Wolf & Wilhelmine’s #WolfHowl Reverberates Coast-to-Coast

Heidi Hackemer, founder and director of strategy for Wolf & Wilhelmine, has the right idea—either rebuild the agency of the future around her own human needs or get the hell out of dodge. Hackemer is a Wisconsin-bred New Yorker who believes in good ideas, a good run and good hair. She also eloquently states several […]

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Arnold Worldwide, Ad Council Launch ‘Grads of Life’ PSA

Arnold Worldwide and the Ad Council teamed up with Year Up, the Employment Pathways Project, ConPRmetidos, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, New Options Project, and Opportunity Nation for a PSA campaign entitled “Grads of Life.”

The campaign promotes alternative hiring processes and attempts to “raise awareness and change employer’s perceptions of opportunity youth” to fill the 4 million vacant positions companies in the U.S. are trying to fill. In a spot called “Pathways to Employment,” running in both 30 and 60-second versions, an employer sits down with a candidate for an interview. She touts her problem solving skills and strong work ethic, and, while he mentions her lack of a college degree, he ultimately decides she’s exactly what he’s looking for. Then, she disappears into thin air, symbolizing that because of the way in which they look for candidates, most employers never meet these type of prospective employees.

The campaign launch was backed by Hilary Clinton at the tenth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, where she said, “The Grads of Life PSA campaign is the first effort to drive employer demand for the millions of low-income young adults that are a huge source of untapped talent in our country and through GradsofLife.org employers can now access the first-ever online platform for the information, tools, and resources they need to take action today.”

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72andSunny Want You to Join the ‘Mile High Club’ with Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr.

72andSunny has a suggestive new ad for Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s to promote the chain’s new Mile High Bacon Thickburger.

The Paris Hilton-free spot, entitled “Propositioning,” begins with Israeli model and actress Bar Paly asking her boyfriend if he wants to join the “mile high club.” When he replies, “Not right now, babe,” she turns to the guy across the aisle, who happily accepts. Then proceeds to hand him a Mile High Bacon Thickburger and they both chow down, accompanied by a voiceover effectively saying “see what we did there?”

The brand has such a history of demanding overtly-sexual advertising that it would be silly to expect them to “grow up” overnight. Still, given the controversial 2012 Kate Upton spot, “Propositioning” feels relatively tame. (more…)

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mono Introduces Honeywell’s Lyric Thermostat

mono teamed up with New York-based Hornet Studios to introduce Honeywell’s new Lyric thermostat with a new animated campaign.

In a 30-second spot, mono introduces the new smart thermostat’s geo-fencing capabilities, showing how the Lyric can use the location of your phone to determine when you’re away and go into power saving mode, and then sense when you’re coming home and return your home to your preferred temperature. To accomplish this, the animated spot presents the scenario of a man whose layover “turns into a stayover” as he’s forced to book a hotel room. This provides viewers with a good example of when Lyric’s smart features might come in handy. A 15-second spot (also animated) takes a similar approach, telling the story of a family who decide to go camping.

In addition to the broadcast spots, the campaign also includes digital, social, print and OOH properties. Like the broadcast spot, these components align “with moments when Lyric’s technology will be most useful, encouraging people to rethink the possibilities of a smart, money-saving thermostat that offers people the versatility to live their lives spontaneously.” (more…)

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Baldwin& Brings Burt’s Bees to TV

Durham-based agency Baldwin&, Burt’s Bees’ agency of record, is bringing the brand to television for the first time in its 30-year history with a new campaign promoting its line of flavored lip balms.

The campaign is built around one 30-second and two 15-second ads utilizing whimsical animation to illustrate the variety of flavored lip balms from the brand. In the the 30-second spot, bees drop a tube of the brand’s original mint-flavored lip balm and a mint parachute opens. We then see grapefruit butterflies representing Burt’s pink grapefruit variety, chased by a honeycomb net on top a tube of honey-flavor. The scene unfolds to represent all of the brand’s flavored varieties, followed by the new “Uncap flavor” tagline.

“Lip balm is becoming something more like a gum product that brightens up consumers’ day,” Tad Kittredge, associate director of marketing at Burt’s Bees, explained to The New York Times. So while lip balm has traditionally been marketed to treat conditions like chapped lips,”…recently you’re starting to see a lot more of what I would call personality-driven and lifestyle-focused advertising, and we’re focused on the flavors as a way to reinforce the fun aspect of the brand,” Kittredge said.

