Hasta La Creative!

The folks at Arnold, which of course underwent a bit of creative restructuring last week, have returned with a new campaign for Jack Daniel’s, veering from the folksier, Americana-themed efforts of past years to highlight the Tennesee Whiskey brand’s longstanding relationship with rock ‘n roll.

Never mind the association with artists like Kid Rock or those insatiable rockers in Motley Crue (the latter of whom, if you remember, even featured a likeness of a JD bottle on the cover of their must-read autobiography, The Dirt). Rock’s alliance with Jack Daniel’s goes way deeper according to this Arnold’s new TV/web effort for the brand called “Legend.”

Photographer Danny Clinch plays a key role in “Legend,” and along with his work (see a behind-the-scenes clip here) and shots in and out of legendary venues, the campaign features everyone from Frank Sinatra to Bad Brains. The tagged :30 clip above lets you scroll though frame-by-frame and you can peep the web component here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Make way, the internet videos are here! It’s been a hell of a week for advertising, with Oreo and Audi taking top spots and then a random chocolatier taking CGI to the next level. Lots of taking these days. How about some giving? Like the gift of code. Or you could just watch a guy juggle and solve a Rubik’s Cube simultaneously.

5. Audrey Hepburn. So hot right now. At least, in this Galaxy Chocolate spot, she looks amazing. Not only that, the spot perfectly captures the kind of person the world knew her to be – beautiful and whip smart, never to be taken advantage of. Also she looks straight-up real. 202,899 make this clip far from viral, but still worth checking out.

4. Sir Ravi the Juggler can juggle while solving a Rubik’s Cube. Really no other way to set this one up. At 714,493, Ravi’s nearly a YouTube star, though really he should be president of the planet.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ladies, ever look forward to a wonderful getaway with your man so the two of you can spend some alone time together? Ever wonder why your best laid plans to create such a scenario often times fail? Look no further than this latest Carlton campaign created by Clemenger.

No, really, it really is a coincidence!

Let me begin by stating the obvious: If you find yourself downing more than 3 Jager-bombs in one sitting, odds are your bro doesn’t have your back. Your bro is not a good bro, and you should consider bro-ing out with a new bro who won’t let such a terrible thing happen to you. Sorry, bro.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at the latest campaign for Jagermeister and LA-based indie shop Mistress titled “A Brother in Your Corner.” The concept of celebrating male companionship in alcohol ads is nothing new, especially in the beer category where things like “Man Law” are done time and time again. Instead of playing the concept for comedic effect, however, Jagermeister has decided to showcase legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach, whose long resume includes times spent in the corner of boxing champs like Oscar de la Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, and Julio Caesar Chavez. As the video illustrates, Roach has gained a reputation within the boxing community for taking extra special care of his fighters, both within the ring and outside of it. This devotion to his athletes, Roach says, was instilled in him by his own trainer, Eddie Futch, who himself gained fame for training legends like Joe Fraizer, Ken Norton, and Larry Holmes.

The campaign’s tone and focus seems targeted to an older, likely middle-aged bro, one who has actually heard of these fighters and knows anything about professional boxing as none of the fighters associated with Roach our Futch are named in the spot. Also, it’s hard to find many people under that age of 30 who know much about boxing, as MMA continues its climb upwards as boxing fades into irrelevance. The campaign also features a digital extension in which those young males who prove they live by the “Jager Code” compete for a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas for a private training session with Roach as well as tickets to an upcoming boxing match. For more info visit the Jager Code website and Jagermeister’s Facebook page. Credits after the jump.
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The hobbits must be busy working on a sequel, because Air New Zealand abandoned their go-to sponsorship subject for Bear Grylls, adventurer extraordinaire and part-time fake adventurer extraordinaire. “Bear Essentials of Safety,” which details in-flight safety procedures with an outdoor twist, runs four minutes and twenty-eight seconds.

