Hasta La Creative!

W+K Portland and Coca-Cola have pre-released their Super Bowl ad, “Going All The Way.” One of two big game spots for Coca-Cola, “Going All The Way,” was shot in Ashwaubenon, a suburb of Green Bay, Wisconsin, with the exception of the final moments, which were shot at Lambeau Field.

The 60 second spot, directed by Jake Scott and set to House of Pain’s classic “Jump Around,” tells the story of Adrian, a small high school football benchwarmer who finally gets his chance to shine. “Don’t mess this up again, Adrian,” his teammate says when he’s put in the game, telling us all we need to know about Adrian’s past on the playing field. But things break Adrian’s way, and he’s given the opportunity to make the play of a lifetime.

Most of the cast of “Going All The Way” was made up of actual Green Bay-area residents, and Lambeau Field’s groundskeeper of 17 years has a featured role in the spot. “‘Going All The Way’ is a story that celebrates a young man accomplishing his dreams. It’s also a celebration of the amazing town of Ashwaubenon, Wis. coming together and our wonderful partnership with the city of Green Bay,” said Katie Bayne, President, North America Brands, Coca-Cola North America.

The feel-good spot will air during the second half of the Super Bowl, while Coca-Cola’s other big game ad will air during the second quarter. This marks Coca-Cola’s eighth consecutive year advertising during the Super Bowl. To celebrate the launch of “Going All The Way,” Coca-Cola has pledged to donate $50,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Triple Play program when the spot reaches 10,000 shares. So please feel free to share “Going All The Way” with friends, family and colleagues. Stick around for a behind-the-scenes video about the making of “Going All The Way” after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

W+K Portland has been very, very busy for Old Spice. First it was body spray with the “Smellcome to Manhood” campaign aka “Mom Song.” Then last week it was the triumphant return of Isaiah Mustafa and the “Interneterventions” surprise online campaign. Now, breaking the consistency of strange portmanteau puns is “For Hair That Gets Results,” marketing Old Spice’s line of hair care and styling products.

The first 30-second spot, “Meeting,” finds a studly studs mop of hair jump off his head and get a girl’s number. The lesson? If, young man, you pull this move, you’ll get a phone number that connects to a voicemail message that says, “Hey, I can’t come to the phone right now. I’m either studying for my master’s degree or having a tickle fight with my friend, Consuela. (Giggles.) Stop it, Consuela, I’m going to get you!” Yep, pretty cool.

The second, “Boardwalk,” teaches young men another valuable lesson. You see, a lady wants your hair to tell her if you can put in baby in her. You know, through the means of sexual intercourse or via a mechanical claw. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Online
Opel
Tapsa Y&R, Spain

The Wooden Award is an annual prize that honors the best men’s and women’s college basketball players. Named after former UCLA head coach John R. Wooden, who lead his team to a whopping 10 NCAA Championships from 1963-1975 (during which time the Bruins also racked up a nearly unthinkable 88-straight wins), the prize today named its list 25 finalists. Due to an insanely good freshman class, including Duke’s Jabari Parker and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins, it should be a fun race this year. I mean, not Super Bowl fun, but more fun than, say, watching 10 minutes of Pro Bowl.

Anyway, Wendy’s is the official sponsor behind this thing, and starring in a new online spot from Kansas City-based WPP agency VML debuting today is ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas. A Duke alum, Bilas led the Blue Devils to an NCAA Championship game in 1986  (they lost the title to Louisville) as a player and won two championships in the ’90s as an assistant coach. He’s joined here by “The Drain,” a humorous archetype of 1970s hoopsters which has been done nearly to death since Will Ferrell released Semi-Pro six years ago. (Hey, Andre 3000 was in the movie. Weird.)

The copy starts strong, with Bilas calling The Drain’s jumper “so smooth that it would get a co-ed’s number on the way to the rim,” but from there, the spot sort of stagnates. Perhaps it’s because the jokes just aren’t as good as the aforementioned simile. Perhaps it’s because, as I’ve said, we’ve seen this superfly funny-looking character TOTALLY DONE TO DEATH, which I’ve capitalized mid-sentence so you know that I mean it. In any case, this spot is the first of five coming out between now and the April 11-12 awards show. So, let’s hope VML and Wendy’s (which have been working together since late 2012) shake things up.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Online
Hallst.Com:
Carlitos y Patricia, Spain

Online
Ajax
VML / GPY&R, Australia

This past October we covered 72andSunny’s exhaustive campaign for Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. Now, 72andSunny is back with a new campaign promoting Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ new downloadable content pack, Onslaught.

72andSunny’s long spot for Onslaught, entitled “CODnapped,” imagines a task force, led by a CODnapper played by Stephen Graham of Boardwalk Empire, sent out to kidnap men from such terrible duties as work, child rearing, and spending time with their significant other, so that they can be brought to a room with comfy chairs and snacks to play Call of Duty. The elaborately imagined scheme runs for over three minutes, before the rest of the spot is devoted to Onslaught gameplay. It’s kind of a clever (although ridiculous and entirely sexist) concept that highlights gamers’ desire to spend time with the new content free of any real-life distractions. And although the spot is quite dragged out, at a 4:51 run length, fans of the franchise have responded. The video was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, and has already racked up almost 400,000 views. By the time of Onslaught‘s January 28th release, it could top the one million mark. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Earlier this month, Draftfcb Chicago launched the “How Do You KFC?” integrated campaign for the colonel, “a new movement celebrating the connection KFC fans have with the food.” Part of that campaign was an online video of X Games Moto gold medalist Bryce Hudson, who became the first person to perform a backflip while eating chicken (a KFC Go Cup featuring Extra Crispy Tenders). Even more impressively, according to Draftfcb Chicago’s in-house production team, “when Hudson invited them to his private practice facility for the shoot, the successful flip was captured within the first two takes.” The ever-confident Hudson was not surprised. “I knew the backflip would be possible right off the bat,” he said, “I was so excited to join the #HowDoYouKFC movement with the world’s first chicken-eating backflip because I could enjoy two of my favorite things at the same time. It doesn’t get much better than that.” Draftfcb’s video crew for the shoot reportedly included only four people.

