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Thanks to a new promotion from AT&T Wireless, you can bring even your most annoying friend to the movies for free—because someone’s gotta take that extra seat.
The New York and Atlanta offices of BBDO launched a new campaign for AT&T, introducing the network’s new Ticket Tuesdays offer, which allows AT&T customers to bring a friend to the movies for free on Tuesdays.
A series of comedic spots promote the new program, showing how the deal lets you bring along any type of friend.
Maybe it’s just that we find it the most relatable, but the approach works best in the down-to-earth “Married Friend.” In the ad, a chef calls up his married buddy and asks if he can join him at the movies on Tuesday, describing the Ticket Tuesdays deal. He asks his wife, who tells them they made plans to “sit on the couch together on Tuesday,” but then tells him to go anyway. The decision waffling then continues until the man eventually decides to go.
Two 15-second spots, “Sentimental Friend” and “Impulsive Friend” apply a similar approach to an overly-sentimental friend and a friend who impulsively decides to leave his hospital bed to go to the movies. In the 30-second “Boyfriend,” a college guy asks a girl to the movies, but she decides she’d rather borrow his phone and bring her boyfriend. It kind of feels like a scene that would go down in a modern version of Undeclared. Each ad manages to fit in a description of the offer in a fairly convincing way while also getting to the point with its comic narrative, even if the humor doesn’t always land as intended.
The campaign arrives amidst a U.S. creative and media review, which AT&T launched last month. It launched today on AT&T’s social channels and will roll out soon on broadcast, pre-roll and, naturally, in cinemas. Digital and social components from BBDO and Organic will support the effort.
Credits:
Chief Creative Officer Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Creative Director//Copy Writer: Kevin Mulroy
ACD//Art Director: Bianca Guimaraes
Head of Integrated Production: Dave Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Senior Content Producer: Whitney Collins
Executive Music Producer: Melissa Chester
Managing Director, BBDO North America: Mark Cadman
Managing Director: Doug Walker
Group Account Director: Lesley Brown
Account Director: Khari Mpagazehe
Account Executive: Jenn Wang
Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
Director of Photography: Corey Walter
Executive Producer: Marc Marrie
Managing Director: Mal Ward
Head of Production: Christa Skotland
Producer: Zoe Odlum
Production Supervisor: Bailey Reeves
Editing Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Dave Anderson & Sean LaGrange
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Assistant Editor: Elizabeth Parsons
Visual Effects: Spontaneous
Head of Production: Chris Decker
Executive Producer: Bryce Edwards
VFX Supervisor: Andy Milkis
Sound Design (Impulsive Friend): Trinitite
Sound Designer (“Impulsive Friend”): Brian Emrich
Audio Mixing: Sonic Union
Audio Engineer: Steve Rosen
AT&T’s “It Can Wait” texting-and-driving campaign from BBDO New York has included many notable executions, including the painful Werner Herzog documentary from 2013. And the latest spot is no exception, featuring quietly gripping storytelling from Anonymous Content director Frederic Planchon that suddenly explodes with horror.
The almost four-minute film is remarkable. (It’s supported by three 30-second spots, one of which will run on TV.) Slow-motion cinematography, shot at 1,000 frames per second, captures the brutal consequences of taking your eyes off the road to glance at your smartphone, even briefly. The footage then plays in reverse, ending on the cause of the terrible crash.
That cause, notably, isn’t that the driver was texting. The “It Can Wait” campaign has always focused on texting, but it’s is now evolving based on new research that revealed the prevalence of drivers engaging in other smartphone activities, like social media, web surfing, video chatting and more.
The campaign is evolving in other ways, too. AT&T, working with Reel FX, has developed an app called the It Can Wait Driving Simulation that uses virtual reality to give an immersive view of what it is like to text, post or video chat while driving. The VR simulator is freely available for iOS and Android and works with Google Cardboard.
