Back in December Geometry Global raised some eyebrows with their “Animal Instincts Pet Condoms” campaign.
The agency put up what appeared to be a free pet condom dispenser in a San Francisco park. When passers-by used the dispenser they received “condom shaped brochures explaining the importance of spaying and neutering pets.” People were directed to the Pet Condoms website, which appears to promote condom use for pets, but really just encourages spaying and neutering. The man’s face in the video above, when he receives what he believes to be a pet condom, pretty much says it all.
The campaign, which debuted back in December, generated “Over 30,000 + site visits, social chatter in over 166 countries” and became the number one trending topic on Reddit within 36 hours. All this buzz got Cannes’ attention, and the campaign was short listed at Cannes for a Promo & Activation Lion in two categories: Use of Guerrilla Marketing in a Promotional Campaign (Small Scale), Use of Promotional Stunts and Live Advertising.
W+K New York unveils the new high-tech SportsCenter set, complete with a few bugs, in the latest in their long-running “This Is SportsCenter” series.
SportsCenter is set to debut their new studio on June 22nd, and the new spot takes place on the set of the 194,000 square foot Digital Center 2. In the 30-second spot, entitled “Universal Remote,” anchor Kevin Negandhi shows off the studio’s capabilities to fellow host Hannah Storm using a universal remote. The button on the remote that’s supposed to control the desk appears to be faulty, however, with Washington Nationals’ mascot Theodore Roosevelt, along with anchors Jay Crawford and Jay Harris, taking full advantage of the unintended and comical consequences. It’s a fun introduction to the new studio that manages to show off some of its new capabilities without taking itself seriously. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
While its recent TV spots have been fairly benign and dare we say, sappy, Wix, the brand that lets people build websites for free takes a detour with its latest ad above, which is inspired by of all things, horror films. Case in point, the opening moments recall Drew Barrymore’s classic opening sequence in Scream and is soon followed by the sounds of chainsaws, a Paranormal Activity-like sequence and more. Of course, the overall subject matter of the ad is a girl’s fear of building her own website about, uh, cupcakes. The never-ending screaming can get somewhat grating as the spot progresses, but us horror fans can appreciate the little wink at the genre, even if the minute-long effort is somewhat corny. Of course, one can only wonder how the spot would turn out if Rob Zombie put his imprint on it like he did with that somewhat creepy Woolite ad from a few years ago. Ah well, can’t win ’em all. Credits after the jump.
Hill Holliday, Boston tapped Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, This Is 40, Freaks and Geeks) to voice the inner musings of a jaded mom in their latest campaign for LG appliances.
Mann voices the internal monologue of a character Adweek described as “a cross between FX’s Louie and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.” While that may be a slight exaggeration — the character is far more in line with Mann’s roles in Knocked Up and This Is 40 — the spots are certainly far more cynical than anything we’ve come to expect from appliance ads aimed at women, and in fact play off those happy family conventions.
In the most edgy, and, not coincidentally, most successful of these spots, Mann’s character notes that her new LG washing machine is very fast. But what’s a good quality in a washing machine is not necessarily a good quality in a husband, as the character suggestively muses. It’s this kind of honesty and portrayal of a less-than-perfect reality that makes the campaign stand out. Other spots in the campaign trade in the sexual innuendo for goofiness, and while none of them are quite as entertaining as “Too Fast” the approach still feels like a welcome departure from typical daytime TV fare, thanks largely to Mann’s comedic timing. Stick around for credits and “Hot Cookies” after the jump. continued…
Hill Holiday, Boston tapped Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, This Is 40, Freaks and Geeks) to voice the inner musings of a jaded mom in their latest campaign for LG appliances.
Mann voices the internal monologue of a character Adweek described as “a cross between FX’s Louie and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.” While that may be a slight exaggeration — the character is far more in line with Mann’s roles in Knocked Up and This Is 40 — the spots are certainly far more cynical than anything we’ve come to expect from appliance ads aimed at women, and in fact play off those happy family conventions.
