Hasta La Creative!

Ikea nicely contrasts its colorful design sense with the drabness of the world at large in these print ads from TBWA in Portugal. Apparently, going with Ikea means you get a balcony in buildings that otherwise don’t have any.

The approach recalls Jung von Matt/Elbe’s outdoor ads for home-improvement chain OBI. A splash of color in a gray landscape is so good at communicating a freshness of vision.

Full ads below. Via Ads of the World.

Click the images to enlarge.

CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: TBWA, Lisbon
Creative Director: Leandro Alvarez
Art Director: Julliano Bertoldi
Copywriter: Joao Ribeiro
Photographer: Yves Callewaert
Retouch: Whitelab

When you’re moving, you’re so beset by cardboard boxes that your life might as well be made of them. And now, Century 21’s new ad campaign actually is.

The new stop-motion campaign from Mullen uses cardboard cutouts to tell three stories about the travails of relocation. In the first ad, an emo cardboard kid in a red cap gets all broke up when his cardboard dad tells him they’re moving from one cardboard house to a bigger cardboard house. Luckily, there’s a cardboard real estate broker with a sunny yellow scarf to introduce the kid to another kid, with a blue cap.

In the second spot, a Century 21 agent saves the day by showing an elderly man who’s just moved to the city that there’s a nearby park where he can go hang out with the birds, without having to worrying about his lovely wife driving her boat of a car into the bushes.

The third spot manages a sideways dig at the enemy of real estate brokers everywhere—Craigslist—labeled not entirely inaccurately here as Creepslist. But the yellow-garnished hero helps a young single woman meet the rather fantastical criteria of a place that’s not infested by rats and has a roof with a view of red-hatted water towers (apparently enough to make the young woman cry).

The visuals, hand-cut by artist Elizabeth Corkery, are plenty endearing—simple without being boring, with nice, minimal use of color to highlight the emotional subtext. It also helps that the scenarios are all reasonably credible, and that moving, in general, really does suck. Then again, it’s all just part of modern life on this little spinning cardboard planet we call Earth (twee soundtracks not included).

Nike’s newest commercial captures the inner dialogue of a woman stuck behind a row of models during swim class; a runner through a half-marathon; and a beginner yogi unsure of her surroundings.

The spot, by Wieden + Kennedy, launches a campaign called #betterforit, which Nike says is its largest initiative yet in supporting and motivating women’s athletic journeys. It’s about “powering [women] to be better through services, product innovation and athlete inspiration, motivating each other to push to the next level,” the company says.

It’s a light, fun approach in contrast to more motivational Nike spots of the past, and it seems to be resonating with the average athlete. From the YouTube comments: “It’s not often I love commercials. But this one reminds us that everyone has insecurities and that we can accomplish anything, and I think that’s a really special thing to focus on in an ad.”

This first spot, “Inner Thoughts,” aired during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday night. It looks like Nike is positioning “Better for it” as the less aggressive (but maybe equally motivating) alternative to “Just do it.”

More videos and images below, plus credits.

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CREDITS
Client: Nike
Project: “Better For It”

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte / Ryan O’Rourke / Dan Viens
Copywriter: Heather Ryder / Darcie Burrell
Art Director: Patty Orlando
Producer: Molly Tait / Julie Gursha
Executive Agency Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Strategic Planning: Tom Suharto / Irina Tone
Media/Comms Planning: Emily Dalton / Destinee Scott / Emily Graham
Account Team: Karrelle Dixon / Alyssa Ramsey / Marisa Weber / Jim Zhou
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff / Joe Staples

Production Company: Iconoclast
Director: Matthew Frost
Executive Producer: Charles-Marie Anthonioz
Line Producer: Caroline Pham
Director of Photography: Darren Lew / Joost Van Gelder

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Angus Wall (“Inner Thoughts” :60 and :30) / Grant Surmi (:30/:15s)
Post Producer: Jared Thomas
Post Executive Producer: Angela Dorian

VFX Company: A52
VFX Supervisor: Jesse Monsour
Flame Artist: Brendan Crockett / Matt Sousa / Steve Wolf / Dan Ellis / Richard Hirst
VFX Producer: Jamie McBriety
Color: Paul Yacono

Music Supervision: Nylon Studios
Artist: Apollo 100
Track: Joy
Sound Designer: Barking Owl

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Matt Miller / Dave Wagg
Producer: Jessica Locke / Susie Boyajan

Houston, we have a blower.

