Droga5 Celebrates ‘Bratfest in Bed’ for Johnsonville

Droga5 launched a surreal Father’s Day extension of its campaign for Johnsonville called “Bratfest in Bed.”

The ad opens as innoculously as the title would suggest, with a father waking up to find his son and wife serving him a brat on a roll for breakfast, accompanied by a voiceover saying, “This Father’s Day, start dad’s day out right.” Things get weird fast, however, when the brats start talking and then a giant brat arrives to give dad’s brat a stripe of mustard. The ad presents a series of strange twists on the theme, before the father decides one is “close enough” and takes a bite of the sausage. “Bratfast in Bed” will run in 3o and 65-second versions, promoted on the brand’s social media accounts, in the lead up to Father’s Day on June 21st.

“It’s basically sausage Inception,” group creative director Scott Bell told Adweek. “It’s one man’s journey.”

We think another comparison is more apt, however. Since Bell acknowledged The Simpsons’ influence on the campaign previously (specifically Homer’s “you don’t make friends with salad” line), it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Droga5 once again borrows from the series’ heyday, with the father’s eventual response to his transformed family echoing Homer’s “close enough” acceptance of a reality where humans eat with lizard tongues in “Time and Punishment” from “Treehouse of Horror V” (and the rapid-fire reality jumping premise also calling that segment to mind).

“Bratfest in Bed” sees Droga5 pushing the odd humor of its initial effort for Johnsonville, following winning creative duties for the brand at the end of last year, in an even stranger direction. Father’s Day may still be almost two weeks away, but we already have a prime candidate for the holiday’s strangest ad.

Nik Studzinski to Join Karmarama as CCO

Karmarama has appointed Nik Studzinski as a chief creative officer and equity partner, beginning in August, AdAge reports.

Studzinski will join Karmarama from Droga5 London, where he served as an executive creative director and was one of the office’s co-founders in 2010. He replaces founder Dave Buonaguidi, who left Karmarama last July. Droga5 said it will appoint a new chief creative officer and CEO for its London office some time this summer.

Prior to joining Droga5, Studzinski was an executive creative director at Mother, a position he also held at Publicis London. Studzinski also served as head of art at Saatchi & Saatchi London, where he became the agency’s youngest-ever board member.

“I’ve enjoyed an incredible journey with Droga5 and it took something exceptional to make me even think about leaving,” Studzinski said.

Droga5 Talks Shit with New York Magazine

This morning, Droga5 scored what is now an increasingly rare thing in the agency world: a full-length profile piece in a non-trade publication. New York magazine published a story designed to very loosely connect the current state of ad world affairs to that depicted in the final episodes of Mad Men with the help of the guys and girls of Droga. It’s an amusing read which shows us that even a serious-business agency doesn’t take itself all too seriously.

Four quick paragraphs in, Account Director Steven Panariello drops this bomb:

“I am known to take my shirt and pants off in meetings. I get so worked up during the day energy-wise that they just have to come off.”

NY scribe Jessica Pressler goes on to reveal the story behind Droga’s new “fueled by bullshit” work f0r client Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell model: it was subtle dig at Elon Musk’s characterization of this new attempt at environmental responsibility.

Here’s the work in question, which is not quite completely full of shit:

Toyota was apparently happy with the campaign, which may have led to the agency’s subsequent Scion win and, indirectly, the dissolution of Dentsu’s Attik. Of course, this state of satisfaction came about only after multiple reviews and tweak sessions.

Other key takeaways from the Pressler piece include:

  • Her description of David Droga as “An Australian with the bright, curious eyes of a woodland creature,” which precedes his own self-categorization as “the most competitive person you will ever meet”
  • Ari “The One from Entourage” Emanuel saying, “I think they’re artists…gotta go make some money!”
  • “They’re an ad agency. They’re selling crap that someone doesn’t need, and that’s the bottom line.” – a line from a guy who now advises clients on how to more effectively sell said crap.
  • Droga’s money quote: “I don’t want to sound too worthy here…But I want to do something that honestly contributes something positive to society.”

