Hasta La Creative!

Earlier in the month, we learned that the California Lottery has launched a review of its creative and media agency relationships ahead of its contract with agency of record David&Goliath expiring next August.

We don’t have any updates on that front yet, but the Los Angeles-based independent agency did launch a new spot for the client.

“Dreams Start in the Black” promotes the California Black Premium Scratchers Series, built around the idea that dreams start with the darkness of closing your eyes but soon pass into the endless possibility of dreams. The spot compares this notion to how the California Black Premium Scratchers Series can lead from an all-black scratch card to dreams being fulfilled with a $5,000,000 jackpot.

The 75-second extended online version of the spot opens on a woman who places a California Black Premium Scratchers Series card on a table and closes her eyes. She is first enveloped in blackness but from a tiny crack of light begins to see visions of all the possibilities from that sweet, sweet prize money which unfold in surreal transitions before concluding with the “Dreams Start in the Black” tagline.

The beautifully-shot spot elevates the concept with memorable images captured by director Rich Lee (music videos for Eminem and Lana Del Rey) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi), perfectly set to RY X‘s “Shortline.” In addition to the online version, it will also run in 30 and 15-second iterations on local broadcast in California markets such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno. The campaign also includes digital, social, OOH, experiential and radio components.

“I love the opportunity to partner with great teams to tell these really unique visual stories. From the very first conversation with the D&G team we were all totally in sync on what the creative needed to be and they were supportive of the vision every step of the way,” Lee said in a statement.

“The whole concept started with a simple truth that rings true with both the product and the notion of dreaming, which is pretty inherent to playing the Lottery,” added David&Goliath creative director Greg Buri. “And it’s hard to do dreams justice and easy to go too far. In this case, I think we walked the line between the dream world and the tone we’ve been setting for our client.”
Agency: David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pearce

Creative Director: Greg Buri
Creative Director: Raul Garcia
Copywriter: Will Danilow
Art Director: Shaun Wright
Social Assets:
Sr. Copywriter: Nick Micale
Sr. Interactive Art Director: Matt Koulermos

Group Planning Director: Kristen Knape
Planner: Chris Kwak

Managing Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese
Executive Producer: Curt O’Brien
Senior Broadcast Producer: Juliet Diamond

Director of Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro
Business Affairs Manager: Camara Price
Associate Business Affairs Manager: Travis Kohler

Group Account Director: Stacia Parseghian
Account Director: Janet Wang
Account Supervisor: Erika Rosenwinkel
Account Coordinator: Alex Petosa
Project Manager: Mike Antonellis

Director of Digital Production: Peter Bassett
Senior Interactive Producer: Noah Luger

Director of Print Services: Meredith Walsh
Senior Art Producer: Andrea Rosenfeld

Production Company: Native Content
Director: Rich Lee
Director of Photography (TV): Claudio Miranda
Director of Photography (Digital Videos):
Managing Director/Executive Producers: Tomer DeVito and Ned Brown
Line Producer: Michael Angelos
Sales Representative: Kevin Batten
Head of Production: Sean Blair
Production Supervisor: Ben Oswald
Art Director: Brandon Mendez

Digital Production Company: Picnic

Editorial House: Spinach
Editor: Shane Reid (from Exile)
Assistant Editor: Cutler Gray
Producer: Jonathan Carpio

Telecine: Sean Coleman
Colorist: Company 3
Online & VFX: Jamm
Lead Flame Artist: Brian Hajek
CG Artist: Zachary DiMaria
Producer: Ashley Greyson
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards

Music: Ry X

Mix House: Lime Studios
Sound Mixer/Engineer: Mark Meyuhas

Back in February, 72andSunny launched a new spot in its ongoing anti-smoking campaign for truth that called out tobacco companies for preying on low income urban neighborhoods called “#StopProfiling.”

Now the agency is releasing another pair of ads that similarly employ the approach of calling attention to the tobacco industry’s targeting of specific communities—namely those with mental illness and members of the military.

