Russian creative agency Hungry Boys has launched a new animated digital campaign to promote the release of the upcoming film “Startup,” about “the burgeoning startup scene in Russia from the early 90s until now,” slated for an April 3rd release. (Here’s a link to the trailer, in case you speak Russian.)
The site allows users to answer a series of questions (after taking all your Facebook info) designed “ to determine whether or not people have what it takes to become an entrepreneur and what sort of startup they might consider becoming involved in.” But don’t take the questions, or the results, too seriously. It’s really just a fun way to promote the movie. Many of the questions have more to do with pop culture preferences than anything pertaining to business, and the startup suggestions are pretty goofy and ridiculous. Here are my results:
Other possible outcomes include deciphering animal noises, personal Instagram cameraman, and home ghost rentals. Head on over to the site to give it a shot for yourself, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
Back in October, we brought you news of Workwankers, a site created by Joe Sayaman, Peter Cortez and Sam Mylarczyk that lets one creatively vent about stereotypical “workplace wankers” who seem to be situated in every office. Since then, the parties involved say the site has taken off, as they’ve received hundreds of submissions that have resulted in the creation of 14 new characters (including the ones below as well as others like MacSurly, Stoneface and Deckhead).
The Workwankers crew has also caved to popular demand for them to open a store, which they are launching online with a limited run of 15 4 x 6″ postcards featuring the original Workwankers characters, available for ten bucks, plus shipping. Check out a couple of our favorites from the new batch of Workwankers below, and head on over to the site to order your postcards, if interested. Credits after the jump.
Vanilla Ice appears as a grocery store worker stocking shelves and rocking out to his own “Ninja Rap” in a new spot from CP+B promoting Kraft’s ubiquitous macaroni and cheese-like food product, now with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shaped pasta.
The spot plays on the nostalgic humor surrounding Vanilla Ice when a mom starts singing and dancing along with him. Her son is not pleased by this turn of events, and he angrily puts the box of Kraft Mac+Cheese in the cart and walks away as Ice–aka Rob Van Winkle–utters his trademark “Word to your mother” line. CP+B will run with several #WordToYourMother memes over the course of the new campaign, and also plans to reward the brand’s “most fervent Facebook & Twitter fans with Golden Autographs –limited edition boxes of Kraft TMNT Mac & Cheese that were props featured in the commercial and signed by Vanilla Ice himself.” Because Vanilla Ice autographs are still something people want, apparently.
The new campaign is a fun continuation of Kraft’s “You Know You Love It” and a fond reminder of TMNT days gone by for those of us who grew up with the turtles. Now, before Michael Bay ruins the franchise, let’s all take a moment to remember this wonderfully terrible moment in cinematic history:
If you still haven’t had enough of Vanilla Ice (You’ve had over 20 years to have enough of Vanilla Ice, what’s wrong with you?) stick around for a behind the scenes video, along with credits, after the jump. continued…
Today, Saatchi & Saatchi New York is launching the first ever campaign for the gun responsibility organization Evolve, encouraging people to take personal responsibility for gun safety and generally not be dumbasses.
Saatchi & Saatchi’s pro-bono campaign features a short, satirical video called “The Bill of Rights for Dumbasses.” The 1:40 video portrays Thomas Jefferson and other historical figures debating the language of the second amendment. Jefferson thinks the amendment runs a little long, and after much debate, convinces the rest of the council to remove the “as long as they aren’t being dumbasses about it” part from the amendment. While the founding fathers are debating the matter, viewers are treated to a humorous montage of gun owners engaging in questionable practices, before Jefferson concludes it’s common sense that you shouldn’t act that way with a gun. The video ends with the founding fathers playing pinata with a gun, followed by the tagline, “It’s the right to bear arms, not the right to be dumbass” and a message prompting viewers to go to takeonthecode.com and sign the code of gun responsibility.
Evolve co-founder Rebecca Bond hopes that “Humor can be a gateway to taking away the defensiveness that is the legacy of these discussions.” Joe Bond, also an Evovle co-founder, added, “We want the ‘Dumbass’ concept to catch on in popular culture the way ‘friends don’t let friends drive drunk’ did for safe driving.”
Since it’s rare to find people discussing guns without getting hysterical about it, Saatchi & Saatchi’s employment of dumb humor is somewhat refreshing. But will it really chip away at the defensiveness that gun rights activists feel when discussing anything related to guns? Or are they more likely to take offense at the video depicting gun owners, and even founding fathers, as dumbasses? Unfortunately, I doubt the video will convince many viewers to “take on the code,” because even though Evolve professes to be a “third voice” in the gun debate without political affiliation, gun rights activists will still likely view the video’s satire as an attack on them. Meanwhile, the video will appeal to plenty of gun reform proponents — people who don’t need any convincing on the importance of gun safety, and mostly don’t own guns (and therefore have no need to take Evolve’s pledge). That’s too bad, because Evolve’s responsibility code is really just common sense and something any gun owner should be able to get behind — which makes this feel like a missed opportunity. Credits after the jump.
