Hasta La Creative!

McKinney has announced the promotion of associate creative directors Will Chambliss and Owen Tingle to creative director.

Chambliss joined McKinney from Arnold Worldwide in 2010. While with Arnold he worked on Timberland, Volvo and Fidelity, produced a Super Bowl spot for ESPN, and became a creative director on Carnival Cruises. Before arriving at Arnold, he was a copywriter at Fitzgerald+CO in Atlanta, where he worked on such brands as Coke, Durex, Quikrete and Aruba.

Tingle joined McKinney in 2005 after “running a family-owned-and-operated business with his father in logistic relocation engineering (aka moving).” In 2006, he directed his first commercial, “The Play” for Sony, which was recognized as one of Advertising Age’s Best Spots of 2006. His work has been recognized by One Show, Webby, Art Directors Club, MIXX, Effie, and Cannes. In the past 18 months, he has been working on campaigns for Nationwide Insurance and Big Boss Brewing, including the beer-dispensing arcade game, The Last Barfighter.

“Will and Owen have been the creative backbone for us on Nationwide,” said group creative director Liz Paradise. “They’re totally ambidextrous in that they not only do a lot of the work, but they deftly manage and mentor other creatives on the account. These promotions really just reflect the important roles they had already been playing.”

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McKinney continues in the wacky route with their new spot for Mentos, the 30-second “Never Surrender.”

“Never Surrender,” which marks both the first U.S. television spot for Mentos Gum and the first work for Mentos out of McKinney’s New York office, is set at an actual medieval castle and employs Monty Python and the Holy Grail-style goofiness. The hero of the ad is a happy-go-lucky soldier who is impaled by a dozen or so arrows but will not surrender until his gum loses its freshness. “You are ruining the integrity of battle!” exclaims a disgruntled enemy combatant. The spot ends by introducing the new tagline, “Long Last the Fresh.” While not quite funny, the ad does succeed at least at being memorable for its utter goofiness, and it’s easy to imagine a certain type of viewer repeating the “You are ruining the integrity of battle!” line, so the spot could work to spread awareness for Mentos’ new-ish product. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Mentos is introducing a campaign for the chewy mint rolls that is meant to evoke the upbeat mood and cheerful tone of the original jingle from the 1990s.