In this new spot for paint brand Dulux, BBH London creates a charming, vibrant fantasy where colors, rather than alcohol, are outlawed during America's Prohibition days.
Everyone's feeling as glum and washed out as their drab surroundings as our heroine mopes around, oblivious to a potential suitor. The bit where a cop on the beat crushes a golden flower beneath his boot as a little girl looks on is a cute, tongue-in-cheek touch.
Directors Christian & Patrick of Park Pictures don't rely on black-and-white photography, which can, in some instances, look nostalgic and inviting. Rather, the film's palette is gray and faded, its colors barely perceptible, an effective technique that adds a splash of realism and enhances the downbeat vibe.
Suddenly, bullets fly, cans and barrels are punctured and smashed—and some lucky folks start seeing the world in different hues. (Maybe they just needed a few shots of bathtub gin.)
"The spillage was all done on a pre-prepared canvas so that we didn't get any on the roads," BBH creative Martha Riley tells AdFreak. "The production designer created a massive sort of jigsaw of the canvas which was laid on top of the road and the edges were taken out in post. We were very lucky with the weather that day as there were looming rain clouds, but we managed to shoot the scene before the daily downpour."
The narrative defines happiness in broad strokes, which seems entirely appropriate for a paint commercial. Ultimately, the film does a fine job of blending color and mood, and its message isn't easily brushed aside.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Dulux Agency: BBH, London Creative Team: Martha Riley, Richard Glendenning Creative Director: Nick Allsop Team Manager: Hannah Madden Team Director: Tracey McIntosh Strategy Director: Tom Roach Strategic Business Lead: Ann-Marie Costelloe Producers: Georgina Kent, Ruben Mercadal Assistant Producers: Phil Cross, David Lynch Production Company: Park Pictures Director: Christian & Patrick Executive Producer: Stephen Brierley Producer: Richard Fenton Director of Photography: Benoit Delhomme Postproduction: Electric Theatre Collective Producer: Matt Williams Shoot Supervisor: Yourick Van Impe Lead Flame Artist: Giles Cheetham Flame: Andrew Stewart, Yourick Van Impe Nuke: James Belch Lead 3-D Artists: Remi Dessange, Gerard Dunleavy 3-D: Dan Marum, Laury Guintrand Matte Painting, Gerard Dunleavy, Dave Gibbons Grading: Aubrey Woodiwiss Editing House: Peepshow Post Editors: Andrea Macarthur, Lizzie Graham Sound: Raja Sehgal, Grand Central Sound Studios
Out of nowhere, we're suddenly seeing some pretty incredible ads for guide dogs.
In January, we had the Norwegian Association of the Blind's amusing PSA with the menagerie of nondog guide animals. Now, we swing in the other direction completely with this intense ad for Holland's Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation. We won't spoil it, but this remarkable ad will leave you with even more appreciation for dogs and the skills they bring in communicating with humans.
The spot is by ad agency Selmore Amsterdam and Caviar director Rogier Hesp.
There's an ad blog called Creative Criminals, but here's the real thing—federal prison inmates who are trying their hand at copywriting and art directing thanks to a program called Concepting With Convicts, launched by two interns at DigitasLBi in San Francisco.
Ben Pfutzenreuter and Pat Davis used prison pen-pal websites to contact the inmates and get them involved in the program. The inmates provide either the copywriting or the art direction on each ad. "We realized that if we could contact convicts themselves, maybe we could also show them that their creative talents can translate into a real career on the outside," Davis tells PSFK.
On the website, Pfutzenreuter and Davis say of the initiative: "We hope it proves two things: that creativity can be a career, and that good ideas can come from anywhere."
Chips Ahoy delivers with a series of spots from The Martin Agency featuring an animated cookie prone to minor, entertaining mischief. The 30- and 15-second shorts get all the key details right—the pauses, and the simple but absurd expressions.
