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:
L.A./Seattle-based The Pitch alum Wongdoody crafted a new campaign for the nation’s largest take and bake pizza chain, Papa Murphy’s.
The new work from Wongdoody, who have served as Papa Murphy’s AOR since October 2012, promotes the chain’s “HeartBaker” pizza with an ad celebrating family-friendly Valentine’s Day celebrations. “Remember when you were just dating and Valentine’s Day was all about romance and flowers and fancy dinners out?” asks the new spot. Well, then, to paraphrase Louis C.K. “people [came] out of your vagina and [stepped] on your dreams.” Now, according to the “HeartBaker” spot Valentine’s Day is about “the really good stuff.” The online version (featured above) interrupts the sentimentality with a disclaimer that the “good stuff” may include things like “itchy tutus, “getting hand-made Valentines out of the dog’s mouth,” “glitter everywhere,” “mysterious carpet stains” and “nightmares about cupid.”
As Wongdoody chairman and executive creative director Tracy Wong explains, “The original HeartBaker spot is a sweet, poignant take on the family Valentine’s Day dinner…That said, for every 15 seconds of wonderful, ‘I’ll-remember-this-moment-for-the-rest-of my life’ parental bliss, there’s often a lot of funny, messy, chaotic stuff that happens along the way. So we’re poking some fun at ourselves and the perfect angelic child-filled Valentine’s we’ve portrayed in the original spot concept to remind couples that love, romance and humor play a role no matter how they celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
Here’s a free culinary tip: disregard Papa Murphy’s “Love at 425 degrees” tagline. For pizza, you want the oven as hot as possible, so crank that shit up to 500 (or higher). Stick around for the original TV spot after the jump. continued…
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.
New York agency Noise wants to create the world’s longest love song, and they’d like your help.
Creative director Nathan Phillips has created a project called “Love Songs for Lonely People,” which attempts to “write a love song for every single person on the planet.” Visitors to the site are invite to download the track and write a six-second song, post the music video on Vine with the hashtag #LoveSong4U, and to share their favorites on social media. Since the project is still in its infancy, they could really use some help. So head on over to the site and make your contribution if your heart’s into it.
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New York agency Noise wants to create the world’s longest love song, and they’d like your help.
