Hasta La Creative!

Toronto-based Grip Limited have a new campaign for Testicular Cancer Canada that’s, well, ballsy.

The agency employed risque humor to raise testicular cancer awareness and get more guys to self-examine regularly. Built around the tagline, “No one’s going to check them for you,” Grip’s two TV spots, directed by Matt Swanson, show men receiving testicular exams from unexpected sources, resulting in some pretty ridiculous (and funny) situations. In the first, and more successful spot, “Cop,” a guy is pulled over for a broken taillight. “Let me see your driver’s license,” says the cop, “….aaaand your testicles.” The humor in the spot comes from the resultant avoidance (and non-avoidance) of eye contact and awkward looks during the exam. “Mechanic” is basically the same idea, but with a mechanic in an auto body shop instead of a cop. It could just be that I viewed “Cop” first, but something about it just wasn’t as funny. Nevertheless, both spots make admirable use of humor to make a message that’s all too often forgotten memorable, an admirable accomplishment, especially when you consider the prevalence of testicular cancer.

“Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men ages 15-29”, explained Testicular Cancer Canada founder Cheryl Perry explained . “If you try to sit these guys down and teach them something, they might tune you out. But if you make them laugh, they’ll remember what you’re saying”.

In addition to the TV spots, the integrated campaign, which is timed to coincide with Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, also features radio advertising from Pirate Toronto and an online testicular cancer “remote scanner.” As you might have guessed, the remote scanner asks dudes to place their balls on their phone screen only to display an error message telling them to check their balls themselves. Stick around for credits and “Mechanic” after the jump. continued…

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“So what do you think, you gonna take it?” asks a BMW salesman in KBS+P and production company O Positive’s new spot for the BMW 3-Series. This sends the man into a reverie of past regrets, from dumping a nerdy Brooklyn Decker in high school to passing up a chance to get in on the ground floor of Twitter. The 60-second spot, directed by David Shane is certainly memorable, showing the 3-Series in the beginning of the spot and linking passing up the opportunity to own it to some pretty poor decision making skills. Spoiler alert: the guy decides to buy it. “Regrets” is well produced, paced, and acted, effectively using humor to make a lasting impression. Just one thing though: Does anyone else find nerd Brooklyn Decker hotter than runway Brooklyn Decker, or is that just me?

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Team One runs through a list sins encouraged by the Lexus F performance line in their new spot, “Temptation.”

According to the 60-second spot, the Lexus F, “Provokes lust, unleashes wrath, incites envy, and elicits pride.” Absent are two of my personal favorites, sloth and gluttony, which Team One decided (understandably) don’t really do much to sell luxury performance vehicles. Greed is skipped over because they’re trying to get people to shell out a lot of money for a car here.

The spot, slickly produced by RSA, does a better job of tying the vehicle to certain sins than others. Lust is embodied by a couple making out in the rain, after which the Lexus F happens to exit a garage, not doing much to show how it “provokes lust.” Oh wait, it’s because the guy stops making out for a second to check out the Lexus F. Ugh. The rest of the sins are dealt with a bit better, with “unleashes wrath” tied not to actual anger but the car’s power, and envy and pride dealt with in more obvious ways. Perhaps most importantly, “Temptation” makes the Lexus F look good, even if its concluding line, “Temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms, but only one letter” is a bit weak. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand have just announced winning Virgin Active duties in Thailand, adding to the agency’s business growth momentum.

“We’re so pleased to be working with Virgin Active,” said Mark Cochrane, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand. “They want to become the most loved fitness brand in Thailand, and with the power of Lovemarks thinking we’re really excited to be fuelling their journey. They are great people, and have a great dream.”

Virgin Active is launching their flagship location in Bangkok this month, but Saatchi & Saatchi have confidentially been working on the launch for several months prior. They will be responsible for advertising, design, branded content, PR and activation, and overseeing all social media activity. “We have really concentrated on creating a seamless launch experience for potential members that is rich with surprise and delight at every turn,” said Cochrane. “Together, we’re excited to build ‘the happily ever active movement’ and help Virgin Active become a Lovemark in Thailand.”

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Las Vegas-based SK+G Advertising, which you may remember from the first season of The Pitch and currently works with clients including the Borgata and Andre Agassi Foundation, has landed a new creative leader in Marc Lineveldt, who joins the agency as ECD. Lineveldt joins SK+G after serving in a similar role at Atlanta-based Fitzgerald+CO. It seems SK+G spent some time in its search for a new ECD. In a statement, agency managing partner John Schadler says, “We conducted an extensive and committed search for the perfect ECD candidate who would bring a worldly point of view, honed by experience, which will enhance the company’s position, expand our opportunities for growth and reinforce our pursuit of creative excellence. Marc brings with him an impressive range of achievements and we feel the timing is optimal as we are embarking on taking our business to the next level with continued expansion and global reach.”