The article would be worth reading if only for discussion of “the poop shoot” that resulted in the video above:

  • “…should the poop have three or four ridges?”
  • “…a football-length field of percolating poop”
  • “When a cow shits, it’s like an elevator door opening.”

The piece also teaches us that Droga hates pre-roll ads, that the agency planned the “Love” response to haters of Honey Maid’s pro-gay campaign before the work even ran, and that Toyota prevented its shop from using Elon Musk’s name in the “bullshit” video.

Sadly, Panariello managed to make it through the entire article without removing his pants. He did, however, hump a conference room table.

Finally, an “extremely funny look” on Droga’s face hints that his agency may well create work for a certain well-known politician…

Droga5 Makes Family with Sausage for Johnsonville

Droga5 launched a new campaign for Wisconsin sausage brand Johnsonville, the agency’s first since winning creative duties for the brand at the end of last year.

The campaign presents a series of quirky families, along with the new tagline, “We don’t make sausage. We make family. And sausage.” Among the oddball characters in the ads are “a handsome, kind-hearted drifter who wandered in years ago and stayed for all the yummy sausage” posing as a grandmother. In another spot, parents attempt to get their man-child to move out of the house with a fake newspaper article about the Johnsonville factory burning down. Another spot highlights a mobster neighbor, while in another one a group is brought together by Johnsonville saugage and feels like a family, even if one of them misread the email. While the humor never quite lands, it’s still a memorable take on the category. After the spot-on hilariousness of Droga5’s “Designed to be Forgotten” campaign for Quilted Northern, though, it can’t help but pale in comparison.

The goal of the campaign, timed to coincide with the unofficial beginning of grilling season, was to “translate the emotional connection and passion our consumers have for our brand and from grilling brats, and build awareness for Johnsonville beyond brats,” Fabian Pereira, vice president of marketing for Johnsonville, told Adweek.

“We needed an idea that could just as easily talk about making pasta with Italian sausage or brunch with breakfast sausage,” explained Scott Bell, group creative director of Droga5. “That’s how we landed on the idea that when you’re sharing Johnsonville, you’re family. It doesn’t matter if you’re sharing brats at a tailgate or sharing a meal at Sunday night dinner, that act of sharing sausage forges a bond…Homer Simpson said it best when he said [in “Lisa The Vegetarian,” the fifth episode of the seventh season], ‘You don’t make friends with salad.’  We think he’d agree that you can do better than just make friends with sausage. You can make family.”

Credits:

Client: Johnsonville
Vice President, Marketing: Fabian Pereira
Group Marketing Director: Jim Mueller
Group Marketing Director: Ryan Pociask
Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Director: Scott Bell
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Raab
Senior Art Director: Dan Kenneally
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Broadcast Production: Ben Davies
Executive Broadcast Producer: Jesse Brihn
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Aaron Wiggan
Senior Strategist: Nick Maschmeyer
Senior Strategist: Candice Chen
Communications Strategy Director: Brian Nguyen
Group Account Director: Dan Gonda
Account Director: Chris Einhauser
Account Manager: Kate Tyler Monroe
Production Company (Live Action Shoot): Arts & Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
DOP: Corey Walter
Executive Producer: Marc Marrie
Managing Director: Mal Ward
Producer: Zoe Odlum
Production Company (Food Shoot): Schrom
Director: Michael Schrom
DOP: Michael Schrom
Executive Producer: Carl Sturges
Production Supervisor: Andrew Greenberg
Food Stylist: Rick Ellis
Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor (Family Favors, Misunderstood, Grandma): Ian Mackenzie
Editor (Stay At Home Son): Nick Divers
Assistant Editor: Mike Leuis
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld
Producer: Biz Lynskey
Postproduction: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jeremy Moore
Producer: Andrew Hamill
Lead Flame Artist: Ilia Mokhtareizadeh
Flame Artist: Brandon Danowski
Flame Artist: Emily Bloom
Sound: Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer: Sam Shaffer, Marc Healy

Droga5 Delights in Potty Humor for Quilted Northern

Droga5 launched a new campaign for Quilted Northern, billing the toilet paper as “Designed to be Forgotten.”

