A ‘Billion Dollar Contract’ Signing Goes Wrong in GS&P’s Latest for Adobe

In Goody, Silverstein & Partners newest spot for Adobe, a fictional basketball player named Anton Miller is about to sign a billion dollar contract with fictional professional basketball team the Cincinnati Sabers. The team’s executives and lawyers meet Miller and company in a conference room as Miller waits for them to provide a seemingly endless array of signatures before it’s his turn to sign.

While he’s waiting, he receives, and accepts, an offer from an opposing team. Bad news for Cincinnati. The spot concludes with the line “How’s your customer experience? We can help.”

The spot manages to promote the Adobe Sign feature, as well as Adobe’s customer service offerings in general with the exaggerated illustration of manual signatures gone wrong. Coming on the heels of April’s “Snake Bite,” it’s the latest in the series of reliably clever efforts from Goody, Silverstein & Partners for the brand, injecting humor into a category where you wouldn’t expect it. While “Billion Dollar Contract” may not live up to some of its predecessors it’s still a welcome addition to the campaign, and is about as entertaining as a spot for an e-signature platform gets. The spot will make its broadcast debut on TNT during the network’s launch of the NBA season, which begins October 25.

Credits:
Client: Adobe
Chief Marketing Officer: Ann Lewnes
VP, Experience Marketing Group: Alex Amado
Executive Creative Director: Steve Gustafson
Sr. Creative Director for Video: Dan Cowles
Director of Advertising and Production: Joel Giullian
Title of Creative Work: “Billion Dollar Player”
Live Date: 9/12/16
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Co-Chairmen: Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby
Chief Creative Officer: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Will Elliott
Creative Director: Patrick Knowlton
Creative Director: Roger Baran
Creative Director: Sam Luchini
Art Director: Jasper Yu
Art Director: Stefan Copiz
Copywriter: Alex Maleski
Director of Content Production: Tod Puckett
Senior Producer: Benton Roman
Production Coordinator: Rachel Newman
Managing Partner: Brian McPherson
Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Manager: Chelsea Bruzzone
Assistant Account Manager: Zack Piánko
Director of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist: Etienne Ma
Brand Strategist: Andrew Mak
Director of Communication Strategy: Christine Chen
Communication Strategy Deputy Director: Dong Kim
Senior Communication Strategist: Caitlin Neelon
Communication Strategist: Natalie Williamson
Junior Communication Strategist: Chloe Bosmeny
Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen
Director of Music: Todd Porter
Reset (Production)
Director: Adam Hashemi
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Bidding Producer: Jenn Ingalls
Head of Production: JP Columbo
Producer: Michelle Currinder
Rock Paper Scissors (Editor)
Producer: Charlyn Derrick
Editor: Olivier Bugge Coutte
Barking Owl (Music)
Sound Designer – Michael Anastasi
Mixer – Patrick Navarre
Music – Barking Owl
Creative Director – Kelly Bayett
The Mill (Post FX)
Senior Producer: Will Unterreiner
2D Lead: Tara Demarco

 

The Martin Agency Mixes Lemonade with Ice-T for Geico

Do you like puns related to actor/rapper Ice-T? Well, The Martin Agency and Geico have just the spot for you.

The Martin Agency’s latest spot the “It’s Not Surprising” campaign for Geico it launched with “Marco Polo” this summer sees Ice-T helping out some kids with their lemonade stand. This leads to some confusion when passers-by keep asking “Is that Ice-T?” to which the young entrepreneurs reply “No, it’s lemonade.” The spot concludes with the line, “Ice-T at a lemonade stand? Surprising,” and contrasting that with how unsurprising it is to save money by switching to Geico.

An annoyed Ice T eventually chiming in with indignation is definitely the highlight of the effort, and helps elevate what otherwise may have been a fairly stale joke above its “Marco Polo” predecessor. The campaign remains a one-trick pony but then that’s sort of The Martin Agency’s whole approach for the client, allowing the agency to riff on a single joke that viewers come to expect and anticipate. For now, “It’s Not Surprising” still seems to have some life in it, but it doesn’t seem like it will take very long for the premise to run thin.

In addition to the broadcast spot, there’s also a “The Art of the Squeeze with Ice T,” featuring about four times as much Ice T, as well as a “Behind the Scenes” video.

Credits:
Agency: The Martin Agency
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
Group Creative Director: Wade Alger
Creative Director: Sean Riley
Art Director: Jesse Mitchell
Senior Copywriter: Ken Marcus
Copywriter: Ryan Durr
Executive Producer: Brett Alexander
Broadcast Producer: Brian Camp
Associate Broadcast Producer: Coleman Sweeney
Junior Broadcast Producer: Sara Montgomery
Account Director: Ben Creasey
Account Supervisor: Allison Hensley
Account Executive: Jon Glomb
Account Coordinator: Allie Waller
Business Affairs Supervisor: Suzanne Wieringo
Financial Account Supervisor: Monica Cox
Senior Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz
Project Manager: Karen McEwen
Production Company: RadicalMedia
Director: Steve Miller
Executive Producer: Gregg Carlesimo
Head of Production: Frank Dituri
Editorial Company: Running With Scissors
Editor: Drew Neuhart
Executive Producer: Brian Creech
Producer: Katherine Brackman
Color: Drew Neuhart
Stock Music: Lulatone

DDB Syndney Launches ŠKODA Effort ‘For Those Who Buy the Car, Not the Ad’

DDB Sydney launched a new broadcast campaign for the ŠKODA Octavia, touting the vehicle as ‘For Those Who Buy the Car, Not the Ad.”

A series of ads center around the theme of car ad clichés. Chances are viewers of all kinds will be familiar with these tropes, from orchestral soundtrack to “that look” every male driver seems to give when cornering a turn, to standing and pointing at a scenic overlook with the car in the background to suspiciously well-behaved children in the back seat.

