Hasta La Creative!

Laaaaaaaaa la la la la la la la la laaaaaaaaa. Springeth has arrived, eth! Huzzah and good day. Haroo and hoo-ray. Cha, chuh cha, chuh cha. That was me singing from the mountain tops, expressing the glory of this day. Unless you’re at one of those unfortunate Minneapolis agencies where snow is the main thing that’s happening. Seriously, someone send them some Diageo products. And the good stuff, none of that rail crap. Since they’re stuck inside today, we’ve done our best to keep spirits high with the week’s best videos. Hope you’ll agree! Let’s go.

5. The world of Russia is foreign to many, a land known most for its inability to pick a good government and generally being grumpy, shows us its softer side with this collection of dash-cam goodness. Dash-cams, for the uninitiated, are dashboard mounted video cameras that Russians just love to run all the time like they’re on Cops. Natch, some good things get picked up, and while usually we find epic crashes here we get something fresh – random acts of kindness. At “301+” this video is probably getting blown up right now. Expect to see this one on the Today Show.

4. Jimmy Fallon + Zach Gali…gal iii…fa…nock.us. Anyway they’re really just having a good time in this one and then BAM, Olive Garden gets a shout out. A puny 3,100 have enjoyed this one, but Olive Garden kids better get on this one. I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me? Yes, yes I could.

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If you don’t feel like watching the whole 3-minute Portfolio Night Boston clip from SapientNitro above, here’s a brief summary: A hipper-than-thou ad creative pitches a wealth of concepts to an agency head. The problem is, that this mustache-sporting creative’s ideas hinge on a litany of buzzwords and tech-y hoopla, which the agency head (OMG! Look at his CLIOs! Look at Cannes Lions!) shakes his head at. The creative is then escorted out of the building, and we see the words “Idea Before Everything” flash across the screen.

You’ve probably seen this execution done hundreds of times before, many times made by agencies that see these little vignettes as an opportunity to advertise themselves as shops that “get it.” They do so by making fun of whatever new ad trends are the talk of the town right now, making sure that the viewer (who is generally either an employee or someone who works at another agency, like you) knows that they don’t buy into bullshit hype and that their work is somehow pure. But, let’s be honest, does anyone really believe that? Has anyone won new business that way? Can any of you say that you never worked at an agency that unironically bought into these kinds of hype-driven executions this video mocks? Sure, it has to done, because that’s what clients want, but let’s not pretend that all of us have clean hands.

I guess what I’m asking for is that agencies who preach innovation to start marketing themselves in an innovative fashion. That, or how about we actually practice what we preach and don’t make creative that actually does hinge on whatever buzzword Mashable puts on their homepage (not going to happen). For the record, I’m not calling out SapientNitro in particular. I’m just tired of seeing this idea.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The veteran electronic music twosome from Scotland has been getting very Easter-eggy with the recent publicity for their upcoming album, which may be titled Cosecha. There are sequences of numbers and vague video clips that may have been shot on the Zapruder family camera, and the latest clip above premiered last night on Cartoon Network. But what does it all mean exactly? I’m not sure, but it may have to do with Thomas Pynchon and subliminal messaging.

There is no scheduled date for the album release, and some people aren’t even sure there will be an album. But there is a very, very hazy viral campaign for Boards of Canada that is getting fans hot and bothered and has provoked bloggers to plunge down the rabbit hole and delve into its meaning. So, let’s just assume there will be more puzzle pieces and snippets of new music in the near future.

Update: Well, mystery solved as Pitchfork reveals that there is indeed a new BoC album and it’s called Tomorrow’s Harvest.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The question is, do you want to be? Courtesy of the Art Director’s Club and Portfolio Night 11 cohorts Julie Matheny, Scott Blew, and Ivan Cash, Couchella is presumably the cheaper, safer, blander, less drug-induced, less celeb-infested, and sillier version of the Coachella music festival. Couchella’s site promotes the cyber event as an exposure outlet for musicians on the rise, but really, it’s offering itself as a curated YouTube channel of Internet music videos. Is that any different from the actual YouTube? Probably not.

If you are interested in attending (watching) online music videos in a controlled environment, you can stream Couchella live starting at noon on April 23. Bands can be nominated on the event homepage. And if you get bored of watching random music videos, you can always close your Chrome tab and go back to YouTube to watch music videos you already like.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

And the ad industry Tumblrs continue to delight. One anonymous art director has combined some of the worst rap lyrics of all time with artistic photographs to create Rap Poems. Quoting Cam’ron, Chingy, and DMX can be fodder for great unintentional comedy, especially when their lyrics are presented as if belonging to a Robert Frost poem. As a student of the rap game, I was easily seduced into scrolling through page after page (the DMX graphic below is my favorite.) Enough talking, though, check out the site yourself. I’ll leave you with a final haiku:

Rappers tumble down

Lyrics and photographs shine

The Internet wins

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The beauty of industry-related Tumblrs once again reveals itself as we’ve now been made aware of a fairly new one called “Fuck Yeah Advertising Puns,” which was created by Alex King and Mike Phillips, copywriter and planner, respectively, at London-based shop, Tullo Marshall Warren. While the lads appear to have been updating their Tumblr fairly consistently since late February, it was only today that we discovered Phillips doing a little self-promoting on Twitter.