The approach is based on research the brand’s research indicating that people only think about toilet paper when it fails to do its job properly, according to Adweek. It’s a bit strange as a selling point, but Droga5 takes it in a memorable and often hilarious direction with a series of spots about those who, unlike the people who use Quilted Northern and forget all about their bathroom experience, “see all and forget nothing.” There’s Daddy Gator, forever beached on a bathroom sink with a clear view of the loo, who opines that “This is no place to raise a child.” Little Miss Puffytail, meanwhile, desperately wants to be smashed into a million pieces, and toilet paper holder Sir Froggy has his eyes fixed in a most unfortunate position. The agency changes pace a bit with “Great Grandpa Thaddeus,” replacing the children’s toys of the other spots with a portrait of an old family patriarch doomed to witness the excretions of future generations. It may be the funniest of the bunch, thanks to well-worded copywriting and perfectly delivered voiceover. All of the spots benefit from the unexpectedly dark comedic tone (which stands in stark contrast to the more silly potty humor of rival Charmin), while still managing to work in the product organically, which makes them far more memorable, and entertaining, than any toilet paper ads we can recall.

Credits:

Client: Quilted Northern
CMO: Douwe Bergsma
General Manager, Tissue: Vivek Joshi
Senior Brand Director: Jason Ippen
Senior Brand Manager: Ann V Anderson
Senior Marketing Director, Brand Center; Shari Neumann

Campaign: Designed to be Forgotten

Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Creative Directors: David Gibson, Nathan Lennon, Mike Long, Alex Lea
Art Director/Copywriters: Molly Jamison, Eric Dennis
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Broadcast Production Ben Davies
Senior Broadcast Producer: Anders Hedberg
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Matt Springate
Senior Strategist: Nick Maschmeyer
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
General Manager/Head of Account Mgmt: Susie Nam
Group Account Director: Brett Edgar
Account Director: Michael Arani
Account Manager: Jasmine Moesel

Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Bennett Miller
Executive Producer: Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody, Shannon Jones
Producer: Suzie Greene Tedesco
DP: Adam Kimmel

Editorial: Exile
Editor: Conor O’Neill
Assistant Editor: Rex Lowry
Executive Producer:  CL Weaver
Producer: Denice Hutton

Post Production: Method NY/Atlanta
Flame Artists: Mike Wardner, Glen Bennett, Jay Tilin
Head of Production: Jennifer Hargreaves
Producer: Natalia Wroble

Music: Adelphoi (“Daddy Gator,” “Great Grandpa Thaddeus,” “Sir Froggy,” “Conductor Randy” Adelphoi, “Birds”)
Composers: Jamie Masters, Andrew Sherriff, Ashley Bates, Stephen Patman
Producers: Jonathan Watts, Lotte Bowser

Music: Manners McDade (“Little Miss Puffytail”)

‘Agency Scoops’ Creators Score Droga5 Internships

In case you thought that creative stunts don’t lead to jobs (or “jobs”)…

Last week, AdFreak posted on a project created by Miami Ad School New York students Aditya Hariharan and Joshua Namdar, who reimagined all the major agencies as ice cream flavors.

The “Agency Scoops” tumblr used each agency’s work to cast it as a Ben & Jerry’s-style pint, and the students even managed to engage in a little good-natured ribbing.

For example, they described Droga5 as “no rules, no-nonsense creativity in a rich, wholesome environment” and DDB as “a slow-churned classic agency with a hint of forward thinking” (emphasis ours).

Today we learned that quite a few people in ad land noticed the work. The Droga organization was so interested, in fact, that it gave the pair Summer internships.

From the students themselves:

“The response from the ad community has been overwhelming…

As a result, we managed to secure an internship at Droga5 for the summer.”