It's a good play for the kids who'll clamor after the product. The moms who do the grocery shopping may not be so thrilled that the brand is egging on their little angels.
Then again, who could stay mad at a face like that?
Four months after it began, the legal battle between GoldieBlox and the Beastie Boys appears to be winding down, as the band has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the toy maker over the unauthorized use of the song "Girls" in a commercial—in exchange for an apology and a donation to charity.
We sincerely apologize for any negative impact our actions may have had on the Beastie Boys. We never intended to cast the band in a negative light and we regret putting them in a position to defend themselves when they had done nothing wrong.
As engineers and builders of intellectual property, we understand an artist's desire to have his or her work treated with respect. We should have reached out to the band before using their music in the video.
We know this is only one of the many mistakes we're bound to make as we grow our business. The great thing about mistakes is how much you can learn from them. As trying as this experience was, we have learned a valuable lesson. From now on, we will secure the proper rights and permissions in advance of any promotions, and we advise any other young company to do the same.
So, the company is claiming its actions were simply based on inexperience—which seems like a stretch considering how quickly GoldieBlox got the lawyers involved originally, but at least the apology is out there. The undisclosed revenue donation will go to a charity selected by the Beastie Boys that supports science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls—which the GoldieBlox products also promote.
The fight began after GoldieBlox featured a reworked version of the song in an empowering girl-power ad that went viral online in November. GoldieBlox preemptively filed a lawsuit hoping that the song would be ruled a fair-use parody. The Beastie Boys then countersued.
A little bit lost in all the legal wrangling, though in some ways the point of the whole mess, is one simple truth: music really can make or break an ad. The GoldieBlox commercial, "Princess Machine," soared with the "Girls" soundtrack, but became a shadow of itself with a different song.
It's a wonder that cat-related brands don't already rule the Internet.
Cat-food brand and renowned jingle lover Meow Mix makes a move in that direction with an amusing and even potentially useful parody of Kickstarter—called Catstarter—envisioned as a way to crowdsource cool new cat-related inventions. Ad agency EVB conceived the site as a playful, feline-focused version of the well-known crowdfunding platform. But instead of actually backing Catstarter projects financially, you can just click on the ones you like, and Meow Mix will produce the most popular ones.
The site launches with three products; the top vote getter will go into production this spring. (The heated companion keyboard is an inspired one that I'll back right now.) It's also an R&D lab of sorts, as the brand also wants people to suggest ideas for making kitty lives better—something we can all get behind, yes?
Full credits below.
CREDITS Client: Meow Mix Campaign: Meow Mix Catstarter Agency: EVB Executive Creative Director: Steve Babcock Creative Directors: Patrick Maravilla (Copy), David Byrd (Art) Art Director: Tom Zukoski Copywriter: Nate Gagnon Designer: Markandeya Sendan Illustrator: Natalia Martinez Motion Graphics Designer: Kevin Brown Sound Designer: J. Michael Neal Director of Technology: Ken Goldfarb Lead Interactive Developer: Josh Kanner Interactive Developer: Ken Crosby Senior Producer: Kevin Turner Vice President, Director of Account Management: Kathleen Foutz Strategist: Neeti Newaskar Producer: Kevin Turner
Click over to the site to zoom in and scroll around the comprehensive chart. It's organized by varieties of beer, with examples of brands for each type. Says the company: "This wall map is the most complete charting of beer ever, breaking down ales and lagers into over 100 delicious styles from hoppy IPAs to fruity lambics, and including over 500 individual beers as notable examples of each style as well as glassware recommendations."
Colorado is proud to be the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use. Ad creatives in Colorado are happy to have an opportunity to make stoner references.
Three new PSAs for the state's Department of Transportation (by Denver agency Amélie Company and HSI director Simon Cole) gleefully remind would-be weed smokers that they are free to act like idiots while doing many things—but not while driving. Get high and do a bad job installing your TV. Get high and do a bad job playing basketball. Get high and do a bad job cooking steaks. Don't get high and drive. It's pretty simple.
