Hasta La Creative!

Doner was lead creative agency on the latest campaign for ADT, which also saw the brand work with SapientNitro and Mediacom.

The campaign is built around two 60-second broadcast spots starring Ving Rhames which launch today, entitled “Home Automation Makes Your Smart Home a Safe Home” and “ADT Home Security is Always There.” In the former, Rhames acts as the personification of the brand (sort of Allstate’s “Mayhem” in reverse), acting as “both the big brain at the center of your peace of mind and the big muscle to keep the peace.” The spot focuses on features such as smart controls and remote access for lights, thermostat and locks — or, as Rhames puts it, “You know, Space Age stuff.” In “ADT Home Security is Always There” Rhames demonstrates the omnipresence of ADT security by acting as a 24/7 bouncer for a residence, which, it turns out, comes in handy.

“Ving is the ideal personification of ADT, representing a sense of strength and confidence that can only come with the experience of 140 years in business,” said David DeMuth, co-CEO and president of Doner, in a statement. “What’s more is that Ving also represents the other side of ADT – the side with leading, connected technology. He has brains and brawn, and when it comes to protecting your home, family and business, consumers want both.”

Rather than revisiting Pierce Brosnan’s Bond-ish Super Bowl spot, David&Goliath takes the highway to the danger zone in its newest ad for Kia starring everyone’s favorite action star Blake Griffin.

The first ad in this campaign, which dropped in December, cast Griffin as an actor/turned Tombstone gunslinger who insists on including his Kia in the scene.

He’s even more of a “maverick” in this one, and he insists that the Kia Optima will go wherever he wants it to go while fulfilling his need for speed.

Come on, Blake, do some of that pilot shit!

Note the final disclaimer: “Do not attempt. Optimas don’t fly.”

Griffin isn’t really an actor or a pilot, but he can still be Kia’s pitchman anytime.

Credits

Founder & Chairman: David Angelo

Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery

Creative Director: Driscoll Reid

Creative Director: Chris Hutchinson

Digital Creative Director: Chris Robertson

Associate Creative Director: Basil Douglas Cowieson

Associate Creative Director: Greg Buri

Art Director: Marc Wilson

President: Brian Dunbar

Group Account Director: Brook Dore

Account Director: Mike O’Malley

Director of Digital: Josh Crick

Director of Digital Technology: Robert Boucher

Digital Account Director: Jeanann Grubbs

Account Executive: Kylie Lemasters

Digital Account Executive: Sarah Kirsch

Assistant Account Executive: Lauren Kelley

Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese

Executive Producer: Curt O’Brien

Executive Producer: Christopher Coleman

Digital Producer: Anna Cobban

Director of Art Production: Andrea Mariash

Project Manager: Kemit Ray

Director Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro

Associate Business Affairs Manager: Camara Price

Associate Business Affairs Manager: Ann Shelton

Product Information Manager: Russ Wortman

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker

Director: Stacy Wall

Executive Producer/Managing Partner: Doug Halbert

Executive Producer: Charlie Cocuzza

Producer: Candace Tomarken

Editorial: Spinach

Editor: Grant Surmi

Producer: Jonathan Carpio

Asst. Editor: Ben Reesing

Visual Effects: The Mill

Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris

Executive Color Producer: Thatcher Peterson

Producer: Will Lemmon

Color Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Creative Director: Robert Sethi

Production Coordinator: Benjamin Sposato

Colorist: David Ludlam

2D Lead: Andy Dill

3D Lead: Robert Chapman

2D artists: Nicholas Tayler, Gareth Parr, Trent Shumway, Lisa Ryan, Narbeh Mardirossian

3D artist: Kelvin Liang, Joshua Frankel, Mike Di Nocco, Matt Neapolitan, Katie Yancey.

Concept Artist: Lynn Yang

Matte Painter: Thom Price, Andy Wheater, Rasha Shalaby,

Music/Sound Design: Barking Owl

Executive Producer/Creative Director: Kelly Bayett

Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi

Digital Production Company: Wildlife LA

Executive Producer: Brandon Del Nero

Creative Director: Jake Friedman

Creative Director: Scott Friedman

Photographer: Chris Hornbecker

SS+K launched a new integrated campaign for Jackson Hewitt in anticipation of tax season, introducing the brand positioning, “Working Hard for the Hardest Working.”

