Hasta La Creative!

Grey New York launched a new spot for Gillette ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics with plenty of star power. There are the athletes, of course: Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr., American decathlete Ashton Eaton, Chinese swimmer Ning Zetao and English cyclist Andy Tennant. But there’s also a song from Sia written and produced for the spot, which features a guest appearance by rapper Pusha T.

Directed by Caviar Content’s Karim Huu Do, the spot delivers the “Perfect Isn’t Pretty” message that a lot of hard work and sacrifice goes into becoming the best at any sport with style, if not originality.

The spot opens on a shot of Neymar screaming (for some reason), followed by quick introductions to the rest of the athletes. The text “Perfect is Pretty” appears onscreen right after Neymar runs toward a burning goal (a dream?), followed by him hitting an alarm clock reading 4:08 (ouch). Each of the athletes must face challenges like balancing their personal lives with training and living up to high expectations.

The tone changes with the arrival of Pusha T’s guest verse, focusing on the athletes rising to the occasion.

The triumph over adversity sports anthem formula is a familiar one and even the lyrics of the song deal in cliches (such as “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”).

The ad probably could have benefited from a little brevity as well, even while featuring four different athletes. If not for the shots of its stars shaving as part of their daily routine, it could easily be mistaken as an ad for Under Armour or Nike. But then Grey ties the message back to the brand’s familiar tagline with “The Best A Man Can Get Isn’t Always Pretty,” adding, “But Always Worth The Chase” as Eaton outruns an angry-sounding dog.

Good boy!

Credits:
Advertiser: Gillette
Spot Title: Perfect Isn’t Pretty
First Air Date: 07/13/16

Agency: Grey New York
Chief Creative Officer: Andreas Dahlqvist, Chief Creative Officer, Grey NY
Creative Director: Jeff Stamp, Executive Creative Director, Grey NY
Senior Creative Director:
Leonard Savage, Executive Creative Director, Grey NY
Asan Aslam, Senior Creative Director, Grey NY
Noah Will, Senior Creative Director, Grey NY
Project Management:
Hank Romero, Project Director, Grey NY
Kelsey Longo, Project Manager, Grey NY
Agency Producer:
Bennett McCarroll, EVP, Director of Broadcast, Grey NY
James McPherson, SVP, Head of Integrated Production, Grey NY
Katy Hill, VP Producer, Grey NY
Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff, Music Supervisor, Grey NY

Production Company: Caviar Content, Los Angeles, CA
Director: Karim Huu Do, Director, Caviar Content
Director of Photography: Daniel Bouquet, Director of Photography, Caviar Content
Editor: Cut & Run
Gary Knight, Editor, Cut & Run
Stacy Peterson, Editor, Cut & Run

Post Production: The Mill NY

Music/Sound Design:
Phil Loeb, Sound Engineer, Heard City
Josh Kessler, Executive Producer, Heavy Duty Projects

Principal Talent:
Athletes:
Neymar Jr.
Ashton Eaton
Ning Zetao
Andy Tennant

Musicians:
Sia, Singer, Composer
Pusha T, Rapper
Ariel Rechtshaid, Producer
Olodum, Percussion Accompaniment

Account:
Brian Weston, EVP, Account Director, Grey NY
Elizabeth Gilchrist, SVP, Account Director, Grey NY
Irina Gilbertson, VP, Account Director, Grey NY
Katie Stirn, Account Supervisor, Grey NY
Suzi Jump, Account Supervisor, Grey NY
John Nelson, Senior Account Executive, Grey NY
Wesley Roman, Assistant Account Executive, Grey NY

BBDO launches Visa’s 2016 Rio Olympics campaign with “The Carpool to Rio,” a 105-second spot starring 15 athletes from around the world.

The spot opens with New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams waking up and throwing her circular alarm clock through the wall. She then uses Visa Checkout to order a couple of morning beverages, drives her mini van to an auto ferry and sets off. U.S. swimmer Missy Franklin swims up to the ferry to join Adams before the two arrive in Canada to pick up synchronized swimmers Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware. Before long the car pool includes other Olympic athletes such as U.S. decathlete Ashton Eaton, volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings, soccer player Carli Lloyd and swimmer Connor Jaeger. 

The way the atheletes each have a quick introduction reflective of their sport, such as Abel and Ware trying unsuccessfully to shoot for shotgun, is fun, managing to make the predictable carpool premise not overstay its welcome. That women’s Olympic sports are given such a spotlight here is also refreshing and the ad should stoke excitement for the games, while also highlighting how Visa can help you “click, swipe, dip and tap” their way to easier payments. Of course, having Morgan Freeman provide a voiceover never hurts, either.

“We believe this campaign is the most ambitious, best integrated, most multichannel global Olympic campaign we’ve done so far,” Visa’s recently appointed executive vice president, chief marketing and communications officer Lynne Biggar told Adweek. “Our desire was to have it be very inspiring and be very much technology-led and technology-driven and leveraging Team Visa, which is a group of 46 athletes who embody these core values of acceptance, partnership and innovation in a playful, optimistic way.”

She added that “an increasing percentage of [Visa’s marketing spend] is going toward digital, and that’s just our general philosophy when we think about marketing. But we haven’t said ahead of time we want a certain allocation of our dollars to go to digital. We have said that our dollars should go in the places they’re going to drive the biggest and most impactful return for Visa.”

Visa is celebrating its 30th year as an Olympic sponsor this year and is offering its 46 Team Visa athletes the new Visa payment ring to use at the games.