Every giant viral ad needs a parody (or a few dozen), and so Bud Light is here with a spoof of the American Greetings "World's Toughest Job" video—celebrating dads instead of moms.
The joke writing is a little odd—it's caught between wanting to honor dads and wanting to make fun of them, and doesn't really accomplish either one very well.
The gold standard for this kind of parody was the spoof of Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" where the guys suffer from excess self-esteem rather than the lack of it. That came from a comedy group, though, not from a brand with a vested interest in not making guys look too buffoon-like.
In a world of crowded ad spaces and precious few parking spaces, Mercedes and Madrid agency Contrapunto BBDO are hoping to make the most of both shortcomings with these cleverly placed Smart car ads.
Printed on the narrow side of an outdoor ad display, the small image of a Smart is joined by the phrase "Siempre hay un hueco," Spanish for "There's always a space."
Can't afford that furniture, those appliances or those electronics? Sure you can.
Aaron's, the lease-to-own retailer, has unveiled a new ad campaign that suggests leasing products from the company isn't just a wise idea for credit-challenged people—it's the first step toward becoming rich and famous beyond your wildest dreams.
The ads, from 22squared, feature characters—Bobby, Charmony and Emilio—who've become wildly successful, but as it turns out, they once didn't even know the basics of living beyond their means. A fourth ad stars Nascar driver Brian Vickers, who apparently just gets super excited about Aaron's in general.
The theme is "Own the life you want," which is certainly an interesting mix of aspirational and financial—a reminder that, for many, they're one and the same.
Elderly people tend to get short shrift in commercials, much as they do most everywhere in life. Kudos to Dodge and The Richards Group, then, for celebrating the automaker's 100th birthday by putting the spotlight on humans born around the same time.
Not all of them are centenarians, but many of them are. (The rest mostly seem to be sprightly 90-somethings.) And they're here to dispense some hard-won wisdom about what they've learned in a century on this Earth. And they dispense it with humor, style and not a little defiance.
"You learn a lot in 100 years," says on-screen copy, as a 2015 Challenger screeches out of the frame. "Dodge. Born 1914."
"It's proof that some denim really is just born that way," Steven B. Wheeler, lead designer at Betabrand, says in this promo for the fashion company's Gay Jeans.
What's cool about these pants is that when they are broken in, they reveal "brightly colored, rainbow-hued yarns underneath."
Ame Corwin, advanced materials researcher at Betabrand, says on the website: "We hope Gay Jeans will help end generations of exclusion and unfair treatment for atypical denim. All jeans deserve equal rights, regardless of color, creed and fiber content."
Are you straight? Don't worry. You can wear them, too. Gay Jeans won't make you gay anymore than "driving a Toyota will make you Japanese," the brand says in its FAQ. "If you put on a pair of Gay Jeans and begin experiencing gayness, chances are it's because you are gay."
According to the coffee company's behind-the-scenes website, "The ad, which appeared before a fast-food chain launched a similar campaign, is part of a national taste test that found people preferred the new House Blend from Seattle’s Best Coffee over a competitor’s original blend coffee."
Given the close timing between these two, it's clear that neither brand was ripping off the other's idea. (As we've noted, it wasn't even a completely new idea in the first place.) Rather it reads as an uncanny coincidence fueled by the brand-obsessed zeitgeist.
So, take a look at the two ads below and see the uncanny resemblance for yourself.
The Internet really is a boon for pet-food marketers clever enough to capitalize on animal-obsessed Web culture without seeming too mercenary.
Pedigree New Zealand gets extra brownie points for this video of cute dogs being cute, which attempts to leverage YouTube's revenue-sharing model to raise money for dog charity … as if you needed another reason to watch dachshunds eating hot dogs. (No, it's not cannibalism, though it might count as a sort of professional discourtesy.)
The concept is all the more impressive in the way it take two things that are usually annoying—seeing ads on other ads, and being asked to share ads—and makes them kind of feel-good (even if, given YouTube's meager ad rates, it's hard to imagine the campaign actually making significant money).
