Hasta La Creative!

Sometimes you just gotta werk it out, even though you’re at work.

So says Zumba’s first TV spot ever, created by 180LA, showing Zumba enthusiasts jerking and twerking almost against their will as the music in their head moves them.

Some 15 million people every week take a Zumba class, gyrating and wiggling their way to better health through ostensibly fun dance moves. Unlike the name implies, it’s not just a fitness-based rumba; it actually combines a mind-boggling number of styles, resulting in the bizarre breakdowns in this video. Which means that no matter your level of fitness or whiteness, you too can Zumba the fat away.

The bigger focus here is just on the sheer exuberance. (The tagline is: “Let it move you.”) The spot broke Monday on TV (and will be joined by a load of print) but is is already a hit online. I guess a lot of Zumba fans are finding it hard to contain their excitement over the video, too.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Zumba
Agency: 180LA
Managing Partner, Chairman: Chris Mendola
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Director/Copywriter: Janet Champ
Creative Director/Art Director: Marta Ibarrondo
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Producer: Kevin Diller
Account Manager: Jessica DeLillo
Production Company: RESET
Director: TWiN
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff MacDougall
Bidding Producer: Jenn Ingalls
Head of Production: Amanda Clune
Producer: Ed Callaghan
Service Company: Capital Media Company
Executive Producer: Christian Allen
Head of Production: Keely Stothers
Editorial Company: Beast
Executive Producer: Jerry Sukys
Producer: Annie Maldonado
Editor: Paul Norling
Assistant Editor: Ryan Dahlman

Employees at Amsterdam design studio Heldergroen won’t be putting in much overtime. Not in the office, at any rate.

That’s because every day at 6 p.m., their desks, tables and other work surfaces, with their computers attached, are hauled up to the ceiling by steel cables normally used to move heavy props in theatrical productions. If you leave a half-eaten tuna sandwich on your desk, you’re out of luck.

Once the chairs and other workplace paraphernalia are cleared away, the space is free for evening and weekend use as “a dance floor, yoga studio … or anything else you can think of—the floor is literally yours,” creative director Sander Veenendaal tells Fast Company.

Zecc Architects built the space, working from a concept developed by Bright Green.

The time-lapse video above shows how the idea works in practice. In a way, the office space itself is working overtime for Heldergroen, generating lots of publicity and carrying an enlightened message of career-life balance far and wide. (I’d be satisfied if AdFreak loosened my leg irons a little.)

“We think that doing activities like this makes it easier for people to work here,” says Veenendaal. “You know when it is time to relax or do something else that inspires you.”

That sounds awesome. There’s just one catch. In the morning, the desks reappear and everybody has to go back to work.

Via Adverve.

Hollywood movies aren’t usually based on prank ads, but Kevin Smith’s latest proudly is.

The comedy-horror hybrid, titled Tusk, is about a crazy person (played by Michael Parks) who wants to surgically modify a sane person (played by Justin Long) into a walrus. The inspiration for the bizarre story came from a similarly quirky classified ad from Britain that offered free housing to anyone willing to act like a walrus, in costume, for two hours a day.

“Whilst in the walrus costume you must be a walrus,” read the ad, “there must be no speaking in a human voice, and any communication must entail making utterances in the voice of a walrus—I believe there aer (sic) recordings available on the web—to me, the voice is the most natural thing I have ever heard. Other duties will involve catching and eating the fish and crabs that I will occasionally throw to you whilst you are being the walrus.”

Smith found the joke ad online and discussed it on his podcast, reports Variety, then decided to turn it into a movie after receiving popular support for the idea on social media.

The ad’s author, Chris Parkinson of Brighton, got an associate producer credit for the movie, visited the set in North Carolina and attended the premiere in Los Angeles. He is apparently a regular writer of joke ads, though most don’t yield quite as much success—in addition to the movie, he says this one drew 400 responses.

That’s not really that surprising, though—paying rent by pretending to be a walrus actually seems like a pretty good deal.

Full text of the original walrus ad below.

Hello, I am looking for a lodger in my house. I have had a long and interesting life and have now chosen Brighton as a location for my retirement. Among the many things I have done in my life is to spend three years alone on St. Lawrence Island. These were perhaps the most intense and fascinating years of my life, and I was kept in companionship with a walrus whom I named Gregory. Never have I had such a fulfilling friendship with anyone, human or otherwise, and upon leaving the island I was heartbroken for months. I now find myself in a large house over looking Queens Park and am keen to get a lodger. This is a position I am prepared to offer for free (eg: no rent payable) on the fulfillment of some conditions. I have, over the last few months, been constructing a realistic walrus costume, which should fit most people of average proportions, and allow for full and easy movement in character. To take on the position as my lodger you must be prepared to wear the walrus suit for approximately two hours each day (in practice, this is not two hours every day—I merely state it here so you are able to have a clear idea of the workload). Whilst in the walrus costume you must be a walrus—there must be no speaking in a human voice, and any communication must entail making utterances in the voice of a walrus – I believe there aer (SIC) recordings available on the web – to me, the voice is the most natural thing I have ever heard. Other duties will involve catching and eating the fish and crabs that I will occasionally throw to you whilst you are being the walrus. With the exception of this, you will be free to do whatever you choose, and will have a spacious double room, complete run of the house (with the exception of my bedroom and my workshop), and use of all facilities within. I am a considerate person to share a house with, and other than playing the accordion my tastes are easy to accomodate (SIC).

