M&C Saatchi Grows Bee Beard for San Diego Zoo

M&C Saatchi has released another ad for the San Diego Zoo as part of its ongoing campaign designed to stoke children’s interest in the zoo’s Tiger Trail exhibit.

In the spot, a boy has magically grown a full beard made entirely of bees. When a girl asks him how he grew it, he flashes back to a visit to the San Diego Zoo where he communed with tigers and apparently absorbed some kind of mysterious power. It builds off of M&C Saatchi’s previous work promoting the exhibit, focusing on the way interacting with wildlife helps stokes kids’ imaginations. It may, however, be a little too dependent on previous ads to understand its intention, as it otherwise can seem disjointed and a little nonsensical. Still, it’s hard to argue with a bee beard, especially one as convincing as this. To bring it to life, M&C Saatchi collaborated with production company Epoch Films and visual effects company Timber, combining footage of real swarming bees with CGI.

“?They were really committed to the process from our very first conversations, and delivered impressively on everything we talked about,” director Matthew Swanson told Great-Ads, “…the entire team at Timber made sure there wasn’t a single i undotted or t uncrossed.?” (more…)

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adam&eveDDB Introduces a ‘Memorable Guest’ for Maille

With the holidays around the corner, it is the season of awkward conversations with relatives and family friends you’d rather forget. Picking up on this, adam&eveDDB explores a conversation a young man has with one particularly tactless guest, who makes a lasting impression for all the wrong reasons.

The woman tells the young man of the holiday she took with her husband in Greece. He initially appears bored, but soon the conversation veers from the mundane to the uncomfortable as the woman talks about the “very secluded balconies” in the hotel room and the opportunities they afforded. We’ll avoid giving away too much as the cringe comedy involved is fairly dependent on some level of shock value, but let’s just say things degenerate from there. It’s easily one of the funniest holiday ads we’ve seen. The comedy it manages to pull off is no easy feet either, as this kind of thing easily derails from awkward funny to just awkward. But the perfectly paced writing and stellar performances from the actors hold everything together with just the right amount of cringe. At the end of the spot, the camera cuts to a jar of Maille mustard, with the tagline “Be a memorable guest for the right reason” explaining the scene preceding it. The spot itself is more than memorable, and should get its fair share of attention leading up to those awkward holiday parties. (more…)

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Don’t Kill The Copywriter: A Short Guide to Treating Freelancers Like Human Beings

Editor’s Introduction: This is our first piece from Joel Wayne, a writer and director in Boise. He’s chosen to explore a topic that is near and dear to us. The great majority of creative people in advertising have worked freelance at one time or another, and have suffered the indignities common to the position. It’s […]

The post Don’t Kill The Copywriter: A Short Guide to Treating Freelancers Like Human Beings appeared first on AdPulp.

FCB Continues to Celebrate Bellies for Kmart, Joe Boxer

A couple weeks ago FCB Chicago launched its “Jingle Bellies” holiday spot for Kmart and Joe Boxer, a follow-up to last year’s “Show Your Joe,” which was unofficially dubbed “Jingle Balls” and went on to score over 18 million views on YouTube. With “Jingle Bellies” now just past the one million view mark, the agency has unveiled a follow-up belly performance entitled “Santa Baby.” The twist? This time around it’s pregnant women dancing.

The women shake their posteriors to an upbeat rendition of the song “Santa Baby” (most famously sung by Eartha Kitt) and then turn around, exposing their pregnant bellies. The reveal comes early in the ad, with the pregnant women dancing for the remainder of the spot, in their pajamas, until they stop and one woman extolls the virtues of Kmart and Joe Boxer. So basically more of the same goofy humor FCB has been employing in its holiday efforts for Kmart and Joe Boxer since the original, although a slight departure from the “body parts as instruments” schtick. The ad comes as a bit of a surprise, however, as there was no immediate sequel to last year’s spot. With Sears Holdings’ Kmart account currently in review (Sears is also up for grabs), this could potentially be FCB’s last work for the struggling brand. Kmart, meanwhile, badly needs its holiday marketing efforts to drive sales to make up for a very tough year for the company. (more…)

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DDB Canada Works Out Ears for Sony

DDB Canada crafted a new campaign for Sony, promoting its Hi-Res Audio collection via two 30-second broadcast spots.

