Hasta La Creative!

Last month, a video of a 5-year-old went viral (15 million views and counting) after a local news station interviewed him at Pennsylvania’s Wayne County Fair. Noah Ritter’s raspy voice, cute little kid face and persistent usage of the word “apparently” landed him Internet notoriety. And then it landed him a job.

Fresh Pet hired him for what’s apparently (sorry!) his first commercial. (He says so himself, in fact.) At two minutes, it’s about 90 seconds too long, and it’s peppered with little boy humor (of course a 5-year-old would comment on the digestive functions of a dog) and waggy-tailed dogs.

Still, good for him. It’s 13 years until college, Noah. Here’s hoping Fresh Pet loaded up a 529 just for you.

Kia’s oddly endearing and enduring hamsters have returned, this time dabbling in experiments that make Weird Science look scientifically responsible by comparison.

The new ad from David&Goliath for the plug-in 2015 Kia Soul EV takes us into a laboratory, where everyone’s favorite human-size hamsters are performing tests on the electric vehicle—and, inadvertently, their normal-size pet hamster. The results change the researchers’ priorities faster than you can say “hamster balls.”

Check it out below, and know that any feelings of discomfort are totally normal. But also know that life can be lonely for terrifyingly huge man-rodents, and they need love, too.

Credits below. Hat tip to our friends at Unruly Media.

CREDITS
Client: Kia Soul

Agency: David&Goliath
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Creative Director/Copywriter: Matthew Curry
Associate Creative Director/Art Director:  Kristian Grove Møller
Copywriter: Courtney Pulver
Art Director: Michael JF Wilson
Executive Producer, Managing Director: Carol Lombard
Executive Producer: Paul Albanese
President: Brian Dunbar
Group Account Director: Brook Dore
Account Director: Adam Blankenship
Account Supervisor: Nancy Ramirez
Executive Director, Head of Planning: Seema Miller
Managing Director Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro
Business Affairs Managers: Tony Kim & Camara Price

Production Company: @radical.media
Director: Colin Jeffery
Executive Producer: Frank Scherma
Producer: Kathy Rhodes
Director of Photography: Toby Irwin;  2nd Unit DP: Greg Baldi
Production Designer: Tom Foden
Wardrobe Stylist: Anette Cseri

Special EFX: Legacy Effects

Editorial: Union Editorial
Editor: Jim Haygood
Assistant Editor: Erik Jessen
Executive Producer: Michael Raimondi
Senior Producer: Joe Ross

Post-Production/VFX: MPC LA
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards
Producer/Deputy Head of Production: Mike Wigart
VFX Supervisors: Andy Boyd (3D Lead), Jake Montgomery (2D Lead)
VFX 3D Team: Ian Wilson, Stew Burris, Corinne Deorsay, Kristen Eggleston, Dameon O’Boyle, JT Lawrence, Huisoo Lee, Aaron Hamman, Charles Trippe, Zach Dimaria, Michael Lori, Roxanne Zuckerman, Danny Garcia, Lee Par, Gizmo Rivera, Jackie Cooper, Jadan Duffin, Brady Doyle
Production Coordinator: Ashley Greyson
Grade: MPC LA
Colorist: Mark Gethin, Ricky Gausis

Music and Sound Design: Hum
Music Editor: Dan Hart
Sound Designer: Dan Hart

Audio Mix: Margarita Mix, Santa Monica
Mixer: Nathan Dubin

Wave your tusks in the air like you don’t care!

An elephant with some serious funk in its trunk shakes its behemoth boo-tay down a busy nighttime thoroughfare to the beat of Cameo’s “Word Up” in this MoneySuperMarket spot from Mother London.

The boppin’ beast is ridden/driven by some schlubby guy named Graeme who, the voiceover explains, saved a bundle by shopping for insurance on the British company’s website, “and now he feels ep-iiic.” Oh, and there’s a tuxedoed toddler with an outrageous afro, who talks in a deep big-man voice. Just in case some viewers don’t find the elephant epic enough, I guess.

The prancing pachyderm is a memorable metaphor for feeling good in a big way, and this irresistibly silly spot blasts the client’s earlier smooth-steppin’ commercial — narrated by Snoop Dog (Snoop Lion? Snoop Elephant?) — clear off the dance floor.