In addition to the brand’s first television spots, which break Monday, the campaign also includes a print component, which uses similar imagery to promote the brand’s variety of flavors in full-page print ads. (more…)

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McCann Paris Launches ‘Bra Cam’ for Nestlé Fitness

McCann Paris has a provocative new take on the breast cancer awareness PSA, launching the world’s first (according to them) “Bra Cam,” to remind women to check for breast cancer.

At the beginning of the spot, a woman fastens a hidden camera to her bra before heading out for the day in a somewhat revealing (but still plenty safe for work) outfit. The ad then brings up a counter recording each time her breasts are “checked out” over the course of the day. It’s an attention grabbing way to deliver a pretty clear message: Everyone else is checking out your breasts, so check them out yourself and self-examine regularly for breast cancer. The campaign comes complete with a social initiative asking women to post a #CheckYourSelfie, checking themselves out and inviting friends to do the same in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness and get more women to self examine regularly. (more…)

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Agency Founder Selina Petosa Talks Gender Imbalance and the Future of Digital

The ad industry rarely finds common ground on much of anything, but two particularly contentious topics do seem to have long shelf lives: gender imbalance and the “digital vs. analog” divide.

We spoke to Selina Petosa, founder and chief creative strategist of Seattle-based digital agency Rational Interaction, to get her take on these subjects.

First, here’s some work Rational created for client Microsoft in 2012 (other major clients include Sony, Amazon, AT&T, Expedia and Cisco).

Q&A below.

(more…)

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Carmichael Lynch Gets ‘Distracted’ for Subaru

Carmichael Lynch has another new spot for Subaru, following the release of a campaign promoting the Subaru Outback just last week.

This time around, Carmichael Lynch has crafted a spot for the Subaru Legacy. In the 30-second ad, a teenage boy is distracted by girl-minded daydreams when the Legacy’s obstacle-detection technology comes to the rescue. While his daydreams are squeaky clean compared to what actual teenage boys fantasize about, it’s still a relatively realistic scenario which makes a lot of sense as an approach for a family car, whose customers are likely to have to lend to their adolescent kid at some point. So while there’s not enough truth here for a full laugh, there’s more than enough to effectively make a point about the Legacy’s safety. (more…)

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Publicis Seeks to ‘Stop the Violence’ for Nokia

Publicis, Italy has a new spot for Nokia which seeks to “Stop the Violence” of cut selfies.

The clever spot shows a series of badly cut selfies, followed by the message, “Every day thousands of people are victims of cut selfies. Stop the violence.” This is followed by the tagline, “Share life uncut,” which has some unfortunate (and unintentional) implications. That it becomes kind of hard to watch the procession of badly shot selfies only serves to underscore the spot’s message. That said, the pacing and editing seem pretty spot-on. (more…)

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TechCrunch Unimpressed by West Agency’s Homepage

SF West

Today we learned that TechCrunch blogger Kyle Russell doubles as an advertising critic. More specifically, he criticizes the websites of ad agencies.

There’s a reason he was interested in this one: it’s West, the San Francisco shop founded by former Apple marketing chief Allison Johnson and top Facebook PR Brandee Barker with a bit of capital from Twitter originator Jack Dorsey.

About a year ago, we posted on West in response to tipsters’ claims that all the real ad people hired to staff the agency were leaving. West’s web presence doesn’t help clarify that matter, because it provides absolutely no information about the organization itself.

Still, Russell lingered on the page long enough to call it “a new champion in the endless battle to have the most pretentious startup website.”

(more…)

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FCB Gets Weird, Retro for Kmart

FCB Chicago has a new spot for Kmart that’s…unusual.

Modeled after an 80?s karaoke music video (as viewed and/or created by someone on hallucinogens), the spot aims to promote the brand’s “pay in store” option for online purchases. Because this is Kmart, it’s done in the strangest fashion possible.

There’s no effective way to prepare the viewer for this experience — let’s just say you can expect synths, retro filters, lyrics explaining the payment process, iPad faces and assorted randomness with a sort of Kate Bush/1984 flavor. Coming on the heels of “Shop Like A Boss” and the ubiquitous “Ship My Pants“, we can’t call it surprising.

That said, it definitely exceeded our expectations.

