Hasta La Creative!

The latest baby-food ad to make the rounds isn’t what you’d expect. No perfectly tidy nurseries or matching outfits for JCPenney portraits here. Plum Organics’ #ParentingUnfiltered campaign is about real family life—messy, frustrating and somehow wonderful just the same.

We see scenes familiar to any modern parent—pumping milk at work, crying over an iPad, a somber goodbye to a pet goldfish, late nights and tired eyes. It finishes with the copy, “If it feels like parenting isn’t always perfect, you’re doing it right.”

Refreshingly, it’s neither mom- nor dad-focused (dad’s not the caricatural buffoon, for example), and there are same-sex couples and people of color. Along with the spot comes a hashtag, a website and heavy Internet marketing, including partnerships with popular parent bloggers.

It’s Plum Organics’ first-ever national campaign, says Neil Grimmer, CEO and co-founder.

“When we first launched seven years ago, our marketing strategy was super scrappy, focused solely on grassroots, word of mouth and PR. We’re still that brand at heart,” he tells AdFreak. “So as a concept, Parenting Unfiltered came very naturally to us. … The baby industry has done a wonderful job of setting up an expectation that everything is beautiful and rosy and majestic, and then you actually get into your own life and it’s messy and raw and not always pretty. Parenting Unfiltered is about not only acknowledging but celebrating the complicated reality that is parenting.”

This spot comes in the wake of Similac’s wildly popular campaign addressing heated parenting topics, including the ever-volatile breastfeeding vs. formula and SAHM vs. working-mom wars. Both spots have minimal product inclusion, as well. (Blink, and you’ll miss the container of Plum Organics puffs on the kitchen counter.)

“The campaign approach is very Plum in that it’s really speaking to our fans at an emotional level. As a lifestyle brand, we don’t feel it’s necessary to lead with a product-first campaign strategy,” says Grimmer. “The ultimate goal is to be thought of by our consumers as a trusted source and friend, so when they’re in the baby-food aisle and it comes time to make that purchasing decision, Plum is that friendly face on the shelf.”

It’s also reminiscent of Coke Argentina’s beautiful ad highlighting the agony and ecstasy of early parenthood (toddler destruction throughout, yet unbridled joy when the starring couple find out they’re expecting baby No. 2).

It’s a continuation of a slow but lovely trend of brands portraying the beautifully real parts of parenting.

Looking for a browser extension that approaches ad blocking a bit more creatively? D&AD and Paris agency BETC have just the thing.

The British ad organization, which just handed out its 2015 awards last week, has now released The Ad Filter, an extension for Chrome and Firefox that blocks regular preroll ads and automatically replaces them with D&AD winners from past years.

It might seem odd for an ad group and a famous agency to promote ad blocking, but D&AD and BETC say the plug-in is designed to “celebrate creativity by inspiring and stimulating people in the industry and beyond.”

“We wanted to demonstrate that people don’t hate advertising, they just hate bad advertising,” says Olivier Apers, creative director BETC Paris.

Check out the demo below, and download The Ad Filter here. It certainly works. I installed it, and quickly saw Vodafone’s “The Kiss,” Hahn SuperDry’s “Pioneering Beering” and LG Kompressor Elite’s “Somethings Lurking” spots.

CREDITS
Client – D&AD
Brand Management – Laura Kelly
Agency – BETC X BETC Digital
Agency Management – Niamh O’Connor, Anaïs Pirajean
Chief Creative Officer – Stéphane Xiberras
Executive Creative Director – Olivier Apers
Art Directors – Alphons Conzen, Jonathan Baudet-Botella
Copywriter – Adrian Skenderovic
Development – Cogit
Motion Design – Raphaël Benhamou

Are you a greedy person who doesn’t like to share your nachos with your friends? If so, Taco Bell wants you to buy its giant nacho for one.

