Hasta La Creative!

The mainstreaming of ads with gay couples, which really accelerated in 2014 thanks to brands like Honey Maid, continues into 2015—and now it’s Hallmark’s turn to join in.

The greeting-card company is gay friendly—it’s been making gay marriage cards since 2008. But it evoked some ire from the gay community in 2013 when it replaced the word “gay” with “fun” on a “Deck the Halls” Christmas ornament in 2013. Also, it’s one thing to sell gay-friendly merchandize—it’s another to feature a gay couple in a commercial, as Hallmark has now done in its new “Put Your Heart to Paper” campaign for Valentine’s Day.

The campaign includes interviews with real couples, who talk about what they love about each other—and who are asked to describe their feelings for each other without using the word “love.” Among those featured are the lesbian couple Eugenia and Corinna, who star in one of the campaign’s cutest ads.

“This makes me so very happy and proud to be a Hallmark employee, who is also gay, and who has been pushing our idea of expanded love identities forward for a long time,” writes one YouTube commenter. “My heart is bursting, my eyes are spilling. Thank you for sharing your story with us, and your love with each other.?”

See more ads from the campaign below.

Sequels are tough. For every Godfather Part II, there’s a Godfather Part III. But Budweiser and Anomaly had such a big hit with “Puppy Love” on last year’s Super Bowl, they couldn’t resist going back to the well for another look at the “Best Buds”—the Clydesdales and their favorite golden Lab.

And so here it is: “Lost Dog.” Like last year’s ad, it was directed by RSA’s Jake Scott. We won’t spoil the plot, such as it is—the title tells you most of what you need to know. The Clydesdales, of course, come to the rescue of the wayward puppy, whom you’ll remember from the first ad has a tendency to roam and isn’t too concerned for his own safety.

Once again, music plays a key role here. This time we get a reworked version of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers, performed by Sleeping At Last. It’s a slow, acoustic version—more downbeat and poignant-sounding than last year’s choice, which was “Let Her Go” by Passenger. (Last year’s ad was itself a kind of sequel to 2013’s “Brotherhood,” featuring a baby Clydesdale and the same trainer from “Puppy Love” and “Lost Dog.” “Brotherhood” was set to Fleetwood Mac’s classic hit “Landslide.”)

“Lost Dog” is nicely produced, and will be well liked. But “Puppy Love” was a richer, more engaging story—that spot’s subtle parallels between the puppy/Clydesdale and the horse trainer/puppy adoption owner built a real connection over 60 seconds. This spot leans more on simple cuteness. It’s a decent sequel—but perhaps not a world-beating one.

Anheuser-Busch sent over these facts about “Lost Dog”:
• Eight puppies—seven females and one male—are featured in the spot, all of which were just 11-12 ½ weeks old at the time of filming.
• Seven Budweiser Clydesdales underwent training for three months to fine-tune their skills for the ad.
• It was shot at a ranch outside Santa Barbara, Calif., in early December.
• Actor Don Jeanes reprises his role as Budweiser Clydesdale trainer for a third time. Don is originally from Houston and now lives in Los Angeles.

Kia has released an extended version of its 60-second Super Bowl ad, and it’s a really fun spot with Pierce Brosnan that manages to have its cake and eat it, too—by both celebrating and poking fun at over-the-top Super Bowl spots.

In the spot, the former James Bond is getting briefed by his agent on his role for the ad, which he assumes will be standard action-movie fare. Instead, the agent keeps comically lowering his expectations. It’s not a Bond-esque escapade, he explains—just a normal car-driving-through-the-mountain ad.

Along the way, we see each scene play out the way Pierce thinks it should, and then how it actually does. This, of course, makes it a Bond-esque escapade after all—as well as a sly critique of such spectacles (at which Kia, of course, has excelled in the past on game day).

The on-screen text at the end really caps it off. Nice work by David & Goliath.

We would still have unicorns around today, were it not for an epic screw-up by Noah’s son during the loading of the Ark all those years ago.

That’s the premise of this amusingly overblown Canal+ ad from BETC Paris and director Matthijs Van Heijningen, who so memorably directed “The Bear” for the same agency and client back in 2011.

It’s hard to describe the ad without spoiling it, so just watch it first.

As you can see, the film celebrates—in a roundabout way—the broadcaster’s screenwriters and its showcase of original programming. And yes, it certainly shows a different side of unicorns than we’re used to seeing.

“We had some rather surreal discussions on what unicorns’ balls actually look like,” Stéphane Xiberras, agency president and chief creative officer, tells AdFreak. “We thought about doing something a bit … unexpected. There was talk of little furry balls with twinkling stars. But in the end we opted for a pair of ‘classic’ horse balls. I know, it’s a bit bizarre.”

