Despite having told a bunch of Canadians this his resolution for 2014 was to stop talking shit “for a long time,” Kanye West will more than likely “cheat” on his plans for the new year within the next few days or so. When I saw him in Chicago a few weeks back, Yeezy (who seems to also have a few things in common with creative directors) dedicated about 30 minutes of his famous ranting to the argument that he wasn’t, in fact, as crazy as the media would have you believe. Give the guy a microphone, a podium, or an article in a national publication, and you have no idea what he’s going to say. That’s what makes him so much fun.

So, whilst we whittle away at our resolutions for 2014, creating numbered lists and attempting to convince ourselves of our own dedication to self-improvement and not being such drunk assholes all the time, a few creatives at Droga5 are encouraging us to put a twist of Kanye into our plans with “New Yeezy Resolutions.” Powered by a simple randomized quote generator, the microsite lets us re-live some of our favorite Kanye boasts from the past year, adding a few to our own resolutions if we feel so inclined.

For example, will you spend 2014 confident in your poor grammar? Embrace your inner Yeezy and promise yourself “I will spell the word ‘genius’ wrong.” Are you finally prepared to wholly embrace your alcoholism? Place one hand on your copy of Yeezus and recite the words, “I will be totally weird and totally honest and totally inappropriate at times.” What about some personal rebranding? Repeat after Kanye: “I will be like Nike.”

Have fun with this thing here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hmm. William Shatner just can’t seen to keep himself away from flames and explosions. Much like that turkey fryer video he did, Shatner can be seen among flames once again in this Visit California commercial created by MeringCarson

The latest entry in the campaign is a spot entitled Dreamers which highlights the fact California has always been a magnet for dreamers who dream big. The ad features singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, professional skateboarder Bob Burnquist and pro-surfer Rob Machado who let’s us know that, like us, he “puts his board shorts on one leg at time.”

Back in October, we brought you news of David&Goliath’s new campaign for Kia Optima starring L.A. Clippers power forward Blake Griffin and Jack McBrayer (an actor best known for his work on 30 Rock) as a superhero team saving people from non-Kia purchases. We were a bit disappointed with the initial spot, but hoped that the spot’s title “Trailer” indicated it was just a teaser for things to come. Now, David&Goliath have released two new spots for the campaign, “Zipline” (featured above) and “Apologize to You.” Unfortunately, both fail to live up to the potential of the premise.

“Zipline” features Blake Griffin and sidekick Jack McBrayer crashing in on a lame Internet shopping session. They present the Optima as a better option, to a man who is understandably freaked out by this series of events. Griffin and McBrayer have good chemistry together, but the spot fails to capitalize on it and ultimately falls flat. It might help if the two interacted more, instead of seemingly splitting screen time in separate shots.

That “Zipline” is actually the better of the two spots should tell you something about “Apologize to You.” The spot features Griffin and a fire extinguisher-wielding McBrayer demanding a passerby apologize for not selecting the Optima. It’s repetitive to say the least, lacking any real substance in exchange for a failed attempt at cheap laughs. Hopefully, the folks over at David&Goliath can rebound from these efforts, as we still think this campaign has the potential to be funny. Credits and “Apologize to You” after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This one’s been making the rounds for awhile now, but we thought we’d give some love anyway. McgarryBowen New York’s new spot for Verizion, “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” features the talents of Ed Norton. It originally aired on December 5th, although it was posted to YouTube about a week before that.

In the spot, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, Norton is thrown into a variety of dicey situations, with his Droid helping him get through most of them relatively unscathed. “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” opens with Norton waking up to find himself in a strange room, with his Droid still at 3% power. “It’s been an interesting 48 hours,” Norton says, followed by a flashback. We then follow Norton through his series of misadventures, which begins with him finding a lost wallet and using Droid to find the location. This leads Norton to a karaoke bar, where he ogles a taken woman while singing “If I Could Turn Back Time” (the funniest part of the spot).

From here, Norton’s misadventures include attempting to land a plane, being held captive, having a key found in his stomach, playing a high-stakes game of Connect Four, and being held captive once again. Its everything-goes-wrong brand of humor borrows a little bit from The Hangover series, and although the spot seems to employ the kind of random connections Grey NY used in their 2012 DirectTV campaign, the superior execution helps keep it from feeling too easy or derivative. The spot uses a clever setup to promote the Droid’s impressive battery life, and then finds ways to showcase the phone’s other features in the process. This is certainly a far cry better than McgarryBowen Chicago’s disastrous “Denskies” campaign for Sears. Bonus points for the excellent use of a Lykke Li song. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dwyane Wade and shoe brand Li-Ning, who partnered up last year, commissioned renowned British street artist INSA to create a “Make Your Own Way” mural bringing the Miami Heat star’s philosophy to life. But INSA didn’t just stop at creating the 30 x 20 foot mural, utilizing red, white, and black — the predominant colors used for Wade’s Overtown shoe. He created an animated gif of the mural, which he calls “gif-fiti.”

