Hasta La Creative!

It's been years since Burger King's U.S. advertising was truly weird. You have to go back to the Crispin Porter + Bogusky stuff from the mid-2000s—in particular, the deeply troubling "Eat Like Snake" ad from 2006.

Colenso BBDO, however, is keeping BK ads weird for the New Zealand market. Check out the three spots below from director Nick Ball, featuring the most unlikely BK patrons ever—Sir Roger Poppincock and Baron von Cravat, along with an elderly gent on oxygen and his young, pissed-off Russian bride.

Reaction, it's fair to say, has been mixed.

"Hey Burger King, just have to say I think your latest TV ads are dreadful," one Facebook commenter writes. "So much for a tasteful and family orientated pitch. Do you really think that people would find that funny? Old men with some young girl saying when are you going to die, apart from the obvious stereotypes, ageism and sexism, what about the cultural offense you cause by assuming that women from Russia only marry older men? Not impressed." (BK replied: "We are sorry you're not loving our ads. Thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts, we appreciate all feedback."

The chain also got some heat for advertising its lamb burger with a billboard that said: "Cute, cuddly & now delicious." In response to that, another Facebook commenter wrote: "I would like to complain on behalf of vegetarians and vegans about the morally and ethically offensive nature of the 'Cute, cuddly & now delicious' lamb burger billboard in Sandringham. Marketing should have been more considerate."

"Our advertising isn't intended to offend, just to get noticed," the marketer replied. "We hope that there was sufficient humour in this billboard to demonstrate our position and are sorry that this campaign upset you."

Lorde is a humble, homegrown New Zealand star, and she's taken out a full-page ad in the New Zealand Herald to make sure everyone back home knows she hasn't forgotten that.

Ahead of her performance at the Laneway music festival on Wednesday night this week (apparently her only summer show in New Zealand, where it's summer, Yankee suckers), the singer of anti-materialist anthem "Royals" penned a handwritten note for the ad celebrating her performance Sunday night at the Grammy Awards in L.A., not to mention the two awards she picked up there, for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

"hiya if you're reading this, Joel & I won. HOLY CRAP," reads the letter, referring to her producer Joel Little. "I just wanted to say thank you for the time you've given me over the past 14 months… without your support there's no way I would've ever gotten to stand in the middle of the Staples Center and perform in my school shoes."

It's a classy, charming statement of appreciation that fits nicely with her acceptance speeches, and broader down-to-earth positioning—a nice example of when marketing can perfectly align with honesty. Or at least, with an exceptionally convincing illusion of it.

See the full ad below.

The country will now return 20 percent of the production money Hollywood studios spend in the country in the form of rebates, up from 15 percent.

There is one good reason to visit New Zealand (not counting you already happened to be in Australia so why not swing by). It's because you wish you lived in The Lord of the Rings instead of in the real world.

Just ask Air New Zealand, which appears to have conceded this in its latest Middle-earth-themed video—not its first. The new spot urges you to pack your bags with golden baubles and helmets and shields, then board a giant eagle-winged aircraft piloted by bearded dwarves. A man in a wizard's hat will use a gnarled wooden staff to wave the fowl plane down the tarmac. Hobbit-footed and pointy-eared flight attendants will serve you the Shire's crunchiest vegetable produce.

If you do go, be nice to the real Air New Zealand staff, as many of them debased themselves to bring you this fantasy—all because the airline wants you to know that what you see in the cinema is not just "a load of fanciful imaginings." Alternately, you could just use the million-hour flight to marathon all of the J.R.R. Tolkien movies. And then do it again when you get to the hotel, too.

Because you, Bilbo Baggins, sure aren't going to defeat that dragon while sitting comfortably in the Bag End replica you've built in your girlfriend's mother's basement.

Steinlager, New Zealand's biggest export beer, is concerned about the growing trend at house parties and fraternities everywhere that starts off with people drinking and ends up with people drawing genitalia on the face of the first of the passed-out-wasted.

"Be the artist, not the canvas" (aka, "Party hard, but not too hard, y'all"), Steinlager urges in print ads and a YouTube video from DDB in Auckland. The spot serves as a PSA to partygoers everywhere by showing cleverly, strategically and mortifyingly placed drawings on bodies. A bra on a topless dude. A monocle on a face. A face on a bald head.

But wait, "Be the artist"? So Steinlager wants us to draw on unconscious people, but not be drawn on ourselves? I'm confused. I may need a drink.

Now, on to questions of heavier significance: Where do people get all these Sharpies when they're out partying?

CREDITS
Client: Steinlager
Agency: DDB, Auckland, New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Andy Fackrell
Creative Director: Chris Schofield
Art Director: Gavin Siakimotu
Copywriter: Natalie Knight
Account Director: Susie Darling
Photographer: Troy Goodall
Account Manager: Jonathan Rea
Photographer, Producer: Michele Richards

Here's a pretty clever new chapter in Samsung's long-running mockery of Apple line-waiters. For the launch of the Galaxy S4, New Zealand agency Colenso BBDO created a "Smart Phone Line"—a digital queue that fans could join and then move up in line by posting in social media about the phone. A large screen in Auckland actually showed the avatars waiting in line, sharing tweets in real time and skipping ahead. (The fan who worked his or her way to the front of the line by launch got a free S4.) As a subtle jab to Apple fanboys notoriously willing to endure anything for a new iPhone, Samsung's virtual line-waiters curled up in sleeping bags at night and put up umbrellas when it rained. Watch the case study below to see how it worked and hear the results. Via Ads of the World.

Jacinta Danielle Conza est une jeune designer néo-zélandaise de 20 ans passionnée de sneakers qui propose ce livre pour apprendre à compter aux enfants de 1 à 10 en utilisant les dix premiers modèles de Air Jordan. Un projet à la fois plein de fantaisie et très bien réalisé pour les fans de sneakers, petits ou grands.

Boil Up est un projet que Robert Hodgin a monté dans le cadre de l’exposition Moana, My Ocean à Auckland. L’artiste a recréé pour l’occasion une simulation 3D de l’effet « boil up », un agrégat de poissons devenant presque une structure vivante à part entière. Un travail incroyable et complexe à découvrir.

How often would your Facebook activity get you beaten, tortured or beheaded in the world's most repressive countries? A lot more often than you'd think. Amnesty International of New Zealand and agency Colenso BBDO of Auckland created an app called "Trial by Timeline" that analyzes your Facebook posts and lets you know how you might be brutalized in countries that persecute people based on everything from sexual orientation and religion to drinking and writing for the media. (I was beaten and tortured more than 270 times, but at least I wasn't beheaded or stoned to death.) It's a morbidly fascinating way to explore the liberties most of us take for granted. The app actually came out late last year but didn't get much attention until it was featured recently by The Inspiration Room and a few other sites.

MetService.com, a weather site in New Zealand, recently put up this empty (but nonetheless branded!) billboard frame in Auckland, through which it offered "real-time weather reports." Ha. As a gimmick, I suppose it's amusing enough. Of course, it's hard to tell the temperature from looking at the sky—and that's the major thing people check real-time weather reports for. Fun idea—but just not as clever as they think it is. Agency: Y&R. Check out the case-study video below. Via Adland.