May 05

Brands Are Out in Force With Intergalactic Tributes for Star Wars Day

Posted in: Uncategorized

A long time ago in a brand galaxy far, far away…

May the Fourth be with you. Perhaps news of the cast of the newest installment in the Star Wars saga sitting down for a table read is getting nerds super excited, or maybe it's that there's really no political or religious connotation to this "holiday," but brand participation in Star Wars Day was hard to miss on Sunday. 

Either way, the force was strong, as many, many brands joined in on Twitter. From ridiculous (awesome) puns to visual metaphors, there were several clever entries as well as a few half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herders. (Of note: Nerf's absence from the list.)

Impressive, brands. Most impressive. But you're not a Jedi yet.

 
• NASA

 
• Frapuccino

 
• Airheads

 
• Nokia USA

 
• Nissan USA

 
• The Vitamine Shoppe

 
• Powers Whiskey

 
• Miller Lite

 
• Vans

 
• Lego

 
• Dove Men+Care

 
• KFC

 
• Pei-Wei

 
• Totino's

 
• Dr Pepper

 
• Pillsbury

 
• Subway

 
• United

 
• Delta

 
• Oreo

 
• Macy's

 
• Cinnabon

 
• Sears

 
• Whole Foods

 
• Toys R Us

 
• Dairy Queen

 
• Cap'n Crunch

 
• Lucky Charms

 
• Betty Crocker

 
• Carbonite

 
• Café Bustelo

 
• Coffee-mate

• Applebee's

 




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May 02

Who’s Your Daddy? Definitely Not Scooter the Neutered Cat

Posted in: Uncategorized

When it comes to PSAs about controlling the pet population, most of us have come to expect well-intentioned lectures from the likes of Bob Barker. 

Enter Scooter, the neutered cat, ironic love child of Barney Miller and Shaft. He's the coolest cat on the block, ya jive turkey, with "hip spectacles, no testicles." What this pimp-ass cat lacks in testicular payload, he makes up for in spunk.

This spot from givethemten.org and agency Northlich/Cincinnati aims to educate humans about the cat population with directions to spay and neuter clinics, adoption information and a kitty cam.

As their website states, "The cat is America’s favorite pet. At 73 million vs. 68 million, house cats outnumber pet dogs. Yet an additional 70 million cats are without a home due to overpopulation and lack of spay/neuter. Most of those 70 million will never find a home."

Who's your daddy? It's certainly not Scooter, even though this tomcat is definitely getting busy with all the particularly gussied-up female felines. 

CREDITS

Client: GiveThemTen.org
Spot Title: "Scooter" (:30)
First Airdate: April 28, 2014
Agency: Northlich/Cincinnati
Producer: Diane Frederick
Creative Director: Kerry Broderick
Art Director: Laura Gels
Copywriter: Terry Dillon
Production Company: Superlounge
Director: Jordan Brady
Director of Photography: Wyatt Troll
Executive Producer: Dave Farrell
Postproduction: Red Echo Post
Music: Circa Music




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May 02

The World Cup Is All Anyone Wants to Talk About in ESPN’s New Ad

Posted in: Uncategorized

If World Cup fever is getting to you, well, you're not alone.

This new 30-second spot from Wieden + Kennedy in New York, shot mostly in New York, shows American soccer fans talking obsessively about their team—and not just the American team, but their national teams of their ancestral homelands. The tagline is: "Every 4 years the conversation starts again."

The ad uses real U.S.-based soccer fans, including a German butcher, an Italian barber and a cabbie from the Ivory Coast. These guys are passionate.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the pessimistic Englishman, who feels like a punch line (of course this guy's a downer) as he mentions penalty kicks toward the end of the spot.

ESPN has also unveiled the first posters from what will be a series of 32—one for each team—designed by Brazilian artist and graphic designer Cristiano Siqueira. Check those out below, too, and get excited for the tournament, which runs from June 12 to July 13.




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May 02

New Invention Creates Aromatic Bubbles That Can Be Branded in Flight

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SensaBubble sounds (and looks) like something Wile E. Coyote would use in his Sisyphean pursuit of the Road Runner, but it's actually a real idea that could become a popular new toy among marketers and event planners.

Developed by a team at the University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science (which explains the intense jargon in the video below), SensaBubble creates bubbles filled with a scented fog, then blows them into the air. 

