Hasta La Creative!

A delightful new campaign from Y&R Midwest and Anonymous Content director Brian Billow for BMO Harris Bank finds credit card holders joined by Bulls and Blackhawks players in their everyday lives. Above we see Bulls players Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler accompany a family in the monotony of suburban living, from chatting about potholes getting to taking the dog outside for a bathroom break.

Meanwhile, your Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks are represented by Patrick Kane, Andrew Shaw, Corey Crawford, Bryan Bickell and Brandon Saad, who swim laps donning their complete uniforms and pads.

What makes these spots much funnier than other commercials for team credit cards is the fact that the players don’t seem to enhance the lives of BMO Harris cardholders. Instead, they just take part in the tedium of every day life. The juxtaposition of game-ready professional athletes and the typical morning routine help make these ads stand out, and they’ll definitely cause a few belly laughs from Chicago sports fans. See the whole campaign, which marks the first time BMO Harris Bank has featured Chicago Bulls players in its advertising, and the third time BMO Harris has featured Chicago Blackhawks players, here.

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A little over a month ago, we brought you news of Carmichael Lynch’s Web experience and social experiment talktoaplant.com, promoting MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Now Carmichael Lynch is rolling out three new TV spots for the exhibition, each of them pitting the MythBusters against Fact Confirmers.

It’s a pretty funny idea, meant to highlight the fact that the MythBusters are not just confirming or disproving facts, but actually busting myths apart — often with some kind of explosive involved. Carmichael Lynch Executive Creative Director Marty Senn explains, “Throwing Fact Confirmers up against it really reminds you how exciting it is to roll up your sleeves and blow things up, and The Explosive Exhibition is inviting you to do just that.”

The spot “One Plus One” (featured above) shows us the Fact Confirmers confirming that one plus one does in fact equal two by counting shuttlecocks. Since the term “shuttlecock” is intrinsically funny, the spots’ dry humor succeeds at highlighting how fun MythBusters is by comparison. The other spots, which confirm that yellow and blue make green and the Newtonian law that a body at rest stays at rest, are less successful without “shuttlecock.” All of the spots end with the tag, “Fact Confirming: Not Nearly as Fun as MythBusting.” While I like the Fact Confirmers idea, it feels like there’s something missing in these spots, like there’s a good deal of missed potential. It’s just that the execution doesn’t live up to the idea behind it — these spots could have been a lot funnier.

Ultimately though, the goal of the campaign isn’t to be funny but to drive traffic to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for the MythBusters exhibit. How successful the spots are at doing that will be how they are judged. Which leads me to one last complaint: while the Fact Confirmers idea does well at making MythBusters look good in comparison, it provides only footage from the television show, not the exhibit itself — giving the viewer no real idea of what to expect from MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibit. Since Amanda Bennett, Director of Marketing for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science says the exhibit is, ”not about just watching the MythBusters, but getting to be one,” you have to wonder about that omission. Credits and “Yellow & Blue” after the jump.  continued…

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By now (unless you’re completely cut off from all news outlets and/or in a coma) you’ve heard of the crack-smoking shenanigans of Toronto’s disgraceful, conservative mayor, Rob Ford. Ford recently admitted to smoking crack (following an online leak of video evidence), adding that it was ”probably in one of my drunken stupors.” Obviously, people from Toronto are less than thrilled about Ford making their city the butt of a million crack jokes. The fact that Ford not only refuses to resign, but also plans to run for reelection, certainly doesn’t make things any easier.

Marie Richer and Hannah Smit, two Toronto art directors, found it “depressing that a city as great as Toronto has been reduced to an international punchline because of its mayor,” and decided to do something about it. They’ve created a social media campaign called #MoreThanFord, an outlet for disgruntled Toronto-dwellers to express everything they love about their city in an attempt to escape being defined by one especially douchey politician. Richer and Smith describe the campaign as “a way for us all to change the conversation about our city by sharing what we love about it – from small things like a favourite coffee shop, roti place or bike path to bigger things like Pride, TIFF, Nuit Blanche, the Jays, etc.” (Although, given their dismal 2013 performance, you may want to leave the Jays out of it.)

The idea launches today, with the compilation video of Toronto highlights featured above. The campaign’s success is being measured at a microsite, morethanford.com, which pits tweets with the #MoreThanFord hashtag against tweets with the #RobFord hashtag. #MoreThanFord already seems to be catching on, currently leading at 53% as I write this. The #MoreThanFord site invites visitors to tweet what they love about Toronto, or to let #MoreThanFord take over your feed and tweet for you. It also allows visitors to watch the #MoreThanFord video.

I’ve only been to Toronto once, for a short visit, but found it to be a charming city. It’s really sad to see any city’s reputation hijacked by one crazy, crack-smoking, racist, crooked conservative nutcase. So head on over to the #MoreThanFord site, or just tweet something you love about Toronto with the #MoreThanFord hashtag to swing things in favor of the campaign and restore Toronto’s damaged reputation. But if you are looking for some crack, I’m pretty sure Mayor Ford can hook you up. Credits after the jump. continued…

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RPA launched their “Start Something Special” campaign for Honda (somewhat disappointingly) with the story of Mairead and Kevin’s very Irish wedding and their “Thank You” TV spot. The latest in the campaign is a lot more interesting.