A 30-second anthem ad  celebrates “Quttin’ Time” as it pictures cashiers, waitresses, construction workers, teachers, nurses and more ending a hard day of work over the Pete Seeger song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” The voiceover delivers the “working hard” line before promising “the biggest refunds” and “100 percent accuracy.” The spot’s footage works with the song selection to evoke the mood of a hard day’s work just ended before promising that Jackson Hewitt is on your side and will do whatever it can to earn you that maximum refund. Two 15-second spots — “Cashier” and “Waitress” — support the effort.

Bobby Hershfield, partner and chief creative officer at SS+K said of the spot’s song selection, “We wanted the music to be something that relates to our message of working hard for the hardest working but is charming and classic. Pete Seeger felt so right for what we were saying and the audience we were talking to.”

Credits:

Client: Jackson Hewitt

Project: “Working Hard for the Hardest Working”

Agency: SS+K

Partner, Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Hershfield

Senior Vice President, Director of Production: John Swartz

Executive Producer: Christopher McLallen

Senior Copywriter: Lindsey Lanpher

Senior Art Director: Alyssa Georg

Vice President, Account Director: Katie Dahill

Senior Account Executive: Keri Cook

Account Coordinator: Cameron Reilly

Production Company: Believe Media

Director: Bruce Dowad

Executive Producer: Jannie McInnes

Producer: Jane Thomson

Director of Photography: John Houtman

Service Company: The Capital Media Company

Executive Producer: Christian Allen

Editorial: Lost Planet

Executive Producer: Krystn Wagenberg

Producer: Taylor Colbert

Editor: Jacks Genega

Assistant Editor: Kyle Grandmaison

Colorist: Sofie Borup for Company 3

Finishing by Nice Shoes

The latest campaign from Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam for client Booking.com goes well beyond the service of booking a hotel itself and tells the story of (most of) one man’s life starting with the fateful moment he decided to use the service.

Booking Hero — an aimless guy in his mid-late 20’s — becomes husband, father, writer, shut-in, celebrity, and semi-retiree in less than a minute:

The release tells us that the campaign will also include four :30 spots, “five contextual online films that match user Google key word searches with a world of possible Booking.com stays,” and the standard social/digital/OOH/print materials.

The spot above is merely the first component in a campaign that launches on Sunday, when everyone is still comfortable in his or her not-quite-drunk post-Valentine’s Day cocoon.

W+K CD Genevieve Hoey writes:

“Our first campaign for Booking.com in 2013 established the brand and brought to life the ‘door moment’ of crazy relief and delight that occurs when you open the door of your Booking accommodation, to find its exactly what you wanted.

In this year’s campaign, Booking Right, we’re elevating our Booking.com consumers to accommodation hero status…It’s these people who understand that the power of a well-booked Booking accommodation can be life-changingly awesome.”

WIEDEN+KENNEDY AMSTERDAM

Executive Creative Director
Mark Bernath & Eric Quennoy

Creative Director
Genevieve Hoey & Sean Condon

Art Director
Victor Monclus

Copywriters
Will Lowe, Scott Smith

Head of Content
Joe Togneri

Executive Producer
Tony Stearns

Broadcast Production Assistant
Eleni Karathanasi

Director of Interactive Production
Kelsie Van Deman

Interactive Copywriter
Jake Barnes

Interactive Art director
Jeffrey Lam

Planner
Emma Wiseman

Comms Planner
Josh Chang

Group Account Director
Jordi Pont

Account Director
Aitziber Izurrategui

Account Manager
Caroline Melody Meyer

Retoucher
Dario Fusnecher

Studio Artist
Noa Redero

Project Manager
Stacey Prudden

Business Affairs
Michael Graves

FILM PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION COMPANY 
MJZ

Director
Dante Ariola

Director of Photography
Benoît Delhomme

Producer
Natalie Hill

Executive Producer
Debbie Turner

EDITORIAL
PEEPSHOW

Editor
Andrea MacArthur

Executive Producer
Jason Kremer

POST PRODUCTION / VFX
GLASSWORKS AMSTERDAM

Managing Director
Olivier Klonhammer

Senior Producers
Anya Kruzmetra, Christian Downes

Lead Flame
Morten Vinther

Flame
Kyle Obley, Urs Furrer

Nuke
Jos Wabeke

AFX
Ben Stoner

GRADE
COMPANY 3 LA / GLASSWORKS AMSTERDAM

Colorist
Stefan Sonnenfeld (Company 3)

