Hasta La Creative!

Ogilvy Paris has a new online spot for Dove examining how mothers’ insecurities about their bodies carries on to their daughters.

For the spot, Ogilvy Paris asked mothers to fill out a survey asking what they did and didn’t like about their own bodies. Then, they had their daughters fill out the same survey, which, unsurprisingly, contained many of the same answers. When the mothers were then presented with their daughters’ surveys, they realized how they were passing down their feelings about their bodies, both positive and negative, to their daughters and resolved to be more confident and happy with themselves.

“Whether a mother, aunt, coach, teacher or sister, all women can set a positive example for the next generation by expressing their own beauty with confidence,” Jennifer Bremner, director of marketing at Dove, told Adweek. “Dove has long been dedicated to fostering positive self-esteem in women and girls, and we invite all women to join us in making a difference to the next generation by ensuring their own beauty legacy is a positive one.”

Ogilvy has made Dove synonymous with empowerment through its advertising celebrating different ideas of feminine beauty, winning accolades for the viral “Real Beauty Sketches.” While the more recent “Patches” was criticized by some as condescending and inauthentic, even receiving its own parody, “Legacy” marks a nice return to form, with its positive message reminiscent of the success of “Real Beauty Sketches.” The spot, which was uploaded today, will have an uphill battle to reach the same level of viral success as that ad, but its shareability all but ensures it will reach millions of views before long.

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Team Detroit teamed up with production company King And Country for a new 30-second broadcast spot for Ford Transit employing a mix of 3D animation, design and live-action.

The spot introduces the new line of Ford Transit vehicles with an approach borrowed from Team Detroit’s “Rant” campaign for the Ford F150, ending with the “Built Ford Tough” tagline. “9 to 5?ers” tweaks the familiar formula to illustrate how a range of professionals who rely on their vehicles can utilize the Transit models. It was shot over the course of two days on a soundstage in Los Angeles, making use of both green screen and practical sets, including a room that was actually flooded with 3,000 gallons of water. The interiors and exteriors of the vans, meanwhile, were captured in-camera and later augmented with CG. (more…)

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Erwin Penland teamed up with production company Harpoon Picures for a visually striking tribute to Alaska, celebrating the network’s arrival in the 49th state.

The well-shot 30-second spot highlights some of the state’s natural beauty before concluding with the Verizon team showing up and saying, “We’re here Alaska.” The ad celebrates the fact that Verizon’s expansion into the territory has made the company Alaska’s largest and fastest 4G LTE network. Harpoon was able to assemble a team and put the spot together over the course of just several days.

“A project like this reminds us that it takes more than a great director to produce a great spot,” said Chris Miller, Harpoon’s director of new business development.”Harpoon put all our best problem solving skills to the test and our amazing production team deftly pulled off every challenge presented to them in an incredibly short amount of time.” (more…)

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The Richards Group’s latest campaign clearly operates under the “less is more” mantra, with a series of minimalist 15-second ads.

The campaign leans heavily on the brand’s product itself, without any bells and whistles. In “Beastly” for example, the visuals are restricted to a bottle of Prestone with an effect to make it look bulked up at one point as the voiceover says, “It’s like Prestone started working out, got buff…beasty.” Another spot, “Patented,” touts the company’s patented cor-guard inhibitors, asking who else has them before answering its own question with “Nobody…because they’re patented,” while displaying the actual patent numbers.

It’s an unusually restrained approach that emphasizes the product’s superior corrosion protection in a way that implies there’s no need for further discussion. By keeping the message simple and not dressing it up with storytelling or impressive visuals, The Richards Group hopes to lend that message a sense of authenticity. (more…)

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Grey London has launched its first global campaign for Volvo since winning creative duties last December, which takes a different approach to automobile advertising.

In the 60-second “The Swell,” the first shot is from the passenger side perspective. As the camera zooms out (while panning around the car) we see that the door is open and the car is parked at a deserted beach. “To feel, to really feel, is a rare thing these days,” intones the voiceover as we see the car’s driver (presumably) riding a surfboard and taking in the surroundings. As the camera submerges into the water, we see the tagline, “Seek feeling.”

The unusual spot breaks today on Volvo’s YouTube account and website, and will broadcast in Germany, Australia, France, Turkey and Belgium at the end of this year, and the UK in 2015.

