Hasta La Creative!

Back in October, we brought you news of David&Goliath’s new campaign for Kia Optima starring L.A. Clippers power forward Blake Griffin and Jack McBrayer (an actor best known for his work on 30 Rock) as a superhero team saving people from non-Kia purchases. We were a bit disappointed with the initial spot, but hoped that the spot’s title “Trailer” indicated it was just a teaser for things to come. Now, David&Goliath have released two new spots for the campaign, “Zipline” (featured above) and “Apologize to You.” Unfortunately, both fail to live up to the potential of the premise.

“Zipline” features Blake Griffin and sidekick Jack McBrayer crashing in on a lame Internet shopping session. They present the Optima as a better option, to a man who is understandably freaked out by this series of events. Griffin and McBrayer have good chemistry together, but the spot fails to capitalize on it and ultimately falls flat. It might help if the two interacted more, instead of seemingly splitting screen time in separate shots.

That “Zipline” is actually the better of the two spots should tell you something about “Apologize to You.” The spot features Griffin and a fire extinguisher-wielding McBrayer demanding a passerby apologize for not selecting the Optima. It’s repetitive to say the least, lacking any real substance in exchange for a failed attempt at cheap laughs. Hopefully, the folks over at David&Goliath can rebound from these efforts, as we still think this campaign has the potential to be funny. Credits and “Apologize to You” after the jump. continued…

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“Forever Faster.” Remember that mantra as it’s the 2014 tagline for Puma, which has now appointed JWT as its global creative agency in a move that will span North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Middle East/African regions. In a statement, the sports/shoe/apparel brand’s CEO Björn Gulden says, “In JWT, we have found an agile agency with a global reach that understands the PUMA brand and culture. The team quickly proved that they could deliver on our new mission to become the Fastest Sports Brand in the World. Together we’ll craft a more nimble creative structure that will allow us to support all of the company’s sporting and lifestyle categories with a single consumer message and streamlined creative concept across territories.”

JWT New York will spearhead creative on the account, which was previously handled by Droga5. According to sources, BBH and Barton F. Graf 9000 were also in the pitch, which we hear JWT wasn’t initially invited to but eventually became a “dark horse.” Yet, “chemistry” worked out and due to touting a “small agency-style creative” at a network agency, which the brand didn’t expect, JWT won out thanks to a pitch led by the agency’s NY CEO Peter Sherman, North American CCO Jeff Benjamin and director of business development Emilie Vasu.

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The 2014 World Cup may not start for 183 days, but Visa is jumping on the publicity wagon extra early with “One Worldwide,” a singing welcome for all 32 teams playing in Brazil. Sources tell us Atmosphere Proximity is on the creative of the campaign. All of the singing comes courtesy of the Children’s Choir of Petropolis.

The three-and-a-half-minute video drags a little long since it fits in lyrics for every nation. Kids are cute, it’s hard to argue against that, and kids in face paint puffing out their chests in support of their respective teams can be fun, but the music choice gives off a haunting, strange tone at times. Let’s just say this is a far cry from Lionel Messi‘s Samsung spot that used little kids singing the Lorde single “Royals.” That felt flashy and happy with some high-production value. Made the viewer feel excited about soccer. The Visa spot doesn’t do any of those things. At least there’s still time to rethink things for the next 182 days.

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San Francisco-based Venables Bell & Partners continue their ”Protect Yourself from Your Digital Self” campaign for McAfee LiveSafe, produced by its in-house content production facility, Lumberyard, with a new spot entitled ”Beth vs. @simply_the_beth.”

The spot builds on the notion of the careless, naive digital self they’ve explored in the past. In this case, @simply_the_beth’s carelessness leads to identity theft, an opportunity for VB&P to tout McAfee’s identity protection. The way in which this happens is a bit over-the-top, and I have to think the spot would be more successful if  @simply_the_beth got in trouble in a more realistic way. I understand the ad is attempting to be humorous, but it really pushes things way past believability. Aren’t you trying to get people to identify with Beth and her digital self? And by making Beth’s digital self a complete idiot, aren’t you kind of insulting your potential customers? Making @simply_the_beth so unbelievably stupid just seems like a big misstep. On an unrelated note, I really want that owl mug Beth is holding.