Due to the nature of this position I will need to audition all applicants before agreeing to take the chosen candidate on as a lodger. Please contact me if you have any questions.

What is it about law enforcement that makes it so delightful when they actually try to have fun in social media? It’s probably just enjoyable to see the softer side of people who are trained to use deadly force and deal with the bleaker aspects of society.

The Seattle police set in the bar in this regard, of course, with their fascinating and amusing Twitter account. But now, the Instagram account of the Reykjavik, Iceland, police force has been brought to our attention—and it’s a real mosaic of cute.

It’s full of fun pics of animals and kids and people on the force doing goofy things. “Police kitty in training,” says the caption on the photo above, along with the hashtag #copcat.

Sure, humanizing any police force can lead to better relations with citizens, and a safer community overall. But this is also just about being real, not taking things too seriously and delivering useful information in a more entertaining package.

More pics below. Via Demilked.

Oh man, grumpy dad who’s working weird hours in this new Cheerios ad from Saatchi & Saatchi. Don’t get mad at your kid. Take a lesson from Peanut Butter Cheerios dad, and be cool. Hang out for a minute and laugh with Junior. It’ll be nice before you head off for however many grueling hours of whatever it is you do.

Judging by your rugged appearance and attire, and that clocking in at midnight is even an option, it’s presumably something blue-collar. Dock worker? Warehouse worker? Auto worker? You are in the Cheerios demo. You should be eating lots of Cheerios at 11 p.m.

Sure, Cheerios might being mimicking your frustrating but also beautiful existence right back at you just to sell more breakfast cereal, because times aren’t just tough for salt-of-the-earth people with families to support, they’re tough for cereal brands, too. Nobody wants to eat cereal with their kids at any time of day these days.

So, also don’t get mad at Cheerios, because making ads that use children to pander to your heartstrings is what they do. Indeed, sometimes manipulating your love for sentimental family moments really does work well … so Cheerios is probably going to keep trying.

Should today’s vote lead to an independent Scotland, the country will need a fearless leader to represent it on the world stage. Obviously, Groundskeeper Willie of The Simpsons is that man. It’s the latest bit of genius from the Fox show, and expect a lot more of it very soon.

Martin Stirling already directed one powerful PSA about Syria—Save the Children’s incredible spot from last spring, which imagined if the crisis were taking place in London. But the Unit 9 director wasn’t finished.

With the United Nations General Assembly meeting next week, the world’s leading NGOs—Oxfam, Save the Children, Care, Amnesty and a hundred more—have banded together for a new PSA, directed by Stirling, that attempts to capture the horrors being endured by ordinary Syrians on a daily basis.

See the spot here:

The stylistic choice of using reverse footage almost becomes a moral choice here—it’s the hook that makes the piece haunting, and shareable, and thus capable of making a difference. The film is the centerpiece in the NGOs’ #WithSyria campaign, which drives viewers to a petition asking the UN Security Council to take next steps to protect civilians.

ISIS is dominating the headlines today, but the plight of ordinary Syrians remains critical. The death toll in Syria is now close to 200,000. Most of the civilian deaths are caused by “barrel bombs”—oil drums filled with explosives, chemical weapons and rusty nails, dropped from Syrian regime helicopters into populated areas. The same areas are often hit twice in quick succession in order to kill first responders.

“I really had no choice about whether or not to make this film,” Stirling says in a statement. “I was swamped by a couple of projects, and I tried my best to walk away but found it impossible. Whenever I thought about not making this film I was haunted by the images and stories I had come across in preparation for the ‘Most Shocking Second A Day Video’ earlier in the year.

“This film felt like an appropriate follow-up to that first one—it was creatively and stylistically different in a way which would hopefully capture the attention of a wide audience and the hearts of influential policy makers.”

Credits below.

