Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s isn’t a shy fast-food chain. But this time they’ve traded oiled-up models for innuendo. I won’t spoil the new spots, but let’s just say they aren’t too subtle.
The approach shouldn’t be too surprising, as this is the same restaurant chain that once asked people if they preferred A holes or B holes. I am curious as to how they expect people to eat these Cinnamon Pull-Aparts anywhere (wouldn’t the icing drip?), but I will give them points for having both men and women allude to masturbation. Kudos?
There’s no way more American to celebrate the Fourth of July than selling out your country for an English beer, says Newcastle.
The Heineken-owned brand, brewed in Britain, and ad agency Droga5 continue their deft efforts to troll Independence Day, now with videos featuring Pittsburgh-born actor Zachary Quinto, pitching “Newport [sic] Brown Ale, the most American of non-American beers.”
It’s ballsy for any marketer to pay talent to purposefully mangle its name in an ad. But it’s also very much in keeping with the self-deprecating tone of Newcastle’s “If We Won” campaign, introduced by Stephen Merchant, and soon to present Elizabeth Hurley.
Overall, the tongue-in-cheek fantasy about how great America would be if Britain had won the Revolutionary War works pretty well, in large part because the brand is so happy to skewer itself—and the tagline’s totally absurd premise—along with the U.S.
“There’d be crumpets,” says the voiceover in another spot. “Also, we would have imprisoned the Founding Fathers, stripped Patriot supporters of the property and possessions and ruled your nation with an increasingly tyrannical hand. But just think … crumpets.”
The brand also has posted a new ad with Merchant riffing on the perks of a British accent. Additional sans-celebrity spots focus on Mount Rushmore, Prohibition and yellow cabs. As in so much great comedy, though, the funniest bits are the most surprisingly honest ones—try the take on English vs. American muffins.
Plus, there’s always the added entertainment of the most jingoistic YouTube commenters playing right into the brand’s hands by flying off the wall over the perceived diss. Because, you know, in case you didn’t get the memo … Britain didn’t win.
Miller Lite was invented in the late ’60s, around the time baby boomers started to date, couple, marry and copulate (though not always in that order). As this new ad points out, this could hypothetically have led to your conception when your parents did it, probably under the influence.
It doesn’t specifically say that. It more says that Lite beer let men keep their abs, which let them get dates, which led to marriages, which led to honeymoons, which led to you. But right when they’re talking about your conception, you’re seeing swingin’ ’70s styled people toasting the camera with some frosty Lite beer.
So, maybe your mom was really shallow and picked you dad based on some choice fur-covered abs, or maybe she just got blitzed on Miller Lite and made poor choices. Either way, you’re here now. And the new retro Lite can looks super cool, so crack open a cold one and celebrate!
We’ve reached peak hipster. And we’ve also reached peak anti-hipster. But South Africa’s Garagista Beer Co. is barging ahead anyway with a campaign that positions the brand as absolutely not the right choice for the coolest people on earth.
Watch below as a bunch of unkempt cool white people battle each other with records, typewriters and bicycles for a taste of the brewery’s limited-edition batch of suds. And also check out the onslaught of anti-hipster print ads the brand has put together.
Over at the brand’s Facebook page (because having an actual webpage is so January 2014), it’s clear that Garagista is pretty normcore about the whole thing. “In a world where some people care more about the craft beer image than the actual beer,” it says, “we care about one thing—damn good beer.”
Newcastle Brown Ale had a big hit with its “If We Made It” ambush campaign around the Super Bowl. Now, the British brewer has done something similar for July 4.
The new campaign, from Droga5, is called “If We Won,” and it imagines what America would be like if Britain had won the Revolutionary War. It also continues the tradition, begun last year, of celebrating July 3 as Independence Eve—so the Brits can sneak in with their bangers and mash ahead of Independence Day on July 4.
It’s all a bunch of bollocks, of course—or rather, no bollocks.
Stephen Merchant kicks things off with the amusing video below. Elizabeth Hurley and Zachary Quinto will join the campaign with their own videos in the coming days. There will be 16 pieces of filmed content in all, “to help Newcastle celebrate the land that nearly became ‘Great Britain 2,’ ” the brewer says.
