Today in More CP+B News, the agency’s Los Angeles office has found its newest executive creative director in Wieden+Kennedy veteran Kevin Jones.
Jones will lead all creative efforts at the office moving forward, and he brings more than two decades’ worth of experience to the role. He spent approximately ten years in different positions within the W+K organization, beginning his career as a writer there and advancing to directorial roles at W+K and Hal Riney while performing freelance creative work for other major shops like Goodby and Publicis.
Jones held the ECD position at W+K Portland since 2009 before accepting CP+B’s offer, and his name appears atop much of the agency’s recent work for auto clients like Chrysler and Dodge as well as Target, Nike and T-Mobile.
Heard of Oculus Rift but still not sure what it is, exactly? Now you can become a little more familiar with the experience thanks to Wieden+Kennedy Portland.
But first, this September entry from W+K for client Chrysler is less an ad than a short “making of” documentary about the company’s interactive factory tour project:
The Dodge company, founded by the brothers Dodge as an auto parts supplier around the turn of the (last) century, first began making its own cars almost exactly 100 years ago.
To celebrate that centennial, W+K Portland has a new spot paying tribute to the Dodge brothers and the styles of their age and introducing the Dodge Challenger, a model designed to recall the spirit that led their business in its early years.
The spot, titled “Ballroom — They Dreamed Big”, adds a nostalgic sheen to the era of Fitzgerald’s Gatsby; the release calls it “an imaginary tale of John (Tyler Bryan) and Horace (Joe Coffery) Dodge celebrating their success with friends 100 years ago.”
Amazingly, comedians Craig Robinson and Jake Johnson had yet to appear in any major films, shows or campaigns together before this week.
That all changed with the release of these inaugural clips in W+K Portland‘s new campaign for client Dodge. The theme is simple: no one can touch Robinson’s new Dart — even his equally famous and strangely nosy neighbor.
Is there anything more heartwarming than watching children of all ages fall over repeatedly?
From Proctor & Gamble and W+K comes “Pick Them Back Up,” a new spot that’s part of the “Thank You, Mom” campaign running during the length of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. If you’ll recall, P&G and Wieden have been leaders in mom joy, child guilt and intermittent bouts of crying since a 2010 Mother’s Day campaign, which set the stage for the very viral 2012 London Olympics spot “Best Job.” Since the initial broadcast of “Best Job,” most of the world has been stuck in a routine of enthusiastic weeping followed by hugging their mom until it hurts.
Adding a little humor to the affair (this is, if you’re a sociopath like me), “Pick Them Back Up” sees attractive young mothers repeatedly watch their children fall down before picking them up, thus transforming them into successful Olympic athletes. For those mothers whose children didn’t grow up to be competitive in winter sports on an international scale, well, your time was better spent leaving your kid on the ice and just working on you for a while.
Of course, this spot also begs the question, how did they film so many babies falling over? Were they stunt babies, or did they trip them with invisible wires or something? In any case, after seeing this on TV, your mother’s gaze will slowly drift over to the photo she has of you as a baby on her nightstand, and she’ll sigh a million disappointed sighs because you were once so cute and loving and now you apparently don’t “have the time” to give her a call once in a while. She’s right, you know, because you just watched this and it caused you do to nothing. Credits, and one in a series of new athlete-specific video, follow after the jump.
W+K and Dodge kick off an unusual digital contest today, “Hands on Ron Burgundy,” the latest in the cobranded marketing collaboration between Dodge and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Based on the “Hands on a Hard Body Contest” — developed at a Texas auto dealership in the 1980s, that saw contestants compete to win a vehicle by keeping their hands on their desired automobile the longest — “Hands on Ron Burgundy” sees fans compete by “using a computer mouse or touchscreen to place their ‘hands’ on a digital image of Ron Burgundy.” The contestant who keeps their “hands” on Burgundy the longest in a single session time will win a new 2014 Dodge Durango. There are also hundreds of other prizes, including three trips to the premiere of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues in New York on Dec. 15.
Hosted over at Funny or Die, the contest debuts today and runs through Nov. 25. Throughout the competition, Dodge will also be offering “mini-games and challenges to draw fans in and keep them engaged, while also learning about features and attributes of the new 2014 Dodge Durango.”
“Hands on Ron Burgundy” seems appropriately ridiculous for the Anchorman series, and fans should have a lot of fun with it. So far the partnership with Anchorman 2 has worked well for Dodge, with visits to the Dodge website up 80%, and “shopping” activities at the site up 100% since the beginning of the tie-in campaign. With the film’s national release of December 20th quickly approaching, fans’ anticipation should work in the campaign’s favor. Credits after the jump. continued…
Dodge and Paramount have joined forces in a co-branded campaign from W+K launching the new 2014 Dodge Durango featuring Ron Burgundy (of Anchorman and the upcoming Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, but you already knew that).
The campaign, which spans television, print, digital and social media, debuted October 5th online and on television. Be prepared to see it everywhere.
“With the personal involvement of Will Ferrell, our writer / director Adam McKay, the comedy team at Funny or Die, and the Dodge creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, we were able to create a truly epic partnership,” says CMO of Paramount Picture Josh Greenstein in a statement. But are the spots actually funny? Some of them — they really very widely in quality. Each of the spots takes advantage of the 70s aesthetic in the Anchorman films, taking place in a colorful, very 70s auto showroom. The first spot, “Horsepower” is a bit of a letdown. It resurrects the tired “comparing horse power to an actual horse” theme commonly used in spots for powerful vehicles.
The staring contest with the horse at the end is almost worth a chuckle though. “Glove Compartment” is a lot better: it features Ron Burgundy toting the Durango’s glove compartment, which can hold “two turkey sandwiches or seventy packs of gum.” Another spot finds Burgundy struggling with a script that touts the Durango’s “m.p.g.” performance. The highlight is definitely “Ballroom Dancers,” featured above, which has a comically angry showdown between Burgundy and dancers that he thinks may “live in the rafters.” A lot of this is stuff that only Ferrell could get away with delivering, and only about half of the time is the writing worthy of his talent, but when it works it works. Plus, it will whet people’s appetites for the Anchorman sequel, which is kind of the point.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues debuts in theaters December 20th. Credits and additional video after the jump. continued…
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