The ads aim for a weird sort of humor, with each showing people working out their ears in preparation of the intense experience they’ll get from Sony’s products. In practice, this ends up looking a bit creepy, as in “Ear Crunches.” The spot opens on a man as he takes off his cowboy hat and, with the aid of some special effects, begins some vigorous ear crunches. “Ear Workout” (featured after the jump) is more or less the same concept, with each spot ending with the tagline “Get Your Ears Ready” before showing the range of products in Sony’s Hi-Res Audio collection. Strange as the approach may be, it’s refreshing to see audio equipment advertised for sounding good rather than as a fashion accessory worn by celebrity athletes. Still, it would have been nice if DDB Canada could have mixed up the formula a bit more between the two ads.
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Fallon Helps Arby’s Apologize to Pepsi

When Arby’s received a friendly reminder in October that they had yet to release the second of their promised ads featuring Pepsi they realized they had a problem. The brand and its agency, Fallon, had already wrapped on their creative for the rest of the year.

Rob Lynch, chief marketing officer and brand president of Arby’s, explained to The Wall Street Journal that with the brand focusing on its revamped marketing, centered around the “We have the meats” tagline, the obligations to Pepsi simply got forgotten. Lynch did not look forward to breaking the news to Fallon. “Their ads are kind of like their babies. To go in after we shot them and shoehorn something in is like the worst client move you could ever make,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

But Fallon proved up to the challenge. The Minneapolis-based agency created a new, 30-second ad poking fun at the whole debacle. A tall glass of Pepsi stays on camera for the entire ad as the sonorous Ving Rhames explains the situation: “Arby’s has an agreement to feature their good friend Pepsi in two commercials a year…Well Arby’s messed up and forgot about the second commercial!” In a clever touch, the ad ends by replacing the usual “We have the meats” tagline with “We have Pepsi.” So what did Pepsi think of the approach?

“We applaud Arby’s unconventional approach to marketing and when they came to us with this idea, we thought it would be a fun, creative way to highlight our partnership,” Roberto Rios, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo’s food service division, told The Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement.

So it seems like everyone is happy with the situation. The spot will run from December 7th-13th in the Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles markets, fulfilling Arby’s end of their agreement with Pepsi to feature the beverage in two advertisements this year. Presumably the creative Fallon had to put on hold for the ad will run in the near future.

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Red Bee Media Gets Animated for BBC Radio 4

Red Bee Media recently teamed up with production company Strange Beast and Polish directing duo Kijek/Adamski for a new spot blending stop-motion and 2D animation to promote the BBC’s “Radio 4 in Four.”

The ad opens by asking, “What can you do in four minutes?” before answering with “boil an egg,” and “change a lightbulb” and suggesting that “Radio 4 in Four Minutes” is a more productive use of time. Going on to stoke viewers’ curiosity with animated representations of a few stories, the spot ends by directing viewers to the “Radio 4 in Four” website and asking, “Where will four minutes take you?”

The stylized animation provides a clever way to get people interested in the stories without giving too much away, and the stories themselves seem carefully selected to represent the kind of subjects covered on Radio 4. So viewers get an idea of what they can expect, with something to stoke the interest of different types of readers. While it may not be the most inventive or memorable spot, the ad communicates its message rather neatly in its attempt to attract readers, although not providing a link to the website at the end of the ad seems an oversight (it is published in the video description on YouTube). (more…)

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Leo Burnett Inspires for TD Bank

TD Bank gave 24 of its customers $30,000 to contribute to a community cause of their choosing, with just one stipulation: they had to complete the project in 24 hours.

Created in collaboration with Leo Burnett and Diamond Integrated Marketing, the campaign is captured in the above four-minute video (which fell through the cracks here last week). The video release was perfectly timed for Thanksgiving and easily went viral, having past the 3.5 million views mark on YouTube in under a week. “#MakeTodayMatter” shows surprised TD Bank customers learning they’ve been awarded the money for a cause of their choosing and then getting to work on making a difference in just one day.