In case you forgot or never heard, nearly three years ago, a merry prankster left a rambling, sometimes scathing, often times amusing 17-minute-long voicemail for Big Spaceship CEO, Michael Lebowitz. At the time, it was intriguing enough that Lebowitz himself posted about it on his blog. Well, not sure if one Sam Hyde is the man behind the infamous VM, but whatever the case, the Brooklyn-based comedian and his Million Dollar Extreme crew have reposted the diatribe, which as you’ll hear is supposed to come from Lebowitz’s conscience. Though it was originally sent in 2010, the messages within, which promote Big Spaceship as “Chuck E. Cheese for people in their early 30s who wish they were in their late 20s” and a shop where folks are “programming Flash games” and “dropping bomb ass tweets,” don’t seem too dated. Whatever the reason for resurrecting the beast, it’s a decent lunchtime listen, though headphones are strongly recommended.
W+K Portland has unveiled “The Power of Hair” for Old Spice, the “newest, never-been-done-before interactive digital experience.”
The new site is an extension of W+K’s “For Hair That Gets Results” campaign promoting Old Spice’s new haircare and styling products, featuring the same anthropomorphic hair, and comes on the heels of the “Boardwalk” and “Meeting” spots Old Spice debuted late last month. Visitors to “The Power of Hair are greeted by a testimonial video with a young man extolling the virtues of Old Spice’s hair products. Predictably, this includes attention from the ladies and respect around the office. Less predictably, this includes Huey Lewis songs. “When you’ve got great hair like this, you’d be surprised by how many Huey Lewis songs it can play on the piano,” the now bald man says.
Visitors to the site are then asked to pick a Huey Lewis song, and the hair (which by now has slithered off of the guy’s head) will play them on piano, occasionally adding in some percussion. You can pick from among 29 of Lewis’ greatest hits, including “The Power of Love,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock n’ Roll,” “Bad is Bad” and “Doing It All for My Baby.” It’s a pretty absurd idea (and yeah, we’re pretty sure no one has done this before), but then this is the kind of silliness we’ve come to expect from W+K’s work for Old Spice and a fitting extension of the “For Hair That Gets Results” campaign, complete with a perfect title. Give “The Power of Hair” a try above or at the site, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
In honor of Presidents Day, the folks behind LasVegas.com/Vegas tourism are offering full presidential pardons for your long weekend debauchery. To get your Twitter-based absolution, just confess your sins and tweet #VegasPardon. Or if you just so happen to be at the Las Vegas airport today, you can get pardoned in person and start your shortened work week anew tomorrow.
We couldn’t think of a more fitting way to close out this, the most manufactured of holidays, than with this lovely ode to Valentine’s Day from commercials director Clay Weiner, the man also responsible for this Halloween-themed ode to L.A. vacuousness. Hell, if these two hapless bastards can get “confident with the ladies,” maybe you can too. While the music vid feels a little Lonely Island-esque (though even more over the top), on this V-Day night as we go it alone, we’ll take it…with a little smile in tow.
Philly-based Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners created a site called “Ranch Love” which, through a series of highly scientific questions, matches up visitors with one of their employees and lets them send a Valentine’s message.
Created by “1,000 developers” in “10 minutes,” visitors to the site are met with a scary cupid man-child, told to choose to between being set up with a male, female, or a spectrum, and then answer a series of quirky “this or that” style questions to find their perfect RTO+P date with an ad man or woman who “won’t be able to go five minutes without checking their phone.” To answer the question of why they created the site, the agency says, “RTO+P believes in only the most sophisticated, scientific and highly calibrated means of matching people. So Happy Valentine’s Day and good luck finding your love match. Or lust match. Or…you know, whatever.”
So if you have a couple of minutes to kill, a warped sense of humor, and won’t be too frightened by the disturbing cupid man-baby, head on over to “Ranch Love” and find your match. Here are my results:
Last month, we brought you news of four creatives — Jon Barco, Andy Dao, Bryan Denman, and Michael Lopez — who launched a campaign to make the “Ice Cube’s A Pimp” Goodyear blimp of Ice Cube‘s classic “It Was A Good Day” a reality on National Good Day Day, January 20th, while raising money for the South Central charity A Place Called Home. The campaign went viral, and Goodyear took notice. While they were reluctant to fly that particular message, Goodyear did indeed commemorate January 20th with a “Good Day Blimp,” and even offered the kids of A Place Called Home a ride-along on the blimp.