CREDITS
Production Company: Unit 9 Films
Director/Writer: Martin Stirling
Producer/Exec Producer: Michelle Craig
DOP: Carl Burke
Focus Puller: Jonny Franklin
Researcher: Harry Starkey Midha
Production Partner: Atlantik Films
Editor: Alex Burt
Grade: Un1t Post
Colorist: Simon Astbury
Sound Design: Jon Clarke
Post-Sound Producer: Rebecca Bell
Factory
VFX + Post: Cherry Cherry
VFX Supervisors: Nico Cotta, Tony Landais
Compositors: Ergin Ishakoglu, James Cornwell, Doruk Saglam, Utku Ertin, Mertcan Ag, Nico Cotta, Otis Guinness-Walker
CG Artists: Bogi Gulacsi, Ceyhan Kapusuz, Zeynep Onder, Tony Landais
Digital Matte Painters: Stuart Tozer, Richard Tilbury
Executive Producer: Chris Allen
Line Producer: Sezen Akpolat
Music: ‘Youth’ Daughter
With Thanks to Matt Brown and Steph Hamill

There are moments in cinema when a collective wetting of panties results in an advertising ripple heard through the decades, as marketers struggle to give the people what they want.

One such moment was when Colin Firth exited a lake in a dripping-wet white shirt during the BBC’s 1995 remake of Pride and Prejudice. The moment so captured the minds and eyes of the viewing public that just last year, a 12-foot-tall statue of Firth’s wet torso was erected in a British lake and summarily moistened.

Now, in a genius move, Benedict Cumberbatch, today’s No. 1 British heartthrob, has been talked into recreating the Mr. Darcy scene and is about to win a bazillion pounds of awareness for his chosen charity, the anti-cancer initative Give Up Clothes for Good.

The photographer was Jason Bell. He’s a guy whose photos you’ve seen even if you’ve never heard of him. He was the official photographer for Prince George’s christening, and you might also know him as the guy who took that picture of Kate Winslet that GQ Photoshopped into controversy back in 2003.

Boy, did he do a most excellent job capturing a grumpy wet Cumberbatch. You almost get the impression that you’ve dumped him in the lake and when he gets out he’s going to be very PUT OUT. You might also imagine that inspiration for the execution came from Cumberbatch’s recent viral Ice Bucket Challenge video, in which he got soaked in not one, not two, but three various states of undress. Or the cut shower scene from Star Trek Into Darkness, which also went viral.

It’s like a Russian nesting doll of surly wet Cumberbatches—a batch of ‘Batches, if you will. Also, we may have found something to rival cats in Internet ad stardom. Shirtless torsos of hot dudes. Also known as Cold. Hard. Abs.

The Give Up Clothes for Good campaign of getting celebrities to take off some clothes, all PETA style, is going on its 10th anniversary, and there are a bunch of other celebrities lined up to remove their clothes to celebrate this year. But who cares?

After an inexplicable quite period, we have a resurgence of giant ears in advertising, thanks to this incredibly silly McKinney campaign for Sennheiser’s Urbanite headphones.

A scraggly-bearded guy with a German accent (the brand’s from Germany) who calls himself “the Urbanite” dons a headphone costume and gets romantic with … a giant ear.

“Unt no pleasure is verboten,” he explains in a 90-second introductory spot that shows tender caresses, a sensual oil massage and a candle-lit bath. The tagline is, “Let your ears be loved,” and the salient product benefit—that Urbanite headphones lovingly pamper your ears, providing an incredibly enjoyable listening experience—resonates with crystal clarity.

Giant ears skateboard through a park and hang out in bars in a second video promoting a New York City scavenger hunt. Our smitten hero finds them “erotish.” (Thankfully, he’s not wielding a giant Q-tip.) Through this Sunday, folks who find one of 1,000 golden ears secreted around town will receive free headphones.

The self-consciously wacky approach is designed to get away from technical descriptions and focus on real-world benefits to appeal to millennials, client exec Stefanie Reichert tells MediaPost. It recalls ESPN Radio’s hideously overgrown anthropomorphic ear from a few years back, and follows closely behind this exceedingly abnormal spot for Normal’s 3-D printed earphones.

In Sennheiser’s spots, the theatrical black backgrounds and minimal props enhance the inspired lunacy. Amusingly daft and highly sharable, the work speaks volumes about the brand proposition, and I hope we’ll hear more from the Urbanite soon.

How do you get people to stop for the “Don’t walk” guy in the crosswalk? Make the “Don’t walk” guy a little more interesting to look at.

That’s what Smart car did in Portugal, giving the icon more entertainment value by getting him to dance for his impatient audience. (This is achieved by seemingly unnecessary though I suppose charming high-tech means—the “Don’t walk” guy imitates the moves of actual dancing humans in a booth nearby.)

The “Walk” guy is really going to have to raise his game.

Via The Denver Egotist.

CREDITS
Client: Smart
Agency: BBDO Germany
Creative Directors: Lukas Liske, Daniel Schweinzer
Director: Marten Persiel