The majority of those nominated for the campaign were chosen by TD employees, TD Chief Marketing Officer Dominic Mercuri told Adweek, with a few “chosen based on random live interviews in branches and stores with random customers.” Mercurri added, “We didn’t know if this idea would work. Would people drop everything to bring to life their idea? Turns out—yes, they would.”

Those ideas are on full display in the “#MakeTodayMatter” video, from buying all-new gear for a local youth football team, to making a woman’s home wheelchair accessible (allowing her to leave for the first time in years), to a gala event to boost the self-esteem of foster children. It’s hard to not be at least a little touched with people making their charitable ideas a reality. There are also separate videos for each project, hosted on a campaign website, as well as a social component. As you may remember, Leo Burnett and TD Bank went viral with the similarly charitable, “Automated Thanking Machines” this summer, and TD also collaborated with Philadelphia-based Tierney to commission “Art For Trees,” promoting eco-initiative MillionTreesNYC back in October.

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McCann Saves Snowmen for Zurich Insurance

McCann has crafted a new ad for Zurich Insurance looking ahead to spring, which may seem appealing to you, but is certainly less so for the snowmen depicted in the ad, entitled “Save the Snowmen.”

The spot opens on a series of snowmen, melting slowly, and the message, “The first day of spring, somewhere in the Alps.” A dejected child pushes, while another boy replaces one of his snowman’s button eyes. Then a climate-controlled Zurich truck rolls up, filled with other snowmen, and takes them higher into the mountains. From the truck, the snowmen ride a ski lift and trek still further up, pulled by cross country skiers. Eventually they find themselves high up on a mountain peak, safe from the spring thaw.

It all makes for a cute little story, hard as it may be to relate with a negative portrayal of spring as another harsh winter is approaching. But while it’s an entertaining little ad, it’s so far removed from being related to Zurich’s services that many won’t realize what the ad is even for. Unless, of course, they insure snowmen.  (more…)

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Mercedes-Benz to Create New European Unit; BBDO Wins China Business

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Today Mercedes-Benz announced its first major “global agency realignment” since 2006. The big winners appear to be BBDO, Merkley+Partners, and the custom team that will come from a “pooling” of creative talent in Europe.

The press release, in summary (thanks, Google Translate):

  • Mercedes-Benz has established a “new agency model” based around three creative hubs: Europe, USA and China
  • The company will create a new unit to handle its European creative after conducting “a screening of the European agency landscape”; efforts will be led by Kemper and Kroger in Berlin

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BBH Sheds Light on Youth Cardiac Risk in PSA for CRY

BBH London created a PSA campaign for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), a UK charity founded in 1995 which “raises awareness about sudden cardiac deaths in young people resulting from undiagnosed heart conditions.”

In a 60-second PSA video, a group of young men engage in a game of rugby. Throughout the spot we hear a heartbeat, adding an element of unease, until at one point the hearbeat speeds up and one of the boys falls to the ground. The message, “An undiagnosed heart condition can kill an apparently healthy young person instantly. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Get your heart tested.” It’s a harrowing message, bringing attention to an issue many don’t know about. Crafted to shock and startle viewers, it just may succeed in its goal of getting young people tested for heart conditions.

The spot was created by BBH London Assistant Producer David Lynch (not to be confused with that David Lynch), with help from Creative Directors Nick Kidney and Kevin Stark in adapting the original script. “I knew about CRY through a friend who was helped by them in the past,” Lynch said. “I wrote a script and showed it to my then producer, Ruben Mercadal. He said I should run with it. As I’m an Assistant TV Producer and not a Creative, I sought help from two of BBH’s best Creative Directors..To my surprise they were of the same opinion as Ruben and said if I ever get the chance to make it, they would love to mentor me through it.”

BBH then enlisted director AG Rojas and Park Pictures to bring the project, which Lynch called a “particularly emotive and rewarding campaign to work on,” to light. “Once we began production, it became clear that so many of the people who helped us had also been affected – or knew someone who had been affected – in some way,” he added.

