Hasta La Creative!

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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FCB Chicago has a new spot for Kmart that’s…unusual.

Modeled after an 80?s karaoke music video (as viewed and/or created by someone on hallucinogens), the spot aims to promote the brand’s “pay in store” option for online purchases. Because this is Kmart, it’s done in the strangest fashion possible.

There’s no effective way to prepare the viewer for this experience — let’s just say you can expect synths, retro filters, lyrics explaining the payment process, iPad faces and assorted randomness with a sort of Kate Bush/1984 flavor. Coming on the heels of “Shop Like A Boss” and the ubiquitous “Ship My Pants“, we can’t call it surprising.

That said, it definitely exceeded our expectations.

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This “film about a smile”, created by London-based agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay for client Thomson Holidays, reminds us of the best, most obvious way for washed-up celebrities to stay relevant: get weird.

The spot stars a teddy bear and a Ben Folds/William Shatner version of Mike Myers’ favorite Queen song, taken from one of the former Captain’s many Twin Peaks lounge singer-style “comeback” albums:

Lots of great details in this one. We’re particularly fond of the broken glasses and the extended pony moment.

The spot even somehow manages to make Shatner’s version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” tolerable. We’re just glad he didn’t actually try to hit any notes or attempt the impossible a capella section.

Credits below via Adweek – note the “teddy bear wrangler” title.

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It seems odd that there’s never been a Halloween ad for Skittles. While the brand may not have the same kind of association with the holiday as, say, Reese’s, it still commands a good deal of exchange value for kids swapping trick or treat hauls. And yet DDB Chicago’s new Halloween spot, extending the brand’s “Experience The Rainbow” campaign, is the brand’s first foray into Halloween advertising.

As you might expect, the ad contains the level of weirdness associated with that campaign, and the brand’s advertising in general. When a boy finds himself stuck in a giant spiderweb, attempting to reach a bag of Skittles, his friend wonders what to do. Then a giant spider shows up, promising to help if he gets stuck, and thus begins a lifelong friendship…or does it?

The spot is rolling out as a 15-second broadcast spot and an extended, 45-second online video (featured above), and will run until Halloween. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen has a new ad for Verizon Wireless, advertising the company’s iPhone trade-in offer allowing customers to trade in their old iPhone and for a new one, supposedly for free.

In the spot, a man reading a newspaper comes across a print ad highlighting the deal and is intrigued, reading the offer out loud. His iPhone overhears, saying, “Did you say something, Paul?” For the remainder of the spot, Siri attempts to remind Paul of the good times they’ve had together in an attempt to stop him from trading the phone in. The efforts are for naught though, as he eventually gets to Verizon to make the deal, followed by the fine print explaining that the transaction is nowhere near as straightforward as just pictured.

Finding sympathy with the to-be-replaced phone may seem like kind of an odd tactic, but it ends up being a good source of humor and makes the spot memorable. And the approach is executed well, with Siri’s attempts to stop the trade-in well thought out and naturally paced with Paul’s trip to the Verizon store. (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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W+K New York enlisted the voice acting services of Donald Sutherland in their latest effort for Delta Airline’s “Keep Climbing” campaign.

Cleverly titled “No Bag Left Behind,” the spot derives from the insight that Delta flies more people than any other airline. Positioning this insight in an emotional context, the 60-second broadcast spot breaks from the more rational, documentary-style tone “Keep Climbing” has taken in the past, also employing the use of color for the first time in the campaign.

Directed by Noam Murro, the ad follows the bear-shaped bag of a small girl as it is cared for by Delta employees ensuring its safe delivery. Sutherland’s voice provides the perfect calm cadence to narrate the spot, concluding with the line, “…but when you’ve got an entire company who knows that the fewest cancellations and the most on-time flights are nothing if we can’t get your things there too, it’s no wonder more people choose Delta than any other airline,” delivered as the very relieved girl picks up her bag. The spot, which launched yesterday, will run until the end of November. (more…)

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Momentum Wordlwide revealed one of the cuter safe drinking PSAs you’re likely to see for Budweiser last Friday, timed to coincide with Global Be(er) Responsible Day.

The ad continues Budweiser’s affiliation with cute dogs (as seen in Anomaly’s “Puppy Love” Super Bowl spot). In “Friends Are Waiting” we are introduced to a man and his companion, a yellow lab, through a montage of the dog growing from a puppy to an adult. We then see the man leave with a group of friends, six pack of Budweiser in hand, telling the dog he’ll see him later. The lab waits patiently all night, accompanied by the text, “For some the wait never ended. But we can change that.” Then the man returns home to a very excited dog, explaining that he spent the night at a friend’s house, followed by the message, “Make a plan to make it home. Your friends are counting on you.”

It’s a pretty adorable approach to the overly familiar safe-drinking PSA, and sure to have dog owners of all stripes teary-eyed. By taking a different angle on the subject, and appealing to people’s natural love of their pets, it just may be memorable to make an impression and get dog owners to make safer drinking choices. Momentum is supporting the spot with the #friendsarewaiting hashtag, in an effort to help spread the message.

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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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You’ve almost certainly heard of baked-not-fried popchips in the past thanks to their ubiquity on shelves and the hard work of famous people like Ashton Kutcher and Katy Perry.

Yet the company wants to expand — and today it launches its first nationwide TV campaign, produced by its in-house team with the creative assistance of production-company-turned agency Dandelion and its lead creative, Kirt Gunn.

Here’s the first spot in the “popchips Way” campaign:

More after the jump.

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