Hasta La Creative!

While individual teams routinely retire the numbers of former star players and managers, Major League Baseball has only ever retired one number throughout the league.

On April 15, 1997, the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the major league color barrier, commissioner Bud Selig announced that Robinson’s number 42 would be retired throughout baseball, with exceptions made for players then wearing the number, such as Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera, who became the last player to regularly wear the number. Since the 2007 season, all players have worn the number on April 15 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day.

MARC USA and The Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh would like to make an addition for Pirates Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. Efforts to permanently retire Clemente’s number date back several years and Maria Teresa Ruiz even sponsored a New Jersey State Senate Resolution that “Respectfully requests that Major League Baseball retire the number 21 in honor of the life and career of Roberto Clemente” in 2012.

Clemente was renowned not just for his performance on the field as a right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates (he was a 12-time All Star, 12-time Gold Glove winner, four-time NL batting champion, 1966 MVP and helped lead the Pirates to two World Series Championship) but for his off-field humanitarian efforts as well. He died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, at the age of 38, while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Now MARC USA has launched a campaign to draw attention to The Roberto Clemente Museum’s renewed attempt to get Major League Baseball to retire Clemente’s number under its new commissioner, Rob Manfred.
The “Retire 21” Change.org petition already has 2,796 signatures towards its goal of 5,000. On Tuesday, MARC USA and The Roberto Clemente Museum took the effort to the All Star Game at Marlins Park in Miami. Volunteers outside the stadium carried iPads making it easier for fans to sign the petition. The “Retire 21” campaign will continue the effort throughout July and August, visiting other MLB ballparks.

“Now is the right time to make 21 only the second number retired across the Major Leagues. In the 45 years since Roberto’s death, many younger fans no longer know his story – one that demonstrates the best of Major League Baseball and sets a shining example for all,” Roberto Clemente Museum executive director and curator Duane Rieder. “It’s time to appropriately honor Roberto Clemente’s legacy and inspire others on and off the field to emulate his character and courage.”

“We’re inviting active and retired players, the media and everyone who loves baseball to join the campaign, sign the online petition and spread the word through social media and word of mouth,” added MARC USA group creative director Greg Edwards, who helped lead the campaign. “We hope to have at least 100,000 signatures by Roberto’s birthday on August 18, and we’ll continue adding signatures and spreading the message until MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred gives us a hearing.”

Klick Health launched a new spot for pharmaceutical company Novartis, one of last week’s top spenders on broadcast placement for new creative, which finds a somewhat bizarre personification for gastrointestinal issues.

That said, the anthropomorphized take on stomach issues might not be seen as so inaccurate by chronic sufferers. Klick Health imagines the pangs of stomach discomfort as a tiny, but overly annoying professional wrester, straight out of 1987 or so. The spot opens on a man reading in bed, when “The Wrestler,” appears, announcing, “It’s terror on the tummy time!”

From there, he just keeps showing up, in the break room and at a backyard barbecue. Apparently he brings along, “persistent diarrhea, stomach pain and bloating” for good measure.

TheWrestler_30 from Klick New York on Vimeo.

The spot concludes without informing viewers of what, exactly, they’re watching an ad for.   Instead, it directs them to WhatAmIWrestlingWith.com to “learn more” about a “diagnosis that may not have been considered.” There, they can take a short quiz to see if they may have carcinoid syndrome. Self-diagnosis via Internet is, of course, notoriously unreliable and even the site mentions that “Most people who seem to have symptoms similar to those of carcinoid syndrome do not have the disease,” making the whole exercise (and the reasoning behind the accompanying ad) feel a tad dubious.

The integrated campaign also includes a series of live-action banner videos, and the broadcast element includes addressable TV.

