Hasta La Creative!

Last year, The New York Lottery launched a creative review after more than 12 years with incumbent AOR DDB. During its time with the client, the agency produced ads utilizing every archetype from New York hipsters and dogwalkers to young-ish men who age a bit too quickly for comfort.

An unnamed source close to the matter seemed insistent on leaking related information to Adweek–and to us. The former first confirmed in July that the pitch was down to three agencies: FCB Garfinkel, McCann and the incumbent. In November sources told us that McCann was the winner–and while the agency wasn’t able to confirm this at the time, it later proved to be true.

Staffing changes stemming from the end of that relationship hit DDB’s New York office this week more than six months after the client concluded its review. Sources call it a planned restructuring–and while we don’t have any specific names, we’re told that the move affected at least one producer as well as several individuals within the agency’s Manhattan-based creative department.

In case you missed it (you didn’t), DDB New York most recently made news by expanding its creative team with the hires of CCO Icaro Doria of W+K São Paulo and GCD/content director Hannah Fishman of PR giant Edelman.

McCann has yet to publicly release its first campaign for the new client.

DDB New York launched a new spot for Cotton, Incorporated entitled “It’s Time to Talk Favorites.”

The ad follows several individuals as they discuss their favorite clothing item (spoiler: each of them is cotton). They place value and importance on the item ranging from the practical to the nostalgic to the superstitious. “We all have one,” text reads at the beginning of the ad, as each individual introduces their favorite. The “favorites” approach is relatable and makes a lot of sense for the brand, highlighting the material as a favorite for many and establishing an emotional connection beyond mere product benefits. Some of the choices are far more believable than others, such as the woman whose significant other was wowed when he saw her in her favorite pants or the girl who loves her favorite pair of jeans so much she said she was going to get married in them. Less believable is the young writer who puts on her grandmother’s shirt for inspiration or the woman who thinks her “lucky shirt” clears up her lane in traffic. The ad ends with the tagline, “Cotton. It’s Your Favorite For a Reason.” That line has a double meaning, highlighting cotton as the reason your favorite is your favorite while also touting cotton as a favorite material.

Credits:

Brand: Cotton Incorporated
Title: It’s Time to Talk Favorites

Agency: DDB, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Icaro Doria
Creative Director: Cassandra Anderson
Associate Creative Director: Marilyn Kam
Additional Credits: Head of Broadcast Production: Ed Zazzera
Executive Producer: Teri Altman
Manager, Art Buying Group: Jane Piampiano
Account Director: Debbie Broda
Management Supervisor: Lauren Solomon
Assistant Account Executive: Kaine Cahill
Brand Planning Director: Jennifer Fox

Production Company: Serial Pictures Los Angeles
Director: Chiara Clemente
Executive Producer: Violaine Etienne
Head of Production: Peter Fitzgerald
Producer: Terri Shafirov
Production Supervisor: Matthew Ayriss

Editorial: Arcade NY
Editor: Jen Dean
Assistant Editor: Laurel Smoliar
Post Producer: Cecilia Melton
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Still Photography: Hello Artists
Photographer: Brigitte Sire
Producer: William Carducci

DDB New York debuted its “New York Takes Center Court” spot promoting the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, featuring voiceover from Common (whose voice was recently featured in a pair of Microsoft ads that ran during the Super Bowl).

The ad follows the NBA premiering the first work from new agency of record Translation last month. Presumably the league decided to go with the New York office of DDB due to the fact that the game will take place in the city. And the ad does place New York in center stage, celebrating the five boroughs and calling on its citizens to “Hail a cab, catch a train, ferry over, bike, walk, run” or choose any other mode of transportation to be a part of the event. The 30-second spot mixes live NBA footage with animation for a fun, comic-like vibe building anticipation for NBA All Star festivities, which will run February 13-15.

Credits:

Client: NBA
Agency: DDB, New York
Executive Creative Director: Joseph Cianciotto
Creative Director: Rich Sharp
Creative Director: Mike Sullivan
Art Director: Mina Mikhael
Copywriter: Turan Tuluy
Producer: Tiffany Campbell
Account Executive: Jackie Schultz
Design and Animation: Transistor Studios

If you like good tennis and cool murals, then the U.S. Open has an advertising campaign for you.

The tournament’s organizers are paying an artist to climb up to a billboard each day over the course of the games and piece together a painting based on the event’s notable moments and online chatter.

The first eight installments have included, for example, interpretations of Gaël Monfis’s crushing 110 miles-per-hour match winner, 15-year-old Catherine “CiCi” Bellis’s on-court antics and Roger Federer’s selfie with Michael Jordan.

Each day’s addition is live-streamed on Facebook and later recapped in a YouTube clip. The painter, Josh Cochran, whose previous credentials include some spectacular Grammy-nominated album art for Ben Kweller, features heavily in the videos.

Agency DDB New York created the campaign, titled “Story of the Open” and tied it into social media with the hashtag “#StoryoftheOPEN.”

While viewers of the billboard over New York’s Midtown Tunnel might not get the full effect without watching the videos for context, Cochran’s illustrations are spectacular, and it’s fun to see the mural take shape.

Drinking is fundamental.

With that thought in mind, DDB New York and Water Is Life have authored a Drinkable Book that not only educates at-risk populations on sanitation and hygiene, but also provides a means to purify contaminated water.

The pages are coated with microscopic particles of silver. When water passes through, more than 99 percent of harmful bacteria—like cholera, E. coli and typhoid—are destroyed, and the resulting liquid is safe to drink. Theresa Dankovich, a chemist, invented the paper. The text, printed in food-quality ink, provides basic safety information, such as reminders to keep trash and feces away from water supplies. The filter paper costs pennies to produce, and a single book can provide a person with drinkable water for up to four years.

DDB and Water Is Life have teamed up before on notable humanitarian efforts. These include an award-winning campaign that saw impoverished Haitians read actual tweets that people jokingly marked with the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag, and "Kenya Bucket List," which focused on what third-world kids hope to accomplish in their lives.

The Drinkable Book is a refreshingly creative (but practical) approach that marks a new chapter in combining communications with real-world action, a direction also championed by the Peruvian billboards that generate clean air and water.

Via Devour.