Colorist
Scott Harris (Glassworks)

AUDIO POST
WAVE STUDIOS AMSTERDAM

Sound Designer/Mixer
Alex Nicholls-Lee

MUSIC
MUTATO MUZIKA

PHOTOGRAPHY
Neil Massey

Chicago-based agency The Escape Pod crafted a pair of “Falling Letters” spots for Wheat Thins in collaboration with production company Station Film.

Both spots feature a man interviewing his subject about snacking habits (“Real people. Paid participants.”) as, in the background, letters fall from a giant Wheat Thins billboard, crushing cars below them. As the letters fall, the sign spells out “Eat This” and the interviewer asks his subject to read the message. The brand seems to be selling this as prankvertising, or at least the names for the videos on YouTube (such as “Dude STUNNED when Wheat Thins Billbaord Falls onto Parker Cars) make it seem that way, but it’s kind of hard to imagine anyone falling for it.

According to Station Film’s Justin Reardon, however, there was a degree of spontaneity to the ads. “The Wheat Thins client showed a lot of trust because there was no blueprint for what The Escape Pod wanted to do,” he said. “It took a dedicated team fueled by a lot of open minds. And I think it all paid off and was lots of fun, too!”

Credits:

Client: Wheat Thins

Spot Names: Falling Letters

First Air Date: 2/9/15

Agency: The Escape Pod

Executive Creative Director:   Vinny Warren

Managing Director: Norm Bilow

Agency Exec Producer: Kent Kwiatt

Producer: Mary Ann Holecek

Creative Director: Kurt Lenard

Art Director: David Harper

Copywriter: Felicity Pal

Production Co.: Station Film

Director: Justin Reardon

Exec Producer (s): Michael Di Girolamo,

Producer: Norman Reiss

DP: Ross RIchardson

Editorial Co.: Cutters

Editor: Matt Walsh

Music & Sound Design Co.,:  Roll Sound Inc

Caroline Gibney

The Dallas-based agency Firehouse – which you may remember thanks to Interstate Batteries, twerk-happy clips, and/or Christmas pickles — returns with a new campaign for auto collision repair brand Service King.

Here, the indie agency makes it all quick and fairly painless with a series of spots starring a variety of characters including clowns, rodents, and seemingly narcoleptic types as seen above or below. It’s all about showcasing what “fast service” really means.

Whatever the given situation demands, it would appear that car care comes first for the brand and agency, who have been working together for several years now.

When the pair renewed their relationship nearly two years ago, Service King housed a budget of approximately $7 million with a focus on TV, radio, minimal outdoor ads and “robust digital marketing.”

We now have one component down; check out a third spot from the campaign along with credits below.

RPA went the musical route with its “The Ugly Couple Song” Valentine’s Day spot for XO Mints.

As you might have guessed from the title, the song celebrates love among the less attractive. “I was never pretty, not even as a child” begins the first narrator of the generic acoustic folk-pop song, as he goes on to describe being put in the back during school photos (even though he wasn’t tall). The song is then handed off to another singer, who says he’s glad he wasn’t taken, since that would have meant missing “the best date in the world.” While the humor never quite hits its mark (or at least is never a laugh-inducing type of funny), and the song is bland musically, the lyrics are kind of sweet (as that line illustrates), which is the real strength of the online spot.

“We want everyone to share XO Mints with someone they love, or with someone they’d like to, because, if they do, as the song says, maybe they can make ‘something beautiful,” said Dan Loritz, co-founder of XO Mints, in a statement. “And this is what we think the message of the song is about too—you don’t have to be a supermodel to make #SomethingBeautiful. We’re aiming Cupid’s arrow at everyone this Valentine’s Day.”