When popped, the bubbles release aromatic puffs that linger in the air. Marketers will appreciate that the system also lets you project images and logos onto the bubbles as they fly around the room. If used in moderation, this idea could definitely be a dream for certain brand categories (air fresheners, fragrances, etc.) and a nightmare for people who have to cover their noses while sprinting through the perfume section of a department store.

Via PSFK.




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May 02

Oregon Agency Responds to HBO Skit: ‘Yes, John Oliver, We Are Stupid F*cking Idiots’

Posted in: Uncategorized

When John Oliver mercilessly skewers an ad because the taxpayer-funded product it promoted flopped, what's the agency that created the ad to do?

One option would be to ignore it. Another would be to write a lengthy public defense.

Some background: Last year, Portland, Ore., shop North launched a campaign to promote Oregon's healthcare exchange, Cover Oregon. Last week, Cover Oregon shut down its $200 million website after failing to get it working properly. On Sunday, Oliver—in his first HBO show—took the effort to task, using the most twee of North's music-themed ads as the lightning rod. The parody, hilarious and scathing, went so far as to bring in Lisa Loeb to sing about "stupid Oregon idiots," while a set behind her reads "You Fucking Idiots."

Yesterday, North chief creative officer Mark Ray responded in a blog post titled, "Yes, John Oliver, We Are Stupid Fucking Idiots." It's worth reading in full, but among the core arguments are that North had nothing to do with the website, the ad was one of a diverse group, and the campaign was effective in its purpose—raising awareness of the site.

Those are all reasonable, substantive points, and Ray's indignation on the whole is proudly and skillfully communicated, even as it devolves into defensiveness that a good-faith effort was met with such vicious ridicule.

Unfortunately, all of that is sort of besides the point—insofar as the point was for John Oliver to be funny without particular concern for substance or nuance. North's commercial, which leaned into an Oregon stereotype, was simply manna from heaven in that regard—a perfectly packaged device for illustrating the state's ineptitude in delivering a functioning website. Cheap shot or not, the joke connected.

Ray's response, meanwhile, may actually fuel the fire, tying the agency directly to Oliver's routine (which mentioned only the ad, not the creator, though there's certainly been plenty of ink spilled on its provenance). Indeed, it reads like performance art. And while the campaign itself may be a classic case of good advertising helping to kill a bad product, it's a probably rarer case of good advertising helping to make a good TV skit.

As frustrating as the reality of the exchange's failure may be, John Oliver probably couldn't have done his bit half as well without North.

Via Willamette Week.




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May 02

Each Page of This ‘Drinkable Book’ Is a Water Filter That Removes Deadly Bacteria

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Drinking is fundamental.

With that thought in mind, DDB New York and Water Is Life have authored a Drinkable Book that not only educates at-risk populations on sanitation and hygiene, but also provides a means to purify contaminated water.

The pages are coated with microscopic particles of silver. When water passes through, more than 99 percent of harmful bacteria—like cholera, E. coli and typhoid—are destroyed, and the resulting liquid is safe to drink. Theresa Dankovich, a chemist, invented the paper. The text, printed in food-quality ink, provides basic safety information, such as reminders to keep trash and feces away from water supplies. The filter paper costs pennies to produce, and a single book can provide a person with drinkable water for up to four years.

DDB and Water Is Life have teamed up before on notable humanitarian efforts. These include an award-winning campaign that saw impoverished Haitians read actual tweets that people jokingly marked with the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag, and "Kenya Bucket List," which focused on what third-world kids hope to accomplish in their lives.

The Drinkable Book is a refreshingly creative (but practical) approach that marks a new chapter in combining communications with real-world action, a direction also championed by the Peruvian billboards that generate clean air and water.

Via Devour.




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May 01

Coldplay Hides Lyrics From New Album Inside Libraries in 9 Countries

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In a kind of low-fi version of Jay-Z's celebrated Decoded outdoor campaign, Coldplay has been promoting its new album, Ghost Stories, with a worldwide scavenger hunt—hiding lyric sheets in Chris Martin's handwriting inside ghost stories in libraries around the world.

Clues were given out on Twitter. The lyrics were hidden in nine different countries, one for each song on the record. Eight of the sheets have been found—in Mexico, Singapore, Finland, Spain, England, New Zealand, Ireland and the U.S.

Coldplay.com has details of each discovery.

@ynikyonc found the U.S. lyric sheet inside a copy of Jeff Belanger's Who's Haunting the White House at the New York Public Library.

The final clue was posted today, hinting at South Africa.

One of the hidden envelopes also contained a "Golden Ticket," good for a trip for two to London to see Coldplay perform at the Royal Albert Hall on July 1.