In the most edgy, and, not coincidentally, most successful of these spots, Mann’s character notes that her new LG washing machine is very fast. But what’s a good quality in a washing machine is not necessarily a good quality in a husband, as the character suggestively muses. It’s this kind of honesty and portrayal of a less-than-perfect reality that makes the campaign stand out. Other spots in the campaign trade in the sexual innuendo for goofiness, and while none of them are quite as entertaining as “Too Fast” the approach still feels like a welcome departure from typical daytime TV fare, thanks largely to Mann’s comedic timing. Stick around for credits and “Hot Cookies” after the jump. continued…
In Japan, hard work and a low alcohol tolerance mean that at the end of the week countless people literally drink until they drop and fall asleep on the street. In Tokyo, for instance, the sight of drunks sleeping in the street on a Friday night is considered normal. To help curb this phenomenon, bar chain Yaocho got together with Ogilvy Japan to turn sleeping drunks into human billboards.
In an effort to shame people into more responsible drinking habits, Ogilvy Japan found sleeping drunks and outlined their bodies in white tape, with the message, “#Nomisugi,” which translates roughly to “Too drunk.” Passers-by around Japan have been sharing the impromptu outdoor ads on Instagram and Twitter. Whether or not the stunt was staged, it certainly has made its presence known, and most likely influenced a few bar-goers into taking it a little easy. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
McDonald’s executives have undoubtedly been telling themselves that the reactions to the new mascot Happy as “creepy” are just a bunch of cynical adults on the Internet and surely children, the target demographic, would react differently. They would turn to their mother and say, “Mother, this mascot makes me want a Happy Meal — one with carrot sticks and apple slices as a healthier alternative to french fries. That would make me ever so happy, mother.”
Grub Street got a bunch of kids together to see how they would really react to the new mascot, and their reactions are pretty much what you’d expect. “What the heck is that?” one girl responds upon seeing Happy for the first time, which is basically a cleaned-up version of our initial reaction. “Creepy” and “weird” are two words that get thrown around a lot by the kids, which, again, doesn’t really come as a surprise. Our favorite response is probably, “It’s like a little box that’s alive that’s saying, ‘Oh finally, I found a human that I can eat.'” The kids also offer up some ways of fixing Happy, because, as one kid puts it, “People are going to make a joke out of it and it’s going to totally ruin their business.” That may be a bit drastic, but the verdict appears to be in on Happy (if it wasn’t already). Check out the video for yourself above, as a description can only go so far.
W+K New York called on the services of Stephen Strasburg for the latest in their “This is SportsCenter” series and the Washington Nationals ace doesn’t disappoint.
In the 30-second spot, “Frozen Lunch,” SportsCenter host Bram Weinstein angrily searches the break room for his Lean Cuisine while Strasburg ices his arm. Weinstein decides that the best way to find the culprit is to send out an angry email and storms out, while the true whereabouts of his “glazed turkey tenderloins” are revealed. Strasburg and Weinstein’s interactions make for some pretty entertaining moments, including a funny throwaway line from Weinstein near the spot’s conclusion, and it’s nice to see Strasburg getting the spotlight from W+K and ESPN. When successful,”This is SportsCenter” spots can be a lot of fun, and this latest entry from W+K New York definitely qualifies as a success. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
360i and Oscar Mayer have a new campaign championing unsung bacons — turkey bacon, always in the shadow of its porcine relative; and Michael Bacon, whose popularity also pales in comparison to a certain member of his family.
The goal of the campaign, which lives at the landing site www.unsungbacon.com is simple: Oscar Mayer wants to help Michael Bacon gain more Twitter followers than his famous brother. So far, it’s quite the uphill battle. As of press time, Michael trails 1,361 to 430,943. Michael, in case you didn’t know, is an Emmy award winning composer and a member of The Bacon Brothers. The landing site will host videos, photos and facts about the campaign. It’s a clever idea which may get people to reconsider an item they’d otherwise ignore. 360i’s spot, with production company Mssng Peces is pretty funny and well worth a view, noting similarities between the two unsung bacons. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
Lance Reddick, who you should know as Lieutenant Daniels on The Wire, takes center stage in Raleigh-based agencyBaldwin&‘s new campaign for Cree LED Bulbs, entitled “The Room of Enlightenment.”
