Hasta La Creative!

As you may have read/heard, Volvo has announced that its launched its global creative review, but here’s a quick follow-up to the initial report. First off, here’s a statement from Robert LePlae, Arnold global CEO who assumed his post at the agency last summer and whose agency has been invited to defend, regarding the automaker’s move: “There’s new global leadership at Volvo who are rightly coming in and looking at all aspects of the business, specifically the centrally created advertising in Amsterdam. I’m new too at Arnold and we’ve done our own assessment. This leaves us eager and confident for the opportunity to show Volvo what we can do.”

Sources familiar with the matter add that while Adage reported that it was a global review, they say that Volvo’s move affects the centrally created advertising in Amsterdam only (which serves as central contact on the account for Arnold). The North American work out of Boston, and other local markets around the world, meanwhile, is not under review.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In reaction to public outcry over Swiffer’s use of iconic feminist image Rosie the Riveter, who, in a 1943 Westinghouse Electric ad campaign, urged women to get out of the kitchen and work during World War II, the brand has issued an apology and promised to remove the image from its website.

The image appeared on the brand’s Swiffer website and in ads promoting Swiffer’s steam cleaner.

Of the brand’s seemingly incomprehensible reasoning behind using the image, Boing Boin Publisher Jason Weisberger said, “I love the clear tribute to an important historical image done in such a way as to piss on its legacy.”

Following an article in the Washington Post, Swiffer’s Elizabeth Ming issued a statement which read, “We were made aware of the concerns regarding the image in a Swiffer ad this afternoon. Our core purpose is to make cleaning easier for all consumers, regardless of who is behind the handle of our products. It was not our intention to offend any group with the image, and we are working to remove it from where it’s being used as soon as possible.”

Which, of course, begs the question, why would the brand employ Rosie the Riveter, an iconic symbol of women’s movement out of the kitchen, to urge womwn to get back into the kitchen? It’s like some 22 year old creative read Wikipedia and totally misunderstood what she stood for.

It’s all well and good that a brand issue a swift apology but how and why do faux pauxs like this continue to happen. It’s like the teacher left the schoolyard and the children have run wild.

Hey, did you know that Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos tacos now come in a Cool Ranch variety? Of course you did, and you and your 20-something-year-old friends are probably celebrating in a parking lot or pool hall right now according to this spot from DraftFCB. “By golly, what a wonderful new offering,” you thought to yourself. “I should throw a Doritos bag containing a taco to my similarly aged friend across town. That is what I shall do.” And then you did.

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We first started hearing murmurs about this yesterday, and now, we’ve received confirmation from Diageo itself that the spirits giant has launched a global creative review for its vodka brand, Smirnoff. According to Diageo, the company will be handling the review itself and it will consist of “a closed shortlist of agencies.” And yes, JWT New York, which has handled the account for 13 years, has been invited to participate in the pitch.

In a statement, Edward Pilkington, global category director for vodka, rum and gin at Diageo, says, “We have enjoyed a long and successful relationship with JWT during which time we have seen the Smirnoff vodka brand grow into the largest premium spirit brand in the world from 15.1m cases to 26.3 million cases. However, we feel the time is right to refresh the thinking on Smirnoff in order to align with our bold future vision for the brand.”

It’s been some time since we covered Smirnoff, but in recent years, the brand has worked with JWT on, among other things, its campaign with Madonna, who was named “global nightlife ambassador” back in 2011.

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In light of the “no homo” press conference from Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert, this new Boost Mobile basketball spot from 180LA may strike some sensitive nerves. However, the humor is handled with enough subtlety to tiptoe around accusations of offensiveness. There’s also a really well-timed nuts joke that might make you chuckle if you are into such sectors of comedy.

In the commercial, one unlucky defender gets posterized on in a pick-up basketball game, and to make things worse, his face gets an up-close view of the sweaty dunker’s crotch. For those who aren’t basketball aficionados, there was actually a name for such a move – balls on your head – that became popular in the 1990s when young NBA players like Darius Miles would dunk on a guy. After the dunk, the player would run down the court celebrating like this (I’m not making this up). Whether Boost Mobile knows it or not, they are bringing back forgotten basketball treasure. The commercial is probably making some subconscious statement about the intersection of black, gay, and youth cultures, but as a consumer product, it’s really just funny. You see, Tyler, the Creator, it’s possible to make an effective ad without relying on stereotypes. Credits after the jump.

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“Main Street Matters,” The Martin Agency’s first campaign for Benjamin Moore since winning creative/media duties for the paint brand back in February, celebrates local businesses in the US and Canada. From today until June 30, users can visit paintwhatmatters.com and vote for a town to receive a Benjamin Moore makeover. Painting and renovations will then take place in 20 cities from July until May 2014.