“The tobacco industry makes $37 billion a year selling cigarettes to people with mental illness. This is a prime example of how the industry sees certain populations solely as business opportunities and exploits individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military,” Truth Initiative president and CEO Robin Koval said. “The consequences of these targeting practices are horrendous, killing more than 540,000 people each year, hindering the recovery of those battling mental health conditions and putting the health and safety of our military service men and women at risk. It’s simply shameful.”

“As the number of smokers drops, the industry is finding it harder and harder to find those replacement smokers,” she told The Washington Post in a related interview. “So the industry is targeting people based on their challenges in life, on who they are. It’s shocking and appalling.”

In 72andSunny’s new spot, a truth correspondent discusses the issue with a clinical assistant professor who claims internal documents reveal tobacco companies targeted individuals with depression and anxiety, while cigarette marketing used to suggest that smoking provided a solution to the problems. Perhaps even more damning is the claim that cigarette companies gave free cigarettes to mental health facilities.

According to the ad, people with mental illness consume 40 percent of the cigarettes smoked in this country. A press release also states that smoking rates are much higher in the group than the broader population, with 1 in 3 individuals with mental illness smokers compared to 1 in 5 in individuals without mental illness.

“For decades, the tobacco industry has promoted to the mental health community the idea of tobacco as medicine. The tobacco companies funded research, supported conferences and funded authors to generate and promulgate the message that smoking a cigarette can relieve symptoms of schizophrenia, depression and anxiety,” Dr. Judith Prochaska, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, said in a statement. “Prioritizing profits over public health, the tobacco companies have preyed upon this vulnerable population for financial gain. The truth: tobacco is the leading cause of preventable addiction, disease and death among those with mental illness.”

A second spot calls attention to tobacco companies recruitment of smokers from the military. According to the ad, some 38 percent of smokers began smoking after enlistment and according to a press release those in active service smoke at a rate 28 percent higher than the general population. A truth correspondent shares internal documents from a tobacco company with military veterans that include degrading language targeting military members as “plums…to be plucked.”

Unsurprisingly, the veterans are not amused and feel “set up to become a smoker.”

“Big Tobacco saw the military market as being really key to their profits in a way that I think is deeply cynical,” Dr. Libby Smith, professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “They sponsored lots of entertainment for troops on the military bases, giving away cigarettes. This seemed like a gift to the troops, but really it’s all about just marketing the product.”

The ads build on the documentary-style approach introduced in February and are much more enlightening and effective than previous attempts by the truth campaign to target young crowds by “speaking their language” which were ultimately lost in translation. Ultimately the approach should resonate more with a socially conscious youth crowd than ads which obviously targeted them specifically.

Plus, it never hurts to get Logic involved.

The new spots will make their broadcast debut this Sunday during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.

Earlier this month, Wieden + Kennedy New York debuted its first work for Fox Sports right before ESPN picked Droga5 to handle SportsCenter (which Ted Royer worked on but did not create, thanks).

The anthem spot “Don’t Look Ahead” was, in part, a compilation of moments from the other ads in the “Every Game Is Everything” campaign. At the time we were told that the full effort would include 17 ads, including 2 devoted to specific games—Texas/USC and Ohio State/Michigan—along with 14 dedicated to the teams in the increasingly misnamed Big Ten Conference.

Those ads all went live this week.

First, there’s the Michigan Wolverines, which is pretty self-explanatory.

Next come the Ohio State Buckeyes, with a bit of backstory on their unique, logo-free helmets.

Penn State’s team is not named the Blizzard, of course. But they do something called “whiteout” wherein all the fans show up to the game wearing white shirts, and W+K ran with that theme.

Now for Minnesota, where not everyone wants to sell you some of that TruCoat.

So the Michigan State Spartans have appropriately adopted “Molon Labe” (come and get them) as their onfield cry, referencing King Leonidas I of Sparta or that movie with Gerard Butler.

University of Iowa’s Pink isn’t a reference to Lyft or Pepto Bismol. It’s the color of the visitors locker room at their stadium.

The University of Wisconsin’s fans really do try to start their own “earthquake” every time they hear the opening beats of your favorite Thursday night undergrad drinking song, House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”

Ahh, to be 19 again.