In a new ad from Deutsch LA, a young man with exactly the kind of dour demeanor you’d expect from a nacho hoarder rants about the injustices of sharing, the social institution. In all honesty, it’s a sentiment we’ve all probably felt in one moment of weakness or another, which gives it some resonance. And the spot scores extra points for working in some dings against Facebook—namely, the culture of excessive baby photos and cat pics (though let’s be real, people who don’t like babies and animals are, in all likelihood, soulless). The look on the actor’s face when he’s swiping through his tablet is pretty much perfect.

Overall, though, the commercial doesn’t do a great job of making the gloppy, cheesy mess of a ground-meat pocket that can’t rightfully be called a nacho (the “Grilled Stuft Nacho,” which the brand just brought back from the dead) actually appetizing. But at least the brand’s marketing team knows to embrace the sociopathic demographic—when it’s not busy railing against the evils of a certain totalitarian clown.

CREDITS
Client: Taco Bell
Chief Marketing Officer: Chris Brandt
VP, Brand Creative Director: Tracee Larocca
Director of Advertising: Aron North
Manager, Brand Experience: Ashley Prollamante
Associate Manager, Brand Experience: Alexandra Bunn
Food Consultant: Lois Carson Hunter

Agency: Deutsch LA
Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat
Executive Creative Director: Brett Craig
Group Creative Directors: Guto Araki, Tom Pettus
Creative Directors: Erick Mangali, Ryan Lehr
Senior Art Director: Chris Adams
Senior Copywriter: Ross Cavin
Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo
Executive Producer:  Paul Roy
Senior Producer: Alison McMahon
Music Director: Dave Rocco
Group Account Director: Walter Smith
Account Director: Sandy Song
Account Supervisor: Kim Suarez
Account Executive: Karah duMaire
Chief Strategy Officer: Colin Drummond
Group Planning Director: Lindsey Allison
Senior Account Planner: Kelly Mertesdorf
Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo
Executive Business Affairs Manager: Ken Rongey
Director of Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo
Senior Broadcast Traffic Manager: Sarah Freeark

Executives:
CEO, North America: Mike Sheldon
President, Los Angeles: Kim Getty

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Dave Laden
Director of Photography: Stoeps Langersteiner
Managing Partner: Kevin Byrne
Executive Producer: Dan Duffy, Mino Jarjoura
Line Producer: Jason Gilbert

Editorial Company:  Cut & Run LA
Editor: Lucas Eskin
Senior Producer: Remy Foxx
Executive Producer: Carr Schilling

Post Facility: Jogger LA
VFX Supervisor/Flame Artist:  Tim Rudgard
Graphics: Jorge Tanaka
Executive Producer: Lynne Manino

Color Facility: Company 3
Colorist: Dave Hussey

Audio Post: Lime Studios
Mixer: Mark Meyuhas
Assistant: Matt Miller
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

Composed Music: Massive Music
Creative Director/Composer: Tim Adams
Head of Production: Jessica Entner

Evian’s famous ongoing ad campaign from BETC is all about sight gags showing adults as children. It’s been enormously successful, at least in terms of staggering YouTube view counts on ads like “Roller Babies” and “Baby & Me,” though some people find the whole thing cloying, even creepy.

This new print campaign, though, is straightforward fun—without the CGI that can make the videos off-putting. The beach chair/cell phone one is particularly great. And the framing and simple product placement in each execution are perfect.

Via Adeevee.

CREDITS
Client: Evian
Agency: BETC Paris
Creative Director: Filip Nilsson
Art Director: Agnes Cavard
Assistant Art Dirextor: Felix Falzon
Copywriter: Valerie Chidlovsky
Photographer: Jean Yves Lemoigne
Retoucher: Pierrick Guenneugues, Sparklink
Art Buyer: Isabelle Mocq-Orain, Nathalie Gruselle
Production: Sarah Belhadj

This interactive outdoor campaign by Lew’LaraTBWA is a real yawner—which is exactly what the Brazilian agency intended.

The shop set up a digital panel equipped with a motion sensor at São Paulo’s busy Fradique Coutinho subway station at morning rush hour. When commuters approached the sign, the face on the panel would yawn. Naturally, many of the commuters themselves also began yawning—yawning being notoriously contagious, after all—at which point the screen made a product pitch.

