Hasta La Creative!

The biting of the medal has become a tradition at the Olympic games that symbolizes victory. DDB Chicago draws the connection between this iconic symbol and the biting of McNuggets and other McDonald’s products “sometimes used to celebrate life’s smaller victories” for the juggernaut Olympic sponsor.

The spot “takes viewers on a ride through Olympic history [which] cleverly juxtaposes medal-biting images with shots of fans across the world biting into McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets.” The first 45 seconds or so of the 60 second spot are given to a well-produced homage to Olympic history. When athletes start biting their medals, the text “The greatest victories are celebrated with a bite” appears on screen, followed by shots of people digging into their McNuggets. It’s well executed, even if the idea of likening winning a gold medal to biting into a meal made of molded leftover chicken parts is quite the stretch. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

DDB Chicago has appointed a new chief creative officer in John Maxham, who rejoins the agency after spending the last four years as executive creative director/partner at Seattle-based Cole & Weber United. Maxham, who originally served as SVP/GCD on all things AT&T at DDB Chi for two years, will now oversee the creative product and 100 staffers, working with clients including McDonald’s, State Farm, Mars Inc., Capital One and Safeway in the process. Maxham’s arrival will fill a six-month void left when Ewan Paterson and DDB Chicago parted ways.

His new boss, DDB Chicago CEO Paul Gunning, says in a statement, “I looked very hard to find a partner that would share in my passion for DDB and the iconic American brands we work on. I wanted a true leader with a diverse creative skill set who could not only work across media channels, but also flex from B2C to B2B. This was not an easy task but John is uniquely qualified.”

During his ad career, Maxham (who *shameless plug* talked to us about Super Bowl a couple of years ago) served as a creative director at Team One and an ACD at Lowe.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

DDB is taking to Snapchat to hire new young talent with “The Snapchat Pitch.” The student contests invites entrants to pitch their idea to DDB in 10 seconds, operating under the assumption that “Great ideas can be explained in a sentence.”

Here’s how it works: First, connect with DDB_OSLO on Snapchat. Then, pitch your idea in 10 seconds or less in any way you deem fit. The creatives at DDB have pledged to watch every single pitch, and, if yours is sufficiently brilliant, they’ll fly you out to Oslo for an interview. The winners of the contest will be announced on April 3rd. Head on over to “The Snapchat Pitch” site for more details if you’d like to enter. Good luck.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

While Netflix is absolutely everywhere in the US, the streaming service has had some trouble catching on in Canada, where “research showed that Canadians struggled to see the value in the service.” So how do you get Canadians to like something? Hockey, definitely hockey.

So, DDB Canada Vancouver whipped up (and it does feel whipped up) a locker room spot for the new Canadian brand campaign entitled “Pep Talk,” in which a coach tells his players to “remember that scene from that movie on Netflix” where “the coach…gave that speech…well that, gentleman, is what I am saying!” rather than provide a speech of his own. The whole thing is reminiscent of a Simpsons joke from the 1992 episode “Homer at the Bat” in which Mr. Burns tells his softball team, “So I want you to remember some inspiring words that someone else might have told you over the course of your lives, and go out there and win!” But, you know, a lot less funny.

The idea was to show “how stories you can find on Netflix stay with you anywhere, anytime.” It would have helped to create an ad that stuck with you, instead of one this forgettable. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You guys remember that blog post about that ad that did a familiar thing in a fresh way? When a creative team took a clichéd trope and offered a meta commentary illustrating how hackneyed it was, but tied it to the client anyways? When it left at least one viewer with a smile on his face, and a vague sense of unease about what it was actually saying? That's what happens with this Canadian spot, featuring a coach appealing to his players by referencing a rousing, generic locker-room speech from a movie on Netflix. It's a fun idea. Too bad it sells the product as nondescript. Then again, nobody watches a sports flick looking for anything but the same old warm and fuzzes anyways. Agency: DDB Vancouver. Director: Michael Downing of Partners Film.

We received the sad news that last week, DDB Chicago creative director Brad Morgan lost his battle with cancer. Morgan had been with the agency for a quarter-century and helped lead creative on accounts ranging from Anheuser-Busch and McDonald’s to Frito-Lays and Mars. Here’s a note to staff from DDB Chi SVP/ECD Mark Gross, who mentions among other things mentions arguably Morgan’s most notable accomplishment at the agency, verbatim:

“Brad Morgan was a highly respected art director, who worked at ad agency DDB Chicago for over 25 years. It was an outstanding career filled with numerous highlights and accomplishments. Brad was a talented, skilled artist and a stellar art director with a keen sense of style and taste. As Creative Director, Brad became a beloved and respected leader. His positive attitude was infectious and uplifting, and his passion for advertising unequaled. He was a tireless worker, who always took pride in everything he did. No matter how tough things got, Brad worked through it with a warm smile on his face.

