Hasta La Creative!

The Richards Group’s latest campaign clearly operates under the “less is more” mantra, with a series of minimalist 15-second ads.

The campaign leans heavily on the brand’s product itself, without any bells and whistles. In “Beastly” for example, the visuals are restricted to a bottle of Prestone with an effect to make it look bulked up at one point as the voiceover says, “It’s like Prestone started working out, got buff…beasty.” Another spot, “Patented,” touts the company’s patented cor-guard inhibitors, asking who else has them before answering its own question with “Nobody…because they’re patented,” while displaying the actual patent numbers.

It’s an unusually restrained approach that emphasizes the product’s superior corrosion protection in a way that implies there’s no need for further discussion. By keeping the message simple and not dressing it up with storytelling or impressive visuals, The Richards Group hopes to lend that message a sense of authenticity. (more…)

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Grey London has launched its first global campaign for Volvo since winning creative duties last December, which takes a different approach to automobile advertising.

In the 60-second “The Swell,” the first shot is from the passenger side perspective. As the camera zooms out (while panning around the car) we see that the door is open and the car is parked at a deserted beach. “To feel, to really feel, is a rare thing these days,” intones the voiceover as we see the car’s driver (presumably) riding a surfboard and taking in the surroundings. As the camera submerges into the water, we see the tagline, “Seek feeling.”

The unusual spot breaks today on Volvo’s YouTube account and website, and will broadcast in Germany, Australia, France, Turkey and Belgium at the end of this year, and the UK in 2015.

“The last thing the world needs is another overly-retouched car, hooning down a mountain road to a soft rock soundtrack,” Hollie Newton, Grey London’s global creative director told Campaign. “There’s a defiant, slightly renegade Swedish spirit to Volvo that simply doesn’t fit with the bland world of car advertising. And thank God for that.”

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mono teamed up with New York-based Hornet Studios to introduce Honeywell’s new Lyric thermostat with a new animated campaign.

In a 30-second spot, mono introduces the new smart thermostat’s geo-fencing capabilities, showing how the Lyric can use the location of your phone to determine when you’re away and go into power saving mode, and then sense when you’re coming home and return your home to your preferred temperature. To accomplish this, the animated spot presents the scenario of a man whose layover “turns into a stayover” as he’s forced to book a hotel room. This provides viewers with a good example of when Lyric’s smart features might come in handy. A 15-second spot (also animated) takes a similar approach, telling the story of a family who decide to go camping.

In addition to the broadcast spots, the campaign also includes digital, social, print and OOH properties. Like the broadcast spot, these components align “with moments when Lyric’s technology will be most useful, encouraging people to rethink the possibilities of a smart, money-saving thermostat that offers people the versatility to live their lives spontaneously.” (more…)

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Carmichael Lynch has another new spot for Subaru, following the release of a campaign promoting the Subaru Outback just last week.

This time around, Carmichael Lynch has crafted a spot for the Subaru Legacy. In the 30-second ad, a teenage boy is distracted by girl-minded daydreams when the Legacy’s obstacle-detection technology comes to the rescue. While his daydreams are squeaky clean compared to what actual teenage boys fantasize about, it’s still a relatively realistic scenario which makes a lot of sense as an approach for a family car, whose customers are likely to have to lend to their adolescent kid at some point. So while there’s not enough truth here for a full laugh, there’s more than enough to effectively make a point about the Legacy’s safety. (more…)

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W+K Portland got Richard Sherman to star in its new spot “Never Finished” for Nike, following on the heels of Sherman’s recent appearances for Neff earlier this month and Campbell’s in August.

The new spot deals with the hype train surrounding Sherman, as he is constantly bombarded with media discussions of whether or not he is “the best.” “Never Finished” does a good job at finding humor in the situation, aided by a believably exasperated Sherman. The highlight is probably the made for TV biopic, starring Damon Wayans Jr.

Sherman’s roles in ads so far have mostly seen the Seahawks star not taking himself seriously and playing with his public persona. That definitely continues with “Never Finished,” but the schtick is much less over the top than some of his past roles, and the more nuanced characterization fits Sherman well as the spot, more than anything, mocks the media hype that surrounds star players. It makes for an entertaining ad, and Sherman’s most enjoyable performance by far.