No word on whether they’ve learned the first rule of the ad industry: never read the comments on your own AgencySpy post.

Droga5, Morgan Spurlock Show You How the Toyota Mirai Is 'Fueled by Bullsh*t'

Toyota wants you to know it has a car that literally runs on bullshit.

This new ad for the automaker’s Mirai fuel cell vehicle features an engineer visiting a dairy farm, loading a pickup bed with cow manure, taking it to be processed into hydrogen and using it to power a ride.

Directed by Morgan Spurlock, the ad is the first in a series titled “Fueled by Everything.” Created by Droga5, the campaign hopes to persuade consumers that hydrogen cars are a viable alternative to internal combustion engines, despite a skeptical marketplace—hence the ad’s mix of folksy and defensive. (Ron the farmer’s cool demeanor casts doubt on his sincerity at moments, but there are some real action shots of heifers unloading.)

A small number of Mirais go on sale in California this fall, and Toyota’s tack is to point out the abundance of fuel—not just crap, but also sunlight, wind and more—presumably in part because a leading criticism of the technology is the shortage of hydrogen stations. One doesn’t follow the other, but Toyota is working with other car makers to develop infrastructure in the Golden State.

It’s not clear though, whether drivers will be able to bring their own manure.



Droga5 Presents the Toyota Mirai as ‘Fueled by Bullsh*t’

Droga5 launched a new campaign called “Fueled by Everything,” introducing the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai with the launch spot, “Fueled by Bullsh*t,” directed by Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock.

The online ad begins by reminding viewers of the ubiquity of hydrogen, “the most abundant element in the universe,” which is just about everywhere, before tackling criticism of the idea of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

“The ongoing joke is that fuel-cell vehicles are 15 years away and always will be,” Doug Coleman, national vehicle marketing manager-Prius family, electric and fuel cell vehicles at Toyota Motor sales, told AdAge. “The Mirai is not just a new model, but a whole new category, a whole new fuel source. There are a lot of misperceptions of what hydrogen is, where it comes from and does it make sense to use.”

The ad quotes skeptics as saying things such as “Fuel cells are dead on arrival,” “Hydrogen is inefficient,” It’s a pipe dream,” and even, just “Bullsh*t.” Engineer Scott Blanchett addresses that last one saying, “…they’re right, but not in the way they think.” The remainder of the ad follows the transformation of a truckload of manure into usable hydrogen fuel. Scott gets the manure from a dairy farmer and then transports it to the digester, where it is broken down and releases raw biogas. Purified gas is then taken to steam methane reformer, where the hydrogen is stripped out using steam and heat to make usable fuel. It’s a pretty clever way to denounce hydrogen critics and hype the launch of the new vehicle and despite the lengthy run time (past the three minute mark), the ad doesn’t feel too drawn out, as it provides a detailed look at the process of turning manure into fuel.

“Fueled by Bullsh*t” launched today on the Toyota Mirai website, social video sites such as YouTube and Hulu and Forbes.com. The campaign will continue rolling out through the fall, with a series of videos detailing other everyday sources for hydrogen fuel.

West Elm Selects Droga5 as its First Creative Agency

westelmBrooklyn-based design and furniture retailer West Elm, Williams-Sonoma’s fastest growing brand, has selected Droga5 as its creative agency as it prepares to make its first leap into the world of advertising. Until now, the brand’s marketing has been largely limited to social media and content marketing.

The business will be run out of New York, as West Elm focuses on expanding and raising its profile globally, Jonny Bauer, global chief strategy officer at Droga5, told Campaign. “West Elm wants to change the way that people perceive what design is and what it should be able to do,” he said, adding that the agency’s first work for the brand, expected to roll out this autumn, would be a “non-traditional” integrated campaign with a focus on social media.

Vanessa Holden, senior vice president, creative director at West Elm, explained to Campaign that the brand’s marketing message would focus on the brand’s socially responsible business practices. “We think about the financial and social impact of every dollar we spend. And we want our customers to do the same with every purchase they make,” she said.

