Hasta La Creative!

The 50th anniversary of England’s first drunk-driving PSA inspires a sobering celebration in this Department for Transport campaign.

Kool & the Gang’s 1980 hit “Celebration” anchors the new spot spot from AMV BBDO. Usually, the iconic dance track suggests parties and good times. Here, however, it’s sung karaoke-style by emergency responders at the scene of a car crash and by ambulance and hospital personnel as they struggle to save victims’ lives. (The song’s joyous “Come on!” exhortation becomes a doctor’s impassioned plea for an injured driver to pull through.)

The final scenes, which I won’t spoil, are immensely sad, their impact heightened by sudden silence as the music unexpectedly cuts out.

The spot stands in stark contract to Britain’s first drunk-driving ad (posted below). Created in 1964 by animation firm Halas & Batchelor, it shows an office party, complete with balloons and silly hats. The voiceover says, “Four whiskeys, and the risk of an accident can be twice as great … Eight, and the risk can be 25 times as great.” (Eight whiskies—that’s some bash!)

The ad concludes, “Don’t ask a man to drink and drive”—a line that is sexist today, but true to its era, when only a small percentage of English women had driver’s licenses.

Of course, we’ve come a long way since then. Thanks in part to aggressive public-service campaigns, drunk driving has been stigmatized, and rightly so. Text at the end of the “Celebration” spot notes that in the past 50 years, annual drunk-driving deaths in the U.K. have fallen from 1,640 to 230, but then cautions: “That’s still 230 too many.”

Overall, the ad, expertly directed by Mark Zibert via Rogue Films, provides a compelling and slightly surreal viewing experience. Though neither gory nor emotionally over the top, its message—propelled by a cruelly ironic soundtrack—might just get stuck in viewers’ heads this holiday season and make them think twice about drinking and driving.

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Today in amusing Canadian agency videos, we have this one from Cossette—in which marketing people all over the country ask the same bewildered question: “What the fuck is going on at Cossette?”

It’s a good question, as it turns out. And kudos to people from rival agencies who make cameos here, including Carlos Moreno and Peter Ignazi of BBDO and—at the very end—Geoffrey Roche, who founded Lowe Roche. Other folks making appearances include the Trailer Park Boys, Chris Van Dyke of School Editing and Ted Rosnick of RMW Music.

Also, Cossette’s Dave Daga gets points for allowing himself to be hit in the balls.

The video, which was made for Strategy magazine’s Agency of the Year event, is NSFW, mostly due to language, though there a couple of unsightly visuals too.

Case study videos. I could watch them all day long. They’re my favorite form of media entertainment—apart from sitcoms starring Concord grapes, that is. These days, advertising case studies are so creative and well produced, they’re often more enjoyable than the crappy campaigns they show off. And dammit, they deserve an award show of their own.

Which brings us to this spoof video from Rethink Communications introducing the Caseys, honoring excellence in advertising award-show submissions. “Cannes, One Show, the Clios. These shows celebrate the very best in creativity,” the voiceover begins. “But none of them celebrate what we do best as advertising professionals—the case-study video.”

Rethink’s self-deprecating satire is right on target. Outlandish (but colorful!) infographics flash across the screen, along with footage of earnest, eager agency staffers dying to put some gold on their cold, empty mantlepieces back at home. “The countless hours of nit-picking and favors you’ve asked for will all be worth it,” the narrator says, “because now, you can win an award for that thing that won you an award.”

Some categories include Best Use of Making-Of Footage, Most Innovative Use of a Single Tweet, Most Impressive-Looking Numbers and Best Use of British—because a high-class English accent makes claims like 400 trillion campaign impressions seem plausible.

Hmm … are we sure this is parody?

The new Droid Turbo is so fast that when James Franco falls off the roof at a party, he can use the Motorola phone to find the nearest safe landing, calculate the best route there and text his date to meet him at the bottom—all before he crashes through an awning into a dumpster and dusts himself off.

So says this Verizon ad from mcgarrybowen, which features James Franco because James Franco is a cool guy everybody knows. He’s great with the ladies, too. The whole reason he goes over the edge in the first place is to rescue the red scarf of a damsel, because that’s the kind of guy James Franco is. He succeeds, obviously. If you get a Droid Turbo like James Franco, you’ll be great with the ladies, too.

That is unless maybe you’re the James Franco who’s married to novelist Gary Shteyngart. Or the James Franco who’s lobbying for a movie starring James Franco to get an Oscar. Or the James Franco who’s getting punched in the face, or directing a jeans commercial, or talking about how great it is be James Franco in an ad for Motorola rival Samsung’s Galaxy tablet.

Or, if you’re the kind of James Franco who’s not into selling out, you could be the James Franco who posts an Instagram of yourself holding an iPhone 6 the same day your Motorola campaign launches. Oops.

If you thought there was no way to top a Paris Hilton-Hannah Ferguson slow-motion car-washing, sex-eating burger-palooza, you’d be wrong, Carl’s Jr. want to tell bros.