The digital campaign features Daniels Reddick in a series of loquacious spots extolling the virtues of LED bulbs, which compare favorably to the incandescent ham fryers you grew up with. Relying on solid copywriting and Reddick’s excellent delivery, the spots are memorable without any frills or fancy production touches. The campaign comes on the heels of a recent incandescent bulb ban, with stores still trying to sell their remaining stock of the soon-to-be relics. One spot, “Gray Market” (featured above) pontificates that there will soon be an illicit market for incandescent bulbs where you may find yourself “trading jugs of grandpa’s porch juice for bulbs out of a rusty hatchback from a guy with a tattoo on his forehead who goes by the name of Rattlesnake.” In other, clever spots, Reddick uses a competitor’s oddly-shaped bulb as a ping-pong paddle, and talks metaphorical money goats. Stick around for a couple more spots, along with campaign credits, after the jump. continued…
Kentucky-based agency Cornett IMS’ Beardvertising initiative, which we’ve covered here before, has been nominated for a Webby in the Professional Services category. So how has the agency chosen to promote their cause and garner more votes? Beardvertising, of course. That’s right: Cornett IMS is beardvertising for beardvertising. In case you need a refresher, Beardvertising is advertising via small billboards placed in large, bushy beards (as pictured above). They’re currently in the lead with 36% of the vote, but if you’d like to help “the realist and truest form of native advertising,” head on over to the Webby site and cast your vote.
Digital Kitchen worked with Cards Against Humanity, “the party game for horrible people,” to satirize gamer marketing at the Pax East conference in Boston. The resulting 30 second video is absolutely disgusting.
Digital Kitchen and Cards Against Humanity launched a fake, caffeinated oatmeal called “PWNmeal,”which they dubbed, “The official porridge of e-sports.” The project was meant to satirize the onslaught of marketing targeting gamers are targeted with at conventions, from caffeinated gum to beef jerky (which don’t combine so well). In addition to the above video created by Digital Kitchen, Cards Against Humanity also put together an @pwnmeal Twitter account and pwnmeal.com to make the product seem legit. Gross enough just as an idea, the 30 second video takes things to the next, breakfast evacuating level. Proceed with caution.
W+K creatives Matt Moore and Jason Kreher have reimagined the corny popsicle stick jokes of your youth in a dark, hilarious way.
Their project, SchadenFreezers imagines dark, depressing humor in place of the corny puns you’d expect, and the results are often quite funny. The pair created a series of gifs with the different popsicle sayings, which you might describe as anti-jokes. The humor comes from the juxtaposition of the dark, depressing lines in the cheery context of a popsicle stick. “Why was the ghost sad? A lot of different reasons.” should give you an idea of what to expect, although things get considerably darker than that (and occasionally pretty fucked up). There are definitely some misses, but more than enough funny ones to make wading through them worthwhile. We’ve included a few favorites after the jump. continued…
“So what do you think, you gonna take it?” asks a BMW salesman in KBS+P and production company O Positive’s new spot for the BMW 3-Series. This sends the man into a reverie of past regrets, from dumping a nerdy Brooklyn Decker in high school to passing up a chance to get in on the ground floor of Twitter. The 60-second spot, directed by David Shane is certainly memorable, showing the 3-Series in the beginning of the spot and linking passing up the opportunity to own it to some pretty poor decision making skills. Spoiler alert: the guy decides to buy it. “Regrets” is well produced, paced, and acted, effectively using humor to make a lasting impression. Just one thing though: Does anyone else find nerd Brooklyn Decker hotter than runway Brooklyn Decker, or is that just me?
When an ad starts with Gary Busey saying “If you’re like me, you like talking to things,” you know you’re in for a weird ride, and the 60 second Amazon Fire spot from Wongdoody certainly lives up to that expectation.
Busey initiates conversations with a lamp, his pants, and a bell, as well as thanking the fish in the ocean for being there. He also yells angrily at Roku to “Find Gary Busey!” — obviously the spot is designed to highlight Amazon Fire TV’s voice recognition feature, which Roku lacks. If you’re easily made uncomfortable, you may want to skip this one. But then you probably already knew that. This is Gary Busey we’re talking about here.
Toronto-based Zulu Alpha Kilo has just launched a new global app designed to improve agency efficiency.
The app addresses a very important issue for a lot of agencies: creative directors can be hell to track down for meetings, reviews, or critical approvals. So Zulu Alpha Kilo designed “Find My CD,” which utilizes GPS tracking technology which allows agencies to keep an eye on their creative director’s whereabouts at all times. To accomplish this, the app utilizes proprietary chip technology “inserted just beneath the creative director’s skin” — which Zulu Alpha Kilo stresses is “a very safe, very technical procedure.” The chip then allows agencies to track their creative director’s every move, leading to a drastic increase in efficiency.
