Swirl Creatives Ask, ‘Do Soulmates Exist?’

With Valentine’s Day less than two weeks away, a few creatives at San-Francisco based agency Swirl are releasing a video called “Less Than One” with an accompanying website.

The 5:30 “Less Than One” explores the question, “Do you believe in a soulmate?” as a couple wrestle with that question. The woman asks her boyfriend this at the beginning of the video, and he replies that it just doesn’t make sense. He then examines the likelihood, mathematically, of her finding the right guy, and by the end seems to concede that perhaps fate does play a role in finding the right person. “Less Than One” is well-produced, written, and acted enough to make all this watchable and slightly less cheesy than the synopsis I’ve just provided might suggest. The accompanying website allows users to input information about their location, age, and romantic preferences to calculate their own chances of finding a soulmate — although their calculations seem to ignore the possibility of finding someone outside your nearest city, kind of a big oversight in the age of Internet dating sites. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Pereira & O’Dell Shows the Power of Skype with ‘Stay Together’

The onion alert is in full effect. Skype has been promoting their global capabilities with a “Stay Together” campaign produced by Pereira & O’Dell, and the fourth video in the series, “The Born Friends Family Portrait,” is a smart showcase of the program’s utility. Two girls, Sarah from Indiana and Paige from Auckland, were both born without fully developed left arms and formed a long distance friendship over the years. Sarah and Paige are now teenagers, and as you can see in the accompanying clip, finally met in-person. It’s touching and respectfully filmed.

The three prior videos cover similar stories – a father talking to his family still in Africa, a zookeeper in America keeping tabs on an animal family in Australia, and a two young cousins (common theme) closing the gap between Brazil and America. We should probably expect more tearjerkers from Skype, because these are the kind of tales that sell themselves. No misdirection or exploitation, just a documentary setup that has the right kind of appeal. Credits after the jump.

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Zoosk, C+K Unleash ‘Heart Friend’ for Love Advice

In early June, San Fran-based Camp + King took over as the first AOR for the mobile dating site Zoosk. Seven weeks later, we herald the return of Heart Friend, the chatty heart-shaped mascot who is now doling out dating advice for inquiring users. Zoosk asked its users to post questions on Facebook, and then the Zoosk team selected the best posts for our little buddy, Heart Friend.

Each week, Heart Friend will answer one question by video for the site’s YouTube channel. This week: what to wear on a first date. Heart Friend does some rambling about men being bulls and then goes into an awkward aside about a red dress. Heart Friend has a man’s voice, but then shows up wearing a dress, which is supposed to make you laugh, I think? Cupid must already be under contract elsewhere. Credits after the jump.

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