Hasta La Creative!

Leo Burnett Change has launched a new campaign for the charity Business in the Community, highlighting the difficulties and discrimination ex-offenders face on the job market for the “Ban the Box” project. “Ban the Box,” is a project “calling on UK employers to remove the default criminal-record disclosure tick box from job application forms.” To call attention to this issue, Leo Burnett Chance took an innovative and thought-provoking approach to express the prejudice faced by ex-offenders on the job market.

The interactive spot “Second Chance” (after the jump), directed by Dougal Wilson, puts the viewer in the position of an employer interviewing an ex-offender. Just after the potential employee reveals that he was released from prison six months ago, the “skip ad” button appears. But this isn’t to skip through the rest of the video. The employee in this case is the ad. Leo Burnett equates the hasty discrimination many employers apply to ex-offenders interviewing for a job with viewers hastily pressing the “skip ad” button to get to their desired content. This is where the video gets interactive. If the viewer presses the “skip ad” button he or she is brought back to the video, this time with a more dejected, less articulate ex-offender. This can go on for several clicks of the “skip ad” button until the job applicant becomes fully dejected and says “I’m sorry that you didn’t want to listen. I hope you can find time in the future to give an ex-offender like me a second chance.” If the viewer does not press the skip ad button, the ex-offender becomes more confident and articulate as the video progresses, eventually expressing gratitude to the viewer for listening to him.

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Warning: Do not watch this on an empty stomach.

As a self-confessed foodie I can’t not be down with thirty or so seconds of straight food porn, which is a fair way to summarize this new spot championing Aussie supermarket chain Woolworths’ Masterchef South Africa sponsorship.

Directed by Ian Chuter of Platypus Productions, the spot, essentially created in-house by Woolworths (not to be confused with the iconic retail chain), doesn’t make any mention of brand or who it’s sponsoring until the very end. But that’s okay, your eyes will be glued to the screen for shots of melting chocolate, succulent steak, grilled spring onions, and all sorts of culinary treats getting the food porn treatment. Plenty of close ups and “money shots” of delicious-looking food: What’s not to like? This spot left me feeling hungry, and I had a late lunch so that shouldn’t be happening right now. I’ll repeat since it bears repeating: Do not watch this on an empty stomach. Trust me. Credits after the jump. continued…

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I’ve been a fan of The Onion for as far back as I care to remember, so I’m always glad to see them expanding their comedic empire. Their in-house creative agency/studio Onion Labs is responsible (along with Barbarian Group, who put together the website) for a new campaign for Jim Beam’s “The Olds” whiskeys (Old Crow, Old Overholt and Old Grand-Dad). Onion Labs emphasizes the old aspect, presenting “The Olds” as a group of rambunctious, terminally youth-like men with a combined age of 422.

In the spot for Old Crow (featured after the jump), Crow is introduced as “the rare ladies man who is also a man’s man,” not the most original of premises. Sounds a little like the Dos Equis spots, to be honest. I guess the whole “women want him, men want to be him” thing is a pretty standard formula for selling alcohol, really. The execution works pretty well here, however. Crow gets chased offstage after singing about a sexy robot. Clearly the spot doesn’t take itself too seriously. The highlight is probably the woman who claims her father sent her away to boarding school, at the age of 37, to keep her away from Old Crow.

The “Meet Old Overholt” spot (featured above) works better. Old Overholt shares his life’s code: “Don’t be a delicate, lazy, pillow-soft, mamby-pamby, non-sweat-breaking, do just enough to get by, ‘Oh, we better call a plumber to come fix it,’ ‘Can I have a salad with the dressing on the side’ fancy-pants wimp.” Overholt, we learn, had this phrase tattooed on his chest, “at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution.” It’s worth a good chuckle as a kind of self-conscious satire of typical liquor ad machismo (more clearly so than “Meet Old Crow”), and should do well by the brand. (To be honest, I’d never heard of Old Overholt before. So I guess the spot succeeded at making me aware of its existence at least.)

The Old Grand-Dad video is forthcoming, which is a little disappointing since that’s the one I remember drinking in college. But I guess I’ll just have to check back to see when it comes out.

In addition to the video content, Onion Studios worked on the social media campaign which encompasses both Facebook and three Twitter accounts (@MeetOldGrandDad, @MeetOldCrow and @MeetOldOverholt). Check out “Meet Old Crow” after the jump. continued…

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Translation, which was recently tapped by Coca-Cola to handle marketing for Sprite, has a new spot for the green-bottled lemon-lime soft drink.

