Hasta La Creative!

Following in the footsteps of other omnipresent consumer brands with something arty to prove, Pepsi MAX made a huge mess with mousetraps and Ping-Pong balls for a video it calls “Chain Reaction.”

With the help of London filmmakers HarrimanSteel, a perfect grid of mousetraps was laid out, with a Ping-Pong ball balanced on each one. After all that work, a single ball was launched under some of the most dramatic lighting I’ve ever seen to upset the whole display. The ball then rolls down a big science-museum funnel into another Ping-Pong ball/mousetrap installation, this one with colored spheres.

All this happens to the beat of music that sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks’ take on dubstep, and I don’t know how to feel about that at all.

I shouldn’t like the more pretentious visual choices being made here, but I do, because it’s fun to watch huge companies clutch their pearls at the thought of being a constant, low-humming presence in the back of consumers’ minds. I’m not sure it justifies the filmmakers hugging at the end like they’ve landed a rover on Mars, though.

One day, all the world’s persistent infrastructure problems will be obsolete, says Cisco. Indeed, you’ll only be able to see them in museums.

That’s the theme of “Building Tomorrow Today,” a new Cisco campaign by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners that begins today with “The Last Traffic Jam,” a striking 30-second spot that shows a traffic jam—now a remnant of the past—as an art piece in a gallery.

Future ads will depict other “last” scenarios, including the last long checkout line and the last product recall, as frozen moments from the past that are now displayed in an art gallery.

GSP creative directors Justin Moore and Nick Klinkert spoke to AdFreak about the “The Last Traffic Jam”:

AdFreak: This is a clever idea. How did you arrive at this concept of a Museum of Lasts?
Moore: “People talk a lot about ‘firsts’ in tech. So we loved the idea that ‘lasts’ can represent a more interesting view of the future—a way of showing how the Internet of everything can have a real, positive impact on people’s lives. After we got to the idea of ‘lasts,’ the museum concept felt like a pretty short leap.”

Klinkert: “Research found that business and technology leaders feel more and more responsibility to solve exceedingly complex problems in the world, with the help of technology. The ultimate goal is to confine these problems that affect us all to the past. The team quite quickly became interested in a place where all these problems could live—’the museum of lasts.’ “

Where did you film this, and what were the production challenges?
Klinkert: “We shot these in Zaragoza, Spain. They built these massive, beautiful buildings for the water expo in 2008, and they gave us the scale and the look that we were after. The ‘art installations’ are actually real people standing very still (and treated in post) to replicate hyperrealistic statues of people.”

Can you tell me about the visual look?
Moore: We wanted to make the point that technology is ultimately about people. So we spent a lot of time looking at the work of artists like Ron Mueck and researching how modern museums create exhibitions.

Klinkert: Visually, we were interested and inspired by the amazing, hyperreal sculptures of Sam Jinks and Ron Mueck, and the way large-scale installations in museums work these days. A lot of them have an interactive component to them, a lot of them are playing with relative size, and they are very fascinating to look at.

Did you storyboard exactly how the tableaux would look, almost like doing little paintings?
Klinkert: We had a pretty clear idea of how it would look at first, but a lot of exploration went into the final execution of it. The traffic jam is obviously a universal problem that affects a lot of people. We wanted to illustrate the frustration, impatience and the boredom of the people in the traffic jam. We toyed around with a lot of other ideas, but at the end of the day we wanted it to look as if an artist picked up a chunk of congested freeway in a major metropolitan city and put it in an elegant museum space.

Why the British voiceover?
Moore: We’re just looking for something fresh and interesting. We tried lots of voices. But something about the English accent seemed to suit the cadence of the words.

How does this evolve the Cisco campaign from last year’s work?
Moore: Strategically, we’ve got a sharper point of view on what Cisco’s vision is for the future, and how it relates to what they’re doing right now. Creatively, the campaign’s just getting better and better.

Klinkert: It’s really a creative expression of what they are doing right now, Cisco is helping to make the Internet of everything possible. And with that, hopefully we can see the last traffic jam or the last product recall in the not-too distant future.

Kwikset, the keyless entry and re-keying company, unlocks the humor of home invasions in these amusing, mildly edgy tales of suburban paranoia to promote its SmartKey technology.

