Hasta La Creative!

Floyd Russ is getting pretty good at gun-control advertising. The Grey New York producer worked on the famous "Ed" spot for States United to Prevent Gun Violence, which won a silver Lion in Film at Cannes this summer. Now he has spearheaded the chilling new PSA below—a personal project involving four Grey staffers but not produced by the agency—that uses audio from 911 calls made on the night of Trayvon Martin's death to protest stand-your-ground self-defense laws in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal.

The spot features a reenactment of Zimmerman's pursuit of Martin, and then calls for viewers to take action to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Russ tells AdFreak that he got the idea for the spot on the night of the Zimmerman verdict. He got Grey creatives Marques Gartrell and Kim Nguyen and account director Cassie Novick on board, and they raised $5,000 in a week online to cover production costs. Final Cut agreed to cover the postproduction work. Russ and his team drew up a list of potential clients for the spot; The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was the first to reply.

"Our laws should protect victims. Not create more," says the on-screen copy at the end. "Stand up to 'Stand Your Ground' laws in 26 states." The spot points to csgv.org, which features a petition through which Americans can call on their state legislators to "oppose this immoral legislation."

Full credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Title: "Stand Up to 'Stand Your Ground' " PSA

Production Company: Narrow Margin Films
Director: Floyd Russ
Writers: Marques Gartrell, Kim Nguyen, Floyd Russ
Executive Producer: Adam Palmer
Associate Producers: Mike Lobikis, Keely Davenport, Emily Darby
Account Director/Art Department: Cassie Novick
Art Director: Marques Gartrell
Copywriter: Kim Nguyen
Director of Photography: Josh Fisher
Steadicam: Billy Green
Assistant Director: Adam Murphy

Postproduction: Final Cut
President: Stephanie Apt
Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss
Editor: Sonejuhi Sinha
Assistant Editor: Dan Berk
Senior Producer: Viet-An Nguyen
Finishing Producer: Alek Rost
Online Visual Effects: Cecil Hooker
Graphics: Phil Brooks
Sound Design, Mixing: T. Terressa Tate
Color: Color Collective @ Final Cut
Colorist: Alex Bickel

Music: Future Perfect Music
Composer: Victor Magro

Officer Baby says, "Put your hands against the waaaah!"

Samsung invents the mustachioed-baby-plays-cop-and-chases-a-vacuum-cleaner trope with this spot by The Viral Factory in London. Thankfully, the little lawman doesn't actually speak, but he's got a flashing blue light on his walker, so you know he means business as he takes off after a Samsung Motion Sync vacuum pushed around the house by his mom.

There's '70s-style cop-show music, action-movie camera angles and even a few "crashes"—though the infant enforcer just harmlessly knocks into some cartons, toys and plastic baskets. It's immediately clear that he's OK, and that's probably a good thing, given the beating this client-agency team took a while back for the cartoon violence in its "computer/puppy" spot.

The petite patrolman's convincing "Where'd that vacuum go?" expression around the 40-second mark is topped only by his brilliant use of the facial-hair disguise. He's a lock to make detective, probably in Seattle. (Perhaps he could investigate why there just happens to be a fake mustache lying around.)

This is a well-made spot, but the concept seems kind of random and weird, and it's tough to hang in for the whole two minutes. The focus is never really on the $600 vacuum cleaner being advertised. I guess the unit looks spry and maneuverable, though not as cute as the kiddie constable. Once the pursuit is finished, he's all tuckered out and ready for ba-ba and nap time—just like a grown-up police officer.

EA Sports goes back to the future with this dumb-in-a-funny-way spot by ad agency Heat for Madden 25. In the '80s, we're told, two guys playing an early version of the football video game decided to spawn offspring whom they'd be able to use in the game somewhat. Thus were born current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. (The fathers, "Darian Foster" and "Marshawn Lynch Sr.," are played, of course, by Foster and Lynch themselves.) It's a somewhat convoluted concept that comes across as well done, right on target for sports and video game obsessives, and a nice way to celebrate the Madden franchise's 25th anniversary—even if the kids' gym workouts are over the top in a way that feels a little like Old Spice's Terry Crews was their personal trainer. Credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: EA Sports' Madden 25