The video gained over half a million views during its first two weeks online, and, in a nod to fan appreciation, Draftfcb and KFC are turning it into a primetime television spot that begins airing tonight. “We want to stay nimble, listen to our fans, and give them what they want. When we saw that the Bryce Hudson video was quickly emerging as a fan favorite, we wanted to make it even bigger — and put it on TV,” said Jason Marker, General Manager for KFC U.S.

The “How Do You KFC” campaign also includes “revamps for point-of-purchase displays, uniforms, packaging, in-store greetings, digital and social assets,” as well as a streetball online video entitled “The Professor.” “How Do You KFC?” invites fans to participate by uploading photo or video content to social media with hashtag #HowDoYouKFC. KFC claims they will “will continually evaluate options for fan-driven videos throughout the campaign” so look for fan input to have a large impact throughout the campaign. The next video to make it to primetime could even be a fan-generated upload. Stick around for “The Professor” after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve been getting some tips over the last few days regarding the launch of ‘CommentSpy,’ a new website based on our own (AgencySpy, in case you needed a reminder of where you were). The site’s tagline, “Inside your comments. Derp inside” references our notorious comment section, which is apparently enough of a cesspool of hatred, profanity and self-loathing to spin off a separate site wholly devoted to it. Thanks, commentariat.

Initially, we were going to avoid writing about this thing for fear of being Inception-ed, but then we figured “whatever” and also “fuck it.” Plus, the site’s author(s) made funny twists on our names, which we were incredibly flattered by. So flattered, in fact, that we collectively LOL’d and blushed, batting our eyes in an innocent yet seductive fashion. Anyway, here’s a note we got commemorating the launch of CommentSpy from “kiran@commentspy.com”:

“Dearest Kiran, Bob, Erik & Jordan,

It is with great pleasure that I am emailing you all to announce the launch of CommentSpy.com, the premiere online destination for news from the AgencySpy comments section. We will be covering all the latest AgencySpy comments Monday through Friday, particularly the ones that are mean spirited, willfully ignorant, poorly constructed, racist, misogynistic, or ideally all of the above.

Keep an eye on the site in the days and weeks to come, and feel free to throw up a post about us!

Best,
Kiran Adithands
Throb Darshall
Erik Ostraw
& Jordan Derper”

If you visit CommentSpy.com, you’ll also be greeted by funny Photoshopped versions of our headshots. Finally, can I just say that “Throb Darshall,” is the best name of all? It’s like I have a 70′s detective alter-ego who occasionally makes dalliances into porn when I’m between cases. Thanks to whoever made this and meta world peace to you all!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

72andSunny launched a new cross-platform campaign for Busch called “Busch Heroes,” which “celebrates hard workers on the job and in their communities.” The campaign, designed to embody the new brand tagline, “Here’s to Earning It,” includes “in-store signage, beer packaging, documentary style web videos and more.”

For the campaign, Busch scoured the country in search of everyday heroes from all walks of life who were both “truly passionate about what they do for a living, as well as going above and beyond to make a difference in their communities.” They selected a group of eight men and women from across the country to represent this ideal. Actually, it’s seven men and one woman (Jacqueline Gabelein), and the above online ad undermines the attempt at inclusion by solely using terms like “working man,” “manly,” and “his” — making the one female selection seem like an afterthought/tokenism. (“His hands may be both rough and hard,” delivers Gabelein, during her footage.) This is still, I suppose, a step in the right direction for a beer advertisement.

“Our goal with Busch Heroes is to shine a spotlight on those who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, on and off the clock,” explains Edison Yu, vice president, value brands, Anheuser-Busch. It’s a refreshing approach, even with the gender issues. Who doesn’t want to see hardworking men and women who give back to their communities get a moment in the spotlight?

In addition to 30 and 60 second digital ads, the campaign features “special edition Busch and Busch Light packaging, print advertisements, retail displays and region-specific billboards.” Four of the Busch Heroes will be profiled in online mini documentaries: Justin Zoscsak, Andy Freeman, Travis Caldwell and Brandon Harris. Busch is looking to its fanbase for the next selection of Busch Heroes. Busch drinkers can head to Busch’s Facebook page to nominate someone they think deserves to be honored as a Busch Hero in 2015.

See below for a full list of Busch Heroes:

• Andy Freeman: Tugboat deckhand from Eagle Harbor, Wash.
• Brandon Harris: Cattle rancher and EMT from Manvel, Texas.
• Damian Sharbowski: Owns auto shop in Troy, Mich.
• Dennis Nelson: Owns construction business in Maryville, Mo.
• Eric Castañeda: Temper mill operator from Houston, Texas.
• Jacqueline Gabelein: Lead oiler on construction crew in Langley, Wash.
• Justin Zoscsak: Runs family logging business in Manistee, Mich.
• Travis Caldwell: Welding specialist from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.