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W+K Portland Launches ‘Never Finished’ for Nike, Starring Richard Sherman

W+K Portland got Richard Sherman to star in its new spot “Never Finished” for Nike, following on the heels of Sherman’s recent appearances for Neff earlier this month and Campbell’s in August.

The new spot deals with the hype train surrounding Sherman, as he is constantly bombarded with media discussions of whether or not he is “the best.” “Never Finished” does a good job at finding humor in the situation, aided by a believably exasperated Sherman. The highlight is probably the made for TV biopic, starring Damon Wayans Jr.

Sherman’s roles in ads so far have mostly seen the Seahawks star not taking himself seriously and playing with his public persona. That definitely continues with “Never Finished,” but the schtick is much less over the top than some of his past roles, and the more nuanced characterization fits Sherman well as the spot, more than anything, mocks the media hype that surrounds star players. It makes for an entertaining ad, and Sherman’s most enjoyable performance by far.

The campaign, which runs until October 9th, also includes five additional videos, with special cameos from Johnny Manziel, Victor Cruz, Ndamukong Suh and Ken Griffey Jr.
(more…)

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DDB Debuts Skittles’ First Ever Halloween Ad

It seems odd that there’s never been a Halloween ad for Skittles. While the brand may not have the same kind of association with the holiday as, say, Reese’s, it still commands a good deal of exchange value for kids swapping trick or treat hauls. And yet DDB Chicago’s new Halloween spot, extending the brand’s “Experience The Rainbow” campaign, is the brand’s first foray into Halloween advertising.

As you might expect, the ad contains the level of weirdness associated with that campaign, and the brand’s advertising in general. When a boy finds himself stuck in a giant spiderweb, attempting to reach a bag of Skittles, his friend wonders what to do. Then a giant spider shows up, promising to help if he gets stuck, and thus begins a lifelong friendship…or does it?

The spot is rolling out as a 15-second broadcast spot and an extended, 45-second online video (featured above), and will run until Halloween. (more…)

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john st. Presents ‘The Lazy Environmentalist’ for WWF

Toronto agency john st.’s latest campaign for World Wildlife Fund Canada is based around the insight that people are lazy. Or, as Stephen Jurisic, co-ECD at john st. puts it, “This idea comes from the rather depressing truth that most people will only do things that help the environment if it’s really, really easy to do…So rather than try to change that behavior, we thought let’s just embrace it and show that it takes next to no effort to help our oceans and the sea life in it.”

In a 60-second spot, the agency promotes buying seafood with the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) label on it to help protect our oceans by supporting sustainable fishing practices. The spot likens buying MSC-certified seafood with recycling (“Because it’s next to the trash.”) and buying organic, things that are “easy and practically unavoidable.” It’s an interesting change of approach from the usual call-to-arms, making the implication that there’s really no excuse not to buy MSC seafood, since it’s so easy.The campaign also includes two shorter how-to videos and a series of overtly simply online quizzes. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen Plays iPhone Homewrecker for Verizon

mcgarrybowen has a new ad for Verizon Wireless, advertising the company’s iPhone trade-in offer allowing customers to trade in their old iPhone and for a new one, supposedly for free.

In the spot, a man reading a newspaper comes across a print ad highlighting the deal and is intrigued, reading the offer out loud. His iPhone overhears, saying, “Did you say something, Paul?” For the remainder of the spot, Siri attempts to remind Paul of the good times they’ve had together in an attempt to stop him from trading the phone in. The efforts are for naught though, as he eventually gets to Verizon to make the deal, followed by the fine print explaining that the transaction is nowhere near as straightforward as just pictured.

Finding sympathy with the to-be-replaced phone may seem like kind of an odd tactic, but it ends up being a good source of humor and makes the spot memorable. And the approach is executed well, with Siri’s attempts to stop the trade-in well thought out and naturally paced with Paul’s trip to the Verizon store. (more…)

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Saatchi & Saatchi, NY Assumes Lead Creative Duties for Vita Coco

saatchi-and-saatchi-square-logo1Vita Coco, a leader in the rapidly growing coconut water market, has selected Saatchi & Saatchi, New York as its lead creative agency.

Arthur Gallego, the brand’s director of corporate and consumer communications told AdAge the hiring is “really part of an ongoing global growth strategy,” adding, “In the past, when the brand has advertised, we’ve typically worked with smaller shops. So this is the first time that we’ve worked with a truly global agency.”