Regardless, the spot, by Colenso BBDO, is a knockout delight when measured against the high bar for misery-inducing commercials in the pet-adoption genre. Unlike the Sarah McLaughlin ASPCA sob fest that haunts an entire generation of U.S. TV viewers, this one doesn't hinge on making everyone feel awful about themselves.
Plus, the dogs are awesome to watch. Except for that winking puppy at the end, which clearly needs help for having confused itself with a cat. Only cats are supposed to be creepy.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Pedigree Agency: Colenso BBDO, New Zealand Creative Chairman: Nick Worthington Creative Director: Levi Slavin Senior Copywriter: Matt Lawson Copywriter: Ben Polkinghorne Art Director: Scott Kelly Business Director: Helen Fitzsimons Senior Social, Digital Strategist: Neville Doyle Senior Planner: Tamsin McDonnell Production Company: Finch Director: Nick Ball Executive Producer: Rob Galluzzo Producer: Karen Bryson Associate Producer: Amy Dymond Director of Photography: Crighton Bone Production Designer: Sara Mathers Animal Wranglers: Animal House VFX Supervisors: Andrew Timms, Mat Ellin Offline: Method Studios Editor: Seth Lockwood Visual Effects: Beryl Grade: Pete Ritchie Flame: Andrew Timms, Mat Ellin Sound Design: Franklin Rd Composer: Jonathan Dreyfus
Considering its position as the No. 1 brand channel on YouTube, it's really of no surprise that this insane video comes from today's prime purveyors of adventuretime content, GoPro.
What appears to be a lovely day on the slopes turns into a pretty thrilling minute of footage as skiier Eric Hjorleifson documents his terrifying run with a head-mounted Hero 3+ camera.
Take a look below and be sure to watch this full-screen, with your headphones on. The skiier's breathing really completes this bone-chilling experience. Then you can go back and watch GoPro's even more terrifying 2011 avalanche video, which is one hopefully no one will try to top.
If you're anything like me, you might get a little freaked out by the Internet.
Whatever you put out there exists, in some capacity, forever! But that neurotic voice in your head is probably drowned out when you capture the perfect photo of your dog giving you the side-eye (it happens), or you need to chat about the BIG THING that happened on whichever show has a BIG THING that week, and somehow you've become pretty active on various social media platforms.
No big deal, right? Wrong, according to AKQA's latest digital campaign for Ubisoft's game Watch Dogs.
AKQA created a site, Digital Shadow, that allows you to log in with your Facebook profile and see what your digital imprint says about you. (For the record, mine says, "You display a bleak outlook that can be manipulated for future gain." OK, then.) It also estimates your net worth and where you might be spotted and guesses what your passwords could be.
For brands, the road to standing out in social media can be a slippery slope. But Mazda and JWT Canada collaborated on a pretty interesting marketing journey on Instagram.
Over the course of three months, the carmaker posted images and videos that plotted the course of a Mazda vehicle. But not only was each post meticulously detailed and art directed, they all fit together like puzzle pieces to make a growing scene of a road when viewed as a grid layout on Mazda Canada's mobile Instagram page.
Three posts were added at a time, every week or so, adding one more layer to the three-column grid. The project began Dec. 17 and wrapped up March 28.
Throughout the car's "Long Drive Home," the brand includes mentions of followers, videos of sponsored events and references to cultural happenings like Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl. It was then capped off by giving a new Mazda to a fan.
Below, check out a recreation of the layout. (All the images and videos are clickable through to the brand's Instagram pages.) And below that, there's a case study describing the process.
Buckle up and click around. There's some cool stuff in there.
CREDITS Client: Mazda Canada Agency: JWT Canada Senior Vice President, Creative Director: Ryan Spelliscy Copywriter: Mandip Salh Art Director: Tim Zimmerman Chief Creative and Integration Officer: Brent Choi Social Media Director: Tony Wong Community Manager: Alice Greenberg Account Executive: Catherine Norman Senior Project Manager: Kristen Neamtz Animation: CWF3D
St. John Ambulance, the first-aid teaching and awareness organization, has put together some incredible, horrifying PSAs through the years.
