Hasta La Creative!

BBH New York launched a new campaign for Sony PlayStation, the brand’s promotion featuring discounted games and systems, running from June 9-17.

Set to the Steve McCarthy-penned “It’s A Sunshine Day” song from The Brady Bunch, the spot opens an idyllic suburban neighborhood on a perfect summer day. Except the pool is empty, there’s no one on the tennis courts, even the ice cream truck is abandoned. You probably know where this is headed.

A man walks into one of the houses to find seemingly the whole neighborhood gathered around watching two opponents square off in MLB: The Show 17, one of the games featured in the promotion, ending by highlighting that the limited-edition gold PS4 shown is $249.99 as part of the offering.

The 30-second spot made its debut yesterday and comes on the heels of the brand selecting AKQA D.C. as its new digital agency, following a review. It’s unclear if the assignment will impact the scope of BBH’s relationship relationship with PlayStation.

Credits:
CLIENT:
Eric Lempel, Senior Vice President Marketing & Head of PlayStation Network, SIEA
John Koller, Vice President, Marketing, SIEA
Eric Lachter, Director Brand Marketing, SIEA
Alex Gomez, Brand Manager, SIEA
Dianne Segovia, Brand: Associate Marketing Manager, SIEA
Alex Hackford, Senior Artists & Repertoire / Music Affairs, SIEA

AGENCY:
John Patroulis – Creative Chairman
Gerard Caputo – Executive Creative Director
Dave Brown – Creative Director
Daniel Bonder- Creative Director
Alex Thompson – Art Director
Alanna Watson – Copywriter
Bruno Borges – Head of Design
Breck Henson – Director of Business Affairs
Finnian O’Neill – Business Director
Kendra Schaaf – Account Director
Enrique Espinetti – Account Manager
Brian Groff – Account Executive
Kate Morrison – Head of Production
Adam Perloff – Executive Producer
Kendra Salvatore – Strategy Director
Dylan Fauss – Strategist
Zack Green – Communications Planner
Kelly Bignell Asedo – UX Director

PRODUCTION:
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Furlined
DIRECTORS: Speck & Gordon
DOP: Jeff Cutter
LINE PRODUCER Greg Schultz
EDITOR: Andy McGraw
EDIT COMPANY: Cartel
VFX: Blacksmith
SOUND DESIGN: Q Department
MIXER: Tom Jucarone, Sound Lounge

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION COMPANY CREDITS:
Furlined President: Diane McArter
Furlined Senior Executive Producer: David Thorne
Furlined EP/Director of Development: Ben Davies

Danny Trejo has a face made for commercials.

Ever since we saw his decapitated head on the back of a turtle in Breaking Bad, something told us this guy was gonna go places. Beyond his star-making Snickers BBDO Super Bowl spot a couple of years ago, he has now become the unofficial face of Sling TV, the pick-and-choose service for The Millennials that we still don’t really understand.

A new campaign by Society, the global media/digital network launched by IPG Mediabrands in February, plays on the simple fact that Trejo looks like a badass motherfucker to let all those old school cable brands know their time is up.

Here he is telling some bachelor party bros to chill the hell out.
And here he is showing his softer side to a young, sad caffeine fan.
See, media agencies can produce creative too!

The ads are running in both English and Spanish to attract as many of the young peoples as possible. As client CMO Glenn Eisen told Portada, “Danny was someone who could reach across the aisle; he was someone who was extraordinarily appealing to both market, and we fell into it very serendipitously.”

He continued, “We have such an important marketing message to share, and with him, we got to break through the clutter. As chord cutting continues to accelerate, and you see defection from pay TV, you are going to see that audience get more mainstream than it is today, but for now, our audience is defined by their behavior.”

So, full disclosure: we have not been cable subscribers since 2004, excepting a three-month period in 2011 that lasted until we realized that day-after streaming gives you far better picture quality. (It really isn’t about the ads.)

We don’t know what the solution to all this chronic cord-cutting will be, but we don’t really feel like Sling is quite there yet. Also … Breaking Bad was so much better than Better Call Saul, and we say this having watched every episode of both shows.

