Hasta La Creative!

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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Since this is pre-football week, here’s a BBDO ad for Snickers that tells us that Johnny Manziel is trying to improve upon his personal “brand” after a rough start.

Rather than simply sweating because he didn’t get picked until the 22nd round of the draft, he’s sweating here because he has yet to meet his daily calorie count.

Manziel also stars in a new Nissan ad launched today, but we have to wonder whether he will become the celebrity he was born to be given the fact that he’ll be watching the season opener from the sidelines.

Maybe he just needs to serve as the butt of the joke in his next ad.

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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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To promote Snickers Bites, BBDO New York went retro. Bites give hungry customers a bag full of tiny pieces of Snickers bars, a pretty big switch for the consistent candymaker. But what if Snickers had thought of the idea decades ago?

There are two spots, “Intercom” and “Leisure Suit,” that attempt to answer the question, showing goofy scenarios dated to the 70s about follies that prevented Snickers employees from making Bites many years ago. “Intercom” is clearly the better of the two, as a forgetful man with some vague decision-making responsibilities at the company tries to tell his secretary to remind him to create Bites. Unfortunately, there’s static, which the secretary blames on the Soviet Union. “Leisure Suit” is little more than 30 seconds of lazy guys in afros pretending to be stoned. There’s no reason for the laziness, and the jokes are dumb. However, the premise does lend itself to future self-contained episodes, so BBDO can always take a mulligan and create some better spots in the future. ”Leisure Suit” and credits after the jump.

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BBDO’s latest spot in its feudal Twix campaign, “Break Room,” continues to stoke the feud between left and right Twix.

In the spot, a worker in the left Twix factory wonders what a right Twix tastes like. As he takes a bite, a camera zooms in on him and a tube ejects him from the factory, presumably to the right Twix factory. Viewers are encouraged to “Try both. Pick a side.” I’d like to see a more in-depth discussion of the differences between the left and right Twix factories. Are the factory conditions really all that different? Is one more sanitary than the other? Who started this feud? Come on Twix, give us something to work with here.

This fight-stoking campaign seems flat out irresponsible. Why do you have to give us something to fight about, Twix? This could lead to ongoing feuds that rival the east coast vs. west coast battles of the 90s. Can’t we all just get along? Credits after the jump.  continued…

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Not only should you fear James Harden‘s beard, but now you should fear his voice, too. There’s a long history of athletes who want to be rappers/singers, and that history stars and ends with this awesomely terrible Deion Sanders single from 1994. Luckily, Harden’s leap into the music industry is all in good fun on behalf of Foot Locker. BBDO New York has been pumping out quality NBA-related spots for the brand in the past, and “Harden Soul” is no different. It’s crisp, funny, and capable of appreciating the offbeat moment of humor.

Basketball fans may also recognize sharpshooter Stephen Curry as the voice of reason, begging Harden to give up the strain on his vocal cords. But, as Harden says, “I just had the best year of my career, I gotta keep things fresh.” For those interested in things that are kept extra fresh, Foot Locker also released a full version of “Harden Soul” on Youtube (you can listen after the jump). Watch out for the lyrical genius of lines like, “I wear my shirt open/so you see my chest…I keep my stock open/so you can invest.” Almost worthy of a Grammy.

Credits after the jump.

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BBDO New York and Foot Locker know that Clippers forward/dunker Blake Griffin is a commercial machine – Subway, Kia, Jordan Brand to rattle off a few quickly. So for their latest joint venture, “The Endorser,” the creatives decided to physically hook up Griffin to a machine called The Endorser as if he were programmed to place products. For some Lob City support, Clippers point guard/whiner Chris Paul steps in as a foil to turn off the machine and show us the difference between Real Blake and Robot Blake.

The spot is another smart and self-aware sports bit that takes advantage of an athlete’s public persona through subversion. Griffin is usually stone-faced or arrogantly posturing on the court after huge dunks, but he’s built up a quiet niche as a funnyman on television. Just see this Grantland piece from March that discusses why Blake’s comedy is more complex than you might think. The only issue with Blake is overexposure, like, when his sponsorship brands debut separate commercials within the same week. His Jordan “Blake and Drain” spot, which alludes to MJ and Spike Lee ads from twenty years ago, is even better than the Footlocker commercial. And for that reason, “The Endorser” might get lost in the ever-expanding Blake Griffin commercial merry-go-round. Credits after the jump.

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