“Life is a journey,” begins the stereotypical voiceover in one 60-second spot, continuing “It doesn’t matter where you’re going.” Then the voiceover is interrupted by an actress in the passenger seat turning to the camera and saying, “You’re not seriously buying all this are you?”

She points out that she just met the actor playing her husband that morning and that the “real parents” of the “unnaturally well-behaved” children in the backseat must be proud. Near the end of the spot she gets to the point of the effort, saying, “But strip all of this away and what are you really paying for? A car. Wouldn’t you prefer yours to come with everything but the clichés?”

Other spots in the campaign mostly follow a similar formula. In one ad the director is shown giving some rather morbid advice to child actors while touting the vehicle’s safety. Another shows the same couple from the first spot at a scenic location while the actress contrasts the need for car ads to appear sexy with the utility of some of the car’s features.

While the sarcastic, meta approach to advertising is becoming widespread enough to risk becoming a cliché itself, it’s not yet all that ubiquitous in the automotive category. The types of clichés the spot mocks are also rampant enough that any viewers will be very familiar with them and able to spot them in other ads after seeing DDB Sydney’s effort. That should make “For Those Who Buy the Car, Not the Ad” memorable, especially for those lulled into the false sense of sameness at the beginning of the spots.

“It’s not anti-category,” DDB Group Australia managing partner Amanda Wheeler explained to LBB. “It’s anti-cliché.”

“I thought: ‘This is brilliant! Why has no-one thought of it before?’ Initially we wanted to do a more conventional ad which points outs the merits of the car, but another way of doing it was found and it’s one we couldn’t resist,” added ŠKODA Australia managing director Michael Irmer. “I think now that this will make you think of ŠKODA every time you see one of those car brands that uses the clichés.”

Credits:
Agency: DDB Sydney
Chief Creative Officer: Toby Talbot/Ben Welsh
Copywriter: Sam Pascoe
Art Director: Jason Woelfl
Managing Partner: Amanda Wheeler
Creative Partner: Steve Jackson, Ant Melder, Michael Barnfield

Production Company/Post Production: Finch
Producer: Sarah Cook
Director: Jae Morrison
Editorial and Online: Tim Mauger

Music Agency: Nylon Studios
Sound Design: Stuart Welch

Media Agency: Mediacom

Merkley & Partners, Mercedes-Benz Imagine Vintage Roger Federer

Merkley & Partners launched a new spot for Mercedes-Benz imagining tennis star Roger Federer in different eras, entitled “Roger Federer and the SL. Timeless Legends.”

The mockumentary-style spot opens on the host of the “Legends of the Game” segment introducing Federer, followed by black and white footage of 50s-style Federer, complete with pomade, white linen and a classic Mercedes. As the spot progresses into other eras it pays homage to other tennis greats, with Federer cursing and abusing water coolers a la John McEnroe and later aping the likes of Andre Agassi and Björn Borg

For each version of the star, the agency and B-Reel Films director Jeffery Plansker manage to work in the era’s version of the Mercedes-Benz SL. At times this feels a bit forced, the intent of the mockumentary device to show how the vehicle has held its quality over time a bit too apparent. The mokcumentary format itself feels a bit flat at its worst moments, as well. But the spot also includes some pretty entertaining/off-the-wall moments, with Federer posing suggestively with racket (sans shirt) and as Agassi answering an oversized phone coming to mind. 

Credits:
AGENCY: Merkley & Partners
CEO/Partner: Alex Gellert
Chief Creative Officer/Partner: Andy Hirsch
EVP, Group Creative Head: Chris Landi
Creative Director: Kirk Mosel
Senior Producer: Alex Kobak
Account Director: Francesco Deluca

PRODUCTION COMPANY: B-Reel Films
Director: Jeffery Plansker
Executive Producer: Michael McQuhae
Producer: Jay Shapiro
Director of Photography: Neil Shapiro
Editor: Noah Hertzog

72andSunny and Adidas Explain Creativity … in Sports

When we think of the word “creativity,” professional athletes are not the first people who come to mind unless, perhaps, they double as pop stars, fashion designers or memoirists.

Success in sports is all about a winning combination of inborn talent, practice and self-discipline, right? Probably. But maybe there’s also something of an art to it. 72andSunny’s newest spot for Adidas argues that any authentic athlete also needs a bit of that wild style.

This kind of makes sense given that every athlete is now also a “brand,” Even Marshawn “I Don’t Give a Shit” Lynch.

So this is a dig at Under Armour, which is somehow perceived to be all about training and becoming the world’s greatest at some given task like Michael Phelps or Tom Brady.

The spot features a bunch of athletes we don’t necessarily recognize who are famous for being famous in addition to being good at the thing they get paid to do. The last lines ask, “If you call yourself an athlete, create something. Why are you even here?” That would be beyond, you know, playing an organized game to the best of your ability with the ultimate goal of defeating your opponents and justifying your ridiculously inflated salary.

Lots of athletes want to be noticed, though. It’s a little hard to stand out when everybody does a fancy dance in the end zone. As the not-hero of that classic consumerist propaganda film The Incredibles put it: “When everyone’s super … no one is.”

Cue maniacal laughter.

Antonio Brown Mans the Reception Desk in W+K’s New ‘This Is SportsCenter’ Spot

With football season officially here, W+K New York launched the latest in its ongoing “This is SportsCenter” campaign promoting ESPN’s flagship program.

“Phone Calls” sees Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown dealing in receptions of a different kind. He answers calls at ESPN’s reception desk and lets SportsCenter host Neil Everett know his total number of “receptions” that day, adding that he almost broke the record the day before. Everett tries to convince Brown that they are “phone calls” and not “receptions” but soon gives up.

