Hasta La Creative!

To sell tickets to its first-time event, the Transylvania-based Untold Music Festival is working the Dracula angle. In partnership with Romania’s National Blood Transfusion Institute, it has launched “Pay with Blood,” a campaign that lets you buy a day pass with plasma.

“We were talking about how to incorporate Dracula into our festival, and after seeing the numbers and how behind Romania was in blood donations, we had this idea,” Untold PR manager Stefana Giurgiu told the Guardian.

About 1.7 percent of the Romanian population are active blood donors, lower than anywhere else in the EU. (Vampire mythology probably doesn’t help.) And to justify its existence, the Untold Festival needs hundreds of thousands of attendees to fill both its paid and free venues.

Assuming you’ve got time to spare and blood to give, Untold takes place from July 30 to Aug. 2 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Through this Friday, people who give blood at centers in Bucharest and Cluj will get one-day tickets; those who register to give blood online will get 30 percent off.

By noon on the campaign’s first day, 45 people—many first-time donors—registered and gave blood. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but Giurgiu adds, “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing since we announced the campaign.” (Hopefully those are donors, not rubbernecking journalists.)

While the Transylvania connection gives Untold’s campaign special credence, this isn’t the first time blood has been used to draw eyes elsewhere. In partnership with the American Red Cross, the Saw movie franchise launched “Give ‘Til It Hurts,” a Halloween blood drive that ran for six consecutive years, yielding nearly 119,452 pints of blood in all. Creative featured the nurses from the films.

In 2006, Lionsgate produced 1,000 limited-edition posters for Saw III splattered with the blood of Tobin Bell, the actor who plays Jigsaw, for the benefit of the American Red Cross.

Dracula, wherever he is now, is slow-clapping—unless he’s seen the creative above, because that probably just confused him. Do vampires have blood to give? Actually, hold that thought.

AT&T’s “It Can Wait” texting-and-driving campaign from BBDO New York has included many notable executions, including the painful Werner Herzog documentary from 2013. And the latest spot is no exception, featuring quietly gripping storytelling from Anonymous Content director Frederic Planchon that suddenly explodes with horror.

The almost four-minute film is remarkable. (It’s supported by three 30-second spots, one of which will run on TV.) Slow-motion cinematography, shot at 1,000 frames per second, captures the brutal consequences of taking your eyes off the road to glance at your smartphone, even briefly. The footage then plays in reverse, ending on the cause of the terrible crash.

That cause, notably, isn’t that the driver was texting. The “It Can Wait” campaign has always focused on texting, but it’s is now evolving based on new research that revealed the prevalence of drivers engaging in other smartphone activities, like social media, web surfing, video chatting and more.

The campaign is evolving in other ways, too. AT&T, working with Reel FX, has developed an app called the It Can Wait Driving Simulation that uses virtual reality to give an immersive view of what it is like to text, post or video chat while driving. The VR simulator is freely available for iOS and Android and works with Google Cardboard.

A souped-up version of the simulator—running through the Samsung Gear VR headset, with premium sound from Bose QuietComfort 25 acoustic noise canceling headphones—will soon go on tour, visiting schools, fairs and partner companies in 100 U.S. cities.

CREDITS
Client: AT&T
Title: Close To Home

Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Senior Creative Director: LP Tremblay
Senior Creative Director: Erik Fahrenkopf
CD/Art Director: Grant Mason
CD/Copywriter: Kevin Mulroy

Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Executive Producer: Dan Blaney
Music Producer: Melissa Chester
Senior Integrated Business Manager: Cristina Blanco

Managing Director: Mark Cadman
Senior Account Director: Brian Nienhaus
Account Director: Gati Curtis
Account Manager: Johnny Wardell
Account Executive: Sigourney Hudson-Clemons

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Frederic Planchon
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Producer: Paul Ure
Director of Photography: Jody Lee Lipes

Editorial: WORK Editorial
Editor: Rich Orrick
Assistant Editors: Adam Witten and Trevor Myers
Executive Producer: Erica Thompson
Producer: Sari Resnick

Visual Effects: The Mill
EP/Head of Production: Sean Costelloe
Line Producer: Nirad ‘Bugs’ Russell
VFX Supervisor : Gavin Wellsman
2D Leads: Gavin Wellsman; Krissy Nordella
2D Compositor: Michael Smith; Chris Sonia, Keith Sullivan
2D Assists: Heather Kennedy; Sungeun Moon, Yoon-sun Bae, Marco Giampaolo
3D: Yili Orana , Corey Langelotti
Pre Vis Artist: Jeffrey Lee
Editor: Charlotte Carr
Designer: Clemens den Exter

Color:  The Mill
Colorist: Aline Sinquin

Music House: Grooveworx
Executive Producer: Dain Blair
Sound Design: Brian Emrich
Original music composed by Rob Simonsen

Sound: Sonic Union
Sound Mixer: Steve Rosen

Motions Graphics and Titles: Polyester

Is Geico’s “It’s What You Do” campaign on life support? Not yet, but it’s been hospitalized with a severe case of the non-sequiturs.

