Hasta La Creative!

Is it controversial to be a CEO in your underwear?

Many brands have been changing the way they use models in their ads lately. Several have promised not to airbrush models, and one used only women with PhDs for a campaign.

Now, underwear brand Dear Kate—which has long used nontraditional models of all sizes for lookbooks and web images—is featuring prominent female tech-company founders and CEOs in their underwear for a new line called the Ada Collection (named for 19th century tech pioneer Ada Lovelace).

Critics say the campaign is a step back in the fight for women to be taken seriously, especially in a field known for being dominated by men. “Presenting yourself undressed has inherently sexual overtones, and undermines being seen as a serious technologist,” Elissa Shevinsky, CEO of Glimpse Labs, tells Time magazine.

But Dear Kate CEO Julie Sygiel says this isn’t your typical Victoria’s Secret spread. “I think a lot of traditional lingerie photo shoots depict women as simply standing there looking sexy. They’re not always in a position of power and control,” she says. “In our photo shoots it’s important to portray women who are active and ambitious. They’re not just standing around waiting for things to happen.”

Personally, I don’t think women CEOs posing in their underwear is something worth clutching our pearls over. The lookbook includes smart, successful women, and the variety (women of color! plus-sized women! thin women!) doesn’t feel like an afterthought. At the same time, the ads are certainly odd. Women coding together in their underwear? What? (The inspirational quotes on many of the images also make them way too busy.)

In the end, it misses the mark a bit, but points for doing something cool and different.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola rolled out its first TV spot made completely with user-generated content. Now, it’s Miller Lite’s turn to shine the spotlight on its fans.

In May, the beer brand launched an #ItsMillerTime campaign, in which it used packaging, promoted tweets and its social channels to ask people for their best summer photos—with cameos by the retro-cool Miller Lite cans, of course.

The brand says nearly 180,000 photos were submitted. (It further claims that #ItsMillerTime has been the No. 2 branded hashtag on Twitter since May 7, trailing only Adidas’s #allin).

The brand liked seven of the fan photos in particular and featured them prominently in the new national TV spot below, which breaks early this week. (A few dozen shots more are compiled in a collage at the end of the ad, but only the seven get full-screen treatment.)

They’re all fun snapshots—not particularly compelling, but “relatable,” as they say. And as for the wedding couple—more power to you.

If you ever hoped to pretend your phone were a fish or an aquatic plant, Sony would like to present its Xperia Z1S.

The brand, along with Wieden + Kennedy and development partners Motim and SoftFacade, is demonstrating the phone’s waterproof technology by developing apps designed to be used in and under the water.

A new feature on the phone uses ultrasound to sense when the phone is submerged. A handful of 30-second videos (directed by Sean Pecknold of Society) demonstrate the apps, which capitalize on that detection technology in ways unusual, somewhat amusing and mostly frivolous.

One of the apps is “Goldie,” an on-screen fish that flops around like it’s dying when you take the phone out of the water. Another is “Plantimal,” a modern cross between a Tomagotchi and a Grow Monster. There’s also “Rainy-oke” for, quite literally, singing in the rain, as proven by a drag queen performing Cyndi Lauper.

“Photo Lab” mimics the process of developing photos by hand, in an extra cutesy twist of the knife to a practice all but eradicated by the digital age. “Sink Sunk” offers perhaps the funniest and most practical application of the water detection technology: It’s a simple game for when you’re bored and cranky, hanging out in your kiddie pool.

That’s it, at least so far. The brand is making the source code for the feature available via Github, so other developers can play with different uses, too.

In the meantime, it’s a reasonably fun way for Sony to promote waterproofing, even though that feature is not unique to the smartphone manufacturer or model. And it fits well enough into the art-meets-engineering motif of the brand’s “Be Moved” platform, launched with W+K early this year—even if it does feel a little heavier on the engineering part.

The brand recommends you avoid submerging your phone for more than 30 minutes at a time, though. Just in case you were planning to take it on a nice long scuba dive.

This Honda Civic campaign by Wieden + Kennedy London is cool. And pretty warm, too.

The centerpiece is an engaging 30-second film that shows the freezing and thawing of a Civic on a stylized desert set. This dramatically illustrates that the automaker tests its vehicles at temperatures ranging from -22°F to +176°F. (This is helpful in case you’re planning a road trip from the North Pole to Hell.)

The tagline for the pan-European campaign is: “Reliability in the extreme.”

Delightful details include a cowboy skeleton that morphs into a snowman and a rolling tumbleweed/snowball. According to a post on W+K’s blog, the agency (and Johnny Hardstaff, who directed through RSA Films) encased the car in ice and let it melt over five hours—filming 200 takes using a motion-control rig, with 3-D enhancements providing the skeleton’s transformation and other effects.

An interactive version is in the works that will allow users to control temperature changes and see the results. I wish they’d let us melt the Civic into a plastic-metal soup, then freeze it until it explodes into sparkling, razor-sharp shards of ice. Now that would be some fancy branding!