Brad Pitt lends his simpering voiceover (can’t help but think of his Chanel ad) and star power to Benjamin Moore’s video spot, with lines like, “Drug stores that still make milkshakes with real ice cream…matter.” The video–a slideshow of old-timey American storefronts–isn’t exactly scintillating, but of course the idea of supporting local communities hits a soft spot in my small-town girl heart. Using digital outreach to revitalize mom and pop places is a smart, noble idea. I just wish the campaign’s design sense didn’t also need a makeover.

Credits after the jump.

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A week after Netflix finally released season four of Arrested Development for the country to binge-watch, most Americans feel they’ve done their civic duty by finishing all 15 episodes and sharing their opinions via whatever social media platform they prefer. In other words, the mere mention of anything Arrested Development-related will most likely cause you to double over in fits of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea, but don’t blame copywriter Justin Racz for that. Instead, blame society like you always do.

Looking for work and in need of something to stand out to creative recruiters, Racz created (at least three) LinkedIn profiles for Arrested Development characters including George Bluth Sr., GOB Bluth, and America’s favorite Analrapist, Tobias Funke. After receiving a connect invitation and a message soliciting work in each characters’ voice, recruiters were then led to LinkedIn profiles that featured Racz’s portfolio. As luck would have it, recruiters and agency heads are the only people in Netflix territory that aren’t experiencing Arrested Development overload, ending in Racz receiving a few freelance offers. He boasts that he spoke to over 50 agency heads in one day at the total campaign cost of $0.

If you’re looking for Racz, odds are he took that gig with MRY, or else he wouldn’t have shown the offer and recruiter’s email address via this little case study. But, hey, he flexed his ability at using current, newsworthy events to his own personal benefit. And, really, more ad campaigns could stand to do just that a little more often.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so you’ll have to forgive me if I’m lacking a certain prowess, but I’ll try my best to cover the latest commercial from the hotel brand and Fallon. The “Stay Smart” campaign launched in 1998 and is back after an extended hiatus. We briefly covered the revival in April, and now, Holiday Inn is re-releasing the second spot to Youtube after it had a successful run in movie theaters.

In the ad, a mayonnaise whiteboy holding his dry-cleaning walks up to a couple of dudes freestyling on a New York street corner. One of the dudes takes the opportunity to diss the whiteboy with a few lines. Instead of recoiling, the whiteboy hands his clothes to his adversary, then drops an impressive verse, subverting every white/black stereotype in the book. Some of his verbal gems include: “But how you gonna let a marketing rep rip your rep/ And slip a depth rhyme scheme your mind only dreams in.” If that’s how one can gain rapping ability, then Lil Wayne may want to consider staying at a Holiday Inn Express while working on his next album. Think about the marketing possibilities of that celebrity/brand marriage…

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A city’s own tourist site is rarely the most relevant resource for newcomers and tourists. More often, individual bloggers and independent publications have the up-to-date, insider information, presented in a format that doesn’t appear as if it were constructed in 1998. But, with the help of agencies Sid Lee and Touché PHD, the city of Montreal is working to be their own best digital brand-builder, hopefully setting the tone for a string of cities.

Tourisme Montreal’s campaign asks visitors and residents to be “destination ambassadors” by using the hashtag #MTLMOMENTS when they Instagram their time in the city. Montreal moments will then be showcased on Tourisme Montreal’s bilingual blog, Vivez MTL/MTL Buzz. It’s also mobile and tablet compatible. All in all, the blog is a stylish relief from Tourisme Montreal’s previous staid, basic slideshow site. Hopefully they eventually convert altogether, because more than any tourist board’s recommendations, it’s the people that define a place.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Congress has been getting up in Apple’s face about its offshore tax havens, but is it a problem for the brand?

I think it is, because a brand is the sum of a company’s parts. A brand is what a company believes and what a company does; therefore, Apple’s brand is tarnished via its tax avoidance problem, whether the moves are technically legal or not.

According to CNET, “Congressional investigators released a report last week documenting how Apple had reduced its tax bill by tens of billions of dollars through the use of a legal, albeit complicated, network of offshore subsidiaries. The report said that between 2009 and 2012, Apple had at least $74 billion in offshore cash that went untaxed.”

Tim Cook replied, “We don’t depend on tax gimmicks. We don’t move intellectual property offshore and use it to sell our products back to the United States to avoid taxes… We don’t stash money on some Caribbean island.”

True. Ireland is nowhere near Cuba or Jamaica.

Richard Harvey, a Villanova University law professor, told the hearing that his analysis showed Apple shifted 64 per cent of its 2011 income into Ireland into a “shell corporation” which had “no employees, no real activity, basically an entity on paper.”

As far as I am concerned, Apple has more than tax issues on its hands. “Designed in California” isn’t all that Apple can be. “Designed and manufactured in California” is more like it, especially given that Apple has already established a premium price point.

Apple was created to change the world, and their products have a role in this. But Apple can actually change the world by rejecting offshore assembly of its products. As Samsung and others come on strong, I don’t think Apple’s prices, nor their market share, will hold for much longer. Manufacturing in American changes that for good.

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