We've covered many of BBH London's ads for the group. Last year, the agency won a silver Film Lion at Cannes for "Helpless," a two-minute film based around the statistic that first aid could prevent 140,000 deaths a year—the same number who die from cancer. BBH followed that up with the heartbreaking "Save the Boy" spot last fall.
Now, here's a new spot—for St. John Ambulance in Australia. Created by The Brand Agency in Perth, it's equally heart-wrenching and difficult to watch. And effective, at least in my case. After watching this, I found myself searching the Internet for local first aid courses.
It's easy to forget that for every flashy, handpainted wall advertisement you see in a city, there are a handful of people who endure discomfort (and risk death) to put it there.
Online tabloid Vocativ made this mini-documentary about these painters, who call themselves "wall dogs," and it's a refreshingly straightforward and unglamorized piece of work. The painters mostly talk about how they prepare for a job where they spend most of the day hanging from a chain, at the mercy of the elements and unable to step back and get better perspective of their work until it's complete.
But there's no bitterness or false bravado in any of them. In fact, they all seem pretty happy with what they do, which isn't something a lot of us can say about our jobs. Watch this as an antidote to the other cynical garbage you read online in a given day.
This is what it sounds like when you drink too much, then get behind the wheel. Surprise: It does not have a happy ending.
A new PSA by ad agency La Chose for French road safety organization Association Victimes et Citoyens uses a simple yet effective single shot of a vinyl record player to offer a fresh version of a familiar and important point.
Perhaps counterintuitively, the absence of any violent footage actually increases the power of the message. The literal realization of the casual "same old song" metaphor (translated from "la méme chanson" in French) risks coming off as a little off kilter or even off color, since there isn't actually a song, and the subject matter is so serious.
But the whole concept hinges on the idiom, and the ad does too good a job of illustrating the point to nitpick much. The skips in the audio easily build suspense, to the point where, sadly, anyone with half a brain will know where the storyline is going—but has to hear it out to be sure.
La Chose also made 300 12-inch vinyl records featuring the ad's soundtrack and sent them to journalists. That should be a hit at parties.
A Samsung SD smartphone memory card morphs into a cute, miniature robot action hero in this engaging 45-second clip from Cheil Worldwide in Seoul and Museum Film. The ad, running exclusively online at present, targets smartphone users in the U.K., North America, Europe and Japan.
RoboCard's adventures, directed by J.M. Lee, illustrate product attributes. He soars with a jetpack (demonstrating speed), repels thumbtacks and paperclips (the card is impervious to magnets) and makes a splash by riding a tropical fish rodeo style (it's waterproof). The details are great fun. Note how his metal feet sprout tiny flippers for his fish-tank dive. The cat's miffed reaction as the bot bursts above the water's surface is a neat touch, too.
I also like how his antics take place in a typical home/office setting, infusing the everyday world with some high-tech panache—which, after all, is part of the product's appeal.
Best of all, MemBot is much too adorable to join a robo-rebellion and subjugate mankind … I think. Still, I wouldn't cross the little guy. He's got a long memory. (Up to 64GB!)
On the heels of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's sobering scenario announcing National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Honda and agency RPA bring us the latest campaign in the effort to curb texting and driving.
This spot (and accompanying print ad, below) pull the viewer into a text conversation happening on a mobile device, presumably on a road somewhere in America.
The dialogue is an authentic glimpse into the life of a young adult, replete with the usual shorthand and emojis common in casual banter. Without spoiling exactly what happens next, the ad succeeds in creating a unique message that is graphically smart, simple and powerful.
