Two very different kinds of out-of-home advertising stunts have been gaining traction lately—first, the sudden appearance of a spectacular, oversized prop designed to delight passersby; and second, an intricately choreographed sequence of fake pandemonium designed to terrify them. Examples of the former: UKTV's giant Mr. Darcy emerging from the British pond, and the giant Games of Thrones dragon skull washed up on the British beach. (The British love this stuff.) Examples of the latter: TNT's dramatic stunt on a quiet town square, as well as its sequel.
Now, M&C Saatchi has combined the two approaches with a larger-than-life stunt in Milan, Italy. As part of a campaign for an insurance company, the agency built a giant prop of a submarine and made it look like it was emerging from the ground. A Smart car nearby appeared to have been damaged by the sub—a potent reminder that it's good to have insurance in case all-but-impossible events occur. Many agencies would have stopped here. But M&C Saatchi then staged an elaborate early-morning event at the scene—having actors dressed as sailors and scuba divers emerge from the submarine in a daze, and the driver of the car exit his car angry and confused. Fake hospital workers and emergency personnel even descended on the scene to treat the wounded.
Check out footage from the event below. Your move, TNT.
This business is full of wankers who rarely get their comeuppance. If one of them is your boss, you have very few options. You can quit via late-night viral dance video. Or, in Canada at least, you can turn him or her into an intern.
This month, for the third straight year, the country's National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS) is holding its Vintage Intern Auction, an initiative from Toronto creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo that lets bidders get "revenge" on any of 12 notable executives and thought leaders from the business—by making him or her an unpaid intern for a day. Bidding starts at $2,000 for each victim, and all proceeds go to help the 1,300 families supported by NABS, which provides assistance to people in the communications and related industries who are suffering illness, injury, unemployment or financial difficulties.
Zulu Alpha Kilo again created the ads for this year's event, and they comically focus on the revenge angle. "The campaign taps into the insight that you don't get to the top without ruffling a few feathers along the way. We were fortunate that all of this year's interns were great sports and could laugh at themselves a little," says Zak Mroueh, chief creative officer and CEO at Zulu Alpha Kilo.
Check out the work below, and scroll down to see which 12 Canadian ad leaders are for sale through the online auction. (Bidding ends Oct. 31.)
2013 advertising leaders up for auction: Claude Carrier – President, DentsuBos Mary Maddever – Vice President, Editorial Director, Brunico Publishing Brent Choi – Chief Creative and Integration Officer, JWT Lance Martin – Partner, Executive Creative Director, Union Creative David Crichton – Partner, Creative Director, Grip Limited Ian MacKellar – Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy Simon Jennings – President, Gesca Angus Tucker – Partner, Co-Creative Director, John Street Mitch Joel – Author, President, Twist Image Kenneth Wong – Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Queen's School of Business Amber Mac – President, Co-founder, Konnekt; Co-host, App Central Christina Yu – Executive Vice President, Creative Director, Red Urban
CREDITS Client: NABS Project: Vintage Intern Auction Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo Chief Creative Officer: Zak Mroueh Executive Creative Director: Ron Smrczek Art Director: Grant Cleland Writers: George Ault, Nick Asik, Japeth Kwan Producers: Bette Minnot, Kari Macknight Dearborn, Ola Stodulska Account: Nevena Djordjevic Digital Strategy: Emma Brooks Digital Producer: Ola Stodulska Web Developer: Richard Thirumaran Production Artists: Jamie Morren, Brandon Dyson IT Director: Gary Stothers Production Company: Partners Film Executive Producer: Gigi Realini Director: Neil Tardio Producer: Sandy Kelly Photography: Matt Barnes, Westside Studio Producer: Tara O'Malley Casting Director: Andrew Hayes, Powerhouse Casting Editor: Daniel Reis, Panic & Bob Producer: Taissa Callaghan Audio Director: Chris Tait, Pirate Web Development: Thinkingbox Software Development: Michael Vay Lee, Tim Wienrich Production: Chris Raedcher
Surprise. That video about a guy living inside the giant metal cube at Astor Place was a marketing stunt all along. And by surprise, we mean, of course, duh. No New Yorker could live in that thing—it's way too big.