During his 24-year ad career, Lineveldt has also served as a co-ECD at TBWA\Hunt Lascaris in Cape Town, and has held creative positions at the likes of Y&R and Saatchi.

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Burger King is officially conducting a global ad review after performing a bit of a two-step in recent months.

On splitting with Crispin Porter & Bogusky in 2011, the company moved on from its infamous “king” spots to work with CHI & Partners in the UK and Mother New York in the US. Earlier this year, company leaders hinted at changes in the UK after beginning and then cancelling an agency review; global now seems to be the answer.

Where will the brand go? CHI & Partners’ “We wish Burger King well as they make more global marketing arrangements” statement doesn’t sound particularly confident.

We will note, based on this recent New Zealand campaign from Colenso BBDO, that BK has not lost its desire to be weird.

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In honor of the NCAA March Madness tournament, Y&R created their own “Brand Madness” tournament using their proprietary BrandAsset Valuator database, and there are quite a few upsets.

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Digital agency Entrinsic created a new campaign for RBC targeting first-time home buyers called “The Mortgage,” in which they imagine the home buying experience in three different Hollywood-genre style trailers.

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechick (best known for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), each trailer promotes a fictional film of a couple shopping for their first house, with roughly the same formula channeled into three different genres: romantic comedy, drama and horror. The results are cheesy, but not unwatchable. They certainly have the tone of the Hollywood trailer nailed. The best of the bunch is probably the horror one (featured above), which squeezes in some jokes riffing on popular horror movie tropes. It works a lot better than the drama trailer, which feels a bit forced attempting to fit home buying into a Hollywood drama style narrative.

“Analytics are always behind everything we do at Entrinsic,” said Eli Singer, founder and president of Entrinsic. “We call it ‘creative by the numbers.’ Based on the data we gather we’ll be able to augment the campaign, making it increasingly connected so that it drives strong results for the client, just like we did with RBC’s successful students initiative.”

At the end of each of the trailers, viewers can click through to RBC’s digital properties for first-time homebuyers. In addition to the three spots, the campaign also has a social media element with events on Twitter, as well as a contest giving entrants the opportunity to win $25,000 towards a mortgage downpayment. The campaign will also be supported by “integrated offline content including full page movie poster-style ads in newspapers, mock “coming soon” posts promoting the movie trailers on relevant websites and blogs, in-branch advertising, wild postings, in-cinema advertising, interactive banner ads and social content and influencer outreach.” It will run throughout the key spring homebuying season. Stick around for credits and “Romantic Comedy” after the jump. continued…

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San Diego’s i.d.e.a. has a couple of announcements to (almost) coincide with its second anniversary last month: in addition to three-digit growth numbers, the agency announced two new VP-level hires.

New media VP Michaela Krams joins i.d.e.a. after spending the last 11 years as VP and brand group director at Horizon Media, where she led the Jack in the Box account. Before that she worked on retail, travel and entertainment accounts at both Carat and ICG.

VP of reputation Julie Messing-Paea brings a particularly colorful history to her new role: in addition to time spent as head of PR at event-planning agency Advanstar Communications, working on the CBS marketing team, and contracting for clients like FOX, E!, Equinox and Radio Disney, she was also director of PR and marketing at Flynt Management Group; the press release describes her role as that of “personal publicist”, press manager and speechwriter to one Larry C. Flynt.

Yes, that guy.

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M&C Saatchi Stockholm has launched “Stockholm Is Your Canvas,” an initiative for Stockholm Art Week allowing visitors to canvas.stockholmartweek.com to submit their art and have it displayed on a digital billboard in Stureplan, Stockholm (if they’re a Swedish resident).

Visitors to the site simply upload their picture or video, select a 30 second time slot during the festival — which began April 1st and runs until April 6th — and their art will be displayed on the impressive digital billboard passed by over 450,000 people a day. My first impression was that this was open to any online visitors, but it is in fact limited to those with Swedish cell numbers. If you’re interested (and have a Swedish cell number) all you need to do is visit the site, provide your name, title of your art, city and said Swedish cell number, pick a desired time and submit your work in a 16:9 aspect ratio, with a maximum file size of 50 MB. This is a pretty cool way to get people involved with Stockholm Art Week, even if it’s kind of a shame that visitors to the country (or those who would get a thrill from their art being displayed on the billboard even if they can’t see it) can’t submit.

Update: We received the following note from M&C Saatchi: “The campaign is really for all people on the planet. Not only good looking Swedes. We have removed the confusion with phone number now.”

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