Hasta La Creative!

Ogilvy Chicago’s latest spot in their “People Who Get It” campaign for CDW features Charles Barkley, Doug Flutie, and a technologically advanced stadium without a team.

In the spot, Jim Gordon takes you on a tour of Gordon and Taylor stadium, a domed football stadium he touts as “the most technologically advanced stadium in the world,” thanks to CDW. Features include “3,000 screens, stadium-wide wi-fi, seamless POS systems and a cloud infrastructure solution.” The funniest moment of the spot comes right after this list of features. “Do I know what those are? Not exactly,” Gordon admits. “But they sound impressive.” This should hit home with a lot of people who fall a good deal short of IT expert, myself included.

Over the course of the spot it’s revealed that Gordon has the perfect stadium, a half-time show, cheerleaders, a mascot, Charles Barkley and Doug Flutie on board — basically everything he needs, except a team. He seems to get more and more panicked about this as the spot goes on. Looks like Flutie may have to QB himself. The spot is fun and lighthearted, although I wish Barkley had more lines as he has a good comic presence. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a follow-up spot

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Last year, Geox took their line of  Amphibiox waterproof shoes to the rainiest place on earth: Cherrapunjee, India — which has an annual rainfall of around 12,000 mm. This year, Norwegian agency SMFB found an even more extreme way to test Geox’s Amphibiox technology.

SMFB enlisted one brave volunteer, named Tom, who they proceeded to torture with a barrage of seven days of nonstop precipitation on the streets of Barceleona. To accomplish this, SMFB had to make it rain, developing “three highly advanced artificial clouds” for the experiment. “We reproduced the conditions required for the test, creating relentless rain and constant humidity in the middle of a sunny city. The poor man had to live under his own, private rain cloud for seven days straight,” said Kristian Kristiansen at SMFB, who proceeded to laugh maniacally.

Each of these rainy days was laid out to simulate everyday urban activities, like walking the streets as a tourist, working a day job, or going out on a date. The rain cloud even followed the poor torture victim into a cab.

MediaMonks, who handled the campaign’s film and digital production, made clever use of technology as well. They developed a “shoe cam” that “captured the shoes with super slow-motion macro Phantom shots,” says Rogier Schalken of MediaMonks films. MediaMonks documented video footage of all seven of Tom’s rainy days, in addition to the highlights video featured above.

Throughout the seven day precipitation onslaught, the Geox Amphibiox shoes remained dry. Tom wasn’t so lucky. He died of pneumonia (Okay, not really, but the psychological scars may never heal). Credits and additional video after the jump.  continued…

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Today CP+B is launching “Noodle Reunion,” the latest in its “You know you love it” campaign for Kraft. If you happen to have the right last name, it could mean free preservative-drenched mac and cheese for you.

“Noodle Reunion” operates under the premise that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese “has always been the kind of meal that brings families together.” Each day for the next two weeks, Kraft will choose a last name at random. If you happen to hold that last name, you’re entitled to a free box of gooey noodles and cheese-like-product. Today’s name, for example, is Berry. So if you happen to be a Berry, simply verify with Kraft, wait 4-6 weeks, and then redeem your coupon for a free Kraft Macaroni and Cheese product valued at $1.65 or less! Have fun splitting that amongst your family!

Since they’re already using Facebook to verify, you have to wonder why they’d need to mail the coupon. Can’t they just make a printable version and send that to recipients of the prize? Wouldn’t they avoid postage costs that way, while also making the prize seem more exciting due to its immediacy? Isn’t it a little anti-climactic to find you “won” something, to know your (less than two-dollar value) prize will come in the mail sometime next month?

Maybe I’m being a little cynical here, but since there’s also a limit of one coupon request  per household how is this supposed to “bring families together?” I have a hard time not picturing siblings reaching over the table to fight over the last remaining serving of mac and cheese while their parents yell at them to sit down or cry into their bowls, cursing Kraft for their paltry giveaway. Credits after the jump.

