Hasta La Creative!

DDB is hoping the Sumatran tiger doesn't go the way of the vinyl record—particularly the quickly degradable one.

For Earth Day, DDB New York and the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute are raising awareness of the endangered animal—of which only 400 are left—by creating an endangered song. 

For The Endandered Song Project, the agency got Atlantic Records band Portugal. The Man to write a new track simply called "Sumatran Tiger" and release it only on 400 lathe-cut vinyl records, which are designed to degrade after a certain number of plays (about 100 plays, we're told). The 400 people who got the record (we were one of them) are being asked to digitize the song, thus keeping it alive, and share it through social media using the hashtag #EndangeredSong.

"We liked the idea that there is this degree of difficulty to the project in terms of what people had to do," Matt Eastwood, chief creative officer of DDB New York, tells AdFreak. "We are responding a little bit to the whole slacktivism thing. We want more than just a tweet. Of course we want that, too, but saving a species is more than just a Facebook like. You have to physically get involved and do things."

DDB initially thought about releasing the song on a cassette. "Then we found out about the lathe-cut records," said Eastwood. "Records, too, are almost extinct these days. And the song will slowly become extinct if you don't copy it over to digital … It's very old school meets new school, which I like. It's old technology, but we're promoting it using the digital technology of Twitter and Instagram and Facebook."

The Sumatran tiger was a somewhat arbitrary choice (there is no shortage of endangered species) but a compelling one, Eastwood added. "It's not an unusual animal, but it's a rare and exotic animal, and everyone loves tigers," Eastwood said. "There are only 400 of them, which to us just seemed so desperate. You could fit them in a car park. It's ridiculous."

Portugal. The Man, whose members hail from Wasilla, Ala., and are committed to environmental causes, were happy to join the cause. The campaign doesn't have a specific call to action for donations, but you can contribute through a link on the campaign site.

Various digital copies of the song have already popped up on Soundcloud, or you can check out our proudly low-fi version here.

The buzz is heating up for Quiznos, who has scored a hit with its House of Cards/Game of Thrones mashup called House of Thrones.

Machiavellian Congressman Frank Underwood is transported to the Seven Kingdoms, where he eliminates characters as mercilessly as George R. R. Martin himself—though he avoids killing fan favorites like Tyrion Lannister, settling instead for a merciless teasing.

Hindered by a script that is only mildly funny, the spot is held aloft by an exceptional Kevin Spacey impersonator and a spot-on concept: crossing two of today's hottest properties for maximum viral effect. They even give a few spoiler-ish nods to the fans who've read all the way up through A Dance of Dragons.

Windowseat in Los Angeles created the video, which is part of Quiznos' new content strategy for its recently launched Toasty.tv site—an interesting ploy, considering that Quiznos has just filed for bankruptcy and people are questioning whether this kind of buzz will actually sell sandwiches.

Given the target market, this kind of advertising is great for the brand. But before they invest in entertainment, they should probably focus on making subs that aren't substandard.

Nathan Kaso, photographe talentueux qui a déjà fait l’objet d’articles sur Fubiz, nous offre avec The Waters of Greenstone un voyage magnifique dans l’île du sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande. Fruit de 3 semaines de voyage, cette création tournée au Canon 5D Mark III est mise en avant par une musique produite par Tom Day.

The PhotoKinetic bus est une création de l’artiste catalan paysagiste Marc Grañén. Pour lui, les espaces verts urbains sont cruciaux pour notre environnement et rappelle le principe de la photosynthèse avec cette création proposant un toit de bus avec un jardin, alliant beauté et protection de la nature.

Environmental debates are touchy, and often noticeably lacking in nuanced dialogue. Interesting, then, that The Nature Conservancy, which says it's committed to taking a creative and balanced approach to solving environmental issues, would frame its latest ads as the opposite of that. Portland, Maine, ad agency Kemp Goldberg Partners recently rolled out ads for the group in Boston that ask people what the "future of nature" will be—in each case, prompting them to choose between two apparently incompatible options. Loggers or forests? People or wildlife? Fishermen or fish? Ecology or economy? The campaign points to a landing page, futureofnature.org, where visitors learn that, in fact, they might not have to choose at all—that a healthy economy and a healthy natural world might both be possible. The "Tastes great, less filling" approach of the ads is a provocative one when the subject isn't beer but rather the future of the planet—though it will surely draw people into the conversation. And the audience's brief trip from black and white into gray mirrors the larger one this client hopes the population at large will eventually take, too. More images below.