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May 01

Pantene Philippines Takes Its Battle for Gender Equality to Facebook

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In December, a powerful Pantene Philippines ad went viral, with each scene depicting a gender double standard. The goal was to address labels in the workplace, and the campaign has been running strong ever since.

In the Philippines, where patriarchy is still certainly the norm, Pantene is using social media to continue to challenge the status quo. The Facebook page hardly looks like most brand pages. There's less product display than you'd expect from a personal care brand, and there are plenty of photos addressing roles and gender bias, all with the hashtag #whipit.

Some display surprising statistics about women in the workplace and society—many of them suggesting women are accepting of the inequality—with a simple piece of copy underneath: "Together we can overcome bias."

Pantene is also posting photos directly related to the December spot about labels. Each photo shows a negative word often aimed at women—some in English, some in Tagalog, varying from "whiny" to "weak" to "attention whore"—with a caption ending in "Don't let labels hold you back."




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May 01

UTEC Follows Up Billboard That Created Drinking Water With One That Cleans the Air

Posted in: Uncategorized

Peru is in the middle of a construction boom that generates a lot of unhealthy pollution. Peruvian engineering university UTEC and its ad agency, FCB Mayo, decided to create an air-purifying billboard designed to mitigate the environmental damage the school causes as it builds a new campus.

The billboard has the added advantage of promoting the new campus, boosted by the claim that the school will help students learn how to do things like create billboards that filter about 100,000 cubic meters of clean air a day, reaching as far as five blocks away and equivalent to what some 1,200 trees would do.

The environmentally friendly campaign is part of a tried-and-true strategy for UTEC and FCB Mayo. Last year they famously created a billboard that helped address a rainfall shortage in Lima by converting atmospheric humidity into clean drinking water. (That work earned numerous accolades, including Adweek's Isaac Gravity Award and a gold Lion in Outdoor at Cannes.)

The new one is a welcome follow-up, possibly even more powerful—though perhaps less so—as it addresses a problem the school helped create. In fact, the thing that may be most wrong with it is that it makes every other billboard in the world look bad by comparison.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: UTEC
Managing Directors: Carlos Heeren, Jessica Rúas
Marketing Supervisor: Denise Dianderas

Agency: FCB Mayo
Chief Creative Officer: Humberto Polar
Creative Director: Juan Donalisio
Copywriters: Rafael García, Renato Farfán
Art Director: Keni Mezarina
Account Director: Valeria Malone Lo Presti
Production Team: Geoffrey Yahya, Juan Pablo Ezeta, Rodrigo Tovar

Media: BPN/Media Connection
General Manager: Gloria Herrera
Media Planners: Rafael Gutiérrez, Jessica Arizmendi

Plan B (Case Study Video)
Design Director: Kurt Gastulo
Editor: Alex Ocaña

La Sonora
Audio Producers: Alonso Del Carpio, Willy Wong

All Awards (Case consultant)
Senior Consultant: Juan Christmann




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May 01

Coke’s Recyling-Themed Arcade Game Accepts Empty Bottles Instead of Money

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Would more people recycle if the process were actually fun? Coca-Cola and agency Grey Dhaka tried to answer that question by placing six "Happiness Arcade" machines around Dhaka, Bangladesh.

But these aren't just your run-of-the-mill video games. Unlike 2010's "Happiness Machines" these do not vend the soft drink itself; instead they work the opposite way, accepting empty soda bottles and rewarding the user with a turn playing a Pong-like game. 

As you can see in the video below, the stunt drew quite a crowd, despite the relatively simplistic game. (I mean, when was the last time Pong made you grab a grown man and lift him off the ground in celebration?)

All told, the project collected thousands of bottles at six locations, which might not have a huge impact itself on a place as populous as Bangladesh, but the brand believes the effort helped by "making a case for recycling one game at a time."

Via Gizmodo and Design Taxi.

UPDATE: Some commenters have noted the idea is similar to Volkswagen's "Bottle Bank Arcade" created by DDB Stockholm in 2009. Here's how that one worked:




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Apr 30

Celebrities Join White House PSA Against Sexual Assault

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The White House has issued a new PSA empowering people to stand up against sexual assault as part of its "1 Is 2 Many" campaign.

Seeing President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and some of Hollywood's elite (Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Steve Carrell, Dule Hill and Seth Meyers) speak out against sexual assault is heartwarming, and hopefully the use of celebrities—and maybe our collective fascination with celebrity culture—will help this message spread.