Agency: Heat
Creative Directors: Warren Cockrel, Anna Rowland
Senior Art Director: Mark Potoka
Senior Copywriter: Ben Salsky
Content Producer: Vera Kacurova
Account Director: Eddie Garabedian
Senior Strategist: Daniel Teng

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Executive Producer: Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Rachel Curl

Post Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Christjan Jordan
Executive Producer: Damian Stevens

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: John Leonti

Music Company: Beacon Street Studios
Composer: Andrew Feltenstein

There's an old legend in advertising that goes like this: David Ogilvy was walking past a homeless man one day whose sign read: "I'm blind, please help." His cup was empty. Instead of giving him money, Ogilvy rewrote the sign to read: "I am blind, and it's spring." The cup soon overflowed with cash. Tada—a lesson in the power of storytelling.

Of course, stories that work in legend don't always work in reality, or so it seems when you try to apply the tricks of modern advertising to today's homeless signs. Writing team the Bilderbergers and director Ben Weinstein created a fictional project called Better Homeless Signs, bringing more compelling copy and design techniques to the traditional cardboard placard. Witness the sexy homeless sign, the meme-based homeless sign, and the prototype edible homeless sign (that's gotta be up for an award).

Of course, some real graphic designers have been doing this in an earnest manner since 2012. The way advertising is today, who knows how they afford the overhead. The takeout costs alone must be legendary. Full credits here.

Advertising Agency: JWT, India
Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pawar
National Creative Director: Swati Bhattacharya
Art Director: Subhash Sudhakaran
Creative Director/ Art Director: Anirudh Verma
Creative Director/ Copywriter: Chirag Bhasin
Account Director: Vaibhav Sahani
Illustrator: Myoo
Account manager: Vishal Karla

The post Horlicks by JWT appeared first on desicreative.

Who can argue that bombastic 1980s power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" isn't the single greatest piece of music in human history? That's right: no one. Its appearance in a MasterCard spot a while back, with brand-centric lyrics performed by its original singer, Bonnie Tyler, was priceless. And these days, "Total Eclipse" has resurfaced with a vengeance. Diva impressionist Christina Bianco's performance of the song in the style of Adele, Cher, Streisand and others is approaching 2 million YouTube views since being posted earlier this week.

Now, Fiber One gets in on the act with a pair of amusing 30-second spots from Saatchi & Saatchi. As with MasterCard, the words have been altered to fit the brand profile. The "Turn around, bright eyes" chorus morphs into "Turn around, Barry" in one spot and "Turn around, Barbara" in the other as we watch various Barrys and Barbaras, deprived of the tasty-yet-unhealthy snacks they crave, discover the joys of Fiber One. 

"Finally I have a manly chocolatey snack and fiber so my wife won't give me any more flak," wails Barry. Amen, brother, amen. "Forever I've been praying for a snack in my life, and now I have a brownie ending all of my strife," wails Barbara. True that, sister, true that.

While exaggerated, the humor is never so outrageous that it seems cartoonish or stupid, which could have thrown the spots out of whack. So I applaud Fiber One for finding the perfect balance and keeping things more or less … regular.

CREDITS:

Client: General Mills
Brand: Fiber One Bars/Brownies

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Chief Creative Officer: Con Williamson
Creative Directors: Peter Smith, Johnnie Ingram
Art Director: Katherine Kuni                                  
Copywriter: Chris Stevenson
Head of Broadcast Production: John Doris
Senior Producer: Nicole Gabrielle Ogborn
Music Producer: Eric Korte
Business Manager: Christina Mattson

Production Company: Little Minx
Director: Nico Perez Veiga of Nico & Martin
Director of Photography: Nanu Segal
Executive Producer: Rhea Scott
Line Producer: Deb Tietjen

Editing House: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Editor: Carlos Arias
Assistant Editor: Maria Lee
Flame Artist: Edward Reina
Producer: Helena Lee
Executive Producer: Eve Kornblum

Music Company: Butter Music and Sound
Executive Producer: Ian Jeffreys
Producer: Annick Mayer
Composition and Arrangement: David Quattrini and Andrew Sherman

Mix Company: Mr. Bronx Audio Post
Engineer: David Wolfe
Producer: Jaya Oleksnianski

Toshiba targets the college-guy demo with sophomoric humor in a trio of Canadian spots from Capital C. All of the action takes place in dorm rooms, and the ads seek to show how the client's computers can improve the school experience.

