Hasta La Creative!

Nail Communications has launched an innuendo-laden campaign for Stonyfield Organic’s Petite Creme yogurt.

In the pre-roll video (featured above), entitled “Confessions,” a group of women talk about Greek yogurt, albeit in somewhat suggestive terms. It opens with a woman laughing and saying, “I don’t know, a couple times a week, I guess,” before whispering “I don’t really enjoy it.” “It’s just too much in the morning,” adds another woman. The spot concludes by asking, “Not satisfied with Greek yogurt,” followed by the “Cheat on Greek” tagline and a shot of Stonyfield Organic’s alternative.

A “Choose Your Own Adventure” style series of YouTube videos also deals in suggestiveness. The first video in the series asks “So you want to cheat on Greek?” Answer “yes” and you’ll get a coupon, “no” and you’re redirected to a video asking “Are you sure?” Here the series makes a grammatical error, as answering “Yes” to “Are you sure?” lands you the coupon, while “No” leads to a series of videos of “hunks” who attempt to seduce you. (And the suggestiveness gets a little gross, with one guy offering “pure pleasure and ten grams of protein.”) All the videos can be found on the campaign’s microsite. We expect a protest from the American Family Association for Stonyfield’s “promotion of adultery” within 72 hours.
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JWT launched a campaign for Stouffer’s new Mac Cups, a snack-sized version of the brand’s mac and cheese line.

Mac Cups were launched with the revelation that Americans now eat snacks at meal times 40 percent of the time, and are often no longer following the three meals a day pattern. As Tom Moe, the director of marketing at Stouffer’s told The New York Times, “This notion of eating five meals a day, where consumers are grazing throughout the day depending on their need, has opened up a complete new territory.”

So, JWT’s 15-second stop-motion animated spot fits with this strategy. Mac Cups are presented as a tempting snack to eat any time, dancing around to Supertramp’s “Give A Little Bit” and, at one point hiding behind the toaster (for some reason). The interspersed footage of the mac and cheese, touting its “real aged cheddar” doesn’t do much to make the product look appetizing, however.

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BBDO New York tells the story of “The Boy Who Beeps” in a new online spot for GE.

The two-minute ad begins with the boy’s birth, and the beeping sound he makes in place of the usual baby’s wail. It’s soon apparent that the boy can communicate with machines. This starts off small, with him using his voice to change the channel or hit snooze on his alarm clock, but soon he’s using his power for greater purposes. Maybe it’s the great soundtrack by Beck, but the strange story is oddly touching somehow. Coming on the heels of the recent “Ideas,” it seems that BBDO is going in an emotional direction in their online work for GE. (more…)

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72andSunny has just released a live action trailer for Activision’s new game Destiny, from the creators of the popular Halo franchise, which will be released on September 9th.

72andSunny and Activision went big for the trailer, teaming up with Academy Award winning VFX studio Digital Domain, Academy Award nominated FX studio Legacy Effects, and director Joseph Kosinski, who created most of the worlds for the ad in-camera, shooting at locations in Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The spot follows the adventures of Fireteam as they attempt to reclaim locations in our solar system from alien invaders. Levitating AI character Ghost is voiced by Peter Dinklage (who also voices the character in the game) and the spot mixes humor, action and Led Zeppelin’s iconic “Immigrant Song” to hype up the game and give a sense of its feel without any game footage. (more…)

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When Under Armour signed Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen for an advertising contract, she received quite a bit of criticism over social channels.

In the latest from Droga5?s “I Will What I Want” campaign, quotes from these social media critics are shown in the background (along with some support) as Bündchen tunes it all out and proceeds to kick and punch a heavy bag. She looks more like an athlete than a model in the spot, proving she has abilities beyond the runway. Her kung fu and yoga moves are also on display at http://gisele.underarmour.com/ — set to the backdrop of more real social media comments. While Gisele may have seemed like an odd choice for Under Armour, the collaboration works, even if it lacks the same narrative power as the campaign’s previous spot with Misty Copeland.

“We wanted to show a new side of Gisele—the unguarded, raw, real and brave side that shows what its like living in the public eye,” Droga5 Creative Director John McKelvey explained to Adweek. “To the world, most people have only seen her in a context of beauty and polish. But when we came to Gisele with the idea, she embraced the truth of the concept and its potential to be a positive message.”

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R/GA reunites David Hasselhoff and talking car KITT from Knight Rider (voiced by William Daniels) in a new spot for Samsung Smart Home.