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The Martin Agency Asks Salt-N-Pepa to Spice Up Geico

The Martin Agency makes sacreligious use of Salt-N-Pepa’s iconic 90s hit “Push It” — as well as the group itself — in its latest spot for Geico.

The 30-second ad opens on a man trying to pull open a door that says “Push” on it. Soon Salt-N-Pepa show up behind him and break into “Push It” and the man walks in. Next we see the pair in an elevator (with Spinderella in the background), a Lamaze class, and at a football practice while performing the song. “If you’re salt and pepper, you tell people to push it. It’s what you do,” says a voiceover, in the campaign’s familiar formula. “If you want to save 15 percent or more on car insurance, you switch to Geico. It’s what you do.” The Martin Agency then manages to slip in a quick gag after the tagline.

The campaign, whose tagline feels like a response to Esurance’s “Insurance for the modern world” (with that company directly taking on Geico’s “15 percent or more “selling point in its advertising), seems like its running out of steam as its joke runs a bit thin, so bringing in an act nostalgic viewers will be pleased to see make sense. And Salt-N-Pepa’s presence certainly makes the ad more memorable, even if it can’t quite save the tired premise.  (more…)

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Sid Lee Adds Four Creative Hires

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The New York office of Sid Lee announced today the addition of four creatives to its full-time team, effective immediately: Design Director Verena Michelitsch, Co-Creative Director Cecilia Azcarate, Senior Creative Andre Gidoin and Copywriter Dana Tiel.

Michelitsch arrives from boutique design agency RoAndCo, where she has served as a senior designer since January of 2013. She established herself as a founding member of Graz, Austria-based design studio En Garde before moving back to New York in 2011 to pursue freelance work for Sagmeister & Walsh and Pentagram Design, where she was responsible for “handling a variety of branding, illustration and art direction projects over the years.”

Azcarate arrives from M&C Saatchi, where she served as an associate creative director. Her work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including Webby Awards, D&AD, Eurobest and Epica. She has also held art director positions with Johannes Leonardo in New York, and Happiness Brussels and Anouk & Company in Belgium.

Gidoin joins Sid Lee from Leo Burnett New York, where he arrived in early 2013 as a senior art director. Prior to that he spent around four years serving as an interactive art director for Leo Burnett in Milan. A 2009 graduate of Oslo’s Westerdals School of Communication, Gidoin has been named to one of the top 16 young creatives in the world by Young Guns for two consecutive years.

Tiel joins Sid Lee from Grey New York, where she has served as a copywriter since arriving in 2012. She previously served as a copywriter at SapientNitro. A 2011 graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, she has earned a Cannes Young Lion Award, in addition to multiple One Show awards, a Clio, an international Andy and an ADC Young Gun Award.

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W+K Portland Launches First Work for Weight Watchers

W+K Portland has launched a new campaign for Weight Watchers, its first for the brand since winning creative duties back in April.

In a new 60-second spot, W+K drops the celebrity-driven approach taken by previous agency McCann (whose latest work featured Jessica Simpson), instead going for a universal theme of “eating your feelings.” The ad, entitled “If You’re Happy…” is set to an adaption of the popular children’s song “If You’re Happy And You Know It” by Tony Babino. “If you’re happy and you know it, eat a snack,” he sings at the beginning of the spot over shots of people happily enjoying ice cream, burgers and cake. Around 15 seconds in the tune changes to “If you’re sad…” and later on to such feelings as “bored,” “lonely” and “sleepy” before finally ending with “If you’re human and you know it, eat your feelings, eat a snack” and ending with the tagline, “Help with the hard part” before finally showing the Weight Watchers logo.

It’s an interesting tactic, tapping into the insight that people associate eating with all types of emotions rather than relying on a celebrity endorsement, which seems to be the standard for the category. W+K seems to be banking on the empathy and relatability of the message being more persuasive than association with celebrity.