Although Sprite has changed agencies and approaches several times in recent years, this ad hits on well-trodden ground for the brand: LeBron James, basketball, and mentioning the word “thirst.” This time around there’s a lot of screaming, though. We open with LeBron James superhumanly blocking a dunk attempt and screaming in celebration. Then we see a marching band drummer “marching to his own beat,” a dude posting a video of some biking tricks, a guy with a lion tattoo, and a woman getting a truly bizarre haircut. All of them scream. Somewhere a silently screaming mime gets thrown in. “If you’re gonna put in the work to show the world who you are, you’re going to get thirsty. Then: drink a Sprite.” proclaims the voiceover, before adding in the tagline “For The Thirsty.” Reasonable enough logic here: lots of screaming will make you thirsty.

Here’s the thing though: soft drinks are actually terrible at quenching thirst. Why would you make that a selling point for your brand? Isn’t that playing to your weakness? Yes, it is a beverage, but it’s a sugary one made to be enjoyed for its taste, not to quench thirst. I get that they’ve gone with athlete endorsements aplenty to sell their product, and I get that this strategy harkens way back to their “Obey Your Thirst” days. But who is really reaching for a Sprite after a workout? Especially with the vast array of flavored bottled water drinks now available. Is marketing towards a function your product doesn’t actually serve really going to help sell your brand? I’ve never understood this. Who knows though, since Sprite is constantly changing their approach, maybe this tactic will die out soon as well.

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“If you want to survive, listen up.”

So begins Innocean’s new spot “Speech” for Hyundai (Two undead posts in a day? What the hell, it’s October). The speaker of those lines credits his ability to live off the land and fight for his survival, but an onlooker points to his Hyundai zombie-killing vehicle. Although the spot’s attempt at humor falls mostly flat, it was  perfectly timed, debuting last night during the premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The 30 second spot was also show during Talking Dead last night, while “The Walking Dead Chop Shop” — the site that lets users build their own Zombie Survival Machine — launched during San Diego’s Comic-Con in July. Innocean’s television spot will be accompanied by three digital spots in all — “Speech,” “Cooler” and “Difference — airing on Hyundai’s social media channels.

The spot functions not just as a stand-alone advertisement, but as a way to drive viewers to the “The Walking Dead Chop Shop” site, which is a great tie-in. Actually, I’m kind of not sure if the spot is a tie-in for the site, or the site is a tie-in for the spot. I’m going with the former, since the site existed first. At any rate, we covered “The Walking Dead Chop Shop” back in July, but for the link-averse, here’s a short review: you can use any of three Hyundai vehicles as your base-vehicle and then pimp them out with all kinds of accessories, like razor wire, a “horde plow” and (of course) flame throwers and cattle guns. This isn’t exactly my sort of thing, but it should be a lot of fun for the car/weapon happy and zombie-obsessed. Credits after the jump.

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Including a narrative is usually a good way for a commercial to hook the audience with creativity, but this Y&R Midwest zombie spot for Sears actually overdoes the narrative focus to the point where the  brand association is almost negligible. We know, zombies are popular, but it seems like the creatives put more time into the character development of the actors than organically integrating the product. Somebody really enjoys The Walking Dead.

The setup: a girl and a guy running from zombies try to escape in separate cars. The guy’s car won’t start, but the girl’s car has a Diehard battery that is still kicking even after the apocalypse, which is conceptually clever. But, the 70-second running time is too long for the two-second insert shot of a Diehard battery at the very end. If the first 35 seconds of the ad were cut, the relevant story points would still be in tact. There’s also a #SurviveZombies for brand engagement, but if you want or need a reliable car battery, you probably don’t care about hashtags or zombies. Credits after jump.

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If there’s one thing that Detroit has going for it right now, it’s the Tigers. And if there’s one thing the Tigers always have going for them, it’s the super-dependable Miguel Cabrera, arguably the best hitter in baseball. So, if you’re a Detroit car company, just slap Miguel Cabrera in an ad and you’ve got a winner, right?

Doner (which will inevitably be mocked as “boner” in the comments section) has tapped Cabrera’s talents for their latest spot for Chrysler. Alternating between shots of Cabrera, aspiring young baseball players training, and the Chrysler Town & Country while talking about how there’s “one road to greatness” and there are “no shortcuts” whether “you’re trying to become the world’s greatest player or build the world’s greatest car” the spot pretty much sticks to a well-trodden formula. Ending with the irritatingly nonsensical “Imported From Detroit” tagline, and the better thought out #NoShortcuts hashtag, the spot certainly feels familiar.