Credits:
CLIENT: NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS CORP.
Executive Director: Vanessa Thirion-Cullity
Director: Jessica Hayes

AGENCY: KLICK HEALTH
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Elliot Langerman
Art: Anthony DiCarolis, Mark Schruntek, Lee Seidenberg, Sam Quiles
Copy: Mark Schruntek, Lee Seidenberg, Anthony DiCarolis
Senior Producer: Brian Schierman
VP, Brand Strategy: Alexis Penty
Group Account Director: Eric Presman
Sr. Project Manager: Klayton Kyle
Senior Strategist: Rachel Affoo
SVP, Strategy & Analytics: Cam Bedford
VP Group Account Director: Joan Bercovitz
VP, Program Director: Leslie Doyle

PRODUCTION: SEED MEDIA ARTS
Director: Tim Abshire
Exec. Producer: Roy Skillikorn
EP/Line Producer: Kipp Christiansen
DP: Joe Zizzo
Shot on Location in Thousand Oaks, CA and on stage in Culver City, CA

EDITORIAL: CUTTING ROOM, NY
Editor: Chuck Willis
Assistant Editor: Greg Ryan
Executive Producer: Anna Petitti

VISUAL EFFECTS: SMOKE & MIRRORS, NY
Executive Producer: Steve Intrabartola
Senior Producer: Tara Maloney
Head of Flame: Dino Tsaousis
Flame Artist: Kevin Quinlan
Flame Artist: Jenna DeAngelis

AUDIO POST: SONIC UNION, NY
Audio Post Mixer: Paul Weiss
Producers: Justine Cortale + Pat Sullivan

MUSIC:
Extreme Music stock library

TELECINE: NICE SHOES, NY
Colorist: Sal Maltifano
Producer: Matt Hubert

BBH London launched a new spot for KFC U.K. and Ireland starring Kristian Nairn, who plays the character Hodor on HBO’s Game of Thrones, ahead of the series’ upcoming season 7 premiere on July 16.

The spot depicts Nairn as a KFC employee faced with an unrelenting throng of customers hungry for chicken and fries. (Wait, don’t they call them “chips” over there?) All poor Nairn can do is repeat “chicken and fries” over and over again, a nod to his Game of Thrones character, who can only say his own name.

Near its conclusion, the spot reveals itself as a promotion for the chain’s new KFC Ricebox offering, replacing the fries in “chicken and fries” with a healthier rice option. The spot takes a simple yet entertaining approach and Game of Thrones fans hungry for the premier have taken to the likable Nairn’s performance. Creativity reports the spot has racked up over 32 million views since its debut last week.

Credits:
Client: KFC
Marketing Director: Monica Pool
Marketing Manager: Marion Racine

Agency: BBH London
Creative Director: Hamish Pinnell
Creative Team: Alex King, Andrew Jordan
Strategy Director: Fernando Ribeiro
Strategist: Jill Cummings, Jack Colchester
Account Director: Jamie Bolton
Account Manager: Jack Howard
Business Lead: Beck Russell

Production Company: Mindseye
Director: Ben Taylor
Producer: Jonny Knight, Jack Howard
Executive Producer: Charlie Phillips
Post Production: The Mill

Edition House: Marshall Street Editors
Editor: Phill Hignett

Sound Company: 750MPH
Sound: Sam Robinson

Preacher took over for TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles, as agency of record for Crate and Barrel last year, debuting its first work for the brand with a 60-second holiday spot entitled “Front Door” last November.

In its latest effort for Crate and Barrel, entitled “Welcome Love In,” the Austin-based agency tells the stories of “real couples and their gifts from the Crate and Barrel wedding registry.” It is wedding season, after all.

“Welcome Love In” features a refreshingly diverse array of couples, whose marriages span three months to forty years. What they all have is common is that they got an upgrade by registering with Crate and Barrel.

Inevitably the conversation turns back to the brand and how one couple received their first “grownup cutting board” and another dishware for 12 because they hope to host a crowd of a dozen someday, but the spot doesn’t rush to include references to Crate and Barrel products, allowing the couples to tell their stories first.

