Hasta La Creative!

With forthright honesty and humility, a new JCPenney ad acknowledges its missteps over the past year and humbly asks that people give them a second change.

The ad’s voiceover says, “It’s no secret. Recently, JCPenney changed. Some changes you liked, and some you didn’t. But what matters with mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing: to listen to you. To hear what you need to make your life more beautiful. Come back to JCPenney. We heard you. Now, we’d love to see you.”

It’s not often a brand admits its mistakes but in today’s social media-fueled openness, honestly facing challenging situations rather than attempting to sweep them under the carpet is the smart way to go.

Fitzgerald and Co. has created a beautifully innocent commercial for Coke which will air during the NBA playoffs. The spot, which follows the growing closeness of two teens as they spend the day together at an amusement park, is a welcome return to a time when simply spending time with one another was enough.

There’s never a knowing wink or hint of anything more than the wonder of budding young love. It’s almost shocking in this day and age of instant gratification and a certain rush to grow up before one has even had a chance to experience childhood.

Thank you, Coke. Thanks you, Fitzgerald and Co.

If this Allied Irish Bank ad were just in the usual fashion with some expensive camera, it wouldn’t be news. But because it was shot using an iPhone 5, suddenly it’s a big deal. But that can’t change the fact the ad is still a boring bank ad.

The spot is simple landscape imagery shot from a moving train. Not that there’s anything wrong with landscape shots but the ad isn’t really all that captivating.

Of the work, Rothco Creative Director Damian Hanley said, “It was a big decision to shoot the ads on the iPhone. But once we did some preliminary tests, we knew that they were able to deliver high quality footage.” Via.

Remember back in 2009 when BETC came out with Roller Babies for Evian? Well you should. The video, which featured a bunch of babies rocking out on roller skates, garnered upwards of 90 million views.

Now, BETC, along with help from We Are From LA, is out with a bit of a reprise. This time, it’s all about getting down with your inner baby and how it’s not really a bad thing to “live young” every once in a while.

n this outing, the babies appear to adults as reflections of their younger selves. The babies, and adults alike, then groove some dance moves to a Yusek remix of Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper.”

Additional campaign elements will include posters and outdoor executions depicting adults along with their baby selves. Also, an app, Baby & Me, will use facial recognition to transform uploaded pictures of adults into their baby selves.

2009 version:

In an advertising coup like none we’ve seen in a while — and a bold move for a conservative brand — GE hooked up with Hugo Weaving who once again donned his shades and Agent Smith suit from the Matrix movies.

The ad, which debuted this past weekend, has Agent Smith walking the hallways of a hospital touting the brilliance of GE software which allows it to “be in many places at the same time” — all while Agent Smith, himself, appears in many places at once.

The ad, created by BBDO New York, carries the menacing vibe of the Matrix movies so much so that you wonder if GE, itself, isn’t developing a Matrix of its own. Which, given the supposed prowess of its software, might not be so far from the truth.

The ad ends will a brilliant nod to the movie’s red of blue pill scenario.

This is funny. Hilarious, actually. What would it be like if you were driving down the road and all of a sudden “rate suckers” attacked your vehicle? That’s the premise of a new — and very different — Progressive Insurance ad created by Arnold Worldwide.

Looking for a stark contrast from its popular Superstore ads, starring Flo, Progressive tapped Director Ruben Fleischer of “Zombieland” and “Gangster Squad” fame for the campaign. The spots feature “rate suckers” latching themselves onto unassuming cars with their mouths–literally sucking the insurance rates of good drivers.

Progressive Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney explains rate sucking, saying, “A Rate Sucker is simply an over-the-top manifestation of an underpriced driver and can be anybody — your mom, the guy next door, the waiter at your favorite restaurant. We all probably know somebody we’re subsidizing. Snapshot helps solve that problem; showing consumers that their good driving can reduce the impact other drivers have on their rate. This campaign is our line in the sand to the industry and a wakeup call to consumers.”

Of course, the Progressive solution seems a bit Big Brotherish.

That’s the only conclusion we can come to after viewing this Facebook Home commercial, Airplane. We know what Wieden + Kennedy was going for here — bringing your social life to, well, life — but who in their right mind would want to admit they had a social life like this guy?

Granted, we all have crazy elements of our social lives but do we really want to share them all? It’s bad enough we have our phones stuck to our faces most of the day now and all this ad does is reiterate how bored we all are with our “real” lives and that we have to indulge in a collection of digital oddities to keep ourselves amused.

In what for the first 15 seconds appears to be your every-day, run-of-the-mill skinny jeans ad, this new American Eagle commercial turns out to be something a bit more daring.

The ad, released on YouTube two days a go has been seen by about 300,000 peoplel so far. In the 30-second ad, young people can be seen doing and saying young people things — skateboarding, “if it’s your passion, it isn’t really work,” “I love the feeling you get when you make something all on your own,” “I don’t want to be put in a box,” etc.

Part way through the ad — after a tight shot of a guy skateboarding and a girl’s ass in front of a mirror — it becomes clear these jeans are, indeed, very skinny. In fact, they aren’t jean at all. They’re just painted on these lithe bodies to look like jeans when what we’re really looking at is people’s naked asses.

Humorously, the ad contains a link that takes the viewer to a page on the American Eagle website where one can purchase limited edition cans (his and hers!) of spray paint touted as “our skinniest skinny jeans ever.” Yes, spray on jeans.

However, you can’t actually purchase a pair of these limited edition “jeans.” When one attempts to make a purchase, a pop up informs the jeans are temporarily sold out and the visitor is asked to enter an email address.

While the whole spray on jean thing has been going for some time, American Eagle has added a nice touch creating the deftly tongue in cheek ad.

Of the effort, American Eagle VP of Branding Bob Holobinko said, “When we fail to push things further, we become safe and don’t cut through the industry. We don’t ever want to become safe or expected.”

We absolutely love the approach Cake New York took when creating this Volvo XC60 and XC90 ad. The agency recruited some of the automotive world’s toughest critics, kids. They placed the kids, not child actors, in the back seat and had them talk about the vehicle.

Of course the kids were prompted to highlight certain things but the presentation is very natural and who doesn’t love a few cute kids talking about stuff? Not you? If you don’t you’re not ready. And you’re not ready for this vehicle. Which, of course, is perfectly fine because Volvo doesn’t want you. Yet.

Here’s a simple concept. Beer cans sweat when removed from the refrigerator. When they sweat, condensation forms on the outside of the can. When condensation forms, droplets of water form. When droplets of water form, gravity takes over and the droplets slide down the side of the can.

When droplets of water form and slide down the side of the can, creatives at M&C Saatchi Stockholm get busy making an ad for Carlsberg 33cl which, by the way, is not 33 calories. It’s 33 centiliters which is 11.16 ounces. I’m not even going to tell you the shame my non-metric American brain experienced coming to that conclusion.