Hasta La Creative!

Everyone else makes fun of how painful it is to assemble Ikea furniture, so why can’t Ikea? And the company does in these fun billboards, from German agency thjnk, that are themselves poorly assembled—to advertise the brand’s assembly service. Such a simple idea.

Thjnk has been doing eye-catching Ikea work for a while, including one of our favorite out-of-home ads of 2014—the RGB billboard that ingeniously turned nine square meters of ad space into 27 square meters.

Via Ads of the World.

New York was supposed to be the city dealing with a scary winter visitor on Tuesday, but instead it was London that was thrown off-kilter—by a giant polar bear wandering around.

The eight-foot male bear was first spotted in the Underground before walking across Hampstead Heath and along the South Bank. The beast drew quite the shocked reaction, with people posting all sorts of frightened and bemused notes to social media. They were happy to learn, in the end, that it was simply a very advanced fake bear—promoting Sky Atlantic’s new TV crime drama Fortitude, which is set in a small Arctic town.

The bear was created by special effects company Millennium FX and operated by puppeteers Tom Wilton and Derek Arnold, who worked on the theater production War Horse. The stunt was orchestrated by Taylor Herring, which has a history of doing fun outdoor stuff like this—including the brilliant beached dragon head skull for Game of Thrones in 2013.

“It is made of a semi-rigid foam, as it had to be light,” Millennium FX principal Rob Mayor said of the bear. “The head was difficult, too, as we wanted the hair to look right. So each hair was put into place individually. Then we used an electrostatic current to make the hairs to stand up on end. … We are actually going to miss the bear when it’s gone. It sounds silly, but we have got quite attached to it.”

This isn’t the first polar bear spotted in London, though the last one was homeless because of climate change in an from Greenpeace. Check out another photo of today’s bear below.

Wieden + Kennedy recently created a pretty incredible out-of-home tourism installation for Travel Portland: the tallest freestanding cuckoo clock in the U.S.

Chainsaw sculptor J. Chester Armstrong carved the clock, made from a single Oregon maple, in the national forest just outside Portland. It took three months to make—with help from metal sculptor Nicolas Gros, clock designer/gear consultant Laurent Worme, electronics consultant Mark Keppinger, and local illustrator Patrick Long (who did the illustrations for the clock face). The clock features references to a number of Portland icons—Mt. Hood, Portlandia, beer, wine, bikers, farmers markets, roses, rivers, bridges and even Sasquatch.

W+K recently took the clock—which thematically ties into the “Portland Is Happening Now” campaign—to Seattle and Vancouver for tourism events in those cities. Every hour on the hour, hand-painted, wood-carved miniatures appear when the clock chimes. The events also featured “Portland-themed surprises, like coffee and donuts, a poet reading, a comedian performance, a tax-free tea party and naked bike riders,” the agency says.

The clock is 24.1 feet tall by 9.5 feet wide and weighs more than three tons. W+K is now looking for an indoor location in Portland to house the clock through the winter months. Check out more images below, all courtesy of the Portland Oregon Visitors Association/Travel Portland.

CREDITS
Client: Travel Portland
Project: “Portland Is Happening Now”

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Hal Curtis / Antony Goldstein / Jeff Gillete
Copywriter: Becca Wadlinger / Jared Elms / Ian Fairbrother
Art Director: Nate Nowinowksi
Designer: Patrick Nistler / Cassandra Swan
Media Team: Wieden + Kennedy
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Media/Comms Planning: Stephanie Ehui
Strategic Planning: Lisa Prince
Account Team: Ken Smith / Kristin Postill
Production: Byron Oshiro / Kristin Holder / Heather Hanrahan
Project Manager: Danna Dolich / Shannon Hutchinson
Studio Manager: Abby Marten
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff

Event Partners
Social Agency: Edelman Digital
Public Relations Agency: Lane PR
Digital Agency: Rally Group
Event Producer: Sue Cool

Design & Construction Team
Project leader and metal sculptor: Nicolas Gros (Nico),
Chainsaw carving: J. Chester Armstrong
Clock and gears design development / consultant: Laurent Worme
Microprocessor and pneumatic consultant: David Butts
Electronic consultant: Mark Keppinger
Welder: Cameron Visconty
Lead Carpenter: Matt Sykes
Fabricator: James Harrison
Lighting and carpentry assistant: Julia Zell
Carpenter: Dave Laubenthal
Sign paint: Ardis Defreece
Miniatures and Clock Face Painting: José Solis

FCB South Africa is running an idea up the flagpole. A really big idea. In fact, the idea is ginormous. And its main component is a South African flag so large, it will be visible from space, 30 miles above the Earth.

