Hasta La Creative!

MDC Partners has acquired Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors, which will in turn form a “strategic global partnership” with CP+B.

At least we assume that’s the news. The press release does not include the word “acquisition” and mentions nothing about what portion of the agency MDC will own. It does, however, note the newly empowered network’s plan to unleash “an arsenal of extraordinary creative talent” by giving CP+B access to international staffers.

F&B is, of course, best known for the 2013 “Epic Split” campaign for Volvo Trucks starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. This past December Volvo designated Forsman & Bodenfors as its global strategic creative agency, and recent work for the client includes the “Prologue” launch spot for its “Made in Sweden” campaign, arriving ahead of the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament and starring Sweden national team captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Last September, the agency also teamed up with Iggy Pop in a spot for  H&M called “Close the Loop.”

Since its 1986 inception, the agency has grown to a team of 300, led by CEO Erik Sollenberg and chairman Anna Qvennerstedt. 

“I love Forsman & Bodenfors,” said CP+B chairman Chuck Porter, in a statement. “They only care about great work, and we share so much DNA they’re like our twin who grew up in Sweden. This business always needs re-invention and I think amazing things will come out of this partnership.”

“What we are creating is a fresh, seamless way to tap into the most potent collection of creative talent in the world,” added CP+B global CEO Lori Senecal. “At CP+B we’re building a modern global model that challenges the conventions of legacy agencies.  What ultimately makes us most valuable to global marketers is creating the boldest most inventive ideas that deliver the highest return on creativity, and this partnership amplifies our mission to do that more consistently and brilliantly than ever before.”

If you’re sick and tired of the bland, insipid and often annoying pre-roll ads that are commonplace throughout the web these days, the folks at BETC and D&AD have cooked up something worthwhile in the wake of the latter’s 2015 awards show. The parties involved have unveiled the aptly titled “Ad Filter,” which replaces tired pre-rolls with some of the most memorable ads that happen to be past D&AD winners and will likely make you less inclined to hit skip.

The plug-in works for both Chrome and Firefox and once you hit the on switch, the usual bad pre-rolls get blocked in favor of some of the most classic ads in recent times, including Fallon’s Phil Collins-loving gorilla drummer for Cadbury and the Jean-Claude Van Damme split spot for Volvo. Olivier Apers, executive creative director at BETC Paris, simply states, “We wanted to demonstrate that people don’t hate advertising, they just hate bad advertising.” By trying to inspire a little creativity before people watch their video of choice, we say the ads–all D&AD affiliation aside–were wisely chosen.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: BETC / BETC Digital, France
Chief Creative Officer: Stephane Xiberras
Executive Creative Director: Olivier Apers
Art Director: Alphons Conzen, Jonathan Baudet-Botella
Copywriter: Adrian Skenderovic
Development: Cogit
Motion Design: Raphaël Benhamou

Following the massive success (over 69 million view in less than 3 months) of Volvo’s “The Epic Split” ad starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, it was inevitable that the action star would make a comedic comeback. That comeback also marks Stun Creative’s first foray into feature filmmaking, with the comedy Welcome to the Jungle.

Agency co-founders Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein serve as executive producers on Van Damme’s comedic debut, which was directed by Stun Creative’s Rob Meltzer and stars, in additon to Van Damme, Adam Brody, Megan Boone, Kristen Schaal, Rob Huebel and Dennis Haysbert. Given Stun Creative’s track record with TV promos, as well as their 2013 Webby Award winning online series Presidential Clippings, the leap to filmmaking isn’t such a huge surprise.

The above trailer is worth a few chuckles, unsurprisingly mostly coming from Van Damme playing on his own action star persona. Jean-Claude in a comedic role seems so obvious that it’s almost hard to believe no one has given it a pass before, and Welcome to the Jungle should gain a lot of momentum from “The Epic Split.” A quick search for the film brought up a Village Voice review entitled “Welcome to the Jungle is Satanically Bad,” so you may want to wait before shelling out to see this one in theaters — although “satanically bad” doesn’t necessarily equal “not funny” and I’m pretty sure the guys behind the movie weren’t exactly trying to make high art. Welcome to the Jungle is currently slated for a February 7th release, both in theaters and on-demand. If you just can’t get enough Van Damme, stick around for behind-the-scenes footage after the jump. continued…

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Since hitting YouTube on Wednesday, Volvo Trucks’ mind-blowing “The Epic Split” featuring action star Jean-Claude Van Damme has been watched 25 million times. With the amazing amount of online buzz its gotten, which is continuing today, it’s possible that the title of “Best Ad of 2013″ is now accounted for.

But, as is the case with any great spot that so quickly finds itself woven into the cultural fabric, the new challenge is the make the best parody spot. Above, we see disgraced yet hilarious Toronto mayor Rob Ford in place of JCVD, looking his wonderful, slightly confused self. While nothing really changes from the original spot, the producers, NY-based Artjail VFX, do a seamless job with Ford’s face. Since its upload on Saturday, it’s already gained 120,000 views.

Next we have a lower production parody, “The Epic Banana Split” from Miami Ad School student , Eszter Kazinczy. Props for the new VO copy, and while the art leaves something to be desired, it is a tasty-looking banana split, don’t you think? We’ll keep our eyes open for more, but send us any that you stumble across.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

How do you do create an interesting demonstration of the "stability and precision of Volvo Dynamic Steering"? With the help of Jean-Claude Van Damme and his impossibly flexible legs.

The new video below from Volvo Trucks starts off zoomed in on Van Damme's face, looking calm and collected. As it zooms out you see that he's actually standing with each foot on the side-view mirror of two Volvo Trucks

The trucks, driving in reverse, begin slowly drifting apart, allowing Van Damme to perform one of his signature splits.

With Enya crooning "Only Time" and  the sun setting serenely in the background, Van Damme is looking surprisingly chill for a guy who is potentially facing a shattered pelvis and an insane amount of ice packs should a squirrel find his way into the middle of the road.

His badassery is rivaled only by the ballerina in an earlier Volvo Trucks ad. She slacklines between two speeding trucks and needs to get from one side to the other before a tunnel kills her. (Spoiler alert: she makes it.) It also follows their Running of the Bulls ad and Our President Has Totally Lost His Mind spot.

Despite my body tensing up the entire time watching these ads, I think they're pretty cool and effective, and I like Van Damme in this role way better than the cheesy GoDaddy commercials.