Watch the PSA and you’ll take note of how it is carefully worded: "If she doesn't consent, or if she can't consent, it's rape, it's assault, it's a crime." The important distinction of whether someone can consent is thankfully highlighted, as many sexual assaults happen while the victim is drugged, drunk, passed out or otherwise incapacitated.

The PSA also emphasizes that if you see something happening you should do something (which, duh!) and that the victim shouldn’t be blamed. "If I saw something happening," says Craig, aka Mr. James Bond, "I'd help her. I'd never blame her."




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Apr 30

Pornhub Marks Arbor Day by Planting a Tree for Every 100 Big-Wood Videos Watched

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This Arbor Day season, Pornhub has found a new way to celebrate its commitment to giving America wood.

The adult site says it will plant a tree for every 100 videos watched in the site's "Big Dick" category. The "Pornhub Gives America Wood" promotion (landing page is porn-free) is part of an ongoing safe-for-work approach to marketing that has helped broaden Pornhub's buzz.

Recently, AdFreak covered Pornhub’s SFW amateur advertising contest, a witty repository of wink-wink-nudge-nudge visual puns.

But Pornhub is still fairly new to these kinds of promotions. For example, right now there's no telling where the trees are going. Not wanting to be premature, the site hasn’t chosen a partner to actually plant the trees (more than 13,000 of which have already been earned). Once this limited-time offer is over, Pornhub will choose among Arbor Day Foundation, Trees for the Future and American Forests.

You only have until midnight on May 2 to contribute, so if you love the earth, you better get to work getting off as soon as you get off work.




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Apr 29

Lego Ad’s Little Darth Vader Is Less Charming and Cute and More Completely Evil

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I never thought Lego would officially recognize how sharp its products are, but this ad for the Star Wars playset series does exactly that—with help from the dark side of the Force.

Little Vaders, of course, have a history of advertising success, though here the Sith Lord is somewhat less charming as he ruins a father's clandestine midnight snack run.




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Apr 29

GE’s New Videos of Stuff Getting Smashed at Its Testing Facility Are Totally Mesmerizing

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I don't care how cool you think your job is, because you will never be as awesome as the person at GE who gets to push the button that smashes the crap out of things with 100,000 pounds of pressure.

This series of videos from VaynerMedia, part of a new "#SpringBreakIt" campaign, feature ordinary objects like baseballs, rubber duckys, sea shells and pencils getting crushed and wind-blasted. The footage is downright fascinating and all done in the name of science. 

As the brand's Tumblr (with perfect little gifs) states: "On April 23rd we opened our laboratory doors to show the world how we test our advanced materials. When we know how materials melt, shatter and bend, we can make machines that don't."

Below are the two-minute teaser and individual videos showing things simply getting destroyed beyond all recognition. There are lots more in this playlist on GE's YouTube channel.

Watching this stuff getting smashed will have fewer consequences than getting plastered yourself on your lunch hour, trust me.




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Apr 29

The Lazy Half of the Internet Is Now Obsessed With Nissan’s ‘Self-Cleaning Car’

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Nissan has created the world’s first self-cleaning car prototype and introduced it with an eye-popping NeverWet-like viral spot.

The car's coating isn't actually the well known hydrophobic spray owned by Rust-Oleum, though the effect is similar. Created by UltraTech International, Nissan's coating creates a texture of geometric shapes whose peaks repel water and some oils.

The spot is one delightful minute of watching the Nissan Note crash through puddles and repel filth on the side treated with the hydrophobic and oleophobic coating. Nissan states that splashing around in mud will still dirty the underbelly, tires and windshield of the vehicle, but it's still an exciting development for the lazy among us who hate visiting the car wash.

Currently, Nissan says it has no plans to offer the paint as a standard option, but after the success of this video (2.9 million views and counting), the automaker might rethink that decision. 




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Apr 29

Jose Cuervo’s Larger-Than-Life Story Retold in Miniature

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Jose Cuervo literally bottles up its history in this campaign from McCann New York.

The effort, which includes a TV spot and smartphone app, centers on intricate dioramas from animation studio Laika House. Finely detailed models capturing key Cuervo moments are placed inside tequila bottles.

We're treated to the volcanic eruption that led to the growth of agave used in making tequila; Mexico's fiery victory at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 (France lost, no surprise there); the brand keeping Americans hammered during Prohibition; the birth of the margarita; and a beach volleyball tournament, included because Cuervo is a pro-series sponsor.

