Hasta La Creative!

Considering that Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man in the World" has become a meme with thousands of crowdsourced iterations, the bar is set pretty high for new official ads in the series. But this one seems up to the task.

In "Dogsled" from agency Havas Worldwide, His Interestingness valet parks a team of huskies, rescues man and fish alike from a blaze, second-guesses a surgeon and, uh, gives a young lady a pearl necklace.

It's probably one of the campaign's better spots in recent memory. And speaking of memory, there's another brief new ad after the jump about the Most Interesting Man's take on (of all things) memory foam mattresses.

CREDITS

DOGSLED :30
MEMORY FOAM MATTRESSES :15

Advertising Agency: HAVAS Worldwide NY
Chief Creative Officer: Jason Peterson
Chief Creative Officer:  Darren Moran
Executive Creative Director:  Jim Hord
Creative Directors: Paul Fix, Jamie Overkamp
Associate Creative Director:  Matthew Hock, David Fredette
Writer: Marty Bonacorso
Art Director: Rick Cohen
Writer: Christian Beckett
Art Director: Jon Vall
Global Chief Content Officer:  Vin Farrell
Co-Head of Production:  Dave Evans
Co-Head of Production:  Sylvain Tron
Executive Producer: Jill Meschino
Director of Broadcast Business Affairs: Cathy Pitegoff
Senior Broadcast Business Manager: Susan Schaefer
Talent Affairs Manager: Dawn Kerr
Talent Manager: Hilary Olesen
Managing Director: Kersten Mitton Rivas
Group Account Director:  Chris Budden
Account Director: Jamie Sundheim
Account Supervisor:  Sara Heller
Account Executive: Katie Moore

Production Company: @radical.media
Director: Steve Miller
Director of Photography: Eric Schmidt
Executive Producer: Gregg Carlesimo
Producer: Barbara Benson

Editorial Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Jeff Ferruzzo
Assistant Editor:  Dave Madden
Audio Engineer: Eric Thompson
Music Composer: Brett Fuchs
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer

Postproduction:  Studio 6
Visual Effects Supervisor / Flame Artist: Johnny Starace
EP:  Tricia Higgins / Rich Rama
Producer:  Anna De Castro

Colorist: Company 3
Colorist: Tom Poole

Born and raised in Baroda, Jitendra Patel (aka Jitu) has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. Currently, he works as an art director at Ogilvy and Mather, Mumbai. Besides his art, Jitu is also passionate about movies and old-time songs. He spends his leisure time sketching and lately, attempting to learn how to play the flute!

Why are you an Illustrator?
Since childhood, drawing and painting have been my first love. My notebooks were filled with drawings rather than notes. So you could say my childhood passion lead me into the world of art.

Did you attend school for fine art or design?
Yes, I went to one of the best art schools in India – Faculty of Fine Arts MSU University, Baroda.

You have a distinct style of illustration. How long did it take you to develop your style?
I love doing realistic illustrations. You have to really bend your back and put in those extra hours. But once you master in realistic style, you can do any style of illustration. I remember in college we would do handwork and when I became comfortable with my craft I started doing my work with digital tools.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
I was lucky to have some brilliant teachers and mentors at the university. Their work always inspired me to get better.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Illustrations?
There’s no oneperson who had been influential. With me, it has always been the phenomenal work happening around in the world that has always pushed me to improve and keep working.

Are many advertising agencies getting illustrations made these days? Do you work more with agencies or publishers?
Touchwood! There is plenty of work. Also, with more and more illustration based print campaigns winning big time at the national and international awards, agencies are always looking for talent. I also get good amount of work from publishers.

What made you decide to become a freelance illustrator? When did you start freelancing? Do you illustrate for advertising?
In advertising you don’t always get to do illustrations. So doing freelance allows me to enjoy what I love doing the most. And whenever the opportunity presents itself in advertising, I take it up.

Was there any time when you wanted to quit Illustrations?
No. Never.

Have you considered turning your illustrations into graphic novels?
That’s a good idea!

Any other Indian Illustrators who you admire?
I admire any illustrator from whom I can learn something.

Tell us something of your personal projects.
I still keep a scrapbook and update it regularly.

What is your dream project?
I want to illustrate the Mahabharat in contemporary style.