There do appear to be rumors of paranormal activity on the University of Illinois campus. But this ad is about one ghost in particular.

So, University of Maryland’s flag is kind of an eyesore. But that’s OK! As a fictional wise man once said, our imperfections are the things that make us beautiful. Or something like that.

Good Will Hunting did not go to Northwestern, but apparently its students are still wicked smaht.

The red balloons at the end of this Nebraska spot appear in homage to those released by fans after the team’s first score in each home game.

Next, the not-so-small-town Hoosiers.

The Boilermakers may be the most unique of all these teams’ names. But it’s literal and kind of fascinating, hence the train imagery in this ad.

Finally, the fightin’ Knights of Rutgers, some of whom are Lannisters and some of whom hail from more common stock.

Whew. We honestly feel more informed about college football now.

And yes, that was Michael Kelly of House of Cards on voiceover.

So, you know how Carl’s Jr. is all about “real” ingredients now, instead of the totally unreal idea that eating fast food is somehow connected to hyper-sexualized sequences starring the people our culture has deemed attractive?

Hungry Jack’s is on the same kick. Sort of. The Australian version of Burger King and its AOR Clemenger BBDO just a launched a big new campaign that tells all viewers to “Keep It Real,” because ground beef and processed cheese are somehow more legitimate than some shit your neighbor grew in his solar-powered roof garden.

Australia is looking a lot like Los Angeles these days, no?

Now wait for CMO Scott Baird’s take:

“We’re not about pretension. We’re about real food, made real good. Over the past 18 months we have make real improvements in the quality of our food with 100 per cent Aussie Beef with no added hormones, cage free eggs, 100 per cent Arabica coffee, no added flavour or colours in our desserts and 100% chicken breast in our nuggets.”

We dislike the concept of kale smoothies as much as the next hungry blogger, but that sounds kind of familiar, what with the focus on ingredients.

From CCO Ben Coulson:

“HJ’s are our biggest client, they deserve our best. I’m proud to be part of this refreshing new direction for them. It’s great to see some fun being had in this category while selling those big beefy burgers.”

So they’re really saying, can’t a chain burger just be a chain burger???*

*If it’s made from 100 percent grass-fed uuuurrrrrrrggggghhhhh…

Deutsch looks ahead to the college football season for Dr. Pepper, bringing back the brand’s Larry Culpepper character for the fourth consecutive year.

In the spot, Culpepper claims “fans are craving Dr. Pepper more than ever.”

So he’s assembled a team to deliver the beverage to show up to “tailgates, the cheap seats, love seats” or anywhere else college football fans are craving Dr. Pepper. There’s even a surprise walk-on to the team.

The Culpepper character was created back in 2014 to get around the fact that while Dr. Pepper is an NCAA sponsor they aren’t allowed to show logos for any individual teams. The invention of the character, then, “gives us the right to be there and play and interact with fans in a really authentic way,” Dr. Pepper senior vice president of marketing and sponsorships Jaxie Alt told AdAge at the time.

The latest spot shows the Culpepper character wearing a bit thin and perhaps after all these years it’s time to hand off Dr. Pepper-dispensing duties to somebody else. Hey, he does have a supporting team (complete with Doug Flutie) now.

The spot makes its first appearance online today, ahead of its August 27 broadcast debut.

Havas Chicago launched a new campaign for faucet manufacturer Moen, which consolidated its marketing business with the agency back at the beginning of 2016.

The agency kicked off the campaign with a pair of spots, each of which runs in 15 and 30-second versions, with three more ads expected in 2018. In the first of these efforts, “Power Clean, Inspired by Force,” Moen’s Power Clean faucet technology is compared to everything from a shark and a boxer to a tornado and a firework. It relies on quick, cinematic cuts before concluding with a description of Power Clean as “Inspired by force. Innovated by Moen.”

The latter line reappears in the other spot, promoting Moen’s Magnetix handheld shower heads, only in this case, the technology is “Inspired by attraction.” Of the magnetic variety, that is.