The spot promotes Crate and Barrel’s wedding registry at the height of wedding season and will run across the brand’s social channels, “its registry microsite and across major bridal sites like brides.com,” according to Campaign.

Credits:
Agency: Preacher
Art Director: Brunno Cortez
Copywriter: Justin Han
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Baird
Chief Executive Officer: Krystle Loyland
Chief Strategy Officer: Seth Gaffney Agency
Producer: Jill Silberstein
Senior Brand Manager: Stephanie Smith
Business Affairs: Miiko Martin
ACD: Kim Nguyen

Production Company: The Bear Executive
Producer: Berndt Mader
Director: Ben Steinbauer
Line Producer: Janice Woods
DP: David McMurry
Casting: O’Connor
Casting Edit House: Lucky Post
Executive Producer: Jessica Berry
Producer: Caroline Stephens
Editor: Elizabeth Moore
Mix: Pony Sound
Colorist: Neil Anderson

Absolut Vodka appointed BBH London as its lead global creative agency last October, following a review. Sid Lee had formerly handled the account for some four years.

This week, BBH London launched a “Create a better tomorrow, tonight” global campaign for the brand with the spot “Equal Love.”

Directed by Somesuch’s Aoife McArdle, “Equal Love” opens in a bar as a couple exchange a passionate kiss. An onlooker approaches from nearby and soon the kiss is passed on from one person to the next, spanning a diverse array of ages, races and genders, all set to The Crystals‘ 1962 hit, “There’s No Other (Like My Baby).”

The online spot concludes with the line “In support of equal love since 1879,” celebrating the brand’s history of progressive values, followed by the new tagline. “Equal Love” launches a global campaign which aims to underscore the brand’s identity.

“We wanted to bring to life one of our core values and beliefs, which is that everyone should be free to love who they choose,” Absolut global communications director Gaia Gilardini told Campaign. “It uses a kiss as a metaphor for this expression of acceptance. But it’s a broader idea of acceptance – it’s not just tied to sexuality. Freedom to love who you choose goes further than just sexual preference.”

The spot also coincides with the Pride in London celebrations which run from June 24 through July 9. As part of the effort, Absolut is also an OOH installation on an escalator which is on the route of this Saturday’s London Pride parade.

Absolut isn’t the only vodka brand launching an effort around Pride in Lonon. Rival Smirnoff is actually a sponsor and also launched a series of “Love Wins” bottles back in May.

“Having more brands joining this conversation is definitely good, because it allows people to discuss this topic,” Gilardini told Campaign, adding, “Through our marketing campaigns, we’ve always supported diversity – the right for people to express their true selves. We’ve done this through the artistic collaborations we’ve done.”

Absolut’s track record seems to lend support to the statement. As Campaign notes, the brand began running ads in U.S. gay publications The Advocate and After Dark in 1981, just two years after expanding globally, at a time when most brands avoided such media completely.

The brand plans to reveal the next initiatives in the campaign in the coming weeks and will partner with U.K. LGBT+ charity organization Stonewall later this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary  of the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

India’s dominance in the British sport of cricket is well known.

But athletes in India kick ass in all sorts of other sports as well, including many that have yet to become mainstream in the country. Adidas turned to Cheil to help address this and inspire the next generation of athletes in India to pursue athletic endeavors in a variety of sports.

The anthem ad opening the campaign hinges around voiceover in the form of a letter from a mother to a son half a world away. “My day has just ended…but yours has just begun” she writes, going on to implore him to “go and sweat before the sun can see” and reassuring him, “you have it in you, the spark that could ignite a thousand dreams.”

It’s a familiar carpe diem message for athletes, but having it delivered from a mother to her son as he pursues his athletic dreams far from home adds considerable emotional weight. The athlete in question, by the way, is 18-year-old figure skater Nischay Luthra, already a 9-time national gold medalist. (The narrator is his mother.)

Luthra is currently training to represent India at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. As his mother puts it, “this dream is not yours alone, but ours.”

