Can discordant screaming sell ice cream?
Snickers sure hopes so, because that’s the angle it’s going with this new spot for Snickers ice cream bars. Playing on the “I scream, you scream” rhyme, the ad shows a mom and son, a crab, a tattooed bodybuilder, his tattoo and the boardwalk caricature of a married couple all screaming at one of those ice cream trolleys you see around the beach.
The process of logo design is pretty intriguing, particularly when a designer takes you step by step through the development of a mark. The video below is a great example, as Kath Tudball of design firm Johnson Banks explains the creation of a gourmet ice cream startup called Mr. Cooper.
The logo uses negative space to great effect, and also has a nice drippy quality that fits the brand well. But the mark you see above was the end point of a very involved process, which Tudball shows in great detail.
The video is longish, but worth it. Via Creative Bloq.
Parodies of Apple’s “1984” continue to surface at the oddest of times—such as 4/20, America’s unofficial day of marijuana appreciation.
Ben & Jerry’s has created the spot below to celebrate the Brrr-ito’s bold assault on the despotic repression of … ice cream sandwiches. It’s admittedly a rather odd metaphor and cultural callback, but somehow it still works.
So check out the spot, then get ready to “have one rolled for you” on Monday.
It’s getting real at Dairy Queen this month, as the venerable fast-food chain stages an online battle between two of its Blizzard frozen treat flavors for autumnal supremacy.
The showdown: apple vs. pumpkin, and the best part of the tongue-in-cheek campaign is the rivalry it has created between “apple capital of the world” Wenatchee, Washington, and pumpkin festival home Caro, Michigan.
After all the fan votes are counted, one town will be crowned Blizzard Treat Capital of the World. The other will be wiped from the face of the earth, I imagine.
Enthusiastic residents of each town really shine in campaign videos, as they extol the virtues of apples or pumpkins. I want to party with that Mike Myers-esque long-haired Wenatchee dude in the purple cap who says he “can’t get enough apples” because “apples are just happy … happy fruit.” Damn straight, my man!
That said, a compelling case is also made by the kid who proclaims, “I grew a 707-pound pumpkin.”
All of these folks are clearly proud of their communities, but they’re also wink-wink self-aware and in on the joke. It’s all quite good-natured, and plays like both a spoof and a celebration of homespun Americana.
For the record, pumpkin’s currently leading with 62 percent of the vote. Go pick your side.
You might want to grab a snack and get comfortable, because Cornetto's newest ad is an eight-minute short film that is totally worth the watch. As with its other long-form ads, the ice cream brand takes a back seat to a bigger story. In this case, it's a love story.
Between the storyline, the style and Lily Allen's narration and cameo, it feels a bit like a softer and sweeter Judd Apatow movie, and I kept waiting for a Zooey Deschanel appearance. Directed by Lloyd Lee Choi for the U.K. market, the spot is clever and cute and funny, and as an avid fan of the Internet, I particularly enjoyed the part when the story's heroine meets brief fame and gets turned into a meme.
I don't want to give the whole thing away—you'll want to watch it for yourself.
Oh right, it also sells ice cream. Some may argue the product being an afterthought makes for bad advertising, but I think there's something to be said for its entertainment value and the consumer connection. Cornetto has done this before with a romantic three-minute video that's been viewed over 30 million times, and also with a cheesy-but-cute-but-confusing spot last month.
It's also just one spot in Cornetto's "Cupidity" series in the U.K. Others include a film about finding love on a road trip; one where a girl declares, "Everything is ugly beautiful"; and a remake of last month's aforementioned confusing video, minus the techno music. It's heavy on the hipster (Instagram photos, flowers in the hair, I'm sure there's a Pabst Blue Ribbon in there somewhere), but totally cute and appealing to what is likely Cornetto's target—millennials and TwoKays (born after 2000), which is apparently what we're calling the generation after millennials.
For the next video in the "Cupidity" series, I'm hopeful for a story about an underdog competing in a rap battle in Brooklyn.
Other spots from the "Cupidity" campaign:
Their intentions were good, but this ad about real police stopping motorists to give them free ice cream has left some critics saying the feel-good attempt is little more than a corporate-sponsored abuse of power.
Opinions are clearly mixed on the commercial for Unilever-owned Wall's Ice Cream, known in America under brand names like Eskimo and Good Humor. With 500,000 views and 1,266 thumbs-up votes (compared to just 96 thumbs down) on YouTube, the spot seems to be a winner. But the video's comments are awash in negative feedback.
"Oh great, make me late for an appointment so you can play a joke on me," notes one commenter. "I'm sorry, but this is an unacceptable use of government resources.?"
"Apparently abuse of power and playing on people's fear of arbitrary prosecution is cute now," says another.
This isn't exactly an easy time to be building social media goodwill around police officers. The recent #MyNYPD initiative meant to encourage positive photos of cops in the community instead led to a deluge of images of police beating and wrongfully detaining suspects. So it's understandable that some viewers wouldn't enjoy seeing police (or in this case California's Plumas County Sheriff's deputies) pulling over innocent people on a corporation's dime.
But the ad also has its share of fans, several of whom laughably dismissed the haters by pointing out that the ad ends with the comment, "People need to lighten up a little bit."
