elbow while you're hanging it out the window driving through the desert, because you want to do all those things.

That is to say, it claims it will keep you safe from sunburn, at least, and from smelling bad, and from dry skin. Unlike some other sunscreens, however, it will not put your kids on an electronic leash, or teach your tattoo artist to check you for signs of skin cancer.

CREDITS

Agency: JWT, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Sarah Barclay, Robert Frost
Creative Directors: Billy Faraut, Garth Horn
Chief Creative Officer, North America: Jeff Benjamin
Planner: Hayley Parker
Head of Production: Lisa Setten
Senior Producer: Mustafa Imam
Producer: Rebecca Wilmer
Project Manager: Jennifer Schockett
Art Buyer: Bianca Escobar
Account Team: Claire Capeci, Ariel Stern, Erik Wagner, Julia Nawrocki, Stella Continanza
Client Team: John D’Alessandro, Minna Raffin, Carla Luca, Jennifer Yomoah, Jeff Chapman, Joseph Klicsu
Director: D.A.D.D.Y.
Production Company: MaryAnn Productions
Postproduction: 1st Ave Machine
Editing House: Rock Paper Scissors
Media Agency: MEC
 

Lest you were worried that Axe had given up on dumb bro antics, the brand is reaching for a new low by putting the sweat of its employees on little pieces of paper and claiming those sweaty pieces of paper will help those employees get laid.

The "Pheromone Business Cards" campaign, created by Union in Toronto, shows Axe "associates"—aka, bros—excreting into headbands before lab techs "distill" each dude's body juice into "a concentrated solution," hopefully also including some kind of scent other than musk, and then drop it onto said business cards, which openly declare that they are, for example, "infused with the essence of Kyle."

Of course, the "essence of Kyle" sounds like something even more gross than sweat, but of course that's the point.

If the video is any indication, there are no women working at Axe—and if they're are, they're female lab techs who are also expected to find the men they're helping irresistible, and take them in back to show them a good time, because duh, that's the way Axe works, and more or less always has.

What is surprising, though, is the idea that Axe thinks its target would identify with business cards in the first place, since all the kids are probably just fist-bumping their phones or Facebook-ing to trade info nowadays anyways.

Or, you know, just meeting on Tinder in the first place.

CREDITS
Client: Axe
Project: Pheromone Business Cards
Agency: Union, Toronto, Canada
Executive Creative Director: Lance Martin
Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Glen D'Souza
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Mike Takasaki
Agency Producer: Julie Riley
Account Director: Kimberlee McCormack
Account Manager: Rhiannon Enss
Science Advisor: Rudolf Furrer

Video Credits
Agency Producers: Grace Lee, Jennifer Dark
Director: Joshua Chaiton, Touchpoint Films
Editor: Aaron Dark, School Editing
Audio: Brad Nelson, Cylinder Sound

In the weeks since the Omnicom and Publicis Groupe megamerger fell apart, many have been asking why such a problematic union was proposed in the first place. Well now we know: It was all another agency's elaborate marketing stunt.

In an entertaining parody case study, Fred & Farid Group takes full credit for the "Omnipub" merger, an idea hatched to highlight just how far holding companies would go in their quest for world domination.

"Why not organize an epic fail with two giants? Instead of the usual David against Goliath, we made a Goliath against Goliath story. We created … 'The Impossible Wedding.'"

Setting events in motion like a Shakespearean villain, Paris-based Fred & Farid says it forged letters between Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Lévy, making each think the other was on board with the merger. Then the pranksters sat back and watched the hilarity ensue.

Like any good case study, #Omnipub includes some impressive metrics: 24,000 mentions, 500,000 media impressions and $100 million in wasted fees (quoted from our own coverage here at Adweek). 

So congrats to Fred & Farid for pulling off one truly epic viral prank. You got us!