These miniatures are lovingly crafted and provide a novel respite from the usual high-tech commercial effects. Note the facial expressions—Jose looks forceful and assured—and the rich textures of the sea and soil.

When users of the brand's mobile app hover their phones over a bottle of Cuervo Tradicional, a 3-D diorama of the bar where Cuervo helped invent the margarita appears. And after a few shots, who knows what else you'll start seeing?




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Apr 29

Twitter Fans Make DirecTV’s New ‘Get Rid of Cable’ Ad One of the Bleakest Yet

Posted in: Uncategorized

When you leave people to their own devices, they tend to get nihilistic. When they get nihilistic, they make darkly comic scripts for DirecTV.

Case in point: the satellite-TV company's Twitter-sourced fable—created in the style of Grey's long-running "Cable Effects" campaign—of what happens if you don’t cut the cord.

The satellite giant asked its fans to contribute a story line to the campaign by tweeting one-liners with the hashtag #GetRidofCable. The company then selected the best ideas and made a cohesive, disturbing story—read like a storybook in the video below—of getting addicted to cheese during lab experiments, going back in time and undoing your own birth … all because the protagonist refused to say no to cable.

It's actually a pretty good entry in the campaign, even if the last line is a bit long-winded. Then again, despite the medium's limitations, people on Twitter aren't really known for keeping it short, are they?




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Apr 29

Poise Gets Awkwardly Erotic With Bladder Control Ad

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Poise, the adult diaper brand, is poised to attack the lady bladder control market with a double entendre-laced spot about pee spotting.

Though the product is supposed to be super discreet, the spot certainly is not. Two moms sitting down for some kind of school event have a conversation about Sam. Sam knows how to treat a woman. He might be small, but he can last for hours and he's in her pants RIGHT NOW. Surprise! It turns out Sam is short for the Super Absorbent Material in Poise liners.

Ogilvy & Mather New York put together this strange appeal in response to what is, honestly, a hard product to sell. I mean, when laughing or sneezing makes you pee your pants, it's not really something you want to chat about over coffee with your girls.

But is the right appeal suggesting there's a man named Sam with a small dick who can help you out? I can see why they'd go

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for humor. Make the audience pee in their pants a little and they'll realize how badly they need the product. But this spot is more creepy and weird than funny. At least it's drawing attention to the product while completely avoiding the unsavory reality of the condition. I mean, if the only option is to get all TMI about something, I guess I'd rather have an uncomfortable sex chat than a heart to heart about pissing myself.




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Apr 29

Radio Station Runs Newspaper Obituaries for Beethoven in Bid to Keep Classical Music Alive

Posted in: Uncategorized

Beethoven died 187 years ago next month. So, why were apparently new obituaries for the composer only recently

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TBWA\Guate counted on that clever bit of shock value as part of its bid to save Guatemala's only classical music radio station, Radio Faro Cultural, which is at risk of being closed—presumably because nobody under 50 listens to classical music anymore, no matter what country they're in, because they're all too busy listening to Pharrell or Katy Perry.

According to the agency's case study below, the campaign caught the attention of Guatemala's ministry of culture, which swooped in to bail out the station, because government preservation is probably the only thing that can save a waning genre's presence in a waning medium.

While equating the brand with Beethoven could come across as pretentious, the metaphor reads as surprisingly unstrained. But it's hard to imagine the choice going over well with some of the more staunch proponents of Bach and Mozart.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Radio Faro Cultural
Agency: TBWA\Guate, Guatemala
Chief Executive Officer: Raúl Herrera
General Creative Director: Martín Sica
Creative Directors: Luis Guzmán, Francisco Pérez
Art Directors: Levin Méndez, Javier Contreras
Producer: Mateo Gómez
Planning Director: Flora Hasbun




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Apr 28

Woman Actually Enjoys a Vacation Without a Man Around in Booking.com Ad

Posted in: Uncategorized

A woman's love for her boyfriend is compared to her love for resort amenities while vacationing without him in Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam's latest ad for Booking.com.

The man doesn't fare so well in the comparison, though to be fair, neither does the woman. She is "Brianless" because Brian apparently doesn't enjoy seafood, the ocean or horseback riding. (How could someone be such a curmudgeon?) And she sure takes advantage of his absence, letting loose with cartoony antics that echo other spots from the high-energy campaign. (Is it just a coincidence that "Brianless" is an anagram of "brainless?")

While the spot is mostly harmless, the kernel of the idea—that a woman could possibly (gasp) enjoy a vacation without her boyfriend—falls solidly in the patronizing camp.




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