Hasta La Creative!

Those who follow the saga of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch’s media interviews know he is notoriously a man of few words.

Whether it’s answering every question with a laid-back “Yeah” or just thanking the press instead of uttering a real response, Lynch has unceremoniously been fined several times for his refusal to talk to journalists. However, not one but two brands—Skittles and Progressive—have now managed to get the tight-lipped athlete to talk.

Skittles, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser, staged a mock press conference with Lynch as part of the teasers for its in-game ads. He answers questions like whether he prefers cat or dog videos, if he wishes he could rush for a 200-yard touchdown, and if he’d rather arrive to the game in a blimp or a jetpack. There’s also handfuls of the candy available for Lynch to chomp down on, which is probably why he looks uncharacteristically joyful during the stunt.

Separately, Lynch also sat down to chat with sports reporter Kenny Mayne for Progressive in the amusingly off-kilter video below. They mostly just play word association, although at one point Marshawn shares his love of Progressive’s spokeswoman, purring, “I’m all about that Flo, boss.”

The Progressive campaign is also raising money for Lynch’s charity, Fam 1st Family Foundation. The running back has signed a pair of cleats, which will be sold on eBay—with all proceeds benefiting the foundation.

Please keep being you, Beast Mode.

On August 18, 2014, TBWA Toronto and Gatorade surprised members of the Cruisers sledge hockey team by inviting NHL stars to join them on the ice. TBWA Toronto then used footage from the event to create the above online spot, released just a few days ago.

In the 2:15 video, we see the surprised look on the faces of Cruisers players as a Gatorade spokesperson invites NHL stars such as Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell onto the ice. But the ad isn’t just about how excited the Cruisers were to meet their hockey idols. The sledge hockey team proved the naysayers (who say sledge hockey isn’t as hard as the stand up version) wrong, and actually schooled the pros. “A couple of those guys did circles around us,” admits Giroux.

“At the end of the day, hockey is hockey,” the spot concludes,” followed by the message, “Proud supporter of hockey everywhere. No matter how it’s played.”

It’s an inspiring message, delivered well over the course of the ad — which actually does a good job of developing its story of the course of its run time, not feeling too stretched at out, even at over two minutes. “Sledge Hockey” is a pretty perfect encapsulation of Gatorade’s “#WinFromWithin” campaign message, and seems to have struck a chord with hockey fans, as it has already tallied almost 700,000 views on YouTube. (more…)

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DDB Canada launched a pro-bono PSA campaign for Toronto Crime Stoppers examining the dangers of ecstasy use, entitled “Cookin’ with Molly.”

The spot, whose full-length version online runs 90 seconds, is presented as a cooking show with a drug dealer. Molly is a name for pure MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy), but, as the video shows, pills presented as “Molly” are often adulterated with substances ranging from methamphetamine and cocaine to heroin and even bath salts. “Welcome to ‘Cookin’ with Molly,’” says the host of the show at the beginning of the ad, “today’s secret ingredient is meth.” He adds just a pinch of bath salts to some ground up MDMA, a bunch of meth and finishes up with his “signature” blue color and some binder before pressing the pills. The online version of the spot ends by directing to viewers to the campaign landing site for more information. There are also 15 and 6 second broadcast versions of the spot. DDB Canada hopes the tongue-in-cheek approach of the campaign, which launched today and will run through the end of February, will resonate with the target audience of people between the ages of 15 and 25.

“These party-type drugs have been a growing concern, and Toronto Crime Stoppers wanted to tackle this head on without being heavy-handed, so the cooking show format is intended to be tongue-in-cheek,” explains Craig Ferguson, senior art director, DDB Canada Toronto. “At the same time, this creative still allows us to educate people on the harmful, hidden ingredients found in MDMA which was our key objective.” (more…)

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Pereira & O’Dell continues to produce intriguing work for Skype, with their latest, “Turning the tide” marking a shift in approach.

Last year, the agency focused on the emotion of the personal connections it helped foster, through its “Stay Together” campaign and its highlight, “The Born Friends Family Portrait.” With “Turning the tide,” Pereira & O’Dell focuses instead on how the service helps a pair of journalists tell the story of Kiribati, the island nation that is in danger of being wiped off the map by 2040, thanks to rising oceans caused by climate change. Indeed, the people of Kiribati are already becoming the “world’s first climate change refugees” as the rising ocean levels have contaminated their food and water.

