Hasta La Creative!

United agency of record mcgarrybowen launched a spot for the airline ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics next Friday entitled “One Journey. Two Teams.”

The two teams in question? Team USA and Team United, naturally. As it turns out, Team USA does flight check in a little differently. The Olympic squad jumps over security gates, does backflips along railings, rows along moving sidewalks, and even pole vaults right onto the flight.

Set to a Brazilian take on United’s theme song, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and a voiceover from Matt Damon, the spot is meant as a lighthearted and fun reminder of the airline’s status as an Olympic sponsor, concluding with the message, “United for over 35 years.” The format also allows mcgarrybowen to squeeze in appearances from Olympic athletes including swimmer Missy Franklin, volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings and soccer player Carli Anne Lloyd. The spot was filmed on a 787 Dreamliner in L.A., with the athletes all performing their own stunts related to their respective sports.

“Our 2016 Olympics advertising was a great way to engage and showcase our employees and our partnership with Team USA,”  United managing director of marketing and product development Mark Krolick told Adweek. “The United team works incredibly hard year round to transport U.S. Olympians and Olympic hopefuls to training, competitions and the Olympics and this campaign demonstrates that in an upbeat, fun and optimistic way.”

Credits:
Agency: mcgarrybowen
Client: United Airlines
Title: “One Journey, Two Teams”
Managing Director, Executive Creative Director: Haydn Morris
Group Creative Director: David DiRienz
Group Creative Director: Erik Izo
Managing Director, Content Production: Dante Piacenza
Managing Director, Global Music Production: Jerry Krenach
Executive Producer: Stacy Kay
Group Managing Director: Jamie Ross
Account Director: Joey Ziarko
Account Supervisor: Kayla Friedman
Athletes: Simone Biles, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Carli Lloyd, Missy Franklin, Ashton Eaton, Logan Dooley, Dartanyon Crockett
Production Company: Pulse Films
Director: Michael Haussman
President of Commercials: Kira Carstensen
Executive Producer: Hillary Rogers
Producer: Linda Masse
Director of Photography: Paul Cameron
Editor: Jon Grover
Executive Producer: Raná Martin
Producer: Ellese Jobin
Visual Effects: Framestore
Audio Engineer: Michael Marineli
Audio Studio: Sonic Union
Composition: “Rhapsody In Blue” by George Gershwin
Arrangement and Production: Yessian Music
Arranger: Dan Zank
Record and Mix Engineer: Gerard Smerek
Partner/CCO: Brian Yessian
VO Talent: Matt Damon

Advertising that makes fun of advertising is all the rage these days — and now thespian Malcolm McDowell has joined talents like Ewen McGregor, Ricky Gervais, and Anna Kendrick in essentially mocking the whole process, and their participation in it.

The veteran actor stars in two new spots for Lunchables, created by agency Mcgarrybowen and directed by Wayne McClammy (recently featured as one of Adweek’s ten Creative 100 directors). In both videos, McDowell is dressed like Steve Buscemi from his “how do you do, fellow kids” 30 Rock cameo, attempting to relate to today’s hip young people as he teaches them how to prepare Lunchables Walking Tacos.

Given his career has taken him from A Clockwork Orange to Entourage and Metalocalypse, his latest role — launched with more commercials from mcgarrybowen and McClammy this spring — might be a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. Maybe he had gambling debts no one knew about?

Then again, the ill fit is also the point. While no one as photogenic as the people in these ads — least of all McDowell — will ever actually eat a Lunchables Walking Taco, the videos are great. It’s clear that McClammy and McDowell are having tremendous fun with the material, which is all you need to make the basic concept work.

And really, is it fair to say that McDowell is slumming it here? He was in a Slipknot video, after all. That not to mention he broke the advertising seal back in 2013, starring alongside James Earl Jones in dramatic readings for Sprint — McDowell’s first commercials ever.

CREDITS

Client: Kraft Foods
Advertising Agency: mcgarrybowen?
Chief Creative Officer: Ned Crowley?
Group Creative Directors: Todd Brusnighan, Doug Behm?
Director of Content Production: Steve Ross?
Agency Producer: Mike Dahl?
Account Managing Director: Kate Burke?
Account Director: Ellen Cohen

Production Company: Hungry Man?
Director: Wayne McClammy?
Executive Producer: Mino Jarjoura

Editorial Company: Cutters
?Editor: Grant Gustafson

Visual Effects Company: Flavor
Final Color: Nice Shoes
?Colorist: Ron Sudul

Final Mix Company: Another Country?
Mixer: David Gerbosi

mcgarrybowen made a series of layoffs in its New York office today.