I’m not a huge fan of the insurance company’s “It’s What You Do” ads from The Martin Agency—there’s just not that much tension in the idea that getting Geico insurance is a given, and the other givens in the spots often feel too random.

This one, at least, provokes a chuckle with the appearance by a certain Hasbro game. Great pacing and direction, and the mini punch line is funny enough. The ad has almost 2.5 million YouTube views, though the vast majority of those came from its prime placement in the YouTube masthead last Saturday.

As for the campaign as whole, well, the patient is certainly on the table…

CREDITS
Client: Geico
Vice President, Marketing: Ted Ward
Director, Marketing: Bill Brower
Senior Manager, Marketing: Melissa Halicy
Marketing Supervisor: Mike Grant
Marketing Buyer: Tom Perlozzo
Marketing Buyer: Brighid Griffin
Marketing Buyer: Katherine Kalec
Marketing Specialist: Julia Nass

Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Group Creative Director: Wade Alger
Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
Creative Director: Sean Riley
Senior Copywriter: Ken Marcus
Executive Producer: Brett Alexander
Senior Broadcast Producer: Heather Tanton
Junior Broadcast Producer: Coleman Sweeney
Group Account Director: Brad Higdon
Account Executive: Allison Hensley
Account Supervisor: Josh Lybarger
Business Affairs Supervisor: Suzanne Wieringo
Financial Account Supervisor: Monica Cox
Senior Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz
Senior Project Manager: Jason Ray

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Managing Partner/Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne
Executive Producer/Head of Sales: Dan Duffy
Executive Producer: Mino Jarjoura
Executive Producer: Nancy Hacohen
Producer: Dave Bernstein
Production Supervisor: Shelly Silverman

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Christjan Jordan
Assistant Editor: Pieter Viljoen
Executive Producer: Angela Dorian
Producer: Jared Thomas

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Animation/VFX: MPC
Executive Producer: Elexis Stearn
Senior Producer: Juliet Tierney
Junior Producer: Nicole Saccardi
Creative Director: Paul O’Shea
CG Supervisor: Zach Tucker
Flame Lead: Blake Huber
Nuke Artist: James Steller
Flame Artist: Ben Persons

Music Company: HUM
Executive Creative Director: Jeff Koz
Sound Designer: Dan Hart
Music/Composer: Haim Mazar
Creative Director: Scott Glenn
Executive Producer: Debbi Landon
Producer: Caroline O’Sullivan

Audio Post Company: Rainmaker Studios
Engineer/Mixer: Jeff McManus

If you ever wanted to see a musical set in a McDonald’s, your ship has come in.

McDonald’s lead Hispanic agency, Alma in Miami, on Friday will roll out “A Little Lovin’,” a three-minute bachata musical starring the 20-year-old Dominican American singer Leslie Grace. At the beginning, she is seen sitting in McDonald’s with a case of writer’s block, but a McDonald’s employee (played by Daniel “Cloud” Campos, who also was the director and choreographer) soon inspires her to find “A Little Lovin’ ” all around.

As musicals do, it gets wildly and ridiculously energetic from there.

Alma repurposed Grace’s “Solita Me Voy” song for the spot. “About a year ago, Leslie was warming up for an interview and reminiscing about her happy childhood and going to McDonald’s with her dad, which was down the street from her mom’s salon,” said Luis Miguel Messianu, president and chief creative officer at Alma DDB. “She didn’t know she was being recorded, but my friend from Sony shared the sound byte with me and we’ve been working on an idea for her to partner with McDonald’s ever since.”

CREDITS
Talent
Leslie Grace: As Herself
Danny: Daniel Cloud
Dad: Cris Judd
Daughter: Tatiana McQuay

Film Crew
Director: Daniel Cloud
Executive Producer: Danielle Hinde
Producer: Courtney Davies
Production Supervisor: Rose Krane
Assistant Production Supervisor: Josh Reed

McDonald’s Marketing Team
VP Brand & Marketing Content: Joel Yashinksy
Director of Hispanic Consumer Marketing: Patricia Diaz
Manager of Social Engagement- US: Jenina Nunez

Alma Agency
President/Chief Creative Officer: Luis Miguel Messianu
VP Executive Creative Director: Alvar Sunol
Creative Director: Iu La Lueta
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Beatriz Torres-Marin
Senior Art Director: Luis Aguilera
Art Director: Andres Schiling
Director of Production: Adrian Castagna
Producer: Diana De La Parra
Account Director: Karen Udler
Account Supervisor: Cristina Lage
Senior Strategic Planner: Tamara Sotelo

Sony Music Entertainment US Latin
Senior Director of Business Development: Melissa Exposito
Business Development Analyst: Isabelle Duran
Manager: Jose Behar
Management: Lorena Fusilier
Management: Larissa Leal
Road Manager: Francisco Martinez

Unilever ice cream brand Cornetto is continuing its habit of telling cute long-form love stories, but now it’s trying to tell one from both sides at the same time.

