Forget about kids and teens, how to do cats feel about watching other felines online?
In a bit of branded self-satire, YouTube megaproducers The Fine Bros. partnered with Friskies to create Cats React to Viral Videos, an April Fools' version of their highly popular Kids React, YouTubers React and Elders React Web series. But, instead of naive kids and teens talking about pop culture events, the duo interviewed kittens, cats and some fellow YouTube stars in cat costumes about famous cat videos.
(Apparently, cats don't love the clips as much as their human servants do.)
"The Friskies team has been a great collaborative partner," Benny and Rafi Fine tell AdFreak in an email. "Our fans have always been asking us to make a spinoff of our popular React franchise, but with cats instead."
The Fine Bros. have a history of working with brands, so the spoof didn’t feel unnatural.
"The Fine Bros are some of the top video creators in the world today and have never integrated a brand partner into their 'React' franchise before. With a video like ‘Cats React,’ however, it felt like the perfect opportunity for Friskies and the Fine Brothers to collaborate,” Shaun Belongie, senior brand manager for Friskies, said in an email.
The product that Friskies is trying to promote, Friskies SauceSations, isn't featured heavily in the video. It only appears in a few small scenes and in the title card at the end of the video.
Reach Entertainment's head of digital, Marc Hustvedt, whose agency produced the ad, explained that in order for a video to go viral, it needs to feel organic. Brand sponsors can't litter the ad with their logos, or people will be turned off and won't feel the need to share it.
ESPN has Major League Baseball's Opening Day covered today with a new "This Is SportsCenter" spot starring the reigning National League MVP, Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The commercial, running online and on ESPN properties, shows a breakfast meeting for the SportsCenter anchors going awry when McCutchen and a band of Pirate mascots (Pittsburgh's Pirate Parrot, East Carolina's Pee Dee, Seton Hall's Pirate and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Captain Fear) break in and loot the breakfast spread.
The ad, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, breaks this afternoon during ESPN's broadcast of the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Chicago Cubs.
Here's a simple and clever way to show why it might be a bad idea to share that supposedly private photo.
Brazilian agency Propeg recently submitted this to Ads of the World, though it's hard to be sure if or where it actually ran. "The Internet can't keep your secret," says the ad for SaferNet Brasil. "Keep your privacy offline."
SaferNet is a nonprofit dedicated to fighting Internet crimes like identity theft and child pornography.
Some will surely argue that the ad is a form of "slut shaming" since it seems to put the onus of blame on the woman taking her own picture and not on all the dirtbags who pass it along. But the ad would work just as well with a guy sharing sausage in the mirror, and I think we can all agree it's a pretty accurate illustration of the way photos seem to get in all the wrong hands faster than you can say "duck face."
Berlin Cameron United's new work for Gilt.com is colorful, musical and stylish, but also grounded in a sales pitch.
The ads for the online hub for clothes, shoes and accessories unfold with a catch-me-if-you-can chase on a city street, such as when one woman takes a shine to another's bright yellow dress. The music is the power-pop song "Suit" from Boom! Bap! Pow!, which has been used in ads before, though less effectively. Super slow-motion filming adds style and ensures you get a good look at the clothes.
The yellow dress chase ends with the pursuer finding the item on a smartphone app and then clicking to buy it. Therin lies the sales pitch. To illustrate the immediacy of mobile shopping, the clothes instantly shift from one woman's body to the other, leaving the prey in her underwear. Nothing wrong with mixing some flight of fancy with reality, is there?
The ads go up on YouTube today and will spread to TV on Monday.
CREDITS Client: Gilt.com Chief Marketing Officer: Elizabeth Francis Agency: Berlin Cameron United Executive Creative Director: Roald Van Wyk Creative Director, Copywriter: Kim Devall Executive Producer: Jennifer Glendining Account Director: Wynter O-Blanquet Production Company: Good Egg Director: Christopher Sweeney Executive Producer: Julia Reed Producer: Dawn Rose Director of Photography: Robert Witt Foreign Production Company: El Camino Films Executive Producer: Nicolas Aznarez Editing: Final Cut Editor: J.D. Smyth Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss Producer: Beth Fitzpatrick Finishing: Significant Others Visual Effects Artist: Cecil Hooker Audio Engineer: T. Terressa Tate Color: Color Collective
If you were a miniature version of Abraham Lincoln, you'd be super excited about modern Illinois, according to the state's tourism campaign, which has brought back MiniAbe for another round of quirky sightseeing.
