Atmosphere Proximity Tweets Carol Parodies for the Holidays


Instead of caroling door to door, digital agency Atmosphere Proximity (who, you may remember were named North American digital AOR for Emirates back in June) is caroling tweet to tweet with their Twitter account.

The digital agency is sending their slightly off key Christmas carol parodies to disgruntled Twitter users who tweet angrily about subjects like holiday shopping, travel, seasonal overeating, and the lack of good TV this time of year, using the hashtag #TwitterCarols. I’m no fan of Christmas carols, (and I’m perhaps a bit burnt out on holiday items) so I found these kind of hard to listen to. The parodies fail to generate any real laughs, forcefully changing lyrics to songs like “Carol of the Bells” and “Joy to the World,” which inevitably comes across as more cheesy than clever. Atmosphere Proximity would have done well to listen to Guy Holiday’s advice: their take on a holiday card (at least that’s how it was presented to us) lacks animals, memes and reflection — although there are some minor pop culture references. A sloth or cat would have really spruced things up. So far there are four carol parodies: “Carol of the Malls” (featured above), “Kiss Those Skinny Jeans Goodbye,” “It’s the Best Time to Travel of the Year” and “The Hiatus.” Stay tuned for “Kiss Those Skinny Jeans Goodbye” and “The Hiatus” after the jump. continued…

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Meet Guy Holiday, Agency Holiday Card Guru

LA-based agency Ignited created one of the best agency holiday cards of the year by turning to  holiday card guru (and sloth enthusiast) Guy Holiday. Holiday lays down some agency holiday card rules that we hope agencies everywhere will take to heart, while also managing to make us laugh and share his love for sloths.

Ignited describes Guy Holiday as “if BuzzFeed had a baby with Ron Burgundy and then that baby was raised by, well, Agency Spy.” We’re not entirely sure how to take that description, but we think Holiday is a funny character with some good advice regarding agency holiday cards. Guy’s first rule is to “always include a cute animal” because “animals are like mother nature’s stuffed animals.”

This seems like some pretty solid advice. Everybody likes animals, and including one makes your card more memorable. This should be a new requirement for submitting holiday cards: if you don’t have an animal in your video, don’t bother. Preferred animals include foxes, cats and sloths. In denouement, Guy says, “The holidays are about reflection.” Have one sloth? You can use reflection to make it look like there are two sloths. We’re glad Guy brought this up: we have not seen enough reflection in holiday cards this year, so please take his advice and throw a bunch of mirrors into your holiday card next year. Or a bunch of sloths, either way.

Ignited will donate five cents to the American Red Cross for every view, up to $2,500. So, share this video with your friends and co-workers, and help Ignited raise some money for a good cause. It’s funny and it’s only about three minutes long, so you don’t really have any excuses. And please consult Guy’s handful of rules before making any holiday cards.

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Trailer for Netflix’s ‘Fireplace For Your Home’ Gives Away Entire Plot

Everyone loves a good trailer, but all too often these days movie trailers reveal the plot in its entirety.

Unfortunately, such is the case with the recently released trailer for Netflix’s “Fireplace For Your Home.” Initial shots of the fireplace setup cause viewers to wonder if the spark will catch fire and spread, offering a great teaser to the new home fireplace simulation you can stream on Netflix whenever you please, before they go too far and show [spoiler alert] that the fire does indeed spread to the other logs. The tongue-in cheek trailer was put together, we hear, by San Francisco-based agency Muhtayzik Hoffer, who also offers up a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Hoffer employs a good deal of deadpan, self-effacing humor in the behind-the-scenes video, exploring the wood selection process that went into the making of the fire (and the video), while the director offers up his take on “foreground logs” versus “background logs” as well as commentary about happy accidents that occurred during the day of filming. “None of this ashing here on the left was written in,” he explains, “It just kind of happened on the day.” The 2:22 mockumentary, featured after the jump, is well worth a quick chuckle for its look at Hoffer’s supposed idiosyncratic process. continued…

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The ‘Ideas Man’ Sends His 2013 Season’s Greetings

It’s been over six months since we’ve heard from one Floyd Hayes, the “ideas man” who’s actually had a fairly productive year considering that he’s launched not only what he’s dubbed “the world’s fastest agency” but also a guerilla marketing school. Anyhow, with the year coming to a close and the holiday season upon us, Hayes, the former creative director at U.K./NY shop Cunning, has emerged to give us this holiday-themed, self-promotional clip, which is pretty self-explanatory. Well, he is the ideas man, after all.

