Hasta La Creative!

Is there anything more heartwarming than watching children of all ages fall over repeatedly?

From Proctor & Gamble and W+K comes “Pick Them Back Up,” a new spot that’s part of the “Thank You, Mom” campaign running during the length of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. If you’ll recall, P&G and Wieden have been leaders in mom joy, child guilt and intermittent bouts of crying since a 2010 Mother’s Day campaign, which set the stage for the very viral 2012 London Olympics spot “Best Job.” Since the initial broadcast of “Best Job,” most of the world has been stuck in a routine of enthusiastic weeping followed by hugging their mom until it hurts.

Adding a little humor to the affair (this is, if you’re a sociopath like me), “Pick Them Back Up” sees attractive young mothers repeatedly watch their children fall down before picking them up, thus transforming them into successful Olympic athletes. For those mothers whose children didn’t grow up to be competitive in winter sports on an international scale, well, your time was better spent leaving your kid on the ice and just working on you for a while.

Of course, this spot also begs the question, how did they film so many babies falling over? Were they stunt babies, or did they trip them with invisible wires or something? In any case, after seeing this on TV, your mother’s gaze will slowly drift over to the photo she has of you as a baby on her nightstand, and she’ll sigh a million disappointed sighs because you were once so cute and loving and now you apparently don’t “have the time” to give her a call once in a while. She’s right, you know, because you just watched this and it caused you do to nothing. Credits, and one in a series of new athlete-specific video, follow after the jump.

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I don’t own a PS4, but I catch myself periodically humming the cover of Lou Reed‘s “Perfect Day” in BBH NY’s video game spot with the same title. For a brief refresher: the 60-second spot shows two gamers as iterations of the characters they’re competing with, such as medieval gladiators and race car drivers. If you watch enough TV, you’re bound to watch it. And it sticks with you, mainly because of the song, but compared to typical ad humor and action, this spot just marches to the beat of a different drummer.

One of those drummers – Ari Weiss, executive creative director of BBH NY – recently sat down with ADC for their Behind the Cube series to talk about the creative decisions that helped shape “Perfect Day.” Weiss talks about how the song actually guided the visuals, how the gamers were established as characters, and how editing set the spot’s unique pacing.

And on a somewhat-related note: ADC just announced they are launching an iPad app to show off their annual work developed in conjunction with Brazilian shop the goodfellas, ADC member/Google Creative Lab motion designer Monica Eunji Kim and U.K.-based creative director, Pete Rossi. It is the first time in the company’s 92-year history that the annual book will not be in print. ADC is also giving away free limited-edition iPad cases to the first 500 people who download the app.

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Nissan’s new online initiative “The Briefcase” courtesy of TBWA\Chiat\Day LA features a high octane car chase (starring the new 2014 Nissan Rogue) ending in a click through to a contest offering contestants the chance to win one of three 2014 Rogues.

The video opens with a man getting in a hired car for his usual commute home from work. When a motorcycle pulls up and hands off a briefcase to the driver, however, all hell breaks loose. Soon everyone seems to be after the Rogue, including a helicopter that attempts to land on the car. In the end, they run into a blockade and a man shouts “Open the briefcase,” at which time viewers are prompted to click on a link to open it. This link clicks through to the contest on Nissan’s Facebook page. It’s a clever, interactive way to lead viewers to the contest, even if the video is a little over the top. Fans of the brand should enjoy having a background story going into the contest, where they can enter once per day, or more if they share information about the contest via email or social media — a pretty good way to incentivise sharing.

The contest begins today and runs through February 13th at 11:59 PM. You can enter the contest here for your chance to win a 2014 Nissan Rogue. Credits after the jump.

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I remember the Easy Button last being at all interesting about five years ago. People could actually buy a product that embodied Staples’ marketing strategy in Staples, some mixture of cool/scary meta-advertising that got old once you pressed the button more than 10 times. Staples has actually been running with “That Was Easy” for a decade, but McGarryBowen just retired it in favor of the less punchy “Make More Happen.”