“It’s not easy to sell a British beer during a supremely American holiday, so we’re imagining how great America could have been—and how much beer we could have sold—if the Brits had won the Revolutionary War,” says Quinn Kilbury, brand director for Newcastle Brown Ale, who spoke to Adweek earlier this month about the brand’s Facebook advertising.
“In the late 1700s, colonial Americans risked life and limb to fight for their freedom. Today, we’re running the very real risk of people totally not getting the joke here, and we think that’s pretty patriotic.”
Ads are most beautiful when they speak to us in a language we understand—when they tap into our subconscious and make us feel like they empathize, like they are one of us. When this symbiotic, osmotic communication stream resonates with us in an enveloping, visceral way, we have no choice but to surrender.
I had this experience with a set of beef jerky commercials today.
Perhaps you will, too, if you’ve ever been hungry to the point of irrational thought—hungry to the point that you want to bite the head off of the person next to you, war-paint your face with Cheetos-stained fingers and dance a jig on their grave. When hungry makes the transition to hangry, everyone should stay the hell away.
Check out these pretty perfect spots from Jack Link’s and ad agency Carmichael Lynch, and see if you identify with these poor hanger-affected souls.
I don’t know about you, but you won’t like me when my spirit animal is hangry.
CREDITS Client: Jack Link’s Agency: Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis Chief Creative Officer: Dave Damman Executive Creative Director / Copywriter: Marty Senn Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Brad Harrison Head of Production: Joe Grundhoefer Executive Producer: Freddie Richards Account Director: Jesse Simon Account Supervisor: Sofya Vannelli Director: Harold Einstein Production Company: dummy
When Sobieski’s “Truth in Vodka” campaign began seven years ago, it skewered pomposity in the category. Since then, the effort has broadened to call out nonsense in any realm—and amen to that.
Topical targets in recent outdoor ads from lead shop Marty Weiss and Friends range from spy in exile Edward Snowden and social media to the World Cup. Weiss, the man behind memorable TV ads for Guinness and the Nynex Yellow Pages, proves once again that outdoor needn’t be a dull medium. You just need to have something witty—and pithy—to say.
This year’s ads, which target 25- to 29-year-olds in 17 cities, will continue throughout the summer before taking a break and returning in late fall. The brand’s media agency is Horizon Media.
Mike’s Hard Lemonade has changed its name—in a temporary, promotional-stunt kind of way—to Paul’s Hard Lemonade to salute Paul Siano of Illinois, the 1 millionth fan on its Facebook page.
The Tris3ct agency orchestrated the effort, which boasts a “Paul’s Hard Lemonade” rebranding of the Mike’s website, along with its Facebook and Twitter pages, through Friday. Special packaging, labels, logos and T-shirts were created, and Siano was presented with a six-pack of his namesake brew. The renaming was launched within 24 hours of identifying him as the millionth fan, and of course there’s a commemorative video (with a disco soundtrack and a big crate of lemons in the brand’s office!).
Hmm … Paul’s Hard Lemonade. It’s got a nice ring to it. I guess. Even so, it’s no Dave’s Hard Lemonade. Now that would really win me over.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky has worked hard in the past couple of years to reinvigorate the Grey Poupon brand, which has such an iconic advertising history. But no, “What Do You Poupon?” is not the next big experiment for the brand.
It’s a spoof video that OBVS (Online Broadcast Virtual Station), which is apparently a sketch comedy group, posted to YouTube last weekend. It’s since gotten 1.7 million views.
The reactions among YouTube commenters—not know for their sophisticated sense of humor—aren’t surprising, particularly those drawn to Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog style humor. “This had just had me cackling like a small child.” “Childish humor. Ageless.?” “If I could upvote this twice, I would, because it was EPIC!!!”
Kraft Foods gave us the official word that it’s fake, but even they don’t seem too bothered by it. Says a rep: “We’re not surprised that people may have some fun with an iconic and loved brand like Grey Poupon. ‘But of course,’ we didn’t produce or approve this video.”
Friskies has partnered with BuzzFeed to produce some chunky, meaty kitten content fresh out of the YouTube can. The video below, quickly closing in on 10 million views, is voiced by Ze Frank, who works for BuzzFeed and is also a YouTube celebrity in his own right with his True Facts series, in which he tells you “true facts” about animals that are clearly not true.