 

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NY-Based Sister Companies Craft ‘Back to the Future’ Holiday Vine

Vine haters should (and likely already have) probably just skip this one.

New York-based sister companies Bodega StudiosNorthern LightsSuperExploder and Mr. Wonderful worked together to craft a Back to the Future holiday Vine, which you can view above.

It’s a pretty impressive production as far as Vines go, featuring a marshmallow playing the part of Marty McFly, a mini-DeLorean and a pretty real looking flame trail. If you’re looking for a few seconds of mindless holiday fun and/or are an obsessive Back to the Future fan, you can do a lot worse than viewing this one. We’re not exactly sure where the association between the 80s time-travel classic and the winter holidays comes from, but it’s cute and we’ve seen enough standard holiday cards to not bother complaining about such things. Enjoy.

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F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi Spreads ‘Kitchen Kindness’ for Electrolux Brasil

Earlier this month, Sao Paulo-based F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi launched their “Electrolux Kindness Kitchen” campaign for Electrolux Brasil, which filled some of their appliances with food for those who want to do good this Christmas.

Here’s how it works: During this month, “when a consumer buys any of the ‘full’ products, he or she will receive the household appliance at home and Electrolux will donate all the food to those in need.” It’s a pretty simple way to do some holiday philanthropy, and one that can make a world of difference to a family in need. The campaign was designed to give back to the community and highlight “the company’s social positioning in the country.” It includes the above online film, as well as display ads, a hot site, and social media. This campaign’s focus on digital was nothing new for Electrolux, who invested 10% of the company’s communication budget on digital this year — making it the environment they invested in the most.

The video explains the genesis of the campaign, linking it to all manner of small kindnesses, and offers a brief explanation of how it works. It does a good job of introducing the idea behind the campaign and prompting viewers to further action, such as visiting the campaign site.

“Electrolux Kindness Kitchen” is a refreshingly philanthropic campaign, and it gives people a compelling reason to buy a new appliance during the holiday season. More companies should engage in this kind of community action, during December or otherwise. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Leo Burnett Chicago Decorates for Allstate

Allstate Home Decorator

Leo Burnett Chicago (and, we hear, New Zealand digital shop Resn) have created the Holiday Home Decorator for Allstate.

The site lets you enter your home address or use a standard house, and then decorate with a number of items including lights, candles, trees and presents. You can also control the intensity of the snowfall. Depending on your actions, you will be interrupted by a different kind of mayhem, which acts as an extension of a readily recognizable Allstate campaign. If you put up a bunch of lights, for example, you’ll probably get faulty wiring that causes the house to catch on fire. It’s a fun little diversion, and probably the only holiday site that will let you burn your house down. What’s not to like?

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Planit Scares the S**t out of Employees for Holiday Card

As an agency, the folks over at Baltimore’s Planit live by the mantra that “the best ideas should scare you.” So this year, for their annual outlandish holiday card, they decided to scare their employees and record their priceless reactions for the enjoyment of friends and clients.

We’ve seen a lot of holiday cards here this month, but none of them feature a demonic-looking elf popping out of a large present to scare employees. So Planit definitely gets points for originality, and watching people get the crap scared out of them is always entertaining, so there’s really nothing not to like about Planit’s holiday card. We applaud their unusual approach to spreading holiday cheer fear. This kind of thing can only work once, though, as these employees will likely be apprehensive about any large packages, caroling, cameras, etc. in the future.

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Apple Gets Sentimental for the Holidays

And now, an emotional holiday spot for Apple (which sources say is, yes, another TBWA\Media Arts Lab joint).

Entitled “Misunderstood,” the ad (which features Cat Power’s version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”) follows an adolescent boy and his family through a series of holiday events. The boy always seems to be on his iPhone instead of engaging with the rest of the family, and that certainly seems to be the family’s assumption. At the end of the spot, however, it’s revealed that the whole time he was creating a holiday slideshow for his family.

