Hasta La Creative!

Grey London created one of the more off-the-wall Christmas spots you’ll see this year with “Christmas Choir,” promoting McVitie’s Victoria cookies.

In the spot, a family sits around on a sleepy holiday evening when the father decides to open up a box of McVitie’s biscuits. Upon opening the container, a chorus of tiny, adorable animals begins barking, meowing, quacking and otherwise vocalizing to the tune of 80s hit “Only You” by Yaz. The chorus of cuddly critters is, clearly, meant to evoke the happiness evoked by digging in to a box of McVitie’s (in this case punctuating a case of holiday doldrums), but that’s not important right now. What’s important is that around the 44 second mark a tiny narwhal whale emerges from the depths of a punch bowl. For that, Grey London, we thank you. (more…)

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M&C Saatchi LA has launched a global holiday campaign for UGG Australia, centered around the 60-second broadcast spot “Twinkling Lights” promoting the brand’s holiday collection.

The spot features what appears to be a large group of women dressed in identical white outfits performing a choreographed dance routine, with the dancers dropping twinkling lights to create a snowflake pattern. In reality, only eight dancers were used in the making of the video, with those dancers digitally duplicated to give the impression that there’s a larger group. The ad, which channels a kind of throwback vibe with its choreographed spectacle and unfettered holiday cheeriness, ends with the tagline, “This is magic. This is UGG.”

“We really wanted to tap into the spirit of the season, the emotional connections that people have around the holidays and how UGG figures into that equation,” explained Nancy Mamann, vice president, global marketing, UGG Australia. “We really think that this multi-channel campaign epitomizes our brand positioning and highlights the beautiful holiday product we have this season in a campaign that is both premium and engaging.”

The global campaign featuring “Twinkling Lights” is rolling out in markets including the US, Canada, France, UK, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and Italy, with a second spot entitled “Passing Out Presents” set to break later in the season. Aside from the digital ads, the campaign includes a social element encompassing a shoppable gift guide on Instagram and “additional content stories that speak to the season and themes of the broader campaign across Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,” as well as OOH and in-store components.

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JWT London produced this thoroughly minimalist ad for Canon Europe which foregoes any music or voiceover, instead relying completely on ambient sound as it depicts the nocturnal foraging of local deer.

The 90-second ad, entitled “Urban Deer” was shot by director Jonathan Glazer in “a London/Essex suburb near Epping Forest,” (according to Adweek) in the early hours of the morning as deer emerge from a wooded area to graze on suburban lawns. “Urban Deer” follows the deer as they graze, at one point joined by a fox and cat, before the neighborhood’s human inhabitants wake up. At the end of the spot, the tagline “Come and see” appears onscreen, before finally revealing the Canon logo and letting viewers know what is being advertised. While visually stunning and powerful in its starkness, it may be a little too minimalist for its own good. How many viewers will actually sit through the entire ad, and how many of those will realize the connection between the striking images in “Urban Deer” and Canon, the brand it is promoting? We’re guessing not that many. (Although JWT London does address this somewhat with a campaign site documenting photography techniques used to capture some of the shots in the ad.) (more…)

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Ever wonder who it is and is not okay to give underwear to as a holiday present? Well, CP+B has got you covered in its new holiday spot for Fruit of the Loom, entitled “The Rules of Underwear Giving.”

“There are some people you should give underwear to this holiday,” the spot begins, showing a couple appreciatively exchanging pairs of Fruit of the Loom, both far happier than anyone has ever been to receive underwear. “And there are some people you shouldn’t,” the ad goes on, showing a disgruntled mailman shaking his head. The tongue-in-cheek formula continues for the remainder of the 30-second broadcast spot, reminding you that maybe it’s not the best idea to buy underwear for your boss, teacher, doorman or a police officer, ending with the tagline, “You shouldn’t give underwear to everybody, but for those you do, give them Fruit of the Loom.”