It’s easy to see how this Friskies video is an extension of the humor in his existing series, but this time Ze Frank is voicing a cat who is writing a letter to a younger kitten who has moved in with him. “Dear Kitten,” the elder cat intones, “since I have hissed at you the customary 437 times, it is now my duty as the head of the household to—begrudgingly—welcome you.” At which point he offers the kitten lots of great advice about hiding from Va-coomb, sleeping in the underwear drawer, and of course eating delicious wet cat food from Friskies.
With #DearKitten becoming a popular tag on Twitter without Friskies even trying to seed it, it’s clear that cat content is still king of the Internet.
Coca-Cola’s orgy of happiness continues with recyclable plastic beverage bottles made partially from plants, touted in cute ads from Ogilvy New York.
The ads are rendered in Coke’s signature colors and design style. One shows a flower and reads, “Plants make us happy. They make us want to smooch, neck and kiss. They also make our bottles.” Yeah, plants are cheap labor, all right.
PlantBottles substitute renewable sugarcane for up to 30 percent of the petroleum used in standard recyclable beverage bottles, which the company says offsets carbon emissions and helps the environment. Makes me feel warm and fizzy all over.
Other recent happy stuff from Coke includes “friendly” bottles that can only be opened by other bottles, caps that turn empties into useful objects and a cooler designed for villages off the power grid. Such promotions have generally received high marks, though there’s been at least one wrong turn for this particular happiness cycle.
You can always count on McDonald’s for more modest World Cup advertising—simple stories about family and friends, not flashy spots with overpaid stars. Some of it can be hokey, though sometimes it captures little truths that are quietly sweet and evocative.
This spot from multicultural agency Alma zeroes in on a great cultural insight in the Mexican American community: what happens when a father and his friends still unequivocally support Mexico, while the son, as secretly as he can, roots for the U.S.
The ad was directed by Diego Luna, still perhaps best known as Gael García Bernal’s costar in 2001’s Y Tu Mamá También. The humor is broad, and the acting isn’t subtle, yet it’s one of those ads you can’t help but like. Shot in both English and Spanish, it breaks Thursday and will air in general market and Hispanic media throughout the World Cup.
Credits below.
brightcove.createExperiences();
CREDITS McDonald’s: Client Alma: Creative Agency Luis Miguel Messianu: Chief Creative Officer Alvar Suñol: SVP Executive Creative Director Jorge Murillo: Creative Director/Copywriter Serge Castagna: Associate Creative Director/Art Director Rodrigo Vargas: Executive Producer Marta De Aguiar: Account Director Ana Silva: Account Supervisor Diego Luna: Director Canana Films: Production House 2105 Editorial: Post Production House Alejandro Santangelo: Editor Personal Music: Music House Co. 3: Color Correction
Sometimes the best thing a brand can do is lean into the conversation that’s already going on around it. And that’s exactly what Lucky Charms, a brand that some people have always seen as a little queer, is doing, in part to support LGBT Pride Month.
With it’s new #LuckyToBe campaign, the General Mills cereal is encouraging people to share what makes them unique via social media platforms. And it’s made GLAAD—an organization that works for LGBT equality—well, for lack of a better word, happy.
Check out the campaign video from McCann New York below.
Remember the good old days, when a Coca-Cola cost only a nickel, and people weren’t always whining about how bad soda is for your health?
Coca-Cola does.
“A Coke used to cost 5 cents,” says this new Coke ad. “But what if a 12-oz. Coke cost 140 calories?” the brand adds, in a head-scratcher of a rhetorical non-sequitur that’s the perfect setup for the awkward answer that follows.
A 140-pound person would have to ride a bicycle for 23 minutes, on average, to burn off an equivalent amount of energy, according to the commercial. Of course, 140 pounds is only 56 pounds lighter than the average American man, and 26 pounds lighter than the average American woman, according to CDC data on body measurements.
In other words, welcome to Coca-Cola’s fantasy world, where mostly fit young people are more than happy to climb onto a giant stationary bike in front of a crowd and sweat it out to earn a Coke, delivered by some kind of circus robot, cash and guilt free.
The online video is surreal mainly because it forces into relief the main criticism it’s hoping to defuse—and, in a state of more or less total delusion, manages to make a case that supports the brand’s detractors. The science is misleading, and the creative is depressing—suggesting exercise is a zero-sum game akin to a hamster on a wheel chasing a treat that will kill him, unless he runs ever longer.