Would you prefer your supply store to make things easy or to make more things happen? Rhetorical, but the rebrand is meant to change the perception of Staples as just an office supply store. The logo changed slightly, too, with the now-rotating “L” you can see in the new promo above that includes dog food, rain boots, paint brushes, etc. They sell dog food? Is this Staples or Walmart? It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, since Staples can’t do Walmart as well as Walmart can, but at least they’re trying to adapt instead of coasting down an easy route to irrelevance. Credits after the jump.

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If a Levi’s ad had a one-night stand with a Dos Equis commercial and the lovechild was baptized by a former Abercrombie art director, this “Equinox Made Me Do It” campaign by W+K New York would be the result. Equinox’s sensual shenanigans – mainly, turning gym memberships into sex – has graduated from bad joke that everyone is in on to an accepted norm at this point. The over-the-top sexuality even made its way into Aziz Ansari’s most recent standup special. But the appeal seems to be growing: gyms have spread across the country, celebrities are frequent guests, and Equinox now boasts a “Best Gym” award from a handful of publications including Fitness Magazine. The accolades should come in handy as people line up to sign up for a New Year’s resolution gym membership. So should the pretty people running naked on big billboards. If you live in a city with an Equinox gym, get ready to see butts.

The “Made Me Do It” campaign is W+K’s first work for Equinox, but you probably couldn’t tell the difference, because the gym is still selling the same amount of sex. And why shouldn’t they? While copycat fitness centers fight against each other, Equinox separated itself from the competition by rethinking the old adage of less is more. Credits after the jump.

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Tonight, Y&R is launching a new multimedia campaign for Dell called “Beginnings” that “celebrates the reawakening of the entrepreneurial spirit upon which the company was founded.” The campaign, created in conjunction with WPP sibling VML along with Dell, will include broadcast, digital, OOH and print work and is the first major effort for the brand since it officially went private a couple of months ago.

“Beginnings” is an homage to the “modest starts of some of Dell’s most notable corporate customers,” including Whole Foods, Under Armour, Skype, TripAdvisor, and Shutterfly. The campaign kicks off tonight with a TV spot celebrating the dreamers who recognize that innovation starts with new ideas. Set to a cover of “This Magic Moment” by The Felice Brothers, the ad goes through the humble beginnings of these and other successful corporate customers before likening them to Dell’s own humble beginnings, in a dorm room in 1984. The spot’s unfettered optimism seems appropriate for the start of a new year, and it only makes sense for the company to look back at its history, given its recent leveraged buyout.

The full 60 second ad will be followed by both the full version and a 30 second abridged version airing across broadcast and cable networks for the next several weeks, including during the 2014 Winter Olympics in February.

The television campaign will be accompanied by “high-impact digital and OOH billboards…in Times Square, with the TV spot and banners viewable on Taxi TV in cabs throughout the city.” There will also be a “mix of traditional and digital billboards” at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Gocompare.com appointed London-based Fold7 as their new advertising agency back in November after the usual “competitive” pitch. Now, following a segue ad launched on Christmas day in a primetime spot during Downton Abbey, comes Fold7′s first full campaign for the price comparison site.

Fold7′s new campaign will officially launch on New Year’s Day and “will herald a new dawn for the brand whose previous advertising had divided the nation with their larger than life character Gio Compario.” Compario is pushed to the background for the new spot, playing the part of a bus driver taking a tour group to a rather exhaustively named land. They reference Go Compare’s old approach by opening the ad with Compario humming “Over There,” before flipping on the radio.

The whole tour group approach is a little strange, with passengers talking about going to …Go Compare to save on car insurance or check out credit card deals as if it is an actual place nestled in a lush green countryside. While the new approach is a little curious (as is the painful final line in the ad), it should be a relief to those annoyed by the more flamboyant Gio Compario spots, which, I suppose, is the whole idea. Fold7′s campaign seems a good deal more low key: talking, rather than yelling (or singing), about gocompare.com’s services.

