Hasta La Creative!

If you don’t have time to watch this whole new commercial for Volkswagen Trucks, you can just skip to the end for a quickie version—no matter where you are in the story—and it will still make sense.

Go here to check it out.

It’s a merciful approach that all brands should probably mimic in all commercials, given this is the age of skip-happy Internet viewers. But Brazilian agency AlmapBBDO created the ad specifically to reinforce VW’s claim that its rigs, like the ad, are themselves customizable. In that context, the video slider at the bottom of the website might be the best part—it takes the shape of a truck that just keeps getting longer and longer.

The story itself—spoilers ahead—is about a young truck driver who runs into an ex-girlfriend at a market. Told in a stilted monologue, it’s a bit like a Mad Lib with a single punch line—structured into clauses so you can jump to the last scene at any point, by clicking a button in the lower right hand corner. But the last words are always “My grand-aunt.”

That makes for some odd combinations, like “I satisfied my hunger eating… a taco made by… my grand-aunt.” It also makes for some surprisingly dark outcomes for a big advertiser—like skipping the part about the taco and delving straight into ancestral cannibalism. There’s at least one notable hidden variation—hit the button at certain times, and the grand-aunt is a goateed, shirtless young man, instead of a little old lady.

Overall, it’s an intriguing approach, but maybe a little too eager to be inventive, with a takeaway that seems more about the copywriting team’s ability to write a cascading script than about the product’s benefits. It was nice for them to include an eject lever, but if the idea is to get the message in quickly, and extend the entertainment for those who want it—Geico’s simpler approach takes the cake.

Plus, it has a better dog.

Via PSFK.

“You save a dog. A dog saves you.”

That’s the poignant message of “First Days Out,” a four-minute online film for Pedigree by Almap BBDO in Brazil that follows Joey and Matt, two former inmates who begin to turn their lives around after they adopt rescue dogs.

Joey, who served 12 years for armed robbery, finds the world transformed, and in some ways unrecognizable, after his release. At first he’s alone, confused and frightened about his future, but a trip to the pound changes everything.

“Having a dog with me in this house was so much better,” he says. “Sadie became my family.” Soon, he’s training kennel dogs for adoption.

Matt, who served two years for burglary, is initially estranged from his father and reluctant to connect with others. At one point, he draws a heartbreaking parallel between his own life (inside and out of prison) and the lives of the dogs in the animal shelter: “They all looked kind of sad, just like I was—just caged in.” After adopting Jeanie, he feels as if his “future’s bright again,” and he starts going on job interviews and brings the dog to meet his dad.

The immensely moving documentary, directed in a relaxed, naturalist style by Ricardo Mehedff via Hungry Man, is part of Pedigree’s new “Feed the Good” campaign, its first global push in several years.

“By nourishing the lovable innocence in every dog, Pedigree helps feed the good they bring to the world,” explains Leonid Sudakov, CMO of Mars Global Petcare.

That same theme informs all campaign elements, which include TV, print, online, in-store and social media. Of course, interpretations will vary. For example, a 30-second spot by Colenso BBDO in Australia, titled “Good Fight,” feels more like a typical “commercial” than “First Days Out.” Still, its quirky take on an a street fight about to happen is far from typical pet-food ad fare.

We chatted about “First Day Out” with Mehedff and his brother Alex, who produced it.

AdFreak: “First Day Out” sort of takes the “cute puppy” commercial in a fresh, more meaningful direction. Can you speak to that a bit?
Alex: Advertising is moving into this new territory of content storytelling. A more emotional engagement. With this in mind, we need to approach the narrative of the film differently. The creative [idea] behind this film is just brilliant. That moved us in a big way to get involved and tell a moving story.

Anytime you move away from the “typical” creatively—and hats off to the agency for this brilliant idea—it becomes a golden strategy. We’re happy to have been able to deliver up to par with the idea. We hope it will move people, engage emotionally with the audience … and place the brand in a very special place.

Take me through the process of putting the project together.
Alex: The process is just deep character research, where you cast real people and see what they can bring to the story. You definitely need a couple of weeks. If you rush this phase, you’re dead in the water.