CP+B’s humorous approach is a welcome change in underwear advertising, and manages to be jokey about the holidays while also promoting the product as a holiday gift. In fact, while no one is going to be overjoyed about unwrapping a present and finding Fruit of the Loom, they glamorize the idea a bit by pointing out that it’s a gift you would only give to someone with whom you have a close relationship. Not a bad way to make gifting unmentionables seem appealing.

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Back in September, McKinney created an ad for Samsung starring the almost-too-cute Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard preparing for a night out only to stay in wasting time on their Galaxy Tab S. Now the couple has returned in a holiday effort for Samsung, presumably also from McKinney that sees Dax decorating the house with a little help from a very pregnant Kristen.

In the spot, entitled “Home for the Holidays,” the couple communicates via video as Dax scours the attic for decorations and goes to the store for holiday treats and Dax shows off Samsung’s smart watch when he takes a call from Kristen while setting up lights on the roof. When they finally complete decorating and switch the lights on Kristen says suggestively, “You know what this gets me in the mood for?” — but it’s not what you think. Viewers who enjoyed the cutesy appeal of the couple’s previous Samsung ad will find plenty to like here. Those who found that spot a little cute for its own good will probably want to skip this one.

If you’re wondering how close to real life the couple’s antics in the spot are, the answer is pretty close. According to Todd Pendleton, chief marketing officer at Samsung Telecommunications America, “Kristen and Dax go big for the holidays and their traditions from wearing matching pajamas and sweaters to decorating the house Griswold style are all true to what they do in real life.”

(more…)

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M&C Saatchi has released another ad for the San Diego Zoo as part of its ongoing campaign designed to stoke children’s interest in the zoo’s Tiger Trail exhibit.

In the spot, a boy has magically grown a full beard made entirely of bees. When a girl asks him how he grew it, he flashes back to a visit to the San Diego Zoo where he communed with tigers and apparently absorbed some kind of mysterious power. It builds off of M&C Saatchi’s previous work promoting the exhibit, focusing on the way interacting with wildlife helps stokes kids’ imaginations. It may, however, be a little too dependent on previous ads to understand its intention, as it otherwise can seem disjointed and a little nonsensical. Still, it’s hard to argue with a bee beard, especially one as convincing as this. To bring it to life, M&C Saatchi collaborated with production company Epoch Films and visual effects company Timber, combining footage of real swarming bees with CGI.

“?They were really committed to the process from our very first conversations, and delivered impressively on everything we talked about,” director Matthew Swanson told Great-Ads, “…the entire team at Timber made sure there wasn’t a single i undotted or t uncrossed.?” (more…)

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A couple weeks ago FCB Chicago launched its “Jingle Bellies” holiday spot for Kmart and Joe Boxer, a follow-up to last year’s “Show Your Joe,” which was unofficially dubbed “Jingle Balls” and went on to score over 18 million views on YouTube. With “Jingle Bellies” now just past the one million view mark, the agency has unveiled a follow-up belly performance entitled “Santa Baby.” The twist? This time around it’s pregnant women dancing.

The women shake their posteriors to an upbeat rendition of the song “Santa Baby” (most famously sung by Eartha Kitt) and then turn around, exposing their pregnant bellies. The reveal comes early in the ad, with the pregnant women dancing for the remainder of the spot, in their pajamas, until they stop and one woman extolls the virtues of Kmart and Joe Boxer. So basically more of the same goofy humor FCB has been employing in its holiday efforts for Kmart and Joe Boxer since the original, although a slight departure from the “body parts as instruments” schtick. The ad comes as a bit of a surprise, however, as there was no immediate sequel to last year’s spot. With Sears Holdings’ Kmart account currently in review (Sears is also up for grabs), this could potentially be FCB’s last work for the struggling brand. Kmart, meanwhile, badly needs its holiday marketing efforts to drive sales to make up for a very tough year for the company. (more…)

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When Arby’s received a friendly reminder in October that they had yet to release the second of their promised ads featuring Pepsi they realized they had a problem. The brand and its agency, Fallon, had already wrapped on their creative for the rest of the year.