The spot concludes by asking viewers to show him that his mom isn’t his only fan and to spread Luthra’s story and “#FanTheFire.”

“At adidas we truly believe that through sport, we have the power to change lives. With #FanTheFire, we seek to shine a spotlight on athletes and sports which are not mainstream, and in turn, inspire the next generation to take up such sports,” Adidas India senior marketing director Sean van Wyk explained.” We are committed to providing the fuel for Nishchay Luthra and many more like him.”

“In India, cricket enjoys a disproportionately high amount of attention and the rest of the sports are simply out of sight, out of mind. This was gnawing away at us, as we discovered a series of stories about Indian athletes living in obscurity and even penury,” added Cheil Worldwide India group creative director Vijay Simha. “#FanTheFire was born out of our instinctive urge to help the underdog. adidas has always been about the athlete, no matter what sport. So they saw the honesty of purpose, and agreed to leverage the social media power of their assets to lift Nishchay out of relative obscurity. I feel Nishchay’s story is just a spark, that will soon be a fire, fanned by every Indian who cares!”
Credits:
Brand: adidas India
Creative Agency: Cheil Worldwide SW Asia
Creative Team: Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Vijay Simha Vellanki & Vinod Sivan Nishith Sidana
Digital Team: Sanjeev Jasani, Dibyendu Mishra, Arif Khan, Karan Lugani
Production: Gobsmack Entertainment
Director: Shivaji Sen
Producers: Mohit Rastogi & Shyam Madiraju

Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners launched its first campaign for new client Halo Top, positioning the ice cream brand as “The Perfect Pint.”

The campaign plays on the “Halo” aspect of the brand’s name, imagining that the ice cream is made in heaven. Not everyone is a fan, however, as the devil complains that eating a pint of ice cream no longer feels sinful or makes people feel ashamed.

The first two digital spots in the campaign, which also represent Halo Top’s first major advertising push, debuted today ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. One of them confirms a suspicion you may have had about the preferred form of transportation in hell. Another pair of spots will launch next month and live in promoted social posts.

While a relatively recent brand, the low-calorie, high-protein offering has seen exponential growth since arriving on the scene in 2012. Before selecting RTO+P as its first creative agency partner, it had relied on in-house resources for marketing and has yet to launch an ad campaign of this scale. Despite that, Halo Top saw its sales increase by 2,500% last year as it expanded to national distribution.

Credits:
Chief Creative Officer: Steve Red
Executive Creative Director, Partner: Steve O’Connell
Creative Directors: Todd Taylor and Chris Plehal
RTO+P Producer: Joe Mosca
Post Producer: Rebecca Jacobs
Editor: Chip Schofield
Account Leads: Carla Mote and Perry Morris

Director: Casey Storm
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Anonymous Content Director of Photography: Neil Shapiro
Anonymous Content Producer: Thomas Martin
Music Composition & Sound Design: Milkboy
VFX: Alkemy X

FCB New York launched a digital campaign promoting LG’s new OLED TV by surprising “Serious Watchers” with TVs delivered by cast members of the shows they’re obsessed with.

Directed by Jeff Tremaine, the opening spot in the campaign features an Orange Is The New Black obsessive named Chris. He buys the LG OLED TV, expecting an ordinary delivery two days later. Instead, actress Yael Stone shows up, completely in character as inmate Lorna Morello , and things get a little awkward before the spot concludes with the tagline, “The TV for the Serious Watcher.”

Over the coming, months LG will release a whole series of social activations “challenging the #SeriousWatcher community to prove just how serious they are in unexpected and sometimes extreme ways,” according to a press release. It’s also easy to imagine the approach applied to the release of new seasons of other popular shows.

“Since the dawn of television, product marketers have focused mainly on specs, often overlooking the reason people buy TVs in the first place: the content they love to watch,” LG Electronics USA head of home entertainment marketing Michelle Fernandez said in a statement. “And while we’re leading today’s TV technological revolution with LG OLED TVs, we dreamed of a more emotional connection between our products and the passions of consumers.”