Best ice-cream bar ever conceived? That would be the Klondike Kandy Bar, born an indeterminate number of months after an illicit tryst between a regular Klondike Bar and a tall, striking, chocolatey candy-bar nurse—according to a male shopper's adult-movie-addled brain in this sweet spot from The VIA Agency.
It's a fun idea, brought to life quite nicely. In particular, the visual look is pleasantly unique, blending real-world footage and animation. "A ton of ads use animated characters. So we made the decision to shoot as much as we could in camera," says Greg Smith, chief creative officer at VIA. "The awkwardness of putting 'real' characters on 'real' sets and then animating their eyes, arms and legs made it different and it helped us stay true to the lo-fi vibe we wanted to portray."
Turns out the Klondike-candy relationship extends beyond the '70s candy-porn set, too. Klondike is partnering with CollegeHumor to produce a comedy series about the couple. That should be interesting—particularly the inevitable reality-show squabbles over why she's the one who's way more phallic looking.
You've seen most of the big viral ads of the year, but not this one—because it was made for the Turkish market by Unilever's Cornetto ice cream brand. It's a short film about a fateful teenage romance, set to a track by Turkish pop singer Yal?n. It's gotten more than 26 million views on YouTube since April, which is pretty incredible, given the market. Notably, though, the spot doesn't even feature ice cream—it's simply presented by Cornetto.
The brand did some similar films in the U.K. this year; the Turkish work was the pilot program. Ben Curtis, senior brand development manager for Cornetto, told Marketing Week: "The short films allow us to take more time to develop a deeper connection with teenagers in a way that we can't in a 30-second spot. Also we know that our teens are always online, and are so creative."
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You would think the epic-ness of a Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich would speak for itself. But just to be safe, Carl's Jr. has layered its new ad (via 72andSunny) for the dessert treat with breathless commentary from the blogosphere and perhaps the most awe-inspiring soundtrack around: Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra," otherwise known as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Can the product possibly stand up to this grand teaser? Judging by the early reviews, yes—yes, it can.
UPDATE: Carl's Jr.'s sister brand Hardee's rolled out a new spot from 72andSunny today—for the Texas Toast Breakfast Sandwich, featuring bull rider and Texas native Douglas Duncan. See that spot below.
Look at Jesus. RT @darrenrovell: Carl's Jr launches its Strawberry Pop Tart Ice Cream sandwich nationwide today http://t.co/ZR265DGhmV
— Dark Skinned Beauty (@_CoDiddy) July 24, 2013
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L’australien James Dive fait le tour des plages avec son installation « Hot With The Chance Of A Late Storm » : un camion de crème glacée fondant aux bords du littoral. Une façon pour l’artiste du collectif The Glue Society de dénoncer le réchauffement climatique. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
That hunky Bradley Cooper can do anything he wants, you understand, including strolling into an elegant cocktail party eating ice cream straight out of the container. Lapses in etiquette be damned—just look at those baby blues! And he even brought his own spoon. It helps that he's visiting The House of Häagen-Dazs, which isn't a real place but more of a sugar-fueled fever dream, in this new spot from Team One in El Segundo, Calif. There's a raven-haired supermodel (Jana Perez) who latches onto the smokin' hot Oscar nominee and onetime Sexiest Man Alive for canoodling purposes. Oh but wait, she just wants his dessert. Sure, she does. The General Mills brand, which shot this all-slow-mo, no-dialogue commercial in an 18th-century Baroque chateau in Prague, has never used a celebrity before. (European brand Magnum used a car-hopping Rachel Bilson in a campaign directed by Karl Lagerfeld for its decadent ice-cream bars a few years ago. Could this be a trend?). The Häagen-Dazs ad, meant to luxe up the brand, comes from director Allen Hughes of the famous filmmaking Hughes brothers. It fairly sizzles, and it's hot outside. Eat up!
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In a move to avoid being included in the list of potential products contaminated with the Salmonella issue, SuperValu has voluntarily recalled various ice cream flavors with peanut products which may potentially be contaminated with salmonella. While there was no supporting proof that these brands, Cub, Jewel, Flavorite, and Richfood, were positively contaminated with Salmonella, SuperValu did not wait for that to happen to avoid the embarrassment.
The products were sold at some SUPERVALU-owned stores including bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Jewel-Osco, and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy in all of the states where they operate. The identified items have not been directly linked to the salmonella outbreak and there have been no reported cases of the illness.
(Source) Press
I’ve been intrigued by the new “Haggen-Dazs loves Honey Bees” campaign for a few reasons. Both the spots and the website are both beautiful and cute and well executed. But what’s more fascinating is the concept and message behind it.
The website has a wealth of information on the bee situation. They’ve even created a Haagen Dazs Bee Board to “provide insight on the honey bee issue,” and are proponents of community outreach. They’re promoting planting bee-friendly flora and donating to bee research efforts underway at Penn State and UC Davis. Haagen-Dazs has also released a new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, with proceeds going to the research efforts, in addition to other “bee-dependent flavors” being identified.
It’s an interesting idea, and a seemingly well-executed campaign. I’m curious how much of the proceeds actually go to research efforts, and how much effort Haagen-Dazs is actually putting forth. The message is good and I certainly hope Haagen-Dazs truly stands behind it and actually follows through. In a time when green and pro-environment movements are rapidly gaining popularity, it’s easy to come out with messages that are green. Actually being green, and not just greenwashing, is a whole different ballgame.
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