The video below offers interweaving perspectives of a nascent teenage romance that’s on the verge of realization—delineating between internal monologue and external dialogue by tricking out the audio (it’s a binaural recording, captured by two microphones to create a 3-D sensation—headphones are recommended) and encouraging viewers to switch between the first-person views of the female and male leads, to see through their eyes.

It’s an intriguing approach that’s a little tricky to follow at times—switching back and forth gets a little tedious. (It’s also not nearly as seamless as what Wieden + Kennedy did with Honda’s “The Other Side.”) It might be smoother to have the camera just switch back and forth between perspectives on its own—effectively what it did, to some degree, in the brand’s Turkish hit from a couple years back.

And the wind-up could probably be a little shorter. Ultimately, it’s high-school prom drama, which is inherently pretty boring to everyone except the high-schoolers experiencing it. (The librarian’s side-eye during all the handwringing pretty much sums up the right way to feel about it—and ultimately, it turns out she’s a narrator of sorts.)

Then again, since high-schoolers are Cornetto’s target, the outsized significance may be perfect. And even you olds might find yourselves invested in the story—if these dumb kids could just get it together, they’d realize they’re more on the same page than they think. By the time the guy works up the courage to ask out his best friend—who’s interested in him, too—it’s actually quite satisfying, complete with him delivering a feel-good, gawky, geeky dance, and her serving him looks that kaleidoscope among perplexed, thrilled, embarrassed, dubious and thrilled again.

In other words, given it’s just an elaborate ploy to sell frozen treats, it’s a pretty sweet thing.

CREDITS
Client: Cornetto
Agency: MOFILM and A Taste of Space
Creative Director: Lorie Jo Trainer Buckingham
Creative Team: James Copeman, Lorie Jo Trainor Buckingham Ben and max ringham
Customer Relations Team: Rebecca Sykes
Strategic Planning: Rebecca Sykes and Lorie Jo trainor Buckingham
Agency Productor: Rebecca Sykes and Rosalind Wynn
Production Company: ATOS

Shoplifters get their comeuppance in adam&eveDDB’s latest work for Harvey Nichols, which promotes the chain’s Rewards App with the tagline, “Love freebies? Get them legally.”

The 90-second spot uses “100% genuine actual real honest footage” from security cameras in the retailer’s flagship Knightsbridge, London, store, agency executive creative director Ben Tollett tells AdFreak. “We got to sit in the Harvey Nichols CCTV control suite with all the store detectives, toggling the cameras around,” he says. “It did feel pretty cool.”

The perps are particularly brazen, pinching clothes, jewelry, perfume and more, often with patrons and staff standing close by. (The department store shouldn’t be surprised by such behavior. Its best-known campaign urges folks to drop by and selfishly pick up stuff for themselves—though payment was strongly suggested.)

For the new commercial, the crooks’ faces are obscured by emoji-like “robber” animations, complete with black masks and, in one case, a knitted ski-cap with slits for the eyes and mouth. Created by the Layzell Brothers at Blink, these effects give the spot an oddly memorable creepy/cheeky vibe.

Ultimately, it doesn’t end well for the baddies. “Don’t bother shoplifting in Harvey Nichols,” warns Tollett. “The only free thing you’ll get is a day trip to the local police station.”

True enough. Knocking over a Reserva store in the dead of night is a better bet.

Coming up with fun ad ideas for a show like Dating Naked isn’t exactly Pluto-level rocket science. You think of fun things naked people can do besides dating, and you film them doing it. Then you blur their privates and watch the YouTube count rise.

Last year, VH1 got Los Angeles agency Mistress to make a Dating Naked ad with people dancing naked. Now, agency and client have followed that up with an ad showing people jumping naked. The twist: It was filmed in super slow motion at 1,000 frames per second.

Check out the spot below, which the agency describes as “a graphic visualization of the insight that it is all about our true selves, finding true love—without all the bullshit.”

