Hasta La Creative!

Dove launched a “#MyBeautyMySay” campaign that serves as an evolution of its previous “Real Beauty” effort. The Unilver brand worked with Ogilvy & Mather, Havas, Edelman and PHD on the campaign which launches with the 90-second “Beauty on Your Own Terms.”

Based around the insight from a new Dove global study finding that “7 in 10 women believe they get more compliments about how they look than on their professional achievements,” the effort also addresses criticism of the brand’s “Choose Beautiful” effort last year, alleging the spot implicitly upheld the importance of physical beauty while supposedly addressing beauty stereotypes. This time around, there’s no room for such ambiguity. 

“They said I was too pretty to fight,” says professional boxer Heather Hardy. A group of other women add their own moments of others trying to define them by their physical appearance. There’s a fashion blogger who was told she’s “too fat,” a partner at a law firm who was discriminated against because of her appearance, a model who was told she’s “too masculine,” and an older psychologist who was told to “dress her age.” After telling their stories, each woman stands up for their own definition of beauty, and the spot concludes with the “#MyBeautyMySay” hashtag.

“Dove knows that women are constantly scrutinized about how they look,” Dove director of marketing Jennifer Bremner told Adewek. “They are under pressure to ‘look the part’ and this stops them from achieving their full potential. Many women recognize self-respect remains a battle to be won.”

“Now, more than ever before, women are breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes—and it is time for society to start acknowledging this,” she added. “With #MyBeautyMySay we hope to inspire women everywhere to take a stand against judgments that belittle their accomplishments.” 

In addition to “Beauty on Your Own Terms,” the campaign also includes online spots focusing more closely on the stories of women from the ad. We’ve included several below.

Tampa agency PP+K launched a new campaign for cable and Internet provider Bright House Networks entitled “Courage Under Fire.”

A 60-second broadcast spot follows the story of a firefighter with a fear of public speaking. Asked to get up and say something in front of a group of his peers, he balks. Later we see him reading about public speaking, watching videos online and practicing in the mirror. At the conclusion of the spot, it’s revealed what he’s been preparing for the whole time.

That even those we typically think of as fearless have to work up the courage to defeat their own phobias is kind of a nice sentiment, even if the reveal, that he’s preparing for Career Day at his daughter’s school, isn’t much of a surprise. The ad marks something of a departure from the agency’s spots for the brand last year. Those efforts took a more humorous approach, while also highlighting specific Bright House features. Instead, the ad’s emotional approach is reminiscent of the 2014 effort “First Dance.”

“Everyone is afraid of something. Even those who we symbolically view as pillars of strength and courage,” explained PP+K creative director Paul Prato. “Overcoming anxiety is a simple premise that is rife with storytelling promise. It was interesting to us that the prevalence of technology at our fingertips gives us more tools to help us overcome some of these fears.”

Credits:
Agency: PP+K
Executive Creative Director: Tom Kenney
Creative Director: Paul Prato
Assoc. Creative Director/Writer: Nick McMurdy
Sr. Art Director: Christy Beegle
Executive Producer: Christine Allen
Director: Natalie Rae Robison
Director of Photography: Oliver Millar
Account Supervisor: Kyle Matos
Editor/Executive Director of Broadcast Production: Chanse Chanthalansy
Sr. Editor: Amanda Schreiber
Original Score: Mark Sunderland
Visual Effects Artist: San Nguyen
Audio Engineer: Roger Hughes

Client: Bright House Networks
Senior Director of Marketing: Anthony Macchia
Director of Creative Production: Justin Glorieux

W+K Portland launched a new campaign for Old Spice called “Smell Em Who’s Boss” with a series of four broadcast spots.

After the conclusion of the campaign pitting Terry Crews against Isaiah Mustafa for the brand’s Bearglove and Timber with “Truce” in November and the introduction of the “Legendary Man” in January, W+K Portland cooked up a new batch of Old Spice weirdness with “Perfect Ending,” “Standoff,” “Five Year Plan” and “Innocent.”

“Standoff” and “Perfect Ending” takes a Western theme, with the former featuring a man tied to a cart filled with explosives. A villain gets ready to set off the explosives but before he can, the hero saves the town with a can of Old Spice Desperado. Then things get overly self-referential with a woman providing a voiceover saying, “And that’s how our town was freed. And I remember thinking: ‘This would make a strange deodorant commercial.’”