The campaign, which runs until October 9th, also includes five additional videos, with special cameos from Johnny Manziel, Victor Cruz, Ndamukong Suh and Ken Griffey Jr.
(more…)

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Toronto agency john st.’s latest campaign for World Wildlife Fund Canada is based around the insight that people are lazy. Or, as Stephen Jurisic, co-ECD at john st. puts it, “This idea comes from the rather depressing truth that most people will only do things that help the environment if it’s really, really easy to do…So rather than try to change that behavior, we thought let’s just embrace it and show that it takes next to no effort to help our oceans and the sea life in it.”

In a 60-second spot, the agency promotes buying seafood with the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) label on it to help protect our oceans by supporting sustainable fishing practices. The spot likens buying MSC-certified seafood with recycling (“Because it’s next to the trash.”) and buying organic, things that are “easy and practically unavoidable.” It’s an interesting change of approach from the usual call-to-arms, making the implication that there’s really no excuse not to buy MSC seafood, since it’s so easy.The campaign also includes two shorter how-to videos and a series of overtly simply online quizzes. (more…)

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Grey New York has a new campaign for DirecTV, utilizing the services of Rob Lowe.

Lowe plays himself and “Creepy Rob Lowe” in the 30-second spot “Creepy.” Regular Lowe has DirecTV, while “Creepy Rob Lowe” has cable, which causes him to do creepy things like watch people swim at the rec center when his cable is out. While it’s a bit of a logical stretch, the character (complete with creepy facial hair) is kind of funny and a welcome change for the brand.

“Less Attractive” features a similarly-minded character, the schlubby, balding “Less Attractive Rob Lowe.” While not as funny as “Creepy” and even more nonsensical, it’s still entertaining to see Rob Lowe dressed up as a balding, paunchy version of himself. The format for the ads leaves itself open to plenty of possibilities with other celebrities in the future, so this could be a long-running campaign if it catches on. (more…)

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john st. has a new campaign for President’s Choice, Canada’s number one consumer packaged goods brand, celebrating curiosity.

Who decided to try to eat pineapple? Who first braved a beehive to get honey? How did people figure out which mushrooms were edible? Who figured out popcorn? These are some of the questions posed by the campaign’s 60-second broadcast spot, “Crave More,” which concludes with the line, “If you don’t search for more, you’ll never find it.”

“It’s the questioning of the status quo that leads to the discoveries of foods and different ways of sourcing foods that is really the DNA of President’s Choice,” explains Angus Tucker, partner and creative director of John St. “That’s what we were trying to capture, that passion for finding the new and the next.”

The campaign also includes a 30-second broadcast spots, in-store marketing, social media elements and an overhauled website.

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Instead of making a live action trailer for Insomniac Games’ Sunset Drive for Xbox, twofifteenmccann created a fictional behind-the-scenes take on an attempt to film a trailer for “The Un-Filmable Game.”

The “Rules are Meant to be Exploded” marketing campaign for the title began all the way back in June, including a giant, interactive balloon of character Fizzie at E3. Fizzie is around for this effort, repeating a profanity-laced line at the end of the spot (visitors are asked to enter their date of birth before viewing). The ad promotes the game as too intense for a live action trailer (which has become something of the default for big game releases) as it parodies an attempt to make one for the game in which everything goes wrong, off-screen. It’s kind of a clever approach, and even finds a unique way to incorporate gameplay footage, but, unfortunately, it’s just too long for its own good, with the full-length online version clocking in at almost four and a half minutes. A 2:30 version will air tomorrow on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken, and the integrated campaign will continue through the game’s October 28th release and beyond. (more…)

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Overland Park, Kansas agency JNA Advertising teamed up with Superlounge directing duo Jacob/Slade in a new campaign for Kansas Lottery aggressively telling viewers to “Dream Big.”

In the spot, “Big TV,” a man tells his wife he’s dreaming of a bigger TV. This causes her to morph into a drill sergeant (“Dream Sergeant”) who admonishes him to “Start dreaming like a man” and “Dream big or dream somewhere else.” The slightly bizarre character will reappear over the course of the campaign, in a handful of 30 and 15-second ads.

“The JNA team had such a great concept and a great character with the Dream Sergeant, so the question for us was ‘How can we underscore the notion that people may be imagining the Dream Sergeant, as well as serve the weird funniness of it all?’” said Kristina Slade.

“Kristina and I have been together for twelve years, so we have a long history of exchanges, a give and take that informs our ideas and work relationship,” added Enno Jacobsen. “Kristina is more strategically-minded and I’m more experienced in technique, but the shooting process is spontaneous and fluid, rather than a division of labor.”

This campaign marks the German-born duo’s first campaign in the US, following the duo’s recent work for adhesive brand Tesa. (more…)

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