SportsCenter Ad Discovers Secret to Rafael Nadal’s Success With the Ladies

Fresh from his U.S. Open triumph, Rafael Nadal comes on like the candy man in ESPN's latest tongue-in-cheek SportsCenter spot from Wieden + Kennedy in New York. Network personalities John Anderson and Bram Weinstein just can't figure out why Rafa is such a chick magnet around the ESPN offices. Could it be his tan? His dimples? Keep your shirts on, gentlemen, because the answer comes at the end, when we learn that it's the sweet, sweet stuff in Nadal's big, shiny cup that keeps them coming back for more. Roger Federer's commercial performances, even when he's pimping Lindt chocolates, are never as tasty.


    

Tom and Gisele Strut and Sing Their Way Through Their Latest Ads

It's a good week to be the Bündchen-Brady offspring. Their already-considerable trust funds likely just got even fatter, as their telegenic, brand-bait parents—that would be supermodel Gisele and football star Tom—busted out their latest advertising work for H&M (hers) and UGG Australia (his).

In Gisele's singing debut—or digitally enhanced talk-singing debut, if you will—she does a cover of the Kinks' iconic "All Day and All of the Night" to promote H&M's rocker-rific fall clothing line. (There's a Unicef tie-in so you can feel good about buying her version on iTunes.) The teaser video of the 33-year-old Brazilian bombshell landed just ahead of the TV, print, online and outdoor ads debuting next week.

Brady, meanwhile, continues his UGG for Men sponsorship with a mini-walk through his career from high school gridiron standout to Super Bowl champ. The spot, "For Gamechangers," from M&C Saatchi in Los Angeles, will rotate for four months with other ads starring guys whose better halves haven't graced the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Still, they're being billed as inspirational dudes (who wear UGGs?).

Check out both spots below.

UGG CREDITS
Creative: M&C Saatchi
Media: KSL Media
Social Media: 360i
Public Relations: M&C Saatchi PR


    

Kobe Bryant Brings His Mad Beethoven-Playing Piano Skills to Lenovo Ad

Lenovo has moved on (at least for the moment) from comparing itself to Apple to having Kobe Bryant play Beethoven on the piano with symphonic accompaniment for no reason. Really. There's barely a connection made between Lenovo's product line and Kobe in this Chinese spot, though there are worse things in life than gratuitous piano playing. For those of you who are surprised that Kobe had this talent, check out his six-second video that was the inspiration for the ad. He has said the Moonlight Sonata, in particular "calms me down when I reach my breaking point."


    

Barry Sanders Disappears Once Again in Pepsi MAX Ad Tied to Madden NFL 25

Barry Sanders has always been good at the vanishing act. He did it most famously in 1999 by retiring from the NFL at age 30, when he was just 1,457 yards short of the league rushing record. He does it again, comically, in this new Pepsi MAX ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and director Matt Dilmore. In the ad, Sanders, getting a shave at a barber shop, is about to reveal the real reason he retired—but suddenly he goes up in a puff of smoke, and reappears in the living room of some gamer who has "unlocked" him while playing Madden NFL 25, thanks to a code on a Pepsi MAX cap.

Sanders' involvement with Madden NFL 25 goes beyond the new ad. Though he's been retired for almost 15 years, the 45-year-old was recently voted by fans to be the cover athlete of the game's latest edition. "Being on the cover of Madden introduces you to so many new fans that never saw you play," he said recently. "It's been a thrill for me, and I just never saw it coming."

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Pepsi MAX
Spot: "Disappearing Sanders"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
President: Carisa Bianchi
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Creative Director, Copywriter: Zach Hilder
Creative Director, Art Director: William Esparza
Senior Copywriters: Anne Sanguinetti, Kathleen Swanson
Art Directors: Kristina Krkljus, Jenn Tranbarger
Group Account Director: Grace Kao
Management Supervisor: James Aardahl
Account Executives: Erik Wade, Rohit Bal
Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Planner: Drew Phillips
Executive Producer, Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Associate Producer: Stephanie Dziczek
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Manager: Maryam Ohebsion
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Eugene Gandia

Production Company: Epoch Films
Director: Matt Dilmore
Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Head of Production: Megan Murphee
Line Producer: Geoff Clough

Editing: Cut + Run
Editor: Graham Turner
Assistant Editor: Russell August Anderson
Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin
Senior Producer: Christie Price

Visual Effects: Framestore
Flame Artist: Trent Shumway
Executive Producer: Kati Haberstock
Producer: Mary Nockles

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Mix: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber


    

Chrissy Teigen Surprised by Giant Waterfall of Skittles at Photo Shoot

Chrissy Teigen, whom you may remember from her Sports Illustrated and Maxim appearances, was surprised by a Skittles waterfall during a recent photo shoot that was actually an ad stunt by Olson. It's generally a faux pas to dump candy all over someone without telling them first, but Chrissy took it in stride. She may have even welcomed it as a break from what was essentially the same retro pin-up photo shoot (with the same retro one-piece) that every other twentysomething girl in the country has been doing recently. "Surprise the Rainbow" is still a potentially dangerous piece of advice, though.