In case the sign wasn’t enough of a wake-up call, perky glamor gals arrive on the scene with some product samples. (Watch the clip to savor the big reveal.)

That last bit—the glamor gals—might strike some viewers as gratuitous, but otherwise this a prime example of what prankverising has been morphing into over the past few years.

Shocking stunts have by and large been replaced by a fusion of technology and street theater as brands create positive real-world experiences designed for subsequent media consumption. Of late, they’ve run the gamut from fun to moving to doggone adorable.

As long as such campaigns remain clever and inclusive, it will be along time before the public tires of this approach.

Via Ads of the World.

CREDITS
Client: Café Pelé
Agency: Lew’LaraTBWA, Brazil
Chief Creative Officer: Manir Fadel
Executive Chief Creative: Felipe Luchi
Copywriter: Lucas Veloso
Art directors: André Mezzomo, Digo Souto

Gatorade really does love sweat.

Last year, the brand’s hidden-camera ads with Peyton Manning and Cam Newton required customers at a convenience store to “sweat it to get it.” If would-be consumers couldn’t show visible signs of a workout, they couldn’t buy Gatorade.

Now, an epic new spot—created by TBWAChiatDay and voiced by Michael Jordan—makes it clear that “not all sweat is created equal.” In other words, if your sweat isn’t the intense kind, spilled in pursuit of sporting glory, then your sweat is pretty boring, and you should probably try harder. (That way, you’ll sweat more, and need more Gatorade.)

It’s a well put-together, if slightly obvious play—featuring celebrities like Serena Williams, April Ross and Usain Bolt, and released on the heels of the brand’s revival of its famous “Be Like Mike” campaign. The new ad does have at least one YouTube commenter a little nervous about the contents of the sports drink, though.

Last month, Ikea launched an online wedding service. Now, it’s one step closer to offering the full honeymoon package, with a stunt that will bring breakfast in bed to guests of a temporary restaurant.

The furniture store is promoting its bedroom products with the Ikea Breakfast in Bed Cafe, operating this week in London. Reservations are available between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m., and 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. each day, with a menu the brand describes as a “classic Scandinavian breakfast” (what exactly that means—and whether it includes caviar—isn’t exactly clear).

Germaphobes can rest assured that Ikea’s staff will change the sheets between each sitting. Guests can also choose from a selection of pillows (but have to pay for the food). Single beds are not available for those who aren’t newlywed.

Via PFSK.

If you watch the ad below and conclude there’s nothing new under the sun, you’re half right.

Sunny Delight rollerblades into ’90s nostalgia with this delightfully deft parody of its own goofy, iconic (some might say moronic) commercial from the first Twin Peaks era.

Created by ad agency Grenadier, and targeting millennials with fond memories of SunnyD advertising from two decades ago, the new spot presents grown-up versions of the kids from the original. They’re not portrayed by the same actors, but they are still blading through suburbia and crowding into Mrs. B.’s kitchen for some vitamin-enriched, orange-flavored refreshment. Of course, they’ve all gained a few pounds, and the guys have lost some hair.

“Look, I can’t do this anymore,” the now-elderly Mrs. B. laments. “You and your friends have been doing this for 20 years. You’re 36. You need a job.”

“As a brand, we try not to take ourselves too seriously and to act with self-awareness,” says SunnyD marketing director Dave Zellen. Grenadier partner Rob Hofferman adds: “For people who grew up with that spot—who are now millennial parents or a little older—it’s a great way to give them a fun touchstone to that time that they can now share and pass on to their kids.”

With shimmering analog synths in the background, and splendid comic panache, the reboot is just as “radical” as the original—though I hope that “purple stuff” hasn’t been fermenting in the fridge all this time. One sip could trigger some wild flashbacks.

The ad is airing on TV is Sacramento, Indianapolis and Charlotte, and online everywhere.