Mac or PC?
They are just tools. I’m comfortable with both.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
My beautiful fiancé.

What’s on your iPod?
I don’t have one.

The post Jitendra Patel : Interview with an Illustrator appeared first on desicreative.

Google Glass videos are notable for their seamless first-person perspective, which puts you not only in someone else's shoes but in their eyes. You see what they see. No wonder, then, that the empathy-rich form is being hijacked by a PSA effort—to show you something you wouldn't want to see in the first place.

A group of London creatives put together the unbranded video below for International Women's Day on Saturday, according to Osocio. Google was not involved.

The video has been polarizing on YouTube so far. As awareness messages go, it is blunt and unpleasant—which is the point of all shock videos, although the trend lately, of course, is toward more uplifting and empowering work.

As a distressing reminder of an intractable problem, it works well enough—though it will have its critics who see it as gimmicky and gratuitous. It would help if they spelled the #womensday hashtag correctly at the end.

Warning: Video contains violence and may be upsetting.

If you thought Olive Garden's logo couldn't get any worse, you were wrong.

On Monday, the Darden-owned restaurant chain unveiled a brand refresh. The perplexing cluster of grapes that graced Olive Garden's logo for a decade and a half has devolved into a twiggy branch that appears to be an unfortunate shade of chartreuse. The previous tacky pseudo-script laying out the chain's name has become a font that's even more half-baked.

The early feedback is not good. One Twitter commenter aptly describes the overall design as looking "like it was drawn with a breadstick." Another interprets the new logo, created with help from design shop Lippincott, as a sign that the restaurant will "now be a home decor company specializing in mid-priced hand towels."

John Brownlee at Fast Company offers a detailed takedown of the color scheme in a side-by-side comparison with the old logo.

Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and logo redesigns can be a notoriously touchy business. But this could easily be on par with the notorious Gap crowdsourcing and Target drop-shadow debacles—or it would if people cared as much about Olive Garden as they do about Gap or Target.

Advertised brand: Divyayog
Advert title(s): Ancient Yogis
Advertising Agency: Seagull Advertising, Pune, India.
Creative Director: Debashish Sinha, Sanju Ayyar.
Art Director: Debashish Sinha
Copywriter: Sanju Ayyar
Illustrator: Satish Ghatpande

The post Divyayog by Seagull Advertising appeared first on desicreative.

Fake product demos are getting harder to spot, what with reality-bending products like NeverWet and Oakley's hovercraft golf cart. Here is the latest video in that vein—a hypnotizing four-minute demo for a real-life hoverboard made by a company called HUVr.

Unfortunately, despite the video's insistence that the mind-boggling demonstrations "are completely real," the hoverboard does appear to be a fake. But that doesn't stop Tony Hawk, Moby, Terrell Owens, Agnes Bruckner and other celebs from pitching it fervently.

The question is: What real thing is this fake thing intended to promote? The HUVr website lists a "destination time" of December 2014, so it could be a movie or video game release. Some have suggested it could be for a new Tony Hawk skating (or hoverboarding) game.

Check out more on the HUVr site, where the testimonials include one from Mark Cuban, who opines: "This f**king thing is going to change the world!"

UPDATE: Tony Hawk has now come clean and apologized for the prank. See that video below as well.

There's something about roadside advertising, from Hasslehoff cutouts to giant headphones, that turns drunk morons into thieves. But every now and again, someone pulls off a heist that's so fantastic, it can only be a hoax.

Thus was the case with the stolen giant mango at the center of Australia's "MangoGate."

The 33-foot-tall mango was built 12 years ago at a cost of $90,000 to celebrate the city of Bowen's self-designation as the mango capital of Australia. When it mysteriously went missing a few weeks ago, a number of suspicious people immediately assumed it was a publicity stunt. The sudden appearance of a Facebook page seemed to justify their cynicism.

Journalists, however, covered the case breathlessly.

The 10 metre high Bowen 'Big Mango' has gone missing overnight! Culprits were spotted using heavy machinery to move the fruit around 2am.

— Jessica Nairn (@jessnairn) February 24, 2014

Then, last week, chicken restaurant chain Nando's just came out and admitted it had "borrowed" the mango, but refused to say why. (The chain also said Bowen Tourism was involved in the caper.) Well, this week it revealed the reason—it was all to plug a new mango-and-lime chicken menu item.