We last checked in with W+K’s “This is SportsCenter” campaign with March’s “Utensils” starring PGA golfer Jordan Spieth. While this latest spot isn’t quite as fun as that one, it brings the same dependable deadpan humor we’ve come to expect from the long-running campaign. “This is SportsCenter” has long been the kind of effort that runs on a formula where viewers know what to expect, but the openness of the concept also allows for enough variety to keep things interesting.

Credits:
Agency: W+K New York
Executive Creative Directors: Karl Lieberman
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Erwin Federizo
Copywriters: Alex Ledford
Art Directors: NJ Placentra
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Head of Integrated Production: Nick Setounski
Account Team: Mike Welch, Matt Angrisani, Liz Lindberg
Project Manager: Kristin Daly
Business Affairs Manager: Tana Prosper
Head of Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski
Traffic: Sonia Bisono, Andy Hume

Production Company: O Positive
Director: David Shane
Director of Photography: Dave Morabito
Executive Producer: Marc Grill
Producer: Ken Licata

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Nick Divers
Assistant Editor: Zoe Newman
Post Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

VFX Company: Schmigital
Flame Artist: Jimmy Hayhow
Flame Assistant: Joseph Miller

Mix Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer: Sam Shaffer

Color: Company Company 3
Colorist: Tim Massick

E/LA and Obsidian Entertainment Have Been Watching Too Much ‘Stranger Things’

Back in the day, circa 1987, our friend’s older sister walked in on us playing Dungeons & Dragons and then ran to tell her mom, saying — and we quote word for word here — “Ma! They’re playing the devil’s game!!” (She goes to church a lot. You get it.)

Fun times for all from a time when you had to draw pictures of your characters and their gear instead of just checking out the awesome graphics on Fallout 3 or whatever the hot RPG is right now. We are now recalling our massive bag of colored pencils and feeling nostalgic…

Irvine’s E/LA agency and client Obsidian call on that same Way Back Machine for a new campaign promoting the latter’s Pathfinder Adventures mobile game in a new spot that also recall some scenes in the Netflix show Stranger Things, which was really quite well done if you haven’t seen it.

Agency and client go all-in as the press release begins: “The 80s called. They want their campaign back.” It continues, “this campaign invites viewers on a journey back to a simpler time and place—your parent’s living room.” And there are some very nice details here for 80s kids.

ECD Carlos Musquez writes, “It’s fun to look back to look forward. We felt there was something so intriguing about launching an iPhone/Android version of a game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, which debuted at a time when the 80s brick phone was the hottest tech in town.”

The video spot will run in :30 and :15 versions (which were shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, of course), as YouTube pre-rolls and Facebook/Instagram posts.

E/LA partner and VP Pakko De La Torre-Rocha (a veteran of Deutsch, TBWA, Saatchi and pretty much every other creative shop in L.A.) ended his pitch“We are going to play Atari 2600 at my house and you’re invited hermano.”

Dude, if only you lived in Brooklyn.

pathfinder

David&Goliath, Kia and Bo Jackson Don’t Know Diddly About Tecmo Bowl

David&Goliath (which has not yet transitioned to its new homepage URL) took advantage of Bo Jackson’s totally weird yet somehow reasonable comeback in a new Kia campaign that launched today.

The work offers two slight variations on a single idea: putting old-school football players into a super old-school video game — in this case, the 1989 NES classic Tecmo Bowl. (Yeah, we know the arcade version came out in 1987. We are kind of old.)

The second one is pretty much all graphics, but the nostalgia factor plus the start of the football season is, like, guaranteed impressions.

This was kind of fun, no? Now tell us why we’re wrong in the comments.

Honestly, though, we only posted on this campaign so we could revisit a W+K classic that came out at about the same time as Tecmo Bowl.

Holy shit, Michael Jordan looks young.

CREDITS

Client: Kia

Agency:  David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
President: Brian Dunbar
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Creative Director: Rick Utzinger
Sr. Art Director: Sheldon Melvin
Sr. Copywriter: Matt Kappler
Sr. Copywriter: Andy Sciamanna
Planning Director: Andrew Lynch
Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese
Sr. Broadcast Producer:  Katie Lambrecht
Senior Project Manager: Kemit Ray

Managing Director: Jeff Moohr
Group Account Director:  Mike O’Malley
Account Supervisor: Tara Poosti
Account Executive: Jack Scott
Product Information Manager: Mark McNaul

Director, Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro
Business Affairs Manager: Camara Price

Production Company: MJZ
Director / DP: Joaquin Baca-Asay
President: David Zander
Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins
Line Producer: Lalou Dammond
Sales Representative: In-House Reps (Steven Monkarsh / Irma Rodriguez)

Editorial House: Spinach
Editor: Nate Gross
Asst Editor: Zaldy Lopez
Producer: Jonathan Carpio / Patricia Gushikuma

VFX / Animation / Online: Method
Creative Director:  Jon Noorlander
Lead Flame Artist / On Set Supervisor: Tom Leckie
Lead Flame Artist: Chihcheng Peng
CG Supervisor: Ivan Guerrero, Rick Walia
Compositing Supervisor: David Piombino
Executive Producers: Stuart Robinson & Stephanie Gilgar
Senior VFX Producer: Heather Saunders

Color: Company 3
Colorist:  Tim Masick

Music: Beacon Street
Composers: John Nau, Andrew Feltenstein, Danny Dunlap
Sound Design & Mix: Beacon Street
Mixer / Sound Designer: Rommel Molina
Executive Producer: Adrea Lavezzoli
Mix Producer: Kate Vadnais
Associate Producer: Lindsey Lerman

The Journey Begins in ‘Creative Director’ Matthew McConaughey’s First Spot for JWT New York, Wild Turkey

At the beginning of August, Wild Turkey named Matthew McConaughey as the brand’s “creative director,” undoubtedly earning a series of eyerolls from actual advertising professionals, while awarding its creative business to JWT. Now JWT New York has launched its first work for the new client, in collaboration with the celebrity “creative director” and production company RSA Films.

