Hasta La Creative!

With the release of Activision’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare coming up on November 4th, Ant Farm has released a 60-second gameplay trailer, the last piece in the long advertising onslaught for the game, which kicked off with a reveal trailer starring Kevin Spacey (who voices a character in the game) back in May. 

Lines from Spacey’s in-game character hold together the trailer, along with gameplay footage and quotes from advanced reviews of the title, such as Forbes‘ “…transcends the line between game and film…” The spot highlights the changes from previous iterations in the franchise, touting a more important plot and improved multiplayer while putting the game’s improved graphics on display. Fans of the franchise have probably already put in their pre-orders but emphasizing the changes in the franchise could bring some newcomers on board.

“We’ve been partners with Activision on the Call of Duty franchise from its infancy, and over the years we’ve had the fantastic opportunity to see it grow to become the massive pop culture phenomenon it is today,” said Rob Troy, chief creative officer at Ant Farm. “This year, the graphics and the multiplayer aspects of Advanced Warfare took a huge leap forward, so the creative aspects behind this campaign needed to pay homage to that.” (more…)

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New York-based Partners & Spade handled the creative for Whole Foods’ first-ever national brand campaign, entitled “Values Matter.”

The campaign focuses on the sustainability and fair trade practices of the grocery chain, summing up the brand’s philosophy with “To us, value is inseparable from values.” That line is likely also meant to defend the brand from its image as being unaffordable (as exemplified by the oft-repeated reference to the chain as “Whole Paycheck”), explaining to viewers that Whole Foods views “value” in the big picture, while implying a cheapness to the “value” offered by most grocery stores, who don’t place the same emphasis on quality and sustainability. The ad ends with the tagline, “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store,” a title the chain earned in Health magazine.

Other ads in the campaign — such as “Beef” and “Produce” — have a more specific focus. Broadcast spots will air during prime time shows such as Modern Family, Scandal and The Voice, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Saturday Night Live, and during World Series and NFL games. Media buying and planning was handle by Austin-based GSD&M.

“Not everyone knows what makes Whole Foods Market different from other grocers, or the fact that no other retailer has standards as demanding or as transparent as ours,” said Jeannine D’Addario, Whole Foods Market’s new global vice president of communications. This campaign will distinguish what makes our brand special, our food different and our quality superior.” (more…)

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Last month, Grey New York debuted a new campaign for DirecTV, introducing the world to Super Creepy Rob Lowe and Less Attractive Rob Lowe in the process. Now the agency is back with a follow-up effort, this time contrasting DirecTV spokesman Rob Lowe with cable subscriber Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe.

The new 30-second spot follows in the same cringe comedy formula as its predecessors. Like Less Attractive Rob Lowe, the new character has made some questionable choices about his appearance, including winged hair, a fanny pack and khakis hiked up to Urkel height. He also doesn’t do well around other people, as, after commenting that you have to wait forever for cable providers to show up he notes, “I hope it isn’t a girl…or a guy.”

With the success of the previous ads, it was only a matter of time before Grey rolled out a successor, and it looks like we can expect more from the campaign as well. According to Adweek, there are “at least two more spots from Grey New York” on the way, begging the question, which Rob Lowe will we see next? (more…)

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David Beckham is certainly no stranger to advertising, but as far as we’re aware this is the first time the former soccer superstar has appeared in an ad for booze.

Beckham stars in the new spot for Haig Club Whisky, which was directed by Guy Ritchie. The ad sees Beckham partying it up at a remote estate in the Scottish highland — the kind of swanky real estate its fair to assume he and wife Victoria Beckham actually own — after meeting up with a group of friends. Beckham doesn’t speak in the ad (there’s no dialogue, actually) but he’s still the focus of attention, with Ritchie mostly keeping the camera focused on the star in the well-shot ad. No word yet on which agency was responsible, but we will update if/when we receive that information.

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So how did Fiat make the new 500X? According to this spot from The Richard Group the answer is a certain blue pill.

The ad opens on a woman making amorous advances on an elderly gentlemen. He tells her he will be back in a minute, rushes to the bathroom, gets out a bottle of erectile dysfunction pills (presumably) and goes to take the very last one. But he misses his mouth and the pill falls out the window, slowly, and improbably, making its way into the gas tank of a nearby Fiat, which transforms the car into the new Fiat 500X.

And that has to be one of the most ridiculous premises for an ad to come across our desks in some time. The spot is beautifully shot, — in Pitigliano, Tuscany, according to Adweek, — but it doesn’t do a whole lot to sell the Fiat 500X, amorous glances of women following its transformation aside. Plus, if the Fiat 500X is the result of a Fiat on a certain impotence-treating drug, what does that say about the rest of Fiat’s vehicles?

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Doremus and DDB Columbia have released a new campaign for O-I, the largest manufacturer of glass packaging in the world, touting the benefits of glass over cans and plastic.