    

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s Old TV Commercials Are Amazing

Bryan Cranston, the DEA's No. 1 pain in the ass during his iconic run as meth kingpin Walter White on AMC's Breaking Bad, has been getting some press lately for his early-'80s work in the commercial below for Preparation H (a product that basically defined the Reagan Era). Cranston's earnest take on lines like "It accelerates the absorption of oxygen to help shrink swelling of inflamed hemorrhoidal tissue" is so unironic, it's ironic.

UProxx posted a bunch of his ads from that decade, and Cranston's vaunted range is on full display. He's a smarmy "high-paid fashion model" for JCPenney, a bugged airport runway worker for Deep Woods Off, and a B.O.-cursed bus commuter dressed up as a skunk for Shield deodorant soap. (In some of these, his glib line deliveries and feathered hair remind me of the late, great Phil Hartman.)

Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul also did some early commercial work, notably a mind-blowing Juicy Fruit ad with a telekinetic twist from 2000, also posted below. (I wish Paul would shill for Preparation H and coin the catch phrase, "For when it itches, bitches!") On Breaking Bad, Cranston and Paul's characters often escape by the seats of their pants, but with their peril growing as the show winds down to its final episode, it will take more than Preparation H to save them from a painful end.


    

Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch Play Their Own Fathers in Hilarious Ad for Madden 25

EA Sports goes back to the future with this dumb-in-a-funny-way spot by ad agency Heat for Madden 25. In the '80s, we're told, two guys playing an early version of the football video game decided to spawn offspring whom they'd be able to use in the game somewhat. Thus were born current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. (The fathers, "Darian Foster" and "Marshawn Lynch Sr.," are played, of course, by Foster and Lynch themselves.) It's a somewhat convoluted concept that comes across as well done, right on target for sports and video game obsessives, and a nice way to celebrate the Madden franchise's 25th anniversary—even if the kids' gym workouts are over the top in a way that feels a little like Old Spice's Terry Crews was their personal trainer. Credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: EA Sports' Madden 25

Agency: Heat
Creative Directors: Warren Cockrel, Anna Rowland
Senior Art Director: Mark Potoka
Senior Copywriter: Ben Salsky
Content Producer: Vera Kacurova
Account Director: Eddie Garabedian
Senior Strategist: Daniel Teng

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Executive Producer: Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Rachel Curl

Post Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Christjan Jordan
Executive Producer: Damian Stevens

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: John Leonti

Music Company: Beacon Street Studios
Composer: Andrew Feltenstein


    

Adidas Lets Fans Jump for Derrick Rose Sneakers in London Pop-Up Store

Here's a simple concept executed simply for Adidas. This beautifully shot, expertly cut short tells the story of the opening of the D Rose Jump Store in London. This unique store gave fans a chance to jump with the Chicago Bulls point guard to get a pair of Derrick Rose signature Adidas sneakers. Hundreds of fans descended and tried to make the 10-foot jump. Great moments, from Rose laughing at a girl who can't get enough air to helping a kid reach a pair, are offset by some pretty impressive jumps—including a dude who not only reaches the shoes but manages to kiss them on the shelf. Best pop-up store promotion in a while.

    

David Fincher Directs Rooney Mara in Calvin Klein Fragrance Ad

David Fincher's Calvin Klein commercial starring Rooney Mara exists in a dreary, dreamless dimension beyond banality and cliché. It occupies a zone so soullessly stylized that "style" loses all meaning … a wasteland so unironic that irony screams for release, only to go unheard. This 60-second black-and-white spot introducing CK's Downtown fragrance plays like an unfunny parody of its putrid genre—yet it's very real, which makes irony scream all the more. In other words, it's like every other pretentious, faux-artsy perfume and fashion commercial. Maybe more so. Fincher previously directed Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network. "Runaway" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays on the soundtrack. The ad features puppies, buses, rain, subways, earbuds and a press conference. A lot of stuff happens in slow motion. Mara cracks a smile, which The Huffington Post seems to think is a big deal. I'm not sold on the name of the perfume, either. How does downtown usually smell? In my experience, it stinks. Print ad below the video.