“We took a fresh creative approach by bringing drama and passion to a category known for speaking to audiences about lifestyle,” said Havas U.S. chairman and chief creative officer Jason Peterson explained in a statement published by LBB. “Moen’s innovations are strong but underappreciated. We created a bold, visual language to highlight the products and did so in ways to further modernize the brand and its emotional appeal.”

Confession: we had never heard of OtterBox before writing this post today.

But we had heard of one Peyton Manning, and increased awareness is sort of the whole point of celebrity endorsements, no?

The now-former NFL star/pizza and cheap beer enthusiast signed up to rep the company—which is “the No. 1-most trusted brand in smartphone case protection”—about a year ago and has since appeared in some ads by AOY CP+B Boulder.

In the latest round of ads, Manning has a new friend/bodyguard to make sure no one is trying to tackle him from the front. Or behind. Or anywhere, really.

Manning, who is happily retired but still taking heat for his Trump golf excursions and the sexual assault claims that bubbled up into the headlines last year, just doesn’t seem to know how to operate without some dude protecting him from everybody, including himself.

“When you saw only one set of footprints in the sand, it was then that I carried you.”

Good to know someone’s watching his back, though. And not the Papa John’s guy. So is Manning just gonna star in ads for the rest of his life?

CREDITS

Agency: CP+B Boulder
Client: OtterBox
Campaign: “Unapologetically Overprotective”

Chief Creative Officer: Ralph Watson
ECD: Tony Calcao
CDs: Jason Pierce, Mark St. Amant
ACDs: Ryan Contillo, Donny Brunner
Integrated Producers: Alina Moeller, (Jr) Shelby Hawkinson
Head of Content Production: Sloan Schroeder

Sound Engineer: Mark Meyhaus
Sound Design: Michael Anastasi
Producer: Kayla Phungglan
Music: Massive Music, Los Angeles, CA
Mix: Lime Studios, Santa Monica, CA
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Offline Executive Producer: Lennon Barnica
Editor: Kevin Zimmerman
Editorial Company: PLUS Productions, Boulder, CO
Editorial Assistant: Bryce Harvey, B Stover
Senior Producer: Katie Andrews
Producer: Julia Paskert
Post-Production House: Method Studios
Flame Assistants: Louis Schachte, Emily Irvine, Jason Frank
Flame Artist: Aiden Thomas
Executive Producer: Cara Lehr
Colourist: Stefan Sonnenfeld @ Company 3
Anomation: Norris Houk
Production Manager: Dana Eudaily
Production Company: Bob Industries, LA
Producer: Max Fink
Executive Producer: TK Knowles, John O’Grady
DoP: Pablo Berron
Director: Brigg Bloomquist

What offseason?

Translation launched “The Handoff” for the NFL, a campaign promoting youth football which follows up on the agency’s “Let’s Play Football” effort last year.

The campaign launched with “Handoff Across America,” which will run in a 60-second broadcast version and 90-second extended online version. “Handoff Across America” features NFL stars Landon Collins, Stefon Diggs, Devonta Freeman, Travis Kelce, and Marquette King, as well as Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Nick Young and rapper KYLE. Set to Mac Miller song “Knock Knock”(which samples Linda Scott‘s “I’ve Told Every Little Star”), the spot depicts professional and amateur football players in a variety of settings and situations, all in service of the notion that “there is no offseason.”

If you’re wondering how Young factors into this, he dunks a punted football, which is kind of a neat trick. Other players weight train with young fans, take a dip in the pool, enjoy the video game version of the sport and, of course, a plethora of pickup games.

In addition to the spot, the campaign also includes digital videos and social components, including Instagram stories launching from @NFLPLayFootball.

“Teens today truly are multi-dimensional,” Translation chief creative officer John Norman said in a statement. “They have amazingly diverse talents and interests, and with so many sides to the game of football, we wanted to show them how fun it is, no matter what you’re into.”

“Whether it’s an off-season training camp or a player teaming up with a lucky fan at VidCon, the “Handoff Across America” explores the excitement that is summertime football,” added Sam Howard, NFL Director of Advertising. “We’re highlighting facets of the game that extend well beyond the field of play.”

