Hasta La Creative!

In a textbook display of how advertising is much different in the U.K., Tag Europe and Tesco — the world’s second largest retailer — used the music of The Great Kat in their ad for Call of Duty: Ghosts to add a sense of drama and urgency to the spot. In America, you don’t use the music of classically-trained virtuosos to sell video games, you use Eminem. Also unlike the U.S. campaign, Tag Europe’s ad prominently features a female gamer.

The 20 second spot scores The Great Kat‘s rendition of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” to its footage of players enjoying the game, actual gameplay, and (for some reason) popcorn making. Fast paced violin and guitar shredding is “synched perfectly in time with Call of Duty: Ghosts’ fast action bombs, explosions, and death defying feats,” and popcorn. The ad began airing in the U.K. this past November, to promote Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ launch. “The Great Kat’s music is brilliant on the spot,” said Adam Lieber, Music Supervisor at shtik.tv. Now would somebody please pass the popcorn?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Another day, another commercial from the Call of Duty: Ghosts marketing blitzkrieg. “Faboom,” a 40-second spot for UK audiences comes from 72andSunny and shows regular folk reenacting their favorite moments from the game at work, out to dinner, even in the doctor’s office during a proctology exam – well played, 72.

The spot comes a week after Eminem premiered his “Survival” music video that also acts as a Call of Duty promo. “Faboom” doesn’t have any white rappers – however, most of the people in the commercial happen to be white – but despite the lack of celebrity punch, the energy and occasional humor gives this ad a universal feel that should work whether televised or shown online. The clip evokes a bit of the Dave Chappelle skit about a real-life version of Grand Theft Auto. Clearly, the sentiment has aged well, and appealing to the human connection to video games, rather than just showing out-of-context graphics for 30 seconds, seems to be the new go-to technique for gaming ads. Call of Duty: Ghosts comes out September 5. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As we've mentioned before, Activision and Interscope brought together two of its juggernaut franchises—Call of Duty and Eminem—for a cross-marketing push promoting the game's new Ghosts title and the rapper's upcoming album MMLP2 (short for Marshall Mathers LP 2). Today, the music video rolled out for Eminem's song "Survival," which is on the Call of Duty: Ghosts soundtrack. The video, which is a collaboration with Activision agency 72andSunny, is basically a four-and-a-half minute commercial for the game, with footage from it sprinkled throughout. (Ant Farm supplied the gameplay footage for the spot.) Eminem worked with Activision in 2009 on Modern Warfare 2 and in 2010 on Black Ops. For much more on the partnership, check out Sam Thielman's earlier story, linked above. For the video, see below (warning: explicit lyrics).

O YouTube anunciou esta semana a primeira edição do YouTube Music Awards. A cerimônia de premiação será realizada no próximo dia 3 de novembro, com livestream direto de Nova York. O ator Jason Schwartzman será o anfitrião da noite, que terá direção criativa de Spike Jonze e produção da VICE e Sunset Lane Entertainment.

No próximo dia 17 de outubro, serão anunciados os indicados em seis categorias ainda não nomeadas, mas que deverão destacar os artistas que mais geraram impressões online ao longo do ano – maior número de views e compartilhamento, entre outras. A partir daí, caberá à própria audiência escolher os ganhadores.

A noite de cerimônia contará com a participação de artistas conhecidos, como Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire e Eminem, além das estrelas do próprio YouTube, como CDZA e Lindsey Stirling.

No vídeo acima, Jason Schwartzman faz graça para divulgar a premiação e convocar o público para a votação.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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"Will somebody please feed Miley Cyrus?"

That's the request from one anthropomorphized Beats Pill speaker to another in the commercial below, which aired Sunday on MTV after the pop singer's controversial performance on the Video Music Awards. To which the other speaker opines: "Don't you need ass to twerk?"

Actually, Beats, feeding Miley would be your job.

First off, hat tip to sci-fi writer Tim Maughan for pointing out the Miley-mocking video on the Beats page. The brand is involved with plenty of pop and hip-hop stars at the moment, but the confluence of Miley and Robin Thicke at the VMAs was a branding bonanza for the electronics maker.

Beats Electronics is, of course, the brainchild of rapper and producer Dre, whose Beats by Dre headphones have been a huge success. The company's next big thing is a wireless speaker called the Beats Pill, voiced in commercials by Eminem, Chris Rock and (it sounds like, at least) Tichina Arnold from Fox's late, lamented Everybody Hates Chris. The speakers have been prominently featured in music videos, notably Miley's, and Thicke starred in a full-blown RadioShack ad for them with his accessories—I'm sorry, backup dancers—using the speakers to do more or less everything except speak. 

Anyway, on Sunday, Miley and Robin got down and dirty on stage in a way that offended millions of people who were doubtless being forced at gunpoint to endure the spectacle. Beats, meanwhile, was ready—like, really, really ready (thanks to the digital wizards at Framestore)—to whip up a video showing two Pills asking where "all the thick girls" have gone while watching clips from Thicke's video and then suggesting Miley should have more material to twerk with. "Somewhere, Sir Mix-A-Lot is crying his eyes out," says one.

This actually wasn't the only time Beats teed off on a pop star during the show. It also found time to make fun of Katy Perry (who doesn't appear to be sponsored by the company) in a video with Barclays Center seats visible behind the two big-mouthed little speaker dudes. And Dre protege Eminem announced a new album at the VMAs, which Beats immediately promoted with a 30-second clip from the rapper's new single.

Check out all three videos below. It was a well-orchestrated campaign of pop-culture mockery—as well as pop-culture sponsorship, individual-artist sponsorship, cross-platform synergy, album promotion. So, y'know, don't confuse it with satire.

Here's a question: When, during the VMAs, weren't you watching an ad? Yeah, we're going to go with "never," too.