Ricardo: We started nationwide, and were able to get many candidates. Some were inmates who had participated in dog training programs while in prison. This is how we found Joey. He’d done 12 years, and in the last four, he got into the dog training program that, in his owns words, changed his life. When he got out, he was truly alone, and since he spoke so well about dogs, Pedigree helped him adopt a dog for himself. And the incredible thing is, you could really see the change in his spirit and mood. Sadie really brought a smile to his face. The job he got as a dog trainer was directly related to his experience in the dog training programs in prison.

Matt never had any contact with dog training programs in prison. He was just a kid going through a rough patch with his father and having a hard time getting adjusted to life on the outside. Pedigree suggested that he adopt a dog and see what would happen.

What were the biggest challenges in making the film?
Ricardo: We found many other good characters in our research, but were limited to only shooting two of them. Then, shooting in a way that could capture the emotion and truth of their stories and experiences. I found that the best way to do this was to shoot them in the most naturalistic way, with as little interference as possible.

What surprised you most?
Ricardo: How the dogs really helped these guys. I thought it would be strong, but their connections were really intense.

From the first day I met Joey, he was always a very serious, soft-spoken guy. He was really nice, but very quiet. Almost never smiled. Sometimes I would kindly ask him to smile, but it just didn’t look right. The moment he adopted Sadie, he was became a different person, a natural smile formed. This guy truly loves dogs. And his facial expressions show this.

It must be tough not to make this kind of material seem overly manipulative.
Ricardo: That was my goal in making this film. I have a strong background in documentary filmmaking, having worked closely with Eduardo Coutinho, one of the most important doc filmmakers in Brazilian cinema. I direct and edit my films, so that really helps in the storytelling process. As I’m directing, I’m usually editing the film in my head.

This film was about capturing the magic that occurs between man and dog. I knew this magic exists. I just wanted to shoot it in a way that was non-invasive and let their relationship flourish and grow naturally.

CREDITS
Advertiser: Mars
Agency: AlmapBBDO
Title: First Days Out
Product: Pedigree
General Director Creation: Luiz Sanches
Executive Director Creation: Bruno Prosperi, Renato Simões
Creation Director: André Gola, Pernil
Digital Creative Director: Luciana Haguiara
Creation: Pernil, André Gola, Fabio Cerdeira,  André Sallowicz,  Felipe Cirino, André Leotta
Rtvc: Vera Jacinto, Ana Paula Casagrande, Diego Villas Bôas
Producer: Hungry Man
Managing Partner: Alex Mehedff
Executive Producer: Rodrigo Castello e Renata Corrêa
Direction: Ricardo Mehedff
Photography: Grant Weiss, Mike Alex and Ricardo Mehedff
Line Producer: Mariana Barbiellini
Track: Big Foote
Assembler / Editor: Ricardo Mehedff
Post-production Supervisor: Rodrigo Oliveira
Finishing: Great Studio
Color Grading: Psycho N’Look
Assistance: Fernanda Antonelli, Pedro Fragata, Samantha Kechichian and José Maria Fafe
Planning: Cintia Gonçalves, João Gabriel, Daniel Machado, Augusto Veríssimo and Marília Rodrigues
Media: Flávio de Pauw, Brian Crotty, Fábio Cruz, Juliana Melo and Carolina Pimentel
Digital Media: Kaue Cury, Livia Novaes e Rogério Beraldo
Business Director: Rodrigo Andrade
Approval: Leonid Sudakov, Marina Sachs, Oduvaldo Viana, Fernando Manoel

Now that the elections are over, just think about all the fun craft projects you can do with irrelevant campaign signs—at least, if you live in Brazil.

Civic nonprofit Mobilidade Urbana Sustenável and JWT are out with the Political Furniture project, a campaign in the wake of the country’s elections that shows people how to turn post-ballot sandwich boards into DIY home fixtures.

The project includes instruction sets for how to build coat racks, stools, towel horses, side tables and coffee tables out of discarded campaign materials. You still have to do a fair amount of work—the key element in the designs seems to be thee two-by-fours found in sandwich boards. The wood will need sawing and sanding and screwing, so don’t forget your toolkit.

