Hasta La Creative!

Want to buy Temptations’ newest cat treats and throw them at your cat?

Better stretch out first, man.

The Mars Petcare brand just rolled out new Temptations Tumblers—treats that are apparently more perfectly spherical that regular old Temptations treats. (“Now you can roll, toss or bounce delicious treats for your cats,” the brand says.)

And so, in the 60-second spot below, cats “play ball” with them, Nike style, in pretty hilarious fashion. The ad will, of course, get billions of views. But really, how is there not a Tumblers Tumblr?

It’s kind of obvious why humans are obsessed with food. It’s delicious. It makes us feel good. And well, it keeps us alive.

It seems rather simple to sell food, and it is. But as with any advertising, there’s good and then there’s great—and great food-porn ads are really, really great. They make you salivate and possibly lick the screen.

The latest in mouth-watering ads comes to us from Britain’s RKCR/Y&R for Marks & Spencer. It’s laden with all the drool-inducing techniques characteristic of good food spots—close-ups, slow-motion and time-lapse shots that all blend together to a perfect medley of deliciousness. 

Take a look below at this treat guaranteed to satisfy your cravings, or amplify them.

As the Dude’s favorite cocktail, the White Russian was Jeff Bridges’s ever-present co-star in The Big Lebowski. And now, Bridges is giving back to Kahlúa with a short film for the brand.

He’s not in character as the Dude, alas, but there’s still plenty to like about the gritty yet goofy period piece by Smuggler director Ivan Zacharias, in which white quite literally meets Russian in the middle of the desert—with a whole lot on the line.

“As a short film entirely inspired by a simple classic cocktail, this story is creative, enigmatic and beautifully shot,” the Academy Award winner told People.com.

Chair umpires in tennis have a thankless job. Sure, they have real work to do, but they spend much of their time babysitting the crowd—and sometimes even babysitting the players.

As part of its sponsorship of the U.S. Open, which began Monday, Heineken recently gave New Yorkers—like it or not—a chance to feel like a real tennis umpire. It set up a U.S. Open umpire’s chair in the midst of the always-hectic Union Square, and dared people to climb up and try to silence the crowd using the microphone.

As you can see below, it wasn’t easy. And it has a bit of a twist at the end.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola rolled out its first TV spot made completely with user-generated content. Now, it’s Miller Lite’s turn to shine the spotlight on its fans.

In May, the beer brand launched an #ItsMillerTime campaign, in which it used packaging, promoted tweets and its social channels to ask people for their best summer photos—with cameos by the retro-cool Miller Lite cans, of course.

The brand says nearly 180,000 photos were submitted. (It further claims that #ItsMillerTime has been the No. 2 branded hashtag on Twitter since May 7, trailing only Adidas’s #allin).

The brand liked seven of the fan photos in particular and featured them prominently in the new national TV spot below, which breaks early this week. (A few dozen shots more are compiled in a collage at the end of the ad, but only the seven get full-screen treatment.)

They’re all fun snapshots—not particularly compelling, but “relatable,” as they say. And as for the wedding couple—more power to you.

There was major media hubbub earlier this year about the death of the “Got milk?” campaign. But while it’s no longer being used nationally by the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), it’s still very much alive in California, where it originated with the California Milk Processor Board.

And now, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, which created the legendary tagline back in 1993, is launching new “Got milk?” work in an unusual partnership with Grupo Gallegos, which created the “Toma leche” campaign—and acknowledging that milk sales have been in decline for years.

“Milk is losing relevance, and sales have been in decline as family life and diets have changed,” GSP says. To reestablish milk as the right choice for families, the two agencies have partnered on a campaign “that highlights how a person’s future self is determined by the nutritional choices he or she makes today—starting, of course, with milk.”

The agencies are approaching California as one whole market to deliver bilingual work that appeals to all consumers, regardless of ethnicity. The campaign launched Wednesday with two spots, each airing in English and Spanish, that couldn’t be more different.

“Champion,” directed by Dummy’s Harold Einstein, is an amusingly quirky set piece that takes place in a grocery store. “Brave,” meanwhile, directed by Anonymous Content’s Armando Bo, presents a much more emotional appeal by showing a firefighter rescuing a family.

“It’s time to start addressing the California market on the basis of things we all share,” GSP chairman Jeff Goodby said in a statement. “California consumers are extremely diverse, but when it comes to wanting what’s best for our children and their future, we are one united front. This campaign embraces every parent’s personal desire, which is preparing our children for a successful and healthy future.” Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: California Milk Processor Board
Campaign: Milk Fuels a Better Future
Spots: “Champion,” “Brave”

Agencies: Grupo Gallegos; Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Executive Creative Director: Jeff Goodby
Chief Strategy Officer: Andrew Delbridge
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Orzio

Creative Directors: Eric Kallman, Kate Catalinac
Associate Creative Directors: Saul Escobar, Curro Chozas
Copywriter: Simon Bruyn
Art Director: Andrew Livingston

—Spot: “Champion”
Head of Broadcast Production: Tod Puckett
Senior Broadcast Producer: Leila Seghrouchni

Production Company: Dummy
Director: Harold Einstein
Director of Photography: Jonathan Freeman
Executive Producer, Line Producer: Eric Liney

Editing Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Dave Anderson
Assistant Editor: Mark Popham
Producer: Fanny Cruz
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Managing Partner: Damian Stevens

Visual Effects, Final Conform: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris
Senior Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Adam Reeb
Shoot Supervisor, 3-D Lead Artist: Tara DeMarco
2-D Artists: Timothy Crabtree, Jake Albers
3-D Artists: Lu Meng-Yang, Mike Di Nocco, Matt Neapolitan
Colorist: Greg Reese
Art Department: Jeff Langlois, Ashley Forbito

Music: Butter
Composer: Josh Canevari
Executive Producer: Ian Jeffreys
Senior Producer: Annick Mayer

Sound Design, Effects, Mix: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Mixer: Brock Babcock
Producer: Whitney Fromholtz
Executive Producer: Kelly Bayett

—Spot: “Brave”
Head of Production: Carlos Barciela
Producer: Valeria Maldini

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Armando Bo
Editing: Luna Post
Editor: Pablo Piriz
Telecine: The Mill

Music:
Original Music Composition: Elias Arts 
Executive Creative Director: Brent Nichols
Creative Director: Dave Gold
Executive Producer: Ann Haugen
Producer: Katie Overcash

Sound Design: TruLove Post
Sound Designer: Gonzalo Ugarteche

Visual Effects: The Mill
Senior Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Executive Producer: Enca Kaul
Producer: Adam Reeb
Production Coordinator: Kris Drenzek
Shoot Supervisor, 2-D Lead: Bill Higgins
2-D Artists: Steve Cokonis, Robert Murdock, Patrick Munoz, Jale Parsons
3-D Artists: Phil Mayer, Jason Jansky
Colorist: Adam Scott
Art Support: Jeff Langlois, Ashley Forbito

Five years after a famously suggestive Burger King ad ran in Singapore, the woman who appeared in it—without her permission, she says—has publicly excoriated the fast-food chain for humiliating her.

The woman, who has not revealed her identity, posted a YouTube video on Tuesday in which she explains her side of the story. And it isn’t pretty.

“Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process,” she writes in the video description.

“Friends, family, coworkers, prospective employers who saw it assume I was a willing player. Those offended by it don’t know the extent of what’s wrong with the ad; that I didn’t know about this being done to my image, let alone agree to or pose for the scenario.”

The woman even likens BK’s treatment of her image to sexual assault: “I believe in sexual expression in art and the media; it’s beautiful and necessary for a healthy society but IT MUST BE CONSENSUAL otherwise it’s RAPE.”

She ends her missive with the hashtag #SuckOnYourOwnSlimySevenIncher.

The 2009 ad has truly become a famous “badvertising” image. Indeed, the woman says it was just recently the topic of discussion in a large media studies class at a university in Toronto, where she lives.

In an email sent last year to ad blogger Copyranter, the woman said she had only just found out about the ad and was looking into her legal options.

BK did not explicitly apologize for the ad back in 2009, when it appeared on a number of ad blogs, including this one. But it did release a statement saying it “values and respects all of its guests,” and noted that the ad ran only in Singapore and in no other markets.

AdFreak has reached out to BK for comment on the new video. We’ll update when we hear back. Below is the full ad, and the woman’s complete description on her YouTube video:

Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process. It was shown online as well as on bus stops and the walls and place mats of their restaurant.

When asked for comment from the press Burger King claimed the campaign went down well, however after some research I discovered The Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (where it was released) received several complaints and the campaign had to be prematurely removed.