The ads, running exclusively on YouTube, posit a support group for people who can no longer invade the house of a woman named Amy because she has installed Kwikset locks. “I just can’t move past it,” a middle-aged music teacher despairs. “I’ve never laid my hands on a better piano.” Others in therapy entered Amy’s home uninvited to try on (and steal) her clothes, splash around in her hot tub and enjoy her home-theater system. Once, when Amy was away for a week, they threw a wild party at the house, and some dude secretly lived in the guest bathroom to avoid paying rent.

“It’s easier to give an acquaintance a key than it is to ask for it back when the two of you lose touch,” says Nick Lange, creative director of Nurture Digital, which created the campaign. “We’re targeting homeowners who know their spare keys are in circulation, but who can’t quite justify the hassle and expense of hiring a locksmith to change their lock.”

While using the same fear-response mechanism that drives those disturbing commercials for home-safety systems and related security services, Kwikset suggests the threat in cheeky fashion instead of trying to scare the crap out of us. The comedy—directed in classic sitcom fashion by Shawn Wines—allows the viewer to evaluate the product’s potential without feeling unduly manipulated. “We felt that humor was a way to make the message of these ads fresh,” says Lange. “It’s a fine line when your whole campaign is about breaking and entering.”

Could some folks object to the campaign’s tone (making light of serious crime), or its other un-PC elements, like an elderly neighbor who keeps showing up at Amy’s because she’s forgotten where she really lives?

“The fact that these pieces take risks that might rub some viewers the wrong way was a serious concern,” says Lange. “When viewers look carefully, though, they’ll see that the stereotypes being referenced here are ultimately turned on their heads. The older woman who sometimes forgets which house is hers is revealed to be a master lock-picker who knows exactly what she wants—her neighbor’s hot tub.”

“A lot of our favorite comedy pushes viewers a little outside their comfort zone,” he adds, “and we felt that doing the same would make these ads most worth our audience’s time.”

Nowhere is the world more carefree than inside stock photographs. The sense of normalcy they communicate is so pervasive, it’s become cliché. Which is why it’s such a stroke of genius that Isobar Poland is developing a stock-photo bank using only models who are cancer patients or survivors.

Life for them, of course, has been anything but carefree. Thus, their involvement in the “Photos for Life” project is joyfully defiant on a few levels. It shows cancer isn’t a death sentence—indeed, that patients and survivors are just as capable of the most stereotypical happiness possible. And it lifts the gloom from the disease and bathes it in ridiculously perfect lighting.

Prices start at $75 for use on the web and in magazine, or as little as $8 for personal use. All profits go to the Rak’n’Roll Win Your Life! foundation to finance therapy for cancer patients. More images below.

CREDITS
Agency: Isobar, Poland
Managing Creative Director: Maciej Nowicki
Senior Copywriter: Jan Cie?lar
Senior Art Director: Rafa? Ry?
Photographers: Pawe? Fabja?ski, ?ukasz Zi?tek, Jacek Poremba, Karol Grygoruk
Production Company: ShootMe
Production Company Producer: Micha? Majewski
Graphic Designers: Adam Zawiasi?ski, Bart?omiej Bednarski
Programmer: Piotr Budek
Account Manager: Aleksandra Matuszewska
Integrated Director: Ewa Rzewuska-Wolska

The worst thing about going to the movies is having to sit upright for a few hours to watch the film. Everyone knows lying down is the ideal viewing position for anything on a screen—or anything at all, for that matter.

No stranger to putting dream-like imagery in its advertising, Ikea moves even more directly into the bedroom with its latest stunt.

Moviegoers in the Russian town of Khimki are being treated to quite a surprise this month. After purchasing their tickets, patrons are led to a theater that’s been completely gutted and transformed into a giant bedroom, entirely outfitted with Ikea furniture.

Take a look-see at the video, which has some time-lapse shots of the construction and lots of shots of glee on people’s faces. The stunt runs through Dec. 14.

This is cool and all, but does Ikea make toilets too?

Classroom lockdown drills—at my first grader’s school and every other school in America—have become the norm since the tragedy at Newtown, two years ago this Sunday. The powerfully sad PSA below from Grey Toronto, unveiled today, takes place during just such a lockdown—and highlights a depressing statistic: There have been nearly 100 school shootings since Newtown, yet there has been almost no movement on gun control.