The “modern mobile news team” of Anna Therese Day and Gianluca Panella are telling the island’s story, and utilize Skype as an important. “…Skype is second nature to us,” Anna says, “Being able to instantly share information, images, files…it means you can get to the heart of the story quickly.”While this inserts Skype into the conversation, it doesn’t do a whole lot to differentiate the brand from its competitors. Still, Pereira & O’Dell crafted an affecting spot, allowing Skype to tell an important story that many viewers might be unfamiliar with (although the story has been covered by a few major news outlets, including CNN). The agency seems to have made a choice to value storytelling and allying Skype with an important cause over overt branding. How effective you view the spot as will largely depend on which of these factors you place the most value on. (more…)

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Droga5 is debuting a new campaign for Air Wick entitled “Home is in the Air,” the agency’s first work for the brand since adding it to its client roster back in May.

In a long-form spot, Droga5 and Air Wick recreate the smells of home — a baseball glove, apple pie and a fireplace  — for an American soldier stationed in Qatar. The video begins with the soldier, Kearen, and his wife, Cortney, explaining the hardships of spending so much time apart (at the time of filming, Kearen has been deployed for 11 months) and introducing the project. Air Wick experts then use an instrument called a solid phase microextraction device to capture, and later recreate, the scents that remind Kearen of being at home with his wife and six children. They then send a package of Air Wick candles imbued with the scents to Kearen, who says, “This, this smells like home.” He adds, emotionally, “It’s something so simple, but it means so much to me.”

(more…)

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Anomaly continues to “Spread Love” for Dick’s Sporting Goods, launching its “Holiday Hoops” extension of its “Gifts That Matter” campaign today on “Giving Tuesday.”

The ad follows on the heels of this heart-tugging spot and similarly explores how a basketball hoop can bring people together. This time around, though, Anomaly employs a “social experiment film” documenting people’s reactions when they leave basketball hoops, and a tray of balls with a “Play with me” sign, at various locations around Cleveland, Los Angeles and New York City. Naturally, the hoops caused strangers to bond over pick up games and Anomaly captured their genuine enthusiasm for the spot.

The video, however, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Dick’s “Spread Love” charitable initiative. Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love teamed up with The Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation today to surprise over 200 students at Scranton Elementary School in Cleveland with two new basketball hoops. The brand defines “Holiday Hoops” as a “‘pay it forward’ movement” which will ultimately donate over 100 hoops to organizations (all either schools or non-profits) across the country. Dick’s will select two such organizations every day, and then give them the chance to “pay if forward” to two of their own choosing, announcing the participants on social media with the #HolidayHoops hashtag.

“This holiday season, we wanted to enhance our “Gift That Matters” campaign by exploring the unique power a basketball hoop has to unite people and communities,” said Lauren Hobart, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Dick’s Sporting Goods and president of The Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation. “We believe that sports really do matter and Dick’s Foundation is thrilled to be able to provide 100 hoops to schools and communities across America.”

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Last month, Sainsbury’s unveiled a high-budget holiday ad created by agency AMV BBDO commemorating the famous “Christmas Truce” of World War I. Unfortunately for the brand, it didn’t find the reception it was looking for, with many in the British public finding the ad distasteful or even hypocritical (Sainsbury’s is planning to knock down a Bristol rugby stadium built in honor of World War I veterans to make way for one of its stores).

So now the brand has completely reversed course with an online holiday ad from Gravity Road entitled “Dads Pull Out Surprise Dubstep Dance for Christmas.” Whereas the “Christmas Truce” spot was clearly labored over with a large production budget, this effort was shot with a handheld camera in an attempt to seem like a homemade video. And while the previous ad was serious and somber, this effort couldn’t be more goofy and lighthearted. As the title implies, the spot sees some dads pull out a surprise dance routine. That the dads do so while wearing jumpers (sweaters as they’re known here in the states) seems an attempt to cash in on this year’s craze for the “ugly sweater.” Their dance is performed to a re-mixed version of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker.

“The piece was always designed as a piece of content that would live on Facebook primarily,” Pete Conolly, creative director at Gravity Road, told Digiday.