And here’s the original spot:

CREDITS
Client: Sunny Delight
Spot: “SunnyD 2015 Rollerblade”
Agency: Grenadier
Creative Director/Art Director: Randy Rogers
Creative Directors/Writers: Wade Paschall, Mark St. Amant
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Grant Minnis
Executive Producer: Keith Dezen
Production Company: Community Films
Director: Clay Williams
Executive Producer (Production Co): Lizzy Schwartz
Producer (Production Co): Helen Hollien
Line Producer: Helen Hollien
Director of Photography: Guyla Pados
Editorial Company: HutchCo Technologies
Editor: Jim Hutchins
Music Company: JSM Music
Visual Effects Company: Brickyard VFX
Visual Effects Editor: Patrick Polian
Visual Effects Producer: Linda Jackson
Account Service Lead: Becky Herman
Account Service Supervisor: Ryan Smith
Planner: Elisa Cantero

For those who couldn’t get enough of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard in their hit Samsung Galaxy Tab S holiday ad, the hyper-cute Hollywood couple—married in real-life—have returned for an encore, this time plugging the company’s high-tech home appliances.

In a minute-long spot, the actors—known for Parenthood (Shepard) and House of Lies (Bell), among other projects—are planning a big dinner party. And naturally, Samsung’s refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, washing machines and vacuum bots prove invaluable. A 30-second commercial focuses on their efforts to clean an infant’s toy bunny using Samsung’s Activewash Top Load Washer.

McKinney created the ads, and Tucker Gates directs in a suitably off-the-cuff, relaxed style.

Bell and Shepard also appear in a nearly 10-minute behind-the-scenes/interview clip. That’s right—10 minutes! Highlights come when Bell says Samsung ovens are “almost like Transformers” because of their dual-temperature functionality (sorry, Optimus Prime) and Shepard briefly discusses his involvement in the upcoming feature-film reboot of ’70s highway-cop series “CHiPS” (give Erik Estrada a cameo!).

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Throughout the campaign, Bell and Shepard are adorably affable, showing off the time-and-labor-saving technology with effortless élan, perfectly cast as bubbly brand ambassadors for the millennial generation.

The 90-second version of their holiday spot got 13 million YouTube views, so clearly the work is connecting with its audience. Still, the couple’s cuteness is, at times, so overwhelmingly insufferable that I kind of wanted to stick my head inside that snazzy Samsung fridge and bash my brains in with the door.

If you don’t have time to watch this whole new commercial for Volkswagen Trucks, you can just skip to the end for a quickie version—no matter where you are in the story—and it will still make sense.

Go here to check it out.

It’s a merciful approach that all brands should probably mimic in all commercials, given this is the age of skip-happy Internet viewers. But Brazilian agency AlmapBBDO created the ad specifically to reinforce VW’s claim that its rigs, like the ad, are themselves customizable. In that context, the video slider at the bottom of the website might be the best part—it takes the shape of a truck that just keeps getting longer and longer.

The story itself—spoilers ahead—is about a young truck driver who runs into an ex-girlfriend at a market. Told in a stilted monologue, it’s a bit like a Mad Lib with a single punch line—structured into clauses so you can jump to the last scene at any point, by clicking a button in the lower right hand corner. But the last words are always “My grand-aunt.”

That makes for some odd combinations, like “I satisfied my hunger eating… a taco made by… my grand-aunt.” It also makes for some surprisingly dark outcomes for a big advertiser—like skipping the part about the taco and delving straight into ancestral cannibalism. There’s at least one notable hidden variation—hit the button at certain times, and the grand-aunt is a goateed, shirtless young man, instead of a little old lady.

Overall, it’s an intriguing approach, but maybe a little too eager to be inventive, with a takeaway that seems more about the copywriting team’s ability to write a cascading script than about the product’s benefits. It was nice for them to include an eject lever, but if the idea is to get the message in quickly, and extend the entertainment for those who want it—Geico’s simpler approach takes the cake.

Plus, it has a better dog.

Via PSFK.