It sort of makes sense, if you're arrogant enough to compare yourself to one of history's (and the state's) great figures but also humble enough to think of yourself as merely a downsized plastic replica.
MiniAbe channels Joey Lawrence in the new spot, from JWT Chicago, as he utters "Whoa" wherever he goes. The approach also makes the footage of tourist locations a little more rewarding than your average vanity shots. It's hard not to wonder though, if MiniAbe isn't a distant relative of whoever's driving London's little yellow street-cleaning submarine.
The "Be More Whoa-ed" campaign launched Monday in 16 U.S. markets and will reach the U.K., Germany, Canada and national cable later this spring and summer. A second spot in the spring campaign will break in early May.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Illinois Office of Tourism Deputy Director: Jen Hoelzle Assistant Deputy Director: Jan Kemmerling Marketing Manager: Lisa Link
Agency: JWT, Chicago Executive Creative Director: Dan Bruce Creative Director, Copywriter: Gary Korrub Creative Director, Art Director: Terra Hambly Executive Producer: Alec Pinkston Agency Producer: Carolyn James Group Management Director: Erin Clark Senior Account Director: Brendan Riley
Director: Seth Henrickson Production Company: Odd Machine Editor: Steve Morrison Director of Photography: Seth Henrickson Sound Design: Eric Cauwels, Chicago Recording Media: Maxus
Rather than drone on about product features or provide a demonstration, Gary Oldman instructs viewers to "Ask the Internet" if they want to learn more about the HTC One M8 smartphone in a pair of spots from Deutsch L.A.
The agency just took over the HTC America account, which spent less than a year at Ogilvy & Mather L.A. Robert Downey Jr. appeared in HTC's last big push (from Ogilvy's WPP stablemate 171 Worldwide), which consisted of fast-moving, noisy, colorful spots sending up the ad business itself, with the actor riffing on what the letters "HTC" could stand for.
Deutsch's work with Oldman, who rarely appears in ads, has a very different vibe. The grizzled, bespectacled thespian propels the "anti-advertising" concept by wandering around a retro-modern hilltop pad during a late-night rainstorm.
In one spot, he says "blah blah blah" a lot, interspersed with lines like, "It doesn't matter what I say, because the all-new HTC One is designed for people who form their own opinions." In the other, he takes an uncomfortably long dramatic pause, during which viewers are supposed flock to the Internet to check out the phone. Outside his window, the rain continues to fall.
This cheeky, pseudo-noir approach, awash in blues, blacks and moody reds, provides a counterpoint to the cheerful bent and bright hues of some spots from competitors like Apple, Motorola and Samsung. It's also a big change from HTC's work with Downey. Oldman shines, even though the weather is gloomy.
"Gary crosses genres and is recognized for craftsmanship in his field," said Erin McGee, HTC's vp of North America. "He's aspirational but approachable, if you think about all the roles he's played in movies and cable TV. It's a great fit for our brand."
Still, maybe Oldman should grab his HTC One and ask the Internet when that damn rain will clear up.
CREDITS Client: HTC America President: Jason Mackenzie Vice President, Marketing: Erin McGee Senior Director, Brand: Zola Kane
Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat Group Creative Director: Gavin Lester Art Director: Nick Spahr Copywriter: Alex Flint Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo Executive Producer: Rachel Seitel Production Resource Manager: Evan Aronson Music Director: Dave Rocco
Production Company: Reset, Los Angeles Director: Johnny Green Director of Photography: Mathew Libatique Managing Partner, Executive Producer: Dave Morrison Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall Head of Production: Jen Beitler Producer: Heather Heller
Editing Company: Final Cut, Los Angeles Editors: Jeff Buchanan, Adam Rudd Executive Producer: Saima Awan Assistant Editor: Hilary Ruggiano Producer: Suzy Ramirez
Post Facility (Edit): Final Cut, Los Angeles Editor: Jeff Buchanan Executive Producer: Saima Awan Assistant Editor: Hilary Ruggiano Producer: Suzy Ramirez
Post Facility (Color, Online): MPC, Santa Monica, Calif. Colorist: Mark Gethin Visual Effects Lead: Mark Holden: Compositors: Ben Davidson, Jason Heinze, Arthur Argote, Adrian Leva Executive Producer: Elexis Stearn Producers: Abisayo Adejare, Brian Friel
Music Composition: Human, Los Angeles Sound Design: Henryboy, Los Angeles
Audio Post Company: Lime Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Mixer: Loren Silber Executive Producer: Jessica Locke
End Tag: Laundry, Los Angeles
Additional Deutsch Credits: Chief Executive Officer: Mike Sheldon Chief Operating Officer, Partner: Kim Getty Group Account Director: John McGonigle Account Directors: Lauren Pollare, Megan Prince Account Supervisor: Tanya Oh Director of Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo Business Manager: Georgette Bivins Director or Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo
Mother London has cooked up Chipotle's first British campaign with print ads and posters that explain how to pronounce the burrito chain's name. "Chi-Pole-Tay," "Chi-Pottle" and "Shi-Pot-Lay" are wrong. (Now they tell me. All those wasted years.) "Chi-Poat-Lay" is correct. Thanks, Chipotle!