The campaign follows Translation picking up agency of record duties for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets last month. Translation has served as creative agency of record for the NBA since December of 2014.

Credits: 
Chief Executive Officer: Steve Stoute
President: Patrick Lafferty
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Chief Strategy Officer: John Greene
Group Creative Director: Lance Ferguson & Eric Steele
Copywriter: Colin Frawley
Art Director: Dylan Simel
Jr. Art Director: Bo Han
Brand Strategy Director: Geoff McHenry
Jr. Strategist: Rex Nwerem
Sr. Social Strategist: Renee Miller
Context Strategist: Jazo Moises
Director of Broadcast Production: Miriam Franklin
Executive Producer: Carole McCarty
Associate Producer: Maxine Reyer
Business Affairs Manager: Thalia Tsouros & Grant Thompson
Group Account Director: Jimmy Euwer
Account Director: Austin Scherer
Account Supervisor: Brandon Ghio
Account Executive: Jordan Meiselas
Senior Project Manager: Matt DeSimone

So we’re having this conversation again.

Nearly 18 months after McKinney printed North Carolina’s (ultimately repealed) anti-transgender “bathroom bill” on toilet paper, lawmakers have proposed a nearly identical bill, and another ad agency has come up with a pro-bono campaign to oppose it.

In this case, the state is Texas and the agency is GSD&M, which has a new angle on the subject. To sum it all up, if you’re going to insist that transgender people use the restrooms associated with their birth sex, then why not just have everyone carry around personal items complete with birth certificates and easy-to-identify colors making sure there’s no doubt about it all?

There’s the phone case above plus a backpack and lunchbox version.

The agency has launched a paid social media campaign under the “Lifestyle Products for a Bathroom Bill World,” which will run for the next few days on Facebook leading up to the ultimate vote in the Texas senate. It all leads back to a page helping voters contact their representatives.

From agency CEO Duff Stewart:

Taxpayer dollars should be spent solving the real problems that face our state, from infrastructure to education, child protective services and more. We have an imperative to support basic human rights and legislation that limits the freedoms of our transgender community is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem.

I’m not worried about the people who love. I’m worried about the people who hate. GSD&M will always stand up for equality, and protect and support the community we’ve called home for 46 years.

Here’s an earlier video that launched in February, when the bill first came to life. GSD&M also worked on this one.

For necessary context: the Texas bill is essentially the same as the N.C. one in that it would require transgender people to use the public restrooms assigned to their birth gender, thereby nullifying all local anti-discrimination laws and subjecting them to potential charges.

The bill is all but certain to fail, which is probably because it was all about political posturing in the first place as the state’s governor and various representatives used it to pander to certain elements of their base.

The Dallas Stars and the NHL came out against it, as did Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who compared the issue to “walk[ing] headfirst into a giant cactus.”

But look who else is running paid ads: an advocacy group claiming to represent Texas GOP primary voters.

Everything is politics now.

So, AB InBev and every other major brewer is obviously still feeling pretty threatened by the whole “craft” movement, even though it’s nowhere near as big as headlines might have you believe (the Brewer’s Association recently said 12.3% market share).

It’s really debatable whether the whole “movement” can survive oversaturation, especially when AB InBev keeps buying up potential threats like Wicked Weed, its tenth such acquisition.

Based on the latest campaign from Wieden + Kennedy, Bud Light wants to have it both ways: discouraging people from trying off-center brews while its parent company buys them up strategically.

This ad that launched today is really kind of perplexing.

Yeah, but do craft beers really have such crazy ingredients? Maybe if we’re talking Dogfish Head.

We kind of get what they’re going for here … maybe that’s why Bud Light will never win by marketing its product on taste.

The brand experienced “mid-single digit” declines throughout 2016, but it still sells twice as much as its closest competitor Coors Light. So Bud isn’t going anywhere, head-turning campaigns and activations aside.

But with all due respect to Wieden, it really feels like the client directed these ads.