Hasta La Creative!

There’s a certain kind of advertising that you know is vying for a Cannes Lion, the kind of prestige work that will really make you think about the state of humanity—and if you’re lucky, the brand behind the spot. 

Apple Music’s new spot, which broke on Sunday night’s Emmy Award telecast and pointed to the extended online version version below (brilliant timing, A+ media team), has James Corden pitching ad ideas for Apple Music—goofy and, later, overly ambitious ideas—much to the chagrin of Apple’s execs, who’d rather just tell people about the app’s functionality. 

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Earlier this week, Apple finally made iOS 10 available for everyone to download. A big part of the launch was a lot of new features for the iMessage app. But what really got people’s attention (because the internet is less about functionality than about kitschy features) was that you can now add stickers to your iMessage conversations. 

Stickers, in case you’re not 15 years old, are little graphics you can append to pictures you’re sending to friends via iMessage. They’re similar to the stickers you can now add to pictures on Twitter and in Snapchat filters, and are part of the trend of media personalization on social networks and messaging apps, meant to let people find new and interesting ways to express themselves by customizing their photos. 

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Here’s a pretty great out-of-home execution for Oliver Stone’s upcoming film Snowden, about the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—a billboard that’s been spying on pedestrians in Toronto and streaming footage of their movements on the street.

Snowden’s revelations about the NSA, of course, raised troubling questions about mass surveillance. And the billboard—timed to the Toronto International Film Festival, where Stone’s movie premiered—itself embodies those very issues.

DentsuBos and Elevation Pictures set up surveillance cameras with motion tracking technology around Dundas Square. The cameras tracked pedestrians’ movements and livestreamed them onto a giant video board.

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When Apple introduced its wireless AirPod earphones at its media event last week, there was immediate suspicion that these cute little gizmos might pose a particular problem for consumers. Conan O’Brien latches on to that criticism in very amusing style with the parody ad below—spoofing Apple’s famous iPod “Silhouettes” ads from the early 2000s.

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If you fancy hanging out in the sizzling-hot middle of nowhere, with an endless expanse of sand all around and the occasional scorpion scuttling by for distraction, Audi’s got the promotion for you.

As part of its Emmy Awards sponsorship, the auto brand and Airbnb will offer fans the chance to book three-day getaways at the luxury Rondolino Residence in Death Valley, Nevada. The place is so isolated, it has no actual address—just coordinates on a map.

Guests get to drive a 2017 Audi R8 during their stay, which also includes chauffeur service from the airport, meals prepared by a personal chef and, according to press materials, “evening entertainment/activities.” (Scorpion races, perhaps?)

To tout the promo, Venables Bell & Partners created the fun spot below—it almost feels like a Supwer Bowl ad—which is running online and will also air during ABC’s Emmys telecast on Sunday.

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Among Hollywood’s few remaining household names, Tom Cruise is famous for acting like a robot, Tom Hanks for doubling as everyone’s next-door neighbor, and Nic Cage for freaking the hell out. But can any living human truly reproduce the former Nicolas Coppola’s unearthly wail or his uncanny ability to convince viewers that things are not quite right beneath what’s left of his hair?

Cage’s famously horrifying voice has yet to replace the Wilhelm Scream as the industry’s go-to shriek. But a few German creatives recently teamed up to make a site that not-so-scientifically gauges one’s ability to match his volume and intensity.

The Nic Cage Rage Page asks, “When push comes to shove, when shit hits the fan, could you do it? Could you Rage Like Cage?”

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Have you ever heard what people say about Latinos? They’re intense, passionate and “macho”—a quality that’s often seen as protective.

Obviously, these are stereotypes. Another side of the “Latin man” is that he can be sensitive and expressive. But embracing “machismo” for its good qualities, without examining the bad stuff, can have unpleasant cultural side effects—like controlling behavior, which can lead to femicide, not to mention relatively unpunished rape. 

(Hey. Sounds familiar.)

To show its support ahead of an Aug. 13 protest in Peru, Grupo el Comercio-owned newspaper Peru 21, one of the most popular papers in the country, tossed its cover pages into the ring. With help from McCann Lima, the paper converted its front and back pages into signs that protesters could grab off newsstands, flip open and carry in the streets. 

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Oh, the places you’ll go!

In 2013, Heineken scored a bronze Lion at Cannes with “The Candidate,” an internship contest that generated a whopping 1,734 global entries. 

Now, the brand is back to recruiting with “Go Places,” led by a musical Dr. Seuss-ish video inviting talent to respond to 12 questions, which must be answered in three to five seconds. Based on the Enneagram model, the results give you a personal profile, which must be sent along with your résumé when applying for your Heineken dream gig on LinkedIn. 

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Be careful: If you buy a designer dress and a leather biker jacket at British discount chain T.K. Maxx, you’ll soon find yourself regularly practicing ballet on a motorcycle—just to match your beloved outfit.

It’s the absurd, entertaining conceit at the heart of a new ad for the retailer (known as T.J. Maxx in the U.S.) created by Wieden + Kennedy London. A young woman daintily balances on the tail of her heavy black bike while popping a wheelie and spinning circles in slow motion. All the while, an elderly woman named Doris plays an art deco organ that sounds an awful lot like a piano—a service that, according to the protagonist, is quite expensive.

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Tom Jones’ 1971 hit “She’s a Lady” was a braggadocio anthem to all the men who’d found the right kind of woman—the kind who has “style and grace,” but, and this is important, “always knows her place.” 

Of course, the Paul Anka-penned song wasn’t really about a woman—the titular lady could be anyone—but about a man. That man, in 1971, as second-wave feminism was spreading, had managed to find a lady who would rather go to dinner with him than join NOW. 

In any case, that’s exactly why H&M’s use of the song—a new version from duo Lion Babe—in this new ad is so wonderful. H&M has created a feminist anthem soundtracked by a classically misogynist song, for a spot meant to redefine how you think women should look, act and think, where they stand in society, etc. 

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