"Delicious however you say it" is the tagline. Hey, thanks again! Cue "Farmed and Dangerous." Crank up Willie Nelson. Now, Brits can rest assured they've got the name right and savor that addictive, gut-grinding Chi-Poat-Lay bliss as the sun sinks yet lower on their once-mighty empire.
After six years of infancy, the E*Trade baby is finally moving on with his life.
This week, the online brokerage began airiring what is said to be the last ad featuring the longtime spokeschild, a Super Bowl staple since 2008. As a bit of an admission that the campaign has started to get stale, the spot shows the baby being subjected to a new sidekick. In true 2014 Internet style, it's a zany cat.
The campaign's end was somewhat inevitable, given that the agency behind it, Grey, resigned the E*Trade account in 2013. Just a month later, the account was handed to fellow WPP Group agency Ogilvy & Mather.
The folks at Cypress Entertainment, a film production and local-advertising shop in Louisiana, produced this digestif of a commercial to convince you to dump that crappy agency you're working with.
With a deadpan expression, Kyle Gilmore, Cypress founder and "professional stirrer," stirs a beverage and delivers quite a memorable pitch. Without spoiling it, let's just say Gilmore believes his agency is the shit—or more accurately, is not the shit.
He finishes stirring, takes a sip and nods at the camera. I don't know about you guys, but I've never heard a more compelling argument.
So pull up a stool, and sample this little nugget.
Out of nowhere, we're suddenly seeing some pretty incredible ads for guide dogs.
In January, we had the Norwegian Association of the Blind's amusing PSA with the menagerie of nondog guide animals. Now, we swing in the other direction completely with this intense ad for Holland's Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation. We won't spoil it, but this remarkable ad will leave you with even more appreciation for dogs and the skills they bring in communicating with humans.
The spot is by ad agency Selmore Amsterdam and Caviar director Rogier Hesp.
Chips Ahoy delivers with a series of spots from The Martin Agency featuring an animated cookie prone to minor, entertaining mischief. The 30- and 15-second shorts get all the key details right—the pauses, and the simple but absurd expressions.
It's a good play for the kids who'll clamor after the product. The moms who do the grocery shopping may not be so thrilled that the brand is egging on their little angels.
Then again, who could stay mad at a face like that?
It's a wonder that cat-related brands don't already rule the Internet.
Cat-food brand and renowned jingle lover Meow Mix makes a move in that direction with an amusing and even potentially useful parody of Kickstarter—called Catstarter—envisioned as a way to crowdsource cool new cat-related inventions. Ad agency EVB conceived the site as a playful, feline-focused version of the well-known crowdfunding platform. But instead of actually backing Catstarter projects financially, you can just click on the ones you like, and Meow Mix will produce the most popular ones.
The site launches with three products; the top vote getter will go into production this spring. (The heated companion keyboard is an inspired one that I'll back right now.) It's also an R&D lab of sorts, as the brand also wants people to suggest ideas for making kitty lives better—something we can all get behind, yes?
Full credits below.
CREDITS Client: Meow Mix Campaign: Meow Mix Catstarter Agency: EVB Executive Creative Director: Steve Babcock Creative Directors: Patrick Maravilla (Copy), David Byrd (Art) Art Director: Tom Zukoski Copywriter: Nate Gagnon Designer: Markandeya Sendan Illustrator: Natalia Martinez Motion Graphics Designer: Kevin Brown Sound Designer: J. Michael Neal Director of Technology: Ken Goldfarb Lead Interactive Developer: Josh Kanner Interactive Developer: Ken Crosby Senior Producer: Kevin Turner Vice President, Director of Account Management: Kathleen Foutz Strategist: Neeti Newaskar Producer: Kevin Turner
Here's an unpleasant if novel way to recommend the use of seat belts: Show people detailed instructions on dealing with injuries from not wearing one.
