Hasta La Creative!

Usually, when you capture the attention of a prominent jury member at Cannes, it’s a good thing. But that’s not the case with this Nivea promotion from Jung von Matt/Elbe featuring a remote-control seagull shitting sunscreen called “Care From the Air” (Apparently “Turds From the Bird” was rejected).

Bartle Bogle Hegarty co-founder and Cannes Lion jury president Sir John Hegarty told a group of journalists at the festival, “One [campaign] we debated long and hard was the flying seagull from Nivea. Without question, this was one of the pieces that caught our attention.” As you can probably ascertain, that statement was dripping with sarcasm. 

“The big, big problem is kids on beaches don’t have enough sunscreen on. They run around and it rubs off. So they developed a [robotic] seagull that flies across the beach and basically shits suntan cream from Nivea. This is, as you can understand, something we had to take very seriously,” Hegarty added, before finally dropping the act and saying outright “It’s the most stupid thing I think I’ve seen in my whole life. I actually thought the Monty Python team had gotten together and entered it into [Cannes], to see if we would vote for it.” Ouch. 

Is the promotion really all that bad, though? Check out the case study below and decide for yourself:

As Hegarty explained, the campaign boils down to a remote-control seagull excreting Nivea Kids Sunscreen on unsuspecting children. The idea being that kids, who need sunscreen the most, are the least likely to use it. In the case study video, children run away when their parents try to apply the lotion but apparently their first inclination when hit with bird excrement is to rub it all over themselves. Kids, right?

While this isn’t a new campaign, it hasn’t received much promotion because, as the agency tells Adweek, “the PR department of the client doesn’t want PR for it, so we do not promote it.”

OK, we get that. And yeah, this case study is an execution of a mildly amusing idea that has zero potential for practical real-world applications. But, frankly, we see dumber things almost every day.

Beer bump watch!

Jung von Matt/Alster made these idiotic but amusing print ads for Bergedorfer beer, showing men posing with their beer bellies, Demi Moore style, as though they’re pregnant. Fact is, these dudes did work hard growing those bellies, which is an accomplishment of sorts, and they should be proud of them—even if they won’t have the eventual added joy of meeting a new human in the process.

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Forget about next week’s Cannes Lions. Check out all the crazy cats in this commercial for Netto, a German supermarket chain. 

These 75 seconds of epic kitty cuteness take place in an incredibly detailed miniature version of a Netto store and feature clones of Maru, Keyboard Cat and other stars of famous feline memes. Is the No No No Cat among them? Yes yes yes! 

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These four brief ad from Jung von Mott illustrate, in real time, just how quickly the Mercedes-AMG GT S accelerates from 0 to its top speed of 310 kilometers per hour (roughly 193 miles per hour).

The German ads are designed to be viewed sequentially, running between other commercials in traditional TV ad blocks for maximum interruptive effect. By the end of the first spot, which lasts 3.8 seconds, the car is moving at 100 kph. By the end of the second, it’s doing 200 kph. It hits 310 kph during the fourth spot.

(Just toolin’ down the Autobahn to pick up some milk at the local Edeka market. Supergeil!)

The whole thing lasts less than 20 seconds, and the copy—displayed one word at a time on screen—flies by awfully fast. Honda and Hyundai took similar zippy routes recently, so I guess the speed-reading trend is in high gear until the next car-commercial gimmick comes down the pike.

Frankly, following such rapid text makes me kind of dizzy. Advertisers, feel free to slam on the brakes anytime. Via Ads of the World.

It's awards season, and the case studies keep rolling in. This one, from Jung von Matt in Germany, for a campaign to get drivers to stop talking on their mobile phones, should do well among radio judges who enjoy simulated violence for the greater good.

The agency set up a stunt during a live radio show (not during a commercial break) in which a person called in to request a song—and admitted he was driving on the highway. Of course, from there, it doesn't end well.

I have a pile of business cards on a tray in my office, and I'd be hard pressed to remember where I met the people whose names are on those cards if it weren't for some hastily scratched notes in the white space. ("Start-up owner, kept joking about Mad Men, didn't catch my Tupac reference.")

It's generally hard to make an impression on a piece of cardstock that's 3.5 by 2 inches, but German agency Jung von Matt definitely found a winner with its incredible business card for jewelry company Marrying—which, as the name suggests, specializes in engagement rings and wedding bands.

The card rolls up, becoming a handy tool to measure one's ring size. The idea is that men who are shopping for a ring can use the card at home to subtly check the size of a woman's current rings, saving them the rather obvious reveal of saying: "Hey baby, what's your ring size? What? No reason."

The agency effectively married (sorry) utility with good advertising, and I like it.

Via Design Taxi.

This wonderfully warped three-minute music-video commercial for Germany's Edeka supermarket chain certainly lives up to its title, "Supergeil," which can mean both "super cool" and "super sexy" (or "horny") in German.

Paunchy middle-aged crooner Friedrich Liechtenstein bathes in milk and cereal, boogies in the aisles, fondles sausages, cavorts with a dude dressed like a battery and reels off naughty double entendres to a techno beat. At one point, he rhymes "muschi" (German for "cat," or "pussy") with "sushi," while a woman slurps raw fish nearby. ("Supergeil" does not translate to "super classy," after all.)

His subdued yet insane performance transcends language barriers, though it's a hoot that one line translates to "Organic is also very, very cool/Very cool organic products, excellent," while a suave chorus exhorts viewers to "Check it out, very, very cool fries, super/Very cool cod, by the way, very cool/Oh look here, toilet paper, ooh, now that's soft/Very, very cool, super." You don't learn to write copy like that in portfolio schools.

Some liken the clip, from ad agency Jung von Matt, to a German "Gangnam Style," citing its funky take on local pop culture. Others compare the bearded Liechtenstein to Dos Equis's Most Interesting Man in the World. Frankly, he reminds me of a different ad character: It's easy to imagine Liechtenstein strutting down a sun-soaked European beach, well-fed gut straining against his Speedo. Easy to imagine, though not particularly pleasant.

Ad agency Jung von Matt/Neue Elbe and directing duo Alex & Steffen stage an orgy of CGI insanity, referencing various effects-driven fantasy blockbusters from the past 20 years, in this lighthearted yet heart-pounding German spot branding Fanta as "The official sponsor of FANTAsy." When a giant Transformers-type cyber-terror lays siege to a desert castle, a pro wrestler gets catapulted into the fray, bouncing harmlessly off the bot's metal hide, and a plucky princess slides down a saurian's back to save the day. Turns out the action—superbly staged and worth several viewings—is taking place in the imagination of a little girl at a family picnic. The intricate sandcastle they've built sits nearby, its parapets manned by action figures. Some might say it's a sad commentary that a kid's imagination is fueled by soda-pop-culture/Hollywood hype, though in our media-saturated age, this seems about right, and the melee she envisions provides more thrills than most mega-budget flicks can manage. Good thing they didn't probe her brother's imagination. That little devil would've used the robot to conquer the world and hogged all the Fanta for himself!

Unfortunately, China doesn’t copy everything.

Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany
Creative Directors: Thim Wagner, Daniel Frericks
Art Director: Jonas Keller
Published: 2008

Unfortunately, China doesn’t copy everything.

Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany
Creative Directors: Thim Wagner, Daniel Frericks
Art Director: Jonas Keller
Published: 2008