Hasta La Creative!

Stun Creative put together the 5th annual “Summer by Bravo” multi-platform promotional campaign for that network. The campaign, which imagines the Bravo universe as a circus complete with 35 Bravolebrities and James Lipton as a human cannonball, debuted last night with its first, 60-second spot, with five additional spots planned to roll out over the course of the summer.

Fans can check out the first spot at Bravo’s website, where they will be forced to sit through an ad while waiting to watch another ad. The promo spot is pretty much what you’d expect from the “Summer by Bravo” series, with the network’s trademark campiness in full force. Still, it’s hard to imagine even the most diehard Bravo fan going to the site to seek out the promo, when they could just, you know, watch it during commercial breaks on Bravo.

The spot was auto-play, so you’ll have to click through to watch it.

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Team One and Lexus have launched a new series on Lexus’ broadband channel L/Studio, entitled “It Got Better.”

“It Got Better” is a six-episode docuseries telling “the inspiring personal stories of a diverse group of LGBT actors, athletes and musicians including Jason Collins, Jane Lynch, Tim Gunn, Tegan & Sara, George Takei and Laverne Cox.” A collaboration between Team One, executive producers Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky, and the It Gets Better Project (executive producers Dan Savage and Brian Pines), the docuseries just launched with its first episode, featuring Jane Lynch, star of Glee and, more importantly, Party Down. Lynch tells her story of growing up identifying more with boys, discovering her sexuality and treating it as something she was afraid her peers would discover, to finally embracing and accepting it and finding a supporting community. It makes for compelling viewing, well worth the time if you have six minutes or so to spare (yes, this runs a bit long), and a promising start to the “It Got Better” series, which has the potential to do a lot of good for struggling teens. We look forward to upcoming installments (especially from George Takei).

Credits and video after the jump. continued…

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A couple of weeks ago we brought you news of “Baseball is Better,” Mutt Industries’ campaign for MLB 14: The Show, the latest iteration of Sony’s long-running baseball simulation series. Now, Sony and Mutt Industries seem to have a reason to celebrate, as MLB 14: The Show’s first week sales were the highest in franchise history. As you may remember, Mutt Industries recruited Danny McBride (best known for playing Kenny Powers on Eastbound and Down) for the anthem ad launching the game.

In the weeks following the launch of the campaign, Mutt Industries has continued to roll out content at campaign site www.baseballisbetter.com, including the recent, slightly misogynist “Miguel Cabrera Gets Faster with Quick Counts.” As the season progresses, Mutt Industries and Sony will release over 100 unique videos via YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, featuring various MLB stars. So far, in addition to Miguel Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen, Brandon Phillips, Jason Heyward, CC Sabathia, David Ortiz, and Brett Lawrie have all joined in on the action to show how “Baseball Is Better.” You can check out Cabrera’s recent spot above, and stick around for a refresher of the Danny McBride anthem ad after the jump. continued…

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So we get a press release and it’s all like “Given that the Beautyrest Black mattress fuses luxury and technology for the ultimate sleep performance, Simmons has tapped racing and auto performance aficionado Patrick Dempsey for the spring campaign.”

And we’re like, cool. We haven’t seen McDreamy in a while. We wonder if he’s still as ageless as ever. Well, we could hardly tell. Because he’s hardly in the ad.

Aside from a couple of quick Dempsey shots, the spot, created by kbs+, is a mess of hyperboles, pontifications and desperate attempts to luxurify the notion of basic sleep.

As Meredith used to say, “Seriously?”

It’s just a mattress.

Lance Reddick, who you should know as Lieutenant Daniels on The Wire, takes center stage in Raleigh-based agency Baldwin&‘s new campaign for Cree LED Bulbs, entitled “The Room of Enlightenment.”

The digital campaign features Daniels Reddick in a series of loquacious spots extolling the virtues of LED bulbs, which compare favorably to the incandescent ham fryers you grew up with. Relying on solid copywriting and Reddick’s excellent delivery, the spots are memorable without any frills or fancy production touches. The campaign comes on the heels of a recent incandescent bulb ban, with stores still trying to sell their remaining stock of the soon-to-be relics. One spot, “Gray Market” (featured above) pontificates that there will soon be an illicit market for incandescent bulbs where you may find yourself  “trading jugs of grandpa’s porch juice for bulbs out of a rusty hatchback from a guy with a tattoo on his forehead who goes by the name of Rattlesnake.” In other, clever spots, Reddick uses a competitor’s oddly-shaped bulb as a ping-pong paddle, and talks metaphorical money goats. Stick around for a couple more spots, along with campaign credits, after the jump. continued…

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Ant Farm and Activision have released the official reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the upcoming title in the best-selling series, featuring the voice (and digital likeness) of Kevin Spacey.