The video below shows the filched fruit sitting next to a big lime in Melbourne. Nando's later returned the mango to its hallowed roadside spot to tangle with drunk morons another day.

What has Diet Coke been snorting?

In the way the tagline, "You're on," and logo are positioned, the brand's new ads seem to refer to drug use—appearing to spell out the phrase "You're on coke."

The campaign, by Droga5 in New York, has been building considerable, um, buzz in the media and from consumers flocking to social media with mocking comments. (Gothamist has collected some prime tweets along these, er, lines.) And while one imagines no such connection to cocaine is implied, you can understand the snarky reaction.

A commercial shows various people downing the product to get psyched up before speeches and performances. Taylor Swift takes a—how shall I put this?—hit backstage, then says, "Great. Let's go." Hey, that's nothing like drugs at all. In The New York Times, a Coca-Cola exec says the ads show how the drink provides "uplift for those moments when you really need to be on." Hey, that's nothing like drugs at all.

The campaign's wording is so obvious, I'd bet client and agency went this route on purpose. The ads are certainly getting extra attention, and it's not so offensive as to cause the brand harm. Plus, there's plausible deniability.

And here's a sobering thought: "Drogas" is Spanish for drugs!

I reached out to Coke and Droga5 for clarification. Oddly, they weren't on (no response yet), but I'll update this post with any uplifting comments they choose to provide.

UPDATE: Coca-Cola responds: "This advertising is one part of the new campaign for Diet Coke, which is called 'You're On.' It celebrates ambitious young achievers from all walks of life and reminds them that Diet Coke is there to support them in the moments when they are at their best. Every single day, young people around the world experience 'You're On' moments big and small. It could be a job interview or a national TV interview, a first date or a final exam, a presentation to your boss or a performance in front of thousands. The Diet Coke logo is the centerpiece of the ad campaign. Diet Coke in no way endorses or supports the use of any illegal substance."

Photo below: @david_j_roth

Montreal agency lg2 found a goofy but practical use for all the snow this winter—it made it look like dandruff gone berkserk on outdoor ads for Selsun Blue. Pity the fool who had shoveling duty on this project, though.

"Dandruff flakes typically occur in winter," the agency says, "due to the use of heating sources such as electricity. Selsun Blue and lg2 thus decided to launch an offensive at a time when people are most in need of dandruff-fighting shampoo."

The headline, "Quand les pellicules vous prennent par surprise," translates to, "When flakes take you by surprise." Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Sanofi – Selsun Blue
Agency: lg2, Montreal
Creative Director: Marc Fortin
Creative Team: Mathieu Dufour, Marie-Ève Leclerc-Dion
Account Services: Julie Simon, David Legendre, Safia Dodard
Print Production: lg2fabrique
Media: Publicité Sauvage

After meeting widespread ridicule for a lofty first attempt at brand advertising in 2012 (and subsequent stumbles pitching its Facebook Home product), the social network has quietly been rolling out ads online this year that are quite a bit more grounded. And they focus more on promoting the core utility of the social network—in particular, its role as a motivator for non-virtual self-improvement.

Don't worry, the campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy, doesn't wholly commit to the mundane. One spot insists on emphasizing the calculated quirkiness of a group of young adults acting like teens. They have decided to drill skis and snowboards to the bottom of couches and ride the makeshift toboggans down a slope. This is apparently a real thing that someone, somewhere has done before. That lends a little credibility to Facebook's point that it will help organize even the most oddball of gatherings.

Another spot focuses on using the network to crowdsource recommendations for a tango teacher, who turns out to be a charming, colorful personality. Other ads highlight an aspiring marathon runner, whose many friends encourage him through the network, and a girl who's going through a breakup, who only needs one friends to make things better.

The spots do a solid job of using specific examples to illustrate Facebook's real value—its efficiency as a way to communicate with more than one person at once. That won't answer any grand existential questions, but it does get out of its own way and shows, concretely, how the product can help make life off-screen better—a concept Facebook has struggled to articulate in the past.

That is, if making life better is defined as making it easier to sucker people you met once into watching you go sledding, or get shopping advice, or go fishing for affirmation.