Brad worked on numerous accounts throughout his career. His most notable accomplishment was the invention of Chester Cheetah – an iconic character still being used today. Brad was also responsible for creating many of the most memorable and revered Super Bowl Ads for Budweiser and Bud Light.

The only thing more impressive than Brad’s list of talents was his fun, warm, genuine, caring personality. He was a true gentleman, a good friend, a caring soul and just an all around terrific guy to be around. Anyone who worked with Brad would tell you how special of person he really was.

Brad Morgan, thank you for everything you gave us and for being the terrific person that you were. You will be sorely missed.  We all raise a Jack and Coke in your honor and say God bless you – farewell dear friend.”

 

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

DDB Canada has a new campaign for K-Y Brand lubricant called “Warm Up To Love Again.” As the title suggests, this campaign is targeted at couples having intimacy issues, rather than continually fapping, hormonal teenage boys (another key lubricant demographic). More specifically, the campaign speaks to “women, who want to stay connected with their partner through enjoyable physical and emotional intimacy, but who have not been comfortable introducing a personal lubricant into their relationship.”

DDB manages to do this with lighthearted humor, important because of the awkwardness of broaching the issue of personal lubrication. In each spot, a woman witnesses her (conspicuously unsexy) partner performing an everyday task in slow-motion, while an R&B slow jam plays in the background. The idea is that K-Y “makes physical intimacy with your partner so comfortable and easy, women will view sex, and their partners in a whole new light,” explains agency ECD, Denise Rossetto. So, suddenly seeing her partner starting up the lawnmower or do push-ups is enough to turn each of the women in these spots on, culminating into the campaign’s “Warm Up To Love Again” tagline. DDB keeps things short and to the point, with the trio of adverts each clocking in at 15 seconds. The campaign debuted online on December 12th, and will make its television premiere next month. Credits and “Sit-Ups” after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Debuting during tonight’s Chicago Bears/Green Bay Packers Monday night match-up is the latest in State Farm’s Discount Double-Check campaign from DDB Chicago. And, folks, it is a doozy.

Again, we find Packers QB Aaron Rodgers flanked by the SNL ”Superfans,” George Wendt and Robert Smigel, on a flight that has now lasted two months since these guys first showed up. Rodgers, who you may know is as bad at acting as he is incredible at football (the worst and best, respectively), faces his biggest challenge yet: Portray someone who isn’t Aaron Rodgers looking uncomfortable while trying to deliver scripted lines. The results are, well, watch the clip.

In Rodgers’ defense (and it’s easy for me because he is my favorite player ever), a Chicago accent is hard to replicate. In DDB’s defense, I sympathize with how many takes of Rodgers’ “acting” they had to do before just saying “fuck it” and going with the above spot. And, in everyone’s defense, this campaign has been incredibly successful for State Farm over the years. Don’t like Rodgers’ acting? Think the spot isn’t funny? Well that’s too bad, because the rest of America loves these things. This is advertising, and the will of the consumers wins (haha). Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve yet to hear back from Supercuts parent company Regis Corporation, but sources familiar with the matter do confirm that DDB Chicago is no longer working with the hair salon chain. DDB essentially adopted the account last fall when it absorbed fellow Chicago shop Element 79, which had worked with Supercuts since 2002. From what we’re hearing, Regis is launching a review for its brand, and DDB is likely not defending. As far as we can tell, the relationship has been relatively stagnant for the last few months as the most recent effort from DDB Chicago for Supercuts was the “Jake Miller” extension of the “Rock the Cut” campaign in April. We’ll follow up with Regis again, and will let you know if we hear more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Interested in being ein Berliner?

German airline Lufthansa is running a contest in Sweden, dreamed up by the pranksters at DDB Stockholm, that features an impressive grand prize—a free trip, a free apartment in Berlin, a bike and "everything else you need to start a whole new life." All you have to do? Change your name, legally, to Klaus-Heidi.

Clearly that name would suit either man or woman, so that's the first hurdle out of the way. DDB tells us: "The first person to change their surname and upload a new legitimate passport or ID at the campaign site wins the whole shebang. So who wants to become a real Berliner? Who will he or she be? Who is Klaus-Heidi?"

For those not willing or able to take such drastic action, you can also change your name only on Facebook and get a discount on plane tickets to Germany.