A souped-up version of the simulator—running through the Samsung Gear VR headset, with premium sound from Bose QuietComfort 25 acoustic noise canceling headphones—will soon go on tour, visiting schools, fairs and partner companies in 100 U.S. cities.
CREDITS
Client: AT&T
Title: Close To Home
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Senior Creative Director: LP Tremblay
Senior Creative Director: Erik Fahrenkopf
CD/Art Director: Grant Mason
CD/Copywriter: Kevin Mulroy
Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Executive Producer: Dan Blaney
Music Producer: Melissa Chester
Senior Integrated Business Manager: Cristina Blanco
Managing Director: Mark Cadman
Senior Account Director: Brian Nienhaus
Account Director: Gati Curtis
Account Manager: Johnny Wardell
Account Executive: Sigourney Hudson-Clemons
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Frederic Planchon
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Producer: Paul Ure
Director of Photography: Jody Lee Lipes
Editorial: WORK Editorial
Editor: Rich Orrick
Assistant Editors: Adam Witten and Trevor Myers
Executive Producer: Erica Thompson
Producer: Sari Resnick
Visual Effects: The Mill
EP/Head of Production: Sean Costelloe
Line Producer: Nirad ‘Bugs’ Russell
VFX Supervisor : Gavin Wellsman
2D Leads: Gavin Wellsman; Krissy Nordella
2D Compositor: Michael Smith; Chris Sonia, Keith Sullivan
2D Assists: Heather Kennedy; Sungeun Moon, Yoon-sun Bae, Marco Giampaolo
3D: Yili Orana , Corey Langelotti
Pre Vis Artist: Jeffrey Lee
Editor: Charlotte Carr
Designer: Clemens den Exter
Color: The Mill
Colorist: Aline Sinquin
Music House: Grooveworx
Executive Producer: Dain Blair
Sound Design: Brian Emrich
Original music composed by Rob Simonsen
Sound: Sonic Union
Sound Mixer: Steve Rosen
Motions Graphics and Titles: Polyester
Live from New York … it’s Jason Sudeikis!
The former Saturday Night Live cast member appears in “The Tourists,” a 45-second video from BBDO promoting AT&T’s sponsorship of the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs through April 26 (and features three movies starring Sudeikis). In the clip, the actor encounters two out-of-towners who start “directing” him, Hollywood style, as one of them captures the moment with a smartphone.
The tagline: “There’s a film lover in all of us.”
Sudeikis “prepped” for his role a few years back when he and his fiancee, Olivia Wilde, made news—and I use the term loosely and with extreme irony—by giving directions to some real tourists in NYC. (They directed them to someplace in Manhattan. Nobody yelled “Action!” as far we know.)I suppose the festival promo says something about our celebrity-crazed, media-mad culture. Mobile technology turns us all into would-be auteurs, roving the streets in search of a scene that just might go viral. Celebs, of course, make great subjects, and they’re always glad to do a few takes when fans whip out recording devices.
Oddly, the spot tacitly acknowledges that much of today’s compelling content isn’t made by professional filmmakers or entered in festivals. Increasingly, it’s being created by average folks when opportunities arise—and distributed online, with a few clicks as the price of admission.
The ad is running on YouTube, in theaters prior to every feature screening at the festival, on Taxi TV, mobile pre-rolls and elevator screens.
CREDITS
Client: AT&T
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officers: David Lubars (worldwide), Greg Hahn (N.Y.)