The spot highlights 105-year-old Civic driver Edythe Kirchmaier, who really is something special. Edythe spends her autumn years helping people in need: she has been volunteering for Direct Relief for around 40 years. She learned to drive, at the age of 16, in 1924 on her uncle’s Ford Model T. Even more amazingly, she has maintained a perfect driving record her entire life — without so much as a parking ticket. She’s also the oldest registered user on Facebook, which she uses to dispense wisdom gleaned from over a century of experience. This latest addition to Honda’s “Start Something Special” series shows the potential in this kind of campaign. It’s the kind of story people want to hear and can’t wait to share. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come from RPA, although I get the feeling this will be the highlight of the campaign. Edythe’s story launches today at #StartSomething stories. Credits after the jump. continued…

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If you could immediately eat a slice of pizza and a bowl of mac and cheese or wait 10 minutes for an entire mac and cheese pizza, would you have the discipline to hold out? Would you want to hold out? Personally, I’d choose the separate dishes, but the question is the basis for a new experimental video from Muhtayzik Hoffer for the Annie’s “Good and Good” campaign.

The behavioral study is a riff on the Stanford Unviersity Marshmallow experiment from the 1960s and 70s, where kids were offered one small reward immediately versus two rewards after a waiting period. The Annie’s study is actually an inverse of this, two rewards to one, but the sentiment still comes across. The kids are all cute, and a few of them can’t wait any longer to destroy the two comfort foods. Some of the other cute kids wait it out. We aren’t given specific data, but the video is a unique, intellectual advertisement. And for the followup study, Annie’s can always track the elevated cholesterol levels of kids who become obsessed with mac and cheese pizza. Credits after the jump.

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McCann and Lowe have put together a new global integrated campaign for Nestle’s espresso line Nespresso featuring good pals/Oceans Eleven co-stars George Clooney and Matt Damon.

The new spots follow in the footsteps of the eight part, award-winning campaign with George Clooney, who’s been the face of Nespresso–especially outside of the U.S.–since 2006. In this latest effort, “Nespresso: In the Name of Pleasure,” (featured above), Clooney is snubbed by an attractive female, which is supposed to be funny because he’s George Clooney. In the cheesy, not surprising “twist,” the woman tells a crowd “George Clooney’s inside,” causing a stampede.

In the shorter complement to the main Nespresso “Pleasure” ad, Clooney runs into his Hollywood colleague and informs everyone of the latter’s presence, causing a similar stampede. If you like the gimmick, or love the talent enough not to care either way, you’ll fall for it. Otherwise, you may be wondering what the appeal is (like me). Check out the Damon follow-up as well as credits after the jump. continued…

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We’ve covered a few W+K New York RV spots for NBA on ESPN in the past here at Agency Spy including this recent effort. In the latest installments including  the one above dubbed “Notebook,” we have yet another healthy dose of awkward humor from the cavalcade of ESPN and Association talent.

The spot features NBA commentator Mike Breen, Warriors head coach/former ESPN analyst Mark Jackson and his shooting star, Steph Curry. The trio stumbles upon Jackson’s old draft notebook while storing luggage, complete with some rather unflattering notes on Curry. Predictably, this results in the comic awkwardness that’s been synonymous with this ongoing campaign and continues the long line of funny RV spots W+K NY has created for ESPN.

The second spot of the campaign, “Clapper,” is not as noteworthy. It features Breen and Curry in some by-now old hat clapper humor. You can view this quick spot and credits after the jump.

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Tel Aviv-based BBR Saatchi & Saatchi has launched a new campaign for Bazooka introducing the gum company’s new gum shapes, Bazooka Cubes and Bazooka Balls (insert testicle joke here). The campaign, entitled “Don’t Chew Them Together” features five short spots showing the absurd repercussions of combining the two new shapes. It’s a fun, slightly absurd way to roll out the new shapes. Viewers are also invited to submit their own “Don’t Chew Them Together” videos to Instagram with the hashtag #Bazooka. Our pick of the litter, “Beard,” is featured above, while another, “Laser,” is below. Brush up on your Hebrew (or don’t) and enjoy. Credits after the jump.

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From NYC-based All Out, this two-minute short film shows what it would look life if a gay Olympic medalist were able to celebrate with her partner in Sochi. Of course, it’s not that simple in Russia, where public displays of homosexuality are banned by the government, and systemic discrimination has prevented gay people from simply feeling like people in their own country. All Out is hoping to change that, at least legally, before the Sochi Games start in February 2014. The organization is asking that people share the video with #LoveAlwaysWins on social media. The goal, as the video shows, is to close the gap between what should be allowed and what is allowed. I wouldn’t bet on it, considering that the Olympics has always struggled to balance the messy mix of politics, human rights, and competition, but at least someone is trying. Credits after the jump.

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The onion alert is in full effect. Skype has been promoting their global capabilities with a “Stay Together” campaign produced by Pereira & O’Dell, and the fourth video in the series, “The Born Friends Family Portrait,” is a smart showcase of the program’s utility. Two girls, Sarah from Indiana and Paige from Auckland, were both born without fully developed left arms and formed a long distance friendship over the years. Sarah and Paige are now teenagers, and as you can see in the accompanying clip, finally met in-person. It’s touching and respectfully filmed.

The three prior videos cover similar stories – a father talking to his family still in Africa, a zookeeper in America keeping tabs on an animal family in Australia, and a two young cousins (common theme) closing the gap between Brazil and America. We should probably expect more tearjerkers from Skype, because these are the kind of tales that sell themselves. No misdirection or exploitation, just a documentary setup that has the right kind of appeal. Credits after the jump.

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