Hasta La Creative!

Milan-based agency DUDE has launched a new worldwide campaign for Diadora called “The City is What We Make of it.”

A follow up to last year’s “Free to be Me,” shot in New York, DUDE’s latest finds the agency heading to L.A. for an homage to city sports. “Wake up early, look at it: this is our place” the spot begins, before following a group of young people making the city their playground. The 75 second spot is well shot, with intriguing footage of skateboarding, street bowling, rooftop golf and other wholesome urban activities, but the strained copy and smug voiceover have a tendency to undercut the spot’s potential. “Some ride in the gym, we gym on the ride” is an actual line (in reference to bicycle basketball) spoken in said voiceover.

While “The City is What We Make of it” is a clear follow up to last year’s campaign, retaining the “Free to be Me” tagline and spotlighting L.A. the way that campaign did New York, it also feels like a slight departure in certain areas. The new spot has a different tone than the more wistful “Free to be Me,” as well as some more energetic pacing. We’ve included that spot for reference after the jump, along with credits for “The City is What We Make of it.” continued…

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A new Addy campaign from Rochester RAF Connect folks asks, “What’s Your Spirit Animal?”

They’ve created a 2014 Spirit Animal Generator, inviting advertising professionals to answer a series of questions to summon their inner spirit animal. Once you’ve completed the quiz you can upload a photo to have your spirit animal superimposed over the image, or opt out and just get the details behind your spirit animal. It’s a bit ridiculous and silly but also kind of fun (then again, this is how the ADDYs roll), like most online quizzes of this nature. Give it a try for yourself and share your spirit animal in the comments section if you’d like.

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Santa Monica, CA-based agency, Secret Weapon, continues the trend of absurd humor they employed in their regional Super Bowl ad for Jack in the Boxwith the new spots.

The first of these spots sees the regional fast food franchise’s creepy mascot introducing the new pesto chicken sandwich while claiming his recent productivity is thanks to the new robot he has “handling the day to day stuff.” We then cut to the robot strangling a man for taking the piece of birthday cake he wanted. “There’s still a few bugs,” Jack admits. It’s a slightly different kind of absurd humor than the cheese Secret Weapon poured on in the Super Bowl spot, although the robot humor falls flat and feels disjointed from the earlier part of the ad introducing the new product.

The other new spot, for Jack in the Box’s new “monster” taco offerings, more successfully combines the product introduction with Secret Weapon’s absurd humor. It imagines Jack in the Box’s new taco offerings — nacho, and bacon ranch (Jack in the Box certainly loves their bacon) — as monster trucks facing off. The spot parodies the classic “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” school of monster truck ads, before an unexpected reveal puts everything we’ve just seen in a different context. Stick around for brief credits and “Monster Tacos” after the jump. continued…

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Soubriet Byrne & Associates worked with the Swiss Tourism Board to create a series of lighthearted videos called “Swiss Myths,” featuring host and “travel investigator” Michael Delaney.

In the series, Delaney goes about dispelling myths from “The Swiss only eat fondue” to “The Swiss don’t have fun” to the notion that there’s always snow in Switzerland and that you have to speak the language. Throughout the series employs a kind of lighthearted, and somewhat cheesy, humor that wouldn’t be out of place on a Travel Channel series from back before the Travel Channel was all about food.

The highlight of the series is definitely “Fondue or Fondon’t?” (the title of which should give you an idea of what to expect). In the video, Delaney goes to an upscale Swiss restaurant and is astonished to find that they don’t serve fondue. Disappointed, Delaney still finds use for his long fork. The rest of the videos follow the same formula: humorously debunking commonly held misconceptions or generalizations about Switzerland while extolling the country’s appealing tourist aspects. A couple of these, namely “Nice Pass!” and “Speakin’ Swiss,” seem a little out of touch, as I’m not sure many people think it’s hard to get around the country or don’t know that its citizens largely speak English. The video series is the Swiss Tourism site, where visitors can enter to win a “Grand Prize of an eight-day all expense paid trip, from Swiss Int. Air Lines and Globus Journeys, throughout the magnificent country,” as well as navigate through photos and funny quizes. Stick around for “#%&@% Palm Tree!” and credits after the jump. continued…

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Division of Labor created a pair of fun, short videos for Live Nation, which are shown as pre-show entertainment at venues such as Shoreline, The Palladium and Roseland Ballroom to show off the capabilities of their digital screen network.

The above “Rodents on Turntables” is…well, exactly what it sounds like. Professionally trained rodents run on turntables playing several different types of music. The rodents, and their names, are tailored for the different genres: “Chunk” for hip-hop, “Sergio” for mariachi, “Herzog” for metal. “Rodents on Turntables” ends with the warning, “…Animals were trained and handled by professional animal trainers. Please do not try this at home.” So, while it may seem like a good idea, don’t put your hamster on your turntable — it will end badly.

“No critters were harmed in the making of either film, which is more than can be said for musical instruments,” says DOL partner/creative director, Josh Denberg, who co-directed the films with fellow Division of Labor Partner and Creative Director Paul Hirsch.

“Ode to Pete,” as you may have gathered, is a tribute to Pete Townsend and his habit of destroying his guitar at the end of shows. In the video, musicians of all stripes destroy their respective instruments in slow motion while surprisingly soothing music by Tonefarmer plays in the background. It’s a lot of fun, and if you’ve ever wanted to see a mariachi smash his guitarron, or a viola get the Townshend treatment, now’s your chance. Stick around for “Ode to Pete,” along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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3SBA/Innocean Worldwide teamed up with director Alejandro Toledo of Harpoon Pictures for two new spots for Kia.

