Today the Tokyo and Amsterdam offices of Wieden+Kennedy debuted the first international campaign for client Citizen Watch, which is not a neighborhood safety group but a producer of premium timepieces.
The five-minute spot, which stars photographer Simon Roberts and ex-NATO pilot Jonathan Nicol in an attempt to literally “chase the sunset across the Earth’s time zones”, justifies use of the phrase “short film”:
The team appears to have succeeded in “steal[ing] one night from the planet” and taking a series of sunset images fit to rival anything on your friends’ Instagram accounts (unless they happen to live at the Arctic Circle).
Here’s an energetic spot to end a short week: South Korean high schoolers love sports just as much as all teens, but the press release tells us that “many barriers” like school and family responsibilities prevent them from having a good time.
The team at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo took to the streets to gauge their sentiments and came up with the tagline, “When Fun Wins, You Can’t Lose.”
The resulting ad stars “Korean football legend Ji-Sung Park, rising tennis player Duck-Hee Lee, K-Pop superstar Taeyang from the group BIG BANG” and a bunch of kids who just want to enjoy their soccer/baseball/basketball/running and dancing.
Don’t forget the dancing.
We’re still partial to the glow-in-the-dark basketball dude.
Last Thursday saw soccer star Lionel Messi become the world’s “first life-size, living avatar” dubbed Lifesize Messi, to promote EA Sports’ FIFA 14 for PS4 and Xbox One. W+K Amsterdam have just rolled out the follow-up TV campaign, “Messimorphosis.”
W+K chose to show a gamer morphing into Lifesize Messi as a metaphor for “how the game now feels more alive” than ever. The execution comes across something like an Aphex Twin music video. In other words, quite unsettling.
The spot opens with our gamer sitting on his couch, loading up his Xbox One. As he presses a button, he looks at his hand to see it changing before his eyes. Soon, his entire body is morphing into the Messi avatar, and it’s pretty damned creepy. There’s a shot of the kid’s unnerving smile, and a really freaky one of his face melting into Messi’s. This is pretty strange stuff. The close-up of his feet turning into cleats is just plain gross. We don’t see any gameplay (which looks pretty good, but not mind-blowing) until the final few seconds of the spot, with most of the 58 second ad devoted to the Lionel Messi metamorphosis. Clearly, W+K is banking on Messi’s star power and the lifesize avatar schtick — and presumably not factoring in that the morphing stunt will weird some people out. One thing you can say about “Messimorphosis” is that it’s certainly memorable.
If you’re easily disturbed or grossed out, avoid this one at all costs. If, on the other hand, you’re a big fan of FIFA, Lionel Messi, or are under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, then this one’s for you. Credits after the jump. continued…
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