The resulting spot, “The Journey Begins,” is pretty indistinguishable from your average ad for a liquor brand, minus the actor’s presence. McConaughey provides voiceover as well as appearing in the ad, opening with the line “We’re not in a rush to be most popular, not in a rush not to be” over the requisite pour shot. The Wild Turkey on the rocks is then brought through a scene of a room dancing to a brass band to McConaughey himself, who’s playing a piano.

It’s nothing revolutionary by any means, but at the same time it’s not terrible. There are some interesting choices in the way it’s shot, such as the camera mostly following the perspective of the person bringing McConaughey his drink. Without McConaughey’s involvement the ad would probably bot being generating as much attention, but then that’s why Wild Turkey hired the “creative director” in the first place.

Should you doubt McConaughey’s involvement in the creative process, take a gander at the below photo of the actor directing a shot.
mcconaughey-wild-turkey

From the man himself: “I want to be reincarnated as a jaguar. Jaguars are keen and they’re perfectly poised. I’d sure love to be that well designed.”

Yeah, he said that, bro.

Publicis New York, Heineken Want You to Help Restore Miami Marine Stadium

Publicis New York launched a new effort for Heineken to help restore Miami Marine Stadium.

The stadium opened in 1963 just south of downtown Miami and was known for having some of the best views of the city, as well as hosting water sport events and concerts. Hurricane Andrew knocked the building out of commission in 1992 when it was deemed an unsafe building, but it has remained a draw for local graffiti artists. Now Heineken and Publicis want to help bring Miami Marine Stadium back, in the wake of Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado pledging up to $4 million in a revitalization effort. An Indiegogo effort by the brand and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has thus far raised $100,000, so the groundwork has been laid to make a fully-functioning Miami Marine Stadium a reality.

In a “Restoring Miami Marine Stadium” video, Publicis New York uses stop motion to take a look at the venue’s unique artwork and the efforts made by local graffiti artists to preserve and enhance the work already there, as well as contributing some of their own. It’s a pretty mesmerizing way to call attention to the venue and what makes it unique, hopefully drawing in some viewers to the cause.

“Being able to tell the story visually is key to the success of generating awareness and raising money for the initiative,” Publicis New York CCO Andy Bird told AdFreak.

Production on the spot was no easy task. It included five cameras running for five days, Publicis New York creative director Jeremy Filgate told the publication, adding, “We went through pallets of spray paint, made hundreds of boat wheat-paste stickers and even crashed a drone into the middle of the marina, just to make that epic aerial view possible.”

Rob Riggle Is KFC’s Newest Colonel in Football Fueled Spots from W+K Portland

When W+K Portland introduced George Hamilton as KFC’s new “Extra Crispy Colonel” back in June it was obvious that he wouldn’t be around for long. Now that the summer is winding down and football season has arrived, the brand has tapped yet another actor to portray the character, this time turning to comedian (and retired United States Marine Corps Reserve Lt. Colonel) Rob Riggle.

In W+K’s latest for the client, The Daily Show vet plays the part of the Colonel as he introduces Kentucky’s first professional football team, the Kentucky Buckets.

In the 30-second “Real Team,” Riggle introduces himself as “owner, head coach and marketing director” of the team, which he assures viewers is a “real team and not just a marketing gimmick to get buckets of delicious chicken in front of football fans” while strolling through the locker room. The team’s “starting quarterback” confirms the “real team” status, albeit quite unconvincingly.

Other spots see the new Colonel giving a “Speech” to hype the team up for a photo shoot, reviving a player with an “Injury” via the magic of fried chicken and introducing the team’s (kind of creepy) “Mascot.”

At this point both the self-referential style of the ads and the revolving door of actors playing Colonel Sanders shtick feel tired, though the fake football team idea at least injects something different into the campaign.

The question now is whether the brand will stick with Riggle throughout the football season, as it’s a matter of when, not if, there’s a new Colonel. Our guesses for the next person to tackle the role: Rob Schneider, the recently retired Jonathan Goldsmith, Jay Pharoah (he did just leave SNL), Melissa McCarthy and big advertising fan Donald Trump.

Any other ideas?

NCAA Football Rivals Meet at ‘Crossroads’ in W+K New York’s Latest for ESPN

Last August, W+K New York launched the second year of its “Who’s In?” campaign for ESPN College Football with the vaguely sinister 60-second spot “The Message.”

This year the agency took the campaign into its third year with an effort that tunes down the menace a little bit while still communicating the intensity of college football rivalries with a new spot which made its broadcast debut during the network’s Labor Day Weekend coverage of NCAA football. “Crossraods” sees a variety of teams, represented by mascots all happening to pass through the same roadside gas station en route to each team’s particular path to the College Football Playoffs. “Let me tell you something,” says the gas station attendant to a Tiger mascot, “there isn’t one road to the playoffs, there are many, one for each team. There are leprechauns and gremlins, underdogs and regular dogs.” Only four of these teams, however, will “get in.”

The gas station “crossroads” will serve as the hub of campaign throughout the NCAA Football season, which will run through the end of the College Football Playoffs in January. It will include several more spots, as well as supporting digital, print and social elements. 

“If we’ve learned anything these last two years, there isn’t only one road to the Playoff,” ESPN senior director of marketing  Emeka Ofodile said in a statement. “Ask Ohio State year one.  Ask Alabama year two.  There are many roads to the Playoff and each season, it’s all about finding the right one.”

R/GA and Its Newest Client, the NFL, Love Thursday

Unbeknownst to us, the NFL has expanded its creative agency roster with the addition of one Robert Greenberg and Associates.