The 15-second “Perfect Ending” finds a character shampooing his hair while riding a bathtub horse and playing trumpet with his feet. “Innocent,” meanwhile shows a man able to convince the police that he wasn’t the suspect in question, despite an APB matching his exact description, while “Five Year Plan” sees a prospective employee turning the tables during a job interview.

The spots very much follow in the “make it as weird as possible” W+K Old Spice formula, while moving on from the characters that have been a mainstay for a brand.

Given the recent “Truce” spot it seems likely we’ve seen the last of Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa — at least for awhile. These new efforts manage to find new, unexpected ways for the brand to get its weird on, but they don’t always deliver. “Perfect Ending” might work the best of the bunch, perhaps because it doesn’t seem to even try to make sense. “Innocent” and the self-referential voiceover in “Standoff,” meanwhile feel a bit too forced.

Credits:
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors: Erik Fahrenkopf | Max Stinson
Copywriter: Matt Mulvey
Art Director: Lawrence Melilli
Integrated Executive Producer: Erika Madison
Producer: Chris Capretto
Account Team: Georgina Gooley | Nick Pirtle | Michael Dalton

PRODUCTION
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Steve Ayson
President: David Zander
Executive Producer: Emma Wilcockson
Line Producer: Mark Hall
Director of Photography: Robert Elswit

Editorial Company: EXILE
Editor: 5-Year, Innocent: Kirk Baxter
Editor: Standoff Nate Gross
Assistant Editor: Zaldy Lopez

Post Producer: Toby Louie / Brittany Carson
Head of Production: Jennifer Locke
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver

VFX Company: The Mill | LA
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Chris Harlowe
Coordinator: Rustie Burris
VFX Supervisor: James Allen
2D Lead Artist: Narbeh Mardirossian
2D Artists: Andy Dill, Alex Candlish, Jale Parsons, Don Kim, Lisa Ryan, Brad Scott, Chris Payne
3D Artist: Michael Lori
Matte Painting: Andy Wheater, Nathan McKenna

Music and Sound Design: – Five Year Plan, Standoff
Original Music: Walker
Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Senior Producer: Abbey Hickman
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich / Trinitite
Music and Sound Design: Innocent
Original Music: Joint
Composers: Noah Woodburn, Tim Ribner
Producer: Sarah Fink
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich / Trinitite
Music and Sound Design: Perfect Ending
Original: Music Woodwork
Track: “Sunset Scrubdown”
Composer: Philip Kay
Producers: Rachel Wood, Andy Oskwarek
Vocal Arrangement: Walker
Vocals Producer: Abbey Hickman
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich / Trinitite

Studio:Lime Studios
Engineer: 5-Year, Innocent: Rohan Young
Engineer: Standoff: Sam Casas
Assistant Engineer: 5-Year, Innocent, Perfect Ending: Ben Tomastik
Assistant Engineer: Standoff Peter Lapinski
Executive Producer Susie Boyajan

Color Transfer Company: Company 3
Artist: Sean Coleman
Color Producer: Matt Moran

Last June, McCann reintroduced French Toast Crunch with “The Tiny & The Tasty,” a campaign featuring ads parodying the daytime soap operas prevalent during the brand’s 90s heyday. Now the agency has launched a followup, “Tiny Celebrities.”

The new spots follow in similar fashion to the absurd humor of their predecessors, only on this season of “The Tiny & The Tasty,” there’s a guest star: Tiny Hamster. In “The Affair,” Tiny Hamster shares a kiss with a co-star before they’re interrupted in typical soap opera fashion…only with more hamster wheels.

“Evil Twin” explores another soap opera trope. Bobbie-Anne returns home to find her husband sitting across the table from his evil twin, Tiny Hamster. “Just look at those beady eyes, plotting against us,” she worries as the hamster stuffs his face with French Toast Crunch. “Guys Night In,” meanwhile, sees Tiny Hamster cheating at cards.

Those who appreciated the mix of ridiculous humor and 90s soap opera nostalgia of “The Tiny & The Tasty” will appreciate the new spots as well. The addition of Tiny Hamster ups the absurdity factor in a way that sort of makes sense for a follow-up campaign. This approach works best in “Evil Twin,” which points out just how ridiculous it is with close ups of the hamster’s eyes as he goes to town on French Toast Crunch. While nothing groundbreaking, it works for the brand, capitalizing on the 90s nostalgia of its original run while incorporating the brand in a way that works most of the time (it feels a bit forced in “Guys Night In” though). We’re not sure there’s enough left in the tank for a third installment, but for now the approach hasn’t entirely worn out its welcome.