CREDITS

Agency: Society
Client: Sling TV
EVP, Managing Director: Rob Bernstein
Chief Creative Officer: Nick Childs
Executive Creative Director: Roberto Alcazar
Executive Creative Director: Josh Greenspan
Associate Creative Director: Sarah Dennis-Browne
Art Director: Brooks Hess
Graphic Designer: Ilyssa Mooney
Copywriter: Fernando Diaz-Morlet
Copywriter: Courtney Harris
Campaign Producer: Rob Farber
Head of Production: Jeremy Mack
Executive Producer: Alicia Calderon
Group Account Director: Karen Uribe
Account Manager: Ricardo Delgado
Project Manager: Michelle Geller
Director of Business Affairs: Kathy Rottach
Production Company: Smuggler
Co-Founder: Brian Carmody
Executive Producer: Brian Carmody
Co-Founder: Patrick Milling
Executive Producer: Patrick Milling Smith
Director: Benji Weinstein
Executive Producer: Drew Santarsiero

It’s hard out there for a company selling furniture online. Given that Amazon will soon rule us all, how can a business make its discounted stuff stand out from another retailer’s discounted stuff?

In pretty much every case, the answer is price. But a new campaign by VSA Partners of Chicago for client Hayneedle (which is a competitor of Wayfair and Joss and Main) takes things in a different direction by imbuing the act of buying and, more importantly, owning furniture with as much emotion as one can possibly fit into 90 seconds.

The idea is that a house isn’t a home without furnishings … and home is where the heart is, after all. Just look at all these cold, empty urban spaces.

Note the near-total lack of identifiable products.

“We know that ‘home’ is much more than just furniture and décor, and we wanted such values to be communicated in our marketing and communication efforts,” said Hayneedle VP of marketing Jeremy Podliska. “We want to refresh and stir up [our commoditized category] by going back to the basics of what ‘home’ can mean for families in today’s world.”

Agency partner and ECD Bob Winter added, “It takes a smart brand to resist the category conventions and not talk strictly about themselves—or about selling ottomans and loveseats at low prices—but instead tap into a sincerely personal and emotional message.”

The VSA team did that with the help of some thematic cinematography and Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson, who wakes up every morning angry that his name isn’t Jeff Buckley.

Beyond the broadcast spot, which launched last week on the major networks, the campaign also includes digital display, radio and print work (below).

Ron Foth Advertising launched an animated spot promoting the “Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs” exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences, which runs through January 7, 2018.

So what is a Pterosaur? You’re probably already familiar with Pterodactylus, the genus of species within the Pterosauria order whose members are commonly known as Pterodactyls. Pterosaurs were an order of flying reptiles (which coexisted with but are separate from dinosaurs) which lived from the late Triassic through the Cretaceous period, and were the first flying vertebrates.

The spot opens on a diminutive and colorful Pterosaur gliding through the air, presumably the smallest known member of the order, Nemicolopterus.

“Millions of years ago, he ruled the skies,” begins the voiceover. “In flight, no one was a bigger deal,” he continues, “except this guy,” as a giant Pterosaurs soars overhead and the clouds part to reveal a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The voiceover explains that the flying reptiles ranged from “the size of a sparrow to the size of a jet” before inviting viewers to discover the “massive mysteries of Pterosaurs” at the museum.

It’s a fun way to introduce the exhibit, giving a glimpse as to the wide variety of Pterosaur species and the magnitude of the larger specimens. The colorful animation and movie trailer-esque voiceover should pique the interest of younger viewers while hinting at what the exhibit has to offer.

To promote the Conrad Prebys Africa Rocks exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, which encompasses flora and fauna from six different African habitats, M&C Saatchi L.A.and production company Gentleman Scholar took the “Africa Rocks” theme and ran with it.

The resulting animated spots are colorful, imbued with 80s nostalgia (in the music, font choices, color-scheme, etc.) and psychedelic imagery. Think safari-themed Lisa Frank folder come to life and you’ve got the idea. There’s a 30-second anthem ad, as well as six 15-second spots focusing on the exhibits different animals and habitats.

M&C Saatchi worked with designer SCROJO, who has worked with Moby and The Red Hot Chili Peppers on gig-style posters for the campaign’s OOH component. The agency also collaborated with illustrator Kyle Lambert (Stranger Things, Super 8) on print ads.

“By choosing the name ‘Africa Rocks’ for the Zoo‘s newest habitat, we knew rock and roll would play an important part in telling our story,” San Diego Zoo chief marketing officer Ted Molter said in a statement. “Our collaboration with M&C Saatchi LA and their creative partners brought the spirit, nostalgia and diversity of rock to this amazing collection of engaging content, setting the stage for an unexpected African experience showcasing the Zoo‘s Rock-stars – penguins, lemurs, baboons, meerkats, crocodiles and leopards.”

“The team was given an incredible creative opportunity with the exhibit’s name ‘Africa Rocks.’ We were inspired to illustrate the diversity of habitats & animals through familiar rock themes and iconography we all grew up with,” added M&C Saatchi L.A. associate creative director/art director Ron Tapia. “By implementing a different style for each media and habitat, the ‘Rock’ theme was consistent, but every piece of creative felt both fresh and a little familiar at the same time, appealing to the San Diego Zoo’s wide audience.”

