Hasta La Creative!

Fellow New Yorkers and others around the world know that the 9/11 Memorial Museum finally opened in May after years of debate and ugly political infighting.

While the establishment is not free from controversy today, it has already become something of a city institution. Today sees the debut of the memorial’s first promotional campaign, created pro-bono by BBDO New York in collaboration with animation house Elastic.

The two-minute spot, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg:

Keep in mind that this is a true story: The Survivor Tree does exist, and it was indeed rescued by those on the scene. The poem, though, comes from BBDO creative directors Rick Williams and Marcel Yunes.

The campaign includes a social media fundraising component as well.

(more…)

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Immensely popular/boring band Walk Off The Earth play the same bland song in three different styles for Red Urban’s new interactive VW spot, directed by Wendy Morgan.

Users can select to hear the song “Gang of Rhythm” in three different versions, each shot at a different location and paired with a different Beetle, and even switch back and forth while the song plays out. They can choose ”Playful” mode for the Beetle Convertible, “Soulful” mode for the Super Beetle, or “Powerful” mode for the Beetle GSR. The song sounds like it was written for a car commercial, so I guess it’s appropriate enough. That doesn’t make it any more listenable, though. Gimmicky attempts to use the Beetle in the music abound: In one version, it’s the sound of the car’s engine, while in another it’s one of the Walk Off The Earth dudes drumming on the car.

According to Christina Yu, ECDof Red Urban Canada, the collaboration was the band’s idea. “Volkswagen got a call from the band one day,” she says, “apparently they are big Volkswagen fans and wanted to collaborate…We thought it was a great idea, so immediately started developing the ideas for the video.”

One thing we can take from this is that interactive seems to be in at the moment, especially in work for car companies. WCRS had their virtual test drive for the BMWi3, and Campfire had that “Deja View” spot for Infiniti. This particular spot’s interactive element (or gimmick, depending on your stance) is a pretty sound one, and the fluidity with which you can switch between the different styles in the video is well-executed. If I had been able to stomach the music, I could have even enjoyed it. Credits after the jump. continued…

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