The unveiling of the mural, located in the Art District of Miami, was timed to coincide with the launch of Wade’s Li-Ning sneaker Way of Wade 2.0: Overtown, as well as Art Basel. Both Wade and INSA were happy to work together on the project. Wade said INSA “was a natural fit for Li-Ning Way of Wade as his style is bold and unique.”

INSA, meanwhile, claims that Wade’s “Make Your Own Way” message really resonates with him. “Wade is carving his own path and that resonates with me. I feel like I have lived my life the same way,” said the artist.

Creative agency Zambezi, put together a 2:34 video documenting the creation of the mural and subsequent gif, (featured above). It’s a really interesting look at INSA and his process, offering insights not only into this particular piece but into INSA’s outlook and philosophy. He begins by explaining how making .gifs really brought back vitality to his work at a time when he was growing tired of standard graffiti murals. If you’re at all interested in INSA or street art, it’s well worth the time. While “gif-fiti” is a new one to me — and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about it — INSA is doing intriguing things with it, bringing his art to life in ways otherwise impossible, while exposing his work to an entirely new audience.

INSA’s “Make Your Own Way” gif will go live on Brand Wade’s Instagram page today at noon. And if you’re in Miami you can find the mural at 286 NW 29th St and 3rd Avenue, Wynwood Miami, Fl 33137.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Last year, Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant faced off in an ad for Turkish Airlines, competing for a young fan’s attention. The ad, “Legends on Board,” became a gigantic viral success, now with over 105 million views on YouTube.

For better or for worse (definitely for worse), 2013 might as well be the “Year of the Selfie.” The ubiquitous word found its way into the vocabulary of everyone from grade schoolers to their grandparents and was even named Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year. If you’re sick of hearing people jump at every opportunity to use this word, we’re with you. At any rate, it’s undeniable that the selfie has won itself a lasting position in our culture.

In an attempt to recapture the success of last year’s “Legends on Board” spot, CP+B has brought back the Bryant Vs. Messi formula, this time positioning the two in a “Selfie Shootout” in which each attempts to one-up the other with self-shot photos in exotic locations. The spot is the first ad CP+B put together for Turkish Airlines since winning ad duties for the airline back in September, and it’s a fine first effort. Without giving too much away I can say that Bryant and Messi both jump through hoops to one-up each other, and their photos get more and more exotic and over-the-top as the minute long spot progresses. CP+B manage to work something of a surprise ending into “The Selfie Shootout,” incorporating another Internet photo phenomenon.

Can “The Selfie Shootout” hope to match the success of “Legends on Board”? We would say yes. The entertaining ad incorporates the selfie phenomenon, has a much larger production budget than Alametifarika’s work last year, and is designed to jumpstart conversation. “The Selfie Shootout,” which was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, has already surpassed the 5 million view mark, and is certainly not showing any signs of slowing down. Its combination of star power, humor, and topical references make it just about unstoppable. Make no mistake, people will be talking about this one for some time. Our reservations about the overuse of “selfie” aside, we can’t blame them. “The Selfie Shootout” is just plain fun. Credits after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Have you ever noticed how much Kanye West has in common with your Creative Director? The over-inflated egos, aimless pontificating, batshit crazy quotes. Well, you’re not alone: some mystery genius (or geniuses) created Kanye Vs. Creative Director, a site that supplies quotes and asks you to identify whether they came from self-proclaimed genius Yeezus or a self-proclaimed genius Creative Director. Or, as they put it on the site, “They both talk like they’re God’s gift to the Earth, but the lines have gotten so blurred that it’s hard to tell who said what. Until now.”

Once you enter the site you’re given the option to play Kanye Vs. Creative Director, or to submit quotes from your own Creative Director — a nice touch that ensures the site will continue to grow. Then the fun begins, and it’s harder than you might think to distinguish which quotes are from a Creative Director and which are from a famous, narcissistic rapper. A sampling: “Sometimes I get emotional over fonts.” Sounds like a sure bet for Creative Director, right? Nope, that one was Kanye. Now picture Kanye crying over Comic Sans. There you go, fun, isn’t it?