Tool’s Jason Zada, who you may remember from the award-winning and creepy “Take This Lollipop,” was there to document the process. Ice Cube was on hand, thrilled to help out A Place Called Home, and the Good Day Blimp crowdfunding crew couldn’t have been happier (well, except maybe if Goodyear had run with the original message). If you’ve been following this story at all, it’s well worth the four minutes to see this charitable campaign come to fruition, and to hear Ice Cube‘s thoughts on the matter. Here’s hoping you all have a good day.
Minneapolis-based agency space150 have created “Industry Terms of Endearment,” a group of Valentine’s Day e-cards with suggestive industry term double entendres, like “I need a digital deep dive,” “Let’s bang it out over the weekend,” “Let’s measure member growth,” and “I want to test your load time.” The phrases are accompanied by images that help increase the suggestibility. It’s a light-hearted, fun little project well worth a quick look, especially if you’re in need of some humor this Valentine’s Day.
In related news, space150 is now Beavis and Butthead’s favorite agency. Check out a couple more of our favorites below.
Doner created a new global campaign called “Mirage” for FIAT, in promotion of their new Fiat 500L, the first four door vehicle from the automaker (which we guess is now officially Fiat Chrysler Automobiles). “Mirage” enlists the help of Diddy and Pharrell‘s hit “Happy,” which you may recall as the song from the world’s first 24-hour music video, and the soundtrack to Despicable Me 2.
“Mirage” is (as you might have guessed) set in the desert. Two lost travelers searching for rescue see Diddy drive by in a Fiat, but dismiss the sighting as a mirage. When they then stumble on Diddy‘s REVOLT soiree, they again dismiss the vision as a mirage, with one of the travelers pointing to the new Fiat 500L and saying, “The Fiat over there has four doors. Fiat only makes small cars, it’s not real.” The line draws attention to the misconception that Fiat only builds small cars as a way of introducing the new Fiat 500L, further cemented by the tagline, “Unbelievably Big” (which is sure to elicit snickers and/or “That’s what she said” jokes from certain corners of the ad community). In the spot, Diddy once again proves himself a much more talented comedic actor than rapper (for further evidence, see Made or Get Him to the Greek), delivering the spot’s punchline (which I won’t reveal here) with great timing.
Doner’s global campaign will roll out this Thursday, with the TV spot running both nationally and internationally, and will also include online components. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
George Ernst III, creative director at Tenthwave Digital, and Ricky Bacon, VP of engineering at Noise Marketing, are behind a new site called “What The Fuck Is My Brief?”
The site generates a random, ridiculous brief when you visit, followed by responses like “Get Spike Lee to direct that shit” and “I swear to God if you say ‘earned media’ I’m going to fucking cut you,” which, when you click on them, generate another brief. We’ve seen plenty of sites in a similar style before, but as these go this is one of the funnier ones. There’s also enough variety to keep you clicking for awhile. Check out some of our favorite briefs below, and head on over to the site for the full experience.
It seems our coverage of Floyd Hayes has apparently been with some disdain over the years but the self-proclaimed “Ideas Man” decided to turn negative into positive in honor of Valentine’s Day. We’ll keep this short since Hayes has touched a nerve or two over time. The man has decided to transform the negative comments he’s received on this here site and create the image above, which we couldn’t help but resist posting. Do you feel the love?
In other pizza-related campaign news, what is a professional baby? How does one go about becoming a professional baby? At what point does an amateur baby turn professional? These and other questions come to mind after watching mcgarrybowen’s “Baby Waterskiing” spot from their #GoForGreatness campaign.
The YouTube inspired spot, which Whitehouse Post editors Tim Warmanen and Carlos Lowenstein sliced together for Pizza Hut’s YouTube-inspired “Go For Greatness” Super Bowl campaign (which also features the spot “Grandma Drummer”) shows several seconds of a baby named Ryder waterskiing before flashing the warning “Do not attempt. Professional baby.” At this point it becomes hard to pay attention to the rest of the ad, which promotes Pizza Hut’s new hand-tossed pizza, because how you can you not dwell on the “professional baby” disclaimer? The 30 second ad ends by inviting viewers to “Upload your greatness” to Pizza Hut’s YouTube page. Especially if you have a professional baby in the house. Stick around for “Grandma Drummer” and credits after the jump. continued…
Gavin McIness, the Rooster creative director who last November taught us all how to fight a baby, wrote an article explaining ten reasons why old punks make great dads, and it’s pretty convincing.