In the slightly more successful Gregg vs. @greggs_benedict (featured after the jump), VB&P plays on the animosity between Greg and his digital self without making the digital self quite so cartoonish (he’s more of a dick than a moron). Let us know what you think of the new spot, and the ”Protect Yourself from Your Digital Self” campaign in the comments section.  continued…

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Well, the holiday items keep pouring in today. This one is a “Christmas miracle” from our neighbors to the north.

Canadian airline WestJet and studio m collaborated to give visitors to Toronto and Hamilton International Airports a Christmas miracle. They discovered what more than 250 Calgary-bound passengers had on their wish lists, with help from a tech-savvy Santa. Then 175 Westjet employees acted as elves, taking notes on passenger’s Christmas wishes, shopping, wrapping the gifts and delivering them to the Calgary airport ahead of the gifts’ recipients. When the passengers arrived at baggage claim in Calgary, they were met with a Christmas miracle — the gifts they had wished for were there waiting for them — addressed from Santa, of course. As the wrapped presents went around the carousel, Santa himself showed up to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

Making baggage claim fun is truly a miracle, and WestJet clearly jumped through hoops to pull this stunt off. It made a lot of peoples’ days, and the kids who got presents from Santa that day will probably remember it forever. Not a bad way to engender brand loyalty, but intentions aside, WestJet staged a really heartwarming event. The genuineness of the gesture and its perfect execution more than make up for any excess cheesiness in the video, which plays on the classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (better known by its first line, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Stick around for “Santa’s Bloopers” after the jump, but beware, the cheesiness increases exponentially.  continued…

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One of the opening frames in Leo Burnett’s “Fat Talk” spot for Special K tells the viewer that 93% of women engage in fat talk, a form of passive-aggressive self-shaming. Because of Facebook and Twitter, I’m surprised that number isn’t seven percentage points higher.

But during the two-minute spot, women in a nondescript clothing store are forced to confront their own insecurities. Placards of fat talk tweets are posted around the store, and the women realize the self-degradation is bad and start hugging each other. This ad is not a comedy. Instead, it comes off as an incredibly preachy after-school special for adult women. Tackling fat talk is a compelling psychological start for a commercial, but as with a lot of good ideas, the execution winds up muddled into something so safe and vanilla that it’s hard to remember what brand is advertising in the first place. Credits after the jump.

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Yesterday, metal legends and running joke Metallica performed a concert at Antarctica’s Carlini Scientific Base to 120 people in a transparent dome of some sort. Of the 120 attendees, 20 were scientists from Russia, Korea, China, Poland, Chile, Brazil and Germany. These winners of “Music Zero” “enjoyed the talent of Metallica in a quite exceptional way: through headphones, to respect the harmony of the environment,” which…wait, what?

It’s impossible to blame anyone at the concert for rocking out at this concert. After all, once you get bored of watching penguins slide around on their stomachs, there’s not a lot entertaining that happens on the most-desolate of continents. But, I have to wonder, why is a brand that seems to target college-aged youth trying to make a statement with a band like Metallica, who the average millennial may remember first from their douche-y drummer getting pissy about Napster and again from the 2004 couples therapy session, Some Kind of Monster?

Now, this could be a sign of things changing at Coke Zero, and a decision from on high to start marketing to a consumer who remembers that Metallica was actually a pretty solid band pre-Load. It’s also very possible that Coke Zero had some money to burn and no other band was willing to travel to Antarctica to throw a concert. But, in a world where metal is getting an awesome resurgence via bands like METZ, Deafheaven, and Liturgy, there’s gotta be a better alternative to Metallica. Set list after the jump.

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This one’s been making the rounds for awhile now, but we thought we’d give some love anyway. McgarryBowen New York’s new spot for Verizion, “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” features the talents of Ed Norton. It originally aired on December 5th, although it was posted to YouTube about a week before that.

