BBDO NY and Joe Montana Stay Strong for AT&T

In a campaign scheduled to culminate with tonight’s first-ever College Football Championship, BBDO New York focuses on a single fact for client AT&T: the provider offers customers “the nation’s strongest LTE signal.”

This is not a new claim from AT&T, which began promoting the superiority of its LTE systems over a year ago and now states that its LTE “footprint” is larger than all of its competitors’.

But the “strength” concept did allow the agency to riff on a theme with the help of four retired football legends. In the first spot, “Mental Strength,” Herschel Walker pulls a Jedi mind trick on Doug Flutie:

The second spot rearranges the group to put another veteran in the hot seat.

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BBDO NY Pauses the Action for U-verse

There are an abundance (some might say an overabundance) of ads for television related products and services showing the viewer immersed in the onscreen action as a means of highlighting features, so BBDO New York’s latest spots for U-verse certainly don’t score many points for originality. Yet BBDO’s latest contributions in the category for AT&T’s U-verse get the formula right in a way not many do, thanks to deft editing and good transitions from the onscreen action to “real life.”

In “Police Drama” for example, a man is thrust into the action at a police station as a sergeant berates his officers to get leads on a case. He interrupts the sergeant, telling him, “We’ve got to move.” “That’s mu point,” the sergeant shoots back. “No, we’ve got to move to the den, my wife’s got book club in here,” he replies. He then marches through his wife’s book club crowed over to the den to finish the show. “Space Capsule” takes a similar approach with a sci-fi show on a train. It’s not anything viewers haven’t seen before, but the transitions make for a better execution than is typical for the approach. Now maybe it’s time to move on to a new idea?

“Space Capsule” and credits after the jump. (more…)

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BBDO Reads Subtitles, Rearranges the Furniture for AT&T

A spot from BBDO‘s latest campaign for AT&T combines the 70?s sitcoms that our more mature readers all loved with what looks and sounds a lot like a 90?s metal show hosted in…a high school auditorium?

The point, of course, is that the quality of reception on many cellular networks leaves crucial calls all but indecipherable…and that subtitles aren’t just for Bergman movies that you can’t fully appreciate even after the translation.

We feel bad for the fake band in this spot, because we failed to see even one head banging.

More of the “Frank and Charlie” series plus credits after the jump.

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BBDO New York Ruins Classic Beach Boys Song for AT&T

This one’s been making the rounds for awhile, but we figured we’d add our two cents since it involves the ruining of a classic Beach Boys track. BBDO New York employs the Beach Boy’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” for their latest AT&T campaign. In the debut spot, “Sing Anthem” people in everyday situations randomly start singing the song as if they’re on Glee or something.

To be fair, BBDO does a passable job of connecting the song to AT&T’s message of helping “people and things speak the same language” and a good job of illustrating the point visually. But people of various walks of life (including an operatic news reporter) randomly bursting into song is a lot to swallow, and that the song is a personal favorite makes it even harder to take. The spot, which BBDO collaborated with Biscuit Filmoworks and editorial company Rock Paper Scissors to make, is part of a broader campaign that employs “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” as a theme song in each of its commericals. Thankfully, “Sing Anthem” is the only one of these to turn everyday life into a cheesy impromptu musical. Stick around for credits and “Sing Network” after the jump. continued…

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JWT NY Co-CCO MacDonald Heading to BBDO

matt-macdonald

After spending the last 18 months as co-chief creative officer at JWT New York, Matt MacDonald has moved on as he’s joined up with David Lubars & Co. at BBDO to take on the role of ECD on AT&T. MacDonald joined JWT NY in spring 2012 as co-CCO alongside Ryan Kutscher (whose time at the agency came to an end earlier this year) and during his stay, he led creative on several campaigns for Macy’s including the “Yes, Virginia” holiday work as well as the “Nightlife Exchange” effort for Diageo. MacDonald is slated to officially assume his ECD post at BBDO, which we’ve been told is new as it covers all the creative duties BBDO handles  for AT&T, in January.

Along with adding MacDonald to the fold, BBDO is also shaking things up a bit in its Atlanta office as the agency is relocating New York ECD Wil Boudreau to the 404 to serve in the same role. As Atlanta ECD, a position he’ll assume next week, Boudreau, who has been with BBDO for nearly a quarter-century, will oversee the agency’s entire client roster — which includes REI and Florida Dept. of Citrus — save for AT&T (that’ll be MacDonald’s turf shortly, of course). Regarding AT&T, though,  Stephen McMennamy and Alex Russell, who specifically work on the account out of Atlanta, are now being promoted to SVPs/SCDs in said office “in recognition of the contributions they have made to that business.”

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Kutscher Out at JWT NY

JWT New York has confirmed that as of today, it’s decided to part ways with co-chief creative officer Ryan Kutscher, who has been with the agency for less than a year. JWT NY would not comment beyond the confirmation, but as a result of its move, the creative leadership at the office now rests in the hands of Kutscher’s now-former partner-in-crime Matt MacDonald and JWT North America CCO, Jeff Benjamin.

Kutscher joined JWT NY as MacDonald’s co-CCO after spending five years at CP+B, where he last served as creative director and worked on VW  as well as the award-winning “Whopper Freakout.” He and MacDonald replaced Peter Nicholson as JWT NY’s top creatives last May.

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