CREDITS
Client: VH1
Agency: Mistress
Production Company: Bastard
Director: Bob Hope
Editorial: Bastard
Editors: Kyle Stebbins and Ian Kalmbaugh
VFX: Kyle Stebbins
Sound Design: Lime Studios
Engineer: Sam Casas
Partner/CD: Damien
Art Director: Rachel Guest
Copywriter: Celine Faledam
Producer: Kay Lynn Dutcher
Brand Director: Tor Edwards
Brand Manager: Kylie Wu
Project Manager: Alex Clewell 

Volkswagen wants you to feel like a kid again.

A new campaign from the automaker and agency Deutsch LA cleverly invites you to create your own virtual test drive of a Golf R—by making car noises into your computer.

“Unleash Your Rrr” lets you record video of yourself imitating revving engines and squealing breaks—then analyzes the audio to string together clips into a personalized video of the VW model in action, racing down a track or drifting through turns.

Professional driver Tanner Foust performed the stunts, and also stars in one of two excellent teaser vids—in which he delivers some killer sounds, and perfectly sums up the experience at the end, with a slightly horrified, “Good God.” While his facial contortions are nothing to sneeze at, actor Michael Winslow (aka, the Man of 10,000 Sound Effects) blows Foust out of the water with priceless looks and bottomless panache.

In short, it’s an exceptionally fun and simple idea. Head over to rrr.vw.com for some more samples, or to create your own—so long as you’re willing to forever and completely grant VW rights to the footage of you puckering up while you say “Vroom.”

Attention, Aldi’s shoppers: Do not be alarmed. The big man with a megaphone is harmless. We think.

Comedian and TV host Ben Bailey trades in his cash cab for a grocery cart and goofs around with Aldi customers in this web video series created by Weber Shandwick for the discount supermarket chain.

The company plans to launch 45 stores in Southern California next year, and the campaign will “help introduce Aldi’s unique and quirky ways to new markets and neighborhoods,” says Weber executive creative director Jim Paul.

Under normal circumstances, those quirks don’t include Bailey, armed here with an amplifier and whirling police light, accosting shoppers with questions (mostly, he asks what they like about the store). Still, it’s all in good fun. The dude’s down-to-earth, regular-guy persona feels right for a chain that charges folks to use its carts and makes them bag their own groceries in order to keep prices down.

Bailey, the former host of Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab, shot the hidden-camera spots in April at a Chicago-area store. “People were quick to call out their favorite products and how much money they save each month,” he says. Indeed, the customers seem to be having a great time. For them, it was a change of pace from the dairy-case doldrums, no doubt. And, as advertising, the approach offers something a bit unexpected for the category (unexpected, though not supergeil).

A special shout-out goes to an elderly shopper named Herb, who basically steals the show with his high spirits, good-natured kibitzing and quips like, “Ben Bailey?! Never heard of you.”

Herb will have you rolling in the aisles.

CREDITS
Client: Aldi
Director of Public Relations: Liz Ruggles
Marketing Manager: Erika Lempa

Agency: Weber Shandwick
Executive Creative Director: Jim Paul
SVP, Creative Director: Jeff Immel
VP, Creative Director: Dan Jividen
Copywriter: Mikinzie Stuart
VP, Executive Integrated Producer: Kim Mohan
Producer: Karen Carter
EVP: Allison Madell
SVP: Katy Pankau
SVP, Digital: Jonathan Sullivan
VP: Eniko Bolivar
VP: Emily Fisher
VP, Consumer Media Relations: Ernestine Sclafani
Director, Senior Media Specialist: Jennifer Parsons
Director, Digital: Nick Wille
Group Manager, Paid Media & Content Distribution: Allie Smith
Group Manager, Media Specialist: Alan Keane
Account Supervisor: Kristen Thompson
Account Supervisor: Caitlyn Andre
Account Supervisor: Carolina Madrid

Production Company: Accomplice Media
Director: Tom Feiler
Executive Producer: Mel Gragido
Editor: Christina Stumpf
Post Production Company: Quriosity Productions
Sound Design & Mix: Joe Flood, Floodgate Studios

So, the folks over at Printsome, a U.K. T-shirt printing service, were getting hammered one evening (by their own admission, “beers weren’t lacking”) and somehow the discussion turned to how Facebook would taste if it were a beer.

I think most people would say the flavor would change every few months at the whim of its advertising partners, but Printsome took things one step further and made a whole beer identity for Facebook. They did the same for Nike, Apple, the Arsenal football club and themselves, deciding flavor, label design, alcohol content and desired audience for each.

The label designs are pretty standard for projects like this, but the writeups are fun. They decided Nike beer would be low-cal and full of taurine, which sounds exactly like something Nike would do, and that Apple’s iBeer would be an organic cider/beer monstrosity of some kind. I would have made it an iPA, but then again, I’m a pun-loving colonial savage.