There’s really nothing new about Doner’s approach, but as a baseball fan, the spot works for me. The background music sounds like it was taken from a “serious sports spot” stockpile somewhere and the “work hard to achieve greatness” message is certainly nothing new for Chrysler. But Miguel Cabrera isn’t just a great baseball player, he’s a seriously likable one, no matter what team you root for, with a truly photogenic swing. So despite the tired tropes of the spot, I can’t find it irritating (except for that tagline). The hometown appeal is obvious, but having people associate your product with Cabrera is a good thing, no matter where they’re from. But please Doner, work on a new tagline. Credits after the jump.

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From the very Canadian, but not Canadien, news bureau: Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners and Under Armour are launching a youth hockey contest tomorrow, October 12, called “Storm the Centre.” Two teams of skating youngsters will eventually win a chance to play at the Air Canada Centre, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I want to spell it center, but it’s for the kids, so I’ll keep it Canadian.

The contest consists of three stages – social media engagement, teamwork, and finally, hockey skills. These sort of pee-wee competitions happen all the time, but adding a social media component is a cool twist from RTO+P, especially in a hockey-crazed country, where presumably, families will claw for the chance to see their kids play on a pro rink. The details of the challenges haven’t been released yet, but you can check team eligibility and sign up here. To all the little Charlie Conways out there, have fun.

Credits after the jump.

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Atlanta agency 22squared just launched their “Unexpect Everything” campaign promoting the Corolla for Southeast Toyota, a campaign targeted at millenials that encompasses  broadcast, influencer marketing, social, digital, mobile, search, desktop gaming, experiential and in-dealership components. This includes the really terrible Tyler Ward music video for “Forever Starts Tonight” (featured after the jump), promoting the Toyota Corolla. I guess I didn’t expect that.

Southeast Toyota’s Tumblr is a huge part of the campaign, with most content driving viewers to the site. The Tumblr hosts a wealth of content, including “Corolla art captured by photographer Jack Parker and photos and videos from 15 influencers across Southeast Toyota’s five-state footprint” and seems to be updated regularly.

The most unique element to the “Unexpect Everything” campaign is definitely CorollaCade, the unfortunately named arcade-style virtual reality Corolla simulator developed in conjunction with Fullscreen and Ogeeku. Using Oculus Rift technology, “Ogeeku product designer Jon Brence built the virtual Corolla to specifications and even coded in key car features such as Bluetooth®, back-up camera, LED headlamps and a moonroof.” The homage to classic arcade driving campaigns breaks from tradition by not being about speed and adrenaline — rather it aims to immerse the driver as an accurate representation of what driving the Corolla is like. It seems like a lot of fun. The CorollaCade team may be expanding the project further. Jon Brence from the development team tells Engadget, “We are in talks with the brand [Toyota] to have another cabinet built for showcase to the public and for several events…” You can check out a video of the making of CorollaCade above. It seems like it was a fun project to be a part of.

Credits and the awfulness of Tyler Ward after the jump. continued…

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Draftcb has unveiled two new spots for the Nabi, its first campaign for Fuhu since becoming their agency of record in September.

Fuhu has done incredibly well for themselves with the Nabi, a soft-edged tablet designed for children, even being named “the fastest growing company in America” by Inc. There’s certainly no change in strategy from Draftcb for these two new spots. “Good Morning” and “Glow in the Dark” tout the Nabi’s kid-friendly features via comparison with the Kindle, which comes out looking sorely lacking in the kid-friendly department.

If you are going to buy your kids a tablet, I suppose it should be one that’s made for them, right? These spots do a good job extolling the Nabi as the perfect option for children. In “Good Morning” (featured above) that means talking about the Nabi’s “time controls” — in this case, a good morning song to wake up to. The Nabi does its thing before asking a silent Kindle what its good morning song is.

“Glow in the Dark,” meanwhile, highlights Nabi’s glow in the dark feature. No surprise there. Also not a surprise: the Kindle does not glow in the dark. Score: Nabi 2, Kindle 0. Plus, the Nabi just looks like something a kid would want to play with. So make that Nabi 3, Kindle 0.

We see plenty of these “direct comparison to our biggest competitor” ads with tech gadgets, but few seem to take the wind out of the competition the way these ads sucker punch the Kindle. At least for the Nabi’s target audience. If I were shopping around for a tablet for a child, this campaign would have me convinced that the Nabi is the way to go. Thankfully, I won’t find myself in that situation any time soon. Credits and “Glow in the Dark” after the jump.  continued…

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