    

Bill Hader Can’t Catch a Break in T-Mobile Ads, His First Post-SNL Gig

Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader has teamed up with T-Mobile to become the brand's first spokesperson in several years not to wear a bright pink dress. The spots, directed by Adam & Dave of Arts & Sciences, advertise a new program called Jump, which does away with the crazy multi-year wait times for phone upgrades—a $10-a-month fee lets you upgrade twice a year. The spots, created by Publicis, show Hader in unfortunate but familiar situations like dropping his phone in a urinal, trying to dry it out in some rice, getting one-upped by someone with a better phone, having it squished by a large mustachioed man, and getting stuck with a phone that won't hold a charge. Hader is funny, but even funnier is Brian Huskey of Swagger Wagon and Sonic commercial fame, who delivers his usual awkward deadpan brilliance.

    

Bruce Lee Rises Again in Johnnie Walker Ad, but He’s Not All There

Re-enter the dragon? Johnnie Walker and BBH resurrect Bruce Lee via CGI technology (and footage of lookalike actor Danny Chan) for this boring Chinese commercial. The spot, approved by Lee's daughter Shannon, has proven predictably polarizing. Some critics trot out the old objection that showing dead stars in ads is in poor taste, while others claim the memory of Lee—a paragon of physical fitness and athleticism before his death 40 years ago this month, at age 32—is somehow tarnished by his doppelgänger pitching whisky.

The bigger problem is that the ad is dull, something its inspiration never was. Fake Lee walks around a Hong Kong balcony, runs a hand through some water in a pool and mouths lines like, "Dragons never die, because dragons draw power from water. Water. It's like instincts … You cannot grasp hold of it. But let it flow and it has the power to change the world." Dude, drop-kick the faux-losophy … you're supposed to be Bruce Freakin' Lee! The guy was a human CGI machine who routinely defied gravity with furiously elegant fighting moves he choreographed himself. How can you bring him back and not put him in motion—shirtless, freaky, fists-and-feet-flying motion!?

Heck, they should have shown CGI Bruce battling barehanded against Undead Audrey Hepburn—or at least something more groovy than what's on display here. Far from being disrespectful, I believe a highly physical, even frenetic approach would have honored Lee and captured the essence of the man. Bruce Lee was a mischievous badass who reveled in his sensational stunts and brought a transcendent sense of subversive fun to his movies. His violent yet controlled release of kinetic energy forged his connection with audiences around the world. Flying through the air while screaming at the top of his lungs was his defining spiritual statement. Instead, the spirits brand pours us prattle about being a … "game changer"?! Bruce would have demanded such jargon expunged from his film scripts and employed his unshod feet to smack the silly screenwriters upside their heads.

Sadly, the ad fails because Lee is present in body—sort of—but not in spirit.

    

Thirsty for the Hoff? He’s Back, and Singing About Iced Coffee, for Cumberland Farms

Hey, David Hasselhoff, want to make a cheesy video? That rhetorical question came from East Coast convenience-store chain Cumberland Farms. His answer? Well, what do you think? The Hoff, long past the drunken sad-clown days of eating burgers off the floor, is firmly rooted once again in a self-deprecating happy-jokester period. He worked with Cumberland Farms last summer, and according to reports from the brand's ad agency, Full Contact in Boston, increased the chain's iced-coffee sales by a whopping 147 percent. (Thieves also became quite enamored with the cardboard cutouts of the Hoff placed outside the New England/Florida chain's stores.) This new campaign—more of a goofball Lonely Island-style music video—has the Hoff hang-gliding, skiing with dolphins and vamping on the beach, all while singing (er, "singing") and holding a ginormous Cumberland Farms Farmhouse Blend iced java. The clip already has 150,000 YouTube views and earned the Hoff and the marketer a prime spot on CNN's morning news show. (He called in by "surprise" on Monday. Watch the clip after the jump and see him get New Day's "When You Wish Upon a Star Award" for making somebody's dream come true.) The ad hits all the Hoff's infamous marks, like shots of his bare, preternaturally tanned chest, melodramatic song lyrics, wind-blown hair and knowing winks at the camera. Thirsty yet?

