Hasta La Creative!

These agency tours of The Barbarian Group are pretty impressive. But you know who’s not that impressed? Fellow New York agency Barton F. Graf 9000.

When Barbarian Group released its Vimeo video showing off its giant, snake-like, resin-poured “Superdesk,” Barton F. Graf responded with its own video about its own enormous piece of continuous furniture—called the floor.

Last week, Adweek went into the Barbarian offices for a closer look, and got to see the agency’s waterless hot tub (see below). But once again, Barton F. Graf ups the ante with a waterless kiddie pool. Look at how childlike and playful it is. Clearly it must produce better ideas than the hot tub does.

Obviously Barbarian is cool, but it will never be the coolest.

brightcove.createExperiences();

In its first global campaign for Volvo, Grey London strives for a “quietly epic” tone to position the Swedish nameplate more firmly in the premium auto space. Director Marcus Söderlund, working through Academy Films, delivers the goods with a visually compelling minute-long film called “The Swell.”

We open on a moonlit beach, where a Volvo XC60 sits in the sand, the hum of its radio melding with the sounds of the sea. “To feel, to really feel, is a rare thing these days,” a voiceover says. We watch a woman paddle her surfboard through dark, choppy water as a huge wave rises with thunderous force … and the tagline, “Seek feeling,” flashes on screen.

“The Swell” weaves its tale in moody hues, offering glimpses of the car as it focuses on the lonely surfer and approaching wave. (Söderlund also directed Grey London’s fiery Vodafone ad about the emergency responders.)

It’s an unexpected approach, and the first campaign from global creative director Hollie Newton, who joined Grey last year from Wieden + Kennedy, where she contributed to award-winning efforts for Lurpak butter. For Lurpak, she designed sensory experiences with cheeky, playful subtexts that reminded viewers not to take the ads too seriously.

“The Swell” shares this “sensory” sensibility, but ratchets up the intensity to a point where I imagine some viewers might be put off. Even so, Grey deserves credit for making a commercial that ripples with energy without drowning in car-ad clichés.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Volvo
Vice President Brand Marketing: Tomás Caetano
Director, Marketing Communication: Ingela D’Angelo
Marketing Content Director: Magnus Brodd
Project Leader: Anna Wirsen
Spot: “The Swell”
Agency: Grey London
Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard
Global Creative Director: Hollie Newton
Creative Team: Hollie Newton/Jamie Starbuck/Howard Green
Managing Partner: Nick Dutton
Business Director: Camilla Ashenhurst
Account Manager: Mel Caplan
Agency producer: Harriette Larder
Creative producer: Glen McLeod
Planning Director: Matt Buttrick
Planner: Hayley Cannon
Production company: Academy Films
Director: Marcus Söderlund
Editor: Tom Lindsay @ Trim
Producer: Medb Riordan
Exec Producer: Lizie Gower
DOP: André Chémétoff / Allan “Willy” Wilson
Colourist: Aubrey Woodiwiss
Post-production: Yourick Van Impe (Flame) & Aubrey Woodiwiss (grade) @Electric Theatre Collective
Audio post-production: Aaron Reynolds @ Wave
Photographer: Gian Paul Lozza

Sometimes you just gotta werk it out, even though you’re at work.

So says Zumba’s first TV spot ever, created by 180LA, showing Zumba enthusiasts jerking and twerking almost against their will as the music in their head moves them.

Some 15 million people every week take a Zumba class, gyrating and wiggling their way to better health through ostensibly fun dance moves. Unlike the name implies, it’s not just a fitness-based rumba; it actually combines a mind-boggling number of styles, resulting in the bizarre breakdowns in this video. Which means that no matter your level of fitness or whiteness, you too can Zumba the fat away.