Still, a couple of bloggers got suckered into writing about the documentary-style spot as though it might be true. Maybe if they'd been real journalists they would have viewed it with more skepticism. Just kidding. Real journalists are super gullible, too.
Other, rational people, meanwhile, instantly recognized the clip—which features a writer supposedly crammed into a DIY hipster's version of a collapsible Ikea home—as an ad. For what? Nothing you've ever heard of: Whil, which is a free, anti-technology meditation technique created by the founders of Lululemon Athletica. Now you've heard of it, so we guess the spot, created by the viral ad pranksters at Thinkmodo, worked.
The video itself is kind of charming. The 60-second meditation technique, meant to be quick and easy for anyone to practice, also sounds nice. But really … who has the time for that?
GoPro's new promotional video for its HERO3+ Black Edition camera is a lovely pastiche of epic things white people dream of doing: whale diving, falconry, desert rock climbing, impressing native peoples with technology, and lion cuddling, just to name a few. Aside from the climbing sequences triggering my vertigo, it's a real treat to watch, and while not as emotional as that firefighter with a kitten, definitely shows off the clarity and wide-angle capabilities of this camera. How you'd film yourself doing any of that stuff without breaking something or dying is another issue entirely, though.
Does feminism need rebranding? Elle U.K. thinks so, and invited three British ad agencies—Brave, Mother and Wieden + Kennedy—to work on it with three feminist groups.
The results, published in November's issue, are posted below. Brave, working with teenage campaigner Jinan Younis, produced a flow chart called "Are You a Feminist?" Mother, working with the newly launched Feminist Times, created an ad focused on equal pay. And W+K, teamed up with online magazine Vagenda, produced an ad about stereotypes that women have to deal with.
See the work below. Does any of it scratch the surface of the issue?
There’s immense talent all around us. There are artists, writers, painters, programmers, app builders, actors, models, architects, scientists, doctors, chefs. Ever wondered what would happen if an artist and a doctor were shut up in a room together? What would happen if a scientist brought on a writer for a project? Interesting, that’s what. Experiment Collaborate aims to get together a group of people who want to jam with others from different disciplines, to create something new, innovative. Something they couldn’t possibly have done alone. This is a community of collaborators. And this is a series of online posters that are doing the rounds to get people to join.
Between the French Fry Burger and the new Satisfries, Burger King has been really into fries lately. Now, the chain is taking this obsession a step further by pretending to change its name to Fries King—and posting a load of photos to Facebook showing the unveiling of a new corporate identity. There are a few downsides to this. First, it implies the burgers are probably not very good. And second, it confuses people—many of whom on Twitter clearly don't know how to respond. On the plus side, it does appear to be making people hungry.
Holy smoke, check out these disturbing masks from British online clinic HealthExpress! Inspired by actual images of ravaged humans from cigarette-pack health warnings, they're designed to show the effects smoking can have on people's faces, hair and throats. Actors wearing the masks will roam streets this month as part of the U.K. National Health Service's "Stoptober" anti-smoking campaign.
A pair of masks show smoking's impact on 40-year-old men. One has a gaping tracheostomy hole in its neck, as well as pronounced cataracts and lots of wrinkles. (Whoa, it's like looking into a mirror, and I don't even smoke! Blogging exacts a heavy toll.) The other men's mask features a gnarly throat-cancer tumor—it looks like an alien parasite!—and prematurely graying hair. A third mask shows the impact of smoking on a 30-year-old woman, with sallow, saggy skin, lip trauma caused by mouth cancer and unsightly damage to the teeth and gums (though in England, everyone's teeth look that way).
At first, I was tempted to say these masks go too far and seem to display the ravages of crystal meth more than smoking. In fact, that's not the case. Smoking can do hella harm to one's personal appearance, which often holds the key to identity and self-esteem. Playing on vanity might prove jarring enough to get smokers to at least consider quitting. Imagine looking into a mirror someday and seeing an image that resembles one of these masks. That's a possibility no one wants to face.
