Hasta La Creative!

This morning brings word that Alexandra Sann and Mike Kohlbecker, who joined CP+B Los Angeles as associate CDs in 2011 and recently collaborated on the Grey Poupon account, have dropped the A’s in their acronyms to become creative directors.

In addition to managing the aforementioned mustard, the two will now also lead creative for A.1. Sauce and Applebee’s.

This promotion follows a streak during which the two drove the creative behind “some of the LA office’s most memorable and award-winning work”. That work includes both the Poupon “Spread Good Taste” campaign–which scored wins at One Show and Cannes–and 2012′s much discussed Old Navy 90210 reunion.

Prior to joining CP+B, both Sann and Kohlbecker spent time at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, where they worked on the Visa, “Call of Duty” and Energizer accounts; Sann also worked at TBWA\Chiat\Day NY, Amalgamated and Ogilvy NY while Kohlbecker spent three years in the CP+B Boulder office before heading out west.

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Crispin Porter & Bogusky Boulder have announced the appointment of Ralph Watson as the office’s new chief creative officer, AdAge reports.

After the departure of worldwide chief creative officer Rob Reilly in December, CP+B “announced a new, decentralized model that gave its offices in various cities more autonomy.” Watson joins the agency from BBDO, where he led the Bud Light account. Before that he was at Goodby Detroit, where he oversaw Chevrolet. The industry veteran has also spent time with Leonard/Monahan, Team One, Arnold and Saatchi & Saatchi New York. He has created award-winning work for clients such as Miller High Life, Fruit by the Foot, and AT&T.

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Burger King is officially conducting a global ad review after performing a bit of a two-step in recent months.

On splitting with Crispin Porter & Bogusky in 2011, the company moved on from its infamous “king” spots to work with CHI & Partners in the UK and Mother New York in the US. Earlier this year, company leaders hinted at changes in the UK after beginning and then cancelling an agency review; global now seems to be the answer.

Where will the brand go? CHI & Partners’ “We wish Burger King well as they make more global marketing arrangements” statement doesn’t sound particularly confident.

We will note, based on this recent New Zealand campaign from Colenso BBDO, that BK has not lost its desire to be weird.

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Yes, word is out that Bob Winter, former Y&R (what was then Chicago) CCO who left for Crispin Porter + Bogusky in late 2012, has found a new gig at VSA Partners. Winter, who helped create the Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” campaign while at DDB and led wins on Dave & Buster’s and Famous Footwear during his stint at Y&R, will now take on the role of partner/executive creative director at VSA, which houses offices in its homebase of Chicago as well as Detroit and NYC.

In a statement, said agency’s CEO, Dana Arnett, says, “The addition of this world-class marketing talent just continues to advance VSA’s legacy of designing powerful, human-centered experiences across channels that are realized to the highest creative and strategic standards. When those dots are effectively connected, clients and consumers always benefit.”

As mentioned before, during his career, Winter also served as a creative director at Goodby and an SVP/CD at Leo Burnett.

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Crispin Porter + Bogusky didn’t have to look any further than from within to find someone to succeed Chad Hopenwasser, the eight-year agency vet and VP/director of video production who split for the HOP gig at Chiat NY last month. Taking over Hopenwasser’s role now is Kate Hildebrant, who has been with CP+B since 2009 and most recently served served as VP/executive integrated producer. During her time at CP+B, Hildebrant worked on campaigns for clients including  Jell-O, Fruit of the Loom, Microsoft, Kraft, American Express and Bolthouse Farms.

Prior to Crispin, the exec spent four years at DDB, producing efforts for McDonald’s, State Farm, Wrigley and Anheuser-Busch along the way. Early on in her career, Hildebrant spent several years as a producer at Fallon, serving as an assistant producer on BMW Films’ award-winning “The Hire” among other projects.

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Prankvertising shifts into high gear for this elaborate X-Files-esque stunt from Crispin Porter + Bogusky promoting Scania's 2014 competition for professional truck and bus drivers.

Daniel Olsson, who has five years of experience behind the wheel, must come through in the clutch after he picks up a mysterious shipment and passenger at a warehouse. Horrifying sounds and visuals suggest that a hostile creature has been loaded aboard his truck as he navigates around crates in the cramped space. 

"He did not expect anything strange would happen, and the whole setup was pretty normal," Gustav Martner, ecd at CP+B in Gothenburg, Sweden, tells AdFreak. "Then, he obviously thought it was a bit unusual that his passenger was an old, well-dressed English gentleman who insisted on riding with him down to the harbor to see that the crate was safely delivered."

In fact, Olsson looks fairly freaked out, but he still keeps his cool, as the weirdness intensifies, with his jittery cab-mate "Dr. Sullivan" (a professional actor) gesturing back toward the noisy payload and ominously muttering, "I think actually you've woken him up."

"I became increasingly nervous and stressed, but I had no thoughts of quitting," Olsson says.

The three-minute "Cargo Madness" clip serves as an entertaining invite to the competition, where drivers must "handle more than their trucks" as they test their skills to overcome various obstacles.