Supermodels and celebutantes don’t have the market cornered, after all, on using their scantily clad bums, stripper moves and garden hoses to hawk fast food. Along comes Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Carl Brutananadilewski, a husky, hirsute late-night star, to show everybody how it’s done.

Just don’t eat that burger before you see the new commercial, airing online and during Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, where Aqua Teen Hunger Force anchors the block and Carl regularly heckles his neighbors Meatwad, Master Shake and Frylock.

Though lacking in the bronzed beauty and sex appeal of the burger joint’s former brand ambassadors—Padma Lakshmi, Heidi Klum and Kate Upton among them—Carl “brings a certain willingness to the role and a unique interpretation of fresh baked buns,” said Steve Lemley, svp of field marketing and media at Carl’s Jr. and sister chain Hardee’s.

The animated character is willing to wear a physique-inappropriate banana hammock, in other words, and writhe around on a Dodge Spyder while chomping a burger and slapping his ass.

The spot, written and produced by Aqua Teen Hunger Force creators with assists from 72andSunny and Initiative, promotes the chain’s bread, baked fresh in stores, which makes its buns “denser and a little sweeter” than competitors’ products, according to the press release.

Make that connection between the food and Carl’s lumpy posterior at your own risk.

Hungry yet?

Asics and ad agency Vitro always do something special around the New York City Marathon, whether it’s having people races against a virtual Ryan Hall in the subways or daring you to remain upright on the treadmill from hell.

But this year, they’ve outdone themselves with an awesome campaign that’s both physically and virtually magical.

The running shoe brand always honors runners, and this year it’s doing so in classic style—by making little statues of them. It asked everyone who entered the marathon to send in 2-D front and side head shots. Then it hired a team of artists to turn the 2-D images into printable 3-D files, creating small yet life-like statues for each runner. (It was capped at 500 statues, first come first served.)

That’s cool enough. But on race day this Sunday, it gets cooler.

Vitro photographed each statue in three different landmark locations along the course. Then its digital team linked the photos with each runner’s Facebook account and his or her RFID race timing and tracking chip. So, when the runner passes each landmark in real life, a photo of the mini-marathoner statue passing that same landmark will auto-post to the runner’s Facebook account in real time—providing mid-race updates to family and friends.

But that’s still not all. The 500 statues were booked in less than eight hours, and lots of runners were left out. So, Vitro is also holding a Twitter marathon. Any runner in the real race can enter, and for every tweet on their behalf, Vitro will advance them along a digital marathon course. The first 50 runners to finish will get their statues made as well. You can visit minimarathoner.com to sign up.

It’s great stuff all around from a brand that keeps improving its time every year.

More images, plus credits, below.

 
Mile 8

 
Mile 15

 
Mile 24

CREDITS
Client: Asics
Agency: Vitro
Creative Group Head: KT Thayer
Digital Creative Director: Oliver Duncan
Art Director: Jeremy Stabile
Art Director: Will Roth
Art Director: Ryan Smith
Copywriter:  Bill Wanek
Copywriter: Doug Hyland
Production Director: Michael Berberick
Production Manager: Cristi Perkins
Digital Production Manager: Allison Mellon
Digital Designer: Andres Herrera

Ask what makes a great creative creative director, and you’ll probably get as many different answers as they’re are creative directors.

The 3% Conference recently went around asking a bunch of cds about their role, and compiled answers from 10 of them in the video below. Hopefully it’s useful.

The video was produced by the Pitch Agency in Los Angeles, and promote the 3% Conference CD Bootcamp on November 4.

CREDITS
Directed by Rob Schwartz and Pitch CCO Xanthe Wells
Produced by Esther Gonzalez
Editor Nathan Connella
Production company: Bicep

The mini-wave of brands casting gay couples in TV ads this year continues to rise, with the likes of Honey Maid, Cheerios, and DirecTV all diving in. More power to them. But Ikea was the first marketer to feature a gay couple in a mainstream commercial. Twenty years ago.

The 1994 spot below, from Deutsch, ran after 10 p.m. in three markets where Ikea then had a significant presence: New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The late-night airing ensured that the ad wouldn’t be seen during “family hour” programming. That concession, however, did little to quell the objections of the American Family Association and its leader, the Rev. Donald Wildmon.

Wildmon called for boycotts of Ikea stores, one of which, on Long Island, was the target of a bomb threat, which turned out to be unfounded. The retailer, however, continued to air the ad, which was part of a lifestyle campaign featuring different types of consumers (a divorced mom, adopting parents, empty nesters, etc.) that began in 1993.

The creative team behind “Dining Room,” including creative director Greg DiNoto, associate cd Kathy Delaney, copywriter Dallas Itzen and art director Patrick O’Neill, are no longer at Deutsch. But O’Neill, who later worked at TBWAChiatDay and now is chief creative officer at blood testing company Theranos, shared his memories of helping to create something that didn’t win awards but was truly groundbreaking.

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AdFreak: Where did the idea for “Dining Room” come from?
Patrick O’Neill: We would base a lot of our stories on the real people we would see. We’d go to the New Jersey store—in Elizabeth—and because [the ads] were based on real people, we would watch, observe and see how people use the product, who they were, what kinds of things they were buying. And we’d figure which stores were the best ones. And there were a lot of gay couples there. We thought, Why don’t we do one? Donny [Deutsch] thought it was a great idea and felt like it was a true representation of Ikea’s values, which is they’re always accepting of everyone.