Alas, campaign paraphernalia in the U.S. doesn’t tend to come with the plywood necessary to spruce up your foyer while you save the plant. If it did, the resulting hat racks would probably prove among the more useful things to come out of recent elections.

More images below. Via Good.

Nike doesn’t want Brazil to linger on its loss in the World Cup. Instead, the brand’s new ad aimed is aimed at pumping up the passionate nation of sports fans for their next global event: the 2016 Olympics.

“Tomorrow Starts Now” is a beautiful tribute to the outstanding athleticism of a country whose chances at glory were abruptly and embarrassingly snuffed out by a 1-7 World Cup loss to Germany.

But instead of trying to tend the wounds of Brazil’s futebol fan base, Nike is instead looking ahead to the many events where the country is expected to do well when the world returns to Rio de Janeiro’s for the next Summer Games.

The spot from Wieden + Kennedy São Paulo is a solid minute packed with diverse talent like track athlete Ana Claudia Lemos, beach volleyball siblings Clara and Carol Salgado, basketball players Leandrinho and Anderson Varejão, and Yane Marquez, a bronze medalist in the modern pentathlon at the London Olympics.

As usual, Nike is on top of its game, finding those perfect moments that celebrate the unparalleled power of the world’s best athletes. It’s also a moving reminder that the soul of sport lies not in winning, but in the passion it takes to keep going after a defeat. You can make it, Brazil. You can get past this.

Shakira, whose last World Cup theme song practically conquered the planet, is back and hoping to dominate again as the games shift closer to home.

The Colombian singer, responsible for 2010’s astoundingly popular tournament track “Waka Waka,” has now teamed up with yogurt brand Activia to deliver “La La La” in celebration of this year’s World Cup in Brazil. The song is also a benefit for the UN’s anti-hunger group, the World Food Programme.

The video has racked up more than 50 million views in a week, possibly putting it on pace to someday match the staggering 668 million views on “Waka Waka.” It appears to be getting a better reception than the first theme song for the 2014 games, Pitbull’s collaboration with J Lo and Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte, “We Are One,” which has only 20 million views since launching in April, and a much worse like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube.

Some critics derided “We Are One” for reinforcing stereotypes of Brazil and for too prominently focusing on non-Brazilian talent. Others pointedly asked for “Waka Waka” back.

Not everyone is convinced the new tune addresses all those complaints, but it does feature Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown, along with soccer stars like Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. And, of course, there’s the obligatory spectacle of a characteristically whirling and wiggling Shakira.

French musician and director Woodkid, meanwhile, has called out the visual style, claiming similarity to the 2011 video for his song “Iron.”

Whether Shakira’s song itself is good is another question, one we’ll leave up to you to decide. If you plan to watch the games, chances are good this won’t be the last time you hear it.

Via Jezebel.

If you're an audio production company, you want to show off your audio. And what better way to do that than with a website that's completely audio—with no visuals at all?

Brazilian agency Loducca built just such a site, croaciaaudio.com, for Croacia Audio. It's a Chrome Experiment, so it only works in that browser. You get around the site by responding to prompts from a voice, and letting the site access your computer's microphone.

Conceptually, it's great. In practice, the navigation can get annoying—it feels like one of those automated phone menus. And no, saying "Representative" doesn't get you anywhere.

A Rio de Janeiro, se trouve une des plus belles bibliothèques du monde : La Real Gabinete Português de Leitura. Construite entre 1880 et 1887 par l’architecture Rafael da Silva e Castro, cette incroyable bibliothèque rassemble plus de 350 000 ouvrages portugais sur des étagères qui semblent ne jamais se finir.

By Boris G.

By Ruy Barbosa Pinto.

By Boris G.

By Maria-Flor.

By Casa Vogue.

By Sandro Henrique.

By Ruy Barbosa Pinto.

National Geographic a fait appel à l’agence Heads à Sao Paulo au Brésil, pour concevoir des affiches d’animaux réalisant des « selfies » avec leurs téléphones portables devant leurs miroirs d’ascenseur, de salle de bain et de chambre. Une campagne amusante menée par Silvio Medeiros et Pedro Galdi.