Hasta La Creative!

McCann Worldgroup promoted Chris Macdonald, formerly president of its New York office, to the role of president of North America. In the expanded role, Macdonald will continue running the New York office, while also leading the North America group that includes Casanova//McCann, McCann Detroit, twofifteenmccann San Francisco, McCann Minneapolis and MacLaren McCann Canada.

“Chris has done an outstanding job leading New York,” said McCann Worldgroup chairman and CEO Harris Diamond. “In his new role, Chris will bring the same proactive, client-focused growth approach to our North American team with an emphasis on strengthening our integrated creative, strategic and omni-platform capabilities.” 

Macdonald has served as president, McCann New York for the past three years, during which time the agency has added clients such as New York State Lottery, Reckitt Benckiser, Choice Hotels, MGM Resorts, and State Street Advisors.

He moved across the pond to accept the position with McCann New York in July of 2013 from McCann London, where he served as chairman and CEO. He originally joined McCann London as a client services director in 2005 and was promoted to a role as managing director the following year, eventually working his way up to CEO. Before joining McCann, he spent five years as a managing partner with RKCR/Y&R. That followed four years as associate director with Lowe Howard-Spink and three as head of account management at Publicis.

Dubai-based McCann Worldgroup agency launched a new campaign for Coca-Cola, celebrating the month of Ramadan with a call to end labels and prejudices as part of its larger “Let’s take an extra second” campaign.

The campaign includes cans with the Coca-Cola label removed and the message “Labels are meant for cans, not people” on its reverse side. FP7/DXB also created a video in which they invited a diverse group of men to meet and talk to each other in a dark room where they could not each other, therefore avoiding prejudiced knee-jerk reactions. The group included a heavy metal musician, an avid home cook, a student of Emirati Heritage and the Arabic language and personal branding specialist Loy Machedo. When they switched on the lights, the participants found that the people they spoke to differed greatly from what they had imagined, challenging their preconceived notions and prejudices. They were then invited to reach under their chairs to find the “No Labels” Coke can, which made the point of the exercise abundantly clear.

The campaign very much falls in line with the larger “Let’s take an extra second” effort, with the video recalling The Cyranos McCann’s contribution in May. It’s also part of the trend of agency’s crafting long message-based efforts aligning brands with a cause. FP7/DXB’s label-less cans, meanwhile, are an attention-grabbing way to spread the message beyond those who will sit through the 2:30 ad, acting as a conversation starter.

A video game set amid the resistance to Adolf Hitler’s war machine and played globally 24/7 will pause for 60 seconds today to commemorate the 70th anniversary of World War II’s Warsaw Uprising.

Enemy Front, created by Polish game studio CI Games, will halt at 1 p.m. Eastern, coinciding with an annual minute of silent remembrance held in Polish cities. 

The Warsaw Uprising was a two-month effort by Polish freedom fighters to evict Nazi invaders, but the hard-fought rebellion suffered from a lack of support by the Soviet Union’s nearby Red Army. Thousands of Polish fighters were killed, as were more than 150,000 civilians, many of which were slaughtered in mass executions such as the Wola massacre.

The action in Enemy Front, a first-person shooter released a month ago, takes place among WWII resistance groups, with the Warsaw Uprising providing a major focus.

During the game’s freeze today, players will be directed to ItWasntAGame.com to learn more about the uprising. They will also be encouraged to share that knowledge on social media. The site will stream a two-minute film that shows footage of modern Warsaw’s automobile and pedestrian traffic coming to a standstill as sirens wail and the residents remember the sacrifices of the past. McCann Worldgroup in Poland devised the campaign.

“We hope that though this event, we can help the world understand the importance of that fateful day in Warsaw and why it is important to honor the memory of all those who fell in combat, helping us to achieve freedom,” explains CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski.

Some might criticize the maker of a violent video game for tying a promotion to an event with such deep significance. I find it refreshing, even brave, to give players historical context, reminding them of the title’s basis in history, when there was no reset button, and the stakes of the “game” were life and death.

Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup, New Delhi, India
Chief Creative Officer: Prasoon Joshi
Creative Directors: Talha Nazim, Rohit Devgun
Art Directors: Nobin Dutta, Talha Nazim, Rohit Devgun
Copywriter: Talha Nazim
Account Planner: Bhakti Malik
Illustrator: Twinbrains.in

The post Just Dial by McCann appeared first on desicreative.

Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup, Mumbai, India
Chief Creative Officer: Prasoon Joshi
Executive Creative Director: Ashish Chakravarty
Creative Directors: Talha Nazim, Rohit Devgun
Copywriters: Talha Nazim, Rohit Devgun
Art Directors: Rohit Devgun, Talha Nazim
Illustrator: Lamanoestudio.cl
Typographer: Rohit Devgun
Account Supervisor: Bhakti Malik
Advertiser’s Supervisor: Hemali Sodhi
Senior Visualiser: Nobin Dutta

The post Penguin India by McCann Worldgroup appeared first on desicreative.

Turns them informers.    ATSS Burglar Alarm System
Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup, Mumbai, IndiaNational Creative Director: Prasoon JoshiExecutive Creative Directors: P K AnilCreative Directors: Kapil TammalArt Directors: Gagan Bindra, Kapil Tammal, Pramod ChavanCopywriters: P K AnilDigital Artist: PaintboxPhotographer: Himmat Singh ShekhawatPublished: December 2010