Hasta La Creative!

Team One is launching a campaign today to introduce Lexus’ first-ever RC 350 sport coupe and RC F performance coupe.

The multimedia campaign is centered around a pair of broadcast spots promoting each of the new vehicles. In “Face Off,” actor Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, that creepy voyeur kid in American Beauty) confidently walks into a dark factory. As he glances at the Lexus RC Coupe, he likes what he sees (and for some reason lightbulbs explode as he unlocks the door) and he drives off smiling. The spot ends with the tagline, “Once driven, there’s no going back.”

“No Limits” was inspired by the RC F reveal video, and touts the vehicle’s powerful performance as barrier-breaking. It combines footage of the RC F racing through turns with athletes pushing their bodies to the limits.

Both spots launch today and will air during prime time, late night, cable, network television and cable sports, including “multiplatform ownerships within the Thursday Night Football Halftime Show on CBS and NFL Network.” In addition to the general market spots, “three additional RC F commercials geared toward multicultural audiences will also air at launch.” The broadcast efforts will be supported by digital, print and OOH executions. (more…)

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Grey New York teamed up with Whitehouse Post and Carbon VFX to document the rise of One World Trade Center and promote One World Observatory, set to open in the spring of 2015 in “The Rise of See Forever: One World Observatory.”

In the 50 second video (featured above) the visual history of One World Trade’s rise is pieced together from hundreds of crowdsourced Instagram images. Reminiscent of a flipbook, the images flit across the screen, documenting the eight year construction of the structure in under a minute and ending with a 360 degree view of the building as it morphs into the One World Observatory logo and the line “See Forever.”

“The Whitehouse Post team and I have watched One World Trade being built from our office since we moved in six years ago,” said Executive Producer Lauren Hertzberg in a press release. “It has been an absolute honor for all of us to work on this project with Grey.” (more…)

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Instead of trying to scare you this Halloween, Droga5 decided to go a different route for Chobani.

“We made a scary video,” reads the text at the video’s opening, set to ominous music, “this is not it.” The remaining 30-seconds are, instead, devoted to dogs in funny costumes eating Chobani. It’s cute stuff, to be sure, but we’re not sure how dogs eating Chobani are supposed to make people want to eat Chobani. But then the point is probably more to raise awareness for the brand with a video Chobani and Droga5 hope people will share on social media. The video will be pushed out on the brand’s social channels throughout the weekend, supported by social media posts and a Chobani sampling (presumably for humans, not dogs) at the Chobani café in SoHo. (more…)

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Commonwealth McCann has debuted a new campaign for the Chevy Colorado entitled “You Know You Want a Truck.”

In the “Focus Groups” spot above, they polled groups including “guys with bears,” “single women,” “rich housewives,” children and the elderly. The results? Truck guys are 85% more handsome, 76% more resourceful and 100 percent more likely to have an awesome pet. Other spots include the creation of “Truck Guy” deodorant and a “Trucked Out” dating profile. Each spot presents itself in a documentary style (and claims to use “real people, not actors”) but also features a playful tone that shows the brand isn’t taking things too seriously.

“The films are centered around the idea that there is an inner truck guy in everyone,” said Paul Edwards, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet marketing. “The game-changing Chevrolet Colorado will enable people to unleash their inner truckness.” (more…)

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W+K has a new ad for Nike, promoting the launch of its new LEBRON 12 sneaker today with a celebration of LeBron James’ return to Cleveland directed by the Malloy Brothers.

Yes, that’s right: another LeBron James ad about the star’s return to Cleveland. This follows on the heels of Translation’s spot for Sprite (which we wrote about yesterday) and R/GA’s “Re-Established 2014? for Beats, which deal with the exact same subject, as well as the recent Kia spot from David&Goliath, also starring James. Nike’s new spot will run tonight during the Cavs first home game, when it’s theoretically possible that ads featuring James will run back-to-back-to-back.

So there’s a bit of an oversaturation issue with this message, to put it mildly. But how does W+K’s version compare to the others we’ve seen? It might actually be the most melodramatic of the bunch. It opens on James giving a pep talk to his team about giving their all for the city of Cleveland. Soon the entire city is in a huddle, chanting, “Forward! Together!” It’s well-shot, in black and white, but the message comes across as a bit over-the-top, all the more so given the story’s overexposure. The spot will continue to run through November.

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Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation) is the latest marquee Hollywood director enlisted for Wieden+Kennedy’s “Dress Normal” campaign for Gap, following David Fincher‘s efforts in August and taking the reigns of four holiday  spots — a pair each for broadcast and online.

