Hasta La Creative!

Warning: Do not watch this on an empty stomach.

As a self-confessed foodie I can’t not be down with thirty or so seconds of straight food porn, which is a fair way to summarize this new spot championing Aussie supermarket chain Woolworths’ Masterchef South Africa sponsorship.

Directed by Ian Chuter of Platypus Productions, the spot, essentially created in-house by Woolworths (not to be confused with the iconic retail chain), doesn’t make any mention of brand or who it’s sponsoring until the very end. But that’s okay, your eyes will be glued to the screen for shots of melting chocolate, succulent steak, grilled spring onions, and all sorts of culinary treats getting the food porn treatment. Plenty of close ups and “money shots” of delicious-looking food: What’s not to like? This spot left me feeling hungry, and I had a late lunch so that shouldn’t be happening right now. I’ll repeat since it bears repeating: Do not watch this on an empty stomach. Trust me. Credits after the jump. continued…

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I’ve been a fan of The Onion for as far back as I care to remember, so I’m always glad to see them expanding their comedic empire. Their in-house creative agency/studio Onion Labs is responsible (along with Barbarian Group, who put together the website) for a new campaign for Jim Beam’s “The Olds” whiskeys (Old Crow, Old Overholt and Old Grand-Dad). Onion Labs emphasizes the old aspect, presenting “The Olds” as a group of rambunctious, terminally youth-like men with a combined age of 422.

In the spot for Old Crow (featured after the jump), Crow is introduced as “the rare ladies man who is also a man’s man,” not the most original of premises. Sounds a little like the Dos Equis spots, to be honest. I guess the whole “women want him, men want to be him” thing is a pretty standard formula for selling alcohol, really. The execution works pretty well here, however. Crow gets chased offstage after singing about a sexy robot. Clearly the spot doesn’t take itself too seriously. The highlight is probably the woman who claims her father sent her away to boarding school, at the age of 37, to keep her away from Old Crow.

The “Meet Old Overholt” spot (featured above) works better. Old Overholt shares his life’s code: “Don’t be a delicate, lazy, pillow-soft, mamby-pamby, non-sweat-breaking, do just enough to get by, ‘Oh, we better call a plumber to come fix it,’ ‘Can I have a salad with the dressing on the side’ fancy-pants wimp.” Overholt, we learn, had this phrase tattooed on his chest, “at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution.” It’s worth a good chuckle as a kind of self-conscious satire of typical liquor ad machismo (more clearly so than “Meet Old Crow”), and should do well by the brand. (To be honest, I’d never heard of Old Overholt before. So I guess the spot succeeded at making me aware of its existence at least.)

The Old Grand-Dad video is forthcoming, which is a little disappointing since that’s the one I remember drinking in college. But I guess I’ll just have to check back to see when it comes out.

In addition to the video content, Onion Studios worked on the social media campaign which encompasses both Facebook and three Twitter accounts (@MeetOldGrandDad, @MeetOldCrow and @MeetOldOverholt). Check out “Meet Old Crow” after the jump. continued…

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Translation, which was recently tapped by Coca-Cola to handle marketing for Sprite, has a new spot for the green-bottled lemon-lime soft drink.

Although Sprite has changed agencies and approaches several times in recent years, this ad hits on well-trodden ground for the brand: LeBron James, basketball, and mentioning the word “thirst.” This time around there’s a lot of screaming, though. We open with LeBron James superhumanly blocking a dunk attempt and screaming in celebration. Then we see a marching band drummer “marching to his own beat,” a dude posting a video of some biking tricks, a guy with a lion tattoo, and a woman getting a truly bizarre haircut. All of them scream. Somewhere a silently screaming mime gets thrown in. “If you’re gonna put in the work to show the world who you are, you’re going to get thirsty. Then: drink a Sprite.” proclaims the voiceover, before adding in the tagline “For The Thirsty.” Reasonable enough logic here: lots of screaming will make you thirsty.

Here’s the thing though: soft drinks are actually terrible at quenching thirst. Why would you make that a selling point for your brand? Isn’t that playing to your weakness? Yes, it is a beverage, but it’s a sugary one made to be enjoyed for its taste, not to quench thirst. I get that they’ve gone with athlete endorsements aplenty to sell their product, and I get that this strategy harkens way back to their “Obey Your Thirst” days. But who is really reaching for a Sprite after a workout? Especially with the vast array of flavored bottled water drinks now available. Is marketing towards a function your product doesn’t actually serve really going to help sell your brand? I’ve never understood this. Who knows though, since Sprite is constantly changing their approach, maybe this tactic will die out soon as well.

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This is not what I needed on a Monday.

Ogilvy Johannesburg’s new spot for KFC, “Separation,” opens with a father picking up his son for a day. “Guess I’ll have him back by six,” he tells the mother. He asks his son what the plan for the day is, and the son says he doesn’t know. The two spend some time at the beach, until it starts to rain, and try to catch up. “You hungry?” the boy asks, and they drive to KFC, where the boy orders the “family treat” which elicits a questioning look from the father. When they drive back to the house, the boy asks again, “You hungry?” as the father accompanies him inside. The hashtag #familytime closes the spot.

While I appreciate Ogilvy and KFC highlighting a non-traditional family in their advertising, this one is just depressing. The poor kid uses a KFC meal to get his parents to eat a meal together? Aww man, that’s just so sad. Too sad for an advertisement, maybe? Perhaps? I don’t know, because it’s certainly a memorable spot. I’m going to remember this one for a while. But the next time I drive by my neighborhood KFC I’ll be tearing up, not thinking about how much I want fried chicken. Credits after the jump. continued…

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If there’s one thing that Detroit has going for it right now, it’s the Tigers. And if there’s one thing the Tigers always have going for them, it’s the super-dependable Miguel Cabrera, arguably the best hitter in baseball. So, if you’re a Detroit car company, just slap Miguel Cabrera in an ad and you’ve got a winner, right?

