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…
It’s time for the year-end lists, and here’s a fun one–the 2017 YouTube Ads Leaderboard, featuring the most-watched ads on the video platform this year. You’ll recognize many of the spots, from Super Bowl commercials (Mr. Clean, Kia, Budweiser) to well-known celebrity spots (Natalie Portman for Miss Dior, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson” for Apple). Remarkably,…
So, this dude named Spike just lost his job, and he’s none too pleased about it. “What the literal hell? How did this happen?” he’s asking on Twitter as he starts to cycle through the stages of grief that come with sudden unemployment. But first, he’s going rogue. Spike is actually Spike TV, the cable…
What does it take for a woman to break into the male-dominated world of software development? Aurora Anderson, 34, was willing to essentially live apart from her husband and infant son for an entire year, commuting 173 miles from Portland to Seattle each week to study coding. “I had a job after college working in…
Lyft has made a concerted effort, in its business strategies and its advertising, to make its drivers feel valued–from last year’s seven-minute animated short “June” (released on its own “Lyft Driver Appreciation Day”) to this year’s car-wash stunt in Los Angeles. The ridesharing company, and agency Wieden + Kennedy New York, return to the theme…
You have your ugly sweaters, and now you have your cheeky sweaters. Every brand in the universe seems to be getting into apparel. And so, of course Liquid-Plumr has created the limited-edition Cheeky Cheer Collection, featuring three sweaters that show off ample fake butt crack in the back. The sweaters, inspired by the brand’s revealing…
Middle management is hell, cubicle cities are soul crushing, and even the everyday sounds of office life are like nails on a chalkboard (often it’s dry erase, but you get the idea). Comedy Central is going for a visceral reaction in a social media campaign for upcoming satire show Corporate, capturing a chorus of ringing…
Van Morrison’s sentimental soft-rock ditty “Crazy Love” has no connection to the holiday season, but the 1970 song still provides a soulful soundtrack for Ikea Canada’s poignant holiday ad below. A harried, often overwhelmed single mom struggles all year long to provide a happy, loving life for her son. When the holidays arrive, the youngster…
Bud Light has continued its seemingly endless “Dilly Dilly” antics by responding benevolently to a craft brewer that made a “Dilly Dilly” IPA–with a friendly cease-and-desist letter written on parchment and delivered by a town crier. Modist Brewing Company in Minneapolis made the new “Dilly Dilly” Mosaic Double IPA, named for the cryptic but popular…
It’s usually British TV spots that are wowing people at this time of year. But for our money, the most entertaining holiday ads of 2017 so far have been Spotify’s global out-of-home ads, which crunch user data and cleverly transform it into witty headlines–riffing on the ups and downs of our suddenly unhinged world. We…
It’s not every day a supermarket chain promotes its wares with a dystopian sci-fi flick about a world overrun by artificial intelligence. But a new four-minute ad from German supermarket chain Edeka (and agency Jung von Matt) does just that, to powerful effect. The camera opens on the blasted, desolate ruins of a futuristic city….
How Santa must suffer, trying to eat all those cookies on Christmas Eve! With help from agency Romance, French grocery store Intermarch? has released its holiday ad. Titled “I’ve Dreamt So Much,” it follows a boy whose family takes him to sit on Santa’s lap ahead of the holidays, at which time something troubling occurs…
Inspired by ASMR and slow TV, advertising is coming around to the idea that boring content might not be that boring after all. We saw this with Ikea’s awesomely tedious preroll ads. And now we can Samsung to the list of brands that are turning unremarkable footage into something bordering on mesmerizing. Samsung U.K. has…
Ready to make some early New Year’s resolutions? Of course you’re not. But Spotify has some fun suggestions regardless, based on the amusingly peculiar habits of its user base. The streaming music service’s new global out-of-home campaign for the holidays uses the same basic approach as last year–billboards with snappy headlines based around fun tidbits…
What do you see when you imagine a country? Maybe India fills your mind with color. France overwhelms you with the aroma of baked bread (and dog poop). Beaches and wide deserts populate your picture of Australia. What do you think of when someone mentions Finland? While fellow Nordic countries like Sweden, Iceland, Norway and…
Jim Beam is making a foray into the newly popular voice-activated home tech category … with a delightfully absurd machine. The whiskey marketer is billing it as the “first-ever artificially intelligent decanter,” and calling it, naturally, “Jim.” A parody of toys like Amazon Echo and Google Home, it’s available for pre-order at $34.90 and voiced…
It’s a familiar environmentalist argument–we all have to live on this planet, so we might not want to completely destroy it. But newly rebranded Danish power company ?rsted is taking up that mantle in a clever new interactive film from Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam to roll out its vision for a world run entirely on…
As you might recall, Santa Claus faints dead away when he unexpectedly encounters two colorful M&M’s spokescandies in BBDO’s classic TV spot from 1996. The Red M&M faints, too. All of this leaves Yellow with a concerned look on his face. It’s a much-loved seasonal serving of consumer culture, regularly regifted on TV screens across…
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