Even though Grylls isn’t from New Zealand–unlike hobbits–the spot gives Air New Zealand another reason to show off the country’s ridiculously scenic terrain as their outdoorsman explains instructions atop a mountain and places a dead fish under an airplane seat. Since nobody pays attention to standard in-flight safety precautions, signing up Grylls and changing the poorly-animated template video makes total sense. Shrewd moves by the Kiwis.

Maybe North American airline carriers can follow suit instead of turning off customers with every decision they make.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Thirty-two years after the original spot aired, Grey Poupon Mustard is bringing back the iconic “Pardon Me” campaign. A new TV spot, which will air during The Oscars, picks up right where the original 1981 commercial left off, showing what happened after the Grey Poupon was shared with the other distinguished gentleman.

The :30, titled The Chase, was created by CP+B and features a collection of craziness including a car chases, flying champagne corks and caviar car slicks, which ensue after the Grey Poupon jar is shared. The spot itself is a teaser for an extended version which will be available online at GreyPoupon.com following the teaser’s premiere during The Oscars.

Designed to look 32 years old, the spot uses what is made to look like “lost footage” from the original “Pardon Me” shoot, and shows the original spot didn’t end with the two gentlemen simply driving away.

The extended spot will include clickable “Haute Spots” where viewers can click hidden spots within the video to reveal and win props featured in the TV spot such as caviar, champagne flutes and tokens made from the luxury cars. Fans of the brand’s “Society of Good Taste” Facebook page, which famously removed fans if they didin’t have “good taste,” will be able to have an exclusive screening to the new spot prior to its premiere.

Peanut Butter & Co. is airing a series of three TV commercials, its first ever national ad campaign, that encourage consumers to go beyond smooth and crunchy and step into the exciting world of flavored peanut butter with Dark Chocolate Dreams, White Chocolate Wonderful and Cinnamon Raisin Swirl.

The 15-second spots will air nationally on Cooking Channel and in select markets on a variety of cable networks such as ABC Family, Food Network, E!, and TLC.

A new campaign from perennial purveyor of deodorant for prurient-minded middle school boys, Axe, is recruiting 22 people for its Axe Apollo Space Academy. The brand even hired Buzz Aldrin to announce the campaign in a video.

An additional ad in the BBH London-created campaign, which illustrates just how preferable an astronaut is to a fireman, snubs a fireman who, after saving a woman from a fire, gets dumped for an astronaut because, well, according to the campaign, “nothing beats an astronaut, ever.”

The campaign’s no Red Bull Stratos but the appearance of Aldrin does lend some seriousness to the silliness of whether or not an astronaut is, indeed, more desirable than a fireman…who risked his life to save this foolishly fickle woman.

With three holiday-themed “15’s, Guitar Center, with help from McGarrah Jessee, is touting what they call “experience gifts.” The brand feels these gifts are, well, just better than the latest electronic gadget.

To tout these “experience gifts,” Guitar Center hooked up with three young musicians who are quite pleased their parents and Santa didn’t get them cologne, socks or video games for Christmas.

Anything to get kids away from their electronic gadgets, right parents?

With trendy fast food options exploding, what’s a pizza shop that just, well, makes pizza supposed to do? Poke fun at everyone else, of course. And that’s just what Denver-based Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta did.

With help from Denver-based Cultivator Advertising & Design, the New York-style pizza chain launched an out-of-home campaign that lobbed witty stabs at various trends. The campaign’s tagline is Pizza That Never Follows Trends. Headlines include:

“Really Need a Like Button to Tell You What You Like?”
“Skinny Guy Jeans??A Year from Now You’ll be Wearing Bell-Bottoms.”
“Love Social Media? Sit Around a Table with Friends.”
“Want to be Really Hip??Grow a Mullet.”
“Of Course You’re Developing an App.”
“If You Dress Like a Lumberjack and You’re Not, then You’re Not.”

There’s something to be said for a traditional classic. But that doesn’t mean a traditional classic has to be, well, traditionally polite.