    

Adidas’s Tribute to Andy Murray Is Pretty Sweet, Too

Robinsons isn't the only British brand drafting off Andy Murray's historic win at Wimbledon yesterday. The Adidas ad above, posted to Twitter, is nice and simple and a worthy tribute. The tennis star's other sponsors, including Head and RBS, also congratulated their man on Twitter. Head even used the same headline.

    

Rory McIlroy Battles a Robot in Chipper Ad for Golf’s European Tour

This ad for golf's European Tour pits Northern Irish phenom Rory McIlroy against a wise-cracking golf-ball-hitting robot named Jeff in a contest to see who can chip the most balls into washing machines on a driving range. (As a kid, McIlroy practiced this way for some reason. Perhaps he was raised in a laundromat.) "Losing to a robot is a bit like losing to Martin Kaymer," Jeff quips. Golf humor—as lame as the game itself. When a washer lights up and sounds like a pinball machine, the bot asks, "Is that the same noise you heard when you signed your sportswear contract?" Yeah, paying Rory $100 million to wear the Swoosh and battle better-known cyborgs is much better than feeding starving people around the world. Thanks, Nike! The video has gone viral with almost 2 million views in four days. The washing-machine imagery is goofily memorable, but the video's four-minute running time feels like 40 minutes to me. McIlroy giggles incessantly. I kept hoping the robot would chip the guy into one of the washers, or maybe tear off his arms and use them as clubs. I guess we'll have to wait until Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia are paired up again to see something like that on a golf course.

    

Nike Gives Kevin Durant a Second Chance at Being Drafted First

"He can't ball, he just tall." With smack talk on his sneering lips, 5-foot-9 forward Anton Barrels makes his commercial debut in this Nike Basketball spot from Wieden + Kennedy, set during a shirt vs. skins draft in the Maryland hometown of real-life 6-foot-9 superstar Kevin Durant. The ad, directed by David Gordon Green of Chelsea Pictures and edited by Geoff Hounsell of Arcade Edit, introduces Durant's KD VI Nike shoe, and he gets chosen first for the local game. It's all a big in-joke, because Durant was famously taken second in the 2007 NBA Draft, trailing Greg Oden, who's probably worn casts more often than sneakers during his injury-riddled pro career. (Where's Greg's new footwear line, you heartless bastards!? Dude's got doctor bills to pay!) The commercial is amusing even if you don't know the backstory, though it helps. Frankly, I was rooting for Barrels, a sweat-soaked, tie-and-tank-top-wearin' everyman, to be the top pick, because his misplaced moxie steals the show. Sorry, Kevin, but in my book, you're still No. 2. Credits below.

CREDITS
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O’Rourke
Art Director: Jason Campbell
Copywriter: Nathaniel Friedman
Account Supervisor: Jordan Muse
Account Executive: Jessica Shaw
Executive Producer: Matt Hunicutt
Producer: Chris Capretto

Production Company: Chelsea Pictures
Director: David Gordon Green
Director of Photography: Eric Treml
Executive Producers: Allison Amon, Lisa Mehling, Pat McGoldrick
Head of Production: Adam Guliner

Editorial: Arcade Edit
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Assistant Editor: Sean LeGrange
Managing Director: Damian Stevens
Executive Producer: Nicole Visram
Visual Effects: Airship Post
Visual Effects Producer: Greg Heffron
Color: Sean Coleman at Company 3
Sound: Jeff Payne at Eleven Sound
Color Company: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin

    

How Does Superman Shave? Gillette Asks Some Supergeeks Who Might Know

Gillette has a super-geeky Man of Steel tie-in and YouTube takeover going on right now, where they ask an impressive list of celebrities, "How does Superman shave?" Bill Nye, the science guy, offers a theory based in materials science. Super-geek movie director Kevin Smith suggests he uses a piece of the spaceship he came to Earth in (while detailing and dismissing some super other amusing theories, including the one from the comics that he uses his heat-vision reflected in a mirror to burn each hair off). The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik (whom you may know as Blossom, and who also has a real Ph.D in neuroscience) puts forth that Superman has super-Nair. Finally, the MythBusters guys give five or six theories before landing on the Large Hadron Collider. Surprisingly, but not in a bad way, no one said with a Gillette razor. It's a smart idea and a great tie-in. Ad agency Concept One came up with the notion for Gillette. If you want to hash over your own theory, tweet at #HowDoesHeShave. Or just search it to geek out on the crazy pseudo-science theories. Asking comic-book nerds to argue an absurd bit of superhero minutiae on social media? Their evil plan just might work! More spots below.