Gyro's Dubai office did just that in a new campaign to educate people about the importance of wearing seat belts in the backseat of cars. The campaign, for a charity called Buckle Up in the Back, takes the form of instructional guides—"How to Get Around in a Wheelchair," "How to Change Your Colostomy Bag"—for dealing with injuries you can sustain from not wearing a seat belt.
The guides are being tucked in the the seat pockets in the backs of taxis and rental cars in the UAE, where people will probably wish they didn't see them. The tagline is: "If you don't wear a seat belt, you're going to need all the help you can get."
"Instead of just telling people they are wrong for not buckling up, we decided to accept that people are ignoring these kinds of public health messages and give advice of how to deal with the day-to-day consequences of life without seat belts," said Gyro Dubai creative group head Neil Harrison. "These guides illustrate a very realistic and unfortunate future that can easily be avoided by buckling up."
Guides and credits below.
CREDITS Client: Buckle Up in the Back Agency: Gyro Dubai Executive Creative Director: Gui Rangel?Account Director: Anna Start?Planner: Mark Haycock?Group Head/Copywriter: Neil Harrison?Art Directors: Charlotte Morand and Moses Anthony?Illustrator: Moses Anthony
It's been almost a year since we've seen Terry Crews psychotically scream his way through an Old Spice sales pitch. So, to make up for lost time, we get twice the Terry in one spot.
"Get Shaved in the Face" is the newest oddity from Wieden + Kennedy, which first tapped Crews in 2010 for a series of over-the-top spots directed by comedy duo Tim & Eric. In this installment, Crews faces the existential dilemma of whether to shave off a facial hair that appears to be his micro-clone.
While Isaiah Mustafa is still the most iconic Old Spice guy, Crews seems to be the brand's personality of choice over the long term. He's gone from advertising Odor Blocker Body Wash to shaving cream—and here he's fronting Old Spice's newest foray into grooming hardware. Thanks to a partnership with Braun, you can now buy an Old Spice Hair Clipper ($49.99), Beard & Head Trimmer ($49.99), Wet & Dry Shave & Trim ($59.99), Shaver ($69.99) and Wet & Dry Shaver ($79.99).
They're apparently the perfect devices for committing anthropomorphic follicide—you know, in case that's an issue for you.
CREDITS Client: Old Spice Project: "Get Shaved in the Face"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Creative Directors: Craig Allen, Jason Bagley Copywriter: Andy Laugenour Art Director: Matt Sorrell Broadcast Producer: Jennifer Hundis Director of Broadcast Production: Ben Grylewicz Account Team: Georgina Gooley, Nick Pirtle, Michael Dalton, Jessica Monsey Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, Joe Staples
Production Company: Gifted Youth Direction, Editing, Visual Effects: Fatal Farm Sound Mix: Charlie Keating, Joint Editorial
What's more refreshing: A Coca-Cola, or a Coca-Cola ad poking fun at the brand's consumers?
To encourage moviegoers to stay quiet during a film, Saatchi Denmark filmed audience members milling around the lobby sipping soda through straws and pulling stupid faces, then quickly edited the footage into the background of a fake movie trailer. In the middle of the supposed preview, viewers suddenly saw themselves on the screen, ruining a perfectly cheesy sex scene with their odd expressions and obnoxious slurping sounds.
It's hard not to wonder if the stunt is staged, or if everybody who goes to the cinema in Copenhagen just happens to look like they could work at an ad agency. Regardless, the point—don't make yourself part of the movie by being a noisy jerk—holds up well enough, both in the case study and in a handful of related clips. The other spots, which you can watch after the jump, aren't real-time editing stunts, but they're still pretty amusing, especially when the young woman offers a perfectly smug deadpan, munching popcorn while she gets buried alive alongside a cop.
Of course, when it comes to customer-shaming ads that encourage considerate moviegoing, the gold standard will forever be Alamo Drafthouse's transcript of an ejected texter's irate voicemail. Because sometimes the truth is just too good to beat.
Stranger dogs tend to get pretty intimate pretty quickly, and so all the hesitancy in the first half the video, I suppose, is the joke here. Before long, though, there are plenty of noses in butts and all is right with the world again.
The original "First Kiss" video, by the way, has topped 40 million views since Monday.