Nissan also recently launched ads that show the temperature testing of its vehicles. Though with Poison’s Bret Michaels performing a power-schlock version of “Endless Love,” that campaign is extreme for entirely different reasons.

Check out a print ad from the campaign below.

Arnold has enlisted a Chris McDonald (circa Thelma and Louise) doppelganger to tout the taste of water filtered with PUR.

The new spots feature Arthur Tweedie, a self-proclaimed water critic, and his milquetoast assistant Dave. Tweedie’s alternately eager and surly demeanor (the actor really goes full camp) is somewhat endearing, but the effort feels perhaps a little too wink wink nudge nudge. Still, the ads, which are the first for the brand since 2008, are quite educational.

Oh, and like any self-proclaimed spokesman, Tweedie’s got himself a blog.

Online printing company MOO.com, which some of you might remember from a video it made back in April, is doing some self-promotion with the oldest trick in the book. Wait, no, that’s prostitution. The second oldest trick in the book: flattery.

Designer Rob “Supermundane” Lowe has designed a run of fliers with compliments printed on them and posted them around artsy parts of London and in the Boston Design Museum. People are encouraged to take them and, you know, just feel good about themselves.

There are six designs altogether, with custom typography spelling out flummeries like “I think you’re splendid” and “You’re spectacular.” Are Upworthy and BuzzFeed just not enough for some people?

You can enter to win a signed-and-framed seventh flier through MOO’s social channels, which is how this whole project connects back to MOO.

That contest ends today, so enjoy the complimentary compliments while you can.

Today’s the last chance to enter our prize draw to win signed and framed @Supermundane artwork http://t.co/IqvvEG8hLE pic.twitter.com/UbK8N7y88V

 

— MOO.COM (@overheardatmoo) August 8, 2014

The 50th anniversary publication of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is leaving a bad taste in some mouths.

Controversy surrounds the cover of the Penguin Modern Classics edition, which eschews Willy Wonka’s fanciful factory, golden tickets, Oompa-Loompas and other familiar story elements. Instead, we get a stylized image of a young girl, quaffed to the hilt in colorful bows and silks, sitting in her mother’s lap.

Detractors are denouncing the shot for sexualizing kids, and they deride its sleazy ’60s vibe as inappropriate for a story geared toward young people. They have a valid point, though in fairness, the broader meaning of the image is open to all sorts of interpretations. (It’s not overtly sexual. I mean, we don’t see Wonka’s willy, thank goodness.)

The picture is a cropped version of a photo used in a 2008 fashion magazine feature (see below) completely unrelated to Dahl and the book in question. According to the publisher, the cover “looks at the children at the center of the story, and highlights the way Roald Dahl’s writing manages to embrace both the light and the dark aspects of life.”

The tale does mix in stronger themes about child-parent relationships and manipulation. Still, that’s hardly the book’s primary focus, and it’s tempting to dismiss Penguin’s explanation as candy coating for a publicity ploy designed to drive debate and sell copies. (The publisher certainly seems to be relishing the attention.)

Among the public, bitter reactions outweigh the sweet, with most reasoned negative opinions running along the lines of this comment in Creative Review: “It seems a bit misleading, doesn’t it? If I knew nothing about the book, this cover would suggest to me that it’s a really disturbing story for adults, probably a thriller about young girls in the beauty industry.”

The most deliciously snarky critique comes from the Guardian, which calls it the worst cover of all time, grousing that the image “reimagines Dahl’s classic as 1960s Wyndhamesque horror, robotic alien children stranded in a stark asylum.”

Here’s the original photo, published in Numéro magazine in 2008. Image via.

Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s a horrifying latex mask.

The Onion just rolled out this spoof Maybelline ad mocking conventional standards of beauty. In it, the brand introduces a new product, the Ideal Woman Rubber Mask, a convenient replacement for the copious amounts of product that women are wont to put on their faces. Yes, it’s just as creepy as it sounds.

“By simply yanking it over your face, you can instantly achieve a fresh look that conforms to Western ideals of beauty,” praises the Fake-belline (I don’t know, I’m trying here) director of marketing.

“It’s incredible. You immediately see the difference,” adds a a focus group participant. “The very first time I tried it on, my pores were minimized, my skin tone was more even, and all of the idiosyncratic little wrinkles, physical imperfections and tiny irregularities that make my face unique were erased.”

As for the YouTube comments asking why all of the masks are Caucasian, I’m guessing that’s kind of the point.

It’s a special week in Honda land, as ad agency RPA is enacting a sweeping plan to spread good cheer—online and off—as part of a five-day “Summer Cheerance” event.

A ket part of the campaign involves interacting with people on Twitter—replying to seemingly random posts with “funny, crazy or just plain weird cheer videos, memes and GIFs,” the automaker says.

Check out a few of those here.