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Pearl Media’s interactive billboard at Columbus Circle attempts to spook passing subway riders with a large screen ad that responds to their movements.

The gesture-activated, multimedia billboard has been promoting Witches of East End since September 13th. As Pearl Media CEO Josh Cohen puts it, “The video walls are designed to get busy Upper West Side commuters to put down their small screens and spend time with cool content on a really big screen so that they’ll tune in to their medium-sized TV screens when the series premieres on October 6.” Phew. I think Louis C.K. would probably have something to say about that one.

At any rate, the billboard features two nine square-foot walls, comprised of nine screens each. An extreme close up of a woman’s green iris appears to follow commuters as they walk by, masses of crows fly out of her pupil as the scene changes to trees slowly being consumed by fire. The more movement from those passing by, the more the scene changes. Music and sound are also integrated into the interactive billboard.

The billboard didn’t seem to actually scare anybody (nor, I think, will Witches of East End), but it did stop some people in their tracks and get them to interact with the billboard. Some of them seemed to be having fun. Whether that will get anyone to actually tune into Lifetime is another story.

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St. Louis Regional CrimeStoppers was recently awarded top honors at the National CrimeStoppers USA Conference in Grand Rapids, MI for its PSAs, produced by St. Louis experiential agency Switch.

Switch donated its services to produce three PSA videos for St. Louis CrimeStoppers, revealed at an August 16, 2012 press conference. The most effective of these, “Drive-By,” (featured above) combines live action drama with testimony from a woman whose sister was a victim of a drive-by shooting. The other two — “Robbery” and “Dope” –attempt to depict a realistic robbery and drug overdose, but for the most part feel like standard PSA fare.

Executive Director of the St. Louis Regional CrimeStoppers, Officer Lisa Pisciotta, thanked Switch and President John Nickel, adding, “The Switch production staff led by Ms. Susan Herzberg did an amazing job producing three excellent videos.” Check out “Robbery” and “Dope” after the jump.

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Coca-Cola takes greenwashing to a literal level with “Roll Out The Happiness,” the latest global installment by W+K for the brand’s “Where Will Happiness Strike Next” campaign.

In the spot, Coca-Cola and W+K roll out a lush green carpet of grass sod onto a city square and invite people to remove their shoes, grab a soda and “experience a little unexpected happiness.” Not stopping at the grass, they also transplant trees, loaded with fun stuff for people to enjoy. People are pictured reclining on the grass sipping a Coke, kicking a ball around, and just relaxing and having a good time. They all seem to be having so much fun, it’s as if whatever job, class, or event they were rushing to doesn’t exist anymore. Or they’re paid actors.

At the end of the spot, the camera pans out and Coca-Cola’s makeshift urban green area is revealed to be in the shape of — you guessed it — a Coke bottle. So relax, smile, and take a sip from a soft drink that can also be used to clean clogged drains (Try it, it works!). Credits after the jump.  continued…

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If you’ve already burned through Friday Night Lights, Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Bob’s Burgers, The League, Orange Is The New Black, and basically any other TV series worth watching on Netflix, set phasers to the documentary section for the 2011 film Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Directed by David Gelb, the movie is a portrait of 85-year-old world-renowned sushi master, Jiro Ono, who’s dedicated (literally) almost every waking moment of his life to perfecting his craft.

The film goes to great lengths to show how far Jiro strives to make the most perfect sushi in the world while simultaneously begging the questions, “What if your entire life was dedicated to only one pursuit? How would that affect your personal relationships? How do you then define success, if the concept of ‘success’ is even an ascertainable goal in your mind?” It’s as troubling a portrayal as it is fascinating, causing the viewer a level of introspection that few other films can achieve. It only made sense, then, for Gelb to follow-up his documentary on the world’s best sushi by filming its American equivalent, Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake pizza, for a new campaign from Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener.