“Between client presentations, casting sessions and internal creative reviews, creative directors are hard to pin down,” said Mike Sutton, president, Zulu Alpha Kilo. “Now they’re just a pin on a map.” Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
It can be hard to stand out from the hordes of other applicants when applying for a job. One account service intern hopeful found a pretty ingenious way to do so. Leah ( we don’t have a full name), created a LEGO set of herself in her interview attire and sent it out to her dream agencies, complete with a write up on her capabilities, under the title “Build the perfect Account Service Intern.” We report on a lot of job seeking self-promotional gimmicks, but this has got to be one of the most clever ones we’ve seen. Somebody hire this girl.
Rooster NY has teamed up with Vans for a new series called “How to Do Everything in the World,” starring Gavin McIness, of baby-fighting fame.
The series marks the third straight season Rooster has teamed up with Vans for their “Off The Wall” programs, a common sense match considering the agency/production company’s skateboarding proclivities. “With all the life hacks and listicles available on the web, we wanted to make sure that the really, really, really important things people need to know didn’t slip through the cracks,” says Arzi Rachman. The new series promises to teach viewers how to “fight, drink fly, and more.” And if Gavin McIness’ involvement is any indication, we can probably expect it to be pretty funny. Check out the trailer for yourself above, and keep your eyes peeled for the new series starting on April 23rd at the Off The Wall site.
With the opening series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks (finally) kicking off the MLB season this Saturday in Australia, Hub Strategy, AOR for the Oakland Athletics, have just launched the fifth incarnation of their award-winning “Green Collar Baseball” marketing campaign for the A’s.
There’s been reason to celebrate in Oakland the past two years, as the A’s have won back-to-back AL West titles. This year, for their integrated campaign featuring “eight television commercials as well as print, outdoor, digital & social advertisements,” Hub Strategy wanted to up the personality factor. There’s certainly no shortage of personality for the A’s, and Hub had a blast working with the players on the new campaign, with Hub CEO/Creative Director DJ O’Neil calling it “by far my favorite work yet.”
The feeling is mutual, as A’s VP of sales/marketing, Jim Leahey, says, “We feel that this year’s TV commercials may be our best ever and we are confident that our fans will enjoy connecting with the fun personalities of our players.”
So far, two of the eight TV spots have been revealed: “Tunnels of Greatness” and “Tarp Therapy.” “Tunnels of Greatness” — featuring Josh Donaldson, Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray, Sean Doolittle and Derek Norris — is a lot of fun, built around the idea of extending the “Home Run Tunnel” celebration to other, more mundane aspects of the game. “Tarp Therapy,” which references Donaldson’s spectacular tarp catch from last season, isn’t quite as effective. It’s the kind of concept that might look funny on paper, but doesn’t play out so well on tape (although they deserve bonus points for featuring Mike Gallego). Hopefully the rest of Hub Strategy’s “Green Collar Baseball” spots can build on the momentum of “Home Run Tunnel” and give fans one more reason to cheer on the A’s. Here’s the info we have on the remaining six spots:
Secrets of the Game: Young players Parker, Gray and Norris turn to veteran Brandon Moss for his secrets to success in the majors.
Unicorn 2.0: Doolittle and Parker attempt to take the signature unicorn bullpen ?backpack to another level this year.
Generations: Moss learns that for some fans, being on the field for a fireworks show can fulfill a lifelong dream.
#winning: Doolittle coaches Bob Melvin, Curt Young and Mike Gallego on social media best practices.
Holding Him On: Moss is a talkative guy, and his mouth can be as much of a weapon as his bat.
Pre-Internet: Coaches Young and Gallego both reflect on how much has changed since their 1989 World Championship with the A’s.
You can watch “Home Run Tunnel” above, and stick around for “Tarp Therapy,” along with credits, after the jump continued…
Here’s a fun Friday item for you: Designer Dirty Talk. Created by (big surprise) designers at Bright Red/TBWA in Tallahassee, Florida, the site generates designer double entendres like “Let me undo that for you” and “I do a little back end from time to time.” Visitors to the site can also submit their own Designer Dirty Talk, and, “if it’s hot enough” the designers will add it to the site. We’ve included a couple of our favorites below.
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.
Here’s a fun Friday item for you: 