Rob Trostle Joins Droga5 NY as Executive Design Director

023e109The Drum reports that Droga5 New York named Rob Trostle to the newly-created position of executive design director. In the role, Trostle will be responsible for overseeing and expanding the agency’s design department as well as directing his team’s creative focus.

Trostle arrives from Golden Arm — “an alliance of branding experts and award-winning directors…cultivating powerful stories and compelling experiences for forward thinking brands” — where he was a founding partner and creative director.

Prior to launching that venture, he was a freelance designer, working with agencies such as BBDO, McCann, SS+K and Big Spaceship. Before going freelance, Trostle served stints as a design director with Mother and, briefly, Anomaly.

Of the new appointment, Trostle writes:

“Given Droga5’s breadth of work and innovative approach, I am greatly looking forward to leading the design department in continuing to deliver integrated, strategic, and compelling creative work across all disciplines.”

BREAKING: Droga5 Wins Toyota Scion

SCion

Today we can confirm that Droga5 has extended its recent move into the auto sector by winning creative duties for Toyota’s Scion brand.

The agency scored headlines over the summer after Toyota bypassed global AOR Saatchi & Saatchi to assign Droga the task of introducing its fuel cell-powered FCV to the world at large; this win also prevented Droga from participating in the extended Infiniti pitch.

A Toyota spokesperson tells us that Attik, which has handled Scion since 2002 and expanded its relationship with the client by winning the Venza business in 2008, “continues to be a part of our creative team”; the spokesperson classifies Droga5 as a “new creative partner.”

The client hired Droga to help promote two new models it plans to launch in Fall 2015. The client “teased” the first, which will be called Scion iM, to various auto trade pubs like Car and Driver this week; the name of next vehicle, a sedan, will be announced to the public on March 18th.

On the coming campaigns , Toyota says:

“We’re looking at what the marketing mix will be right now and will decide on the medium.

[The Fall campaigns] will be coordinated by Droga5…we’ll see what happens.”

“The Turning Point,” Droga5’s ad for the FCV model, debuted in Fall 2014.

Tight Shirt Production Launches ‘Book of Will’ for Under Armour

Production company Tight Shirt Production Films has launched a new campaign for Under Armour, entitled “Book of Will,” an effort the brand claims is its largest advertising push to date.

NOTE: AOR Droga5 played no role in this campaign.

The campaign, which launches with a couple of ads featuring actor Jamie Foxx, really is an ambitious effort. In “Charged By Belief,” Foxx quotes William Shakespeare‘s famous “All the world’s a stage” line from As You Like It before saying “But Mr. Shakespeare never met Stephen Curry.” Propelled by a mix of in-game and on-set footage of Stephen Curry (who Adweek recently declared “the NBA’s New Marketing Megastar”) and a solid soundtrack in Run The Jewels’ “Close Your Eyes,” Foxx champions Curry’s rise from unheralded high school player to NBA phenom, saying, “You’ve got to find the person with the new story to tell.” The spot introduces Under Armour’s Curry One sneaker, as well as the “Book of Will” campaign and its larger-than-life approach.

Another spot, “Erase All Doubt” seeks to inspire by re-imagining a quote from Aristotle. Foxx waxes philosophical about what it takes to achieve excellence and persevere through hard times, concluding that “The excellent ones just step up to the line and ask, ‘What’s the record?’”

Droga5 made waves with its advertising for Under Armour in 2014, winning praise for its “I Will What I Want” campaign, which featured some unexpected celebrity endorsement choices such as Misty Copeland and Gisele Bündchen. But “Book of Will” ushers in a new era for the rapidly growing brand, and while the choice of Stephen Curry in “Charged By Belief” is a nod to the brand’s past, Under Armour and Tight Shirt seem to be looking toward an ambitious future with the new campaign.