Carl's Jr. (aka Hardee's for those of us on the East Coast) has Miss Alabama USA, aka Katherine Webb, indulge a very important "Game Day Fantasy"—something with which she is quite familiar—by messily eating a giant burger in this new ad from 72andSunny. A Buffalo Blue Cheese Burger, to be precise. Seriously, the thing gets all over her. It's gross, and the whole situation makes her look more slovenly than sexy. I get that they're trying for the Paris Hilton/Kate Upton effect, but much like the burger they're selling, it's too much and not in a good way.
Swedish fashion house Björn Borg, whose tagline is "Björn Borg says ja!," celebrated the launch of its Russian website with a full-page ad in homophobic Russia's Moscow Times showing colored underwear arranged to look like a rainbow. In a country where homosexuality has been criminalized, this is, ja, kind of a big deal.
"Björn Borg says da!" the ad reads—meaning "Björn Borg says yes!"
In a press release, marketing director Lina Söderqvist says "the advert is a way for us to reach Russian influencers. Björn Borg as a brand has always advocated equality on all levels." That's true. Two male priests kissing, anyone?
Perhaps you've seen RPA's new TV spots for the Honda Odyssey, which has the world's first in-car vacuum cleaner. The ads, voiced by Neil Patrick Harris and Rainn Wilson, feature junk on the minivan's floor—crayons, candy, lint balls, tiny toys—chatting obliviously before getting sucked up by the vacuum.
On Tuesday, RPA launched a social element, in which @Honda is tweeting at snack and toy brands, warning them about what's in store if they fall on the floor of an Odyssey. The idea is fun, and the tweets are generally decent—but the added bonus is that many of the brands are responding or retweeting, extending the reach of the communications beyond Honda's 176,000 followers. Well, OK, there have been snarky replies, too.
Check out some of the tweets below, along with the TV spots.
Little dropped snacks everywhere, your days are numbered. The Odyssey with available vacuum is here. Whoooooooosh.
Here's one from the warm-and-fuzzies school of advertising.
Jack Andraka, barely a teenager, decided to develop an early-detection test for pancreatic cancer after his uncle died from the disease. He asked 200 researchers and other experts for help. Only one, a doctor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, provided him with lab space to use after school. At age 15, Andraka succeeded in developing a test that is 168 times faster, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than the medical standard.
Intel tells Andraka's story in the ad below. What does a computer-chip manufacturer have to do with his invention? Not much, but Intel is the headlining sponsor—and has been since 1997—of the International Science and Engineering Fair, which gave Andraka its $75,000 grand prize for his work.
The spot, from Venables Bell & Partners (and director Britton Caillouette of Farm League, himself a bone-cancer survivor), is a little self-congratulatory on Intel's part. But it's clever, too. The ad, which proceeds in reverse chronology, might make you feel the same sort of skepticism about Andraka that his idea met—but then you'll feel like a fool when you realize how quite amazing his accomplishment is. Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Intel Spot: "Look Inside. Jack A." Agency: Venables Bell & Partners Executive Creative Directors: Paul Venables and Will McGinness Creative Director: Tom Scharpf Associate Creative Director: Eric Boyd Art Director: Ezra Paulekas Copywriter: Rob Calabro Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen Agency Producer: Emily Moore Production Company: Farm League Director: Britton Caillouette Director of Photography: Devin Whetstone Executive Producers: Tim Lynch/Tieneke Pavesic Producer: David Burden Editing Company: Farm League Editor: Dana Shaw Sound Design: One Union SF Sound Designers: Joaby Deal Music: Elias/Michael Fraumeni Mix: Joaby Deal/One Union SF VFX/End Treatment: Brand New School VFX Producer: Amy Russo
Well wookiee here. Portland, Ore., ad agency Sincerely Truman is getting itself some publicity—almost half a million YouTube views since Thursday—with this two-minute-plus clip offering director J.J. Abrams tips on how not to "mess up" Star Wars Episode VII. The video and accompanying website recommend keeping true to the adventurous "frontier" spirit of George Lucas's 1977 original by telling a "gritty" story that doesn't overanalyze the power of the Force and eschews unnecessary cuteness (comic-relief aliens and such).