And the balls were the easy part of this production. “Imagine a gigantic studio reproducing the inside of the Ark, filled with hundreds of animals,” Xiberras says. “Now imagine the smell. Now imagine that the animals couldn’t stand being under the same roof together.”

Asked about the actor who plays Noah’s son, Xiberras replied: “We fell for him straight away. We were looking for a guy capable of incarnating Noah’s son as well as a modern-day ladies’ man and screenwriter. He managed to show loads of emotions without any dialogue, expect the phrase at the end. He goes from embarrassment to anxiety to victory and then shock in seconds. It’s a great performance.”

CREDITS
Client: Canal+
Brand Management: Alice Holzman, Aurélie Stock-Poeuf, Coline André
Agency: BETC
Agency Management: Bertille Toledano, Guillaume Espinet, Elsa Magadoux
Executive Creative Director: Stéphane Xiberras
Creative Director: Olivier Apers
Art Director: Aurélie Scalabre
Copywriter: Patrice Dumas
Traffic: Coralie Chasset
Tv Producer: Isabelle Ménard
Production House: Soixante Quinze
Sound Production: Kouz
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Media Plan: Cinema, TV, Web
Available Formats: :40 :45 :50 :70

Sports Illustrated has reversed its call and will run an NFL-themed domestic violence ad from advocacy group Ultraviolet on its website Thursday, three days before the Super Bowl.

The 15-second video shows a football player in full gear brutally tackling a young woman wearing street clothes and a knitted cap. “Let’s take domestic violence out of football,” a voiceover says. On-screen text refers to “55 NFL abuse cases unanswered,” and the ad closes with the hashtag, #GoodellMustGo, a swipe at league commissioner Roger Goodell.

Ultraviolet flew banners with that hashtag above the recent AFC and NFC championship games, as it had at various NFL contests this season during the Ray Rice controversy.

Last week, SI rejected Ultraviolet’s advertising—which includes an online banner as well as the video—but upon further review, and following inquiries from other media, gave the OK, calling its initial refusal a “misunderstanding.” (Apparently, SI initially evaluated just the banner, which it felt could be misconstrued as editorial content. The banner and video together, however, were subsequently deemed acceptable.)

“We are thrilled that public scrutiny has persuaded Sports Illustrated to reverse their decision,” says Ultraviolet founder Nita Chaudhary. “We cannot allow the issue of domestic violence to be swept under the rug.”

Ultimately, the SI drama generates extra exposure for Ultraviolet’s edgy play and further deflates the NFL on the eve of the Big Game.

Parenting today comes with more than the stress of kids. It comes with the derision of your fellow breeders when you choose a path that goes against their deeply help beliefs. And it’s going to happen. No matter how closely you choose your friends, someone—even if it’s just another parent at the playground—is going to judge you harshly for your choices.

Similac shows us what happens when our beliefs clash through an ad that’s a little bit funny, a little bit moving, and a lot true. It’s all about an (almost) all-out playground brawl. It’s strollers versus baby slings, breast-fed versus formula-fed, stay-at-home versus working mom, plus yoga moms, lesbian moms and stay-at-home dads.

When they meet at the swings, the insults start flying. But when one of those stroller moms (who don’t care about bonding and cuddling with their baby, so they push their child away from them in a stroller instead of wearing them in a wholesome fashion) steps off to step up to the fight, the stroller goes tumbling down the hill. And all the parents go tumbling after.

Similac then reminds us that no matter what our beliefs, we’re parents first, and welcomes us to the Sisterhood of Motherhood.

It’s no surprise Similac would want to diffuse the tension between the nipple Nazis and the lazy formula feeders. Breast-feeding advocates have cast formula companies as villains who put profits before health and whose irresponsible advertising tricked a whole generation of mothers into not even trying to breastfeed.

And, well, that’s a bit true. There was a whole generation who was told that formula was better, healthier and safer, and now science tells us that was a rather big lie. But it is also true that even breastfeeding mothers will supplement with formula every now and then, and that many mothers who formula feed tried to breastfeed but were unable to for various reasons. And they really don’t like the added guilt that comes from unavoidable choices. I mean, c’mon, don’t we have enough guilt as parents anyway?

Here’s the short manifesto on the Similac site:

“We believe it’s time to embrace mothers who choose to embrace motherhood. Time to put down the fingers and the subtle suggestions. Because no two of us are the same, but we’re all in this together. The sisterhood has only one rule. Nourish each other the same way we nourish our children. And, just like the sister who’s got your back, we’re there to help you get through the first few days and months of motherhood with confidence—and zero judgment. The way it should be.”

