Hasta La Creative!

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…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

The post Offshore Tax Shelters A Problem For Apple, But Not The Only One appeared first on AdPulp.

If you know a runner or are one yourself, you know that plodding on a path day after day requires a reason. Some take the pain to lose weight, while others are addicted to the runner’s high. Running can be the foundation of a community or the motivation for recovery. In Dick’s Sporting Goods’ latest campaign created by Greenpoint Pictures and Anomaly NY, 13 runners share their personal stories. Starting on March 7th, one video has been released every week. Beneath each story, viewers can click to buy gear or share their own story via the #RunFor Facebook campaign.

For an organization that seems like your bludgeoning American sports store next door, Dick’s appeals to a wider audience with this series of sensitive portraits. We’re all athletes to some degree, and running is an activity we have in common, whether we hobbled along in middle school gym or undertook a couple marathons. In Week 12’s video, cancer survivor Meggan Janota says what should be the sub-tagline of this campaign: “You run by yourself, but you’re not alone.” By capturing this community, Dick’s Sporting Goods inspires and drives.

Credits after the jump

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About a year ago, GoDaddy hired Deutsch New York as their creative agency, and the world wondered whether we’d see the end of the “GoDaddy Girls” gimmick, or even the beginning of a more nuanced campaign. Instead, during this year’s Super Bowl, GoDaddy offered us Bar Rafaeli (“sexy”) making out with a red-faced man named Walter (“smart”). Danica Patrick narrated and did her best not to look embarrassed. Our op-ed contributor at the time, WWD&S co-head Harry Woods, may have captured the most accurate reaction: “The whole ugly thing once again sent us reaching for a wing bone, nacho or beer bottle cap to dig our eyes out.”

Thankfully no eyeball gouging is necessary with GoDaddy’s latest spot. In it, a Ron Weasley-esque man is introduced to the GoDaddy team. His name and its closest iterations are already taken by his colleagues, so the team tosses around other possibilities. Anyone who’s thought about buying a domain name is familiar with this brainstorming process, and Deutsch did well personifying it. The whole thing is off-kilter and amusing, and finally we see Danica Patrick in racing gear, not heels. She’s still hot.

Here’s hoping GoDaddy continues the curve away from their signature blunt, sensationalist spots.

Credits after the jump. [Ed: Welcome back, Ella]

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Celebrating athletic accomplishments is one thing, but serenading the soccer team that just lost a heartbreaking UEFA Champions League Final to Bayern Munich may not be the greatest idea, especially when that team is waiting in Stansted Airport and the players look like deflated tires in designer suits. Surely, there was hard work put in by all involved – dancers, singers, creatives – and that should be acknowledged. But, the three-minute clip almost looks like a spoof video; the players seem dazed and confused as the dancers spin around to “Movin’ On Up” by veteran Scottish act, Primal Scream.

Maybe it’s a European thing, or maybe I’m not a fan of flash mobs (which apparently will never die), but I’m not sure I comprehend the randomness of this particular gesture in relation to Borussia Dortmund. In the age of organic viral content, this latest work from Puma just feels clunky and off-beat.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Grey New York wants to tell you that “It’s Never Not a Good Time for a Refreshing Mike’s.” Excuse the double negative (what about “It’s Always a Good Time…?), but to draw your attention away from the grammatical errors, they included some very, very random celebrity cameos from actor Martin Landau and rapper Coolio. The 30-second spots include some random rhyming that leads to a series of non-sequitors, hence the random celebrities. Random is the only way to describe this campaign.

Before watching these spots, I hadn’t thought of Landau and Coolio in years. Both are stored away firmly in the Club for G-List Celebrities Who Will Never Be Famous Again. In Landau’s defense, he’s 84 and had a memorable run of “Entourage” a few years back (not to mention his Oscar-winning turn as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood). Coolio is Coolio. They both picked up paychecks in return for a loss of dignity. That’s advertising for you. Check out the Coolio spot and credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.