Sincerely Truman seems to have plenty of time on its hands, because it's also working up a Star Wars petition to present to Disney, which is set to release Episode VII in 2015. Since movie studios always do exactly what fans ask, that sounds like a surefire plan to me.
The upcoming film, which takes place after the events of 1983's Return of the Jedi (yay!) and is designed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy (good lord!), will reportedly feature appearances by Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, a trio that fans just might remember from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Oddly, my personal demand for more Jar Jar Binks has gotten surprising little traction. Ye gods, whatta meesa sayin'?
Provo, Utah, uses a swimming pool as a concrete visual of how broadband just can't compete with Google's high-speed Internet service, which is coming to the city next month. Taken literally, broadband is a homely man wearing a sash, and Google Fiber is a waste of city resources that totally ruins his bathrobe. But really, this ad, released by the city itself, is a clever piece of work. It's always nice when funny ads are made by people with decent comedic timing.
Barilla is struggling enough this week without its competitors piling on. But Bertolli doesn't care. Seizing on comments made by Barilla's chairman about how the company would never put gay couples in its advertising, Bertolli Germany quickly posted pro-gay imagery in its social feeds, happily taking advantage of its rival's misstep. "Love and pasta for all!" reads the caption on the Facebook photo above. "We just wanted to spread the news that Bertolli welcomes everyone, especially those with an empty stomach," a rep for Orca im Hafen, Bertolli's social-media agency in Germany, tells AdFreak. So far, Bertolli has not taken similar steps in the U.S., but the brand has been gay-friendly here for years, too. Check out the spot below from a couple of years back.
Mariano Rivera, the great New York Yankees closer, threw his final pitches at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, and will wrap up his legendary 19-year career in Houston this weekend. Among the admirers bidding farewell is Major League Baseball itself, which placed the ad above in four newspapers on Thursay—the New York Post, the Daily News, Metro New York and USA Today. The copy is maybe a little underwhelming, but the image is one that New Yorkers will remember for a long time to come. Via Deadspin.
Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy in New York revisit the concept of unscheduled trips in this sequel to their popular Departure Roulette stunt. That effort, from the summer, dared JFK travelers to ditch their plans and immediately fly to more exotic locales chosen at random by pushing a button. For the follow-up, the brand made surprise visits to people who had tweeted during the earlier campaign that they would want to try Departure Roulette—and let them do so.
In the sequel video, camera crews confront unsuspecting tweeters at their front doors, at work and on the sidewalk, with the big green Departure Roulette board in tow. The board becomes something of an actor in the drama, popping up behind tweeters during interviews and suddenly appearing around street corners. It's creepy and goofy at the same time, keeping the subjects off balance but generally adding to the fun. And there's an amusing bit halfway through the three-minute clip in which a brand ambassador knocks on a person's apartment door and calls out, "You're totally gonna miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" A neighbor steps into the hall to see what the commotion is about, takes in the scene with the lights and cameras, and quickly retreats back inside.
One guy who wins a trip to Bucharest seems less than stoked. "Romania … OK. I'll go to Romania. I guess." Maybe he was hoping for Budapest. Other destinations include Marrakesh, Morocco; Reykjavík, Iceland; Seoul, South Korea; and Panama City. As with the original Departure Roulette, the sequel is designed to capture Heineken's bold, adventurous spirit. Personally, I prefer Tui Brewery's approach to stunt marketing. They pump beer through your pipes so you can take off without ever leaving home.
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele Copywriter: Will Binder Art Director: Jared White Executive Producer: Nick Setounski Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie Project Manager: Rayna Lucier Community Managers: Mike Vitiello, Rocio Urena Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker Lead, Senior Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan Senior Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright
Production Company: Legs Media Director: Dan Levin Executive Producer: Tom Berendsen Line Producer: Sara Greco Postproduction Company: Joint Editorial Senior Producer: Michelle Carman Editor: Jon Steffanson Assistant Editors: Stephen Nelson, Noah Poole, Brian Schimpf Motion Graphics Director: Yui Uchida Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp. Design and Build Team: The Guild Audio Company: The Lodge Audio Mixer: John Northcraft Color: Nice Shoes Colorist: Danny Boccia Producer: Melissa Dupre
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