Hasta La Creative!

The enterprising Mr. Lewis Lazare of Chicago Business Journal got a client spokesman to confirm today that Energy BBDO will no longer be AOR for Lay’s.

We’ve received tips about an unspecified change in the Lay’s account for a couple of weeks but didn’t get anything in the way of confirmation despite some hints that Energy BBDO would not be creating any new campaigns for the chip brand.

From Frito-Lay:

“Our approach across our entire portfolio of brands is to lean into different combinations of agency partners based on the needs and priorities of our brands at the time. Energy BBDO is not currently engaged for the Lay’s brand.”

This sounds a whole lot like the industry refrain about clients thinking of agencies as “partners” rather than AORs.

The underlying story here, though, is that the change has been in the works for some time; Energy BBDO has not created any major work for this particular client for several months. Its Mr. Potato Head “cannibalism” campaign came out in February, and the Lay’s “Flavor” campaign ran in 2014, so the change in the relationship is not exactly new–it’s simply being reported now for the first time.

In an April post about staffing changes at BBDO’s Chicago office related to AB InBev’s Manhattan relocation, our sources alluded to employees jumping from one account to another. These changes, as they relate to the Lay’s business, occurred several weeks or months ago.

To further complicate the picture, BBDO has not broken up with the larger PepsiCo organization as it continues to handle the Quaker business.

No word on whether Frito-Lay will seek another agency of record for future Lay’s campaigns.

Energy BBDO created a “Tough Mother” challenge for Ziploc as part of the brand’s partnership with obstacle course competition Tough Mudder.

The brand’s obstacle course consists of representations of daily challenges: pit of toys, pantry dash, couch crawl, city sprint, race to school, kitchen conundrum, story climb, the dinner throw and the husband. Contestants dash through the challenges before jumping into bed and pressing the buzzer. Of course, several of the obstacles are completed with the aid of Ziploc products to further tie the brand to the competition. Although the attempts at humor (on the part of the announcing team) fall flat, the ad still works to further the brand’s connection to the Tough Mudder competition.

“Already demonstrating strength, stamina and mental grit in their everyday lives, we invite tough mothers everywhere to push their limits even further at a Tough Mudder event this year,” said Dan Weinberg, vice president of global partnerships for Tough Mudder, in a statement.

Credits:

Agency: Energy BBDO
Client: SCJ/Ziploc
Title: Ziploc “Tough Mother”

Chief Creative Officer: Mark Taylor
Executive Creative Director/Writer: Mike Roe
CD/Art Director: Amy Ditchman
ACD/Writer: Dan McCormack
Executive Director of Content and Delivery: Brian Cooper
Head of Integrated Production: Rowley Samuel
Executive Producer: Melissa Barany
Senior Producer: Elena Robinson

Client Service Director: Stacie Boney
Digital Client Service Director: Josh Ehart

Senior Account Director: Nicole Guisto
Account Director: Rachel Levy
Senior Account Executive: Emmalee Anderson

Production Company: Honey Badger
Director: James Frost
Producer: Sam Khazaeni
Editor: Angelo Valencia, Beast

Graphics: Vitamin Pictures

Energy BBDO's new ad for King's Hawaiian bread rolls is sucky, though not in a bad way. The rolls are so light and fluffy, you see, you don't even have to reach for one with your hands—you just breathe in with a quick sucking motion, and presto!

It's a memorable first spot for the bakery brand from Energy BBDO, which won the account in December and is now working to double brand awareness and significantly grow brand penetration following the client's opening of state-of-the art bakeries in Southern California and Georgia.

The ad closes with the line, "People go pupule for King's Hawaiian." Pupule is Hawaiian for crazy. Just don't try the sucking thing at a real dinner table. People will really think you're pupule.

Le photographe anglais Saddington Baynes a travaillé avec l’agence Energy BBDO pour créer ces visuels pour la marque de chewing-gum 5 Gum. Voulant illustrer la force et l’intensité du gout du produit, des iris de femmes sont ici retouchés pour y créer des mises en scène kaléidoscopiques. A découvrir dans la suite.

I've had way worse airline seatmates than the annoying, anthropomorphized, Jinx-playing serving of meat and mashed potatoes depicted in Energy BBDO's new commercial for Orbit gum. Beats getting stuck with ad-sales types ranting about CPMs, or bloggers with their sweaty palms and sad eyes. A second spot, set at a race track, features an outsized, whiny helping of nachos that would've been great as a '70s Dr. Who villain, intent on conquering the world by giving mankind indigestion. These latest helpings in the "Don't let food hang around" campaign are amusing—the costumes and makeup are, as always, fantastic—but they don't quite match the inspired culinary absurdity of that earlier spot in which a giant pita sandwich answers its cellphone "Falafel!" and ends the call with a deadpan, "Love you too." Classic! The challenge moving forward is to keep the campaign fresh, lest the talking-food joke repeats on you and spoils the fun. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Orbit (Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.)

Agency: Energy BBDO
Chief Creative Officer: Dan Fietsam
Executive Vice President, Head of Integrated Production: Rowley Samuel
Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director: Leon Wilson
Creative Director, Copywriter: Miller Jones
Creative Director, Art Director: Aaron Pendleton
Senior Producer: Kevin James
Vice President, Senior Account Director: Pete Ruest
Account Supervisor: Brian Sisson
Senior Account Executive: Niki Shah
Print Producer: Liz Miller-Gershfield

Production Company: Recommended Media
Director: Chris Woods
Executive Producer: Phillip Detchmendy
Founder, Chief Executive Officer: Stephen Dickstein
Line Producer: Darrin Ball
Director of Photography: Neil Shapiro
Production Designer: Alison Sadler

Visual Effects: Legacy EFX
Visual Effects Supervisor: Alan Scott
Visual Effects Supervisor: Vance Hartwell
Visual Effects Assistant: Lyn-Del Pederson

Editing: White House Post
Editor: Carlos Lowenstein
Assistant Editor: Kenan Legg
Producer: JoJo Scheerer

Visual Effects: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jared Yeater
Visual Effects Supervisor: Phil Crowe
Visual Effects Supervisor: Iwan Zwarts
Flame Artist: Melissa Graff
Flame Artist: Randy McEntee