Women earn 30 percent less than men for the same work. Some 64 percent of the world's illiterate people are women. Almost 800 women die every day from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
These are just some of the mind-boggling global injustices cited by UN Women on a new website, HeForShe.org, intended to motivate men to act against gender inequality and violence toward women. Created by Publicis Dallas, the campaign asks men to upload YouTube clips of themselves speaking out in support of women. For further inspiration, it includes a simple but powerful video of well-known men—including activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Matt Damon and Patrick Stewart—sharing their perspectives.
It's not a risk-free approach for UN Women, which had a global hit last year with its Google autocomplete campaign by Ogilvy Dubai. Some might think that focusing on men somehow implies their opinions are of greater value. But Publicis says the unusual strategy is the campaign's strength.
"He For She is a unique women's rights campaign in the simple fact that we don't approach the problem from a female perspective, and that's what makes it so powerful," Brad Roseberry, the agency's chief creative officer, said in a statement.
The cause is made all the more pressing by the fact that it's gone underaddressed for so long. (The ad industry, of course, has plenty to do in fixing its own deeply ingrained gender inequalities.) As the new campaign so clearly expresses, the power to solve it often remains concentrated in the hands of men.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: UN Women Agency: Publicis Dallas Executive Creative Director: Brad Roseberry Creative Director: Natalie Lavery Copywriter: Jacob Latchem Art Directors: Alex Pierce, Joshua Tovar Producers: Lori Wallace, Desiree Townsend Web Developers: Alex Pierce, Eric Taylor, Dennis Covington, Jason Awbry Designers: Alex Pierce, Joshua Tovar Account Directors: Susan Scott, Whitney Sprague Editing Company: Republic Edit Editor: Andy McGee Producer: Jacklyn Sandoval Roman
Sheb Wooley comes screaming out of the mists of pop culture into the commercial mainstream in FCB's new campaign for pay-TV channel Canal+ in Spain.
Wooley is the voice actor who performed the "Wilhelm scream," a ubiquitous sound effect that debuted in the 1951 adventure Distant Drum and has since been dubbed into more than 200 movies, including Toy Story and the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones series. It takes its name from Private Wilhelm, a character in the 1953 western The Charge at Feather River. (Modern auteurs like George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg apparently use the scream in their productions whenever possible.)
The ad below, by FCB Spain and FCB Los Angeles, stars Wooley's widow, Linda Dotson Wooley, as "The Woman Who Can't Watch Movies"—because she's afraid she'll hear her husband's famous scream. The mockumentary points to a website that encourage folks to "donate" their screams and overdub Wooley so Linda can enjoy Hollywood films again. The site lets you record screams for up to three movie clips and share the results with friends. They'll really appreciate that.
Even though it's all a goof, I kept thinking that Linda could just watch something outside Wooley's filmography—like the Scream movies or Home Alone, in which, it seems, Macaulay Culkin handled the screamy honors himself.
CREDITS Client: Canal+ Agency: FCB Spain; FCB Los Angeles Campaign: "Leave Wilhelm Alone" Client Contacts: Iñaki Martikorena, Bernardo Melero, Purification González Executive Creative Directors: Pedro Soler, Eric Springer Creative Team: Beatriz Pedrosa, Peio Azkoaga, Joao Freitas Producers: Brendan Kiernan, Steve Devore, Thomas Anderson, Kate Borkowski, Kepa Vizcay Production Company: Helo Director: Alex Grossman Lighting: Seamus Tierney Sound: Sam Tornero Pulido Web Developers: Carlos Lainez, Miguel Iglesias App Developers: Joan Arbó, Jorge Cubillo Social Media Strategy: Mauro Rodriguez, Jose Olivares Poster: Beatriz Pedrosa, Marian de la Fuente Planner: Manuel López
Kobe Bryant doesn't just play pianos. He makes them.
Or so it would appear from the opening scenes of this new ad from Wieden + Kennedy pitching "The Kobe Piano," from which "every note [is] a comedy and tragedy that would make Shakespeare laugh and weep. It will turn piano boys into piano men. It will make Lionel Richie's tears cry tears."
Turns out it's an elaborate metaphor for a line of shoes designed by Bryant for Foot Locker and Nike. The collection, the ad informs us, is the "grandest grand collection of grand collections." And yes, Richie himself makes a cameo—adding to his own commercial lore in the process.