The bigger focus here is just on the sheer exuberance. (The tagline is: “Let it move you.”) The spot broke Monday on TV (and will be joined by a load of print) but is is already a hit online. I guess a lot of Zumba fans are finding it hard to contain their excitement over the video, too.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Zumba
Agency: 180LA
Managing Partner, Chairman: Chris Mendola
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Director/Copywriter: Janet Champ
Creative Director/Art Director: Marta Ibarrondo
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Producer: Kevin Diller
Account Manager: Jessica DeLillo
Production Company: RESET
Director: TWiN
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff MacDougall
Bidding Producer: Jenn Ingalls
Head of Production: Amanda Clune
Producer: Ed Callaghan
Service Company: Capital Media Company
Executive Producer: Christian Allen
Head of Production: Keely Stothers
Editorial Company: Beast
Executive Producer: Jerry Sukys
Producer: Annie Maldonado
Editor: Paul Norling
Assistant Editor: Ryan Dahlman

Employees at Amsterdam design studio Heldergroen won’t be putting in much overtime. Not in the office, at any rate.

That’s because every day at 6 p.m., their desks, tables and other work surfaces, with their computers attached, are hauled up to the ceiling by steel cables normally used to move heavy props in theatrical productions. If you leave a half-eaten tuna sandwich on your desk, you’re out of luck.

Once the chairs and other workplace paraphernalia are cleared away, the space is free for evening and weekend use as “a dance floor, yoga studio … or anything else you can think of—the floor is literally yours,” creative director Sander Veenendaal tells Fast Company.

Zecc Architects built the space, working from a concept developed by Bright Green.

The time-lapse video above shows how the idea works in practice. In a way, the office space itself is working overtime for Heldergroen, generating lots of publicity and carrying an enlightened message of career-life balance far and wide. (I’d be satisfied if AdFreak loosened my leg irons a little.)

“We think that doing activities like this makes it easier for people to work here,” says Veenendaal. “You know when it is time to relax or do something else that inspires you.”

That sounds awesome. There’s just one catch. In the morning, the desks reappear and everybody has to go back to work.

Via Adverve.

DirecTV has gotten lots of actors to poke some fun at themselves over the years—notably Charlie Sheen in the Platoon spot. Now, it’s Rob Lowe’s turn to look hilariously foolish.

A pair of new ads from Grey New York outlandishly show what Rob Lowe is like as a cable customer compared to what he’s like as a DirecTV customer. As a cable customer, he’s literally falling apart (in the first spot) or a complete pervert (in the second spot). As a DirecTV customer, thankfully, he is neither.

The message? You too can choose not to be a pervert with a combover and a lazy eye. Get DirecTV today! As an nice added bonus, these commercials—directed by Tom Kuntz of MJZ—end with the theme from St. Elmo’s Fire. He’s come a long way, baby.

CREDITS
Client: DIRECTV
Campaign: Versus
Spot: Less Attractive, Creepy
Agency: Grey, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher
Group Creative Director: Doug Fallon
Group Creative Director: Steven Fogel
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff, Amy Rosen
Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky, Eddie Mele
Strategy: Michelle Leo
Production Company (location): MJZ LA
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Supervisor: Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editorial Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld, Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor: Ryan Steele & Mike Rizzo, Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer + Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer, Mackenzie Cutler
VFX (company): Method Studios, NY
VFX Supervisor: Jay Hawkins, Method Studios
VFX Producer: Carlos Herrera & Christa Cox, Method Studios
Casting (OCP): Francine Selkirk, Shooting From the Hip
Casting (VO): Nina Pratt and Jerry Saviola, Avenue 3 Casting

If watching Drew Brees talk to a hyper-awkward robot for six minutes is your kind of thing, then Old Spice has an ad for you.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback keeps his cool during “4th and Touchdown,” a fictional sports news show hosted by Old Spice’s new mascot, who in the recent past has been doing well with human women, despite his total lack of social skills.

Absent that context, the moral now seems to be that viewers should act like Drew Brees, not like a hyper-awkward robot, which is pretty sound advice regardless. Even if the robot claims to have great hair thanks to Old Spice, he’s not the most reliable narrator.

The pair’s antics range from fairly grating to pretty amusing, with some sharp writing and and a lot of waiting between the high points (see: roughly 4:15, Brees pretending to be a brass instrument). In a way, the finale rewards your patience, though may not be quite enough to compensate (perhaps a shorter edit would be in order?).