R/GA, which won the business back in May after a review, sort-of debuted its first campaign today in our little sister publication. The ad, titled “Anything Can Happen,” celebrates Thursdays. Specifically, it’s about Thursday Night Football, and the campaign will officially launch next Thursday as part of the program, which will air on different networks throughout the season. It is very confusing.

BTW, are you ready for some football??

This isn’t the only project R/GA has created for the NFL. Here, for example, is a spot from the “More Football” campaign promoting NFL Game Pass Domestic with some help from the Pointer Sisters and a bunch of awkward men. We can’t embed it, because why would the NFL want people to be able to share their ads?

How does this move affect Grey’s long-term status as the NFL’s agency of record? We don’t really know, but given that there was (apparently) a review, it would seem that R/GA took work that had been with some other party. Other agencies including Heat have worked on the NFL account in recent years.

At least streaming NFL games will save Twitter, though. No but seriously, how does that make any sense? Twitter is all about constantly scrolling through the “content” and never achieving any real form of satisfaction, so why would anyone use it to watch something on a static video? If we wanted to stream things on Twitter, we would call it YouTube and be done with the whole damn thing. Maybe NFL teams’ hashtag-triggered emojis will turn Twitter into a profit machine.

No credits of course, because look at this client.

Cam Newton Is a ‘Prince With 1,000 Enemies’ in Droga5’s Latest for Under Armour

Droga5 launched a new spot for Under Armour starring Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton entitled “Prince WIth 1,000 Enemies” which makes a couple of unusual decisions for the sporting goods brand.

The voiceover, provided by Cam’s mother, Jackie Newton, quotes Richard Adams‘ 1972 debut novel Watership Down. That voiceover is set to a dark scene of Newton running through the woods as if something is chasing him, literally tearing through trees as he plows forward at full speed. He finally stops to catch his breath as he makes it out of the woods to a nearby road. 

It’s an odd approach for the brand, undoubtedly, but a captivating one. Adams’ words somehow fit the new context, and Jackie Newton does a fine job of delivering them. While something of an anomaly for the category, the spot is not entirely without precedent, as the agency’s March spot starring Michael Phelps and July effort with Bryce Harper also included some intriguing stylistic choices, but nothing so out of ordinary as borrowing from Watership Down.

“Our two creative leads at Droga—Alex [Nowak] and Felix [Richter], who are awesome—they came up with this idea,” Under Armour senior vice president,  global brand development Adrienne Lofton explained to Adweek. “…it was all about these rabbits breaking out from their tribe in order to bring their crew to safety. They experienced all of these temptations and perils along the way, but kept their heads down until they got to a place of safety.”

We wanted to tell this story around footwork, and footwear, as you see in the spot, but we wanted to tell it differently,” she added. “We took him off the field, we took the ball out of his hands, and we created this metaphorical environment that is about crushing through your challenges. Those trees represent barriers he’s broken through every step of the way through his career.”

Cam Newton’s involvement with the spot was such that “we almost called him a creative director with this spot,” Lofton said. “He chose his wardrobe, he added flair.”

Indeed. Turns out Newton isn’t just a guy who performs badly in the clutch, loses the Super Bowl and then acts like a kid who got his candy stolen!

Credits:
Client: Under Armour
Campaign: “It Comes From Below”
Spot: “Prince With 1000 Enemies”
Agency: Droga5
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Directors: Felix Richter, Alex Nowak
Senior Copywriter: Thom Glover
Senior Art Director: Eoin McLaughlin
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Executive Producers: David Cardinali, Ross Plummer
Senior Broadcast Producer: Bill Berg
Associate Producer: Troy Smith
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Head of Strategy: Harry Roman
Strategy Director: Sam Matthews
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
Communications Strategy Director: Hillary Heath
Communications Strategist: Kathryn Ruocco
Data Strategist: Kaveri Gautam
Executive Group Director: Julian Cheevers
Group Account Director: Shane Chastang
Account Supervisor: Lucy Santilli
Project Manager: Connor Hall
Client: Under Armour
Chief Executive Officer, Founder: Kevin Plank
Chief Marketing Officer: Kip Fulks
Senior Vice President, Global Brand Management: Adrienne Lofton
Senior Vice President, Global Communications: Diane Pelkey
Vice President, Global Creative: Brian Boring
Vice President, Global Consumer Engagement: Jim Mollica
Senior Director, Global Brand Management: Leon Duncan
Senior Director, Integrated Brand Communications: Jack Daley
Director, Campaign Integration: Teresa Oles
Manager, Campaign Integration: Bené Eaton
Production Company: Somesuch / Anonymous Content
Director: Aoife McArdle
Partners, Somesuch: Sally Campbell, Tim Nash
Managing Director, Anonymous: Eric Stern
Executive Producer, Anonymous: SueEllen Clair
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
Director of Photography: Steve Annis
Production Manager: Yianni Papadopoulos
Editing: Final Cut
Editor: Dan Sherwen:
Assistant Editors: Geoff Hastings, Dan Berk
Executive Producer: Sarah Roebuck
Head of Production: Jen Sienkwicz
Producer: Jamie Nagler
Postproduction: BlackSmith
Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold
Producer: Megan Sweet
Visual Effects Supervisor: Iwan Zwarts
Color Transfer: Company 3
Artist: Tom Poole
Coloring Assitant: Kath Raisch
Producer: Clare Movshon
Sound Design: Factory U.K.
Final Mix: Sound Lounge
Engineers: Tom Jucarone, Justin Kooy, Seth Phillips
Producer: Liana Rosenberg
Executive Producer: Mike Gullo

Leo Burnett, Citizen Relations Want You Try Out to Be the Next Mr. Clean

After sixty years, P&G is ready to find a new face for its Mr. Clean brand. Leo Burnett and Citizen Relations launched a new spot for Mr. Clean starring actor Kellan Lutz of the Twilight series and The Legend of Hercules. Don’t worry, we had to Google him too.