In the playful 60 second spot “Winter,” a snowball fight breaks out on the street, with children and adults alike ducking behind Kias to avoid being pelted with snowy projectiles. A family returns from a winter trip with a sleeping child in the backseat of their Kia Rio, while another family cheers on the action from the safety of their Kia Ceed. It’s a fun spot, or at least it would have been if it was timed right. But therein lies the problem: “Winter” is being released at the tail end of one of the harshest seasons in recent history, and I doubt many people are in the mood to celebrate “the joyful surprises to be found in the season” or look fondly at anything but the impending arrival of spring. The last thing people want to be reminded of is the fact that there’s still almost a month left until that happens.

The other spot, “Russia,” celebrates that country while extolling the diversity of Kia’s models, which can perform well in both urban and rural environments. In the spot, “Kia Sorrento, Ceed and Rio are each shown seamlessly moving from rough forest and off-road terrains into energetic city environments, delighting drivers and passengers alike with the cars’ comfort, elegance and agility.” Oddly enough, the Russian nationalism stoking spot was actually filmed by Toledo in Spain. You can view “Russia” after the jump and if you care, learn more about Toledo and Harpoon Pictures here.

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With the 2014 Sochi Olympics slowly making their way toward their conclusion, we thought we’d share an Olympic campaign you might not have seen yet. Radley launched “Be A Weekender” for Hilton with four mini-documentaries honoring American Olympic athletes for Hilton’s Honors program.

The four videos were designed to “provide an energizing look at the forever-on-the-move lifestyles of Olympic hopefuls,” exemplified by “Weekend By Ashley,” the 2:16 video starring U.S. skater Ashley Wagner featured above. In the video, Wagner talks about her crazy, always on the move lifestyle in which she sometimes forgets what country’s hotel room she is in, growing up at the ice rink, and all the trips to warm places she’d like to take. Other athletes featured in the series include speed skater Patrick Meek, hockey player Meghan Agosto-Marciano and Paralympic ski racer Alana Nichols.

Creating these documentaries was no easy feat, as finding the extra time to film with athletes whose days typically begin with training at 3 A.M. is a big challenge. As Radley CCO/Director Kurt Spenser explains, “Fitting into the lives of Olympic hopefuls in the middle of an Olympic year is not an easy task. Detailed planning with the Hilton team allowed us to stay on schedule for the athletes and to be spontaneous when opportunities presented themselves. We did not want to interrupt their training or their travel, so we had to tailor our production as much as we could while still staying on budget and on time. It was a great team effort and we are all very proud of the results.”

Check out “Weekend By Ashley” above, and stick around for Alana Nichols‘ video, along with credits, after the jump. And for the full experience, head over to the campaign website. continued…

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Well, the Olson camp did the math for us as the Minneapolis-based agency’s wet n wild Beauty win marks its seventh AOR assignment since Sept. 1, following the likes of Sharp Electronics, Supercuts and Commerce Bank. In case you didn’t know, wet n wild, which signed Fergie from Black Eyed Peas as its spokesperson in 2012, is a 35-year-old, L.A.-based division of Markwins Beauty Products and one that has never maintained an AOR relationship before but tapped Olson after a national search.

Markwins president Bill George says in a statement, “Our brand is in a great position to reach out to a broader audience. Of all the agencies we talked to, Olson’s team best understood our circumstances and laid out the most compelling vision for our future.” From what sources tell us, other agencies in the final round were Mekanism and DDB West. As wet n wild AOR, Olson will now handle broadcast, digital, social media and data analytics for the brand.

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In October, Philly-based Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners welcomed eight new hires with paper doll likenesses of themselves.

Now, in an attempt to up the ante in the creative welcoming of new employees department, the agency has crafted a totem pole featuring eleven new hires that were just announced today. The totem pole was sculpted by Steve Thompson, RTO+P’s “Maker,” out of basswood and stands proud at 26 inches tall.

“We’re stoked to have all this new talent aboard and we’ve heard the totem of their likenesses can actually produce rain when held at a specific angle,” says Steve Red, president/CCO of RTO+P. You can view a short documentary on the sculpting process above. New hires include (from top to bottom of the totem pole): Jacqui Abel, Senior Account Manager; Jonathan Bayless, Social Driver; Megan Auld-Wright, Copywriter; Travis Hyatt, Developer; Gillian Darr, Account Coordinator; Chris Arasin, Interactive Designer; Allison Berger, Community Manager; Will Nathanson, Account Director; Alex Moreno, Junior Social Creative; Joe Schoppy, Junior Social Creative; and Meg Dibley, Junior Content Producer.

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Russian creative agency Hungry Boys has launched a new animated digital campaign to promote the release of the upcoming film “Startup,” about “the burgeoning startup scene in Russia from the early 90s until now,” slated for an April 3rd release. (Here’s a link to the trailer, in case you speak Russian.)

The site allows users to answer a series of questions (after taking all your Facebook info) designed “ to determine whether or not people have what it takes to become an entrepreneur and what sort of startup they might consider becoming involved in.” But don’t take the questions, or the results, too seriously. It’s really just a fun way to promote the movie. Many of the questions have more to do with pop culture preferences than anything pertaining to business, and the startup suggestions are pretty goofy and ridiculous. Here are my results:

Other possible outcomes include deciphering animal noises, personal Instagram cameraman, and home ghost rentals. Head on over to the site to give it a shot for yourself, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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