Hasta La Creative!

This August marks the 70th anniversary of Smokey Bear (apparently Smokey the Bear is a misnomer and we’ve all been saying it wrong). First created by FCB West in partnership with U.S. Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council in 1944, the Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest running, and one of the most successful, PSA campaigns in America. 96 percent of the U.S. adult population recognize Smokey Bear, while 70 percent can recall Smokey’s “Only you can prevent forest fires” tagline without prompting.

“Few advertising icons have become as much a part of the American vernacular as Smokey Bear,” said Peggy Conlon, soon-to-be-retired president & CEO of the Ad Council. “Smokey’s persistent popularity from generation to generation is not only a testament to the quality of work done on his behalf pro bono by FCB, but also ensures that his legacy will be one that results in continued impact in the area of wildfire prevention.”

For Smokey’s 70th birthday, FCB West worked with Butcher Editorial to create two new PSAs (running in both 30 and 15 second versions) that celebrate Smokey’s milestone, while still spreading his message of forest fire prevention. In one of the spots (above) a group of children and park rangers bring Smokey Bear a birthday cake. Seeing only the fire hazard of the candles, Smokey reaches for a bucket of water, but thankfully one of the children has the presence of mind to blow them out. In another 30-second PSA, which really ups the creepiness factor, Smokey sneaks up on a man to inform him of a fire hazard. Both spots end with Smokey rewarding fire safety prevention with a bear hug. continued…

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Fallon Minneapolis launched a new campaign today for Henkel’s Loctite Adhesives, promoting Loctite Super Glue.

At the center of the campaign is a 30-second TV spot called “Win At Glue” which Fallon created along with production company O Positive.”Win At Glue” will air on national TV, “including major sports events, season finales, late night and syndication.” The campaign will also feature unique online content on Twitter (where users are encouraged to share their own glue victories with the hashtag #winatglue) and YouTube, which will roll out over the next several weeks. This will mark Fallon’s first campaign for Loctite after winning AOR duties back in December.

The”Win At Glue” spot (above) features a bunch of people dancing around, rather ridiculously, with Loctite fanny packs filled with Loctite Super Glue. Aiming for humor, Fallon arrives at…something else. Something kind of hard to watch for 30 seconds. Make of it what you will. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Yesterday M&C Saatchi LA launched a new campaign for the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s new Tiger Trail exhibit, opening to the public on May 24, 2014. The multimedia campaign consists of TV, print, digital, outdoor and transit, targeting the Southern California region.

All three of the TV spots in the campaign feature kids visiting the new Tiger Trail at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and meeting a real Sumatran Tiger face to face, allowing them to tap into their own “tiger power,” which they put to unexpected use. In “Guitar Star” featured above, for example, a tween boy (with a somewhat disturbing mustache) continues rocking out at full volume even after his father pulls the plug on his amp.

“Tigers have an almost mythological connotation for their power and mystique. We wanted to show kids tapping into that to develop their confidence, their own tiger power, explained James Bray, creative director at M&C Saatchi LA.

“With the debut of this new exhibit, our guests will have a thrilling and awe-inspiring personal encounter with majestic Sumatran Tigers, and at the same time learn of the threats to this critically endangered species,” said Ted Molter, Chief Marketing Officer for San Diego Zoo Global.  “This campaign playfully asks our guests to identify with the confidence and power of tigers in the hopes that it will build greater appreciation for one of nature’s top predators.”

Stick around for “Monster Truck” and “Fireman,” along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews stars in a new series of ads for GMC created by DigitasLBi.

The campaign, entitled “Draft Day 101” sees Matthews giving tips to players in the 2014 NFL Draft, which ran from Thursday, May 8th through Saturday, May 10th. Matthews’ words of wisdom range from picking the right shoes to staying positive to proper handshake technique and calming nerves. For day one of the draft, Matthews not only shared the videos from his personal Twitter handle, but also took over @ThisisGMC to live Tweet the draft. DigitasLBi and GMC created seven videos, all of which are embedded in the playlist above. Hopefully the NFL’s 2014 draft picks were paying attention (and nobody wore sandals). Credits after the jump. continued…

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L.A. resident Samantha Futerman and Parisian Anais Bordier are identical twins separated at birth who found each other through a chance encounter on social media.

Last month, Cheil debuted a campaign for Samsung telling the twins’ true story, promoting the Gear 2, Gear Fit and Galaxy in a 1:30 teaser and 3:00 documentary. The teaser utilizes a split-screen to tell Sam and Anais’ stories separately, before they inevitably reunite on one screen at the spots’ conclusion. As part of the campaign, Cheil and Samsung also created an app that allows users to view two different mobile teasers, one from Anais’ perspective, the other from Samantha’s. By syncing with someone else’s phone, users could then view the full teaser on both devices side-by-side. People could also create their own split-screen movies to “celebrate togetherness.” The idea behind the campaign was that like Sam and Anais the Gear and the Galaxy are “always in sync, natural extensions of one another.” Cheil’s telling of Sam and Anais’ story resonated, with the spot chalking up 1.5 million views in its first 10 days and a 96% approval rating on YouTube. Cheil also decided to submit the project to the Cannes Advertising Festival. You can view the original teaser above, and stick around for the case study and 3:00 documentary, along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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Arnold New York has a new campaign for Unilever’s brand Simple, the leading “perfume and color-free” skin care brand in the UK for over 40 years which launched in the US back in 2012.