The spot, which arrives on the heels of Leo Burnett reviving the Mr. Clean jingle for the brand, features Lutz in a mock audition for the Mr. Clean role. A casting director comments that it’s a big departure from “the whole teen hearthrob thing” and he explains that he’s been looking for something different. His qualifications for the role? He washes his car after every use, polishes his Teen Choice Awards every single day and has “never had a dirty thought” in his entire life. After initially struggling to adapt to the new character, he impresses the casting director…until she finds out something “too dirty for Mr. Clean.”

After the spot’s attempts at meta humor fall flat, it ends with Lutz inviting viewers to try out for the role themselves, directing them to TheNextMrClean.com. In addition to the full-length version online, which stretches the premise well past its breaking point, there’s also a 60-second broadcast version.

“This is the second in our series of efforts to go back to our roots,” Kevin Wenzel, associate brand director for Procter and Gamble North America, explained to Adweek. “The first was the new modern version of our jingle television spot, which we launched July 1. It was a well-known jingle that was used to launch the brand. We used it for decades, and it was brought into a more modern context.” 

“We will still have our iconic Mr. Clean, but this will be a chance to let a consumer have a little bit of fun and let us have a little bit of fun as well,” Wenzel clarified. “That next Mr. Clean will be helping us generate content, including appearing in a calendar which we’ll be showing online.”

The brand will be poring over audition tapes submitted online from today through October 7, as well as hosting a pair of casting sessions in New York and Los Angles, before announcing the contest’s $20,000 winner in mid-October. We know someone who would be perfect for the role.

Dos Equis’ New ‘Most Interesting Man’ Is 20 Percent More James Bond-ish

Remember when everybody was all over trying to make Stringer Bell into the new James Bond? We were cool with that, because holy crap that franchise got boring so quickly.

The same thing is happening to Dos Equis, which has gone younger and sexier and more multicultural with its new Most Interesting Man in the World. The brand new effort that went live today is less a campaign launch than a teaser for upcoming work starring one Augustin Legrand, a French actor who introduces the world to his new character by speaking Spanish.

An ad agency hiring overseas talent to replace an American with far more experience? Well, we never.

The first spot “Cantina” shows us a tiny glimpse of why Mr. Legrand, or Mr. Man, is “edgier and more daring” than … someone who we assume to be his predecessor, Jonathan Goldsmith. It’s very much like an action movie trailer, and we feel sexier already for having watched it twice.

See, that was good. It got us interested in future ads and, more importantly, it included a pig wearing a fez for no reason at all. And of course the spot also left room at the end for Mr. Man’s female partner, because how can any dude be classified as a “resourceful, rough and tumble guy” without having a vaguely exotic woman nearby? It worked for James Bond and Donald Trump.

The client’s VP of marketing Andrew Katz explains in the press release: “The meaning of ‘interesting’ has evolved over the past decade, and this campaign features a new character and look and feel that opens the door to a world of interesting possibilities for today’s Dos Equis drinker. With the reboot of the campaign, we’re celebrating the good times The Most Interesting Man has with friends wherever he travels, while highlighting our refreshing cerveza. In the coming weeks, fans will have the opportunity to get to know the new character in a uniquely interactive way.”

Havas CCO of the Americas Toygar Bazarkaya also weighed in on how the creative work will change: “It’s the beginning of a new era of interesting. With The Most Interesting Man not just telling us about his adventures, but inviting us to be part of them.”

What does this mean? Snapchat activations! It doesn’t seem like the ads themselves will be TOO different from past efforts, though. The full campaign debuts on October 19 during Dos Equis’ College Football Playoff event, and the release promises more “classic vignette-style commercial[s]” to come along with all that social media noise.

We get the “why mess with what works” approach. If you Google “Dos Equis” you’ll find mostly items related to The Most Interesting Man, and it’s pretty rare to have a brand so thoroughly defined by its mascot. Not that this has anything to do with the quality of its product.

Anyway, we know you were wondering what old Mr. Goldsmith might be up to now that he is slightly less Interesting (read: older). He’s in the media! According to a release we got last week, he has joined the editorial board of True.Ink, which is not a tattoo rag but an “online magazine whose mission is to ‘live the story’ and engage readers through live, off-line experiences.”

Looks like the first day of the rest of his life is quite different than an average 24 hour span for Senor Legrand. But what is he drinking now that he doesn’t have to hawk mediocre lager?

CREDITS

Client: Dos Equis
Agency: Havas New York

Chief Creative Officer of the Americas: Toygar Bazarkaya
Chief Creative Officer of North America: Jason Peterson
Group ECD, Managing Director: Jason Musante
Executive Creative Director: Jim Hord
Group Creative Director: Keith Scott
Group Creative Director: Paul Johnson
Creative Director: Jonas Wittenmark
Creative Director: Tobias Carlson
Creative Director: Paul Fix
Associate Creative Director: Matthew Hock
Associate Creative Director: David Fredette

Global Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Benett
Global Chief Revenue Officer & Global Chief Marketing Officer: Matt Weiss
President of New York: Laura Maness
Group Account Director: Chris Budden
Account Director: Jamie Sundheim
Account Director: Michelle Garrard
Account Supervisor: Wendy Hu
Account Supervisor: Jenny Maughan

Chief Strategy Officer, North America: Tim Maleeny
Brand & Digital Strategy Director: Maggie Gross
Senior Strategist: Stacey Kawahata
Senior Strategist: Cassie Taylor

Director of Social Marketing: Larry Lac
Social Strategist: Rachel Korenstein
Social Coordinator: Katie Campo