Workplace productivity has gone out the window once again thanks to “Tiny Birthday for a Tiny Hedgehog,” the latest time-wasting video from agency HelloDenizen that has first-worlders convulsively hitting replay.

The Los Angeles shop, on a self-promotional odyssey of precious proportions, unleashed “Tiny Hamsters Eating Tiny Burritos” in April. It has nearly 8 million YouTube views (though you can watch it below if you’re late to the fiesta). Now the hamsters join their hedgehog pal for a bash that’s racked up 1 million views since launching a week ago.

HelloDenizen’s Joel Jensen describes the new video as an attempt to expand on earlier concepts and add some new layers. The results are mind-meltingly cute. You’ve got itsy-bitsy presents wrapped in fancy paper, itty-bitty balloons, eentsy-weentsy festive hats and widdle whiskers coated in creamy icing as furry faces happily munch away.

This birthday party takes the cake.

Ads are most beautiful when they speak to us in a language we understand—when they tap into our subconscious and make us feel like they empathize, like they are one of us. When this symbiotic, osmotic communication stream resonates with us in an enveloping, visceral way, we have no choice but to surrender. 

I had this experience with a set of beef jerky commercials today.

Perhaps you will, too, if you’ve ever been hungry to the point of irrational thought—hungry to the point that you want to bite the head off of the person next to you, war-paint your face with Cheetos-stained fingers and dance a jig on their grave. When hungry makes the transition to hangry, everyone should stay the hell away.

Check out these pretty perfect spots from Jack Link’s and ad agency Carmichael Lynch, and see if you identify with these poor hanger-affected souls.

I don’t know about you, but you won’t like me when my spirit animal is hangry.

Via Ads of the World.

CREDITS
Client: Jack Link’s
Agency: Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis
Chief Creative Officer: Dave Damman
Executive Creative Director / Copywriter: Marty Senn
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Brad Harrison
Head of Production: Joe Grundhoefer
Executive Producer: Freddie Richards
Account Director: Jesse Simon
Account Supervisor: Sofya Vannelli
Director: Harold Einstein
Production Company: dummy

Y&R New Zealand turns manly beards into cute animals for Schick’s “Free Your Skin” campaign, which takes a bold anti-beard stance in this golden age of hirsute ruggedness. 

Of course, sneering observers are all calling the Schick models hipsters, so maybe the ads also tap into a sort of cultural exhaustion with all things bearded, buttoned-down and knit-capped. Seriously, I think Tony Montana said the F-word fewer times than I’ve read the word “hipster” doing research for this post. 

Y&R did a brief interview with Metro about the campaign, claiming that the bearded creatives in the agency’s employ “all confessed that their beards aren’t actually that pleasant to live with.” Lies and slander! They also claim that “women actually find beards kinda gross,” which science would argue is only half-true.

Via Design Taxi.

National Geographic a fait appel à l’agence Heads à Sao Paulo au Brésil, pour concevoir des affiches d’animaux réalisant des « selfies » avec leurs téléphones portables devant leurs miroirs d’ascenseur, de salle de bain et de chambre. Une campagne amusante menée par Silvio Medeiros et Pedro Galdi.

Rats and mice are not endangered species in New York City. (There are thought to be at least as many rats as people in the Big Apple, and there could be five times as many.) But d-CON, the rodent control company, is taking its small victories against our furry friends and publicly celebrating them in an amusing new campaign from Havas Worldwide.

As one part of the integrated campaign, the agency put missing posters for rodents all over the city, at mice level (though presumably not in the subway, where they'd be more likely to be proven wrong in an instant). Havas also created the darkly comic videos below, in which mice families deal with the horror of having ingested d-CON products.

Because if there's one advertising category where depictions of painful death are acceptable, even enjoyed, it's pest control.