Everybody wins, except for maybe some viewers, who might find that after chuckling at the hopeless handyman spot, the joke burns out a little too quickly. Plus, that lady shooting daggers at the ill-equipped grill master clearly needs to mellow out. Really, it's hard to believe she hasn't already … especially when she's wearing that hat.
The grilled, marinated meat from Korea is suddenly on the media's plate after this strange ad was placed in The New York Times last week. Texas Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo—a huge star in his native South Korea, but not so much in this country, where he actually plays—offers up a morsel with chopsticks. Copy begins: "Spring's here and I'm ready to play! And do you know what got me through training? Bulgogi. Try some at your favorite Korean restaurant. It's delicious!"
Thanks for the tip, Choo! Sure, the ad is random and goofy, but I'm surprised it has sparked so much attention. Maybe it's because it doesn't tout any specific brand, group or eatery, just the beef dish in general.
A Web address in the ad, ForTheNextGeneration.com, contains links to English-language news about South Korea, and holds a clue to the strange ad's origin. NPR, among others, investigated, and traced the placement to Sungshin Women's University visiting professor Seo Kyoung-duk—a passionate promoter of Korean food and culture—and restaurant chain Chicken Maru, which apparently picked up the tab.
Wade Boggs famously ate chicken before every game and wound up in the Hall of Fame. Maybe they should get Choo on that next!
It's been years since Burger King's U.S. advertising was truly weird. You have to go back to the Crispin Porter + Bogusky stuff from the mid-2000s—in particular, the deeply troubling "Eat Like Snake" ad from 2006.
Colenso BBDO, however, is keeping BK ads weird for the New Zealand market. Check out the three spots below from director Nick Ball, featuring the most unlikely BK patrons ever—Sir Roger Poppincock and Baron von Cravat, along with an elderly gent on oxygen and his young, pissed-off Russian bride.
Reaction, it's fair to say, has been mixed.
"Hey Burger King, just have to say I think your latest TV ads are dreadful," one Facebook commenter writes. "So much for a tasteful and family orientated pitch. Do you really think that people would find that funny? Old men with some young girl saying when are you going to die, apart from the obvious stereotypes, ageism and sexism, what about the cultural offense you cause by assuming that women from Russia only marry older men? Not impressed." (BK replied: "We are sorry you're not loving our ads. Thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts, we appreciate all feedback."
The chain also got some heat for advertising its lamb burger with a billboard that said: "Cute, cuddly & now delicious." In response to that, another Facebook commenter wrote: "I would like to complain on behalf of vegetarians and vegans about the morally and ethically offensive nature of the 'Cute, cuddly & now delicious' lamb burger billboard in Sandringham. Marketing should have been more considerate."
"Our advertising isn't intended to offend, just to get noticed," the marketer replied. "We hope that there was sufficient humour in this billboard to demonstrate our position and are sorry that this campaign upset you."
Women earn 30 percent less than men for the same work. Some 64 percent of the world's illiterate people are women. Almost 800 women die every day from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
These are just some of the mind-boggling global injustices cited by UN Women on a new website, HeForShe.org, intended to motivate men to act against gender inequality and violence toward women. Created by Publicis Dallas, the campaign asks men to upload YouTube clips of themselves speaking out in support of women. For further inspiration, it includes a simple but powerful video of well-known men—including activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Matt Damon and Patrick Stewart—sharing their perspectives.
It's not a risk-free approach for UN Women, which had a global hit last year with its Google autocomplete campaign by Ogilvy Dubai. Some might think that focusing on men somehow implies their opinions are of greater value. But Publicis says the unusual strategy is the campaign's strength.
"He For She is a unique women's rights campaign in the simple fact that we don't approach the problem from a female perspective, and that's what makes it so powerful," Brad Roseberry, the agency's chief creative officer, said in a statement.
