Hasta La Creative!

Honda chooses a less than savory way to display the Honda Fit’s gas mileage with the new 60-second spot “Efficiency.”

The spot, created in collaboration with production company A2F Pictures and, apparently, without Honda’s usual agency, RPA, shows a guy returning form what appears to have been a long road trip. He gets out of his Fit, yawns and stretches. Then he reaches into the back seat and takes out a giant jar of what we can only assume is piss, followed by the message, “The Honda Fit can travel over 400 miles without stopping.” Why advertise your actual gas mileage numbers, when you can just show a jar of human urine to illustrate miles traveled? We’re going to assume this guy has some kind of extreme, deep-seated aversion to rest areas, or he was traveling through Pennsylvania. (more…)

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Netflix rolled out a new broadcast spot featuring Ricky Gervais to promote its original series during the Emmy’s last night (for which Netflix original series were nominated for 31 awards). It’s unclear at the moment which agency is responsible for the 60-second “Superfan,” but we can confirm that it was not Deutsch, who have worked with Netflix in the past.

In the spot, Gervais asks “You know when you’re watching your favorite Netflix show and after five straight episodes, you want to be in it?” He then imagines himself in starring roles of Netflix original series including House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Lilyhammer. Gervais interacts with other actors from the shows, on real sets, adding to the feeling that he’s actually leaped into each show’s respective universe. It’s a fun premise, and with Gervais, himself a star of Netflix original Derek, it should be a recipe for success. But somehow the spot never finds its comic footing and falls kind of flat. Stick around for outtakes after the jump, including, of course, Gervais laughing uncontrollably. (more…)

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Ogilvy & Mather New York hypes NASCAR Sprint Cup’s “The Chase” elimination series with a new campaign for NASCAR and ESPN entitled “Battle of Nations.”

The campaign spot, entitled “The Hype,” which will run in 15, 30 and 60-second formats, documents fan and commentator excitement for the new “Chase” format to the Sprint Cup, which pits 16 drivers against each other in a tough elimination playoff format. “The Hype” imagines the drivers — and their respective fans and support teams — as nations preparing to face off in rounds of challenges to determine an ultimate champion. Ogilvy’s campaign will also include radio, print, social, and digital elements — including “Spreading The Word,” an educational video which we’ve included after the jump.

“The campaign celebrates this bold and transformational moment in NASCAR’s history, taking fans along for the ride and accentuating the drama and intensity of the new elimination format as each round unfolds,” said Scott Parker, vice president of marketing at ESPN.

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Jean-Claude Van Damme is back for Coors Light, sculpting an ice bar in the Rocky Mountains with his bare hands in a new UK spot from VCCP.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s “Epic Split” for Volvo, Van Damme is now synonymous with advertising gold, and the VCCP spot capitalizes on his image in a way reminiscent of that ad. The 60-second “Ice Bar” has just about everything you’d expect given Van Damme’s involvement: Van Damme’s signature mullet/ponytail, cheesy 80s synths, ice block breaking (with bare hands, of course) and a tongue-in-cheek sense of intentionally over-the-top humor. It all makes for a pretty fun spot, which makes you wonder why this isn’t running stateside as well. (more…)

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Saatchi & Saatchi New York staged a dance off between Usher and Buzz the Bee in its latest broadcast spot for Honey Nut Cheerios, entitled “Body Language.”

Coming on the heels of its Grumpy Cat spot, Saatchi & Saatchi New York and Honey Nut Cheerios decided to go with a human celebrity this time. Somehow Usher proves a better match for Buzz than Grumpy Cat. When Buzz tells Usher that bees communicate with dance, the two exchange moves for the remainder of the ad, finding quite a bit of common ground. The national broadcast spot is set to the new Usher tune “She Came to Give It to You” and is a fun follow-up to both the Grumpy Cat spot and last year’s effort featuring Nelly.

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Here we thought last week’s BBDO Throwback Thursday campaign for Twix would fill our 90s nostalgia quotient for the month.

But a coming campaign created by DDB Chicago to promote State Farm promises to pack in more former Saturday Night Live stars than an Adam Sandler movie.