The campaign kicked off today and will run through the summer. Expect future spots to feature an appearance from “Luke Perry’s Thumb.”

mcgarrybowen, which was appointed as creative agency of record for JCPenney last October, launched a new online spot for the brand entitled “Here I Am.”

Featuring singer/songwriter Mary Lambert, style blogger and designer Gabi Fresh, writer Jes Baker, designer Ashley Nell Tipton and yoga practitioner Valerie Sagun, the spot celebrates body positivity for women of all body types. “Could my life be better if I were thinner?” Baker asks at the beginning of the spot, answering the question with the line, “No, but it would be better if I wasn’t treated so poorly because I’m not,” which functions as a kind of thesis for the spot. The lengthy ad includes Lambert explaining that a family member discouraged her from pursuing a career in music because of her body type and the other women in the spot adding their own struggles with how others have treated them before they came to accept and celebrate themselves for who they are. 

This kind of approach may seem familiar, as so-called “Femvertising” has taken off in recent years. Dove’s ongoing “Real Beauty” campaign has been mining a similar tactic for years. A recent effort last October from creative content agency Evidently asked girls what they would choose if they could “Change One Thing” to highlight the problems adolescent girls have with self-image and confidence and promote the Dove Self-Esteem Project. Leo Burnett, meanwhile, redefined “Like A Girl” for Always, continuing the approach with “Unstoppable” last year.

The message is a nice one and the approach fits the brand well enough. But the spot just seems to drag on, even by the somewhat loose standards of online ads. Without editing to bring down the runtime, it feels at times like viewers are hearing the same thing repeated, albeit in slightly different ways, throughout the spot, diminishing its impact. Even allowing for the five different women featured in the ad, it seems like it would have been easy enough to shave off a significant chunk of time and still leave enough room for each to get sufficient time onscreen.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: mcgarrybowen, New York City, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Matthew Bull
Executive Creative Directors: James Cheung, Cliff Skeete
Art Directors: Simon Woodham, Paula Figueroa, Erik Jansen
Copywriters: Danny Wantz, Anna Xiques, Jessica Zalaznick
Director of Content Production/Executive Producer: Paisley McCaffery
Associate Producer: Lauren Lampasi
Managing Director, Integrated Production: Dante Piacenza
Managing Director of Music Production: Jerry Krenach
Executive Music Producer: Jarrett Mason
Music Licensing Supervisor: Kaylyn Keane
Director, Talent Services: Sue Ayson
Business Manager: Marie Sawicki
Account Managing Director: Alaina Lovera
Account Supervisor: Ali Napier
Production Company: Missing Pieces
Director: Tucker Walsh
Editor: Liz Deegan / Missing Pieces
Editor: Steve Bell / Cutters

Critical Mass launched a new spot for Converse, introducing the Converse All Wah (Converse All Stars with a built in wah-wah pedal) with Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis.

J Mascis musters just about all the enthusiasm he can (not very much) in introducing the sneaker. He laces up a pair, plugs in his guitar and tries out, finding it takes a bit of getting used to. Mascis is a pretty solid choice to introduce the shoe, as a legend whose guitar sound relies heavily on the effect. For those who might not know what wah-wah is, he provides a brief explanation before trying out the All Wah, finding it takes some getting used to and is “definitely its own thing.”

The All Wah is the latest in the “Chuck Hack” project, and a particular cool addition. Critical Mass presented the first prototype of a Chuck Taylor sneaker with built-in wah pedal three years ago. The agency worked with wearable technology brand CuteCircuit to bring the idea to its present-day form, which utilizes wireless Bluetooth technology. Jokes about enthusiasm aside, Mascis saying “I’ll have to write some new songs with this” is a pretty ringing (and awesome) endorsement. 

In the latest ad alluding to the 2016 Presidential Election, 180LA mocks Donald Trump and his border wall plan in “The Wall” for camera company 360fly.

The spot imagines a future where Trump is president and his border wall a reality, as Trump gives a self-congratulatory speech at the wall’s unveiling. An audience member, meanwhile, uses a 360fly camera’s 360-degree capabilities to capture all the action that Trump seems oblivious to.

While Trump is both an obvious and deserving target for satire, this particular parody falls a bit flat, although the actor portraying Trump does seem to have some of his mannerisms down and the speech does fit the familiar pattern from the prospective GOP nominee. Anything Trump-related is likely to garner its fair share of interest, and while there’s a certain risk it could obscure, rather than highlight, the brand in question, 180LA ties things to 360fly well with the “Get a broader perspective” tagline.

