Hasta La Creative!

Saturday London enlisted Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett for a new, glitzy holiday ad for H&M which doubles as a promotion of the pair’s album Cheek to Cheek, which was released in September.

The spot, entitled “Magical Holidays” features a Gatsby-esque holiday party,with Bennett and Gaga (decked out in a Cher wig) performing a duet version of the Duke Ellington/Irving Mills-penned Jazz standard “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Don’t Got That Swing)” while a room full of party-goers dances. “Magical Holidays” arrives at, and later departs from, the party scene in a strange, surreal way that does, indeed, seem to imply some holiday magic (just don’t try to make much sense of it). Fans of Gaga and Bennett (who, we imagine, are mostly separated by a few years) should enjoy the duo’s performance which also functions to drive album sales for the holiday season, and H&M should be able to count on winning over some Gaga fans by association. (more…)

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Droga5 Europe created what very well may be the most depressing advertisement this holiday season with a 90-second PSA for KidsCo, a children’s charity founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh which plans to host “the UK’s biggest children’s community Christmas dinner ever.” The spot broke yesterday, and will air on broadcast, in cinemas and online.

The ad stands in stark contrast to the glitzy Christmas advertisements glamorizing the holiday in the UK. Willfully minimalistic, it depicts a boy who wakes up and get dressed, with the text “Thursday” appearing onscreen. He plays in the street a bit and then goes to the corner store, eyes up a rack of candy bars and leaves without making a purchase. Walking back home he passes a house lit up with Christmas lights, and we hear a group exchange holiday greetings, the first mention in the ad that it is, in fact, Christmas day (which explains why the streets are so empty). He then returns home, to a neglecting looking living room and switches on the television as the message, “For some children, Christmas Day will just be another Thursday” appears on screen, driving home the message.

“Kidsco is an amazing charity doing incredible work for thousands of children across the UK,” said Droga5 Executive Creative Director Nik Studzinski. “With this ad we deliberately wanted something that would be a genuine pause for reflection among the noise of the super-bowl style ads that clamour for our attention at this time of year.” (more…)

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Last year, adam&eveDDB’s “Sorry, I Spent It On Myself” holiday campaign for English department store Harvey Nichols turned heads with its ode to utter selfishness, eventually winning four Grand Prix awards at Cannes.

This year, adam&eveDDB is back with a spiritual successor entitled “Could I Be Any Clearer?” In the spot, a woman talks about her beloved Auntie Val and how, while good-intentioned, she always gives disappointing gifts. So, without any worry at all about Val’s feelings, she gives her a card describing exactly what she wants — Charlotte Olympia silver Octavia sandals from Harvey Nichols — and lets her know that seasons greetings will be “very awkward” if she doesn’t get what she wants. Auntie Val, predictably enough, looks pretty annoyed by the card. Like last year, the campaign extends beyond the broadcast spots, with real life “Could I Be Any Clearer?” cards available to purchase at Harvey Nichols. You can even create your customizable version online.

The ad doesn’t have the same impact as its predecessor, and, because of that ad, its reveal moment is entirely expected. Still, we imagine that Harvey Nichols will sell its share of “Could I Be Any Clearer?” cards — hopefully to those looking for a cheeky gag to play on friends, rather than entitled jerks. (more…)

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A couple weeks ago FCB Chicago launched its “Jingle Bellies” holiday spot for Kmart and Joe Boxer, a follow-up to last year’s “Show Your Joe,” which was unofficially dubbed “Jingle Balls” and went on to score over 18 million views on YouTube. With “Jingle Bellies” now just past the one million view mark, the agency has unveiled a follow-up belly performance entitled “Santa Baby.” The twist? This time around it’s pregnant women dancing.

