Today the Tokyo and Amsterdam offices of Wieden+Kennedy debuted the first international campaign for client Citizen Watch, which is not a neighborhood safety group but a producer of premium timepieces.
The five-minute spot, which stars photographer Simon Roberts and ex-NATO pilot Jonathan Nicol in an attempt to literally “chase the sunset across the Earth’s time zones”, justifies use of the phrase “short film”:
The team appears to have succeeded in “steal[ing] one night from the planet” and taking a series of sunset images fit to rival anything on your friends’ Instagram accounts (unless they happen to live at the Arctic Circle).
W+K Amsterdam is back with yet another sprawling, upbeat, frenetic spot for Heineken, which is part of the brew brand’s global campaign highlighting a man living it up in his cityscape. The latest spot, aptly dubbed “The City,” features a little Elvis swing as our hero goes on the hunt for a mysterious gal with the help of a host of lost business cards. Along the way, he experiences everything that makes his city so vibrant. The look, sound and feel is basically the template of what we’ve come to expect from Heineken ads in recent years, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Regarding the campaign concept, which revolves around encouraging men to explore their cities, Heineken global senior brand director Gianluca Di Tondotells Marketing, “Men of the world want to make the most out of their time in the city, because they know life only gives them one shot. So they really live their city by seeking out new experiences and adventures and they have an underlying fear of missing out on the best ones.” At the very least, it makes our desk job writing about such experiences rather lame. Credits after the jump.
“What the hell was that?” — That is our (and, we’re guessing, your) reaction to “Oranjekoorts (Orange Fever),” W+K Amsterdam’s 2014 FIFA World Cup spot for Heineken, the agency’s first work for Heineken Netherlands.
The campaign actually began earlier this year with the search for Heineken’s first Chief Orange Officer (you can’t make this shit up), described as a “legitimate [cough] full-time role that sought a representative as Dutch as Heineken, but who shared the same international outlook and would be committed to spreading Orange Fever in The Netherlands and across the globe.” Heineken advertised the legitimate position on their own recruitment channels and throughout the Netherlands. After reviewing more than 2,500 applicants, the position was awarded to Marco van Houwelingen, who will fill the year long role at Heineken’s Amsterdam headquarters.
The 65-second spot features a float representing “everything great about the Netherlands and the Dutch,” making its way through a Brazilian Carnival. Lead by Heineken’s Chief Orange Officer, the float includes a windmill, illusionist Hans Klok, and Dennis Bergkamp, among various other weirdness. Float participants all dance to a samba version of the song “No Limit” by 2 Unlimited, “one of the world’s favorite 90’s anthems” (which is not how anybody outside the Netherlands would describe the song). Watch the confusing mess for yourself above, and stick around for credits after the jump. Maybe you just have to be Dutch to get it.
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…
W+K’s new spot for Booking.com features legendary ghost hunting destination the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco. The Queen Anne, which was featured on an episode of the Travel Channel’s Haunted Hotels, was a boarding school before it was a hotel, and one-time headmistress Mary Lake is said to haunt it.
In the spot above, a woman sleeping in the hotel is awoken by the television turning on by itself. She sees a camera view of something approaching her room, Room 410: the very room Mary Lake is said to haunt. Later the woman sees shots of herself, presumably while Mary’s ghost approaches. We cut out just before this woman wets the bed. At the end we see the tagline “Stay if you dare,” followed by “Over 350,000 accommodations including haunted hotels.” I’m not sure there’s a huge audience who wants to stay at haunted hotels, but I suppose the idea is that Booking.com can accommodate your every whim. Even a weird one like wanting to stay in a haunted hotel. I don’t love it, but it could be the most interesting Booking.com spot since they stole Bob Marshall’s idea of showing someone booking a room during Spain’s Running of the Bulls. Now if they’d only stop the whole “Booking.yeah” thing.
If you’re a paranormal enthusiast and are serious about wanting to stay at a haunted hotel, Booking.com will totally hook you up. They’ve created a Haunted Destination finder on their site. Included are the Queen Anne Hotel, The Stanley Hotel in Colorado (the inspiration for Stephen King‘s The Shining), the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel in St. Petersburg, Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas, The Historic National Hotel in Jamestown, California, The Gettysburg Hotel, and the 1886 Crescent Hotel (a purportedly haunted Arkansas hotel that houses an old morgue in its basement). It’s worth a quick click through for the histories of these paranormal destinations. Credits after the jump. continued…
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