The agency’s statement:

“Our clients’ businesses are constantly evolving, and we, as their agency partner, must be well positioned to meet those needs. As such, we made staffing adjustments in our New York office today to right size our team.”

According to a spokesperson, these cuts affected less than 10 percent of total staff in Manhattan–and while we have no information on the reason for the move at this moment, the agency tells us that it had nothing to do with its ongoing work for Verizon.

Verizon did make quite a few changes to its agency roster in the months leading up to its $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL: the telecoms giant signed W+K in January, followed by shifting more of its sponsorship/entertainment work to Momentum Worldwide, and began reviewing its “digital agency support.” This translated to a loss for several of its agency partners; in April, CMO Joe Saracino of Erwin Penland (himself a former Verizon employee) discussed a series of layoffs that followed a change in that agency’s relationship with the client.

mcgarrybowen CMO Brandon Cooke, however, is quick to dispel misconceptions regarding the account. He writes:

“The rumor that we no longer work with Verizon or will no longer work with them is absolutely not true. We continue to work with Verizon as their wireless network creative agency and have not been informed otherwise.”

No word on when Verizon will release its newest campaign.

Tim Scott, international CEO and president of mcgarrybowen Chicago, is departing the agency for an undisclosed client-side marketing position, AdAge reports.

Scott’s departure follows last month’s hiring of Simon Pearce as president of its New York office and chief client officer, succeeding Tom Sewell, who held the position since May of 2014 (and continues on at the agency in an innovation role). The agency stated that it will begin a search for a new Chicago president, who will also assume chief client officer responsibilities. Laurel Flatt, group managing director, will act as interim general manager of the office until the search is completed. Gordon Bowen, chairman and chief creative officer of mcgarrybowen, will temporarily assume Scott’s international CEO role.

Scott arrived at mcgarrybowen back in 2009 as a managing director, just two years after the opening of the agency’s Chicago office, following a stint at DDB Chicago as a global business director.

The full statement from Bowen:

“I am grateful and proud of the work Tim has done to build our brand, first in Chicago and then around the world. He is a dear friend, trusted leader, and mentor to many. We are very grateful for his contributions, and we wish him a lifetime of luck and success in his future endeavors.”

The news seems to confirm a tip we received weeks ago about changes coming to macgarrybowen’s international leadership (assuming there aren’t more on the way).

Update: Land O’Lakes announced that Scott will be joining the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, responsible for overseeing B2C and B2B branding and marketing strategy, effective April 22nd.

It seems that Honda’s diesel CR-V brings out the best of mcgarrybowen London’s visual instincts.

The agency follows up its 2013 Cannes Gold Lion-winning, M.C. Escher-esque spot for the model (dubbed “Illusions”) by taking us on an infinite loop to promote the automaker’s 2015 edition with an ad called “Endless Road.” In a literal manifestation of the title, the new model traverses an infinite road like a runner on a track, with Bernard Hermann’s “Twisted Nerve” (remember Kill Bill Vol. 1?) providing the soundtrack.

Along with mcgarrybowen, digital production company MediaMonks and director Chris Palmer of Gorgeous played key roles in the campaign, which emphasizes the CR-V’s performance capabilities in illustrating how “the road to better never ends.”

While it’s not as visually stimulating as Honda efforts from the past couple of years, the tone, style and narrative serve the “Endless Road” quite well. You can check out a behind-the-scenes clip below and watch a literally infinite version on the CR-V’s dedicated YouTube site.

It beats your average screensaver.

Agency: mcgarrybowen, London
Executive Creative Directors: Angus Macadam, Paul Jordan
Creative Team: Charlotte Watmough, Holly Fallows
Planner: Michael McCourt
Agency Producer: Sian Parker
Business Director: Alice Tendler
Film Production: Gorgeous
Director: Chris Palmer
Executive Producer: Rupert Smythe
Editor: Scot Crane
Postproduction: Glassworks; FaTiBoo
Flame: Lewis Saunders
Creative Director (3-D): Jordi Bares @ Glassworks
Colorist: Seamus O’Kane @ The Mill
Digital Production: MediaMonks
Executive Producer: Wouter Smit
Producer: Rodrigo Alberini
Creative Directors: Jon Biggs, Alex Danklof
Project Manager: Sylvia van der Leen
Audio Production: Munzie Thind @ Grand Central
Music: Twisted Nerve Main Theme
Composer, Arranger: Bernard Herrmann

The agency’s official position is “no comment,” but today an AdAge report and a source close to the matter tell us that mcgarrybowen has resigned the Sears account rather than participate in a pending creative review.