Still, Similac is an odd peacemaker. Certainly, many will ignore this message due to the source. Note that comments are disabled on the YouTube video. But it’s still a message we modern parents need to hear. And with almost 3 million views in just a few days, it seems a lot of other parents agree. So, let’s give each other a break out there.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for pregnant yoga.

The new Apple Store in China unites ancient and contemporary design elements to striking effect—its modern steel-and-glass exterior draped by a simple yet elegant mural that contains the text, rendered in traditional Chinese characters, of a 2,000-year-old poem.

“The lines in calligraphy need to have life in them,” artist Wang Dongling says of his creation in the new two-minute Apple video below. “They need to have aesthetic feeling. They need to have a kind of magical energy endowed by nature.”

Sounds like something Steve Jobs or Jony Ive might have said about the look and feel of Apple’s products. So, Wang’s vision seems well suited to the iconic brand, which opens its newest store tomorrow in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, situated on West Lake.

Despite its vintage, the poem, “Praising West Lake in the Rain,” has a distinctly modern flavor: “Shimmering water on sunny days/Blurred mountains through rainy haze/West Lake is like the beauty, Xizi/With light or heavy makeup, always beautiful.”

Indeed, our fascination with beauty, whether it exists naturally or created by our own hand, has endured for thousands of years, and to a large extent informs developments in present-day technology. The West Lake Apple Store motif spans the ages, embracing our infatuation with the constantly evolving forms and functions of beautiful things.

Those of you who’ve been pining for another episode of Shit Girls Say are in luck: Graydon Sheppard and Kyle Humphrey’s amusing web series, based on the popular Twitter account, just did a spot for haircare brand Aussie—in the same style as their unbranded videos.

Sheppard directed the ad and is also the star, donning a wig and narrating common hair woes. (We’re told mcgarrybowen was the agency.)

“I can’t it wet!” he complains. “This looks stupid.” “Does this look dumb?”

Aussie recently conducted a #hairprobs survey, which found:

• Women run late an average of one day per week due to hair drama.
• One third of moms (35 percent) say their hair requires more time than their kids in the morning.
• 40 percent of women under 40 cried at least once over their hair in the past six months.
• Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of women under age 40 think that while having sex, a partner ruining their hair would be worse than a partner who can’t perform.
• Seven percent of women admit to avoiding getting intimate altogether to preserve their hairstyle.
• Women spend 20 minutes per day on their hair, translating to a full work week each year.

If you think most of these stats are hard to believe, I’m with you. Who are these people?

Stats aside, the video itself is fun—relatable and entertaining. It ends with Aussie encouraging women to #DitchtheDrama and their complex hair routines (with a shampoo plus conditioner combo product and a dry shampoo) in exchange for “fully living life.”

Which also means not crying over your hair or thinking about it during sex, probably.

There’s a brave niche approach in advertising where you show your audience just how much people despise your product. Laphroaig scotch has been doing this for while, turning its polarizing taste into a selling point. Now, Pizza Hut Australia is doing something similar.

The chain recently introduced a new pizza with Vegemite filling in the crust. Vegemite, of course, is the dark brown, salty yeast extract paste that Australians love and the rest of the world knows about because of a 1980 pop song.

To promote the pizza, ad agency Host Sydney went to a backpackers’ hostel, found a bunch of foreigners and got them to try it. Having clearly never tried Vegemite, their reactions range from curious to, eventually, utterly revolted—making for a hilarious and remarkably patriotic commercial.

Your move, Marmite.

Katy Perry will be Pepsi’s top act for the Super Bowl halftime show. But how much better would it be if Craig Robinson and the Nasty Delicious were the headliners?

Pepsi might not want you to ponder that specific question. But the soft-drink brand has gotten the former Office star and his real-life band involved in its “Hyped for Halftime” campaign. Robinson, 43, stars in a new three-part online comedy series (the first part, below, was released Wednesday) in which a male friend turns into a fairy godmother and tries to get Craig to Arizona.

Ad agency The Brooklyn Brothers created the series with Pepsi, in partnership with Comedy Central. The Brooklyn Brothers have worked with Robinson before, having created an amusing episodic 2012 campaign for New Era caps starring Robinson and Nick Offerman as Chicago White Sox and Cubs fans.

Robinson and the Nasty Delicious will deliver a live “halftime” performance on Key & Peele’s Super Bowl Comedy Special on the night of Saturday, Jan. 31. And you have to figure they’ll be in Glendale, Ariz., the following night in some capacity—maybe as an opening act.

Meanwhile, here’s more from the “Hyped for Halftime” campaign: