Hasta La Creative!

BBDO New York solemnly pays tribute to servicemen in their Fourth of July spot for Guinness, entitled “Empty Chair.”

The spot, the latest U.S. installment of the brand’s “Made of More” campaign, was created in collaboration with Biscuit Filmworks and director Noam Murro. Its patriotism-stoking approach is nothing new to beer advertising, as Anomaly’s “A Hero’s Welcome” Super Bowl spot for Budweiser this year (to cite just one example) also celebrated American veterans in a somewhat cheesy fashion. How you view the ad will depend largely on your opinion of such an approach (as either a welcome homage or emotional manipulation) but the 90-second “Empty Chair” is certainly well-crafted. It opens on a bartender pouring a Guinness and leaving it at an empty table, an act she repeats many times over the course of the ad, at one point even stopping someone from taking a chair from the table. A delayed reveal at the spot’s conclusion puts everything into perspective, followed by Guinness’ “Made of More” tagline, which syncs well with the ad’s message.

It’s worth noting that between this solemn spot from Guinness and the opposite approach taken by Newcastle, the most memorable ads of the Independence Day season came from non-American brewers. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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A few weeks ago, we announced that BSSP had won creative and digital duties for streaming services device Roku. Now, the Sausalito, California agency has debuted their first work for Roku with the “Moxkat Grvida” campaign.

The idea is simple, yet clever: You might not get Roku for Christmas, so buy it for yourself, wrap it, and say it was from Moxkat Grvida, your dear Ukranian friend. In “Merry Christmas from Moxkat Grvida,” Grvida introduces the concept in a friendly message extolling the virtues of Roku and offering up his services as an excuse for buying yourself one this holiday season. You can think of Grvida as a sort of friendly, older, Ukranian version of Borat. With so many holiday ads trying too hard to be over-the-top and ridiculous, it’s refreshing to see a simple, direct idea like Moxkat Grvida executed well. It’s worth a chuckle, and the humor is employed in a way that could actually help sell the product.

In addition to the above, minute long “Merry Christmas from Moxkat Grvida” spot, there are also three 15 second ads along the same lines. One of these, “Moxkat’s Favorites” finds Grvida sharing a few of his favorite movies. We’ve featured it, along with credits, after the jump. Enjoy.  continued…

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