    

No, Seriously, Golf Is a Real Sport, Says Nike’s New Tiger Woods Ad

Tiger Woods's latest chapter in his blood oath to Nike is this ad from Wieden + Kennedy in which the golfer is compared to a track-and-field competitor, a boxer, a basketball player and a baseball player (referencing Babe Ruth, no less). The idea is to stress golf's athleticism, but all it did for me was reinforce how lethargic golf is compared to sports where people aren't driven around in carts with other people who carry all their stuff. I would like to see how Tiger trains for big tournaments, though, so maybe next time Nike could be less roundabout in its approach. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Nike Golf
Spot "The Sport of Golf"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Don Shelford + Rob Thompson
Copywriter: Tom Sebanc
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Felicia Glover
Account Team: Scott Sullivan + Karrelle Dixon
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Susan Hoffman
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Bob Industries
Director: Brad Parker
Executive Producer: TK Knowles
Line Producer: Melissa Murphy
Director of Photography: Morgan Susser

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Kyle Valenta
Post Producer: Lauren Pullano
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

VFX Company: The Mission
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
VFX Supervisor: Mark Kolpack
VFX Producer: Ryan Meredith
CG Lead: Pitor Karwas
VFX: Rob Trent

Music Composer: Philip Glass
Sound Designer: Jeff Payne
Song (if applicable): "67 Cities"

Mix Company: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Producer: Caroline O’Sullivan

    

Bradley Cooper Is Hot, but Not Quite Cool Enough, in Team One’s Hard-to-Believe Häagen-Dazs Ad

That hunky Bradley Cooper can do anything he wants, you understand, including strolling into an elegant cocktail party eating ice cream straight out of the container. Lapses in etiquette be damned—just look at those baby blues! And he even brought his own spoon. It helps that he's visiting The House of Häagen-Dazs, which isn't a real place but more of a sugar-fueled fever dream, in this new spot from Team One in El Segundo, Calif. There's a raven-haired supermodel (Jana Perez) who latches onto the smokin' hot Oscar nominee and onetime Sexiest Man Alive for canoodling purposes. Oh but wait, she just wants his dessert. Sure, she does. The General Mills brand, which shot this all-slow-mo, no-dialogue commercial in an 18th-century Baroque chateau in Prague, has never used a celebrity before. (European brand Magnum used a car-hopping Rachel Bilson in a campaign directed by Karl Lagerfeld for its decadent ice-cream bars a few years ago. Could this be a trend?). The Häagen-Dazs ad, meant to luxe up the brand, comes from director Allen Hughes of the famous filmmaking Hughes brothers. It fairly sizzles, and it's hot outside. Eat up!

    

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Prepares for the French Open by Practicing Against Twitter

French tennis star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is preparing to play against a robot. Surprisingly, it's not Roger Federer, renowned for his robotically stiff commercial acting and machine-like winning ways (including those 17 Grand Slam singles titles). Today at 11 a.m. ET, at a practice session for the French Open, Tsonga will take on an actual automaton, which will try to hit shots past the world's eighth-ranked player based on tweets supplied by fans as part of a promotion for banking giant BNP Paribas (and agency We Are Social).

Fans visiting the Tweet & Shoot site can log in with Twitter and drag and drop tennis-ball icons to set up virtual shots, which are then encoded as hashtagged tweets which the on-court bionic Borg will decipher—and then spit out a real ball for Tsonga to hit. Users are also encouraged to include messages of encouragement to Jo-Wilfried, who has never won a Grand Slam event. Forty fans chosen by BNP's social communities are guaranteed to have their shots included at Tsonga's session with the robot. The rest will be picked at random from among the tweets. Folks with no lives whatsoever can check out Tweet & Shoot's streaming coverage of the event at the link above. Maybe the bot will blow a fuse, leap over the net and swat Tsonga like a fly.

    

He Shoots, He Scores: David Beckham’s 10 Most-Viral Commercials

David Beckham is retiring from professional soccer, but he'll never stop making ads. One of the world's most prolific pitchmen, the former England captain has sold everything from underwear and soda to hamburgers and, yes, athletic gear—building, with posh wife Victoria, the Beckham brand into a global juggernaut. (David alone is believed to make more than $40 million a year in endorsement money.) At the link below, check out the 10 most-viral commercials Becks has ever done, as compiled by Unruly Media. And like Michael Jordan before him, expect to see plenty more Beckham ads for years to come.

Video Gallery: David Beckham's 10 Most-Viral Commercials