Credits:
Client: San Diego Zoo
Chief Marketing Officer: Ted Molter

Marketing Director, Communications & Interpretation: Debra Erickson

Associate Director, Design: Damien Lasater

Associate Director, Communications: Mike Warburton

Agency: M&C Saatchi LA

Executive Creative Director: Maria Smith

Associate Creative Director/AD: Ron Tapia

Associate Creative Director/CW: Ben Lay

CW/AD: Stephen Reidmiller

Director of Content Production: Dennis Di Salvo

Print Production Director: Brian Bushaw

Group Account Director: Mike Wilton

Account Director: Makeia Carrier

Print Poster Illustration:

SCROJO

Kyle Lambert

Production Company: Gentleman Scholar

Directors: William Campbell and Will Johnson

Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris

Head of Production: Rachel Kaminek

Art Director: Michael Tavarez

Producer: Nikki Maniolas

Designers: Hana Eunjin Yean, JP Rooney, Macauley Johnson, Andy Lyon, Brandon Smith, Cam Floyd, Hanna No, James Levy, Kelly Jung, Paul Kim

2D Animators: Chris Finn, Macauley Johnson, Andy Lyon, Danni Fisher-Shin, Henry Pak, Jeffrey “Jip” Jeong, Yoogin Seol

AE Compositor: Ramzee Hogan

Cel Animators: Abigail Magno, Andy Lyon, Laura Yilmaz, Sean Buckelew

3D Animators: Jamie Sawyer, Sarah Wolfe

3D Generalists: Chris Finn, Tim Hayward, Jacques Clement, Jessica Ramirez, Mike Cahill

3D Rigger: Tim Hayward

Nuke Compositor: Chris Brown, Matt Lavoy

Music Company: Yessian

Creative Director: Andy Grush

Executive Producer: David Gold

Senior Producer: Katie Overcash

Composers: Jimmy Haun, Andy Grush

Mix Company: Margarita Mix

Mixer: Paul Hurtubise

Unlike Pied Piper and NotHotDog, Emojibator is a real business. And it was started by a man, which is somehow appropriate?

Anyway, its only products are vibrators inspired by the eggplant and chili pepper emojis you have seen elsewhere on the internets.

According to our trusty press release, art director Kyle Janisch of New York’s The Terri & Sandy Solution recently brought this amazing product to his boss’s attention, inspiring the agency to create a promo campaign based on a particular statistic regarding orgasms.

That was an advertisement. And here is another one, told from the male perspective.

Someone get these guys to an all-male screening of Wonder Woman, or something. Since advertising is obviously still a boys club, maybe they can just launch their own agency.

However you may feel about this company and/or the campaign, it does have a decent tagline: “Go fuck yourself. Literally.”

“If there’s a time to laugh, it’s during International Masturbation Month,” said agency co-founder Sandy Greenberg.

Who knew there was such a thing?

CREDITS

CLIENT: EMOJIBATOR
Founder: Joe Vela
Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer: Kris Jandler

AGENCY: TERRI & SANDY
Executive Creative Directors: Terri Meyer, Sandy Greenberg
Creative Director/Copywriter: Scott Rosenblit
Art Director: Kyle Janisch
Copywriter: Earl Myers
Account Supervisor: Dani Blevins
Senior Account Executive: Emily McCormick

PRODUCTION COMPANY: REFORM SCHOOL
Director: Evan Silver
Producer: Ryan Ennis

EDITORIAL: LOST PLANET
Editor: Mike Sobo
Assistant Editor: Juliana Rodzinski

SOUND: JEFF GORDON PRODUCTIONS
Sound Designer: Jeff Gordon

Sholing FC, the grassroots semi professional soccer team for the Sholing district of Southampton, England were unable to receive promotion not due to the quality of their play, but their facilities.

The poor condition of the club’s pitch means they couldn’t meet the standards of more senior leagues. So Budweiser decided to surprise the team with a £100,000 grant through its Club Futures program.

Anomaly, production company Bullion and director James Willis documented the occasion while claiming to be filming a documentary about the team. Budweiser was so taken with the results that they decided to release the spot as a 90-second broadcast version running during the FA Cup, in addition to the full-length online version. Whether or not the surprise itself was staged, the spot shows the brand making a real difference with the donation and FC Sholing is clearly elated to be given the opportunity to upgrade its facilities.