While the voiceover copy is a bit Old Spicey, the ad blends the winking melodrama of "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" with a healthy heaping of mock pretension, à la Bryan Cranston selling an iPad, and a dash of good old-fashioned Ron Swanson style woodworking.
It has the obligatory sports-stats reference. It's beautifully shot and well paced, and entertaining enough. It makes its point, however circuitously, that the product is like a finely crafted instrument.
A second spot, meanwhile, likens the collection to the invention of a better, stronger lightbulb—complete with a shattering sledgehammer and the ability to make even Judah Friedlander look dapper. Sorry, ladies. It's just another metaphor for sneakers.
Credits below.
CREDITS Clients: Nike and Foot Locker Campaign: "Made by Kobe"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Creative Directors: Don Shelford, Rob Thompson Copywriter: Adam Noel Art Director: Jon Kubik Producer: Shannon Worley Executive Agency Producer: Matt Hunnicutt Account Team: Jordan Muse, Heather Morba Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman, Joe Staples
Production Company: Traktor Towers Director: Traktor Executive Producer: Rani Melendez Line Producer: Rani Melendez Director of Photography: Bojan Bozelli
Editing Company: Stitch Editorial Editor: Andy McGraw Assistant Editor: Alex Tedesco Post Producer: Chris Girard Post Executive Producer: Juliet Batter
Visual Effects Company: The Mill Visual Effects Executive Producer: LaRue Anderson Flame Artists: James Allen, Glyn Tebbutt Visual Effects Producers: Dan Roberts, Antonio Hardy Titles, Graphics: Justin Morris
Music, Sound Company: Beacon Street Studios Composers: John Nau, Andrew Feltenstein Sound Designer: Mike Franklin Songs: "Out of the Woods" ("Piano"), "The Wunder r3" ("Lightbulb") Executive Producer: Leslie Dillullo
Mix Company: Beacon Street Studios Mixer: Mike Franklin Assistant Engineer: Dewey Thomas Producer: Caitlin Rocklin
The Seattle Mariners considered Robinson Cano to be a heavenly catch this off-season, and there's a divine aura about him in the team's first ad with its $240 million second baseman.
Seattle's Copacino + Fujikado, now its 20th season handling ads for the Mariners, welcomes the 31-year-old with the 30-second spot below, in which Cano doesn't have to utter a word to communicate just how awesome he is.
Agency co-founder and creative chief Jim Copacino tells AdFreak he felt a fair amount of pressure to produce a special debut commercial with Cano. C+F almost got Ken Griffey Jr. to do a spot with Cano (it would have been about how they both wear No. 24, though actually Cano is switching back to his original Yankee number, 22), but Griffey had a conflict and couldn't make the Arizona shoot. So, they went with this spot instead, and Copacino says the shoot couldn't have gone smoother.
"With a guy of this magnitude coming in, we didn't want to trivialize him or be too cute," he says. "A writer here, Andy Corbett, a very funny guy, came up with this notion that Cano has this charismatic aura that follows him everywhere he goes—slow motion and music. It was an easy spot to shoot. The first time we worked with him, we didn't want to burden him with too much responsibility in terms of lines and acting."
Four more new ads focus on three other players and on Henry Chadwick, who invented the baseball box score in the 1860s and came up with the letter K for strikeout.
One particularly amusing ad celebrates the old-school style of third baseman Kyle Seager. "Kyle is a quiet, soft-spoken guy from North Carolina," says Copacino. "He says 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.' He's quietly becoming one of the better third basemen in baseball. He's fundamentally sound. And to me, he just seems like he was plucked from the '50s and put down into modern baseball. It was fun to create this fiction about him being kind of a throwback."
At one point, Seager is seen tweeting from a typewriter. "He said, 'You know, I don't actually tweet,' " says Copacino. "And we said, 'That's fine! In fact, that's perfect!' "
C+F also put together the highlight reel below of its 20 years of Mariners spots. At least in its advertising, this is a team that's on a long winning streak.
CREDITS Client: Seattle Mariners Agency: Copacino + Fujikado Executive Creative Director, Writer: Jim Copacino Creative Director, Writer: Mike Hayward Writer: Andy Corbett Art Director: Andy Westbrock Production Company: Blue Goose Productions Director: Ron Gross Executive Producer: Bill Hoare Account Supervisor: Cole Parsons Account Manager: Melissa Figel Broadcast Producers: Kris Dangla, Patti Emery Editor: Troy Murison, Dubs Inc. Digital Postproduction: Kevin Adams, Workbench Music: Chris White, Comrade
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