“The idea of building a wall is so narrow-minded, it deserves to be lampooned,” 180LA CCO William Gelner told Adweek. “And it’s perfect for making the point about the importance of having a bigger perspective, which is the promise of the camera. Essentially, this is just a product demo spot dropped into the middle of a highly charged political issue. The spot demonstrates just how ridiculous and narrow-minded the notion is of building a wall. Broaden out a little—life’s too big for one perspective.”

Credits:

Client: 360FLY
CEO: Peter Adderton
Chief Marketing Officer: Todd Waks
Chief Creative Officer: Scott Anderson

Agency: 180LA
Global CEO: Mike Allen
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Director/Art Director: Adam Groves
Creative Director/Copywriter: Zac Ryder
Managing Director: Chad Bettor
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Executive Producer: Calleen Colburn
Brand Director: Mike Slatkin
Head of Business Affairs: Loretta Zolliecoffer

Production Co.: MJZ
Director: Mike Maguire
President: David Zander
DP: Bob Richardson
Sr. Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins
Line Producer: Tracy Broaddus
Production Designer: Alexis Ross
Stylist: Ric Renae Hughes
Shoot Location: Big Sky Ranch, Simi Valley
Shoot Date: May 9, 2016

Editorial Company: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Rick Lawley
Executive Producer: Joni Wright
Producer: Jennifer Mersis
Assistant Editor: Lauren Richardson

Online/VFX: The Mill NY
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
Producer: Jacqueline Sand
Color Producer: Diane Valera
Colourist: Adam Scott
VFX Supervisors: Jade Kim, Steve Cokonis
2D lead: Jade Kim
3D lead: Wyatt Saverese
2D artists: Sung Eun Moon, Alex Wysota, Mina Mir, Yoon-Sun Bae
3D artists: Christine Kim, Todd Akita, Cole Clark, Tim Kim, Ivan Joy
Finishing artist: Lee Towndrow
Recording Mix
Recording Studio: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Executive Producer: Suzanne Hollingshead/Melissa Elston
Assistant Mixers: A.J. Murillo, Jordan Meltzer
Music/Sound Design
Music Co: We Are Walker
Sound Design: Beta Petrol

Goodby Silverstein & Partners launched a new campaign for Adobe entitled “Make a Masterpiece.”

For the campaign, the agency worked with four digital artists, who recreated lost, damaged or stolen artistic masterpieces using Adobe Stock footage. Indian artist Ankur Patar tackled Rembrandt van Rijn‘s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”; U.S. artist Mike Campau took on Karl Friedrich Schinkel‘s “Cathedral Towering Over a Town”; Ecuadorian artist Karla Cordova was tasked with recreating Frida Kahlo‘s “The Wounded Table” and French artist Jean-Charles Debroize wrestled with Caravaggio‘s “Saint Matthew and the Angel.”

In the below spot, Patar outlines his creative process, which included using some 236 stock images, including inserting his own image into the piece. It’s a pretty fascinating look at what such digital artists can do with Adobe Stock, as Patar explains how he takes some features from a shot of one person and combines them with another to create the image he wants. “This is a dream project for me, and I hope it inspires other artists with the possibilities of Adobe Stock,” he comments.

While only Patar’s project is featured in the spot, details of the other “Make a Masterpiece” works can be found on the campaign website, including time-lapse videos of their creation and artist bios. 

“No one can truly replace these lost paintings. But by faithfully re-creating them with Adobe Stock, we can remember them again and reshape what the world thinks about stock photography in the process,” GS&P associate partner and creative director Will Elliott told Adweek.

Credits:
Client: Adobe Systems
Title of Creative Work: Make a Masterpiece

Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Creative
Co-Chairmen: Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby
Executive Creative Director: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Will Elliott
Creative Director: Patrick Knowlton
Art Director: Bennett Austin
Copywriter: Jordan Dodson

Production
Director of Graphic Services: Jim King

Account Services
Managing Partner: Robert Riccardi
Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Manager: Molly Navalinski
Assistant Account Manager: Aliza Niewood

Brand and Communication Strategy
Director of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist: Etienne Ma
Communication Strategy Deputy Director: Dong Kim
Senior Communication Strategist: Caitlin Neelon
Communication Strategist: Natalie Williamson
Jr. Communication Strategist: Chloe Bosmeny
Research & Analytics Director: Cassi Husain

Business Affairs
Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen 

Leo Burnett Chicago launched a spot for Samsung celebrating Margret Rumat Rumar Hassan, the 19-year-old 400-meter runner from South Sudan who represents that country’s first-ever Olympic athlete, entitled “The Chant.” 