“You won’t understand my genius until, like, two years from now.” Okay, that seems like a safe bet for Kanye, no? Actually no, that was a real thing said by an actual Creative Director. You get the idea. Of course, some of them actually are easy, but you’d be surprised how often it’s difficult to distinguish who said what. When you answer a question you get a little message from either Kanye or the Creative Director, offering encouragement for a right answer and ridicule for a wrong answer. The Creative Director might say, for example, “I thought you were better than this,” or “Great job rolling with the punches,” while Kanye might offer up, “We don’t wanna hear that weak shit no more” or “You actin ballerific like it’s all terrific.” It’s a funny, clever idea, and the site is a fun way to spend a few minutes at work (provided your Creative Director doesn’t catch you). The only problems with Kanye Vs. Creative Director are that it doesn’t track your progress, and the quotes just keep coming in an infinite, seemingly random loop (which means you might get stuck with some repeat quotes after only a few minutes). Nitpicking aside, we’re glad someone thought this one up. Hopefully Kanye doesn’t find out about it.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Belarusian tennis player Victoria Azarenka may have LMFAO hair-fluff RedFoo, but Rooster NY has the next best thing: a new employee who may or may not be SkyBlu. Can we just take a second to look at how ridiculous the proper nouns are in that sentence? Enough odd syllables in there to give a linguist a migraine. Anyway, Rooster’s in-house video shows the uncomfortable relationship between SkyBlu’s stunt double (actually Art Director Justin Steinburg) and Gavin McInnes as McInnes tries to figure out if his new colleague is a millionaire pop-rapper who likes, among other things, shots, Miami, champagne showers, bad sunglasses, and even worse hair.

Rooster’s previous side projects always reach for the ridiculous laughs, with McInnes regularly playing the office’s clueless father figure when he’s not getting punched in the face. This is no different. Here’s to celebrity look-a-likes and the hope that Mr. Steinburg gets a haircut.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

W+K and Dodge kick off an unusual digital contest today, “Hands on Ron Burgundy,” the latest in the cobranded marketing collaboration between Dodge and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Based on the “Hands on a Hard Body Contest” — developed at a Texas auto dealership in the 1980s, that saw contestants compete to win a vehicle by keeping their hands on their desired automobile the longest — “Hands on Ron Burgundy” sees fans compete by “using a computer mouse or touchscreen to place their ‘hands’ on a digital image of Ron Burgundy.” The contestant who keeps their “hands” on Burgundy the longest in a single session time will win a new 2014 Dodge Durango. There are also hundreds of other prizes, including three trips to the premiere of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues in New York on Dec. 15.

Hosted over at Funny or Die, the contest debuts today and runs through Nov. 25. Throughout the competition, Dodge will also be offering “mini-games and challenges to draw fans in and keep them engaged, while also learning about features and attributes of the new 2014 Dodge Durango.”

“Hands on Ron Burgundy” seems appropriately ridiculous for the Anchorman series, and fans should have a lot of fun with it. So far the partnership with Anchorman 2 has worked well for Dodge, with visits to the Dodge website up 80%, and “shopping” activities at the site up 100% since the beginning of the tie-in campaign. With the film’s national release of December 20th quickly approaching, fans’ anticipation should work in the campaign’s favor. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If there’s one thing the Internet loves (aside from cats and pornography), it’s cheesy celebrities from bygone eras. This has accounted for the revival of figures like Rick Astley, who has reemerged in the public consciousness thanks to rickrolling. RPA seeks to cash in on the phenomenon with their “Happy Honda Days” campaign, featuring Michael Bolton, the man once referred to as a “no-talent ass clown” in Office Space who returns to advertising after stints in spots like the one for Optimum earlier this year.

The campaign contains four new spots, all of which feature Bolton singing. Each spot begins by asking “What does it feel like to get a great deal at Happy Honda Days?” before answering with an original holiday song from Michael Bolton. (These would have been much funnier if they had made Bolton sing “When a Man Loves a Honda,” but I digress…) Our favorite is the spot featured above, in which Bolton’s singing is met by blank stares (probably the most honestly depicted reaction of the four spots/how we would react in that situation). As you can surmise, RPA went for the goofy approach with this campaign, in the hopes that people find the spots memorable. It would help if there was a little more variation among the four 30 second ads, as they all feel like basically the same spot. In addition to the TV campaign, there will be a live social media event on November 22nd featuring Bolton delivering personalized messaged under the promoted hashtag #XOXOBolton, as well as print and radio campaigns.

We don’t know about you, but we can’t see or hear anything about Michael Bolton without thinking of this. Credits and second “Happy Honda Days” spot after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.