Hasselhooff talks up the features of the Smart Home, calling it “literally the smartest thing ever,” which causes a fit of jealousy in KITT. The remainder of the two-minute spot deals with the fracture in the relationship between KITT and The Hoff, as KITT attempts to enact revenge and sabotage the shoot. Hasselhoff also has some fun playing on his own character, at one point referencing Knight Rider while attempting to flirt with a boom mic operator — to which she responds, “I think my dad might have mentioned it.” It’s all about as goofy as you’d expect, given Hasselhoff’s involvement, and has some fun moments, although it could have benefited from being edited down a bit from its two minute run time.

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In a case of tips confirmed, we have the official press release announcing that McCann has won the Choice Hotels account.

McCann Erickson will handle creative while MRM//McCann will run “digital and customer relationship marketing responsibilities” for the chain; Deutsch New York was the other finalist in the pitch. This is the first major agency change for the brand since it awarded creative and promotional duties to Leo Burnett and Doner in 2009.

While Choice may not be a household name, many of its properties are: Days Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Howard Johnson, etc. Company SVP Robert McDowell writes:

“McCann presented a strategic, creative vision and platform for telling the powerful Choice story.”

Havas will retain media duties for the brand; Cohn & Wolfe is its PR AOR.

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Arnold Worldwide is launching a new multimedia campaign for Jack Daniel’s entitled “The Few and Far Between,” which celebrates, “the quirky stories told by the proprietors, bouncers, barflys and patrons who frequent…fine establishments and questionable joints.” Or, in other words, drinking stories. The brand avoids accusations of promoting excess with the disclaimer, “You can’t tell a story you don’t remember. Please drink responsibly.”

In addition to short videos, the website hosting the campaign also features “tales of whiskey, revelry and mischief” in the form of written stories, audio and mixed media. You can take a look at a teaser video above, and head to the campaign site for the full experience. The launch features thirty bar stories gathered from around the country, but the brand plans to release even more later this year as part of this massive digital campaign and has also partnered with Vice Media for a user-generated photo contest. (more…)

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Sources told Adweek that Sprint is seeking a new lead creative agency.

According to the publication’s sources, the review will be focused on above-the-line marketing, most of which is spent on television. Sprint spends approximately $800 million on measured media annually. According to Adweek, it’s still unclear if the review also includes digital work, which is currently handled by DigitasLBi.

Sprint has a somewhat unusual history of agency relationships. In 2011, the company unexpectedly shifted its advertising duties from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to a team consisting of various Publicis Groupe agencies, led by DigitasLBi, who worked in conjunction with Leo Burnett on broadcast advertising. However, last year Sprint assigned those duties to Figliulo & Partners, who created the recent “Framily” campaign. (With Sprint abandoning that plan, and now searching for a new agency, it seems the Frobinsons may have seen their moment pass.)

The move doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given these comments made by Masayoshi Son, CEO of Sprint parent company Softbank:

“Sprint spends a large amount of money on advertising every year, but its effects have been almost negligible. I directed the Sprint executives to terminate all existing contracts with the company’s advertising agencies. We will shortly start from scratch on advertising, with new agents also making proposals.”

Dream client?

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M&C Saatchi is launching UGG’s first-ever global marketing campaign, entitled “This Is UGG,” which enlists the help of veteran brand ambassador Tom Brady in the brand’s latest effort to change its perception as the official fuzzy boot of Starbucks-toting girls everywhere.

Launching today, the campaign focuses on life’s smaller moments, centered around the 60-second spot “Time Out.” In the spot, Brady shares the message that in life you only get so many time outs and you need to make them count, because you can’t back pocket them or carry them over to another day. Tom’s voiceover plays out over a scene of him driving to play golf with his father, a pastime the two have shared since Tom was old enough to play. Another spot, featuring Brady and his mother, is set to follow in October, with a third entitled “Down Time” arriving in December.

“For the new UGG for Men campaign, we started with this premise: small moments can carry as much weight as the big moments,” explained Nancy Mamann, vice president of marketing for UGG Australia. “We conceptualized the spots to capture authentic moments that relate to men across the world. For Tom Brady in particular, we explored his life off the field, along with more personal settings, to show some of the moments that he considers meaningful.”

Whether that will convince men to rush out and buy UGG remains to be seen. Stick around for behind-the-scenes footage after the jump. (more…)

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