“The Chant” promotes the Samsung Gear IconX cord-free earbuds, which Hassan puts on in the beginning of the ad. This sparks a switch to scenes of locals chanting for her across her home country, interspersed with her preparing to enter the Olympic stadium. The concludes with Hassan’s name announced over the stadium loudspeaker as she removes the earbuds. 

As far as Olympic stories go, Hassan’s is especially inspiring, and an excellent match for the campaign’s message, as the spot concludes with the “Proud sponsor of those who defy barriers” line, followed by the unfortunate “#DoWhatYouCant” hashtag. While the connection to the product is a bit of a stretch, there’s at least a tenuous connection to the wireless earbuds allowing increased mobility for its users, especially athletes using them during a workout.

“We wanted to find an athlete that represented progress and defied the barriers and overcame something, to be an embodiment of what the brand is and the mentality of the brand. You can’t move forward without overcoming obstacles,” Leo Burnett Chicago senior vice president, creative director Gordy Sang told Adweek. 

“The fact that South Sudan wasn’t a country five years ago and now it’s a country and has athletes representing them in the Olympics is ‘Do What You Can’t,’” added fellow senior vice president, creative director Brian Siedband. 

Credits:

Client: Samsung
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
Campaign: “The Chant”
Chief Creative Officer: Britt Nolan
SVP Creative Director: Brian Siedband/Gordy Sang
VP, Executive Producer: Matt Blitz
Senior Producer: Brian Behling
SVP Global Account Director: Radim Svoboda
Account Director: Ashley Beam
Global Account Supervisor: Huy Ngo
Account Executive: Emily Smith
SVP Global Strategy Director: Kara Yang
Strategy Director: Christopher Bridgland
VP, Director of Celebrity Services: Peggy Walter

Production Company: EPOCH
Director: Martin de Thurah
Director of Photography:  Mátyás Erdély
Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Line Producer: Anura Idupuganti

Editorial House: Work Editorial
Editor: Stewart Reeves
Executive Producer: Marlo Baird

Post Production: The Mill – NY
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
Producers: Eliana Carranza-Pitcher/Nick Strange Thye
Colorist: Fergus McCall

The Martin Agency launched a new campaign for Stoli Vodka, imploring guys to “Drink What You Want.”

While that message is certainly one we can get behind, the 90-second anthem ad at the center of the campaign fails to live up to its potential. There’s something decidedly off about the tone of the ad, delivered from the point-of-view of a (stereotypical millenial) guy who orders a blueberry-infused mixed drink at a bar. “Am I a man?” he asks himself, before answering, “You know I am: I march to the beat of my own blueberry-infused, mason jar-shaped drum.”

Despite the “Drink What You Want” tagline, the narrator/blueberry mixed drink orderer can’t help being a dick about what everyone else is drinking. He doesn’t like the taste of a tree, he points out, while passing some whisky drinkers, “For I am not woodchuck, I am man.” Then he scoffs at a long-bearded beer drinker sipping a “glass of over-hopped swamp water.”

Things really go south, though, when he’s addressed by a woman at the bar. “Mmm, I like blueberries too,” she says (Or is it thinks? Her lips don’t appear to move. Is he a mind-reader?) before he holds up a finger to “Shh” her and moves on. At this point, the spot seems to destroy any sense of feminism behind its message, along with any attempt to actually make sense. The “obligatory hashtag” joke is just the nail in the coffin.

The pot shots at other types of drinks seem especially devoid of merit for a campaign arriving at a time of year when they really shouldn’t be necessary. Instead of the over-the-top takedowns, pointing out the superior refreshment during a hot summer day of a mixed drink over, say, a glass of whisky, would have been not just less obnoxious but a much more effective argument.

Apparently the brand launched the campaign in response to a survey finding that 73 percent of millenial men enjoy flavored cocktails but 63 percent avoided ordering them in public over fears of being mocked by friends. Perhaps that explains the animosity towards the other drinks, but the approach betrays the campaign’s own tagline with a tone that will likely leave many viewers with a bitter taste in their mouths. A series of shorter spots promoting specific Stoli flavors and drinks abandon the animosity, which is to their benefit, even if the attempts at humor fall just as flat. These shorter ads will appear as paid media on sites including Comedy Central, ESPN and Playboy. 

“This isn’t a serious subject, it’s a fun subject,” Lori Tieszen, CMO and senior vice president of marketing for Stoli Group USA, told Adweek. “We think we have an interesting way in by relating to guys’ fears and saying drink what you want, don’t worry about it.”