Here’s the first spot:

Nice to see Rob Schneider get work when he’s not busy blaming Big Pharma for Robin Williams’ suicide.

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Argonaut created a new campaign for Appleton Rum, entitled “From Jamaica With Love,” launched to coincide with Jamaican Independence Day on August 6th.

The spots celebrate Jamaican culture, as well as Appleton’s Estate Aged Rum, branded as “100 percent Jamaican.” Argonaut’s campaign marks the first by the agency since becoming the brand’s agency of record. In order to capture the authenticity of the brand, the San Francisco-based agency sent a team to Appleton’s distillery in Jamaica’s Nassau Valley to witness the production process first-hand.

“In order to be successful with this campaign, we made it a priority to send a team to Jamaica to experience first-hand the splendor of Appleton Estate and the Nassau Valley to capture the authenticity of Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum,” explains Jordan Warren, president, Argonaut. “As a result, the ‘From Jamaica With Love’ campaign gives a glimpse into the people, the beautiful Estate and the unique methods that create the only premium rum from Jamaica.”

The “From Jamaica With Love” video (featured above), in addition to the two-minute “From Cane to Cup” are part of a digital initiative created in partnership with Sharethrough. The campaign also features print and out-of-home initiatives targeting markets such as Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Miami; Portland, Oregon and Columbus, Ohio. Stick around for “From Cane to Cup” following the break. (more…)

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Apple has added two new spots to its ongoing “Your Verse” campaign: “Jason’s Verse” and “Yaoband’s Verse.”

The “Your Verse” campaign, as you might remember, debuted in January with an anthem ad featuring the sadly recently deceased Robin Williams‘ recitation of Walt Whitman‘s “O Me! O Life!” (from which the campaign gets its title) from the film Dead Poets Society. It was also notable for being produced in-house, without the aid of Apple’s agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab, as were the follow-up verses.

Apple’s latest additions to the campaign aim to continue the inspirational tone with two new stories. “Jason’s Verse” follows Detroit resident Jason Hall as he attempts to revitalize the Detroit community through his Slow Roll. What begins as a solitary bike ride turns into a weekly event drawing thousands, with Jason’s iPad Air helping him get word out to the community and build Slow Roll into a sort of institution.

“Yaoband’s Verse,” meanwhile, sees a Beijing electro-pop group’s using their iPad Air for everything from sound-sampling to communicating with fans. Both “Your Verse” stories can be examined in more depth at Apple’s site, where visitors can also access an exclusive concert from Yaoband. Stick around for “Yaoband’s Verse” after the jump. (more…)

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Sex Pistols “bassist” Sid Vicious’s decision to cover “My Way” was idiosyncratic for its time, but one has to wonder what the man would think of his tune’s appearance in a 2014 car ad if he’d somehow managed to live past 21.

This week Mullen LA debuted a new campaign for client Acura, and its central spot uses John Simon Ritchie’s take on the Sinatra standard to frame Acura’s engineers as bold rule-breakers.

Here’s the copy:

“We all go a little mad sometimes. But the end result isn’t always a car. It’s That Kind of Thrill.”

In this case, however, the end result was most definitely a car.

The campaign to promote the client’s new TLX model, which previously featured Jerry Seinfeld riffing on his “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” series, includes several shorter spots with less surprising musical accompaniment.

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Last week, Saatchi LA and Busta Rhymes gave us an update on the “white people rapping” theme in a spot for Toyota; today Grey New York takes a more elaborate turn down the same road with some help from Joe Namath, the Manning family and a healthy dose of auto-tune in this extended music video for client DIRECTV.

Amusingly, the subject of this cultural mashup isn’t just football…it’s fantasy football. This inaugural spot involves rainbows, waterfalls, white-guy dreadlocks, the passing of hoagies and a white-hoofed Pegasus clone with a fondness for outer space.

Most importantly, it includes a clip of Joe Namath getting a bit too close with someone’s mom. (Strangely, Namath apparenlty did not bring his infamous “pimp coat” to the shoot.)

We are admitted fantasy football neophytes, but we don’t recall seeing any of this stuff on The League.

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