French agency Altmann + Pacreau gets cosmic in this ad for Stihl leaf blowers, employing astronaut imagery and the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme to fine effect.

“Having done many ideas with leaves in the past, we thought we should go for something less expected to stand above the competitors in an allegoric and funny way,” Olivier Altmann, the agency’s chief creative officer, tells AdFreak. Given the client’s premium pricing, “they need to reinforce their positioning about performance and make sure that customers ask for Stihl, instead of being left with just the price as the main criteria for making their decision.”

Other ads have launched products into the void, but few have done so as elegantly as this one. Here, smooth visuals memorably emphasize the leaf blower’s power, portraying yard work as the ultimate trip (or something).

No doubt, in some distant dimension, where the dead live again and, for reasons beyond earthly understanding, really need to tidy up their lawns, Stanley Kubrick is smiling.

CREDITS
Client: Stihl
Agency: Altmann + Pacreau 
Creative Director: Olivier Altmann 
Agency Management: Edouard Pacreau, Thomas Vigneron 
Production: The Gang Films 
Producer: Nathalie Le Caer

Your life might not be quite like Game of Thrones, but you can still feel like a boss power broker if you drive a Chrysler, says a new ad from the automaker.

“Kings and Queens of America,” voiced by actor Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister on the hit HBO show, is launching just ahead of the fifth-season premier this Sunday.

The commercial, created by Wieden + Kennedy, builds on the great American myth that wealth and power are not a birthright, but rather simply there for the taking. That may be true, insofar as Justin Bieber, the Joffrey Baratheon of our time, didn’t inherit his fortune from his dad (even if both of them invaded from the North).

The 60-second spot even sports a soundtrack that references the theme music from the Game of Thrones’ opening credits.

On screen, a series of modern-day, ostensibly self-made warriors gird themselves for battle in designer glasses, high heels and blazers, and climb on their horses … or rather, into their Chrysler 300s. (Grand Maester Ron Burgundy can offer some wisdom on how many horses it would take to equal a Chrysler engine.)The faces featured include San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian; pro poker player Phil Ivey; photographer Kwaku Alston; and Los Angeles restaurateur Caroline Styne. They, and others, will appear in 30-second spots airing later this month.

Nobody, though, is shown viscously murdering his or her father, son-in-law, wife, brother or random stranger, for that matter.

CREDITS
Client: Chrysler
Spot: “The Kings & Queens of America”
CMO, FCA Global: Olivier Francois
President and CEO, Chrysler Brand: Al Gardner
Director, Head of Global Advertising, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram: Marissa Hunter
Head of Advertising, Chrysler Brand: Melissa Garlick
Chrysler Brand Advertising Specialist: Danielle DePerro

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen / Kevin Jones
Copywriter : Alex Romans
Art Director: John Dwight
Broadcast Producer: Endy Hedman
Art Producer: Grace Petrenka / Amy Berriochoa
Strategic Planning: Cat Wilson / Sarah Biedak
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Cheryl Markley / Lani Reichenbach / Stephanie Montoya
Business Affairs: Karen Murillo
Project Management: Jane Monaghan / Annie Quach
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: HSI
Director: Samuel Bayer
Executive Producer: Roger Zorovich
Line Producer: William Green
Director of Photography: Samuel Bayer
Photographer: Samuel Bayer / John Clark

Editorial Company: Joint
Editor: Nicholas Davis
Assistant Editors: Kristy Faris
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

VFX Company: Joint
Lead Flame Artist: Katrina Salicrup
Flame Artist: David Stern
Smoke Artist: David Jahns
VFX Producer: Alex Thiesen

Songs: “Blood and Stone”

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Sarah Fink

Plenty of birds can sing, but how many can dance the skank?

Well, none, probably. But the pigeon in this minute-long Virgin Money spot that just broke in Britain comes damn close, strutting its feathered stuff to The Selecter’s 1979 ska thumper “On My Radio.”

“We just thought banks are boring, mundane, normal at best. Virgin is cooler,” Gavin Torrance, a creative director at The&Partnership who worked on the spot, tells AdFreak. “So, we came up with the idea of taking something normal, and making it cool.”

