Hasta La Creative!

Have you noticed a man named Donald Buscando looking at your LinkedIn profile?

You'd remember him. He's wearing a beige turtleneck that somehow accentuates his eerily white teeth and his hair, which is reminiscent of Robert Cornelius (you know, the guy that took the alleged first selfie ever).

Well, it seems Buscando is a faux executive—part of a tongue-in-cheek effort by Mother New York to recruit interns for its summer program. Mother is identifying potential interns and having "Donald" stalk them on LinkedIn, which is easier than ever thanks to the site's newly souped-up "Who's viewed your profile?" section.

Mother explains Donald's approach this way: "Using the advanced search feature of LinkedIn, he sources the profiles of the best students in the world by filtering by school, specialty and using power keywords like 'Alpha' and 'Pintegrated.' Based on these criteria, Donald identifies the best students and clicks on their profiles over and over again."

Donald's own LinkedIn page is treasure trove of odd, too. He writes:

I spent a few hours on your profile looking deep into the soul of your business-related online identity. From what I saw, you should apply.

Are you a copywriter or art director? I've closely examined your portfolios and you should apply.

Are you a designer? You have beautiful bezier curves. You should apply.

Are you a strategist looking deep into what makes people tick? Yes. You should apply, too.

Do you want to work in the shop? Don't know what that is? Sounds like you should apply.

Are you a producer who makes things happen? I've seen your profile and yes you are. Yes, apply.

There also the video below. You can go to mothernewyork.com/opportunity to apply.

"Tonally this is nothing unusual for us," Mother founding partner Paul Malmstrom tells AdFreak. "We thought it'd be a fun way of learning about the program and give a sense of what it's like to work here."

The parodies of fashion brand Wren's super-viral "First Kiss" ad keep flowing in. Here's ad agency Mother London's entry—"First Sniff," starring a bunch of dogs.

Stranger dogs tend to get pretty intimate pretty quickly, and so all the hesitancy in the first half the video, I suppose, is the joke here. Before long, though, there are plenty of noses in butts and all is right with the world again.

The original "First Kiss" video, by the way, has topped 40 million views since Monday.

Ikea planted lots of LED lamps in the woods for this 60-second commercial for the U.K. and Ireland touting the home-furnishing company's commitment to sustainability.

Created by Mother London and director Martin Krejci, the ad's surreal aura is enhanced by Menomena's pop-etheral "Wet and Rusting" on the soundtrack. (Soundtree Music found the song.) Check out Mr. Squirrel's reaction as the lights blaze. Yeah, he's screwed—every predator can spot him now.

"Forest" is part of Ikea's "Wonderful Everyday" campaign, which focuses on how small things can make a big difference. A voiceover notes that by 2016, Ikea will sell only energy-efficient LED lightbulbs. (Indeed, the European Union has been moving in this direction for some time.)

The work provides "an opportunity to explain a little about who we are and what we stand for as a brand, and sustainability is a big part of this," says Ikea marketing manager Peter Wright.

Some bright lights might point out that the ad displays enough timber to sustain hundreds of impossible-to-assemble dinette sets. (The company reportedly uses 1 percent of the world's wood supply each year.) But in fairness, Ikea has been working to meet ecologically prudent logging standards. So it's not like the company can't see the forest for the trees.

Via The Inspiration Room.

Just a month after losing longtime creative Piers North to Spring Studios, Mother is watching three more veteran staffers move  on as creative director, Rob Baird, Mother & former director of new business Krystle Loyland, and co-head of strategy Seth Gaffney are heading to Austin start up their own operation. In a statement regarding the departing trio, Mother NY founding partner, Andrew Dietchman, says,  “Rob, Krystle, and Seth have made huge contributions over the years. That we’ve repaid their commitment to Mother by helping them arrive at a place where they have the confidence and skills to venture off on their own is a point of enormous pride for me and my partners.  They will forever be part of our family and we’ll always support them in any way can.”

Baird had two stints at Mother during his career, rejoining the agency from TBWA\Chiat\Day NY in summer 2010 to lead creative on Dell, Stella Artois and Coca-Cola among others. As for Loyland, the exec spent six-and-a-half years at the agency, working with clients including Tanquery/Diageo and Google while Gaffney joined in his role at Mother in 2010 after serving on the account/strategy side at the likes of W+K  and Deutsch. We’ve been told the trio’s new venture will be announced soon and will open in early 2014.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Does feminism need rebranding? Elle U.K. thinks so, and invited three British ad agencies—Brave, Mother and Wieden + Kennedy—to work on it with three feminist groups.

The results, published in November's issue, are posted below. Brave, working with teenage campaigner Jinan Younis, produced a flow chart called "Are You a Feminist?" Mother, working with the newly launched Feminist Times, created an ad focused on equal pay. And W+K, teamed up with online magazine Vagenda, produced an ad about stereotypes that women have to deal with.

See the work below. Does any of it scratch the surface of the issue?

—Flow chart from Brave and Jinan Younis:

—Ad from Mother London and the Feminist Times:

—Ad from Wieden + Kennedy London and Vagenda:

Cada vez que você pisca, o vídeo muda. É como transformar seus olhos em um controle remoto. Essa é a proposta da ação “Blinkwashing”, criada pela Mother de New York para a Virgin Mobile.

A “mágica” acontece apenas através do canal da marca no YouTube e tudo o que você precisa fazer é autorizar o uso da sua webcam. A experiência é divertida e capaz de tomar um bom tempo do usuário, impactado pela mensagem da Virgin de que com ela o consumidor tem o controle.

São 25 diferentes filmes (mas com só 16 aparecendo a cada vez), e não importa em que ordem apareçam, sempre seguem o mesmo roteiro para anunciar o plano mensal de 35 dólares da operadora.

A Rehabstudio, responsável pela tecnologia, revela que o segredo é simples, além da detecção de movimento do olhos. Enquanto um vídeo está sendo exibido, outros três já estão sendo carregados no plano de fundo.

Faça o teste: youtube.com/virginmobileusa

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Diz a Bíblia que, no início dos tempos, Adão e Eva eram um casal  que vivia livremente no Jardim do Éden, a não ser por uma proibição: nunca deveriam experimentar o fruto da Árvore do Conhecimento – tradicionalmente simbolizado pela maçã. Seduzidos por uma serpente, entretanto, eles quebraram a regra e perderam sua inocência. Com ajuda dos criativos da Mother, a Smirnoff criou sua própria versão do paraíso para apresentar a assinatura Apple Bite, um coquetel feito com vodka, maçã e limão.

Dirigido por Johhny Hardstaff, a ação do filme começa com um inocente casal chegando a um bar que parece ter saído dos filmes de Quentin Tarantino. O toque surreal está nos detalhes – como por exemplo o fato de o bartender ser praticamente onipresente e aparecer em diversas situações, mas o que realmente chama a atenção é a dupla de serpentes criada por computação gráfica pela MPC.

Cada uma delas foi especialmente criada para este projeto, ganhando texturas e cores individuais. Para garantir que as serpentes fossem o mais realista possível, a equipe de 3D da MPC estudou os movimentos de cobras, víboras e serpentes. O resultado não decepciona, especialmente quando levamos em conta o minucioso trabalho da produção, e dá vontade de assistir várias vezes, só para descobrir os detalhes.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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