The :90 effort is about as sentimental as you would expect a holiday ad from Apple to be, but benefits from the moment of relative surprise (okay, it’s not exactly a shocking moment) when the boy’s intentions are revealed. There have been plenty of holiday spots that have attempted to be funny or even controversial this year, but not all that many that go for good old-fashioned holiday sentimentality. So, even if it may be a bit overly emotional, this entry from the Cupertino, CA giant is not entirely unwelcome.

 

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And Now, a 2013 Recap Courtesy of Seiden’s Holiday Card

The holiday card for New York agency Seiden features the Harlem Shake, an old lady reading Fifty Shades of Grey, and just about every trend of 2013 that they could fit in 2:39.

Their card begins with a setup of Matt Seiden himself attempting a simple, holiday speech. He’s quickly stopped and told “You have to walk it, not talk it.”

“Let’s see what the agency can do,” Seiden says, and thus begins the barrage of 2013-ness. If you haven’t had enough of Macklemore, the Harlem Shake, YOLO, “What Did The Fox Say?” and other such trends, or you just want to see the Seiden crowd get goofy, check out the video above. And please don’t lick any hammers. Happy holidays.

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Maurice Lévy Returns, Now with Balloons in Tow, for Publicis Groupe’s 2014 Greeting

publicis-groupe2014

Maurice Lévy is back this year for the new Publicis Groupe New Year’s greeting. After toying with YouTube’s functionality last year,  the holding company, with the aid of their DigitasLBi France unit, has once again found a new way to make their greeting interactive.


This year, Publicis built their message around the theme of #TheMoretheMerrier in honor of their expected merger with Omnicom. To accomplish this, they’ve made it so “The more people that join in during the video, the merrier it will become.” So, what does that mean exactly? Well, if you watch the video alone, nothing special happens. But if you watch with a friend, Maurice Lévy will deliver his speech in a confetti storm. Adding more people to the mix will result in “gospel singers, cheerleaders, Chinese dragons and a few other surprises.” It’s a pretty cool concept, managing to be interactive in an intriguing new way.

 

To accomplish this, Publicis’ tech team developed “a fancy facial detection algorithm that allows a webcam to count how many people are actually watching the video together.” The facial recognition software was conceived by “a 21 year old Russian math genius” working for DigitasLBi France. The software is the “first of its kind to detect up to ten faces simultaneously” while the video plays. “The More the Merrier” is the first video to count the number of viewers, rather than views, on YouTube. That’s a lot of technological firsts for a New Year’s greeting. By the way, in case you were wondering, it takes 1,487 balloons to cover Maurice Lévy.

Credits after the jump. continued…

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Victors & Spoils Shares an, Err, Unusual Holiday Card

Consider this a warning: you will not be able to unsee this.

Those Boulder-based, crowdsourcing-loving folks at Victors&Spoils may have just delivered the most unforgettable holiday video of the year, transforming a hot model into a bikini-clad Santa Claus.

But the video isn’t just disturbing for the sake of being disturbing, there’s a sort of feminist message behind it. It opens with the text “Ad agencies go to disturbing lengths to create the perfect image,” before referencing Tim Piper’s “Body Evolution” video showing a (already thin) model airbrushed into an anorexic stick of a woman. Then, Victors&Spoils admits, “Guess we’re no different” before showing the process of transforming said model into Santa Claus. It’s a pleasant holiday cocktail of funny and disturbing, and a nice parody of Piper’s “Body Evolution” video (that doesn’t mute the message of the original video, but rather builds on it). I’m always for anything calling attention to the unhealthy body image issues caused by photoshopping models and celebrities to unhealthy proportions, so a holiday video that does so with humor is going to win major points in my book. And who will be able to forget the slow transformation from bikini-clad blonde to bikini-clad Santa? No one, that’s who. Credits after the jump.

continued…

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Apollo Studios Faces Blue Christmas without Piano

It will be a blue, piano-less Christmas in Toronto. We’re not sure how you lose a piano exactly, but the folks over at music/sound house Apollo Studios (which was founded in Montreal and also has space in LA) are facing sad times after misplacing theirs.