"Chicken Prank" focuses on a dude who can't peck away with his fingers on a keyboard or touchscreen because he's been wrapped in plastic and tied to his bed. Oh, and the room's filled with clucking chickens, naturally. He wiggles his toe to operate an All-in-One desktop with gesture control. Presumably, he summons assistance. (Dude, why not just scream "help!" at the top of your lungs? Maybe someone's in the room next door. Clearly no Ivy Leaguer.)

"Black Light" touts the ability of Satellite P-series laptops to power and charge USB devices even when the laptop is closed. Two roommates just moving in are horrified when a USB-powered black-light wand reveals unsavory streaks, smears and smudges soiling just about every inch of their walls and ceilings. (I guess the pervious occupants hosted some all-night, um, study sessions.)

The third spot, "Math Notes," showcases the Excite Write tablet's ability to convert handwritten notes and sketches into sharable files. A guy asks his roommate for calculus notes, and looks extremely dismayed, almost repulsed, when he instead receives a drawing of himself reimagined by his roommate as a hunky centaur. 

All three spots are cheeky, just a tad naughty and probably in tune with the teen and young-adult audience. I wonder, though, if some viewers won't find "Math Notes" borderline homophobic, since the punch line falls back on what Glaad has dubbed the "homo-queasy" ad cliché of showing a guy looking disgusted that another man might be attracted to him. "Toshiba would never intentionally set out to offend our customers," Sherry Lyons, vp of corporate and marketing communications at Toshiba of Canada, tells AdFreak. "We do not feel that the 'Math Notes' video is offensive or cliché."

So, San Pellegrino will let folks remotely control robots on the ground and in the air over Italy … but NOT for the purpose of Dalek-like mass destruction? Where's the fun in that? To help bring the sparkling water's "Three Minutes in Italy" promotion to life, Ogilvy & Mather in New York partnered with Deeplocal to create five robots that Facebook users can control romotely to take in the sights of Italy. Four ground-gliding units and one skybot perched on a 40-foot pole allow users to take virtual tours of Taormina, a picturesque village in Sicily. San Pellegrino's Facebook fans can sign up to drive the ground-bots for 180 seconds, viewing the town in real time. The robots are equipped with tablets displaying users' Facebook profile pics, and a translation program allows participants to talk with local residents. Brand ambassadors are on the ground to facilitate engagement, or thwart any attempts to use the robots for evil ends, whichever comes first. Actually, the bots don't look very threatening, especially equipped with umbrellas to protect their components from the sun. (After the jump, watch one robotic romeo chat up an unsuspecting passerby named Christin; That's amore!) The campaign runs through Aug. 17, with virtual tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern. It's a novel approach, and it seems only fitting that as robots take more of our jobs, they get to replace us on vacation, too. Via PSFK.

Here it is, the first official Men's Wearhouse brand ad since the departure of iconic founder George Zimmer and the hiring of Phenomenon in Los Angeles as the retailer's new agency of record. (Last month, we got a bit of a sneak peek with a brief spot promoting the chain's charitable effort, the National Suit Drive.) The new spot, "Walk of Fame," is a retrospective of suit fashion through the decades since the store's founding in 1973. It's a fun watch, fueled by The Heavy's track, "What Makes a Good Man?" But I'm not sure the tagline—"For 40 years we've been helping men dress like gentlemen"—really fits in an ad where a guy keeps sleazily spinning around to eye hot women with a level of blatant ogling that went out of fashion long before most of these suits did.

Expedia's "Find Yours" campaign from 180LA, which has produced some pretty forward-thinking and powerful spots in the recent past, is now encouraging you to "Find Your Spontaneity" by entering to win one of the travel service's daily free trips. The ad for the app-based promotion is a bit of an odd hybrid, though, with the first part devoted to Expedia reps explaining their smartphone app to random passers-by and the rest of the spot focused on a supposedly random guy who agreed to hop on a flight to China that evening. Expedia was going for some of the magic Heineken found with its Departure Roulette stunt, but they tried a little too hard, and the resulting ad feels jarringly artificial. Between the beautifully crafted travel shots and the sheer luck of catching a willing guy with a suitcase walking through a park, everything here just feels more staged than empowering. ("How did he get a visa so fast?" wonders one skeptical YouTube commenter.) But hey, a few theatrics are allowable if it means not having to watch an entire ad about how to use a mobile app.