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Senior Creative Director: John LaMacchia
Senior Creative Director: Simon Foster
Associate Creative Director: Geoff Proud
Senior Art Director: Will Holmes
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Executive Producer: Alex Gianni
Producer: Gillian Burkley
Managing Director: Mark Cadman
Senior Director: Brian Nienhaus
Account Director: Gail Curtis
Account Executive: Sigourney Hudson-Clemons
Production Company: O-Positive
Director: Brian Billow
DP: Joe Zizzo
Executive Producer: Ralph Laucella
Executive Producer: Marc Grill
Producer: J.D. Davison
Edit House: Mackenzie Cutler
Producer: Sasha Hirshfeld
Editor: Ryan Steele
Assistant Editor: Jean Taylor
Color Correction: Company 3
Colorist: Tim Masick
VFX: Schmigital
Flame Artist: Jim Hayhow
Flame Asst: Joseph Miller
This week, Adweek offered readers the gentle musings of YP CEO David Krantz. In case your Web browser doesn’t have that URL in its search history, that would be the former Yellow Pages.
For the Millennials out there in AgencySpy land, that is what was once called a phone book.
It was a bundled array of print technology listing the numbers and logos of anyone in your neck of the woods. What was formerly the listing service of AT&T Interactive decided to skew a little younger by breaking out the two-letter moniker.
In the interview, Krantz stuck up for his brand, downplaying the influence 0f all those cool kids at Google and stuff.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
In case you missed it, another DVD-bonus-features chapter in BBDO‘s “It’s Not Complicated” series for AT&T leaked this week thanks largely to music bloggers excited about the critical role played by Future’s track “You Deserve It.”
No word as to why this one landed on the proverbial cutting room floor, though we will say that the kids playing these kids are even better than Beck Bennett in his only recurring “SNL” skit.
And yes, we’ve got your credits after the jump.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Cable guys have been a staple of pop culture for years, but now it's time for their next-generation replacements to get some time in the spotlight.
Two new spots for AT&T from BBDO New York show the "Network Guys," a pair of techs working to improve wireless coverage for concert attendees and office drones alike.
They somewhat graciously shut down a rock 'n' roll fan's dreams of joining their club. They also make an office worker swoon, thanks to their l33t d4t4 sk1lls (elite data skills), which let them make posting to Instagram easier for all the n00bs (noobs).
With ads like this, it's always hard to tell if they're really supporting the "nerds rule" zeitgeist or just keeping up the age-old mockery of tech geeks as socially awkward losers who only excel at their jobs. And since AT&T's main representative in the ads barely regards their customers as worthy of conversation, it seems like the brand is essentially saying, "You don't understand everything we do for you, so just go back to Instagramming, you uneducated cretins."
That said, thanks to some great delivery by the actors, these spots are still pretty charming.
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Kids still say the darndest things. AT&T and BBDO New York keep up their rich tradition of child-centric, ad-lib style spots (they are lightly scripted but most quickly become improvised) with this Thanksgiving gem.
Even granting the it's-so-easy-kids-can-get-it premise, Beck Bennett's opening question this time—"What's better: better or not better?"—is a little too obvious (or maybe just dumb) to elicit much more than an annoyed twitch. But what follows—the idea of bringing a pet turkey to T-Day dinner—is plenty entertaining, if arguably low-hanging fruit as well.
Regardless, the kid is right: A live turkey would be a way less boring Thanksgiving guest than a dead one. Nobody really likes to eat the bird anyway.
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Remember the "map wars" of 2009, when AT&T and Verizon spent a combined $4 billion on ads (and went to court) to claim coverage-area supremacy? Well, it looks like Verizon is firing another round of salvos.
For a new installment of its "Reality Check" campaign, Verizon and McCann New York created a modern art gallery featuring 4G coverage areas offered by competitors AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Visitors are asked to describe what they see, with the point being that few can recognize the illustrations as maps of the United States.
It's a clever gag and not overly aggressive, but will it mark the start of another round of cartography conflict?
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UPDATE: AT&T's CEO has added his own apology. Scroll down to see it.
After getting bombarded with hate tweets for about an hour this afternoon, AT&T removed an image from Twitter that had been meant as a 9/11 tribute—a photo showing a hand holding a phone up in front of the Tribute in Light searchlights. "We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy," the company wrote in a follow-up tweet. (As of this writing, the photo remained up on AT&T's Facebook page. UPDATE: The photo was removed from Facebook as well, about another hour after the tweet came down.) An AT&T spokesman later reiterated that same statement when reached by Adweek.