The above 5:05 mockumentary documents the studio’s beloved, lost piano and the sadness spread in its absence. It opens on Dave Douglass of Anomaly opining that there will be no emotive piano for their spot about “a kitten teaching a puppy to walk again after an accident falling down the stairs chasing a toilet paper roll.” You just can’t get the same kind of emotive, heartfelt track with woodwinds, he complains. Harry Knazan of Apollo can barely hold back the tears reminiscing of the piano’s use in tracks that were “so slow, so sensitive.” Tom Hutch opines that you “can’t replace a piano, just like that, it’s not a machine.”

So the Apollo team gets a forensic team in to look for any clues that can help lead to the piano’s whereabouts or a potential suspect, while other members of the team walk the city putting up fliers for the missing instrument. The team tries a slew of other instruments: harp, horns — but, as Jennifer Cursio puts it, “You can’t replace the piano with anything. Can you picture Elton John with a fucking marimba? It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work.” The video references “The Marketer’s Anthem,” which we covered last week, and culminates with a smashed ukulele. Who doesn’t love watching a ukulele get smashed?

Apollo’s mockumentary is a nice, lighthearted piece of self-deprecating  humor. It does such a great job taking on the advertising industry’s overuse of piano, we almost wouldn’t be surprised if fewer tracks used the instrument in the coming year — almost. More importantly, it succeeds at being funny. And during one of the most stressful times of the year we could all use a few laughs, right? Good luck finding your piano, Apollo. Godspeed.

If you have any clues to the whereabouts of the piano in question, please let the folks at Apollo know immediately. We’re not sure how much longer they can hold out without it.

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RAPP Crafts Charming Animated Holiday Card via Vine

The folks over at full-service agency RAPP, have created a charming animated holiday card using Vine.

Its elegant simplicity (a short animation of ornaments climbing up a Christmas tree) makes it simultaneously one of the best uses of Vine and one of the more tasteful agency holiday cards of the season. Even Vine-haters may come around on this one (okay, probably not). It’s worth a quick view (above) as it won’t take more than a few seconds. Short, tasteful and to the point: what’s not to like? If you’re having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit, with a little over a week to go, it just may help nudge you over the edge. Thanks for keeping it classy, RAPP.

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Erwin Penland, Saint Nick Team Up to Create ‘Klaus Score’

It appears Santa is keeping up with the times and has embraced social media. Erwin Penland (which of course took over ad duties on Denny’s a few months back) has teamed up with Old Saint Nick himself (and, we suspect, the NSA) to create the “Klaus Score” (which we assume is inspired by Klout score), a new social media metric measuring naughtiness/niceness.

To determine if you’ve been naughty or nice this year, “Santa factors in your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram activity to his complex algorithm” and determines whether you’ll be getting a lump of coal or a bunch of bright, shiny packages. Watch the video above to learn more about the magical algorithm Erwin Penland and Santa developed to measure social media niceness. If you’d like to find out your own Klaus Score, head over to getyourklausscore.com. It may be the best way to discover whether you’ve landed on the naughty or nice list this year. With only nine days until Christmas time is running out to change your status.

My Klaus Score is a 60, making my current status “Master of Merriment.” Let us know your own Klaus score in the comments section. We suspect a few of you may have been naughty.

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Critical Mass Creates Drink Named After Post-Pitch Haze

If you’re wondering what to drink tonight, we just might be able to help you out…

The folks over at Critical Mass feel that “there’s nothing like the feeling of a pitch.” They’ve created a bevvy named after the “warm, unfocused and generally fuzzy feeling” that occurs after “…the deadlines have somehow been met and the adrenaline has faded”: Pitch Fuzz.

You can learn to make pitch fuzz by watching the above video. That the video is set to “Auld Lang Syne” and the drink contains mulled cranberry syrup make it appear that pitch fuzz is something of winter holiday drink, but it seems refreshing enough to have all year. What could be a more appropriate drink to have while watching Mad Men? (Other than perhaps an Old Fashioned.)

For your convenience we’ve included Critical Mass’ recipe for Pitch Fuzz below, including some approximate translations of their measurements.