Three years after its last full review, the client began making some agency moves back in early 2014 by sending its KCD or Kenmore Craftsman Diehard work from Y&R to Havas Chicago.

Y&R lost the client’s primary creative account to mcgarrybowen in May 2011 after 18 years; prior to that move, Sears made headlines in the industry for demanding ownership of “all creative work done by agencies pitching for the brand” no matter who won the account. We have no word on whether that’s still the case. Back in 2011, Adam Wohl (who is, appropriately, now an ECD at mcgarrybowen) made a video mocking the above request — but that video has since been set to “private.”

Last November, sources told Adweek that the company had begun reaching out to every major holding company, but today’s AdAge report claims that Sears recently placed the review on hold due to internal complications. What might those be? The company will announce its earnings for the latest quarter on Thursday, and yesterday The Motley Fool noted that Sears “is losing an estimated $7 million a day” despite closing some 200 stores in 2014; the writer wonders whether the chain will exist in its current form one year from now. (We should also note that Sears Holdings owns Kmart, which has been with FCB since 2007.)

We reached out to Sears corporate for more information on the review, but representatives have yet to respond.

mcgarrybowen’s most recent work for the soon-to-be-former client is December’s #MoreToYou holiday shopping campaign.

Strategic and creative agency Matter Unlimited announced the additions of Alexandra Gordon as account managing director and Jake Kahana as creative director, design.

Gordon will be responsible for leading management, developing client relationships and overseeing the internal account team. She joins Matter Unlimited from mcgarrybowen, where she spent approximately the last three years as an account managing director and led several integrated campaigns for Marriott International. Prior to mcgarrybowen, Gordon spent over two years serving as an account director at DDB Sydney, where she worked on the McDonald’s Australia account. Prior to that she served as an account manager for M&C Saatchi.

As creative director, Kahana will manage creative output for all client work, acting as creative lead. He joins Matter Unlimited following over a decade as a freelance art director and designer. During this time his clients included Microsoft, Nestle, Unicef, HBO and President Bill Clinton. He has also worked as an art director for Deutsch LA, a lead designer at 72andSunny and an instructor at Otis College of Art and Design.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have these two rock stars joining the Matter Unlimited team,” said Rob Holzer, founder and CEO, Matter Unlimited, in a statement. “They both bring just the right mix of experience and passion to use their skills for positive social impact that make them perfect for our mission and the important work ahead of us.”

Ubiquitous Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons stars in Intel’s new holiday campaign, the first work from agency McGarryBowen since being named agency of record in October.

The first spot for the holiday campaign (featured above) breaks Monday, and the campaign will run for six weeks as the other ads gradually roll out. In it Parsons plays himself, running amok a restricted access area at Intel and gawking at Intel’s RealSense technology, until he is eventually thrown out by a security guard who tells him not to talk about anything he saw. Parsons’ broadcast spots will be backed by a social media campaign featuring companion videos and photos.

“The decision to approach this in a comedic way was one that intrigued me from the beginning,” Gordon Bowen, chairman and chief creative officer of McGarryBowen, told The New York Times. The campaign “is really just the beginning,” Bowen added. “It sets us up for a campaign that tells you there’s a new Intel that is bringing things to market that will surprise and delight you.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The new Droid Turbo is so fast that when James Franco falls off the roof at a party, he can use the Motorola phone to find the nearest safe landing, calculate the best route there and text his date to meet him at the bottom—all before he crashes through an awning into a dumpster and dusts himself off.

So says this Verizon ad from mcgarrybowen, which features James Franco because James Franco is a cool guy everybody knows. He’s great with the ladies, too. The whole reason he goes over the edge in the first place is to rescue the red scarf of a damsel, because that’s the kind of guy James Franco is. He succeeds, obviously. If you get a Droid Turbo like James Franco, you’ll be great with the ladies, too.

That is unless maybe you’re the James Franco who’s married to novelist Gary Shteyngart. Or the James Franco who’s lobbying for a movie starring James Franco to get an Oscar. Or the James Franco who’s getting punched in the face, or directing a jeans commercial, or talking about how great it is be James Franco in an ad for Motorola rival Samsung’s Galaxy tablet.

Or, if you’re the kind of James Franco who’s not into selling out, you could be the James Franco who posts an Instagram of yourself holding an iPhone 6 the same day your Motorola campaign launches. Oops.