Step Right Up and Watch This Air Acrobat Attempt the Most Irresponsible Circus Act Ever

One December day at the International Scene of Contemporary Dance in Stockholm, Sweden, a man named Olle, one of the best air acrobats in the world, did a triple-somersault jump. It was a jump like hundreds of others he’d done before, but this time was different. 

He fell on his head. 

“Within that second I heard my neck break. A moment devoid of time,” Olle writes. “The sound of the neck break echoed in my head, itself an endless, dark, spherical space in which I was hovering weightlessly.” 

Olle crushed several cervical vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors couldn’t say how much brain functioning he’d regain, or even whether he would walk again. One thing was sure: He’d never jump again.

It’s been 10 years since then. Olle has miraculously recovered. Many people like him would count their blessings, move to a quiet town and take up gardening. But in what’s being dubbed “the most irresponsible circus performance ever,” Olle is gearing up to repeat the same jump, with just one difference. This time, he’ll do it from up to 12,000 feet in the sky.

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See the Nivea Campaign That John Hegarty Called the Stupidest Thing He's Ever Seen

Ready for a sunscreen-shitting seagull?

Sir John Hegarty, co-founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty and all-around advertising legend, was jury president of the Titanium and Integrated Lions at Cannes this year. And his jury recognized plenty of brilliant work, including the Titanium Grand Prix winner, REI’s #OptOutside campaign.

But at the press conference announcing the winners, Hegarty didn’t open his remarks by talking about the top-notch work. He opened by mentioning a Nivea campaign that was so shockingly wretched, it’s a wonder it was entered at Cannes at all. In fact, it’s a wonder it’s not a parody.

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Bubbles "Lion destruction" (2016) 1:48 (Germany)

During the advertising festival in Cannes, the German production company Bubbles Film will allow people to get a tattoo with ink made from a real Cannes Lion. And here’s the teaser video for that stunt.
The production company has taken its only own statue from the festival and turned it into tattoo ink, which will be used to give the visitors at the festival a tattoo in the shape of a lion. Therefore the lion has been sawed up, melted down and pulverized. The tattoos will be made inside the production companies „Award Ink Studio“ in front of the Carlton Hotel.
In Cannes, the lions are the most valuable and sought after items. Everyone wants to go home with one, but only a few get the chance to do so. We’ve got one, so we thought, why not share it with the world? – explains Bubbles Film Berlin CEO, Barbara Kranz. The “Award ink Studio“ will be in Cannes from Wednesday, June 22nd and will be located directly on the Croisette in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
If you’re in Cannes, check it out! If you’re not, then follow the advent on Bubbles’ website.

Nike "Hard Work Wins" (2016) 1;00 (Germany)

This Nike spec ad written produced and directed by Samuel Buscapé has a nice misdirect. It starts first by building up the tension from what looks like a retro NASA movie, where something dramatic is happening. At the last minute, the head person decides to literally roll dice to see what happens. It then transitions to a dude and on a court, doing pushups and practcing to make the point hard work beats luck every time. It is hampered a bit by the somewhat sleepy pacing, but otherwise it’s a smart idea.

This Crazy Supermarket Ad, Full of Cats, Will Give You a Big Cheshire Grin

Forget about next week’s Cannes Lions. Check out all the crazy cats in this commercial for Netto, a German supermarket chain. 

These 75 seconds of epic kitty cuteness take place in an incredibly detailed miniature version of a Netto store and feature clones of Maru, Keyboard Cat and other stars of famous feline memes. Is the No No No Cat among them? Yes yes yes! 

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Metro "The daily catch" (2016) :53 (Germany)

Fish used to be wrapped in newspaper when it was sold. Metro took that old behavior and turned it into a way to prove how fresh their fish is in this simple execution. Fishermen from all over Europe would wrap their day’s catch in their daily newspaper before shipping out. So when it arrived in stores you’d know exactly when and where your fish was caught. I suppose it’s also a great way to use up all those hard copies of newspapers. Win win.

Auxmoney – “Bike” – (2016) :60 (Germany)

Auxmoney - “Bike” - (2016) :60 (Germany)
Styled like a modern Easy Rider meets Sgt Pepper lonely hearts club band road movie, a man and his very enthusiastic glam Stevie Nicks wannabe are checking out a cool motorcycle at a gas station in the desert. The gas station owner, and really old man, is selling it and claims the marching band uniformed man can’t afford it. “I don’t have the money” he admits, “but they do!”

And on the scene arrive well over a thousand people on horseback. This groovy styled ad is supposed to entice you to not only spend beyond on your means, but to borrow from people instead of banks. It’s like crowd-sourced credit. That doesn’t seem scary at all, like these scenes will turn Mad Max like quicker than you expect. Oh, did I mention the styling is great, even though riding on a motorcycle with exposed legs makes me grit my teeth how stupid that is? Why didn’t she get her own bike? And some pants?

