Chicago-based agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul has a new campaign for Big Lots, promoting its pet food and merchandise offerings with a focus group for pets.
Instead of writing a scripted ad, the agency got a group of pets together for “Pet Focus Group,” a digital video series. The videos feature moderators treating the group of pets like a focus group, with actors asking questions about Big Lots products and interacting with dogs, cats, and other pets. O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul chose to cast improvisational actors to interact with the pets, under the assumption that the animals would create funny situations on their own.
“We realized that instead of scripting this, it would be so much more fun to let pets be pets, and get really good improvisers to react in real time to whatever those animals are doing,” explains Sue Gillan, creative director at OKRP. And because you have these human facilitators in the room with the pets, they get to do the heavy lifting around uncovering the quality of the products without the event feeling commercialized. The result feels like a genuine discovery of the products.”
Stick around for “Cats Only” and “Pets with Style.” (more…)
Last year, Pantene made waves with their “Labels” ad from BBDO Guerrero in Manila, which explored how men and women are labeled differently for the same behavior. “Labels” gained over 46 million views and plenty of attention outside its home country of the Philippines. Now, Grey has issued a new campaign that acts as something of spiritual successor for the brand, which continues to explore gender norms. This time, Grey asks, “Why are women always apologizing?” which appears onscreen during the spots’ opening moments to prepare viewers for what’s to come.
Viewers are presented with women apologizing in a variety of scenarios, starting with a woman at work diminishing her own argument by asking, “Sorry, can I ask a stupid question?” Another woman apologizes when a man sits down next to her and encroaches on her space; a mother apologizes for handing off her baby to the father when he returns home from work; a woman says “Sorry, you go first” when a man interrupts her. Following these scenarios a new message appears on screen: “Don’t be sorry. Be strong and shine.” The ad then doubles back on the women from the initial scenarios, who are now presented as assertive and unapologetic. Unfortunately, the message is compromised when several of the women say “Sorry not sorry,” which is still sort of an apology. Maybe Grey just wanted to jump on the bandwagon of the popular hashtag (and Naya Rivera song) or prove that Pantene is hip to Internet culture, but it seriously undermines the impact of “Not Sorry.”
As Adweek reports, Pantene is supporting the campaign with the Shine Strong Fund, “which seeks to educate and enable women to overcome bias and societal expectations as well as celebrate strong women.” The Shine Strong Fund will collaborate with the American Association of University Women, to underwrite monetary grants and help women in college gain access to influential leaders. It’s a nice initiative, and a good way for Pantene to really get behind their recent campaigns. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)
Today, Saatchi & Saatchi New York is launching the first ever campaign for the gun responsibility organization Evolve, encouraging people to take personal responsibility for gun safety and generally not be dumbasses.
Saatchi & Saatchi’s pro-bono campaign features a short, satirical video called “The Bill of Rights for Dumbasses.” The 1:40 video portrays Thomas Jefferson and other historical figures debating the language of the second amendment. Jefferson thinks the amendment runs a little long, and after much debate, convinces the rest of the council to remove the “as long as they aren’t being dumbasses about it” part from the amendment. While the founding fathers are debating the matter, viewers are treated to a humorous montage of gun owners engaging in questionable practices, before Jefferson concludes it’s common sense that you shouldn’t act that way with a gun. The video ends with the founding fathers playing pinata with a gun, followed by the tagline, “It’s the right to bear arms, not the right to be dumbass” and a message prompting viewers to go to takeonthecode.com and sign the code of gun responsibility.
Evolve co-founder Rebecca Bond hopes that “Humor can be a gateway to taking away the defensiveness that is the legacy of these discussions.” Joe Bond, also an Evovle co-founder, added, “We want the ‘Dumbass’ concept to catch on in popular culture the way ‘friends don’t let friends drive drunk’ did for safe driving.”
Since it’s rare to find people discussing guns without getting hysterical about it, Saatchi & Saatchi’s employment of dumb humor is somewhat refreshing. But will it really chip away at the defensiveness that gun rights activists feel when discussing anything related to guns? Or are they more likely to take offense at the video depicting gun owners, and even founding fathers, as dumbasses? Unfortunately, I doubt the video will convince many viewers to “take on the code,” because even though Evolve professes to be a “third voice” in the gun debate without political affiliation, gun rights activists will still likely view the video’s satire as an attack on them. Meanwhile, the video will appeal to plenty of gun reform proponents — people who don’t need any convincing on the importance of gun safety, and mostly don’t own guns (and therefore have no need to take Evolve’s pledge). That’s too bad, because Evolve’s responsibility code is really just common sense and something any gun owner should be able to get behind — which makes this feel like a missed opportunity. Credits after the jump.
We all have an extra soft, hol(e)y shirt that fits perfectly, whether it’s an oversized sleepshirt once worn by a parent, an old boyfriend’s flannel, or an embarrassing Greenday tour T. In their new spot, Downy celebrates the journey of one such garment: it’s a treasured piece of memorabilia for our protagonist, a witness during a heated make-out sesh, a comfort for his pregnant wife, and finally a dress on his young daughter. It lasts through all these phases of his life, because “Downy helps protect the clothes you love.”
It’s a sweet spot, backed by a cover of Alphaville’s Forever Young. Hopefully they make this a series, telling the stories of the dirt-stained jersey you now wear to the beach with the fam, or the tattered sweatshirt that’s now one square in a grandchild’s quilt. It’s hard to go wrong with an idyllic tale of growing up, especially when the story evokes the soothing smell of laundry soap.
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