“Movement is happiness,” says the end line. Yet never has it seemed so bleakly transactional and dead-ending.
It’s not the first time Coca-Cola’s marketing has struggled to meet, head on, its health critics. It’s also not the first time it’s leaned on nostalgia as a means of deflecting blame for the rise in obesity. And for a brand that produces so much global advertising—much of it hitting the sort of pitch-perfect distraction that can help make the product more endearing—it’s almost inevitable that some of its commercials will be flat-footed duds.
But while we’re imagining an alternate universe where all of Coca-Cola’s dreams come true, we might as well talk about the one where every single household object is made of empty Coke bottles.
Rejoice, happy-go-lucky and environmentally conscious Coca-Cola-lovers. Thanks to this new “2nd Lives” kit from the brand, you can now transform your Coke into something even more delightful.
Is that just an empty soda bottle? Nope, it’s a squirt gun. Useless piece of trash? Nope, it’s a pencil sharpener, or the perfect rattle for your baby. Make your children happy. Give them Coca-Cola, and toys made from Coca-Cola. And if you have two empty Coke bottles, you can even make a dumbbell to burn off some of the calories you gained by guzzling both.
Created with the help of Ogilvy & Mather China, the campaign features a line of 16 innovative caps that can be screwed on to bottles when they’re empty, transforming them into useful objects like water guns, whistles, paint brushes, bubble makers and pencil sharpeners. It’s all part of a clever effort to encourage consumers in Vietnam to recycle, and a rare success at the sort of alchemy that seeks to reincarnate garbage as advertising (even if such attempts are a cornerstone of the marketing industry). Coke will give away 40,000 of these modified caps, which come in 16 different varieties, to start.
It’s not clear if the add-ons themselves are made from recycled material. Even if they are, producing more plastic parts might not be the best way to reduce plastic waste.
But that’s beside the point. While the caps might not quite hit the sharing chord as clearly as the it-takes-two-to-open bottles, they’re a smart bit of advertising. “What if empty Coke bottles were never thrown away?” the campaign asks. Clearly, it would mean people everywhere could finally live in a utopia where everything was made of Coke products.
It pays to follow Newcastle Brown Ale on Twitter. Not much, but it pays.
The British beer brand continues its tongue-in-cheek ribbing of traditional marketing by pledging Monday night to pay the next 50,000 people who follow @Newcastle “the princely sum of $1.” To take the brewer up on this, visit follownewcastleontwitter.com.
This is all in the name of transparency. “Why should people endure the unsolicited marketing of other beer brands for free when they can endure Newcastle’s unsolicited marketing and get paid?” the brand rightly asks. The brand is actually going to mail 50,000 checks for $1 each. (“Newcastle-branded checks, of course.”)
The stunt, orchestrated by Droga5, is called “Follow The Money,” and it’s not a complete joke. Despite having some big YouTube hits, and almost 1 million Facebook fans, the brand has fewer than 16,000 Twitter followers. “We really do want 50,000 more Twitter followers,” the brand tells us.
Coca Cola’s ad strategy basically comes down to bombarding you with joy and togetherness, and a new animated spot from Wieden + Kennedy continues that tradition.
A boy bumps into a girl and lets go of a red balloon he’s carrying, so he can catch the Coca-Cola she drops, because what better way to charm in a Coke commercial than to save a Coke. The camera follows the balloon as it rises past the windows of a brick building, peering into a range of shared family milestones and moments, all, naturally, including little red-wrapped bottles of sugar water.
Couples are, variously, moving in together; holding a tea party with their young daughter; visiting their college-aged son; cooking and dancing together; and celebrating their fifty year anniversary. All the while, singer-songwriter Wendy Colonna croons in the background about finding happiness in a pair. It’s the slightest bit reminiscent of Up, but mostly an adorable and incredibly efficient bit of storytelling that’s right in the brand’s wheelhouse.
Coca-Cola is no stranger to animated ads (e.g., the Polar Bears and Happiness Factory) or twee soundtracks, and it’ll never stop pumping viewers full of bubbly feelings until they forget—or just stop caring—that the product isn’t really that good for them, even if the brand does occasionally mix in a little sass.
Oreo would like you to start solving your conflicts by scrubbing its cookies against your tongue as fast as you possibly can.