Sensodyne "The Intimidating Campaign" (2016) 1:00 (Germany)

Each of those ice cubes in your drink are just waiting to cause brain freeze and pain in your teeth. Set to frozen breaking icebergs and a voice over that is a chilly as the arctic, this is the most intellectual ad I’ve ever seen for toothpaste meant for sensitive teeth. I kind of love it for that reason alone.

smart – For individualists – (2011) :30 (Germany)

smart - For individualists - (2011) :30 (Germany)
So far this year, Shilo co-founder and director Jose Gomez has directed five commercials for BBDO Berlin and the phenomenal smart vehicles from Daimler AG. The agency’s smart fortwo A Big Idea campaign leverages the first co-production between Shilo and Film Deluxe GmbH, which is now representing Jose and his fellow Shilo directors Andre Stringer, Noah Conopask and others in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Two of these campaign spots premiered in Germany and elsewhere in February, and “For individualists” and another (“For the curious”) recently launched online at http://www.youtube.com/smart . A fifth spot will debut soon.

Shilo’s detailed project Q&A with Jose appears on their We Make It Good blog here: http://bit.ly/JGsmart

smart – For the curious – (2011) :30 (Germany)

smart - For the curious - (2011) :30 (Germany)
So far this year, Shilo co-founder and director Jose Gomez has directed five commercials for BBDO Berlin and the phenomenal smart vehicles from Daimler AG. The agency’s smart fortwo A Big Idea campaign leverages the first co-production between Shilo and Film Deluxe GmbH, which is now representing Jose and his fellow Shilo directors Andre Stringer, Noah Conopask and others in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Two of these campaign spots premiered in Germany and elsewhere in February, and this and another (“For individualists”) recently launched online at http://www.youtube.com/smart . A fifth spot will debut soon.

Shilo’s detailed project Q&A with Jose appears on their We Make It Good blog here: http://bit.ly/JGsmart

VW Side Assist shows you everything.

One of the biggest causes of accidents in Germany is when people change lanes without really looking. Volkwagen Commercial Vehicles invented “Side Assist.“ showing the dangers in the driver’s blind spot via signals in the wing mirrors. This way, with just one look,you can spot any danger behind or alongside the car. To create awareness about VW’s side assist, they inserted a card into the housing of wing mirrors on all competing commercial vehicle brand.

HSV Safetyvideo Emirates Airlines (2016) 1:47 (USA)

HSV Safetyvideo Emirates Airlines (2016) 1:47 (USA)
The Emirates cabin crew turned up at a HSV match, pre-game to perform “their new safety video…”. Sort of. Random football-practice breaks out. They’re keen to show off their football skills to HSV fans. It’s an entertaining reminder that Emirates sponsors the game, a warm-up before the real game if you will. Cute.

Clothing Crackles With the Meaning of Life in These Excellent European Fabric Softener Ads

Kudos to Procter & Gamble brand Lenor (known in the U.S. as Downy) for managing to eroticize fabric softener in surprisingly poetic fashion.

Each of these four long-form ads from Grey Dusseldorf delivers a cheeky ode to a different type of garment—skirts, trousers, shirts and scarves.

The first may be the wittiest, but overall they feature some of the richest copy in recent years, full of little twists and turns perfectly juxtaposed with a wildly varied montage that splices contemporary footage with older live clips, stills and cartoons spanning the better part of a century—not to mention a few much older works of art. (Modern highlights include a nod to the No Pants Subway Ride, and a sideswipe at Americans for misusing the word “pants” altogether.)

Even when the prose does get a bit purple, it stays oddly delightful. That’s in large part because, despite reveling in its own wordplay, it hews pretty closely to a truth-telling tone—not in a myopic, product-peddling kind of way but in a broader, clever and observational sense. 

“So let’s not skirt around the subject,” explains the voiceover in a quirky Icelandic accent that doesn’t hurt the work’s charm any, either. “You turn heads, drop jaws and make grown men speechless. You help us in our search for Mr. Right, but locate so many Mr. Wrongs.”

In other words, it doesn’t always take the most progressive tack, but the whole thing is credible and entertaining enough to make you feel like Lenor doesn’t just want to reach into your pocket and pull out the cash (along with whatever blue lint it can find).

Rather, it wants to share the secrets to a life well lived. Because what is doing laundry about, if not the meaning of existence?

Straight Magazine "Angela Merkel" (2015) :23 (Germany)

Here’s a cheeky ad for German lesbian magazine Straight, starring an Angela Merkel lookalike who, surprise, is actually a lesbian. As the TV discusses a news report that 62% of Germans are okay with same-sex marriage, she shakes her head as a misdirect. Then her lady comes up form behind for a tender embrace.

According to The Local the idea is supposed to be that equality laws for homosexuals are outdated. Even Angela Merkel knows that.

According to watching it blindly, it just seems like a magazine thumbing its nose for publicity.

Kids Swear Their Faces Off in This Uncomfortably Hilarious Ad for Smart Cars

Next up in our Kids Behaving Inappropriately series, BBDO Berlin got a bunch of children to yell extremely dirty words to make a point about Smart cars, and how they can lead to a more calm, lighthearted temperament.