Global Chief Content Officer: Vin Farrell
Head of Content, North America: Dave Evans
Head of Content, North America: Sylvain Tron
Executive Producer: Jill Meschino
Junior Producer: Lauren O’Driscoll
Junior Producer: Alex Zubak
Director of Broadcast Business Affairs: Cathy Pitegoff
Senior Broadcast Business Manager: Deborah Steeg
Senior Talent Specialist: Yvette Aponte

Production Company: Traktor
Director: Traktor
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Executive Producer: Rani Melendez

Production Company: Rattling Stick
Executive Producer: Joe Biggins
Head of Production: Richard McIntosh
Controller: Christine Berentsen
Staff Coordinator: Hayley Wyett
Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Rick Russell
Executive Producer: Stephanie Apt
VFX: The Mill
Chief Creative Officer NY: Angus Kneale
Executive Producer: Verity Graham
VFX Shoot Supervisor: Tara Demarco
Senior Flame Artist: Michael Smith
Sound Design: Yessian
Sound Designer: Weston Fonger
Executive Producer: Marlene Bartos
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Tom Poole
Producer: Clare Movshon
Audio: Sound Lounge
Sound Engineer: Tom Jucarone
Music: Beacon Street Music
Composers: Beacon Street Studios
Executive Producer: Adrea Lavezzoli

It’s ‘Your Can’s Year’ as W+K Kicks Off Football Season for Bud Light

Is it time for football again already?? Yes, it is.

That means it’s time for a new W+K campaign promoting Bud Light’s NFL team branded cans.

The launch spot “This Is Your Can’s Year” opens with voiceover courtesy of actor Michael K. Williams (aka Omar Little), who asks,”Will this can repeat? Will this can make it back?” over shots of a hand reaching into a cooler full of ice to pull out a Bud Light can with the Broncos logo on it and a Carolina Panthers can awaiting a drinker at a tailgating party.

“Or is this your can’s year?” the voiceover adds, as someone opens a fridge full of New England Patriots cans. The spot plays up both the brand’s legacy and the legacy of individual teams with the line “You root for this can, your father roots for this can, your father’s father rooted for this can.”

“This Is Your Can’s Year” also manages to work in cameos from former NFL stars Bo Jackson, Justin Tuck and Tim Couch. The approach is almost a given for the brand and NFL sponsor, as cans branded with fans favorite teams is an obvious selling point for a beer long associated with football. The spot, directed by Mark Romanek, manages to work in references to a wide variety of teams in ways that speak to either the teams’ recent history or location (a man struggling to open a frozen Buffalo Bills can, for example) and the brisk pacing keeps things from getting boring. It makes its broadcast debut this Thursday during Thursday Night Football. The campaign also includes local OOH executions targeting fans of individual teams. 

“Just like wearing your favorite player’s jersey or team colors is a badge of honor, so is drinking from your Bud Light team can,”  Mark Goldman, senior marketing director, Bud Light, said in a statement. “Our mission with our new film was to pay tribute to the passion fans feel for their team, and capture the optimism that we all feel as NFL fans at the beginning of the season, when it truly can be your team’s year.”

“The game wouldn’t be the same for us players without the fans who put their heart and soul into game day,” added Tuck. “The Bud Light ad honors each and every one of these fans and their passion for the sport.”

That’s cool. We are just glad to report that Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen were nowhere near this spot.

DDB San Francisco, Slim Jim Snap Into Your Grandma and Your Real Estate Agent

Randy “The Macho Man” Savage left this sad mortal coil more than 5 years ago, but in June 2014 DDB reintroduced the world to his second greatest line: “Snap into a Slim Jim.”

The latest campaign advertising dried sausage comes to us from the agency’s San Francisco office and focuses on a particular ad concept: the clueless, hopeless bro.

In the first spot (which we did include in a stir post a few days ago), one sassy grandma ain’t takin’ no flack from some dude and his lame Michael Scott jokes.

The second spot “Cops” reminds us that public servants don’t have to be gracious to their colleagues or the people they serve.

Enjoy guessing what sort of gross disorder prompted that exchange.

In “Real Estate,” one incompetent bro helps another try to trick his wife.

Ugh … marriage, AMIRIGHT?!

See, this sort of bro can be trusted to screw up even the easiest task, like writing words in the sky with an airplane.

Here’s the strategy behind the campaign, as explained by the press release:

The four :30-second spots feature guys that are bogged down with the monotony and pressure of real, adult life, a feeling that the Slim Jim target can relate to. But once the men bite into a Slim Jim, they snap back to a simpler time in their life, and are reminded that Slim Jim is a great snack for guys that want to break out of a situation and just be a dude.

These spots advance a theme started by the September 2015 spot below, which “connected the work with the Slim Jim brand because it was so funny.”

For the record, not all dudes are comically incompetent at everything they try to do. But some of the ones who are eventually get famous for it!

CREDITS

CAG Credits:
Jill Rahman- VP and General Manager
Jill Dexter- Brand Director
Adam Beane- Sr. Brand Manager
Kate Briganti- Director of Advertising

DDB San Francisco Creds:
Kevin Thomson- CD
Tor Kologlu- ACD
Justin Stielow- ACD
Lena Barrows- AD
Katie Johnston- CW
Mark Tobin- EP
Kristin Barbour – Group Account Director
Nancy Bernacchi – Account Director
Lindsay Hrack – Account Supervisor
Mark Rovai – Planning Director

Dummy Films
Harold Einstein- Director
Eric Linney- EP

Arcade Edit (Offline Edit)
Dave Anderson- Editor
Gavin Carroll- Producer

The Mill (VFX, Color and Online/Finish)
Alex Bader- Producer

One Union Recording (Sound Design and Mix)
Joaby Deal- Designer/Engineer
Matt Zipkin- Engineer

Droga5 New York Found the Only Places in L.A. with No Cellphone Reception

Last summer, Droga5 New York and Dixie asked viewers to go “#DarkForDinner” and put away devices to more fully engage friends and family over dinner. This year, the agency and brand teamed up to create “Deadzone Diners,” remotely located popup restaurants in areas with no cellphone reception.