Evolving from the idea that all skin can be sensitive, especially with the impact of cold, heat, wind, and city pollution, the campaign takes an approach to match its product’s name. Arnold dramatizes the idea by projecting images of possible triggers for sensitive skin (UV rays, stress, pollution, etc.) directly onto skin. It’s a straightforward but visually interesting approach that attempts to demonstrate that “the best way to fight the harshness is through the kindness of Simple.” Whether it can help Arnold build the brand into a powerhouse this side of the Atlantic remains to be seen. Credits after the jump. continued…

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McCann Worldgroup Milan created “Fair Play Machines” for Coca-Cola, bringing together rival fans at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.

Internazionale di Milano and A.C. Milan have a fierce rivalry dating back decades, which often leaves neighbors, friends, and even family enemies when the two teams meet. So, as part of Coca-Cola’s ongoing “#ShareTheGood” campaign, in the moments leading up to kickoff at an important Internazionale di Milano versus A.C. Milan match at a very divided San Siro Stadium in Milan, McCann Worldgroup installed two vending machines in the stadium, one on each side of arena. The catch: fans couldn’t get a Coke for themselves, only for fans of the rival team. Pressing a button on one of the machines, connected to the other via video and audio, sent a Coke down a chute and delivered it to a rival fan. In under an hour, both machines were emptied, bringing rival fans closer together and supporting fair play.

“Coca-Cola reminds us that even in the face of seeming differences, happiness can be found through simple moments of human connection,” explains Claudia Navarro, director, integrated marketing communications, central & southern Europe. Check out the video above to see the campaign in action, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Brandblack, the recently-launched “futurist performance sports brand” from David Raysse and Creative Director Billy Dill, teamed up with the L.A. Clippers’ “Sixth Man of the Year” Jamal Crawford and RSA Films, the production company founded by director Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, for a new campaign highlighting their high performance basketball sneaker, J.Crossover.

The global campaign, named “FUTURELEGENDS” after the opening track on David Bowie‘s 1974 album Diamond Dogs, centers around a 60 second spot of the same name. Directed by Antony Crook, the spot puts viewers in Crawford’s perspective in an examination of the “insightful and reflective approach he takes to each and every game.” Other heavy hitters tapped to collaborate on the project include creative director Glenn Kitson, executive producer Arrow Kruse, and director of photography Trent Opaloch (District 9, Elysium, Captain America: Winter Soldier). The copywriting doesn’t quite live up to the production side of thing, with a somewhat predictable voiceover about being the ice “when they bring the fire” and finding order in the chaos. But it sure does look nice.

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Nothing could make us yawn wider then receiving a new campaign for a light bulb brand. But when the emails says “the campaign is a copywriter wet dream,” our interest is peaked.

And this campaign from Raleigh-based Baldwin& is, indeed, peak-worthy. Featuring the entrancing Lance Reddick, known for his roles in Fringe and The Wire, we are thrust into a world of choice which pits the Cree LED light bulb against other, less innovative bulbs.

In one spot, Metaphorical, Reddick, holding a $100 bill, says, “Let’s assume this is your money. And you’d like your money to stay your money. Then why do you continue to do this — holds bill offscreen; it comes back with a chunk missing…eaten by a goat — to your money? Save your hard-earned money… or feed it to metaphorical money goats.”

Another spot, Grey Market, begins, “In light of the recent incandescent bulb ban, analysts have predicted the rise of an illicit grey market for the outlawed bulbs. He urges viewers to buy Cree instead or “stay beholden to the old ways, and attempt to navigate the shady, banned bulb underworld, trading jugs of grandpa’s porch juice for bulbs out of a rusty hatchback from a guy with a tattoo on his forehead who goes by the name of Rattlesnake.”

There are 8 spots in the campaign and they are all entrancingly awesome. We can’t believe we just said that about a series of light bulb ads but, yes, it’s true. Perhaps the best light bulb ads we have ever seen.

AMV BBDO’s new campaign for Currys & PC World, entitled “Football? What Football?”  — their first work for the brand — manages to be World Cup-themed without ever mentioning the words “World Cup” (although at one point they come pretty close). The new broadcast spots for the UK’s largest specialist electrical retailing and services company each feature a hopelessly transparent man attempting to (not so) slyly suggest to his significant other that they should buy a new television, positing the purchase as selfless, and certainly having nothing to do with the impending 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The approach is clever, examining the types of subtle and not-so-subtle manipulations partners in relationships make surrounding expensive purchases. In my favorite of the spots, “Pride and Sensibility,” a man tells his wife, over dinner, that him and his friends watched that “Pride and Sensibility” program and it really looked great on his buddy’s widescreen TV. He’s not nearly so slick as he thinks he is, and his significant other’s incredulous facial expressions really bring the spot together as he almost mentions the World Cup and claims the new TV is for “that castle program” she likes so much.

The other spots follow a similar formula, finding humor in a man suggesting to his wife that her gardening programs would look great on a new television, and a father attempting to justify the purchase as a way to better enjoy upcoming penguin documentaries to his daughter while a disbelieving mother looks on. It’s the kind of approach that works because of its relatability, with humor that is at once universal and distinctly British coming from true to life scenarios. The broadcast campaign launched on the first, along with accompanying 30 second ads appearing on sports radio. Stick around for credits and the other two spots after the jump. continued…

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