While Jamie Foxx is a newcomer to Under Armour’s advertising efforts, he’s no stranger to the brand. Foxx wore Under Armour uniforms in the 1999 Oliver Stone football flick Any Given Sunday, which Under Armour Senior VP, Creative Steve Battista described as “…so pivotal to our growth.” Foxx doesn’t only appear in the ads, but, according to Battista, had an important role in the creative process, helping to write the ads as a “creative partner.”

“We’ve never had a non-athlete in one of our campaigns to such an extent,” Battista told AdAge. “But it felt like this just wasn’t hiring a face. [Mr. Foxx is] a friend of the brand who was also coming on as a creative partner.”

Droga5 Gets Cuddly for Android

Droga5 takes a simple approach in its latest ad for Google’s Android, entitled “Friends Furever,” employing unlikely animal pals to deliver the message, “Be Together. Not the Same.”

The 60-second spot is set to Roger Miller‘s “Oo-De-Lally” from Disney’s animated 1973 version of Robin Hood and forgoes any voiceover. Instead, Droga5 lets the animals do the talking (figuratively), with the song tying together footage of frolicking odd couples. These include a dog proudly standing next to an orangutan, a cat nestling baby chicks, an elephant playing with a sheep and many more unlikely pairings, ending with the now familiar tagline. It’s a simple approach, but one that fits the brand’s message well. And, thanks to its undeniable cuteness, “Friends Furever” is all but guaranteed to go viral. Uploaded to YouTube yesterday, the spot already has over 250,000 views.

Droga5 Begins Teasing Newcastle’s 2016 Super Bowl Ad

Droga5 has built campaigns around lampooning big budget advertising for Newcastle since its digital “If We Made It” campaign for the 2014 Super Bowl. This year, the agency attempted to crash Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign and enlisted the aid of Aubrey Plaza to get brands to join its “Band of Brands” regional big game ad. Now, the agency is looking towards the future, parodying brands’ tendency to tease their ads far before the big game by already teasing its 2016 effort.

With “just 52 short weeks” until the next Super Bowl, the teaser, narrated in a robotic voice, asks viewers “to prepare yourself to prepare yourself” for the brand’s “ad from the future.” Newcastle promises the ad will feature “2016’s hottest trends,” such as telepathic horse races, electric trumpet, mind-yodeling and, of course, high-speed cheese.

Looks like it’s going to be a pretty crazy year…

Newcastle Unveils Droga5’s ‘Band of Brands’

After a quick attempt at entering Doritos’ “Crash The Super Bowl” competition, Droga5 began enlisting brands for Newcastle’s “Band of Brands” crowdsourced Super Bowl ad campaign, with help from Aubrey Plaza. Now, around a week after the last teaser with Plaza, the brand has revealed Droga5’s big game ad, featuring 37 different brands. The 60-second spot will run regionally in only one market: Palm Springs, California. But, like last year’s campaign, it’s sure to attract its share of attention online.

As you might expect, “Band of Brands” is a whirlwind of brand placement and big market advertising parody. Opening, appropriately enough, with a couple opening up some bottles of Newcastle, the ad manages to name drop Match and Armstrong Flooring in the first ten seconds. The pace only picks up from there as the ad gets more over-the-top and self-effacing about its brand references. At one point, the man looks at his watch and runs upstairs to pitch Charisma bedding, passing by a host of signs for other brands along the way. While the ad is basically the one joke we’ve been expecting from “Band of Brands” all along, it handles it entertainingly enough and the ad fits in well with the tone of the brand’s previous campaigns — even if it doesn’t have the staying power of last year’s “If We Made It.”

“Not only did we create the world’s first crowdfunded Big Game ad, but I’m pretty sure we just made the cheapest Big Game ad ever,” said Priscilla Flores Dohnert, brand director for Newcastle Brown Ale, in a statement. “By asking other brands to team up with our brand we are making a statement that Big Game advertising should be accessible to everyone, whether they can afford it or not.”