Rob Lynch, chief marketing officer and brand president of Arby’s, explained to The Wall Street Journal that with the brand focusing on its revamped marketing, centered around the “We have the meats” tagline, the obligations to Pepsi simply got forgotten. Lynch did not look forward to breaking the news to Fallon. “Their ads are kind of like their babies. To go in after we shot them and shoehorn something in is like the worst client move you could ever make,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

But Fallon proved up to the challenge. The Minneapolis-based agency created a new, 30-second ad poking fun at the whole debacle. A tall glass of Pepsi stays on camera for the entire ad as the sonorous Ving Rhames explains the situation: “Arby’s has an agreement to feature their good friend Pepsi in two commercials a year…Well Arby’s messed up and forgot about the second commercial!” In a clever touch, the ad ends by replacing the usual “We have the meats” tagline with “We have Pepsi.” So what did Pepsi think of the approach?

“We applaud Arby’s unconventional approach to marketing and when they came to us with this idea, we thought it would be a fun, creative way to highlight our partnership,” Roberto Rios, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo’s food service division, told The Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement.

So it seems like everyone is happy with the situation. The spot will run from December 7th-13th in the Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles markets, fulfilling Arby’s end of their agreement with Pepsi to feature the beverage in two advertisements this year. Presumably the creative Fallon had to put on hold for the ad will run in the near future.

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TD Bank gave 24 of its customers $30,000 to contribute to a community cause of their choosing, with just one stipulation: they had to complete the project in 24 hours.

Created in collaboration with Leo Burnett and Diamond Integrated Marketing, the campaign is captured in the above four-minute video (which fell through the cracks here last week). The video release was perfectly timed for Thanksgiving and easily went viral, having past the 3.5 million views mark on YouTube in under a week. “#MakeTodayMatter” shows surprised TD Bank customers learning they’ve been awarded the money for a cause of their choosing and then getting to work on making a difference in just one day.

The majority of those nominated for the campaign were chosen by TD employees, TD Chief Marketing Officer Dominic Mercuri told Adweek, with a few “chosen based on random live interviews in branches and stores with random customers.” Mercurri added, “We didn’t know if this idea would work. Would people drop everything to bring to life their idea? Turns out—yes, they would.”

Those ideas are on full display in the “#MakeTodayMatter” video, from buying all-new gear for a local youth football team, to making a woman’s home wheelchair accessible (allowing her to leave for the first time in years), to a gala event to boost the self-esteem of foster children. It’s hard to not be at least a little touched with people making their charitable ideas a reality. There are also separate videos for each project, hosted on a campaign website, as well as a social component. As you may remember, Leo Burnett and TD Bank went viral with the similarly charitable, “Automated Thanking Machines” this summer, and TD also collaborated with Philadelphia-based Tierney to commission “Art For Trees,” promoting eco-initiative MillionTreesNYC back in October.

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The Martin Agency makes sacreligious use of Salt-N-Pepa’s iconic 90s hit “Push It” — as well as the group itself — in its latest spot for Geico.

The 30-second ad opens on a man trying to pull open a door that says “Push” on it. Soon Salt-N-Pepa show up behind him and break into “Push It” and the man walks in. Next we see the pair in an elevator (with Spinderella in the background), a Lamaze class, and at a football practice while performing the song. “If you’re salt and pepper, you tell people to push it. It’s what you do,” says a voiceover, in the campaign’s familiar formula. “If you want to save 15 percent or more on car insurance, you switch to Geico. It’s what you do.” The Martin Agency then manages to slip in a quick gag after the tagline.

The campaign, whose tagline feels like a response to Esurance’s “Insurance for the modern world” (with that company directly taking on Geico’s “15 percent or more “selling point in its advertising), seems like its running out of steam as its joke runs a bit thin, so bringing in an act nostalgic viewers will be pleased to see make sense. And Salt-N-Pepa’s presence certainly makes the ad more memorable, even if it can’t quite save the tired premise.  (more…)

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