@g_will12 Just think of how happy you will be when your shift ends though. #RetailFreedom #Cheerance pic.twitter.com/Cm9v8T2vPg

— Honda (@Honda) August 5, 2014

@caitlin41648090 You might need a little privacy, perhaps a wall…or fence. #Cheerance pic.twitter.com/G8yxVubli2

— Honda (@Honda) August 4, 2014

@benitezkaren21 You should take a lesson from this guy, he’s never bored. #Cheerance http://t.co/4QHfN33bOP

— Honda (@Honda) August 4, 2014

@MattTennenhouse At least your school is a more entertaining place than this guy’s bench. #Cheerance pic.twitter.com/Lt38uoDIkB

— Honda (@Honda) August 5, 2014

@HollyJessup Feel better soon! We aren’t doctors so the only medicine we can send is laughter. #Cheerance pic.twitter.com/ENWDl4vVZY

— Honda (@Honda) August 5, 2014

Facebook and YouTube will also be used. Notably, the brand has teamed with YouTube star Andrew Hales (of LAHWF fame) for two videos—the first of which is already live:

There will be real-world events, too, in select cities across the country. The brand will leave piñatas filled with goodies at random locations; use a “Cheer Detector” at a beach to find buried treasure chests and share them with onlookers; and place “Stand Here for Cheer” boxes in public places, encouraging people to climb up and receive a surprise act of cheer (like being serenaded by a saxophonist).

A Summer Cheerance station will also feature happy tunes on Pandora. The campaign also includes six TV spots (featuring dramatizations of actual social media posts from people who are unhappy with their current cars); banner ads on auto sites like Cars.com, KBB.com and Edmunds.com and on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; print ads in People, Sports Illustrated and top-market local newspapers; and network radio spots.

The goal is to spread cheer to 3 million people. (A ticker is keeping track of the tally at shophonda.com.) Upon reaching that goal, Honda will donate $100,000 to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

“We are committed to spreading unprecedented cheer and connecting with as many people as we possibly can in five days,” said Susie Rossick, senior manager at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “This collection of silly and wonderful morsels of cheer across social media, and in real life, are designed to make an impact, create smile-filled buzz and remind people that summer is the best time to get a great deal on a Honda.”

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: American Honda
Project: Honda Summer Cheerance Event

Agency: RPA
EVP, CCO: Joe Baratelli
SVP, ECD: Jason Sperling
SVP, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff
Creative Director: Nik Piscitello
Creative Director: Aron Fried
Art Directors: Melinda Keough, Michael Jason Enriquez, Craig Nelson
Copywriters: Kevin Tenglin, Laura Kelley, Adam Gothelf
Creative Interns: Dennis Haynes, Megan Leinfelder, Sarah Ross, Sarah Johnston
VP, Executive Producer: Isadora Chesler
Producer: Phung Vo
Director/Sr. Producer, Content: Mark Tripp
Production Intern: Rudy Wilson

VP, Program Director: Dave Brezinski
Sr. Project Manager: Linda Shin

SVP, Management Account Director: Brett Bender
SVP, Group Account Director: Fern McCaffrey
Account Supervisor: Adam Levitt
Account Supervisor: Alison Bickel
Account Executive: Katie Ahn
Account Assistant: Wendy Kleinberg
Social Media: Joanna Kennedy, Tyler Sweeney, Mike Goldys, Amanda Womack

Production Company: RPA
Director: Mark Tripp

Editorial: RPA
Editor: Wendy Sandoval

Traditionally, the Playboy Mansion’s main attraction has been the small army of Playmates who hang around it. But professional cyclist Danny MacAskill manages to overshadow even the bunnies, as he turns the estate’s grounds into a trials-style obstacle course in this new ad for Red Bull.

It’s not that a couple of scantily clad women aren’t featured heavily in the two-minute clip. But the promise of sex is practically table stakes in advertising aimed at young dudes. Sad as it may be, the oversexualized shots of ladies lounging in bikinis and under waterfalls serve more or less as background once MacAskill starts doing his tricks—it’s just much more fascinating to watch him jump off walls and ride backwards down a hill on only his front wheel. In fact, even the actual birds—parrots and flamingos—make for more novel b-roll.

Overall, though, it’s deftly filmed, and fun to watch. The soundtrack, “9.2.5” by Ghosthouse, is a great fit, and showcasing an offbeat street sport in a clever way is right in Red Bull’s branded content sweet spot—even if this iteration is less charmingly inventive than MacAskill’s work for the brand’s “Imaginate” series last year or the amusingly overcomplicated Red Bull opening machine to which he contributed in 2012.

As for the tawdriness, MacAskill, who now has some 100 million views across his YouTube portfolio, seems more interested in the terrain than his co-stars. “It turned out there were some decent bits to ride, but it was quite hard with all those girls distracting you, quite hard work doing all this riding [laughs],” he says in a Q&A over at the brand’s website. “I’m a little too shy for that kind of stuff.”