The women shake their posteriors to an upbeat rendition of the song “Santa Baby” (most famously sung by Eartha Kitt) and then turn around, exposing their pregnant bellies. The reveal comes early in the ad, with the pregnant women dancing for the remainder of the spot, in their pajamas, until they stop and one woman extolls the virtues of Kmart and Joe Boxer. So basically more of the same goofy humor FCB has been employing in its holiday efforts for Kmart and Joe Boxer since the original, although a slight departure from the “body parts as instruments” schtick. The ad comes as a bit of a surprise, however, as there was no immediate sequel to last year’s spot. With Sears Holdings’ Kmart account currently in review (Sears is also up for grabs), this could potentially be FCB’s last work for the struggling brand. Kmart, meanwhile, badly needs its holiday marketing efforts to drive sales to make up for a very tough year for the company. (more…)

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When Arby’s received a friendly reminder in October that they had yet to release the second of their promised ads featuring Pepsi they realized they had a problem. The brand and its agency, Fallon, had already wrapped on their creative for the rest of the year.

Rob Lynch, chief marketing officer and brand president of Arby’s, explained to The Wall Street Journal that with the brand focusing on its revamped marketing, centered around the “We have the meats” tagline, the obligations to Pepsi simply got forgotten. Lynch did not look forward to breaking the news to Fallon. “Their ads are kind of like their babies. To go in after we shot them and shoehorn something in is like the worst client move you could ever make,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

But Fallon proved up to the challenge. The Minneapolis-based agency created a new, 30-second ad poking fun at the whole debacle. A tall glass of Pepsi stays on camera for the entire ad as the sonorous Ving Rhames explains the situation: “Arby’s has an agreement to feature their good friend Pepsi in two commercials a year…Well Arby’s messed up and forgot about the second commercial!” In a clever touch, the ad ends by replacing the usual “We have the meats” tagline with “We have Pepsi.” So what did Pepsi think of the approach?

“We applaud Arby’s unconventional approach to marketing and when they came to us with this idea, we thought it would be a fun, creative way to highlight our partnership,” Roberto Rios, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo’s food service division, told The Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement.

So it seems like everyone is happy with the situation. The spot will run from December 7th-13th in the Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles markets, fulfilling Arby’s end of their agreement with Pepsi to feature the beverage in two advertisements this year. Presumably the creative Fallon had to put on hold for the ad will run in the near future.

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McCann has crafted a new ad for Zurich Insurance looking ahead to spring, which may seem appealing to you, but is certainly less so for the snowmen depicted in the ad, entitled “Save the Snowmen.”

The spot opens on a series of snowmen, melting slowly, and the message, “The first day of spring, somewhere in the Alps.” A dejected child pushes, while another boy replaces one of his snowman’s button eyes. Then a climate-controlled Zurich truck rolls up, filled with other snowmen, and takes them higher into the mountains. From the truck, the snowmen ride a ski lift and trek still further up, pulled by cross country skiers. Eventually they find themselves high up on a mountain peak, safe from the spring thaw.

It all makes for a cute little story, hard as it may be to relate with a negative portrayal of spring as another harsh winter is approaching. But while it’s an entertaining little ad, it’s so far removed from being related to Zurich’s services that many won’t realize what the ad is even for. Unless, of course, they insure snowmen.  (more…)

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W+K Portland has launched a new campaign for Weight Watchers, its first for the brand since winning creative duties back in April.

In a new 60-second spot, W+K drops the celebrity-driven approach taken by previous agency McCann (whose latest work featured Jessica Simpson), instead going for a universal theme of “eating your feelings.” The ad, entitled “If You’re Happy…” is set to an adaption of the popular children’s song “If You’re Happy And You Know It” by Tony Babino. “If you’re happy and you know it, eat a snack,” he sings at the beginning of the spot over shots of people happily enjoying ice cream, burgers and cake. Around 15 seconds in the tune changes to “If you’re sad…” and later on to such feelings as “bored,” “lonely” and “sleepy” before finally ending with “If you’re human and you know it, eat your feelings, eat a snack” and ending with the tagline, “Help with the hard part” before finally showing the Weight Watchers logo.

It’s an interesting tactic, tapping into the insight that people associate eating with all types of emotions rather than relying on a celebrity endorsement, which seems to be the standard for the category. W+K seems to be banking on the empathy and relatability of the message being more persuasive than association with celebrity.

According to The New York Times, the ad will “be introduced broadly on Sunday” with an emphasis on “programming apt to draw multiple members of a household” like “the midseason finale of The Walking Dead on AMC on Sunday and the season finale of The Voice on NBC on Dec. 15.” The ad will also “appear widely in cinemas,” which Lesya Lysyj, president of Weight Watchers in North America, told The New York Times “…is great because you’re sitting there with your huge thing of popcorn.”