In the spot, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, Norton is thrown into a variety of dicey situations, with his Droid helping him get through most of them relatively unscathed. “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” opens with Norton waking up to find himself in a strange room, with his Droid still at 3% power. “It’s been an interesting 48 hours,” Norton says, followed by a flashback. We then follow Norton through his series of misadventures, which begins with him finding a lost wallet and using Droid to find the location. This leads Norton to a karaoke bar, where he ogles a taken woman while singing “If I Could Turn Back Time” (the funniest part of the spot).

From here, Norton’s misadventures include attempting to land a plane, being held captive, having a key found in his stomach, playing a high-stakes game of Connect Four, and being held captive once again. Its everything-goes-wrong brand of humor borrows a little bit from The Hangover series, and although the spot seems to employ the kind of random connections Grey NY used in their 2012 DirectTV campaign, the superior execution helps keep it from feeling too easy or derivative. The spot uses a clever setup to promote the Droid’s impressive battery life, and then finds ways to showcase the phone’s other features in the process. This is certainly a far cry better than McgarryBowen Chicago’s disastrous “Denskies” campaign for Sears. Bonus points for the excellent use of a Lykke Li song. Credits after the jump. continued…

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W+K Portland tapped some of the world’s greatest athletes for their new holiday spot touting the advantages of Nike Hyperwarm Performance Baselayer, directed by Rupert Sanders. ”Winning in a Winter Wonderland” features the talents of Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, skier Julia Mancuso, snowboarder Scotty Lago, soccer stars Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux, and former Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, who now appears to be headed to Seattle. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer also makes a brief cameo appearance.

While undeniably cheesy (hey, it’s the holidays) the spot does an admirable job at promoting the Nike Hyperwarm Performance Baselayer. People are prone to listen to endorsements from star athletes, and W+K got a wide, varied group together for the spot. They emphasize that the Nike Hyperwarm Performance Baselayer makes playing in cold, harsh conditions seem almost enjoyable by keeping you warm without restricting movement, perfectly matching the song selection. “Winning in a Winter Wonderland,” of course, changes the words of the holiday classic, which gets a bit cringe-worthy in spots but mostly comes across as cheesy holiday fun. The words are sung by the star athletes in the spot, mostly while in action, and they seem to have a lot of fun with it — which makes it hard to hate.

The campaign features both a one minute and thirty second version of the spot, as well as a digital takeover and social media elements.”Winning in a Winter Wonderland” premiered during college football’s Big Ten NCAA Championship game and will run throughout the holiday season. Credits after the jump.  continued…

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LA-based agency David&Goliath has crafted a new campaign promoting VIZIO’s M-Series Smart TV and VIZIO Sound Bar, complete with the new tagline, “Beautifully Simple.”

The TV campaign contains three new spots: “So Easy,” “My Station” and “Tiny Dancer.” Each of these was directed by Michael Downing, with cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi (who has worked on Silver Linings Playbook and Babel). Together, the spots form a kind of narrative, beginning with “So Easy” (featured above). This spot, and the campaign as a whole, play on the fact that children often understand new technology better than their parents. In “So Easy” a young girl helps her dad through problems with his laptop and smartphone. The father then jumps at the opportunity to help his daughter pick a program on VIZIO’s M-Series Smart TV. A cute idea, that is unfortunately followed by the theme-line ”So easy, even an adult can figure it out.” This wouldn’t be a problem, if it wasn’t for the fact that Geico ruined the lines “So easy, even a…” for everyone, forever.

The next spot, “My Station,” is probably my favorite of the bunch, featuring the dad discovering his daughter’s Pandora station. “Tiny Dancer” concludes the series by upping the cute factor, as well as the father’s competence with the M-Series Smart TV. David&Goliath’s approach of creating a series of ads meant to be viewed in a certain order is interesting, and they pull it off by making each of them able to stand alone as well. I just wish they’d get rid of that theme-line.

Clearly targeted at dads, the campaign will run through the college football season on ESPN’s networks and Hulu into early 2014. Stay tuned for the final two spots, as well as credits, after the jump.  continued…

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