Newcastle Unveils Its Smorgasbord of a Super Bowl Ad, Featuring 37 Different Brands

Newcastle just released its “Band of Brands” regional Super Bowl commercial, and it turns out Jockey, Boost Mobile, Lee Jeans, Brawny and Match.com are among the recognizable brands—along with some lesser-known ones—who are sharing the cost of the ad in exchange for a mention in it.

Jockey is particularly notable cameo, since, like Newcastle, it’s a Droga5 client. If Jockey signing up was a favor to its agency, it was a worthwhile one—the briefs get a less-brief appearance (close-up product shot!) than many of the brands here.

The creative approach is amusing, too, with a couple racing around their house, trying to make every brand’s pitch in time—sometimes cutting each other off in mid-sentence, as the house gets cluttered and things get desperate.

Unlike last year, when Newcastle punked the Super Bowl with the brilliant “If We Made It” campaign, the brewer is actually buying time in regional markets to air a version of this spot.

“It’s the most exciting, most jam-packed, most fiscally responsible big game ad ever,” Newcastle says. “It’s Newcastle’s Band of Brands big game ad, featuring 37 of the universe’s best brands … and a dental office in Pittsburgh.”

Here’s the full list of brands:

AmeriMerch.com, AprilUmbrellas.com, Armstrong Flooring and Ceilings, Beanitos Chips, Blettner Engineering, Boost Mobile, Brawny Paper Towels, Charisma, Detroit Beard Collective, District 78, Dixie, East End Leisure Co., Gladiator GarageWorks, Hello Products Oral Care, Hunt’s Tomatoes, JackThreads, Jockey, Kern Group Security, Kibo Active + Leisure Wear, Krave Jerky, Las Vegas, Lee Jeans, Match.com, McClure’s Pickles, Mr. Cheese O’s, Newcastle Brown Ale, Polished Dental, Quilted Northern, Quinn Popcorn, Rosarita Beans, RO*TEL, Second Chance Custom, Sharper Image, Tessemae’s All-Natural Dressings, The Ross Farm, Vanity Fair Napkins, YP.com and Zendure Batteries.



Aubrey Plaza Milks a Cow and Is a Terrible Endorser in Newcastle's Super Bowl Teaser

So, this is why Newcastle Brown Ale hired Aubrey Plaza as its 2015 Super Bowl endorser: Her perma-sarcasm and lack of energy make her the world’s worst spokeswoman—or if you like, the world’s best anti-spokeswoman.

The brewer and ad agency Droga5—who specialize in deflating marketing’s overblown self-importance—continue their march toward the industy’s most overblown, self-important night by having the Parks and Recreation actress sullenly and amusingly milk a cow. This part of the brand’s email to us sums up the approach pretty well:

You can’t make an overblown Big Game ad campaign without releasing a semi-controversial clickbait video ahead of time to prime the pump and get people “excited” about the coming advertisement. (As excited as Aubrey, even.)

Newcastle is actually buying a regional Super Bowl spot this year. In an earlier video with Plaza, it announced a plan to crowdfund that spot with a bunch of other brands.

“In exchange for a small contribution, any brand can join Newcastle’s team and have its logo and messaging featured in an actual Big Game spot,” the brand says. Today is the last day for interested companies to submit their “Band of Brands” proposal for consideration at NewcastleBandOfBrands.com.

“At first we tried to sneak our way into the Big Game by entering a popular commercial contest put on by a certain snack chip brand, but that didn’t work out for us. Now we’re trying to leverage ‘strength in numbers’ to see what that does for us,” said Priscilla Flores Dohnert, brand director for Newcastle Brown Ale.

“Everyone loves a great underdog story. What’s more ‘underdog’ than being short on cash and not having the right to advertise during the game?”



Aubrey Plaza, Droga5 Return for Newcastle’s ‘Band of Brands’

Droga5 brought back Aubrey Plaza for a follow-up to its “Band of Brands” teaser on the final day of submissions for brand to be part of the venture.