The cause is made all the more pressing by the fact that it's gone underaddressed for so long. (The ad industry, of course, has plenty to do in fixing its own deeply ingrained gender inequalities.) As the new campaign so clearly expresses, the power to solve it often remains concentrated in the hands of men.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: UN Women Agency: Publicis Dallas Executive Creative Director: Brad Roseberry Creative Director: Natalie Lavery Copywriter: Jacob Latchem Art Directors: Alex Pierce, Joshua Tovar Producers: Lori Wallace, Desiree Townsend Web Developers: Alex Pierce, Eric Taylor, Dennis Covington, Jason Awbry Designers: Alex Pierce, Joshua Tovar Account Directors: Susan Scott, Whitney Sprague Editing Company: Republic Edit Editor: Andy McGee Producer: Jacklyn Sandoval Roman
"Maddie," a minute-long commercial by young Canadian director Lloyd Lee Choi, didn't win Chevrolet and Mofilm's Oscars competition. That honor went to a whimsical exploration of creativity by Jude Chun, whose ads about kids making a movie with a 2014 Chevy Cruze aired during the Academy Awards on ABC.
Choi's entry, however, clearly has legs—four of them, to be precise, belonging to the ad's titular Golden Retriever, whose heartrending story unfolds in reverse chronological order. (Three dogs were actually used to portray the pooch.) "Maddie" opens at the end of the dog's life, closes in puppyhood, and makes the point that your Chevy—seen throughout—can also be "A best friend for life's journey."
Shot for $7,000 in less than three days, it's an emotional tail-chaser that's proven to be popular yet polarizing. Some commenters seem to both love and hate various aspects of the film. (AdFreak's Gabriel Beltrone called it "beautifully written and produced," then smacked Choi with a rolled-up newspaper for making folks angry "when you realize Chevy is a dick who has shamelessly manipulated love for a dying dog to get you to buy a car.")
The ad has fetched more than 1.4 million views on YouTube, compared to 33,000 for Chun's winning entry. It's the best of both worlds for Chevy, which reaps publicity from both spots but still maintains some distance from the mildly controversial "Maddie" ad.
Of course, it's up to each viewer to decide whether any commercial is best in breed … or just a dog. To gain some insight, AdFreak chatted with Choi about "Maddie."
Where did you get the "Maddie" idea? Is it based on something from your own life or the experience of someone you know? Chevy is a very family-oriented brand, so we came up with an idea that followed a girl and her family—their life together told in reverse. But I felt it was missing an emotional thread, and I thought back to my childhood growing up with pets and how they provide us with unconditional love and affection that is so unwavering … and that's a beautiful thing. I wanted to capture that truthfully, which is why we showed a multitude of moments, big and small.
What was the major theme or message you were trying to get across for the Chevy brand? I think viewers nowadays prefer subtlety versus messaging that's in your face. Our generation tends to skip commercials that blatantly advertise something, and we are quick to forget about it and move on to the next thing. Chevy wanted young filmmakers to create content that focused on authenticity and narrative that evoked an emotion. In the end, our main goal was to create a narrative that told a compelling story in one minute.
Why shift into "reverse"? Did using reverse chronology present any problems? A reveal is more exciting!
The spot took me a couple weeks to edit, trying to find a flow that worked. Always a bit more challenging when you have to film and edit against your natural inclination of moving forward in time.
Where did you get the dogs, and how many did you use? Did they cause any problems during filming? We used three dogs and a litter of puppies, all found through friends. Stanley (young pup), Maddie (main dog) and Lily (old dog) were the stars. They had their moody moments, but we all do in our different ways. Filming a couple times before with animals, I've come to realize you just have to let them be and sometimes film around them. And to be patient. Oh, and they dictate the washroom breaks.
