360i Promotes ‘TeenDrive365? for Toyota

360i has launched a new campaign promoting the latest installment in Toyota’s teen driving safety initiative, TeenDrive365.

Based on safety research by Toyota and the University of Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI), the campaign aims to influence teens by targeting the number one influence on how they drive: their parents. The latest additions to the initiative include online tools, expert advice, local events and social media elements. To promote the effort, 360i worked with Toyota on a series of videos targeting parents of teen drivers.

Two of these videos focus on “Parents Who Drive Bad Anonymous,” a fictional (and grammatically challenged) support group for parents who drive poorly and are worried that they’re passing on their questionable practices to their children. In the above video, Deb attends a meeting and admits to texting while driving. “I know I’ve been a bad example. I’ve been texting while I drive and it’s got to stop,” she says to a mannequin wearing headphones, presumably a stand-in for her son. Another “Parents Who Drive Bad Anonymous” video focuses on a dad obsessed with checking on his fantasy team. Another video, part of the “Masters of the Wheel” series, focuses on NHRA driver Antron Brown and his teen daughter.

“As a mother of a teenager, I often remind myself that the things I do behind the wheel go a long way in setting a powerful example,” said Dr. Tina Sayer, Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center principal engineer and teen safe driving expert. “Experience and education certainly help your teen become a safe and more confident driver, but our research shows us that the biggest factor in how teens will drive is their parents.” (more…)

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Michel Gondry Directs ‘Training Tracks’ for Gillette

To celebrate the end of NFL training camps and the start of the regular season, Gillette and BBDO NY released “Training Tracks” a music video using only the sounds of NFL players and other athletes training.

Who could pull of such an unusual, even avant-garde concept? Probably only Academy Award-winning director Michel Gondry. So that’s who they got. Gondry directs the spot, based on a track conceived by Phil Mossman of LCD Soundsystem fame. The “music experiment” was produced at the acclaimed Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood.

“Training Tracks” features NFL stars Champ Bailey, Kayvon Webster, BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Berard, as well as former Notre Dame offensive guard Mike Golic, Jr., all of whom participated in Gillette’s  “Built for Training” program this summer. You may not recognize all the athletes as they come into and out of focus, but the sounds they make work surprisingly well. The spot is also expertly shot (obviously) and a much-welcome departure from Gillette’s normal blase approach to advertising (or worse yet, that terrible Adrien Brody/Andre 3000/Gael García Bernal campaign). Let’s hope they continue putting out more interesting and unique (an overused word in the ad world for sure, but one that definitely applies here) work like this spot with new agency Grey in the future. continued…

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