Hasta La Creative!

FitzCo//McCann created a holiday spot for Coca-Cola and Walmart entitled “Earn It” which features a sentimental twist designed to tug at heartstrings for the holidays.

The spot shows a teenager working odd jobs around the holidays to earn some extra money. After finally earning enough money he heads to Walmart to make his purchase, which is revealed in the next scene. Without giving too much away we can say that the spot is built around this reveal, which positions Coca-Cola and Walmart alongside some cute holiday sentimentality. Splitting an ad between two brands is no easy feet, but FitzCo//McCann manages to avoid shortchanging either party. In the opening shot, the protagonist is seen thumbing through a Walmart catalog while drinking a Coke. One of his money making schemes involves selling bottles of the soft drink for $1.25 each and he drinks a bottle again at the conclusion of “Earn It.” It also works surprisingly well with Coca-Cola’s larger “Open Happiness” campaign, albeit with the kind of sentimentality that might seem too much at any other time of year. (more…)

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Amazingly, comedians Craig Robinson and Jake Johnson had yet to appear in any major films, shows or campaigns together before this week.

That all changed with the release of these inaugural clips in W+K Portland‘s new campaign for client Dodge. The theme is simple: no one can touch Robinson’s new Dart — even his equally famous and strangely nosy neighbor.

That’s the first of three :30 spots…

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You’re almost certainly aware that General Motors is currently suffering through a scandal created by its lack of tech savvy. Yet, even as the terrible PR is somehow increasing sales numbers for the automaker, a new spot created by Commonwealth/McCann indicates that Chevrolet wants customers to know that it’s moving on. In fact, we might say that the brand has begun “a new journey.”

This spot is ostensibly all about the 4G Wi-Fi available in new models, but in a larger sense it’s about how Chevrolet is moving forward on all cylinders and bringing its customers along for the ride.

The July 4th debut was no accident, either: as Chevy’s VP of Marketing puts it, “What better time than the Fourth of July to celebrate the new independence that Chevrolet provides”…via working Wi-Fi.

In order to reinforce this point, the team at Commonwealth/McCann Detroit adroitly make the sort of “that was then, this is now” juxtapositions that one sees in many campaigns for products with tech components.

Credits after the jump.

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We are now in the season of LeBron James commercials. He’s like Victor Cruz, only taller, better, richer, and not a Time Warner Cable lackey. If you happened to watch the opening night of the NBA season, you saw three different LeBron endorsements, including a new two-minute Samsung spot (:60 version with just the family after the jump) that gives viewers a glimpse into the family life of the best basketball player in the world.

If you care about such things, you may remember last year’s Samsung/LBJ launch, which also premiered on opening night as the Miami Heat were getting their first set of rings. That 2012 spot was more about LeBron and his friends ruling Miami in barber shops and ice cream trucks. This year’s version is all about LeBron and his family: his sons hanging out in the pool or on a driveway basketball court as his wife films from a Samsung Galaxy. ”The Next Big Thing is Here” flashes on the screen as LeBron’s son celebrates after swishing a jump shot. We get it, but it’s still fairly interesting to let two little boys take some of the spotlight away from the real star.

The spot is an easy watch, a relaxing tone that rubs off on the viewer. Life is good for LeBron, and even though I typically prefer product-focused ads to lifestyle ads, when the spokesman is one of the most famous people on the planet, customers may take notice. Smiles all around and credits after the jump.

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Dodge and Paramount have joined forces in a co-branded campaign from W+K launching the new 2014 Dodge Durango featuring Ron Burgundy (of Anchorman and the upcoming Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, but you already knew that).

The campaign, which spans television, print, digital and social media, debuted October 5th online and on television. Be prepared to see it everywhere.

“With the personal involvement of Will Ferrell, our writer / director Adam McKay, the comedy team at Funny or Die, and the Dodge creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, we were able to create a truly epic partnership,” says CMO of Paramount Picture Josh Greenstein in a statement. But are the spots actually funny? Some of them — they really very widely in quality. Each of the spots takes advantage of the 70s aesthetic in the Anchorman films, taking place in a colorful, very 70s auto showroom. The first spot, “Horsepower” is a bit of a letdown. It resurrects the tired “comparing horse power to an actual horse” theme commonly used in spots for powerful vehicles.

The staring contest with the horse at the end is almost worth a chuckle though. “Glove Compartment” is a lot better: it features Ron Burgundy toting the Durango’s glove compartment, which can hold “two turkey sandwiches or seventy packs of gum.” Another spot finds Burgundy struggling with a script that touts the Durango’s “m.p.g.” performance. The highlight is definitely “Ballroom Dancers,” featured above, which has a comically angry showdown between Burgundy and dancers that he thinks may “live in the rafters.” A lot of this is stuff that only Ferrell could get away with delivering, and only about half of the time is the writing worthy of his talent, but when it works it works. Plus, it will whet people’s appetites for the Anchorman sequel, which is kind of the point.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues debuts in theaters December 20th. Credits and additional video after the jump.  continued…

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Hot Sauce. Skip to My Lou. Main Event. Kevin. The park league nickname has always been a valued tradition in the realm of streetball, meaningful monikers passed down from the basketball gods that can become legend, a la Dr. J or Pee Wee Kirkland. Kevin Durant, for all of his NBA greatness, has yet to merge his skills with an equally skillful nickname. Yes, there’s KD and the Durantula (and perhaps the best one via Jalen Rose, who resurrected the name Iceberg Slim), but it just doesn’t feel right yet.

For the latest Nike effort from W+K Portland, which was created in partnership with Foot Locker, the agency decided to take Durant’s lack of nicknameness and build an ad around it. The sixty-second spot, which features comedian Hannibal Buress as MC, is the coming-out party for Kevin “Kevin” Durant. Buress runs through pre-game introductions and calls out intricate nicknames for random guys like Don Juan Have a Picnic by the Pond, but when he gets to Durant, the crowd goes silent. Kevin Kevin: It’s funny because it’s true. Credits after the jump.

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Sure, 72andSunny and Samsung have had some fun comparing the latter’s smartphones to Apple’s in recent years, but in the last several months, it seems like the brand’s finally getting over their complex and showcasing the product line on its own. First, they highlighted the Galaxy S4 with a graduation-centered campaign. Now, they’re showcasing new features for Father’s Day with “hip dads in action.”

In “Swaddle Master,” a befuddled father learns the tricks of the swaddling trade via Smart Pause YouTube. With “Quick Snooze” (below), meanwhile, the same cardigan-wearing dad watches the game with his little one at the end of the day. As his eyes droop shut, the game pauses. He reopens them and it picks up where he left off.

Though this creative work may not go viral or win awards, showing the practical (and less glamorous) application of the S4’s features will perhaps win the hearts of young parents everywhere. On a special occasion like Father’s Day, maybe hitting your target audience is enough?

Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.