So, that store was like your focus group or idea center?
It was. And we figured out where life intersected with furniture. … You had to understand what was going on in the culture at that time, I thought, versus just doing [ads] in a sort of timeless manner. Divorcees still go there, that kid still gets adopted, and gay couples still go there, you know [laughs]. It just wasn’t a typical depiction in media.

What was the shoot like?
A lot of the grips and all the people that were working on the set—you could feel that there was a lot of tension in the air because it was so unusual to see.

Did you shoot it at the store?
Yes.

Who was the director?
Paul Goldman. He had just started directing. [At Deutsch] he worked on the original “It’s a big country. Someone’s got to furnish it” campaign that was the year before.

How nervous was Ikea going into this?
They believed in it from the beginning. They were never nervous about it.

Did you have to test it?
No.

Did you think at the time that more people would follow in the footsteps of that ad?
I did.

Why didn’t that happen?
It’s interesting. I think the reason why people remember the ad was because it was done in a way where it was, “Wow, they really did it.” We weren’t mucking around. It was clear what was going on. And there were bomb threats. There was backlash. There were New York op-eds written about it. I mean, there were all kinds of things happening. In the years that followed—not too long after—Ellen [DeGeneres], she came out. Melissa Etheridge came out. A lot of women came out at the time. So, I think the culture started doing it without it being commercials. But as far as brands, I think they were nervous about it.

Does the groundswell we’re seeing now reflect what’s going on with state marriage laws?
Yeah. I think it’s also that the millennials and younger are very accepting of [gay] marriage. When that is legitimized by a large core of consumers, you can have that in communications because the approval rating for that is much, much higher once you get to a certain age group.

Would a different creative team have done the same thing?
No. … Look, the way we cast, and had them speak about their relationship, and the premise—it was all based on real stuff. I think the reason it turned out the way it did was all those people working together on it. We knew gay people, and I felt like the lone representative [laughs]. I felt a lot of responsibility making sure I didn’t let my people down.

How proud are you of this, ultimately, and is it still up there in your top three ads?
Well, I’m proud of it because it was the first one. It was scary in some ways. Everyone was true to the period, but there was no precedent. And it wasn’t a welcoming environment. So, that part of it makes me proud and happy to be part of.

Planning to dress up in fake ebola hazmat gear for Halloween? That’s awfully douchey, don’t you think?

Nonprofit humanitarian group Doctors of the World has an idea, though. Why not join the “More Than a Costume” campaign and help pay for real protective equipment used by medical professionals battling ebola in West Africa?

“Health workers needs a new hazmat suit for each of their rotations, and estimates indicate that over 1 million suits will be needed in the next six weeks,” says the organization.

For $1 you can donate a glove, and $5 buys a mask. You can donate a hazmat suit for $250, and throw in a helmet for $500. (Or text EBOLA to 501501 to donate $10. C’mon, you’ll spend more than that on Halloween candy.)

The initiative was developed with Publicis Kaplan Thaler, which is running pro-bono print and digital ads this week in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and elsewhere. “Here it’s a costume. There it saves lives,” says one headline.

Props for leveraging the ebola costume craze in such life-affirming fashion. They’ve created a program that lets people contribute to the greater good, even those who plan to clomp around in bogus boots and breathe through phony filters on Halloween.

See the full ad below.

If you’re a woman, this video is not going to be that enlightening.

It documents some of the creepier instances of verbal harassment—from more than 100 total—that a woman received during 10 hours of silent walking around New York City. You know, the typical stuff that happens to you as a women when you decide to go anywhere alone. It even captures one super-creepy dude who walks alongside her in silence for long enough that we start to worry about her safety.

Oh, I could tell you stories. Every woman I know could tell you stories. We could tell you that it doesn’t matter what you wear. In this video, Shoshana Roberts is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. It doesn’t matter if you try not to look at anybody or get your best bitch face on. As you can see, Roberts doesn’t attempt to draw attention in any way. And it doesn’t make you feel complimented. It makes you wonder if they’re going to take it any further—a little butt pat, a gentle grab, all-out sexual assault?

By the end, Roberts looks exhausted, anxious and fed up. But of course, she’ll get to go through it all again the next time she walks out the door.

Rob Bliss Creative made the video for Hollaback!, an organization committed to ending street harassment by documenting and exposing the harassers. And boy, is there a lot to document. And it turns out Roberts has since been hit with a slew of online rape threats, and Hollaback! is filling police reports on her behalf.

That’s not too surprising, because harassment doesn’t stop in the street. From doxxing or swatting women to sending unsolicited dick pics to your Tinder matches, the Internet has given people more ways to threaten, harass and otherwise scare the pants off people for their own personal satisfaction.

If you want to help, you can document your own experiences with Hollaback! Or let people you know who promote street harassment know that it’s not OK. Seriously, it’s not OK.