Two months ago, Vita Coco announced plans to expand into China, via a deal selling a 25% stake in the company to Reignwood Group, parent company to Red Bull China. While Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative duties will be limited to North America, Gallego noted that “there is brand architecture [that] informs everything we do globally.”

Saatchi & Saatchi, New York will work on a new campaign expected to launch in the spring. While the brand has used Rihanna in past advertising, Gallego emphasized that Vita Coco was looking for more of a “brand centric” approach going forward. According to Euromonitor International, Vita Coco had sales of $267.5 million last year, with the brand estimating it controls 60 percent of the “premium coconut water market.”

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BBDO Advocates Real Life Conversation for Starbucks

BBDO has a new campaign for Starbucks encouraging people to have real-life conversations.

In a series of spots we see text messages going back and forth while hearing people talk. Each time, the actual conversation communicates something that the text can’t, highlighting the importance of face-to-face conversation for communication, followed by the tagline “Sometimes the best way to connect, is to get together” and the Starbucks logo. It’s a clever way to highlight Starbucks as a meetup spot for casual conversation, although the premise begins to run a bit thin after viewing all three ads. Since people are already familiar with the products, emphasizing this aspect of the brand makes sense, and the campaign manages to do it with nothing more than voice and text (so Starbucks seems to getting a bargain here). We’ve included “Apology,” as well as “Date” and “Kick” after the jump. (more…)

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Grey NY Gets Creepy with Rob Lowe for DirecTV

Grey New York has a new campaign for DirecTV, utilizing the services of Rob Lowe.

Lowe plays himself and “Creepy Rob Lowe” in the 30-second spot “Creepy.” Regular Lowe has DirecTV, while “Creepy Rob Lowe” has cable, which causes him to do creepy things like watch people swim at the rec center when his cable is out. While it’s a bit of a logical stretch, the character (complete with creepy facial hair) is kind of funny and a welcome change for the brand.

“Less Attractive” features a similarly-minded character, the schlubby, balding “Less Attractive Rob Lowe.” While not as funny as “Creepy” and even more nonsensical, it’s still entertaining to see Rob Lowe dressed up as a balding, paunchy version of himself. The format for the ads leaves itself open to plenty of possibilities with other celebrities in the future, so this could be a long-running campaign if it catches on. (more…)

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DDB &Tribal Introduces KLM’s Lost & Found Team Mascot

DDB & Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam introduces KLM’s Lost & Found Team with a new video highlighting the team’s adorable canine mascot.

Since KLM receives 40,000 questions via social media every week, and many of them relate to missing items, the company decided to set up a dedicated Lost & Found team. The team “uses all available information like seat numbers, phone numbers and public social media details to reunite passengers with their belongings.” DDB & Tribal decided they were missing something, however: a search dog.

“We were told that the members of KLM’s Lost & Found team sometimes track down passengers before they even realize they’ve lost something,” said Alex Herwig and Jeroen Thissen, creatives at DDB & Tribal Worldwide. “We feel they are a bit like detectives. So to illustrate that KLM goes above and beyond for their passengers, we decided to involve a search dog.”

In the video, the search dog can be seen reuniting passengers with missing items, training and getting friendly with KLM staff. It’s worth a quick 90 seconds for a look at KLM’s mascot in action, but if you want to skip the introduction and get straight to the canine cuteness, skip to around the 30-second mark or so. (more…)

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W+K NY Utilizes Voice of Donald Sutherland in ‘No Bag Left Behind’ for Delta

W+K New York enlisted the voice acting services of Donald Sutherland in their latest effort for Delta Airline’s “Keep Climbing” campaign.

Cleverly titled “No Bag Left Behind,” the spot derives from the insight that Delta flies more people than any other airline. Positioning this insight in an emotional context, the 60-second broadcast spot breaks from the more rational, documentary-style tone “Keep Climbing” has taken in the past, also employing the use of color for the first time in the campaign.

Directed by Noam Murro, the ad follows the bear-shaped bag of a small girl as it is cared for by Delta employees ensuring its safe delivery. Sutherland’s voice provides the perfect calm cadence to narrate the spot, concluding with the line, “…but when you’ve got an entire company who knows that the fewest cancellations and the most on-time flights are nothing if we can’t get your things there too, it’s no wonder more people choose Delta than any other airline,” delivered as the very relieved girl picks up her bag. The spot, which launched yesterday, will run until the end of November. (more…)

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