CREDITS Client: Honda
Agency: RPA Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director: Jason Sperling Senior Vice President, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff Vice President, Creative Social Media Director: J. Barbush Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Damian Fraticelli Art Directors: Michael Enriquez, Craig Nelson Copywriters: Adam Gothelf, Kevin Tenglin Social Media Copywriter: Laura Kelley Producer: Joshua Herbstman
Program Manager: Elizabeth Goldstein Project Manager: Andrew Serrato Technology Manager: Bradley Stone Associate User Experience Architect: Sabrina Lee
Production Company: Laundry! Creative Director: Anthony Liu Executive Producer: Michael Bennett Producer: Kirsten Collabolletta Design: Janice Ahn, Yongmin Park Animation: Yongmin Park
Best ice-cream bar ever conceived? That would be the Klondike Kandy Bar, born an indeterminate number of months after an illicit tryst between a regular Klondike Bar and a tall, striking, chocolatey candy-bar nurse—according to a male shopper's adult-movie-addled brain in this sweet spot from The VIA Agency.
It's a fun idea, brought to life quite nicely. In particular, the visual look is pleasantly unique, blending real-world footage and animation. "A ton of ads use animated characters. So we made the decision to shoot as much as we could in camera," says Greg Smith, chief creative officer at VIA. "The awkwardness of putting 'real' characters on 'real' sets and then animating their eyes, arms and legs made it different and it helped us stay true to the lo-fi vibe we wanted to portray."
Turns out the Klondike-candy relationship extends beyond the '70s candy-porn set, too. Klondike is partnering with CollegeHumor to produce a comedy series about the couple. That should be interesting—particularly the inevitable reality-show squabbles over why she's the one who's way more phallic looking.
It's been a weird week for airlines in social media, and it's only Tuesday. On Monday a Dutch teen was arrested for tweeting a threat to American Airlines, and US Airways accidentally tweeted a photo of a woman using a model airplane as a sex toy.
But here's one airline that's actually getting some positive attention this week: Southwest.
Known for being the goofy uncle at the airline family reunion, Southwest (or at least one of its employees) is the star of a video that's quickly gone viral, tallying more than 1.2 million views in two days. The clip is totally safe for work, and no lives were threatened, so they're already winning by a couple of points.
In the video, a flight attendant delivers one of Southwest's famously reinterpreted safety instruction speeches prior to flying. But even frequent Southwest passengers will be impressed by the quantity and quality of zingers she manages to fit into a mere three minutes.
Some excerpts:
"Flight attendants are coming by, hoping you'll tell them how good looking they are."
"As you know, it's a no-smoking, no-whining, no-complaining flight. It's a 'please' and 'thank you' and 'you are such a good-looking flight attendant' flight."
"If you're traveling with small children … we're sorry. If you're traveling with more than one child, pick out the one that you think might have the most earning potential down the road."
"Sit back and relax—or you can sit up and be tense, either way."
Here's something I never thought I'd say: I just got weepy listening to "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.
In an incredibly touching tribute to the group's frontwoman, Chrissy Amphlett, some of Australia's top singers have recorded a largely a capella version for a video encouraging women to self-examine their breasts for lumps.
Amphlett, one of the most shockingly sexual pop artists of the 1990s, died from breast cancer on April 21, 2013. According to Billboard, an ultrasound and mammogram initially missed the cancer, which Amphlett ended up finding on her own through self-examination.
Friends say her dying wish was that her 1990 hit song could become a reminder for all women to check themselves regularly for lumps and other signs of breast cancer. So Australian advocacy group Cancer Council NSW (New South Wales) worked with Amphlett's widower and supporters to create the beautiful rendition below.
The singers are Connie Mitchell, Deborah Conway, Kate Cerebrano, Katie Noonan, Little Pattie, Megan Washington, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Blasko, Sarah McLeod and Suze DeMarchi. You can watch interviews with each of them on Amphlett's YouTube channel.
"It is a song that celebrates female sexuality like no other. Like Chrissy, it is bold, brave and brassy," the group says in its video summary. "It rocked our world. And when Chrissy developed breast cancer, it was a song she wanted to become an anthem for spreading awareness about the importance of touching ourselves for early detection of the disease."
Note: The video below ends on a scene that might be NSFW. But you really shouldn't let that stop you from watching it.
