Hasta La Creative!

Cool news out of Honda camp: The American branch of the Japanese automaker is attempting to revive the dying drive-in theater industry with Project Drive-In, an awareness campaign that will provide five drive-in theaters with new digital projectors. Currently, about half of the 368 drive-ins still operating in America may be forced to close in the next few years unless they switch to digital projects to support the technology used for most new releases. New digital projectors cost between $75k-$100k, which as you may be able to guess, isn’t chump change for theaters that mostly exist in Middle America.

Honda, teaming with its longtime ally RPA, launched the super-duper social flood on the usual networks and has anchored it all to projectdrivein.com for users who want to donate, spread the word, vote on theaters to save, etc. And even if the good press will ultimately fail to save the obsolete drive-in theater industry, kudos to Honda for jumping in with both feet anyway.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You’ve never seen an episode of the fictional figurine drama “The Real Soccer Moms of Datalandia,” but you’ve probably seen a show just like it. And for anyone who has encountered the frustration of a malfunctioning TV signal or a storm-induced blackout, missing that crucial moment in whatever show you’re watching can make you want to punch your monitor until it breaks (side note: if you have Time Warner Cable, this process happens daily). Though we watch the shows, we, as consumers, don’t really pay attention to how the sausage gets made, that is: how the wires and signals connect to make sure that our real soccer moms stay on the screen.

For the past few weeks, General Electric and Mekanism have been using a series of online videos to explain this process to consumers. The newest spot, “Stormageddon,” is shown above. I’m not sure if consumers care much for big data explanations. They’d rather watch bad reality shows where women frequently toss glasses of pinot grigio on each other. Thinking about how General Electric makes the sausage feels a little like they are patting themselves on the back as their bank account gets smaller. If I liked sausage, I’d rather just eat it. Check out a second clip after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you live in either Chicago or Boston, you may have watched (or wanted to watch) the Stanley Cup Finals, in which case you realized that you don’t have access to NBC Sports. After some McGyver-ing and hooking you iPad to your TV, you got thousands about thousands of commercials advertising that NBC Sports would be broadcasting every game of England’s prestigious Barclays Premier League. After digesting this fact, you immediately stopped caring because 1.) You’re an American who likes ‘merican sports and 2.) Again, you don’t have access to NBC Sports.

But who better to make you, an American without access to NBC, care about this development than Jason Sudeikis, a former Saturday Night Live cast member who has appeared basically fucking everywhere in the last month? First, dude quits SNL. Then, he starts going on a press tour for his terrible-looking new movie, Meet The Millers, where he stars opposite Jennifer Aniston, who plays a middle-aged stripper. Then, he joined ESPN to count down the top 50 “This Is SportsCenter” ads last week. Then, he made cameo appearance in Drinking Buddies, a new film playing on Apple TV before it hits theaters at the end of the month and stars Sudeikis’ real-life fiance, Olivia Wilde. Then, Kiran shows me this and asks me to write about it, compelling me to start complaining about how Jason Sudeikis is fucking everywhere these days. Then, wouldn’t you know it, he releases a viral video YESTERDAY where he leads a parody version of Mumford & Sons, with Ed Helms, Jason Bateman and Will Forte starring as his bearded indie-folk backing band.

Seriously, it’s absolutely impossible to get rid of this guy. Watch him play a dumb American coach who doesn’t get soccer above in a new campaign from the Brooklyn Brothers (who you may remember from those kick-ass John Krasinski/Alec Baldwin New Era spots), and then don’t talk to me about Jason Sudeikis until you’ve developed some sort of Sudeikis repellant.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here’s a 3-minute long music video for Smirnoff Ice from director Jon Jon Augustavo. From what we can tell, it encourages young women to pre-game their nights out with a substance commonly instilled on others as punishment.

Sure, the “Bros Icing Bros” phenomenon of 2010 may have jumped the shark when Coolio got “Iced” in someone’s back yard. But for anyone between the ages of 21 and 30 who either likes playing stupid jokes or regularly finds themselves as a spectator of others’ stupid jokes, Smirnoff Ice is known as something bros make their bros chug. In fact, in 2010, Smirnoff Ice even admitted that the stupid meme helped kickstart sluggish sales of the milky white beverage. The next step? Get the ladies involved with the aid of canine Tumblr superstar Tommy Pom.

Could young women nationwide start sizzurpin’ the SmirnIce as part of their “Straight Primpin’” ritual? If you encourage widespread use of celebrity Pomeranians to get the pre-party started, anything’s possible. Download “Straight Primpin’” here and view credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s that time again, interns of the world, to cast your votes for the best agency intern program in Internship King’s annual poll. Last year, we saw the likes of The Richards Group, McKinney and 22squared topping the list. This year, as you can see, it’s a whole different ballgame thus far, though voting will continue through end of Friday so who knows how this will turn out. Just to remind you students out there, the Internship King site not only allows you to vote but view ratings, reviews, and salaries of agency internships as well.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This news wouldn’t feel right if we covered it on any day other than Friday. Andy Leek, former creative at Nothing and now-freelancer at the likes of Tribal DDB, decided to use his artistic skills to paint the first portrait of Prince George earlier this week. He’s now selling the painting on Ebay, with the current bid at £10.50 (just over $16) as of noon today. We can’t confirm whether this is actually the world’s first painted picture of the prince baby, but according to Leek, he “started painting minutes after Wills and Kate emerged on the steps of the Lido wing.”