The three locations in Los Angeles with bad service include a cave, a hillside and a federal reserve vault, with the agency setting up its popup diners at those places. Over three days in August, more than 1,000 people visited the locations for a meal and were forced to actually talk to each other, since there wasn’t enough cell service to play Pokemon Go (and there probably wouldn’t have been too many Pokestops in those places anyway, come on).

Droga5 collaborated with celebrity chef/The Chew co-host Carla Hall, who created recipse for the “Deadzone Diner” locations as well as the campaign website
While the “Deadzone Diners” stunt was limited to Los Angeles, Droga5 creative director Devon Hong hopes the resulting video (above) and website can result in audiences rethinking how they view such areas. “Rather than being something negative we want people to start looking at these spaces as a little sanctuary for you to spend quality time with other people,” he told Adweek.

It’s something to think about the next time you’re cursing out a lack of reception.
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Credits:
Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Executive Creative Director: Neil Heyman
Creative Directors: Devon Hong, Tara Lawall, Jeff Scardino
Copywriter: Mietta McFarlane
Art Director: Luke Chard
Jr. Copywriter: Ted Meyer
Jr. Art Director: Tommaso Fontanella
Executive Design Director: Rob Trostle
Design Director: Rich Greco
Senior Designer: Nate Moore
UX Designer: Brett Stiller
Design Intern: Ian Plath
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Interactive Production: Niklas Lindstrom
Executive Interactive Producer: Tasha Cronin
Senior Social Producer: Chris Parke
Social Producer: Gabrielle Nicoletti
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Elaine Purcell
Strategist: Newman Granger
Senior Communications Strategist: Delphine McKinley
Senior Data Strategist: Brad Mumbrue
Data Strategist: Remy Lupica
Executive Group Director: Brett Edgar
Account Director: Ross Gillis
Account Manager: Ashton Atlas
Associate Account Manager: Kyra Gembka
Project Managers: Nicole Spaeth, Michelle Yee
Client: Georgia-Pacific / Dixie
Senior Director, Brand Center: Shari Neumann
Senior Brand Director: Andrew Noble
Senior Brand Manager: Gary Berger
Brand Building Leader: Teresa Bossong
Senior Associate Brand Manager: Nelie Zanca
Associate Brand Manager: Diana Black
Social Media Specialist: Brooke Lujano
Production Company: Snippies
Director: Roman Luck
DOP: Roman Luck
Executive Producer: Tom Dicerbo
Producer: Shelley Maclachlan
Editorial: Snippies
Editor: Tim Hickson
Assistant Editor: Jake Birnbaum
Executive Producer: Tom Dicerbo
Producer: Shelley Maclachlan
Post Production: Snippies
Executive Producer: Tom Dicerbo
Producer: Shelley Maclachlan

Music: APM
(Song/composer/etc. to suit): Pretty Baby
Sound: Snippies
Mixer: Tim Hickson
Experiential Production Company: na collective
Executive Producer: Jim Striebich
Producer: Nicolette Coan
Photographer: Name – Rich Fury

GSD&M, Southwest Airlines Still ‘Wanna Get Away’

GSD&M revives the “Wanna Get Away” concept/tagline it developed for Southwest Airlines in 1998 and ran with for about a decade in its new campaign for the airline. 

The 30-second “Secret Identity” reintroduces the concept via an undercover organized crime informant giving a live interview. He makes sure his face isn’t seen by the camera by remaining in the dark, but things go predictably and embarrassingly awry.

The formula still works thanks to its flexibility and relatability. Some of the same creatives who contributed to the original campaign helped with the revival, which seems ripe for plenty of new executions. “Wanna Get Away” never compltely went way, though. As Adweek points out, the brand has used the line to promote its lowest fares even in recent years and “#WannaGetAway” has been used in conjunction with the brand on social media. It’s almost a wonder it took them this long to officially bring it back as a tagline driving its advertising, given its inherent possibilities. The new spot is certainly more memorable than last April’s “Garage Band.”

“It’s an idea with a ton of brand equity,” Lara Bridger, GSD&M group creative director told Adweek. “Most people will think it never left. The idea is based in a human truth—wanna-get-away moments—so there’s really no wrong time for this campaign. What’s really great about bringing back ‘Wanna Get Away’ now is that we can truly embrace the social element.”

The brand does just that with its #WannaGetAwayIsland contest in collaboration with Home Away, which invites people to share their own “#WannaGetAway” moments on social media for a chance to win a free trip to an island off the coast of Belize, among other prizes. Additionally, the campaign includes a CBS Sports component with fans sharing their embarassing “Wanna Get Away Football Moments.”

Credits:

Client: Southwest Airlines
Spot Title: “Secret Identity”

Agency: GSD&M
Chief Creative Officer: Jay Russell
Group Creative Directors: Scott Brewer, Ryan Carroll, Lara Bridger, Rafa Serrano
Art Directors: James Hoke, Gus Solis
Writers: Rusty Broome, Laura Canzano
Director of Production: Jack Epsteen
Executive Producer: Marianne Newton
Senior Producer: Alison Wagner
Account Service: Shawn Mackoff, Amy Lyon, Amy Rodgers, Meredith Nagel, Ana Leen
Marketplace Planning:  Jennifer Billiot
Business Affairs Manager: Desiree Townsend
Project Manager: Elizabeth Stelling

Production Company: O Positive
Director: Brian Billow
EP: Ralph Laucella
Producer: Devon Clark
DP: Mauro Fiore
Editor: Jay Nelson/Cut+Run
Assistant Editor: Nick Kondylas
EP: Bebe Baldwin
Stylist: Laura Eckert

Music: Hum