“Serious Watchers aren’t an exclusive bunch,” added FCB New York executive creative director Stu Mair. “We all have a show we’re obsessed with, like Orange is the New Black. LG wanted to connect the love we all have for these shows to the way we watch them, and remind people they owe it to themselves and the show creators to view these shows the best way possible – turning the TV itself into a badge of honor.”

Credits:
Agency: FCB New York
? Ari Halper, Chief Creative Officer
? Stu Mair, Executive Creative Director
? Laszlo Szloboda, Associate Creative Director, Copy
? Akos Papp, Associate Creative Director, Art
? Laura Dunn, Business Lead
? Lucie Kittel, Account Supervisor
? Kyle Burt, Operations Manager
? Deb Freeman, Chief Strategy Officer
? Raig Adolfo, SVP Planning Director
? Chris Gilbert, Senior Social Strategist
? Leelee Groome, Head of Production
? Sydney Richardson, Associate Digital Producer

Client: LG Electronics
? David VanderWaal, Vice President, Marketing, LGE-US Home Entertainment/Home Appliances
? Michelle Fernandez, Senior Director, HE Consumer Marketing
? Chris De Maria, Senior Manager, Public Relations
? Tricia Green, Senior Brand Manager
? Alfred Lee, Senior Digital Manager
? Courtney Callahan, Digital Content Manager
? Mark Lee, Head of US Content Business Development
? Matt Durgin, Director NA Smart TV Content Partnerships
? Rachel Olson, Senior Shopper Marketing Manager
? Martin Valdez, Product Training Manager
? Woochang Lee, Smart TV Ops. Manager, LGEUS Content Innovation

Partner Client (Netflix)
? Magno Herran, Senior Partner Marketing
? Torie Gleicher, Sr. Manager, Originals Marketing, OITNB

Production: Helo
? Jeff Tremaine, Director
? Brendan Kiernan, Executive Producer
? Justin Moore-Lewy, Executive Producer
? James Okumura, Director of Integrated Production

Production: Gorilla Flicks
? Shanna Newton, Executive Producer
? David Siev, Office Manager

Editorial Company: Cosmo Street
? Aaron Langley, Editor
? Maura Woodward, Executive Producer
? Anne Lai, Producer

Audio company: Sonic Union
? Rob Mclver, Audio engineer
? Justine Cortale, Producer

CAA Marketing launched a new spot promoting Budweiser in China, starring actress Fish Liew and singer/actor Eason Chan. Chan also worked with DJ Alok on a song for the campaign.

A somewhat ambiguous dystopian sci-fi narrative with an impressive set, the spot finds Liew going through the monotonous motions of her daily routine when she imagines an EDM-fueled party and leaves her place in line (for work?). She stumbles upon a bar where Chan serves her a Budweiser and by the end of the spot she’s found her way to the real party.

It’s an ambitious approach, far more so than Budweiser’s attempts domestically, which lately seem to hinge on stoking patriotism (despite parent company A-B InBev being headquartered in Belgium).

In China, Budweiser isn’t quite the market leader it is stateside. CR Snow’s Snow Beer, which controlled over 23 percent market share last year, is the top beer brand in the country, according to Euromonitor International, while Budweiser accounts for around 3.6 percent, good for fifth place. Snow Beer overtook Tsingtao Brewery’s Tsingtao Beer as the number one beer brand in China several years ago.

Clearly Budweiser hopes CAA Marketing’s futuristic spot, complete with star power and EDM soundtrack, can help the brand continue to grow in the country.

“It’s a metaphor for people living in modern society in Shanghai, New York or Paris – people are doing their routine, living up to other people’s standards or expectations,” Matt Che, Budweiser’s North Asia-Pacific market vice president, explained to AdAge.