Anyway, the whole thing deserves credit for trying to send up the tradition of senseless televised sports coverage, even if the pass doesn’t quite connect. That robot does a solid impression of a smug anchor.

And if you do like it, stay tuned for more. The brand is promising appearances from Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green and Seattle Seahawks defensive back Earl Thomas.

You can be proud of your ads. But re-enacting them in real life? That can get awkward.

Carlos Moreno, though, takes one for the team in the video below—a promo for the Bessies, which is a big ad awards show in Canada. The executive creative director at BBDO Toronto masterminded the weird Skittles Touch ads back in 2011, and here he re-enacts the famous one with the cat—complete with eager licking of the screen.

The line at the end explains everything.

Though Moreno works at BBDO, the Bessies spot was actually done by JWT Canada.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: TVB
Agency: JWT Canada
Chief Creative and Integration Officer: Brent Choi
CD: Ryan Spelliscy
Art Director: Denise Cole
Copywriter: Saro Ghazarian
Account Lead: Dori Applebaum
Producer: Andrew Schulze
Production: Axyz
Sound: Eggplant
Talent: Carlos Moreno

Attention, dads. If you take a nap instead of reading with your son, he will grow up to be the kind of illiterate, all-around failure who gets misspelled tattoos about having no “ragrets.”

At least, that’s the moral of a new PSA from charity Save the Children U.K.—done in a similar style (and in fact by the same agency, Don’t Panic) as the group’s brutal March PSA about kids in Syria.

Here, a neglected kid, Jack, is ultimately unable to hold down a job, or a relationship, or simply to function in the most basic ways. It’s the kind of nightmare scenario that should spur any parent with half a brain into carving out some sacred story time with their offspring, stat.

It might seem a little hyperbolic, or like it eventually descends into black comedy. But stick with it to the end to understand why the extreme presentation (and accompanying touch of levity) ends up being appropriate, and makes a weighty topic easier to digest (even if it lacks the storybook-and-celebrity-menagerie quirkiness of one other approach to the genre).

The choice of book, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is a pretty excellent fit for the message, subtly reinforcing the importance of literacy in helping a child make sense of a fundamentally social and not always friendly world, while also framing the kid in question as in particular need of attention from his pops.

Hopefully, though, Jack doesn’t grow up to get a tattoo that says “No regrets,” either.

Relationship with your agency on the rocks? Looking for love with a new one? Just want to check out the playing field? A just-released app is like Tinder for clients seeking a connection with some of the best agencies in Amsterdam.

It’s called Pitcher. Available on iOS and Android phones, it lets you specify criteria like brand category, campaign type and pitch fee—and then you swipe through a selection of Amsterdam’s top ad agencies, each with a short profile and overview of their latest work.

Swipe left to dismiss, swipe right to select.

You can create a shortlist of up to five agencies, then call them directly or send an email inviting them to take part. No information is stored or shared with any third parties.

Pitcher was created by ad agency Woedend!, which is Dutch for “Furious!” (Maybe take its bio with a grain of salt?) The content for the app is supplied by Amsterdam Ad Blog.

“The current pitch culture [in the Netherlands] is not sustainable,” says Woedend! creative director Merien Kunst. “Brands are increasingly flirty, and agencies need to invest more time and money in smaller projects and shorter relationships. … We believe that this free app really adds value for marketeers.”

Here’s a clever little social game—involving just Instagram video and your phone’s screenshot function—from ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors for a Swedish department store.

The retailer, Åhléns, posted three stop-motion Instagram videos featuring various products (clothes, furniture, makeup and more) flashing past at rapid speed. If you could capture any item in a screenshot on your phone (and then hashtag the image, post it to your Instagram account and present the post at the register), you got the item at half price.

Simple, clever and fun—and enough of a reward to risk annoying your friends. Check out the case study and the three videos below.

CREDITS
Advertiser: Åhléns
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Copywriter: Pontus Levahn
Art Director: Silla Levin
Designer: Ellinor Bjarnolf
Account Director: Susanna Glenndahl Thorslund
Account Manager: Sara Kling
Planner: My Troedsson
Agency Producer: Karl Wettre
Production Company: Snask
Media Agency: Mindshare