Credits:

Agency: RPA

Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli

Group Creative Director/Copywriter: Jason Sperling

Creative Director/Copywriter: Sarah-May Bates

Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff

Production Company: Bö’s House of Visual Arts

Director: Sarah-May Bates

Producer: Mark Tripp

Director of Photography: Ken Lin

AD/Gaffer: Adam Scheil

Production Assistant: Chris Grimshaw

Original song by Joshua Beeman

Music: “The Ugly Couple Song” performed by Run River North

Recorded at HUM Music

Executive Producer: Debbi Landon

Creative Director: Scott Glenn

Audio Engineer: Dan Hart

Graphics: Logan

Post Producer: Kaori Watanabe

Post Producer: Kevin Miller

Lead Design and Animation: Kristyn Solie

Design and Animation: Amy Wang

Animation: Omer Avarkan

Editorial:  Cut+Run

Editor:  Sean Stender

Head of Production:  Amburr Farls

Executive Producer:  Carr Schilling

Managing Director:  Michelle Eskin

VFX:  Jogger Studios

Creative Director:  David Parker

Telecine Company: Company 3

Colorist: Sean Coleman

WMcCann, Brazil introduces the new can “Pin Up” from Conti Bier with a 38-second spot.

The ad keeps things basic, showing the new can from the assembly line to being loaded into a refrigerator. After the message “The only one that takes it off” appears onscreen, the spot shows the can’s pinup as her top layer disappears to reveal her undergarments. As a selling-point for beer this is about as low as it gets, taking the Coors “cold-activated” schtick to new, even more gimicky places. “The cooler, the better” the spot concludes, which probably has to do with covering for the beer’s faults, with the “pin up” gimick their idea of a clever disguise. The real question, of course, is will this actually help sell more beer?

Ready for a semi-trippy buzzkill?

Leo Burnett Change, the “specialist social change division of the Leo Burnett Group,” teamed up with UK charity Meningitis Now to paint a one-minute portrait of a horrifying disease from a UX perspective.

This is the org’s “first-ever awareness film,” and it’s positively brutal:

The PSA first aired on Monday on Channel 5; there’s a website and a #FastestHour tag on all social media channels.

The ad even aired in cinemas before — we presume — tonally appropriate films like The Spongebob Movie.

The release tells us that the film is part of an “ongoing push to increase public knowledge of the disease,” and it certainly got our attention.

This is no joke; the org’s CEO says that “In the last year some 1500 people aged over 15 contracted the disease, some of who may have sadly died or, as our film shows, suffered life changing consequences.”

Lest you think this is a UK-specific thing, a high school student is currently undergoing treatment at Yale’s hospital for a bacterial meningitis infection; doctors gave her a 20 percent chance of survival.

And while media outlets everywhere freaked out over Ebola, more than 1,000 people died of meningitis in 2014 in Nigeria alone.

Creative Credits:

Client: Meningitis Now

Agency: Leo Burnett Change

Executive Creative Director: Justin Tindall

Creative Director: Beri Cheetham

Copywriters: Ben Newman & Milo Williams

Art Directors: Ben Newman & Milo Williams

Agency Producer: Helen Choonpicharn

Production Company: Bare Films

Director: James Lawes

Senior Executive Producer: Helen Hadfield

Producer: Tom Ford

Director of Photography: Malte Rosenfeld

Post-Production Company: Framestore

VFX Supervisor: Tim Greenwood

Editing Facility: The Quarry

Editor: Jim Robinson

Sound Design Company: 750mph

Sound Designer: Sam Robson

Channel: TV & cinema, UK

With sexual innuendo as skimpy as the :60 ad itself, UK-based Adam & Eve/DDB helps travel site LastMinute.com set the mood ahead of Valentine’s Day by showcasing the “sexy delights of Europe.”

No, we’re not talking about a romantic stroll along the Champs Elysees or a trip through the canals of Venice…it’s more a variety of real-life images illustrating the saucier side of life across the pond.

No cheeky stone is left unturned in this nicely edited, quickly-paced online film, which promotes a “sexy” multimedia campaign that also includes the #LustMinute hashtag, press, CRM, direct marketing work and online components on the Lastminute.com site.

Client: LastMinute.com
Campaign:: Sexy Delights of Europe
Agency: adam&eveddb.com
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Directors: Ben Tollett, Richard Brim
Creative Directors: Frank Ginger & Shay Reading
Copywriter: Frances Leach
Art director: Christopher Bowsher
Planner: Dom Boyd
Media Agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD
Production Company: cain&abel
Director: Robert Smith