That’s a real pigeon, and its movements are genuine, though creatively edited, of course, to construct the commercial. “It was a very tricky thing to capture all in-camera,” Torrance says. “That’s why we chose to work with [director] Andy McLeod at Rattling Stick. He had a cunning way to manipulate a real pigeon to get it to perform those intricate dance moves.”

Hmm. Did the dude squawk directions? Coo in the bird’s ear? Torrance isn’t saying. “It took a full day’s filming to capture all the moves we needed,” he says. Several pigeons were on hand, but the performance on screen comes from just one bird.

It’s no moonwalking Shetland pony, but what is, really? Besides, this particular rat with wings (no disrespect intended) gyrates way more realistically than that nag ever did, bopping its beak to the 2-Tone beat and tapping its talons on the sidewalk.

The film combines footage of an actual road with a stylized street set, and clearly, some other visual trickery was employed. You’ve gotta love the dance-club ambiance achieved by the flashing lights of a passing police cruiser and the smoky exhaust of a nearby car.

Leaning more heavily on effects would’ve simplified matters, but “we wanted it to look totally real and authentic,” says Torrance. “There’s no magic in seeing a CGI pigeon twerking. But a real one—now that’s sexy!”

With about 20,000 YouTube views in its first day online, the clip is no instant smash, but cats everywhere should be driving up those stats in short order.

CREDITS
Client: Virgin Money
Marketing Director: Paul Lloyd
Agency: m/SIX
Chief Executive Officer: Jess Burley
Account Director: Beatrice Clarke
Producer: Emma Hovell, The&Partnership
Creatives: Danny Hunt, Gavin Torrance, The&Partnership
Content Agency: AllTogetherNow
Chief Executive Officer: Conor McNicholas
Production Company: Rattling Stick
Director: Andy McLeod
Producer: Simon Sanderson
Postproduction: Big Buoy
Visual Effects: Jim Allen
Producer: Barny Wright
Music: The Selecter, “On My Radio”

There’s always something fun about site-specific ads in New York City. The richness of every neighborhood makes the place especially promising for that kind of outdoor work, as 72andSunny’s work last year reminded us.

Now, Wieden + Kennedy in New York has done a fun campaign for the recently reopened Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum that points the rest the city—perhaps counterintuitively—to the Upper East Side for world-class design.

“When the thrill of fashion models finally wears off, we’ve got this enameled porcelain collection you should probably come see,” say ads going up in the Meatpacking District, for example. “There are no croissant-doughnut hybrids in our design museum, but we do have things that were really popular once, and then the trend completely moved on, and then some other new things came along and took its place,” say the ads in SoHo.

The ads will appear on the Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Chelsea, Meatpacking District, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, the West Village, SoHo and the Upper East Side itself (where ads take a shot at the Guggenheim).

“Put simply: Leave your neighborhood and come to ours!” says David Kolbusz, executive creative director at W+K New York.

Check out some of the creative below. Click the images to enlarge.

Here’s a great little campaign for dog adoption by Pedigree and French agency CLM BBDO. Because a dog really will be your best friend, and a loyal one—unlike human best friends, who are constantly letting you down.

Click the ads to enlarge.

CREDITS
Client: Pedigree
Client Representatives: Philippe Mineur, Yann Aubourg
Agency: CLM BBDO
Campaign: “Add a Real Friend”
Art Director: Anthony Lietart
Copywriter: Sébastien Duhaud
Creative Director: Matthieu Elkaïm
Agency Representatives: Laurent Duvivier, Mélanie Marchand, Romain Bruneau, Alisson Cotret
Art Buyers: Marie Bottin, Sacha Pereira Da Silva
Photographer: Alex Murphy
PR: Lauren Weber

Advertising craft doesn’t get more delicate than this. Check out TBWAHakuhodo’s 3-D printed ice cubes, created for Japan’s Suntory Whisky.

The agency used what’s called a CNC router to carve the designs, which ranged from the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx to Batman and everything in between. (There even appears to be, perhaps presciently, a Cannes Lion in the mix.)

Miwako Fujiwara of TBWAHakuhodo said the CNC router was chilled at -7 degrees Celsius to keep the ice from melting. The agency used an app called Autodesk 123D to capture the 3-D images and prep them for printing. “A touch of chilled whiskey polishes the surface of the ice and gives a beautiful shine to the sculpture,” Fujiwara added.