Since being uploaded around a week ago, the video has racked up over a million views on Facebook and YouTube, with at least one fan calling for it to be shown on television. The ad is unlikely to generate the same kind of backlash as Sainsbury’s previous effort, as its hard to get too offended over Christmas sweaters.

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CHI&Partners launched a new holiday campaign for Carphone Warehouse enititled “#ColourInvasion” promoting the large number of color exclusives available in its stores for the holiday season.

The spot is set in a dark, gloomy seaside town that (as you may have guessed from the title) receives a sudden invasion of color. That color arrives courtesy of a group of bikers, all decked out in colorful clothing to create a kind of motorcycle chain rainbow. Keeping things on the minimalist side, the spot lets the color speak for itself, without any intrusion from voiceover. The campaign is running online on Carphone Warehouse’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels, as well as the brand’s online content hub, The Lowdown. Yesterday the rband also launched a competioon across its social channels, affording customers the opportunity to win an “exclusively colored handset every day for two weeks” and the chance to win a grand prize of a Harley Davidson 883 Matte Black Roadster.

“The work is an epic, vibrant, dollop of colour hitting Britain’s shores with impact,” said Rob Webster and Alexei Berwitz, creative directors at CHI&Partners, in a press release. “Here, the team have created a campaign which is as joyously simple as the brief that inspired it.” (more…)

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Creative digital studio Click 3X worked with National Geographic and Kinema Films to create “a four-ton scientific contraption with 38 triggers and 71 moving pieces” that they’ve dubbed “The Nat Geo Contraption.”

Drawing inspiration from the gadgets depicted by American cartoonist Rube Goldberg (although many viewers may be reminded of the board game Mouse Trap), the contraption combines items including “nine globes, three tires, one billiard ball, one VW Beetle, a set of bowling pins and a variety of everyday objects” for a fun chain reaction promoting the network’s “science-minded block of programming” which includes Brain Games, Science of Stupid and Street Genius. The programming bloc is set to air on National Geographic in 170 countries, and in 45 different languages, beginning in January 2015. A contraption of such size, of course, wasn’t built overnight. Click 3X and director Manny Bernardez worked diligently with production designer Bernardo Trujillio for over two months to bring the creation to life.

“It’s the celebration of human ingenuity, to highlight the smart and entertaining lineup of the shows coming up on Nat Geo” explained Emanuele Madeddu, senior vice president of creative and marketing, NGCI. “I have always been fascinated by these devices, and I want our viewers to experience science in a uniquely National Geographic way. You can’t miss the reveal at the end.” (more…)

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JWT uses the Norman Rockwell painting “Freedom From Want” as a springboard to examine the modern American family in its spot for Tylenol launching the brand’s “For What Matters Most” campaign.

“Normal Rockwell painted America’s story for sixty-plus years,” begins Abigail Rockwell — Norman’s granddaughter — at the beginning of the ad before remarking on how “our definition of family is expanding.” The ad then asks, “What would a Norman Rockwell holiday look like today?” before answering with three families as examples. There’s the Japanese Yee Hoshida family, who view the hot pot served for dinner as metaphor of the blending of cultures and generations that go in to a modern family; the blended family Beser Carr Schneider Musich, who “happen to be four parents trying to raise our children”; and the African American Garza family, whose eyebrow ring-wearing grandmother serves up Cornish hens rather than the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. All three families describe what makes them unique and “what matters most,” with each, of course, pointing to family. It’s all, of course, very sentimental, which is only appropriate given the Rockwell connection.

The spot saw a soft release on Thanksgiving, and JWT released a separate video for the Yee Hoshida family on Tuesday (featured after the jump). Videos for the other two families will roll out soon for the holiday season. The videos mark the launch of JWT’s “Freedom From Want” campaign for the brand, which Manoj Raghunandanan, senior director on the Tylenol business, told AdAge “presage a broader media effort in 2015.”

Raghunandanan told that publication that the campaign “reflects serving our consumers and how unique and diverse they are,” and that he didn’t worry about a conservative backlash over the ad’s depiction of a blended family which includes a lesbian couple.

“If you look at what we’ve stood for as a brand, it’s always been so much more than pain relief,” he added. “Caring for people and going beyond their pain is what makes Tylenol Tylenol.” (more…)

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