What was the toughest or most surprising thing about the production? On our search for our main dog—and type of dog—I was in a coffee shop waiting in line. I looked across the street and I saw a beautiful Golden Retriever sitting at the heels of its owner. In my memory, his fur was literally shimmering in the light. I pointed and said to my girlfriend, "That dog is perfect!" She laughed and told me that was her friend and her dog. We walked over and said hi and I was introduced to the Golden Retriever, whose name was Maddie, and that is the main dog you see in the spot.
[On the set] we made sure to set aside an hour in the production schedule to play with all the puppies.
I was operating the camera during the vet office scene, where in a few takes we all started to tear up. Parts of those takes were unusable due to camera-shake.
Were you surprised you didn't win the competition? We weren't surprised we didn't win, and kind of knew going into the competition we wouldn't. We wanted to create a short film, and our tone was too bittersweet for commercial purposes. Chevy definitely chose the right spot. Jude's ad is incredible!
Are you surprised by the intense reaction, with "Maddie" going viral? The reception of "Maddie" has been insane and amazing so far. The cut that we released was a director's cut that was mainly to showcase our work online for reel purposes, so we could get more work. We never expected more than a handful of industry people to watch it, but the spot grew online organically and just exploded.
I think people are gravitating toward it because they can relate so closely to the story. In the end, it's a story about the life we live with a friend who loves us unconditionally, really the only ones that surpass human judgment and emotion, and give us pure love. Many people have felt that, and can see themselves in that story. And I can see why others aren't so fond of the spot, either being reminded of something that they will have to face one day, or feeling as if they were cheated by a car commercial.
What's the big takeaway … the main lesson you've learned? People really connect with content that hits a different chord than all the other content out there. So much is being created and shared daily, and what stands out is what is authentic and meaningful in that person's day, at that time in their lives.
I've received a few heartwarming emails from people on how the spot has really affected them on a deep level, not just making them emotional and shedding a tear, but reminding and inspiring them to appreciate and cherish their loved ones (animal and human) just a little more. Those emails meant the world to me.
The spot would never have worked using a cat. Because cats suck … right? Ha! I do love cats and dogs equally. And maybe cats could've worked—it would just have a different tone, full of attitude and sass. Cats tend to be divas, harder to work with, and usually ask for too much.
Nothing enhances a commute like coming into physical contact with a bunch of strangers at the bus stop.
Cossette's "Moments of Warmth" campaign for Duracell had public-transport patrons in chilly Montreal join hands to complete a circuit and activate heaters in a branded bus shelter. I suppose this marketing approach has positives and negatives. (Such battery puns fall into the latter category.) On the one hand, it's not as touching as that Norwegian "Would you share you coat with a freezing child at a bus stop?" stunt. And having the subjects kiss would've provided more sparks.
On the plus side, at Duracell's shelter, no one can pick your pocket.
Kobe Bryant doesn't just play pianos. He makes them.
Or so it would appear from the opening scenes of this new ad from Wieden + Kennedy pitching "The Kobe Piano," from which "every note [is] a comedy and tragedy that would make Shakespeare laugh and weep. It will turn piano boys into piano men. It will make Lionel Richie's tears cry tears."
Turns out it's an elaborate metaphor for a line of shoes designed by Bryant for Foot Locker and Nike. The collection, the ad informs us, is the "grandest grand collection of grand collections." And yes, Richie himself makes a cameo—adding to his own commercial lore in the process.
While the voiceover copy is a bit Old Spicey, the ad blends the winking melodrama of "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" with a healthy heaping of mock pretension, à la Bryan Cranston selling an iPad, and a dash of good old-fashioned Ron Swanson style woodworking.
It has the obligatory sports-stats reference. It's beautifully shot and well paced, and entertaining enough. It makes its point, however circuitously, that the product is like a finely crafted instrument.
A second spot, meanwhile, likens the collection to the invention of a better, stronger lightbulb—complete with a shattering sledgehammer and the ability to make even Judah Friedlander look dapper. Sorry, ladies. It's just another metaphor for sneakers.
Credits below.