W+K London found an unusual way to encourage customers to “Go Roam” for Three Mobile.

A new CGI spot promotes the network’s feature allowing users to turn data roaming on while abroad. To do so, W+K London compares the “nervy” feeling of using your phone abroad on other networks with a wobbly baby giraffe. With Three, on the other hand you can turn data roaming on and “flaunt it.”

You know, like a giraffe-amingo. Wait, what?

The 30-second spot hinges on the reveal of the imaginary combination, created to embody the idea of “freedom,” and corresponding musical cue. The 30-second spot made its debut yesterday and will be supported by OOH, print, digital and social initiatives. You can expect more animal mash-ups in ensuing spots.

“This is the first in a string of animal mash-ups we’re launching for Three, with each one representing a different feeling of being on Three – in this case, freedom,” W+K London creative directors Dave Day and Larry Seftel said in a statement. “It’s been an incredible team effort to get to our final campaign and we’re really excited by the new visual world we’ve created.”

“Go Roam” follows Three CEO Dave Dyson‘s reveal of the new feature to Three customers on Facebook Live and a subsequent “Come Fly With Three” gameshow style event hosted by Paddy McGuinness. Created in collaboration with Cow PR, the event resulted in Three sending the entire audience on a trip to Las Vegas.

BBDO New York launched a new campaign for GE Appliances, following the company’s sale to Chinese appliance conglomerate Haier for around $5.4 billion last year, entitled “Good Things, For Life.”

The campaign is centered around a trio of 30-second broadcast spots featuring the tagline, which a press release cites as “a nod to the company’s past and a look toward the future.”

Each of the spots aims for everyday humor while also touting technical innovations like voice activation via Amazon’s Alexa and a fridge with a Keurig brewing system. In “All Elbows,” for example, a busy mom with food-covered hands pre-heats the oven while picking up the bottles her children just threw (with her elbows).

Another spot showcases voice activation and the Keurig brewing system with a look at a “Fish Funeral,” while a third shows a wife thankful for what is jokingly referred to as an “Eew removal features” after she discovers her husband using a salad fork as a back scratchers.

“We’ve been perceived as a trusted brand for decades, but we need to continue to stay relevant and top of mind with shoppers,” GE Appliances chief marketing officer Rick Hasselbeck explained in a statement. “We believe people will connect with the refreshingly honest, real-life humor in the campaign, because, let’s face it, real life is funny.”

The first of the three spots made its broadcast debut yesterday during the Billboard Music Awards and the campaign’s media buy also includes broadcast slots during the finale of NBC’s The Voice and the premieres of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelorette.

Hasselbeck expects the campaign’s tagline to be long-lived, stating, “We take the ‘good things, for life’ tagline to heart and, much like our products, it’s one we want to endure for years to come.”

You’ve seen the headlines.

“Florida Man” has become synonymous with a certain type of crazy that seems to be highly concentered in The Sunshine State thanks to myriad headlines utilizing the phrase. A few recent highlights include, “Florida man steals sausage, jumps off bridge to avoid arrest,” “Florida man with suspended license drives lawnmower instead” and “Florida man crashes car into sheriff’s ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ unit.”

The phrase has spread through social media and become an internet trope, a ubiquitous enough phenomenon to spawn both its own Twitter page and subreddit.

22squared decided to combat the “Florida Man” stereotype while using clickbait featuring the phrase for a good cause and launched “The Florida Man Project” for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. The campaign utilizes “Florida Man” clickbait titles like “Florida man and boy struck by lightning!!! Caught on phone! and “Florida man attacked with can opener! Shocking video!!!” to drive traffic to short mentoring videos designed to help recruit volunteers, with geo-targeting aimed at Tampa area men.

The videos end with the message, “Be the man that makes Florida proud” (as opposed to the “Florida Man” of those embarrassing headlines).

“The ‘Florida Man’ is a regular source of Internet humor. Outrageous ‘Florida Man’ headlines are a popular share on social media, regularly breaking on the evening news and often making their way into the late night talk show circuit. The laughable buffoon depicted in people’s social media feeds is not the real Florida man,” 22squared creative director Matthew Zaifert explained in a statement. “The other is a Big Brother, the type of man that makes Florida proud. We are excited to reach real Florida men with this fun and compelling social campaign and welcome them to the rewarding Big Brothers Big Sisters experience.”

“Unfortunately, the struggle to recruit male volunteers is one we know very well. Fun and creative initiatives like this are a great way to refresh our marketing,” added Claire Selius, director of marketing and communications at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. “We’re always looking for outside of the box ways to recruit mentors, and this is a unique opportunity for that!”