It’s clear that Gelb employs some Jiro Dreams of Sushi-style camera work here. However, whereas his documentary focuses on getting to know the people behind the food, his spot has no time to do so. So, we instead get some creepy anonymous hands, kneading pizza dough in slow motion. We get some mom feet, with a mom arm shooting into frame from above to half-hug her child. Finally, we get some assorted family hands, each reaching out of nowhere to grab pizza slices (again, in slow-motion). All of this while creepy piano-plinking plays menacingly in the background.

While watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I was nervous that perhaps someone in Jiro’s immediately family would comment on his coldness, or his chef-before-father mentality. While watching this spot for Papa Murphy’s, I was worried that someone would be murdered. Credits after the jump.

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TBWA/NEBOKO put together a technically ambitious spot for Dutch company Delta Lloyd.

For the spot, supporting the simple concept of a boy negotiating the dangers of the ocean on a small boat — “a metaphor for someone’s financial life, in which insurance company Delta Lloyd helps to respond alert to changes” — TBWA/NEBOKO seamlessly combined video with 3D computer images to create a convincing world. (It’s the Life of Pi of advertising guys!)

Shot in eight days in Almere, Heiloo and Texel by director Lieven van Baelen, with 3D animation added post-production, TBWA/NEBOKP clearly threw everything they had into this one. They even hired Olympic sailor Pieter-Jan Postma to give private lessons to the actor playing the boy in the spot. How’s that for attention to detail?

Since the technically difficult process is, arguably, the most interesting thing about “de Optimist,” it stands to reason that “Making of de Optimist” is well worth a look. Check it out, with credits, after the jump.

And feel free to give me Dutch lessons in the comment section. There’s some voice-over at the end of “de Optimist,” but I have no idea what they’re saying.

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Glaceau has a new product, fruitwater, that is most likely 0-calorie sparkling fruit-flavored water. I can’t tell from this spot, but that’s my guess. Sounds like just the thing a rich  woman would use to cut her vodka, doesn’t it? It’s great that there’s definitely a customer base for this new product.

To push fruitwater onto said rich women is one of their own, Christina Applegate, best known for playing Kelly Bundy on Married… with Children and jumping ship before her NBC show, Up All Night, was canceled. According to Wikipedia, her mom also used to have a thing with Stephen Stills, so that’s something.

In order to grow fruitwater’s 4,000 or so Twitter followers to a substantial enough number to convince some brand reps that their social media is “working,” consumers are being encouraged to confess crimes and say mean things via the #sparklingtruth hashtag for a campaign from L.A.-based agency Zambezi. If your truth is good enough, fruitwater will give you a personal assistant for a week. But, of course, the only way you could know that is if you start following the account or, like me, you were sent a press release describing the contest. You gotta work for information on the incentive, you know? Credits after the jump.

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Grey New York aims for the funny bone with two new spots for Ally Bank, but they mostly miss the mark.

The more humorous of the two spots, “Nothing Hidden,” (featured above) opens with a man asking an Ally representative if Ally really has no hidden fees on savings accounts. He mentions that he’s worried about “hidden things.” When the representative asks why, he flashes to a series of memories of his father attempting to hide the fact that he’s a crime boss. It’s not exactly laugh-inducing, but also not bad enough to induce frustration or anger. Or maybe I’m just in a good mood today.

The second spot, “New Ways,” tries harder and makes a lot less sense. A woman speaking to an Ally representative asks if it’s true that she can reach Ally 24 hours a day, but there are no branches. She tells the representative that she’s “really reluctant to try new things.” When the representative asks why, we get another series of flashbacks. Like I said, this one makes a lot less sense, and tries a little too hard to be zanily funny. (Why would anyone tell a robotic dog to drink water?) The spot is also less successful in that the Ally feature it talks about doesn’t tie in as well with the flashbacks. Plus, people like cats; they don’t want to see them die on TV.

Credits and cat-killing spot after the jump.  continued…

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