The campaign was launched in 2014 and just won a Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus trophy at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand.

Lots more images, along with credits, below.

CREDITS
Client: Suntory

Campaign: “3D on the Rocks”

Agency: TBWA HAKUHODO+HAKUHODO
Executive Creative Director+Creative Director+Planner: Kazoo Sato
Copywriter +Planner: Takahiro Hosoda, Nobuhiro Arai
Art Director+Designer: Yo Kimura, Yuki Tokuno
Creative Technologist: Masashi Matsukura
Producer: Kaoru Otani
Assistant Producer: Fusae Yoshikawa
PR: Kayoko Asano, Miwako Fujiwara

Production: TOKYO+mount inc.+amana

Movie:
Director: Eiji Tanigawa(TOKYO)
Camera: Senzo Ueno(TOKYO)
Light: Masachio Nishida
Art: Midoriko Nemoto(TAIYO KIKAKU?
Ice: Motoharu Kato(Yamane Ice)
Sizzle: Noriko Saotome(GRAND)
Video Engenner: Satoshi Igarashi
Producer: Toshiyuki Takei(TOKYO)
Assistant Producer: Masayoshi Takayanagi(TOKYO)
Production Manager: Makoto Takahashi(TOKYO)
Production Manager Assistant: Rintaro Kozasa(TAIYO KIKAKU??
OFFLINE Editor: Ryuichi Hasegawa(puzzle)
ONLINE Editor: Akira Nishibu(IMAGE STUDIO109)
Multi Audio: Yuta Sato(IMAGE STUDIO109)
Sound Effects: Norio Kobayashi(ONPa)

Music:
Executive Producer: Audioforce
Producer: DANIC
Composer: Steve Sidwell

Web:
Planner: Im Jeong-ho, Takeshiro Umetsu(mount inc.)
Planner +Art Director+Technical Director+Director: Hidekazu Hayashi(mount inc.)
Director: Hiroka Hasegawa, Hideki Yoshidatsu(mount inc.)
HTML coding: Hideki Yoshidatsu(mount inc.)
3DCG: Takeo Saito, Mika Nariya(FULVIS K.K.)
Production Manager: Ko Yoshida(mount inc.)

Graphic:
Photographer: Keisuke Minoda(acube)
Retoucher: Masahiko Furuta(RIZING)
Photo producer: Shinya Omi(amana)

The label on a piece of clothing might reveal something about its provenance, but it hardly tells the whole story. The Canadian Fair Trade Network wanted to change that. To draw attention to people around the world who are working in unsafe conditions, these remarkable ads tell their stories on the labels of clothes they make. Powerful work by from agency Rethink.

The label above reads:

100% cotton. Made in Sierra Leone by Tejan. The first few times he coughed up blood he hid it from his family. They couldn’t afford medical treatment and he couldn’t risk losing his long-time job at the cotton plantation. When he fell into a seizure one day it could no longer be ignored. The diagnosis was pesticide poisoning. The lack of proper protective clothing has left him with leukemia at the age of 34. He has two daughters. One of them starts work at the factory next year. The label doesn’t tell the whole story.

See two more ads below.

100% cotton. Made in Bangladesh by Joya who left school at the age of twelve to help support her two brothers and newly widowed mother. Her father was killed when a fire ripped through the cotton factory where he works. She now works in the building across the street from the burned down factory. A constant reminder of the risk she takes everyday. The label doesn’t tell the whole story.
 

100% cotton. Made in Cambodia by Behnly, nine years old. He gets up at 5:00 am every morning to make his way to the garment factory where he works. It will be dark when he arrives and dark when he leaves. He dresses lightly because the temperature in the room he works reaches 30 degrees. The dust in the room fills his nose and mouth. He will make less than a dollar, for a day spent slowly suffocating. A mask would cost the company ten cents. The label doesn’t tell the whole story.

CREDITS
Client: Canadian Fair Trade Network
Agency: Rethink, Toronto/Vancouver/Montréal
Creative Directors: Ian Grais, Chris Staples
Art Director: Leia Rogers
Writer: Arrabelle Stravoff, Danielle Haythorne
Print Producers: Cary Emley, Sue Wilkinson
Photographer: Clinton Hussey
Studio Artist/Typographer: Jonathon Cesar
Account Manager Albane Rousellot