   
CREDITS
Client: d-CON
Agency: Havas Worldwide, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Darren Moran              
Group Creative Directors: Dustin Duke, Jon Wagner
Creative Director: Eric Rojas
Creative Director: Gian Carlo Lanfranco
Creative Director: Rolando Cordova
Writer: Eric Bertuccio             
Global Chief Content Officer: Vin Farrell
Co-Head of Production, North America: Sylvain Tron
Executive Producer: Deepa Joshi
Producer Erin Jackson
Chief Strategy Officer: Tim Maleeny
Group Planning Director: Kerin Morrison                      
Senior Strategist: Chris Lake
Global Brand Director: Betsy Simons
Group Account Director: Joe Maglio
Account Supervisor: Darah Rifkin
Production Company: Bar 1
Director: Joe Barone                     
Mixer: Tim Leitner                    
Casting Director: Dawn Mjoen                  
Production Designer: Radek Hanak, Unit+Sofa                              
Editor: David Bartin, Studio 6

Humans generally consider themselves to be better than pigeons in all ways, significant or not. But are we, really?

JetBlue's "Air on the Side of Humanity" campaign from Mullen, which launched last fall in Boston and is now rolling out to New York and Florida markets, suggests we're actually quite pigeon-like ourselves—at least, those of us who don't fly JetBlue are.

Indeed, much like the humble pigeon, who flies in crowded spaces, gets crumbs for snacks and is generally ignored and/or despised, we tend to be unappreciated when we take to the skies aboard other airlines.

Along with the TV work, JetBlue has been running a new Web series from Funny or Die that extends this notion of pigeon-on-human empathy. Called "Shoo's Bird's Eye View," the series stars a pigeon named Shoo who watches humans go about their business—and wryly remarks on how odd people can be.

The idea is that, through his comical observations, we might come to see the errors of our ways—like flying those airlines that don't have JetBlue in their name.

"The idea of bringing these two brands together, JetBlue and Funny or Die, was really appealing from the start," says Tim Vaccarino, executive creative director at Mullen. "Both have great sensibilities and a unique perspective on things. A way of getting right at the truth in a smart humorous way."

He added: "The use of the pigeon POV was a conscious one. It allowed us a unique perspective on humans and all their quirks. It let us show things we humans do every day but may overlook or ignore. Through Shoo's simple yet comical observations, the hope is people will wake up and change bad behavior. Such as the behavior of accepting a substandard level of customer service when we travel, for example. Just a thought."

The "Air on the Side of Human Campaign" has also included custom homepage takeovers, branded Spotify playlists, an interactive mobile rich media game and lifelike Pigeon Props riding atop taxi cabs.

DDB is hoping the Sumatran tiger doesn't go the way of the vinyl record—particularly the quickly degradable one.

For Earth Day, DDB New York and the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute are raising awareness of the endangered animal—of which only 400 are left—by creating an endangered song. 

For The Endandered Song Project, the agency got Atlantic Records band Portugal. The Man to write a new track simply called "Sumatran Tiger" and release it only on 400 lathe-cut vinyl records, which are designed to degrade after a certain number of plays (about 100 plays, we're told). The 400 people who got the record (we were one of them) are being asked to digitize the song, thus keeping it alive, and share it through social media using the hashtag #EndangeredSong.

"We liked the idea that there is this degree of difficulty to the project in terms of what people had to do," Matt Eastwood, chief creative officer of DDB New York, tells AdFreak. "We are responding a little bit to the whole slacktivism thing. We want more than just a tweet. Of course we want that, too, but saving a species is more than just a Facebook like. You have to physically get involved and do things."

DDB initially thought about releasing the song on a cassette. "Then we found out about the lathe-cut records," said Eastwood. "Records, too, are almost extinct these days. And the song will slowly become extinct if you don't copy it over to digital … It's very old school meets new school, which I like. It's old technology, but we're promoting it using the digital technology of Twitter and Instagram and Facebook."

The Sumatran tiger was a somewhat arbitrary choice (there is no shortage of endangered species) but a compelling one, Eastwood added. "It's not an unusual animal, but it's a rare and exotic animal, and everyone loves tigers," Eastwood said. "There are only 400 of them, which to us just seemed so desperate. You could fit them in a car park. It's ridiculous."

Portugal. The Man, whose members hail from Wasilla, Ala., and are committed to environmental causes, were happy to join the cause. The campaign doesn't have a specific call to action for donations, but you can contribute through a link on the campaign site.

Various digital copies of the song have already popped up on Soundcloud, or you can check out our proudly low-fi version here.