While a campaign for glass bottles may sound like a pretty boring proposition, the agencies do a good job at keeping things entertaining. In the above spot, probably the best of the bunch, a group of friends get glass envy when they realize the shortcomings of clunking beer cans together. In other spots a man stranded on an island has poor luck sending a distress signal with a plastic bottle and a guy’s cardboard box of whiskey ruins his chances with a lady. While the spots vary in effectiveness and entertainment value they largely do a good job at showing the benefits of glass over other options in inventive ways. The ads broke online earlier this month and will extend to television in Colombia and Peru later this week. (more…)

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San Francisco agency Eleven has a strange new campaign for Virgin America centered around an extremely long online video.

The ad, entitled “Have you been flying BLAH Airlines?” depicts, in real time, a flight on the imagined rival airline from Newark to San Francisco: a five hour and forty-five minute flight. If that sounds boring, well, that’s the point. It’s also a bit strange and creepy, since the passengers are all mannequins. There are long shots of the mannequins doing absolutely nothing in their cramped seats, punctuated by occasional “action” such as a woman devouring some ribs.

“There’s a very distinct odor coming from somewhere nearby,” says a man on the flight, while the woman goes on and on about the ribs she’s eating. And that’s about as much action you can expect as you (inevitably) skip around. Still, there’s actually a kind of strange charm to the ad and its surreal humor when taken in small doses, and you kind of have to appreciate the great lengths Eleven went to to make its point.

“The passengers have no choice but to be on ‘autopilot’ to get through the tedious journey,” Virgin told Adweek. “Just trying to watch the video is downright painful—and that’s the point. If you wouldn’t sit through the entire film, why would you pay money to experience it in real life?”

(more…)

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Earlier this month, Droga5 released the spot “Car Wash” as part of its “Get A Taste” campaign for Diet Coke. Now the agency is rolling out a new 30-second ad starring Taylor Swift and a whole lot of kittens.

In the spot, entitled “Kittens,” Swift is playing with a kitten when she takes a sip of Diet Coke and all of a sudden there are two kittens. She takes another sip and there’s an entire table full of kittens, and before the end of the spot the entire room is filled as the singer/songwriter is engulfed in a swarm of feline cuteness. “What if life tasted as good as Diet Coke?” says text at the end of the ad, before Swift works in a quick plug for her new album. Since everyone with a soul likes kittens, this one is sure to be a hit. Add in Swift’s star power, and a preview of a new track featured exclusively in the ad until the release of her new album on October 27th, and this is all but guaranteed millions of views.

The ad was launched online today and will make its broadcast debut this Friday. As part of the campaign, Diet Coke is also giving fans a chance to win “concert tickets and a flyaway trip for two to an upcoming performance through iHeartRadio.com, RyanSeacrest.com and other sites.” The brand is also sponsoring Swift’s co-host appearance on “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” on October 30th, the first time a celebrity co-hosts the entire program as well as the first time it is presented by a single brand. (more…)

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RPA is debuting a new online series promoting the Honda Fit with “Brad, the Lyft Driver,” a hidden-camera style video starring Nick Thune as Brad, an (overly) accommodating Lyft driver.

The series, directed by Fred Savage (Modern Family, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), shows Thune (in character as Brad) “maintaining a good vibe” while yelling obnoxiously out the window, rehearsing soap opera scenes with passengers, and creating creepy personalized mix tapes. While the antics can be amusing in small doses, the video stretches well past the three minute mark, overstaying its welcome a bit in the process.

As part of its “Fit For You” campaign, RPA is also teaming up with Vine stars Jordan Burt, KC James, Cody Johns and David Lopez for a series of Vine videos with each utilizing the Honda Fit in a video showcasing their individual style. (more…)

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72andSunny has unveiled a new campaign for Sonos’ wireless hi-fi system which playfully imagines what different genres of music would appear as visually.

Taking the notion that Sonos can transform your home literally, the spots each match musical genres with a distinct visual style. So, for example, in the ad set to “Nous Etions Deux” by La Femme, a home is taken over by pop art, starting with spots covering random appliances. In other spots the folk-pop of Sylvan Esso is rendered in claymation, the electronica of Mount Kimbie melts the walls and the croon of Isaac Hayes is paired to (what else?) liquid gold.

Music for the spots was curated by KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley prior to the shoot, informing the pacing, mood and feeling for filming. This approach seems to have payed off, as the music and visuals, created using a combination of practical and CG effects, combine seamlessly, as the sounds seem to transform the space. The homes pictured, “designed to represent people around the world in all kinds of living spaces” are also perfectly matched to the music and chosen form of visualization. Shot over the course of five days in Argentina, everything comes together for a series of ads that imaginatively illustrate the benefits of Sonos’ product and are a lot of fun to watch. (more…)

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