The ads spin the “Dress Normal” tagline by showing some abnormal (and often cringe-inducing) family holiday moments. But then what’s more normal than pondering the family you’ll never understand? Each spot ends with the message “You don’t have to get them to give them Gap” preceding the tagline. It’s an interesting approach, positioning Gap as a gift for those family members you have no idea what to give to, but it sits well with the “Dress Normal” tagline and Coppola and company do a good job of making it work in most of the ads.

In perhaps the most successful of the spots, “Gauntlet” a girl returns home to her large, boisterous, and often odd family. Perfectly set to the Johnny Cash song “I Got Stripes,” she makes her way through the house greeting her relatives with an awkward expression on her face that says a lot about the effort she’s putting in to deal with these people. It feels like a telling glance into the lives of a particular family, which is the approach taken throughout these efforts and, along with some great song selections, what makes them charming. The other broadcast spot, “Mistletoe,” documents a particularly cringe-worthy moment under the mistletoe at a holiday party. It’s almost hard to watch, but then that makes it fit the “You don’t have to get them to give them Gap” all the more.

In addition to the two online ads — “Crooner” and “Pinball” — the campaign is supported by print and OOH elements, as well as digital banner ads launching on Gap’s social media channels and GapGiftGuide.com on November 3rd. (more…)

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Publicis Kaplan Thaler has released a new campaign for Crest testing “The Effects of Halloween Candy” on children.

The test is performed by a deadpan moderator who basically lets a group of children in Halloween costumes (the highlight being the little girl dressed as a piñata) binge on candy and records the results. And the results are? “It seems when presented with candy kids exhibit a pathological fixation bordering on psychosis,” according to the moderator. Oh, also, “Piñata has anger issues,” and one little boy threw up in the toilet. Whether you find this cute or annoying (or both) will depend largely on your tolerance for loud children. But then, this is targeted squarely at parents, with the payoff tagline being “Thanks to Crest their teeth are covered” following the message “Halloween candy may have an effect on your kids but not on their teeth.” Now where can we get a piñata costume? (more…)

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Halloween tends to lend agencies a certain leniency with how over-the-top, ridiculous and gory they can make their ads. Even so, Superior’s new ad for Lithuanian mineral water brand Vytautas stretches the limits of appropriateness for even this holiday, and is easily the most fucked up Halloween ad you’ll see this year.

Superior teamed up with director Tadas Vidmantas, who was responsible for this spec ad, which Adweek named “the single craziest commercial of 2012? for the ad, which debuted online yesterday. In the spot, a man is visiting his friend, who lies unconscious in a hospital bed and enjoying a Vytautas. Then he gets the idea to replace the friend’s IV with a bottle of Vytautas, reviving and, uh, arousing the friend as a nurse walks in. What happens next is unexpected, to say the least, and involves flying buttons causing considerable damage. You really need to see it for yourself above because it kind of defies description. And, yes, this is a real ad (not a spec). According to Adweek, there’s even a (slightly tamer) broadcast version for Lithuanian television. The bar for Halloween craziness in advertising has officially been raised, or lowered, depending on your point of view. (more…)

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Carhartt’s in-house creative team worked with production company Furlined to launch a fall integrated advertising campaign promoting the brand’s Rain Defender technology, available in select outerwear, sweatshirts, pants and accessories.

To showcase the Rain Defender technology in the 60-second “Weatherman” the Carhartt and Furlined team traveled to rainy Washington state to capture arborists, dock workers, farmers, and ranchers battling the elements in Carhartt gear to get the job done. The spot opens on a man watching a weather report calling for clear skies and sunny weather. “Leave the rain gear at home,” the weatherman says, but when he glances outside he sees it is already raining. He slips on his Carhartt jacket, steps outside, and gets to work.

“…hardworking men and women trust their Carhartt, not their local weather forecast,” said Tony Ambroza, senior vice president of marketing at Carhartt. “Having gear that protects against even the
harshest weather conditions is just as important to them as their work truck, tool belt, hard hat, etcetera – they want to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at them.”

The broadcast campaign will run primarily across national sports and outdoor programming networks, and will be aided by digital support on social media and sports websites. (more…)

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David&Goliath teamed up with NBA superstar LeBron James in its latest effort for Kia, which recently extended its contract as “official automotive partner of the NBA.”

In the spot, James emerges from the Kia’s new K900 luxury sedan at some type of glitzy red carpet event. The star struck valet stumbles over his words as LeBron tosses him the keys and says “Keep it close,” followed by the taglne “Fit for a King.” Entitled “Valet,” the ad is perfectly timed, breaking today on the opening day of the NBA season. It arrives as James rides a wave of publicity for his much-discusses return to Cleveland, which was celebrated in a recent Beats campaign. At any rate, the spot aims for a stylish simplicity, letting the ride — and LeBron’s endorsement of it — mostly speak for itself. (more…)

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