The end line nicely captures what has changed since Newtown—the level of fear in classrooms with young children. A 60-second version of the ad will air in digital and broadcast media leading up to the anniversary of the Newtown massacre.

“The inconceivably tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook woke up millions of Americans to our country’s pervasive culture of gun violence,” Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a statement. “We do not send our children to school to learn how to hide from gunmen, nor should we expect sharpshooting to be a job requirement for educators. For far too long, our lawmakers have asked children and teachers to stand up to gunmen because they are too afraid to stand up to the gun lobby.”

Watts adds: “You may not have heard about all of these shooting incidents on the national news, but when a lockdown is announced over a school intercom—for whatever reason—it strikes fear across the community. We will not allow the constant threat of gun violence at our schools to become the new normal—it’s time our elected leaders take a stand for the safety and future of our children.”

CREDITS
Client: Moms Demand Action
Agency: GREY Toronto
Chief Creative Officer: Patrick Scissons
Copywriter: Patrick Scissons
Agency Producer: Erica Metcalfe
Account Director: Darlene Remlinger
Production Company: Untitled Films
Director: Phil Brown
DOP: John Houtman
Executive Producer: Lexy Kavluk
Producer: Trudy Turner
Editorial: Saints/Griff Henderson
Audio: Eggplant/Roc Gagliese, Nathan Handy
Colorist: Alter Ego/Wade Odlum
Online: Topix VFX/Marco Polsinelli

Is Santa Claus a hipster? He’s got the unkempt mane and alternative lifestyle down pat. Yet he seems too obsessed with consumer goods and fourth-quarter commerce to qualify.

It feels like hipster humor played out years ago. Still, there’s much to enjoy in “Hipster Santa Goes South,” an affable two-minute spoof from Door Number 3 that celebrates the holidays and the independent Austin, Texas, agency’s 20th anniversary—which happens to be today, Dec. 9.

“We thought about throwing a party,” says agency president M.P. Mueller, “but creating something fun to share beat out warm beer, flowery speeches and tepid toasts.”

Bill Wise—a bespectacled, middle-aged dude rocking a plaid scarf, matching sneakers and just a smidge of facial hair—plays Kringle. His laid-back, cranky delivery really scores as he bikes around East Austin, quipping about “free-range reindeer” and his sled running on “penguin tears and pure Santa sweat.” At one point, he informs a young passerby, “I made my list, I checked it twice—you still have to move back to California.”

“Bill generates one-liners like he’s just picking dog hair off his pants,” says Mueller. “He could make a sudoku tournament funny.” (Wise most recently played Uncle Stevie in Richard Linklater’s Boybood.)

Hipster Santa even has some helpful advice for folks planning to make him a snack on Christmas Eve: “If you’re leaving milk and cookies, I’m lactose intolerant—make it soy, gluten free. And as far as fruitcake bars are concerned, I’m into cleanses, but just not this time of year.”

This schtick—directed in suitably casual, faux-doc style by Steve Mims—rates a six-pack of PBR at the very least. Though purists say that a different hipster is more emblematic of the season. Ho!

CREDITS
Agency: Door Number 3
Executive creative director: M.P. Mueller
Copywriters: Bill Wise, M.P. Mueller, Steve Mims, Karen Reiner
Art directors: Ines Morel, Sally Robb
Director, editor, cinematographer: Steve Mims
Cinematographer: Steve Mims
Production artist: Nicole Eckles
Production coordinator: Melissa Hilgendorf
Sound: Alex Herrera
Gaffer: Kakii Keenan
Assistant camera: Christian Benavides

The sleigh is overrated.

Santa Claus ditches it entirely in Expedia’s touching Christmas campaign from 180LA, choosing instead to fly coach around the world and ending up at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where he delivers presents to some very special kids.

As seen in the video below, Santa traveled 19,602 miles over seven days (49.7 hours of flight time), going from the North Pole via Anchorage through Honolulu, Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, Dublin, New York City, and finally to Memphis, where he hands out gifts—and also donates all the points he earned on flights to St. Jude, which is the selling point here.

“Santa flies around the world every year for children, so we loved the connection of giving him travel points to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” says Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing at Expedia.