Anyhow, nothing like captured images of terrible ad puns–whether outdoor, in print, etc–, complete with punny/corny captions to alleviate any case of the Mondays one might have. Though, considering how gorgeous it is in NYC today, it’s hard to feel any sort of malaise, but we digress. Above, we have just a couple of examples from King and Phillips’ Tumblr, which is basically still in nascent form but will hopefully be more frequently updated in the days to come. And yes, you can submit your own.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What is it with Minneapolis-based agencies and their intern-wrangling? We’ve covered the tactics of Campbell Mithun in the past and now, it’s Colle+McVoy’s turn with its own recruitment efforts to find interns who, yes, have a sense of humor (seriously, we think you have to in this type of gig).

As for the internship itself, it involves client engagement across account management, strategy and media, so let the fun begin. Here are two of the positions the Twin Cities agency is looking to fill along with a digital studio artist, graphic designer and interactive designer. See the requirements and other pieces of pertinent info here. And no, there are no Twinkies concepts required from this particular MN shop.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Writing for HubSpot, I’ve explored what’s wrong with current iterations of native advertising and what we can do to fix it. Native advertising, of course, all the rage these days. Companies like BuzzFeed and ShareThrough have based their business models on the notion that in-stream, organic-like content will save the day and finally allow everyone to retire those tired and underperforming banner ads to a nice tropical island far, far away.

In its current form, however, native advertising is destined to fail just like the banner ad failed. Why? Because most native advertising placements — just like most banner ad placements — are not structured with inbound marketing strategies that treat native advertising content creation as a starting point. Rather, the content is treated as the end point. In essence, most native advertising today is basically a branding play.

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Gather round, dear AgencySpy readers. It’s time to hear the tale of Easter and Passion Week.

After a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem during what the church refers to as “Palm Sunday,” Jesus and his disciples sought a place to celebrate the Passover in the Holy City.

On Thursday night, Jesus and his posse took part in what would be referred to as “The Last Supper.” Jesus, having a good deal of insight into the human condition and also being an omniscient deity, predicted that one of his disciples, Walter White, would betray him. You see, Mr. White was all about getting money, and it didn’t matter to him who he would have to wrong to get more of it. It’s speculated that Walter had a form of lung cancer or something.

After Jesus gave Mr. White a chance to come clean, he took a few of his disciples to a garden, where he prayed to God so hard that it’s said that he sweat blood. Here, Mr. White gave up Jesus to the Roman soldiers, who, after a few hours of trial at the hands of Jewish and Roman leaders, was sentenced to be crucified on the charge that he was undermining Caesar’s regime.

While dying of what is speculated to be eventual suffocation, Jesus was reminded by a Roman soldier stationed at Golgatha by the name of Don Draper that “the world is indifferent.” Don, fancying himself a clever wordsmith, is actually said to be responsible for coining the tongue-in-cheek expression “Good Friday” for this occasion. While there was nothing all that “good” about it, Draper delighted in the irony of the phrase and also thought it would be a great way to sell t-shirts.

Three days after his death, Jesus rose from the dead. While presenting his risen form to friend Mary Magdalene, he was approached by two swarthy men with crossbows. The above clip from former BBDO CD Scott Kaplan depicts what happened next. Credits after the jump.

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Verizon, of all companies, wants you to put down your electronic devices and jog. The telecom giant created the world’s longest Pinterest post–a lengthy road–and once you click the down arrow to the finish line, there are some motivational words: “You burned 1/2 a calorie. Imagine how many calories you’d burn if you got up, went outside, and exercised.” This, ladies and gentlemen, is “fitspiration.” I doubt that word is going to capture the public’s attention, but at least they want people to be healthier.

It doesn’t actually take that long for you to scroll from top to bottom, so even though Verizon’s intent is admirable, this long road is more like a post of futility that will annoy Pinterest users. If you happened to be wowed by the concept, there’s a short video you can watch after the jump that suggests a list of Verizon products you can purchase to improve your fitness. Or, you know, you could just jog and get fit while burning off steam since you wasted three minutes scrolling through the world’s longest Pinterest post. Your choice.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.