Think of it as an investment? On the Ebay page, Leek admits to participating in shark wrestling and polar bear back riding, so he could die soon, and “this painting will skyrocket in value.” I’m not an art appreciation expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, tongue-in-cheekiness aside. The painting isn’t bad, maybe Leek could give it to the royal family as a gift, but he might have to drop the £30 delivery fee.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This new Tumblr account comes from Avery Harrison, creative intern at Digitas and student at Miami Ad School, San Francisco. ‘Ads For Anything‘ was built under the premise of ideas that appeared brilliant in Harrison’s head at first-thought and not-so-brilliant once those ideas had a chance to roll around in his brain for a while. The dreaded creative letdown, an affliction that comes down like a thunderbolt after the initial honeymoon period. Been there myself, Mr. Harrison.

Scroll through the Tumblr, and you’ll see generic photos with blocks of generic fortune-cookie text that could be about any product. For example: “Live against the grain” is set over a wooden texture with a “Your Logo Here” block. Many of these genericisms could be early drafts of Mercedes spots, which probably doesn’t say a lot about Mercedes or Jon Hamm voice-overs. In fact, I’m somewhat surprised Mercedes hasn’t plucked Harrison for a job already – “To some people, passion is just a word” and ” There is always enough time to go for it” beg for Hamm’s voice to be played while a black SL zooms around a bend.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Meet Octicorn, a half-octopus half-unicorn abomination that has either teeth or gills affixed to the front of its face.

What began as a simple sticker designed by former W+K producer and current filmmaker Justin Lowe now has a Kickstarter page devoted to bringing Octicorn to life in the form of a children’s book. The hope, of course, is that Octicorn’s mixed-species parentage will help little boys and girls who have tails or whiskers feel better about themselves, knowing that somewhere, there’s a terrified looking seabeast who’s also a bullying victim just like them. Remember, any two animals can successfully conceive offspring with the power of self-confidence.

As with anything created under the guise of “children’s entertainment,” Lowe already has planned for his book to become Disney-fied with pillows, t-shirts and, potentially, a mobile app that finds Octicorn searching for his true parents, only to find that they disowned him years ago when they tried to distance themselves from their “crazy sexually experimental college years.” In fact, if the $15k total is met in the next 24 days, there’s even the hint at a future Octicorn rap video that finds our loveable hero talking about how a history of getting bullied inevitably turned him to the gang life, where he worked as a drug runner until getting in with a connected producer who helps him jump start a hip-hop career under the pseudonym “Ock-T.” Dreams do come true, if you pony up and donate to this Kickstarter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

During the NBA Finals last month, PlayStation debuted a new mini-film from BBH NY titled “Greatness Awaits” which featured a wide array of game characters and a whimsical narrator talking sternly to the camera (much like in this 2009 spot BBH NY did for Johnnie Walker). With over 5 million YouTube plays, the big budget ad was hailed as a mild success, falling somewhere between “Hedgehog Reacts to Fart” and “One Direction Crash Barbie’s Party! 1D Dolls Party All Night! OMG !.::Original Video::.”

To the untrained eye, it would appear that the spot’s success was owed to its subtle nods to some of PlayStation’s biggest titles paired with the sort of over-the-top visual effects that gamers subsist upon. However, any true gamer knows that the ad’s success is owed predominantly to the elaborate costuming employed, causing PlayStation to make a second ad in order to offer the costumes as prizes of some sort. Yes, it’s an ad for an ad, or “Adception” if you will.

Anyway, gamers can bid of the costumes from the spot using trophy points or something that they earn by being good at video games. Then everyone will play dress-up and have a great time. Learn more at bidforgreatness.com and view credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Seeing as it’s lunchtime and all over here on the East Coast, figured you may have a few minutes to view a new web series concocted by a handful of folks including current and former ad creatives/execs who decided to delve into a completely non-agency project. Ladies and gents, we bring you Transfurter, essentially an adults-only animated series filled with innuendo, breasts, phalluses and more. And that’s just one episode (“A Hotdogbit’s Tale, Pt 1/1000,” which you can see above).

You might cringe, chuckle or just shut if off, but whatever the case, you can blame it all on mastermind Joe Croson, a former VP group executive producer at BBDO and writer for [Adult Swim]. Obviously, Croson’s latter gig informs this current effort aplenty, but the Transfurter creator tells us that the seed was planted four years ago. He tells us, “It was a seed idea in 2009 that I drew on a post-it note and did some stupid VO for.  With the help of my friends Miguel, Mike, Rachel, Nick and Justin and some of my awesome interns, I pitched it to a few different cable networks, who either told us that it was too sick for broadcast, or wanted to see it in action online first.”

Along with Croson, Transfurter features the handiwork of Dan Cordella, currently a senior copywriter at Digitas, Monica Lo, whose day job is senior art director at kbs+, and Jake Grupp from Sound Lounge. If you have more time to kill, you can view more episodes from the ongoing series as well as learn more about the project here. Reminder: It’s kinda NSFW.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.