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Ah yes, it’s that time of year again where we attempt to pile on during a time filled with a billion countdowns, best and worst ofs, etc. But rather than draw this out over days like we have in the past, we’ll spare you lovely readers and split it up into just two parts for today and tomorrow. Compared to previous years, our 2013 most popular list, complete with items we scooped, swooped or just expounded upon, isn’t all that surprising, but hey, maybe we’re just jaded at this point. Anyways, on with the show.

10) Publicis Groupe Acquires Engauge, Merges it with Moxie

9) G2 is Dead: Welcome Geometry Global

8) Here’s Jeff Goodby’s Note to Staff Regarding ‘Changes’ at GS&P

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We’re pretty big Massive Attack fans here, so we were pretty excited to learn that lead Massive Attack member Robert Del Naja (better known as 3D) composed the music for AKQA’s  “Written in the Stars” app for iPhone and iPad.

The app allows users to send their holiday greetings into the sky, to be received by star gazing iPhone/iPad users when they hold their devices up to the night sky. It’s a cool, original way to send messages to loved ones with iOS devices — especially if the recipient is fond of astronomy.

3D’s music is also featured in the online spot for the app (featured above), and it’s predictably great. But then, we wouldn’t expect anything less from Naja. Check out the “Written in the Stars” app and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Making bad advertising is easy. But, every now and then, somebody produces something so atrociously heinous that it almost makes you want to stand up and applaud.

Congrats, Samsung. “Are You Geared Up?” may be the absolute worst thing we’ve seen this year. You found rock bottom, and you dug even deeper. You combined bad acting with a nonsensical script, added in a dash of uncomfortable pacing and stretched the whole thing out to a cringeworthy two-and-a-half minutes.

Not only did you create The Room of online advertising, but your ad was so shitty that it went viral. Your spot was featured on the front page of Reddit under the headline “Hands down the worst ad I’ve ever seen. Take a bow, Samsung.” On top of that, the online legions have taken to your Samsung Mobile YouTube page, where you’ve received 13,000 thumbs down votes to 2,000 thumbs up votes. And, some genius left the comments on, which just adds to the chaos of terrible. Here are just a smattering of some of our favorite comments:

• “There’s no way this is a real ad from Samsung. That would mean someone from Samsung had to actually watch this train wreck of a commercial and approve it. So it has to be fake. Right?”
• “I feel like I just watched porn without the porn.”
• “I’m almost speechless because of how terrible this is.  I’m embarrassed that it’s for an Android product.”
• “Thanks Samsung, I forgot for a moment that women are prizes that can be won through the creative use of technology and being creepy as fuck.”
• “HAY GURL CHECK OOT THEESE COOL PICS I TOOK OF YOU SEECRETLY WHILE I FOLLOWED YOU. TEE HEE YOUR PICTURES OF ME ARE SO FLATTERING HERE IS MY CONTACT INFORMATION ANONYMOUS STRANGER I WILL BE ALONE IN MY HOTEL ROOM TONIGHT. HAHAHA I AM GOING TO HAEV SEX WITH YOU BECAUSE MY WATCH IS A PHONE!”

In other words, it’s been a pretty fun morning. However, one Reddit-er has an interesting theory for why this terrible, terrible thing exists:

This was shot in Korea (that’s why everyone has a Russian accent). It was probably never meant to be seen in English. The main audience will see this with a Korean dub (that’s also why the actors speak so slowly).

The English script was probably written and edited by non-native speakers, and the company probably doesn’t give a shit what the English version sounds like, because the Korean dub is the one that will be seen. All that matters is that the white people look cool and pretty. It’s like that other commercial with the Samsung hard drive or whatever.

It’s an interesting theory, but as one commenter replied, “I wonder if Samsung has heard of the Internet.” Judging by this, it seems unlikely. If anyone has any info on the agency behind this, or would like to nominate anything else for Worst Ad of the Year, please do so in the comments.

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