Interestingly the brand has been experimenting with utilizing EDM since before it became popular in the country.

“A brand shouldn’t always just see what consumers like,” Che said. “We should be taking them with us, beyond expectations.”

Credits:

Agency: CAA Marketing
Cast: Fish Liew, Eason Chan, Alok Petrillo
Kara:
Fish Liew
Co-worker: Olha Petrykkyiv
Co-worker: Talia Malovana
Co-worker: Wasuthond Chirawimuthrath

Production: Dapper TV
Executive Producer: David Lyons
Unit Production Manager: Kathy Tisler
1st Assistant Director: Pattra Kanjanamek
2nd Assistant Director: Panicha Pannasirichard
3rd Assistant Director: Phasakorn Mahakanok
Script Supervisor: Samavee Pummuang
Producer: Wicha Khokapun
Production Manager: Piyaporn Indageha
Coordinator: Pisanu Takasiyanan
Production Secretary: Nattaya Anuruk
Art Director: Sarayut Nimnate
Art Director Assistant: Saree Sicharoen
Art Team: Teerawat Singhadechachai
Art Team: Pongnarin Labkim
Art Team: Warawut Ruangkanokmas

So you’re an international business traveler based in New York who’s attending an overseas event in, say, southern France.

Since LaGuardia is probably not an option, you’re going to have to shell out 50 bucks for a cab to JFK … or are you?? United Airlines and mcgarrybowen New York have taken the opportunity to let the business class know that there is another way.

Agency and client teamed up with Verifone Media, Kinetic and some handy GPS software to show skeptical city folk that Newark Airport or EWR is considerably closer.

In place of your standard taxi-top ad, the agency fitted 125 yellow cabs with trackers to show exactly how much faster your commute would be if you were flying out of Jersey.

To get all technical, the displays are working on real-time data from the Curb app, which updates the time estimates based on the car’s geolocation and surrounding traffic patterns.

One reason for this campaign: A recent $120 million renovation to United’s Terminal C at Newark, which is the 15th largest hub in the country.

“The ‘New York Minute’ is all important to Manhattanites, yet many subjugate this tenet to the irrational view that JFK is their most convenient airport,” said mcgarrybowen ECD and managing director Haydn Morris. “How better to convince them than to utilize their favorite, iconic transport- plus everyone knows that taxi-drivers have the answer to everything, right?”

United director of global advertising Daniel Cuellar added, “We’re proud to work with mcgarrybowen and our media partners to launch this new and innovative technology on taxi tops that not only grabs the attention of New Yorkers, but helps deliver the message that Newark Liberty International is much closer and easy to get to than you think.”

Of course, by the time one flags the cab in question, the tickets have been bought. But maybe next time you have to fly 3,000 miles across the ocean to accept the Lion of St. Mark, you’ll consider a trip to Jersey. It’s not like you have to pay the property taxes or anything.

In addition to the taxi top placements, this campaign also includes OOH billboards, phone kiosks, bus shelters and in-airport units.

CREDITS

mcgarrybowen
Managing Director, ECD: Haydn Morris
Group Creative Director, Copy: David DiRienz
Associate Art Director: Steven Graziano
Sr. Art Director: Erik Jansen
Copywriter: Anthony Pagaza
Account Managing Director: Joey Ziarko
Account Executive: Amy Laughlin
Account Superviser: Kayla Friedman
Executive Director, Strategy: Diane Epstein

Taxi Media Network: Verifone Media
Verifone, Vice President Taxi Media: Chris Polos
Verifone, National Account Manager: Lonnie Passy
Verifone, Sr. Product Manager: Daniel Fish

Media Agency: Kinetic & MEC
Kinetic, Director: Robin Yablonski
Kinetic, Manager: Stephanie Chiu
Kinetic, Account Executive: Kelsey Moran
Kinetic, Assitant Account Executive: Micaela Moffa

MEC, Partner/Director: Megan Warfield