According to The New York Times, the ad will “be introduced broadly on Sunday” with an emphasis on “programming apt to draw multiple members of a household” like “the midseason finale of The Walking Dead on AMC on Sunday and the season finale of The Voice on NBC on Dec. 15.” The ad will also “appear widely in cinemas,” which Lesya Lysyj, president of Weight Watchers in North America, told The New York Times “…is great because you’re sitting there with your huge thing of popcorn.”

“We’ve never actually said that weight loss is easy, but when you use celebrities and show before-and-after photos, what you’re doing is kind of implying that it is easy,” she added, explaining the move away from celebrity endorsements.

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Santa, Not Polar Bears, Stars in Ogilvy’s Holiday Spot for Coca-Cola

Ogilvy teamed up with Coca-Cola Germany for “Make Someone Happy,” the brand’s holiday ad which notably replaces the polar bears of recent years with Santa, also a longtime holiday standby for the brand. According to AdAge, this “marks the first time since 2011 that the brand’s classic Santa character has been the centerpiece of its holiday TV campaign in the U.S.,” although that publication points out that the polar bears will still have “a supporting role for store-level retail executions.”

In the 60-second spot, set to the Jimmy Durante version of the song of the same name, we see Santa drinking a Coke while thumbing through a book called “How to Make Someone Happy.” The ad then focuses on a series of small good deeds performed by people to make others (often strangers) happy, such as a man giving up his umbrella to a passer-by during a snowstorm and a young man giving a stranger waiting for a train a bottle of Coke. At the end of the spot, Santa has a surprise for everyone. “Make Someone Happy’ manages to communicate a holiday-specific sentiment while also functioning as a continuation of Coca-Cola’s general “Open Happiness” campaign.

Andy McMillin, VP of the Coca-Cola trademark for North America, told AdAge that while the polar bears are ” a very important equity for us,” Santa was a better fit with the message to “look beyond the presents and focus on the true spirit of the holidays,” adding that the character “just fits that so well as the ultimate symbol of giving and caring and bringing joy to others.”

“Make Someone Happy” will debut on NBC Thanksgiving day, and will run until the end of December on broadcast and cable channels including NBC, ABC, ABC Family, USA, Lifetime, TBS and Food Network.

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Grey NY Introduces Yet Another Rob Lowe for DirecTV

Grey New York has introduced yet another Rob Lowe in its ongoing campaign for DirecTV.

Following on the heels of “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe,” which apparently drew some criticism from shy bladder sufferers, the agency has returned with the self-explanatory “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe.” The formula is the same as in previous spots, with Rob Lowe introducing himself as a DirecTV customer before a more unfortunate version of himself, who also happens to be a cable customer, comes along for comparison. In the new spot Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe watches ping-pong on a small screen and attempts to open a jar of mayonnaise. Like previous ads, it ends with Lowe saying “Don’t be like this me.”

While it may be that the series is running out of steam, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” just seems like the weakest of the bunch so far. Whereas “Super Creepy Rob Lowe” and “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe” found convincing ways of tying Lowe’s alter egos to the inferior quality of cable, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” feels like an empty gimmick. Let’s hope Grey can up the ante with the inevitable follow-up and recapture the potential of this campaign. (more…)

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john st. Celebrates ‘Gifts You’ll Want Too’ for Future Shop

john st. has a new holiday campaign for Future Shop that appeals to the selfish side in all of us by reminding viewers that tech gifts are “Gifts You’ll Want Too.”

The spot follows around a man as he gleefully tries out a variety of devices around Future Shop. “I thought he was shopping for your mom” says a confused retail worker, to which his embarrassed daughter replies, “He is.”

The obvious message of the spot is, while you could get your significant other some kind of clothing/jewelry/etc. that they, and only they, will enjoy, if you shop at Future Shop you can give them something that you’ll enjoy just as much. It may be kind of a selfish viewpoint, but its one john st. hopes wins viewers over with honesty.