The initial effort generated enough interest for the brand to go through with the idea, with several other brands having signed on for the regional ad. So now Plaza is back to enthusiastically promote the brand’s big game effort while milking a cow. The 1:15 video is built around a joke about Plaza arguing with the director over whether she’s being sarcastic or that’s just her voice. While the tongue-in-cheek approach wears a bit then by the end, it also keep the content of the actual “Band of Brands” spot a mystery, keeping interested parties as curious as ever about the brand’s final effort.

“I really admire Newcastle’s commitment to doing as little work as possible,” Plaza said. “It’s funny to see a brand that’s so dedicated to Big Game domination that they try to hand off the work to other brands.”

Aubrey Plaza and Newcastle Want a Ton of Small Brands to Buy a Super Bowl Ad Together

Newcastle Brown Ale keeps finding new and interesting ways not to appear on the Super Bowl. This year it’s already tried crashing the Doritos contest (sort of). And now it’s gotten Aubrey Plaza on board to introduce a truly, audaciously stupid idea: getting small brands everywhere to all go in on a Super Bowl spot together.

“Instead of blowing Newcastle’s marketing budget, let’s team up to blow all of our marketing budgets!” the 30-year-old Parks and Recreation star says in the video below about Newcastle’s so-called “Band of Brands” idea.

Because what could be more compelling for any brand than to share 30 seconds of airtime (price tag: $4.5 million) with 20 of 30 other brands?

Interested parties should head to NewcastleBandOfBrands.com, where you can, according to Plaza, “find out how our brand can help your brand help our brand, most importantly.”



Newcastle Begins Ambush of This Year's Super Bowl by Crashing the Doritos Campaign

You might remember Newcastle Brown Ale’s antics around last year’s Super Bowl—a little stunt from Droga5 called “If We Made It” that imagined what a Newcastle Super Bowl ad might have looked like if they could have afforded one.

The whole thing went pretty well, to say the least.

Given that success, Newcastle obviously had to screw with this year’s game, too. And so it begins its 2015 Super Bowl ambush with the video below—in which the brewer, which still doesn’t have $4 million lying around, pretends to crash a certain “Crash the Super Bowl” contest by a certain unnamed snack maker (OK, Doritos), so that it can get on the Super Bowl for free.

Newcastle’s fake Doritos ad, also made by Droga5, is amusingly bad—which frankly is a step up from some of the actual Doritos finalists, which are short on the amusing part. It’s full of stupidly obvious Newcastle product placement, in keeping with the brand’s ethos of undercutting typical marketing tactics. There’s even a case study (see below) about the “failed attempt to infiltrate a snack chip contest.”

“We had such a good time almost making that Huge Sports Match ad last year, we decided we’d stop at nothing to finally make our way into the Really Large American Football Contest in 2015. Even if we still can’t afford it,” the brand tells us.

It’s a bit of a convoluted premise—Newcastle’s meta anti-advertising stunts often have a kind of pretzel-like structure to them. But the brand confirms there’s more silliness to come in the next few weeks, so it should be fun to see what else they have in store.

CREDITS
Client: Newcastle Brown Ale
Campaign: Newcastle: Chores. A beer ad disguised as a snack chip ad.
Title: Chores

Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Director: Scott Bell
Senior Art Director: Dan Kenneally
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Raab
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Broadcast Production: Ben Davies
Senior Broadcast Producer: David Cardinali
Broadcast Producer: Bill Berg
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Head of Strategy: Chet Gulland
Strategist: Nick Maschmeyer 
Social Strategist: Rebecca Russell 
Communications Strategist: Kevin Wang  
Group Account Director: Dan Gonda
Account Director: Nadia Malik
Account Manager: Ashton Atlas

Client: Heineken USA, Newcastle Brown Ale
Senior Director, Portfolio Brands: Charles Van Es
Brand Director: Priscilla Dohnert
Brand Manager: Brett Steen

Production Company: Droga5 Studios | Film
Director: Mike Long
Line Producer: Jessica Bermingham
DP: Brian Lannin

Editorial: Droga5 AV
Editor: Joseph Schulhoff