This is a top International food chain the world is watching that has a code of ethics they’re required to adhere to for that reason by law but did not in how they went about using my image.

Now due to the coverage its received (Time Magazine’s Top Ten Tasteless Ads, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Gawker, Psychology Today to name a few) it’s part of the public domain. Just recently it was the topic of discussion in a media studies class of 500 students at the University of Toronto – where I live… and posted to the class Facebook discussion page.

Friends, family, coworkers, prospective employers who saw it assume I was a willing player. Those offended by it don’t know the extent of what’s wrong with the ad; that I didn’t know about this being done to my image, let alone agree to or pose for the scenario.

Why not hire a model to pose with the sandwich?

There is something VERY wrong with the fact that they felt entitled to do that to my face without signing a contract with me.

I believe in sexual expression in art and the media; it’s beautiful and necessary for a healthy society but IT MUST BE CONSENSUAL otherwise it’s RAPE.

Nice family restaurant you’re running there Burger King.

#boycottbk #facerape

#SuckOnYourOwnSlimySevenIncher

The mighty Empire has fallen … thanks to some yogurt.

Deutsch/LA’s 2011 Super Bowl spot “The Force” for Volkswagen, which enjoyed an astonishing 41-month reign as the most shared ad of all time, has finally been dethroned—by Activia and the World Food Programme’s three-and-a-half minute music video starring Shakira, created for this year’s World Cup.

As of Tuesday morning, the Activia spot, titled “La La La (Brazil 2014),” has been shared 5,409,192 times across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere, according to Unruly Media. And it’s only widening its lead over “The Force,” which has racked up 5,254,667 shares.

While “The Force” is a traditional 60-second spot (the version that ran on the Super Bowl was actually a :30), the Activia video is an example of what Unruly calls “trackvertising,” where a brand and a musician co-release a video that is both a music video and an ad. The Colombian pop star’s worldwide celebrity (she recently became the first person to reach 100 million Facebook likes) clearly fueled the Danone yogurt brand’s spot.

Also, while the share counts are comparable, the view counts are not. “The Force” has about 60 million views on YouTube, while the Activia video has more than 275 million.

“Music videos are by far the most shared type of content, so it’s no surprise that brands are now blurring the lines between traditional ads and music videos in order to get themselves seen and heard on social,” says Sarah Wood, co-founder and COO at Unruly.

“Music and advertising have a long history together. Some will remember the early days of TV commercials and jingles—the internet memes of their day. On digital, we see music deployed in a number of ways—from ads released alongside a professional artist, to parody or licensed tracks, to heavy product placement or even ads that make their own track famous.”

Most spec redesigns of classic brand logos aren’t that great, so I cringed when I saw that someone was putting a new spin on Coca-Cola cans. Turns out I underestimated Ryan Harc, whose colorless can with a convex logo pressed right into the aluminum is pretty snazzy.

This apparently might be more eco-friendly than painting the cans, as it could reduce energy use and pollution in both the production and recycling processes. Plus, it looks like it was dispensed from a vending machine in The Bourne Identity, which is a good thing.

Not that Coke is going to ditch its iconic red anytime soon, of course.

Via PSFK.

Hey there, incredibly hip and hot millennials. Packaged seasoning brand Flava-it wants you to know its marinades are like a raunchy meat party in your mouth.

This loony new ad for the U.K. marketer features a gathering of twenty-somethings sporting all the obligatory styles—fluorescent daisy dukes, thick-rimmed glasses, mountain-man beard. One bite of a sandwich leads a magenta-haired woman into a phantasmagoria of inappropriate foodplay, ultimately leaving her with eyes wide and hair mussed.

Because, in case the innuendo was too subtle, the brand’s wares will make you feel like you’re having an orgasm.

The “Meat Lust” campaign, created with digital agency Code Computerlove, also includes a BuzzFeed-style quiz, because that’s what the kids are doing these days. It will judge how much you love meat by asking you what your favorite MeatLoaf song is, but replacing real titles with food wordplay (e.g., “I Will Eat Anything For Love (but I won’t eat that)” and “You Took The Meat Right Out Of My Mouth”) and by telling you to pick an animal you can milk (a cat, goat, cow, donkey, potato or naked woman).

In other words, it certainly strikes the right ironically over-the-top tone for a certain kind of fun-loving dude. Or maybe just for very cheeky meatheads.