Hasta La Creative!

Denver Broncos linebacker and Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller has some big cleats to fill as the latest Old Spice guy, following popular pitchmen Isaiah Mustafa and Terry Crews as the star of Wieden + Kennedy’s high-profile ads for the P&G brand.

In a pair of spots tagged “Unforsweatable,” touting Old Spice’s Hardest Working Collection of deodorants and body washes, Miller quickly establishes his game plan. Less self-consciously suave than Mustafa, and way less manic than Crews (who came off like a crazed human cartoon character in some of his Old Spice appearances), Miller exudes a highly relatable vibe, and his confident charm really shines through.

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Be careful: If you buy a designer dress and a leather biker jacket at British discount chain T.K. Maxx, you’ll soon find yourself regularly practicing ballet on a motorcycle—just to match your beloved outfit.

It’s the absurd, entertaining conceit at the heart of a new ad for the retailer (known as T.J. Maxx in the U.S.) created by Wieden + Kennedy London. A young woman daintily balances on the tail of her heavy black bike while popping a wheelie and spinning circles in slow motion. All the while, an elderly woman named Doris plays an art deco organ that sounds an awful lot like a piano—a service that, according to the protagonist, is quite expensive.

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As we’ve mentioned before, very few companies explore the topic of divorce, or its ramifications for families, in their advertising. It’s just too depressing, the thinking goes, even if it’s also, of course, relatable to so many millions of people worldwide.

A few brands have taken the risk—Honey Maid, of course, and also Ford, which rolled out this beautiful and sad short film earlier this year.

Now, it’s Ikea’s turn. Check out the spot here.

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Hyundai drivers are weird, weird people who do weird, weird things because of football, according to Innocean USA’s amusing new ads for the NFL sponsor.

In “Choices,” a Pittsburgh Steelers fan has to clean up baby mess in his Hyundai Santa Fe. But what if he misses a crucial play while deciding whether or not to wipe up the vomit with his Terrible Towel? Thanks to his car’s 8-inch Touch Screen with Sirius XM recording feature, he won’t miss anything. As for the vomit, well, you can see for yourself.

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Don’t lose business because you’re still using tedious pen-and-paper legal instruments, says a new ad from Adobe.

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Lots of young sports fans imagine themselves playing in the big leagues. Now, sports gear brand Wilson is promising to help them feel closer to the pros with a new Bluetooth connected football, and accompanying app, that can measure stats and offer strategies—making backyard games feel more like stadium epics.

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McDonald’s is celebrating its “all-time favorites” with a campaign that tells us just how much everybody loves Chicken McNuggets and strawberry milkshakes—without saying it outright.

Each print ad, from Leo Burnett London, features a dead-simple shot of a classic McDonald’s food item, just above a search bar with a couple of letters typed in. What you’re meant to notice is that the first autocomplete result is always the product’s name … because people are way more interested in French fries than French kissing! 

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Ever want to fling something at your creative director? Now you can, and it’ll look like a compliment!

This year, Ogilvy & Mather London is hosting Cream, a global showcase of fresh creative talent. In a campaign called “#InYourFace,” it incorporates actual cream pies into the mix.

Cream’s 2016 private viewing will happen at Ogilvy London’s offices next Thursday (Sept. 15), when 20 creative teams will get on stage to hit a roomful of (invite-only) senior creative directors—not with pies, but with “all their talent and creativity.” 

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The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world with no minimum paid vacation leave, which at least explains the in-office purgatory many people suffer over the summer. The U.K., however, scores No. 7 for average number of paid vacation days (37!), making it a little less clear why one in three Brits would shirk that time to fill out more TSheets. 

That’s “progress” for you, I guess. But it’s obviously also bad business for an airline like Virgin Atlantic. So, with a hand from adam&eveDDB, it’s launched #GetOutOfOffice.

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Playing a sport well, and becoming a career athlete, doesn’t just mean you’ve studied a list of plays, stuck to a workout regimen and mastered exactly how something should be done, though that’s certainly a part of it.

It means you’ve done all that and found creative ways to make the game your own. 

That’s what this high-energy Adidas spot from 72andSunny says, arguing that it is the sports brand for creative athletes—unlike say, Under Armour. Yes, the copy for the new work seems to take a swipe at UA, which has been pitching itself as the brand for athletes serious about training.

“Yeah, yeah, hard work and dedication. But that’s not enough. You look at this cookie-cutter, copy-and-paste BLAH,” the narrator says as the frenetic camerawork—which is the real star of the spot—moves from football fields to basketball courts with what seems to be a reference to Under Armour’s “Rule Yourself” and its hundreds of copies of Stephen Curry. 

It’s funny, though. For a campaign arguing for creativity, Adidas seems to be cribbing from its two major competitors. The Under Armour references serve as the advertising version of a subtweet, which is fun and arguably works for what the brand is intending. But the freewheeling, opinionated voiceover, whether intentionally or not, feels a lot like what Nike’s been doing lately, and that doesn’t seem to gel with the ad’s core argument. 

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