“We’ve never actually said that weight loss is easy, but when you use celebrities and show before-and-after photos, what you’re doing is kind of implying that it is easy,” she added, explaining the move away from celebrity endorsements.

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Grey New York has introduced yet another Rob Lowe in its ongoing campaign for DirecTV.

Following on the heels of “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe,” which apparently drew some criticism from shy bladder sufferers, the agency has returned with the self-explanatory “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe.” The formula is the same as in previous spots, with Rob Lowe introducing himself as a DirecTV customer before a more unfortunate version of himself, who also happens to be a cable customer, comes along for comparison. In the new spot Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe watches ping-pong on a small screen and attempts to open a jar of mayonnaise. Like previous ads, it ends with Lowe saying “Don’t be like this me.”

While it may be that the series is running out of steam, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” just seems like the weakest of the bunch so far. Whereas “Super Creepy Rob Lowe” and “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe” found convincing ways of tying Lowe’s alter egos to the inferior quality of cable, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” feels like an empty gimmick. Let’s hope Grey can up the ante with the inevitable follow-up and recapture the potential of this campaign. (more…)

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While in recent years many retailers have made infamous Black Friday sales into even more of a behemoth by pushing back their opening times so sales start earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving day, others, such as Costco, have gained public respect by bucking the trend. In a new campaign aimed at the most infamous shopping day of the year, Arnold Worldwide came up with a series of Black Friday alternatives for Santander Bank in an attempt to take back the “true meaning” of Thanksgiving (and make Santander look good by association).

In the above, 30-second spot, “Black Bean Soup Friday” for example, we see shots of a family rising early and piling in the car. “On…Black Friday, Tom and his kids will rise before the sun,” the voiceover informs us, “They will beat the crowds” it goes on as the car speeds along. But, in what’s designed to be a surprise, they “…pass the department stores with lines around the block,” and instead go volunteer at a local soup kitchen. “There are many ways to make the day after Thanksgiving meaningful,” the spot concludes, “How will you spend your day?”

This may seem like an unusual move for a financial institution who stands to benefit from a rush of holiday spending, but Santander claims its “family-values focused European roots run deep” and that they have a “commitment to Real Change and challenging traditional perceptions of banking.” So by taking a stab at Black Friday, in a way designed to be heartwarming, Arnold is distancing Santander from other banks, and attempting to make people think that, unlike their competitors, Santander stands for something. Other Black Friday alternatives suggested in the campaign are “Black Top Friday” (spent playing basketball with friends and family) and “Black Belt Friday” (spent watching Kung-Fu flicks). (more…)

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McCann New York has launched a campaign for Nikon targeted at millenials for the holiday season.

In a new 30-second online spot, the brand celebrates “Generation Image,” as a young woman states “My generation creates tens of thousands of images literally in the blink of an eye. Our images speak for us.” She then asks, “Are yours saying enough?”

The ad is aimed at addressing declining digital camera sales as young people are taking more pictures than ever, but taking them with their smartphones rather than cameras. “I Am Generation Image” is a plea for higher quality images, suggesting that if millenials really care so much about images they should step up their game to a Nikon digital camera.

“Many people who get started taking images on smartphones want to upgrade to a more advanced camera,” Larry Platt, an executive creative director at McCann Erickson New York, told The New York Times. “It’s really about the proper product to make sure you’re getting across your message.”

A second online spot outlines another campaign component: Nikon is giving out a Nikon D750 D.S.L.R camera to select recipients and hosting their images on the campaign site iamgenerationimage.com in an attempt to show viewers how a Nikon can help them take their images to the next level. Nikon and McCann New York certainly have their work cut out for them. A recent CNBC article characterized the digital camera market as in “free fall.” But Nikon is convinced the campaign, with a budget estimated at $5-7 million can help, with Lisa Baxt, associate general manager for communications of the Nikon Inc. division of the Nikon Corporation in Melville, N.Y. citing a “a shift from convenience to quality, in that a more authentic story is told with a better photo,” in The New York Times. (more…)

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