Doner (which will inevitably be mocked as “boner” in the comments section) has tapped Cabrera’s talents for their latest spot for Chrysler. Alternating between shots of Cabrera, aspiring young baseball players training, and the Chrysler Town & Country while talking about how there’s “one road to greatness” and there are “no shortcuts” whether “you’re trying to become the world’s greatest player or build the world’s greatest car” the spot pretty much sticks to a well-trodden formula. Ending with the irritatingly nonsensical “Imported From Detroit” tagline, and the better thought out #NoShortcuts hashtag, the spot certainly feels familiar.

There’s really nothing new about Doner’s approach, but as a baseball fan, the spot works for me. The background music sounds like it was taken from a “serious sports spot” stockpile somewhere and the “work hard to achieve greatness” message is certainly nothing new for Chrysler. But Miguel Cabrera isn’t just a great baseball player, he’s a seriously likable one, no matter what team you root for, with a truly photogenic swing. So despite the tired tropes of the spot, I can’t find it irritating (except for that tagline). The hometown appeal is obvious, but having people associate your product with Cabrera is a good thing, no matter where they’re from. But please Doner, work on a new tagline. Credits after the jump.

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Ahh, it was only a few months ago that we reported on the ADT review, which no one seemed to give a shit about anyhow, but hey, we take our jobs seriously. Well, your good ol’ friends at AdAge have a compilation of the successors on the biz, which is basically all-encompassing and includes Arnold Boston landing ADT creative duties, SapientNitro on digital and MediaCom working on media buying/planning efforts. Thus ends the relationship between Boca Raton-based ADT Security Services’ relationship and Doner, a bond that lasted over 14 years.

Here’s a statement if you need from ADT CMO Tony Wells if you need: “Each agency showed a deep understanding of ADT’s business, presented creative insights and had great chemistry with our team members. After a four-month review process, we are confident Arnold, Mediacom and SapientNitro are the right partners to help us grow our business.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you’ve ever been wandering around IKEA and noticed that the names of most of their products sound like death metal bands, you’re not alone. Pittsburgh-based agency Gatesman+Dave have created a site based on the similarities, in which they test visitors’ abilities to distinguish between products from the Swedish furniture giant and the names of death metal bands. It’s harder than it sounds!

Since death metal has some pretty strong roots in Scandinavia (ed: recommended read: Lords of Chaos), the similarities shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, but even taking that into account it’s strikingly hard for those of us not especially versed in either IKEA products or death metal to tell the difference. Is an Absu something that you would sit on? Is there a lot of moshing at a Norden show? This is a pretty funny idea, and should definitely garner some attention for Gatesman+Dave for their cleverness. Interested parties can link to the agency from the site.

Check out IKEA or Death here. I only got nine right. (I’m telling you, it’s hard.) How did you do?

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Why do brands feel the need to say they’re “human”? This Ad Age article highlights the trend.

I think more brands should be like dogs, not humans. Dogs simply have more qualities worth emulating.

Dogs are loyal — when you feed them. Keep feeding them, pay attention to them, and they’re forever yours. Human loyalty doesn’t exactly work that way and many brands institute so-called “loyalty” programs that have nothing to do with an emotional affinity for customers, just a desire to maintain sales. So it’s better for brands to strive for dog-style loyalty. Customers who feed a brand the way you’d feed a terrier ought to feel the reciprocal love.

It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo. (And that’s David’s awesome dog Lucy in the cover photo.)

The post Brands Need To Be More Canine, Not More Human appeared first on AdPulp.

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada and john st. have launched a campaign for the brand new Mitsubishi Mirage.

The spot “Commute” plays the whole music that you thought was extra-diegetic but turns out to be diegetic card while touting the subcompact cars’ features. (We don’t like being toyed with like that, Mitsubishi.) These are good selling points, especially the best-in-class 64 mpg and the $12,498 starting price. “We know that we’re giving Canadian drivers what they value in a subcompact car, great fuel efficiency at an even better price,” explains Peter Renz, Director of National Marketing at Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada.

The whole “you can do what you want with all the money you save” thing and the diegetic music trick are a little tired, but the spot keeps it short and simple. Plus the fuel economy and low price do a fine job selling the car on their own. You’ve got to be envious of that gas mileage. Credits after the jump.

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If you happen to live in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles, you might have seen some mysterious billboards around recently. A few of these read: “The Internet should be regulated”; “Artists need to play by the rules; and “Your data should belong to the NSA.” File-sharing service BitTorrent has admitted to being behind these billboards, in an attempt to engender discussion about Internet freedom and privacy.

“This is the generation that will decide whether the Internet is a tool for control, or a platform for innovation and freedom,” BitTorrent said in their campaign announcement. BitTorrent lists its core values as upholding user privacy and user control. They want to keep “the web free, open; decentralized and accessible to all.” In a time when many want to curtail Internet freedom — either in the name of “security” or for their own personal gain — this is an important message. Reminding people that BitTorrent is “a zero-cost alternative for media distribution” positions the company as the “good guys” in the fight over Internet freedom, and, to be fair, they’ve certainly done something to earn that. They’re a company that’s easy to get behind, offering a valuable service that certain entities would probably like to see shut down. This latest campaign just solidifies all that. Keep up the good work, BitTorrent.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.