Pitch Fuzz:

Pre-chill a coupe glass and set aside
Add 1 ounce (2/3 of a shot) of rye whiskey
Add 1/4 ounce (about 2 teaspoons) of triple sec
Add 3/4 ounce (1/2 a shot) of mulled cranberry syrup
Add 3 dashes of orange and aromatic bitters
Add ice to the mixing glass
Stir for 20 seconds
Strain into the coupe glass
Top with champagne
Add 3 drops of whiskey-aged bitters (optional)
Garnish with a ribbon of orange zest
Serve and enjoy

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Draftcb Releases Holiday ‘Ship My Pants’ Sequel for Kmart

If you were a fan of Draftcb’s almost-expletive filled “Ship My Pants” spot for Kmart, (which we covered back in April) you might be glad to learn that the agency has just released a holiday follow-up, “Ship My Trousers,” which hopes to recapture the viral success (over 20 million views) of that spot.  Draftcb’s sequel follows the formula of the original very, very closely. In fact, “Ship My Trousers” uses the same actors, and most of the same lines, as the original “Ship My Pants” spot. It’s pretty much the same ad, just adapted for characters from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If you enjoyed the original “Ship My Pants,” chances are you’ll find the sequel amusing as well. If you didn’t, you probably won’t want to bother watching “Ship My Trousers” above. Personally, while I don’t understand what characters from A Christmas Carol are doing shopping at Kmart, the “I just shipped my bed” guy’s delivery just about makes up for it. Idea for next time: hire the actor who played Clay Davis on The Wire to say “sheeeip.” Credits after the jump. continued…

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Bajibot Shares Holiday Video, Complete with Dogs

With less than two weeks until Christmas, the folks over at Bajibot (fresh off designing the beta site for DJ Pierce’s Global Glue Project) have released their holiday video.

Addressed to family, friends, partners, and clients, the 1:25 video offers a look at Bajibot and the folks who work there. The shop’s office seems to have everything a young creative could ever want: dogs, silly string, fancy coffee, more dogs, decorative toys, fridge full of beer, etc. Bajibot’s holiday video could double as promotional video and recruiting tool. We see a lot of these holiday videos, so it’s kind of hard to find something in Bajibot’s that stands apart, but they’ve at least crafted a nice, friendly message for friends and clients. And they have cute dogs.

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T3 Redefines a Holiday Tradition with ‘Techorate The Tree’

Last year, Austin-based  T3 used 3D printing to create a cute stop motion video wishing everyone a happy holiday. This year, T3 is reinventing a Christmas tradition: decorating the tree.

Their reinvention, which they’ve dubbed “Techorating” involves “inviting web users to amp up the holiday spirit by sending tweets to launch ornaments at the tree.” Users tweet to suggest the techoration of their choice, be it tinsel, ball, bird, candy cane, nutcracker, or fruit cake. The techorations are launched, if the introductory video is to be believed, out of a candy cane shaped barrel, to land where they will on T3′s tree. If you’re interested in participating, head on over to T3′s Techorate The Tree site, and don’t forget to tweet your launch items during launch line hours (from 8AM to 8PM) on December 12th and 13th (that’s tomorrow and Friday). We see a lot of holiday items here at Agency Spy, but this one stands out as especially fun and out of the ordinary. As far as we’re concerned, firepower plus nutcracker plus Christmas tree is always a winning formula. Let us know your techoration choices in the comments section.

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Can We All Agree to Stop Using ”Twas The Night Before Christmas,’ Please?

Stop Using Twas..This one’s a bit personal…

Seeing as how we’ve covered two spots using the poem commonly referred to as “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” in just the past two days, we couldn’t be happier that someone created a Tumblr called “Stop Using “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.” We get that it’s something of a quintessential Christmas story, but it’s simply been done to death, and it’s not like there’s a shortage of Christmas material to borrow from.

The Tumblr produces a convincing list of the poem’s overuse, featuring the two we’ve covered in the past couple days and a long list of other ads using the poem, both old and new. Maybe a visual record of the poem’s overuse will help convince agencies to finally retire the practice. Whether or not they successfully curb the use of the poem, we applaud ”Stop Using “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” for their much-needed public service. If you come across an ad using the ubiquitous poem, you can join the cause by uploading it to the site. Or you can just peruse their archive of ”‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” spots.

Since the site doesn’t offer up alternatives to the over-used poem, we thought maybe we could ask our readers what they’d like to see used in its place. Personally, if we must borrow from the classics, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more homages to O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.” Please share your ideas in the comments section. If the proper creatives see it, you just might spare us all another ”‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” commercial.

 

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