“The last thing the world needs is another overly-retouched car, hooning down a mountain road to a soft rock soundtrack,” Hollie Newton, Grey London’s global creative director told Campaign. “There’s a defiant, slightly renegade Swedish spirit to Volvo that simply doesn’t fit with the bland world of car advertising. And thank God for that.”

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mono teamed up with New York-based Hornet Studios to introduce Honeywell’s new Lyric thermostat with a new animated campaign.

In a 30-second spot, mono introduces the new smart thermostat’s geo-fencing capabilities, showing how the Lyric can use the location of your phone to determine when you’re away and go into power saving mode, and then sense when you’re coming home and return your home to your preferred temperature. To accomplish this, the animated spot presents the scenario of a man whose layover “turns into a stayover” as he’s forced to book a hotel room. This provides viewers with a good example of when Lyric’s smart features might come in handy. A 15-second spot (also animated) takes a similar approach, telling the story of a family who decide to go camping.

In addition to the broadcast spots, the campaign also includes digital, social, print and OOH properties. Like the broadcast spot, these components align “with moments when Lyric’s technology will be most useful, encouraging people to rethink the possibilities of a smart, money-saving thermostat that offers people the versatility to live their lives spontaneously.” (more…)

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McCann Paris has a provocative new take on the breast cancer awareness PSA, launching the world’s first (according to them) “Bra Cam,” to remind women to check for breast cancer.

At the beginning of the spot, a woman fastens a hidden camera to her bra before heading out for the day in a somewhat revealing (but still plenty safe for work) outfit. The ad then brings up a counter recording each time her breasts are “checked out” over the course of the day. It’s an attention grabbing way to deliver a pretty clear message: Everyone else is checking out your breasts, so check them out yourself and self-examine regularly for breast cancer. The campaign comes complete with a social initiative asking women to post a #CheckYourSelfie, checking themselves out and inviting friends to do the same in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness and get more women to self examine regularly. (more…)

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Publicis, Italy has a new spot for Nokia which seeks to “Stop the Violence” of cut selfies.

The clever spot shows a series of badly cut selfies, followed by the message, “Every day thousands of people are victims of cut selfies. Stop the violence.” This is followed by the tagline, “Share life uncut,” which has some unfortunate (and unintentional) implications. That it becomes kind of hard to watch the procession of badly shot selfies only serves to underscore the spot’s message. That said, the pacing and editing seem pretty spot-on. (more…)

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W+K Portland got Richard Sherman to star in its new spot “Never Finished” for Nike, following on the heels of Sherman’s recent appearances for Neff earlier this month and Campbell’s in August.

The new spot deals with the hype train surrounding Sherman, as he is constantly bombarded with media discussions of whether or not he is “the best.” “Never Finished” does a good job at finding humor in the situation, aided by a believably exasperated Sherman. The highlight is probably the made for TV biopic, starring Damon Wayans Jr.

Sherman’s roles in ads so far have mostly seen the Seahawks star not taking himself seriously and playing with his public persona. That definitely continues with “Never Finished,” but the schtick is much less over the top than some of his past roles, and the more nuanced characterization fits Sherman well as the spot, more than anything, mocks the media hype that surrounds star players. It makes for an entertaining ad, and Sherman’s most enjoyable performance by far.

The campaign, which runs until October 9th, also includes five additional videos, with special cameos from Johnny Manziel, Victor Cruz, Ndamukong Suh and Ken Griffey Jr.
(more…)

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Toronto agency john st.’s latest campaign for World Wildlife Fund Canada is based around the insight that people are lazy. Or, as Stephen Jurisic, co-ECD at john st. puts it, “This idea comes from the rather depressing truth that most people will only do things that help the environment if it’s really, really easy to do…So rather than try to change that behavior, we thought let’s just embrace it and show that it takes next to no effort to help our oceans and the sea life in it.”

In a 60-second spot, the agency promotes buying seafood with the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) label on it to help protect our oceans by supporting sustainable fishing practices. The spot likens buying MSC-certified seafood with recycling (“Because it’s next to the trash.”) and buying organic, things that are “easy and practically unavoidable.” It’s an interesting change of approach from the usual call-to-arms, making the implication that there’s really no excuse not to buy MSC seafood, since it’s so easy.The campaign also includes two shorter how-to videos and a series of overtly simply online quizzes. (more…)

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