CREDITS Clients: Nike and Foot Locker Campaign: "Made by Kobe"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Creative Directors: Don Shelford, Rob Thompson Copywriter: Adam Noel Art Director: Jon Kubik Producer: Shannon Worley Executive Agency Producer: Matt Hunnicutt Account Team: Jordan Muse, Heather Morba Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman, Joe Staples
Production Company: Traktor Towers Director: Traktor Executive Producer: Rani Melendez Line Producer: Rani Melendez Director of Photography: Bojan Bozelli
Editing Company: Stitch Editorial Editor: Andy McGraw Assistant Editor: Alex Tedesco Post Producer: Chris Girard Post Executive Producer: Juliet Batter
Visual Effects Company: The Mill Visual Effects Executive Producer: LaRue Anderson Flame Artists: James Allen, Glyn Tebbutt Visual Effects Producers: Dan Roberts, Antonio Hardy Titles, Graphics: Justin Morris
Music, Sound Company: Beacon Street Studios Composers: John Nau, Andrew Feltenstein Sound Designer: Mike Franklin Songs: "Out of the Woods" ("Piano"), "The Wunder r3" ("Lightbulb") Executive Producer: Leslie Dillullo
Mix Company: Beacon Street Studios Mixer: Mike Franklin Assistant Engineer: Dewey Thomas Producer: Caitlin Rocklin
The Seattle Mariners considered Robinson Cano to be a heavenly catch this off-season, and there's a divine aura about him in the team's first ad with its $240 million second baseman.
Seattle's Copacino + Fujikado, now its 20th season handling ads for the Mariners, welcomes the 31-year-old with the 30-second spot below, in which Cano doesn't have to utter a word to communicate just how awesome he is.
Agency co-founder and creative chief Jim Copacino tells AdFreak he felt a fair amount of pressure to produce a special debut commercial with Cano. C+F almost got Ken Griffey Jr. to do a spot with Cano (it would have been about how they both wear No. 24, though actually Cano is switching back to his original Yankee number, 22), but Griffey had a conflict and couldn't make the Arizona shoot. So, they went with this spot instead, and Copacino says the shoot couldn't have gone smoother.
"With a guy of this magnitude coming in, we didn't want to trivialize him or be too cute," he says. "A writer here, Andy Corbett, a very funny guy, came up with this notion that Cano has this charismatic aura that follows him everywhere he goes—slow motion and music. It was an easy spot to shoot. The first time we worked with him, we didn't want to burden him with too much responsibility in terms of lines and acting."
Four more new ads focus on three other players and on Henry Chadwick, who invented the baseball box score in the 1860s and came up with the letter K for strikeout.
One particularly amusing ad celebrates the old-school style of third baseman Kyle Seager. "Kyle is a quiet, soft-spoken guy from North Carolina," says Copacino. "He says 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.' He's quietly becoming one of the better third basemen in baseball. He's fundamentally sound. And to me, he just seems like he was plucked from the '50s and put down into modern baseball. It was fun to create this fiction about him being kind of a throwback."
At one point, Seager is seen tweeting from a typewriter. "He said, 'You know, I don't actually tweet,' " says Copacino. "And we said, 'That's fine! In fact, that's perfect!' "
C+F also put together the highlight reel below of its 20 years of Mariners spots. At least in its advertising, this is a team that's on a long winning streak.
CREDITS Client: Seattle Mariners Agency: Copacino + Fujikado Executive Creative Director, Writer: Jim Copacino Creative Director, Writer: Mike Hayward Writer: Andy Corbett Art Director: Andy Westbrock Production Company: Blue Goose Productions Director: Ron Gross Executive Producer: Bill Hoare Account Supervisor: Cole Parsons Account Manager: Melissa Figel Broadcast Producers: Kris Dangla, Patti Emery Editor: Troy Murison, Dubs Inc. Digital Postproduction: Kevin Adams, Workbench Music: Chris White, Comrade
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