"The production was much more complicated than we thought," recalls Martner. Instead of switching Olsson's ordinary side-view mirror with LCD-implanted units as planned, "We had to project the monster onto the ordinary mirror from behind. It was extremely stressful to create this solution in a matter of hours, but we managed to pull it off."

Folks love debating if such stunts are genuine or if the participants were in on the gag. "We did the stunt with three different drivers, all of them being totally unaware," Martner says. "Daniel was the best."

Given prankvertising's continued popularity, Martner doesn't expect agencies or clients to slam on the brakes any time soon. "It seems like people love this kind of advertising, and what people love, they share," he says. "I choose prankvertising over a standard commercial any day … at least if everyone involved can laugh about it in the end."

In its first work for Hotels.com since adding the business last October, Crispin Porter + Bogusky goes the self-consciously wacky route by introducing Captain Obvious. As his name suggests, the new spokesman says lots of self-evident stuff to make the point that Hotels.com is the obvious choice for booking rooms.

A 60-second spot finds the Captain sauntering through a swanky resort, noting, among other things, that, "'All you can eat' is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can," "the hotel pool is usually filled with water" and "gym is short for gymnasium." Ultimately and inevitably, he notes: "The best dot-com for booking hotels is Hotels.com. It's on the Internet."

Skinny, bearded and clad in silly military/bellhop garb (plus the occasional swimsuit hiked up to his navel), Captain Obvious is played by little-known actor Brandon Moynihan, who gives a solid performance. The spot is well shot and directed by Stacy Wall, who lensed this year's Super Bowl ads featuring Tim Tebow for T-Mobile and Ellen DeGeneres for Beats Music.

The potential problem is that this is not a one-off commercial, but an entire campaign, complete with print, online and radio. The one-joke approach is deftly handled, but I grew fidgety before the spot finished. And I wasn't phoning room service for more.

For me, Captain Obvious is worth a watch once or twice, but—like any ostentatious and irritating hotel guest—risks overstaying his welcome.

Go Ninja Go!

Who says Vanilla Ice never had any street cred? Everyone, I guess. And when it comes to hip-hop, they're right. But … who cares? The rapper (term used loosely) is prop-ah as hell in this self-deprecating Kraft Macaroni & Cheese commercial from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, skewering his goofy persona and, against all odds, stretching his 15 minutes of fame into a fourth decade.

Ice rocks the mic like a vandal, or something, lookin' fly in a green baseball cap and apron as he stocks shelves in a grocery store to help introduce Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-shaped Mac & Cheese. He sings "Ninja Rap," the brilliantly asinine tune he performed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze in 1991. Naturally, a mom shopping the aisle starts busting furious moves. Check out her son's befuddled/horrified stare around the 10-second mark. That look could wax a chump like a candle! Ultimately, Ice puts it all in perspective, with a knowing grin and his trademark line: "Word to your mother!"

As great as it is, the behind-the-scenes video is even more of a tongue-in-cheek riot. "I've always had a love for the Turtles," Ice explains, "and when I did Secret of the Ooze, it was the highlight of my life—ever!" He lunges forward, like a snapping turtle, for emphasis. "I'll never top it, no matter what I do."

Showing off a Turtles leg tattoo, he adds, "When I first heard Mac & Cheese was creating Ninja Turtles shapes, I was like, genius! This is the frickin' most awesome thing ever!"

Yo, you're awesome, Ice. Word to mothers everywhere!

It’s been a busy day it seems at camp Crispin as the MDC-owned agency has promoted two of its veteran staffers to role of managing director in separate offices. In Boulder, 10-year vet Danielle Whalen, who most recently served as EVP/group account director on  Applebee’s and Fruit of the Loom, has assumed the MD role. Whalen originally joined CP+B in 1999 as an account manager supervisor, but left two years later and then rejoined the agency in ’04 to help lead the Burger King business. During that heyday, the agency produced such efforts as, yes, Subservient Chicken and subsequently award-winning campaigns like Whopper Freakout. In addition to BK, Whalen has also worked on Old Navy.

Joining Whalen in MD status is Carter Nance, a fellow EVP/group account director who’s been with CP+B since 1999 who currently oversees Domino’s and VitaminWater and will now take on the new role in the Miami office.

We’ve been told these are new positions and as a result of the move, CP+B fills out its MD posts in Boulder, Miami and L.A., the last of which has been assumed by Mason Reed since spring 2012. With the goal being to move to “a more decentralized structure,”  CP+B president Steve Erich says, “Danielle, Carter and Mason are three amazingly strong account leaders who all started in the Miami office over ten years ago, fully embody the beliefs of CP+B and understand the power of great creative product. They will work with their individual offices, as well as the collective agency, to drive our client businesses and the performance of CP+B.”

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Andre Kassu and Marcos Medeiros will officially lead the new office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Brazil, which will based like seemingly all other notable agencies opening up shop in South American country in Sao Paulo. By our count, this marks the sixth shop in the MDC Partners-0wned agency network following other shops in Los Angeles, Boulder, Miami, London and Gothenberg, Sweden. Along with Kassu and Medeiros, Vinicius Reis will head operations and new business. As for the creative duo, the pair previously worked at AlmapBBDO since 2008 while Reis served as a partner at Agencia We.

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