“We’re all guilty of doing a little ‘me-shopping’ when doing our holiday shopping for our friends and family. ‘Gifts you’ll want too’ is a cheeky way of showing how you can make them and yourself happy
with the same gift.” said Angus Tucker, executive creative director at john st., in a press release

“What differentiates Future Shop from other gift-giving destinations is that when you give the gift of tech, other people get to enjoy it as well,” added James Pelletier, director of brand marketing, Future Shop…”It’s a win-win – for the gifter and the getter.” (more…)

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Arnold Redefines Black Friday for Santander Bank

While in recent years many retailers have made infamous Black Friday sales into even more of a behemoth by pushing back their opening times so sales start earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving day, others, such as Costco, have gained public respect by bucking the trend. In a new campaign aimed at the most infamous shopping day of the year, Arnold Worldwide came up with a series of Black Friday alternatives for Santander Bank in an attempt to take back the “true meaning” of Thanksgiving (and make Santander look good by association).

In the above, 30-second spot, “Black Bean Soup Friday” for example, we see shots of a family rising early and piling in the car. “On…Black Friday, Tom and his kids will rise before the sun,” the voiceover informs us, “They will beat the crowds” it goes on as the car speeds along. But, in what’s designed to be a surprise, they “…pass the department stores with lines around the block,” and instead go volunteer at a local soup kitchen. “There are many ways to make the day after Thanksgiving meaningful,” the spot concludes, “How will you spend your day?”

This may seem like an unusual move for a financial institution who stands to benefit from a rush of holiday spending, but Santander claims its “family-values focused European roots run deep” and that they have a “commitment to Real Change and challenging traditional perceptions of banking.” So by taking a stab at Black Friday, in a way designed to be heartwarming, Arnold is distancing Santander from other banks, and attempting to make people think that, unlike their competitors, Santander stands for something. Other Black Friday alternatives suggested in the campaign are “Black Top Friday” (spent playing basketball with friends and family) and “Black Belt Friday” (spent watching Kung-Fu flicks). (more…)

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North Kingdom Crafts ‘A Journey Through Middle-Earth’ Digital Experience

North Kingdom collaborated with Google and Warner Brothers to create a digital interactive experience entitled “A Journey Through Middle-Earth,” promoting The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the final film in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy.

The project is the conclusion of a two year partnership between the parties and the result of eight months of work. Built around an interactive map of Middle-Earth, fans can then explore 21 new locations from the world of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and the updated map contains “3D animations, highlighting the paths of eight key characters in the films, including Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and Aragorn.” North Kingdom also created “‘Hero’s Journeys’, an area of the platform that will allow people to relive all of their epic Middle-earth adventures, from Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings to Bilbo’s final battle in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” There’s also a new, peer-to-peer social battle experience allowing visitors to challenge their friends.

“This was an overwhelmingly exciting project for us here at North Kingdom,” said David Eriksson, chief creative officer. “Our challenge was to really push the boundaries of what is possible in a digital experience, drawing inspiration from the world of Tolkien and the drama world that has been built up throughout 14 years of epic films.”

You can watch a trailer for “A Journey Through Middle-Earth” above and head to the site for the full experience. (more…)

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W+K Sings ‘Dadsong’ for Old Spice

W+K has a new spot for Old Spice’s “#SmellcometoManhood” campaign entitled “Dadsong,” a follow-up to to the goofy musical “Momsong,” in which mothers lament Old Spice turning their sons into men while engaging in some pretty creepy behavior.

The follow-up, with music and lyrics written by Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords, The Muppets), reprises the sad moms of that spot, but with an answer from the dads. It opens on one of the moms from “Momsong” singing, “Where’s my little boy, I miss him so? Who’s this man living in our home?” while clutching her sons teddy bear as he slow dances with a girl. Soon a chorus of fathers replies that they’re “overjoyed” that they’ll be using their son’s room “for storage pretty soon.” The song is a step up from its predecessor — not a surprise given McKenzie’s involvement — and strikes more of a balance between goofiness and creepiness (which mostly comes across through visual gags). And while it deals in over-the-top portrayals of stereotypical motherly clinginess and fatherly aloofness, it’s also pretty clear that it isn’t dealing in anything resembling reality. Fans of McKenzie’s distinct style of musical comedy, and anyone who enjoyed the original “#SmellcometoManhood” installment, should get a kick out of “Dadsong.” (more…)

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