Audio from the spot was leaked several days ago, which some hypothesized was from a House of Cards viral campaign. With the audio already making the rounds, Activision posted the reveal trailer late last night, Adweek reports. The 2:46 trailer features Spacey’s character pontificating about the futility of attempting to spread democracy. What people really want, he insists, is someone to protect them and give them boundaries. You know, someone like him. The spot ends with the “Power Change Everything” tagline, and November 4th release date.

Advanced Warfare is a bit of a departure for the Call of Duty series, with the story centering around an ill-intentioned private military corporation. As a tie-in, 72andSunny and Activision teamed up with Vice to produce a chilling short documentary on the rise of private military contractors and whether the events of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare could actually happen. It makes for a few minutes of interesting (and pretty damn scary) viewing, and one of the more intriguing pieces of branded content we’ve seen. We’ve included it after the jump, along with limited credits for the reveal trailer.

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At the beginning of the month, Wongdoody debuted a new spot for Amazon Fire featuring Gary Busey — which was predictably weird. Now Wongdoody is back with an interactive video, just in case that wasn’t enough Gary Busey for you.

The new video allow viewers to select from 23 items, from a blowfish to a surfboard to a monkey with a party hat, which Busey will then talk to. “Talking to Things With Gary Busey” contains over 450 individual annotations within a 15:30 YouTube video, with each item selected bringing the viewer to a different point in the video. Options to click through to purchase Amazon Fire are spread throughout the video. Apparently the video “also features several secret clips that users can only find by navigating deeper within the experience,” although it’s unlikely most viewers will stick around to discover them as the interactive video adds little to the joke from the original spot, basically drawing out a kind of funny idea well past its welcome point. Credits after the jump. continued…

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W+K Portland went all out in getting celebrity talent for “Winner Stays” the latest iteration of their “Risk Everything”campaign for Nike.

The 4:12 film plays off the idea of pretending to be your favorite star players while playing a pickup game with friends. “Winner stays” says one side of one such pickup game, and soon players are claiming to be famous soccer stars and taking on their unique skill sets. It’s a fun idea, although it’s stretched a bit thin at over four minutes long. W+K is betting that with World Cup fever spreading people will stay around for the star power, which includes the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. and Wayne Rooney, a host of other soccer stars from around the world, and a few unexpected cameos. During the action, the spot offers the first glimpses of Nike’s new Magista and Mercurial Superfly.

“We connect to players’ passion for the game, whether it is the world’s best in Brasil or players in the park or street, explains Davide Grasso, chief marketing officer for Nike. “‘Winner Stays’ taps into an experience that every young player around the world will recognize – competition with friends and the idea of playing with your heroes or pretending to be them.”

While it may be fun and expertly crafted, it’s pretty hard to get over the run time for the full-length “Winner Stays.” Four minutes is just a really long time to expect people to sit through an advertisement and the new product reveals are relatively deep into the spot. Thankfully, there are abridged versions, with run times of 3 minutes (still pretty long), 90 seconds, 60 seconds, and 30 seconds. Stick around for full credits after the jump. continued…

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Caviar director Ruben Fleischer joined forces with cover girl Emma Stone, who recently starred in his film Gangster Squad, for a new original short for Vogue.

The spot sees Fleischer and Stone playing themselves, discussing Stone’s latest role. Fleischer, who wrote and directed the short, plays the stright man. Stone, meanwhile, has some unusual ideas to prepare for her role as a nun, all of which involve magic. As you may have guessed, things get a little bit silly, but the humor never quite connects and the premise feels a bit forced — even if “Everyone loves magic, even nuns.”

Stick around for credits after the jump.  continued…

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I don’t know. Give this next chapter of Bud Light’s Up For Whatever entry a view. To me it just comes of as if it were an overzealous ad school student version of the original. If you recall, the brand launched a celebrity-studded version of this ad during the Super Bowl in which the likes of Don Cheadle, Minka Kelly and Arnold Schwarzenneger along with One Republic show one guy an epic night.

In this second outing, a couple of guys, Jesse and Luis, get to hang with NBA All Stars Alonzo Mourning, Karl Malone, Penny Hardaway, Bruce Bowen, Darryl Dawkins along with Benny the Bull and experience a basketball lover’s dream.

It all falls kind of flat.