The episode highlights yet again the difficult task of doing any corporate messaging around 9/11. For AT&T, Wednesday's reaction on Twitter was an especially stinging rebuke, considering the company posted quite a similar style of photo last year on 9/11—and got much better feedback.
The difference? Last year's image showed the Freedom Tower, and the headline read, "Standing tall." It was simply a more forward-looking, patriotic execution. The Tribute in Light is a more sacred image, and this year's headline, "Never forget," is incompatible with any hint of a sales message, even one as simple as the image of a phone.
In the end, 9/11 may not be totally off limits to brands—American Express and many others posted well-received tweets today. But you'd better be careful, especially if you want to throw a product in there, too.
We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy.
— AT&T (@ATT) September 11, 2013
UPDATE: AT&T's chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson, has now posted his own apology on the company's blog. It reads:
We're big believers that social media is a great way to engage with our customers because the conversation is constant, personal and dynamic.
Yesterday, we did a post on social media intended to honor those impacted by the events of 9/11. Unfortunately, the image used in the post fell woefully short of honoring the lives lost on that tragic day.
I want to personally express to our customers, employees, and all those impacted by the events of 9/11 my heartfelt apologies. I consider that date a solemn occasion each year, a time when I reach out to those I was with on that awful day, share a moment of reflection for the lives lost and express my love of country. It is a day that should never be forgotten and never, ever commercialized. I commit AT&T to this standard as we move forward.
—Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO
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Here's a brilliant spot starring two god-fearing guinea pigs arguing over whether their house is possessed by an angel or a demon. The ad is just one execution in a tiny, Web-only BBDO campaign starring talking animals for AT&T Digital Life, a technology and security solution that lets you control electronics in your home while you're away. The insight that advanced technology probably seems like magic to our pets is delightfully simple, and the voice acting and writing for these adorable guineas is spot on—particularly when Kim threatens to get on Carl "like a bum on a pork chop" if he doesn't stop his "rantin' and ravin'" about devils. The other two spots, about a skeptical cat and a turd-eating dog, are OK, but somehow lack the timing and charm of Kim and Carl. In fact, I could see the guineas in a series of their own. But next time, double-check the set design. That's totally a hamster wheel, and you don't want to kill your stars.
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Après l’idée du spot Vodaphone Symphonia, voici cette publicité pour l’opérateur américain AT&T avec une mise en scène autour d’un morceau de piano. Un travail de l’agence BBDO USA sur une production du studio Shilo. A découvrir en vidéo dans la suite.
The best coverage of any carrier worldwide.
Advertising Agency: BBDO Atlanta, BBDO New York, USA
Chief Creative Officers: David Lubars, Bill Bruce
Executive Creative Director: Susan Credle
Creative Directors: Rich Wakefield, Chuck Meehan
Art Director: Brian Locascio
Copywriter: Bridget Prophet
Painter: Guido Daniele
Photographer: Andric
The best coverage of any carrier worldwide.
Advertising Agency: BBDO Atlanta, BBDO New York, USA
Chief Creative Officers: David Lubars, Bill Bruce
Executive Creative Director: Susan Credle
Creative Directors: Rich Wakefield, Chuck Meehan
Art Director: Brian Locascio
Copywriter: Bridget Prophet
Painter: Guido Daniele
Photographer: Andric
The best coverage of any carrier worldwide.
Advertising Agency: BBDO Atlanta, BBDO New York, USA
Chief Creative Officers: David Lubars, Bill Bruce
Executive Creative Director: Susan Credle
Creative Directors: Rich Wakefield, Chuck Meehan
Art Director: Brian Locascio
Copywriter: Bridget Prophet
Painter: Guido Daniele
Photographer: Andric
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