“More people travel during the holidays than any other time of year. We hope this campaign will encourage people to donate their Expedia+ rewards points to St. Jude, considering how quickly they can add up during this busy travel season.”

More at Expedia.com/Santa and the hashtag #SantaFliesCoach.

CREDITS
Client: Expedia
Spot: “Santa Flies Coach”
Senior Director, Brand Marketing: Vic Walia
Brand Marketing Manager: Jessica Eichner
Media Director: Elizabeth Dorrance

Agency: 180LA
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Directors: Dave Horton, Matthew Woodhams-Roberts
Art Director: Chelsea Cumings
Copywriter: Trey Tyler
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Executive Producer: Erin Goodsell
Producer: Amber Schaefer
Head of Account Management: Chad Bettor
Account Director: Brooke Stites
Account Manager: Mackenzie Walen
Account Coordinator: Chase Pritchett

Production Company: Ghost Robot
Directors: Dave Horton, Nick Bentgen
Director of Photography: Nick Bentgen
Executive Producers: Mark DePace, Zach Mortensen

Editorial Company: Melvin
Editor: Dave Groseclose
Producer: Brian Scharwath

Company: Therapy Studios 
Executive Producer: Joe DiSanto, John Ramsay
Senior Producer: Allegra Bartlett
Flame Artist:  Wren Waters
Flame Assist: Geoff Stephenson
Sound
Recording Studio: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Ben Freer

Original Music by human

Wherever you travel around the world, you’ll always find Canadians gathering together, sharing stories and racking up an impressive bar tab. But this batch was especially lucky.

Last week, Air Canada dropped by “Canada Night” at London’s Maple Leaf pub to surprise a bustling crowd of ex-parts with a holiday gift they certainly couldn’t have expected.

Organized by agency JWT Canada, the stunt took place Nov. 27 and sparked some fantastic, emotional responses from the unsuspecting Canadians who’d gathered together that night. And while these holiday videos often feel staged, everything from the crappy hand-held camerawork to the off-key anthem singing make it clear that this one’s legit.

CREDITS

Agency: JWT Canada
Chief Creative and Integration Officer: Brent Choi
Vice President, Creative Director: Gary Westgate
Vice President, Associate Creative Director: Don Saynor
Vice President, Integrated Broadcast: Andrew Schulze
Art Director: Alex Newman
Copywriter: Patrice Pollack
Producer: Caroline Clark
Brand Engagement Director: Victoria Radziunas
Account Team: Scott Miskie, Gavin Wiggins, Lindsay Hill
Client Team: Craig Landry, Selma Filali, Dani Bastien, Annie Couture, John Xydous
Production Company: The Solidarity Union / Soft Citizen
Executive Producer: Rob Burns
Director: Shaun Anderson
Producer: John Scarth
Director of Photography: Byron Kopman
Editing House: School Editing
Editor(s): Chris Van Dyke and Brian Wells
Editor Assistance: Mark Lutterman, Nicole Sison, Steve Puhach, Drew MacLeod and Lauren Piche
Editorial Producer: Sarah Brooks
Online: Online: Fort York VFX
Audio: TA2
Audio Director: Steve Gadsden

Media Agency: Mindshare

TDA_Boulder is looking for a new art director, but the interview process will be unique. In fact, if all goes well, it might end up looking like outtakes from The Hangover.

Yes, the agency plans to interview the top candidate over two days in Las Vegas.

“There’s only so much you can learn about an applicant over the course of an hour-long interview,” says the agency. “Which is why TDA_Boulder is taking a new approach to hiring an art director—bringing you along on our two-day holiday party in Las Vegas. Given that Vegas has a tendency to bring out the best (and worst) in people, it’s the perfect proving ground for anyone who’d like to work at TDA.”

The invitation to apply (see below) is styled like a fingerprint card for the Clark County Sheriff Dept. You can apply at tdaboulder.com/contact by Dec. 3. TDA will then conduct interviews via Skype to select one candidate for the trip, beginning Dec. 7.

“Airfare, food, lodging, golf and/or spa included. Work not included. Hanging included. Bail not included,” says the agency.

Zach Galfianakis need not apply.

CREDITS
Agency: TDA_Boulder
Art Director: Austin O’Connor
Copywriter: Dan Colburn
Creative Director: Jonathan Schoenberg