The breathless social buzz leading up to the launch of the latest Star Wars movie on Friday needed a marketing stunt to match. So, Disney teamed up with Twitter to plaster fan tweets across giant billboards in real time. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Dec. 15, the 90-foot digital screens at Toronto Eaton…
A striking new print campaign from Germany seeks to battle addiction this holiday season with fresh spin on a familiar trick–reversible copywriting. Each of three short poems–one for alcohol, one for pills, and one for gambling–spirals into total despair when read from top to bottom. But read backwards, from bottom to top, they offer a…
KFC was thinking small on Saturday, opening a miniature KFC for one day only in Portland, Ore., and actually serving $5 Fill Up Boxes (that probably wouldn’t fill you up, but were free of charge), at one-twelfth their normal size. The chain also released the video below, showing how to make tiny fried chicken–similar to…
If you come down with a bad case of Atrox Rithimus, you don’t need a doctor. This particular affliction isn’t deadly, though it could send club patrons screaming for the exit. Atrox Rithimus, Latin for “bitter rhyme,” is, in fact, a made-up malady. It was injected into the mass-media corpus through a website, videos, billboards…
Social media marketing nerds got an early Christmas present Thursday, as Wendy’s Twitter account sat down for a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” Q&A. The specific marketing execs who took part in the Q&A weren’t identified–Wendy’s answered questions using the wendys_irl Reddit handle–but likely included Meredith Ulmer, the senior social media specialist who leads the fast-food…
There’s been a lot of Star Wars recently. When The Last Jedi hits theaters on Friday, it will be the third Star Wars movie in as many years, twice the rate of theatrical output as either of the previous trilogies. Even accounting for how Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wasn’t a “Saga” entry (meaning…
Escape rooms have become old hat, but once in a while you see a spin on the approach that makes them worth mentioning again. This is one. Inspired by the 20th Century Fox film Murder on the Orient Express, based on Agatha Christie’s classic novel, Finnish Railways tapped TBWA Helsinki to produce the longest escape…
It’s been a banner year for women, in great part because of a system that drove its boot so deep into our necks that we all lost our epic sense of composure. In record numbers, we marched. We ran for office. We called bullshit on sexual harassment (and are still calling bullshit). And those who…
God damn. Will Cards Against Humanity ever stop being this gangster? The card game manufacturer that, just a month ago, asked you for money to stop the Trump administration from building its stupid wall has decided to take some of it and address another social ill–income inequality. The website, Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth,…
Netflix is notoriously protective of its viewership data, but it may have learned a lesson from Spotify when it comes to its creative possibilities–how to turn quirky data points into entertaining content. Spotify recently rolled out its second holiday campaign featuring outdoor ads that turn actual listening habits, gleaned from its oceans of data, into…
The gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas song always seemed a little boring. Coco de Mer, the British luxury lingerie and erotica fashion house, fixes that with its own take on the Christmas classic. This time, in place of turtle doves and French hens, we get a sampling of spanking paddles and pearl blossom…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year … for Christmas ads in which products magically bring even our wildest dreams to life. The latest brand to turn your holiday into a literal winter wonderland is Lincoln Motor Company, which uses the theme to promote its Wishlist Sales Event. In the first broadcast spot (extended…
Ikea is one of those global brands that is strong creatively all around the world. And 2017 was no exception. If anything, the famed Swedish retailer raised the bar this year with inspired advertising, real-time marketing and stunts in so many of its global markets. Below are 14 examples of its enviable work from 2017….
It’s the holidays. You’re probably overworked and lonely. There you are, telling some cutie you’ve got a Christmas tree that’s, like, 30 feet tall. Is she biting the bait? She’s biting the bait. She will want a pic of that later. Oh, no! Wherever will you find a Christmas tree that’s 30 feet tall? Even…
Ready for another holiday ad? Of course. Plus Supermarkets in the Netherlands just released a spot from J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam that follows a child as she shuttles between her divorced parents in the days before Christmas. Can we just say we love this trope of the Divorced Dad with the half-baked apartment, sadly switching…
Thinkmodo sure loves its caf?s. The stunt-based viral video agency had an early hit with 2013’s “Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise,” in which a girl surprised unsuspecting patrons with some freaky telekinetic superpowers (to promote the horror movie Carrie). They also did a Spider-Man coffee-shop stunt earlier this year. Now, Thinkmodo returns to a New York…
The birth of Christ story gets the Jerry Springer treatment, complete with taunting crowd, beleaguered guests and a special appearance by God (as a fluffy cloud)–and stopping just short of punch throwing and chair tossing. But Joseph of Nazareth does get hounded by the studio audience, who chant “Chump, chump, chump!” And no one buys…
There was a time when one could only love or hate a Benetton ad. There was no in-between. And much of that was due to its art director, Oliviero Toscani. If you don’t remember his name, maybe the work will ring a bell. Between 1982 and 2000, when he led the brand’s advertising identity, this…
The scariest part about the opioid crisis might be that one-third of people taking prescription pills like oxycodone don’t even know they’re on opioids. A new campaign from the nonprofit health organization National Safety Council and Energy BBDO seeks to raise awareness about, and take action to stop, the drug epidemic sweeping the U.S., by…
Freelancer Oobah Butler believes online reviews are far from reliable. And he should know, given that by his own admission he used to get paid by restaurants to write fake praise on TripAdvisor. So, this year he decided to see how far falsehood could go. And the answer, perhaps no surprise in our current political…
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