Zambezi, Hungry Man Release Another Awkward fruitwater Spot

Last month, vitaminwater’s fruitwater  brand got a little weird with Christina Applegate in the first of its new ads in a campaign created by Venice agency Zambezi and production studio Hungryman.

Today the company released its follow-up, another entry in the “painfully awkward” genre. Here’s “Decoy”:

The earlier one after the jump in case you missed it:

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Venables Bell & Partners Go ‘West of Expected’ for Skyy Vodka

Venables Bell & Partners have an off-center campaign for Skyy Vodka, introducing the new tagline “West of Expected” for the California brand.

The new campaign sees improv actor Paul Welsh play a spokesman for the brand, lecturing in some kind of planetarium setting and using cosmic terminology as an analogy for drinking/bar culture. In the 30-second “Tipping” for example, Welsh explains that tipping (in this case giving a mouse in a maze a piece of cheese, for some reason) brings order to chaos, forming a connection with the bartender and getting you good service all night. In the similarly-toned “Attraction” a wing lemon (used to exemplify a wing man) bring together opposites: apples and oranges. It’s a strange approach, for sure, but then Skyy Vodka is an unusual brand — a California company with mostly Old World competition. The “West of Expected” tagline fits Skyy perfectly, and leaves room for a wealth of different approaches going forward.

“In the industry as a whole, and especially vodka, everyone is trying to out-cool themselves and appeal to people’s ego and vanity,” VB&P Executive Creative Director Will McGinness told Adweek. “We wanted to push off the industry norms and the Russian or Eastern European vodka companies and do our own thing and celebrate this different kind of vodka.”

Stick around for “Attraction”and credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

WPP’s David Documents the Rise and Fall of ‘Subservient Chicken’ for Burger King

Today Burger King dropped the first spot by its new global AOR, WPP agency David.

As a faux “where are they now” covering the CP+B original’s fall from fame and return to viral advertising, it’s about as meta as you would expect.

It’s also more than a little “Rocky”: there’s an Italian trainer; there’s an instrumental montage; there’s at least one raw egg; there’s Screech as a costumed Mexican chicken fighter.

The campaign isn’t as interactive as its predecessor; while the rollout included a series of missing person-style print ads, viewers can’t tell this chicken what to do (and yes, we know the responses were pre-recorded in 2004).

The big question, given the spot’s very open-ended conclusion and the fact that BK CMO Eric Hischorn told USA Today that “[The Chicken] will stick around going forward”: where will the sequel go?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

GSD&M Launch Zales Holiday Campaign with ‘Balloons’

GSD&M has Zales’ “Let Love Shine” holiday campaign with the spot “Balloon,” featuring the surprisingly not terrible music of Lord Huron. I say “surprisingly not terrible” because of the band’s name, but the diamond store chain boasts that in 2010, it did help propel The Black Keys (not my favorite but certainly not terrible) to stardom by using their music in an ad (and newer indie darlings like Alabama Shakes in subsequent campaigns).

While jewelry commercials are sentimental by nature, this one tries not to be too cloying about it. It shows a man trudge across a snow-covered city to propose to his girlfriend by holding a bunch of balloons to get her attention and then take out the engagement ring. It’s kind of cute, even if it’s a little perplexing to not be in the same room for a proposal.

I’m not quite ready for the onslaught of holiday advertising yet, but I know what I hate, and I don’t hate this spot for Zales “Celebration” bridal collection. And that’s rare for a jewelry spot, especially one around this time of year. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.