My favorite is the little guy in the suit. Angry, angry young man.

Smart cars look a lot like artisanal jelly beans, but that is by design—Mercedes-Benz design, as it turns out. The video goes on to show off the car’s maneuverability and convenient parking size, although the street was oddly free of traffic hazards in what was supposed to be a stressful urban environment.

Where was the random car sitting in the middle of the lane with his hazards on? The pedestrians running into traffic without looking? The 1,000-person family all using the crosswalk one at a time? C’mon guys, give those kids something to really swear about!

Actually, don’t. That’s more their parents’ job, anyway.

AS&S Radio "#8millionemotionen" (2015) 1:27 (Germany)

Here’s an “experiment,” in which people were watching others in a soundproof room, trying to guess their psychosis or issues based on their emotions. Rug pull: When a button is pressed, it is revealed the “crazy people,” are football fans who have been listening to the Bundesliga football matches on AS&S Radio. Fun work from Hamburg-based agency Labamba.

This Foot-Care Brand Made the First Magazine You Read With Your Feet

What better way to sell foot-care products than with an entire magazine for and about feet?

Hansaplast, a Beiersdorf-owned band-aid brand, is launching a line of creams, deodorant and antiperspirant called FootExpert. To promote the products, agency Being created Feet Mag, a luxury publication designed with heavy paper that can be easily turned by one’s feet, and large print that you can enjoy from an eye-to-foot distance (for those unable to lift the book close to their faces using only their toes).

The magazine is packed with foot-themed stories about art (by the likes of Renoir, Gauguin, Delacroix and Manet) and fashion, with sassy pictures of women playing cards and blowing kisses with their own feet. There are even foot horoscopes (with advice like putting on rubber boots to prepare for the coming storm).

Check out a copy of the magazine here. (PDF link)

It’s a fun way to draw attention to a decidedly dull subject, certainly more noteworthy than buying ads in a well-established beauty magazine. But it doesn’t seem right to make your feet do all that extra work—even in the name of leisure.

Via PSFK.



Man Hunts for a Cherished Lost Possession in Hornbach's Latest Absurdly Epic Ad

German DIY home-improvement brand Hornbach adds to its long list of advertising successes with this fun twist spot from Heimat Berlin.

A man storms out of his house in a fit of rage. He’s so preoccupied, he hasn’t even bothered to put on pants. He checks the trash cans, and finds them empty, throwing a tantrum while his baffled wife—presumably to blame for accidentally chucking a precious item—looks on.

Still in his boxers, the guy frantically hitches a ride on a garbage truck, then a trash barge, and then he treks through the landfill to dig up his lost treasure (somehow, he’s able to find out exactly where it is buried). What could inspire such passion and effort?

Cheekily titled “Spring Collection,” the spot does a nice job of slow building drama around what’s essentially a lone sight gag—a man in his underpants—by escalating it with each more-ridiculous scene. The copy, meanwhile, justifies the epic sequence by punching up the the fact that the guy’s pants are unique to him—”designed” (read: destroyed) by his labor.

It’s a fun sideways take on the familiar dig at expensive, pre-distressed brand-name jeans, and by the same token, a relatable celebration of that pair you can’t quite let go, even though its seen more than a few too many days of wear. More pointedly, it’s a pretty effective way to show that, by the time you get done with your home improvement projects, your pants are going to look like they’ve been to the dump and back—a testament to your hard work.

In the end, the camera cuts back to the front yard, where the hero, wearing his beloved pants, is still wielding a shovel. That leaves it a little unclear whether the whole quest was just a metaphor for the man’s DIY project itself—tearing up the grass in pursuit of the perfectly wrecked pair of jeans—or just for how far he’d be willing to go to get his already tattered pants back, because he’s too proud to keep going without them.

It doesn’t really matter. Either way, the wife’s getting the bad end of the deal, what with the crazy husband and the giant hole in the lawn.

Agency: Heimat Berlin.



Powerade – Workout Billboard – (2015) :60 (Germany)

Ogilvy & Mather Berlin managed to turn regular street billboards into functioning workout machines for Powerade. One billboard is a climbing billboard, where you could keep climbing forever. One billboard is a weight-lift, where you actually pull the whole billboard up. Another is a boxing test, that checks how much power you have in your punch. Each billboard is placed where’s there’s room for pedestrian interaction and people who accepted the challenge of the billboard and workout on them were treated with a free bottle of Powerade to quench their thirst.

Powerade's Fun 'Workout Billboards' Will Really Make You Sweat

Billboards don’t usually ask a lot of you, beyond a cursory glance. But these Powerade boards from Ogilvy Berlin put you right to work.

They’re more like exercise installations than billboards. One of them features a scrolling climbing wall; another invites you to punch it as hard as you can. And all of them will make you work up a thirst that Powerade can then quench.

Your move, Ikea. Via Ads of the World.

CREDITS
Client: Powerade
Project: “Workout Billboards”
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Berlin
Executive Creative Directors: Tim Stübane, Birgit van den Valentyn
Creatives: Matthias Bauer, Janne Sachse