Among McIness’ arguments are that old punks are used to having roommates who puke on them, don’t mind looking like shit, are never embarrassed, understand insane ideas, and are better able to explain to their kids why drugs are bad: “Pot makes movies funny, but it kills your ambition. One Molly pill makes music better, but you’ll bad-trip when you get older. Adderall is just speed, and we saw what that did to Lemmy. Cocaine won’t kill you, but it will turn you into a paranoid douche. Oh, and don’t pour hard liquor up your ass. It will give you alcohol poisoning.”
McIness also mentions how “slamdancing prepares you for being attacked” by your kids, “skinheads are giant babies,” and the cacophony your children cook up banging on garbage cans and pans doesn’t sound all that different from, say, The Dead Kennedys’ “Government Flu.” He also shares the hilarious and disgusting story of when his infant daughter’s nose kept running so he “sucked out about a pound of snot before spitting it into the sink,” only to find out later that “the Swiss had invented a handy rubber tube” for that purpose. Head on over to Taki’s Magazine for the rest of “10 Reasons Old Punks Make Great Dads.”
Chances are you were watching Sunday night when Bob Dylan actually asked, in a Chrysler ad reaching over 100 million people, “Is there anything more American than America?”
It stands out, amidst stiff competition, as the most ridiculous line uttered during the barrage of Super Bowl advertising. The rest of the spot almost doesn’t even matter, since all people will remember is that one terrible line that begs to be parodied. And now it has been. A not as of yet identified Miami Ad School student created this parody using the footage from the Chrysler spot, dubbed with their best Dylan impression waxing ridiculous on America. With lines like, “Cuz ‘American’ is America’s adjective, and sometimes it’s a noun for people in America” and “Being an American person? Well, that takes being a person in America” the parody does a good job at pointing out what’s so ridiculous about not just the specific Chrysler ad in question, but a whole genre of overly-patriotic advertising. Now if only we knew who was responsible…
Following the release of W+K Amsterdam’s “The Odyssey” last week, Heineken has released a tongue-in-cheek response to the comment section skeptics who questioned the spot’s authenticity.
The 2:10, presented as “the genuine response of our official PR representative Dymfke van Der Gaal,” replies directly to YouTube commenters who publicly questioned the authenticity of the individual talents in “The Odyssey.” As evidence, Heineken presents the casting calls for the guys in the ad, which are predictably goofy. In addition the PR response video, Heineken has also uploaded the casting calls for each of the talents featured in “The Odyssey.” The PR response fits well with the lighthearted tone of the campaign, and reinforces its core message. As Sandrine Huijgen, Global Communications Director at Heineken puts it, “When we saw the comments about The Odyssey TVC, we wanted to show that there are no boundaries between real and fake, proving that real men have unique skills, and everyone is legendary at something.” Stick around for the original “The Odyssey” spot and credits following the jump. continued…
Production company Henry & Aaron are behind this (intentionally) over-the-top public service announcement for the Learn for Life Foundation.
In the spot, some youngsters who skip out on school (we learn later) for a day frolicking at the beach suddenly start exploding, body bits flying everywhere. The message “This is what happens when you slack off” ends the spot, suggesting that skipping school dramatically increases your risk of spontaneous combustion.
Co-creator Henry Inglistold Uproxx that the spot he created with partner Aaron McCann was “about contradicting standard advertisements – it’s a bit of a f*ck you to advertising in general…It’s playing on those idealised commercials of people breaking free from their confines.” Set Yourself Free” also seems to be a self-conscious play on the historically anything-but-self-conscious ridiculousness of PSAs. Although “Set Yourself Free” is kind of funny, we have to wonder if the whole thing is just too ridiculous to get its message across — especially since, before they start blowing up, everyone seems to be having a really good time.
Looking for an alternative to a multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad? Enter “Digital Streaker,” a site which launched this past Wednesday, offering brands the opportunity to upload their logo and place it in front of a streaker’s schmeckel. Once you upload your logo, you simply select a site for the digital streaker to run naked across, and then you’ll receive a unique link to the site featuring your logo blurring out digital streaker’s man bits.
Don’t have a logo in mind but want to participate in this bit of Internet mishigas anyway? That’s cool, Digital Streaker also gives you the option to blur out his putz with a cat face, a dolphin, a shuttlecock, pancakes, Kim Jong-un, or a bowling trophy. You can also choose between cheerleader streaker, feathered boa wearing streaker, luchador streaker, and horse mask streaker. I went with luchador streaker with a cat wang, which I sent on over to the official Scientology website.
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.