Miller High Life would like you to meet Rich, the least interesting man in the world.
The champagne of beers, absent on national TV since 2012, is returning to the airwaves Monday with a new campaign from Leo Burnett, themed "I Am Rich." The concept, on its face, is that you don't need lots of money, or fancy drinks, to be happy.
More subtly, it's also a dog-whistle shot at Dos Equis: You don't need to be an international man of mystery to have a rewarding life.
Instead of the aspirational charm of a high-flying, larger-than-life jet-setter, there's grainy footage of dive-bar billiards, shot on 35mm film, which somehow comes off as both artsy and mundane.
The core, populist idea is a nice one and makes you really want to like the ads. The opening of "Central Park," one of two spots, shows promise. It's endearing that the dude likes to think of the scraggly tree outside his window as a Fifth Avenue penthouse view. And what sane person doesn't consider his or her gregarious dog to be a butler?
Unfortunately, Rich is pretty obnoxious, thanks to purple prose masquerading as cleverness. "My helipad is being resurfaced, so tonight we travel by more humble means," says Rich. "At my country club, we play parlor games with members of the royal family."
Walking to the local dive, drinking Miller High Life, and shooting pool with the owners seems like fun. So does hanging out with Rich's dog. But listening to Rich while he's spewing anxious nonsense about how awesome his life is? Not so much.
In fact, Rich doesn't really seem that happy at all. Or maybe, the voiceover is just a little too real. The kind of deadpan inside jokes that might fly in a casual conversation among friends don't quite work as persuasive ad copy for the masses, especially when the grit and sincerity of the footage end up working against the try-hard irony of the voiceover.
The ad ends up feeling like it's mocking the demographic it's trying to court. At least Rich can rest assured that he isn't making any beer execs richer by spending what little money he has on High Life.
If DirecTV is trying to position its Wireless Genie Mini device as a high-tech toy for doofy bros who view women as puppets—mission accomplished!
Perhaps that's a tad harsh or too literal. Still, there's something unnerving about these new ads from Grey New York, directed by Bryan Buckley, featuring a life-size blonde marionette. In one ad, she struggles with her wires while pouring lemonade for a pair of DirecTV-lovin' dudes. In a second spot, our heroine dangles from the bedroom ceiling in a sexy negligee, concerned her human beau is more attracted to DirecTV.
Self-conscious oddness is the obvious goal, and the campaign certainly works on that level. Even so, there's a touch of mean-spiritedness that doesn't sit right. The puppet is the most appealing part of these commercials, and it's easy to sympathize with her plight. This, in turn, kind of keeps me from feeling good about the Wireless Genie itself, which lets multiple TVs share HD-DVR programming over WiFi (so first-worlders won't trip over unsightly wires and fall flat on their Google Glass).
Cut those cords and free yourself, my wooden sister! Today, there are so many ways for a marionette to be fulfilled—like rapping for JCPenney or blogging for Target. Don't let some half-wit string you along!
CREDITS Client: DirecTV Campaign: "Marionettes" Agency: Grey, New York Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher Vice Presidents, Creative Directors: Doug Fallon, Steven Fogel Art Director: Marques Gartrell Copywriter: Kim Nguyen Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky Production Company: Hungry Man Director: Bryan Buckley Executive Producer: Mino Jarjoura Producer: Rachel Curl Production Supervisor: Colette Findley Director of Photography: Scott Henriksen Editor: Tom Scherma, Cosmo Street Assistant Editor: Dave Otte, Cosmo Street Editorial Executive Producer: Maura Woodward. Cosmo Street Editorial Producer: Heather Richardson, Cosmo Street Visual Effects: The Mill Visual Effects Executive Producer: Sue Troyan, The Mill Visual Effects Producer: Anastasia Von Rahl, The Mill Casting Director, Los Angeles: Kathy Knowles, Kathy Knowles Casting Casting Director, New York: Fay Shumsey, Fay Erin Casting Audio Mixer: Tom Jucarone, Sound Lounge
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