This new spot from AKQA London (and Mind’s Eye director Luke Bellis) shows pairs of what appear to be siblings and friends squaring off over various disputes—like riding shotgun in a car whose backseat is stuffed to the brim, picking what to watch on TV, or taking the blame for knocking the head off a statue with a soccer ball. But instead of, you know, flipping a coin or playing Rock Paper Scissors, they whip out Double Stuf Oreos, put on the stupidest faux-intense-concentration faces they can muster, and compete to be first to transfer all the cream from their cookies onto their tongues.
“We’ve all got something to settle,” reads the copy. “Lick for it,” adds the tagline, using a verb that doesn’t quite accurately describe the action portrayed in the preceding spot.
It’s a somewhat strange commercial, with slightly too much close-up footage of people’s mouths, and it can’t help but evoke Tootsie Roll Pops, which long ago cornered the repetitive-licking theme in advertising. But maybe it’s just not meant for olds like us to understand. The target demographic is clearly tween-ish, a point driven home by the bad dubstep soundtrack.
It is hard to believe any sane person would have the patience not to just eat the cookie.
Last summer, TBWA Paris unveiled a bold campaign for McDonald’s that consisted entirely of classic menu items photographed up close—with no branding at all. (Did somebody say McDonald’s? Not in those ads.)
Now, agency and client are back with a follow-up campaign that, in a way, is even more minimalist. Instead of the actual products, now we get clean, simple drawings of the products—turning them into actual icons. There is a bit more explicit branding on these, though, but it’s still very subtle—a tiny Golden Arches next to the illustrations.
The ads feature McDonald’s “Big 6” menu items—Big Mac, cheeseburger, fries, sundae, Chicken Nuggets and Filet-o-Fish—and will appear on more than 2,700 outdoor displays in France, with the major rollout beginning June 2. The agency calls the work “unique and modern, in the McDonald’s brand image,” “exclusive, simple and universal, just like the six iconic products” and “a fun and intriguing addition to our cities.”
More images, plus a new McDonald’s TV spot from TBWA Paris, below.
Evidently not worried about cries of sexism, Heineken has organized a giant shoe sale in Brazil this Saturday—so that women will flock to it and leave their boyfriends and husbands in peace to watch the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid.
Women's shoes will be available for up to 50 percent off at Shoestock stores. Wieden + Kennedy São Paulo came up with the idea, which Heineken in a press release said "is entirely good-natured and will generate conversation." Both are surely true.
"Our goal is to run a fun campaign unlike anything we have ever organized in Brazil," said Bernardo Spielmann, director of the Heineken brand and sponsorships at Heineken Brazil. "Therefore, the Heineken Shoe Sale will be announced with a humorous tone in the digital environment, including teasers, email marketing and videos."
"The idea is to help guarantee men time to watch the game on Saturday afternoon," said W+K creative director Otavio Schiavon. "So we're going to provide an argument that will make it so their wives or girlfriends have something interesting to do during the game. He's going to surprise her with news about a shoe sale. And she, in turn, can leave him to watch the UEFA Champions League final."
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Heineken Project: Heineken Shoe Sale Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, São Paulo Executive Creative Directors: Icaro Doria, Guillermo Vega Creative Directors: Otavio Schiavon, Marco Martins Copywriters: David Besller, Caio Mattoso, Otavio Schiavon Art Directors: Raul Arantes, Rodrigo Mendes, Marco Martins Digital Producer: Rafael Gaino e Maurício Junior Digital Deploy: Debaser Agency Producer: Gabriel Dagostini Planning: Rodrigo Maroni, Rafael Rossi, Livia Lanzoni, Ian Bueno Account: Danilo Ken, Beatriz Andreucci, Isabele Garcia Media: Renato Valio, Stephanie Campbell, Caroline Ventura, Douglas Silveira Client Approval: Daniela Cachich, Bernardo Spielmann, Chiara Martini, Andrea Rubim, Renata Costa Production Company: Conspiração Filmes Director: Fernando Reginato (DEL) Director of Photography: Paulo Disca Producers: Karin Greco, Pablo Alvez Account, Production Company: Leonardo Alves, Renata Schincariol Audio Facility: A Voz do Brasil Account, Audio Production House: Rosana Souza, Cássia Garcia Announcer: Edinho Moreno Post House: Nash
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