The Giant Flag project was put in motion last month by Guy Lieberman, the agency’s head of green and social new business development. The initiative is ultimately designed to foster national pride, improve the lives of people in need and make a lasting impact on South Africa’s economy and environment.

“Yes, it is big. And it is wild,” Lieberman tells AdFreak. “It’s both an unreasonable project—in the good sense of the term—as well as a practical one.”

So, how big and wild are we talking?

The proposed flag will measure 66 hectares—that’s nearly 165 acres, about the size of 66 soccer fields. Its red, green, blue and gold sections will consist of millions of cacti and succulent plants that can thrive in the semi-arid Karoo region, offsetting some 90,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. Solar panels designed to power the equivalent of 4,000 homes will make up the flag’s triangular black patch. (They will also “harvest” rainwater to feed the flag’s living components.) The white areas will be access roads.

The project will provide more than 700 jobs in Camdeboo Municipality, where the unemployment runs over 40 percent, and support tourism, hospitality and various enterprises over the long haul. Moreover, Lieberman says, it will serve as a symbol of hope, cooperation and sustainable growth for South Africa and beyond.

But … where did the whole giant-flag idea come from?

Lieberman drew his inspiration from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, noting “the nation’s huge emotional response to our flag.” After the World Cup, FCB launched the much-praised “Keep Flying” campaign to encourage the nation to maintain its momentum. “The CEO of FCB South Africa [John Dixon, since succeeded by Brett Morris] called me into his office,” Lieberman recalls, “and said that while the [“Keep Flying”] campaign was amazing, it was fleeting and we needed to look for a legacy project on the flag, something that could live on. And so the Giant Flag idea was born.”

Of course, a 66-hectare flag can’t be built on the cheap. What’s the price tag, and who’s footing the bill?

Crowdfunding and corporate efforts are under way. All told, it will cost about $20 million, with $2 million being the threshold to begin the massive germination project, followed by clearing the land, fencing off the site, building roads and constructing the solar field. “There has been half a million dollars sunk to date,” says Lieberman, “and a variety of commitments, soft to definitive, of around $6.5 million.”

Individuals can donate $10 to sponsor a plant, $100 for a section of road and $250 for a solar panel. What’s more, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs is lending its support, and corporate sponsors such as Google and Toyota “have come on board because they see the value this will have on the nation, as well as on their brand,” Lieberman says. “It also speaks to their commitment to game-changing initiatives, and in this sense the Giant Flag is not tied to any one nation—it is global.” (Google is providing a monthly $10,000 AdWords grant to promote the project, as well as cloud services for the Giant Flag app.)

In a way, the initiative represents the confluence and expansion of two industry trends—agencies launching intellectual property efforts and creating installations designed to have a broader social impact. Many such projects have succeeded (including FCB’s own fascinating billboards in Peru), but they have been far less ambitious, and staged on a more manageable scale.

So, how does Lieberman respond to critics who say the Giant Flag is a grand idea, and great PR for FCB, that will probably never fly, owing to its cost, complexity and all manner of potential pitfalls?

“I understand why they would say that,” he says. “It’s unlike anything that has come before—there is no easy framework for them to grasp on to. How could they possibly see it happening? But that’s OK. The Giant Flag will happen. … There are too many people who can already feel it in the landscape.”

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which warmed heart-cockles recently with its lost-and-found beagle, delivers another winner by listing a “Spacious Airplane Apartment” on Airbnb.

Yes, they turned an airplane parked at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam into an apartment with two bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, Wi-Fi and a panoramic view from the cockpit. Pretty sweet, right? It’s the closest any of us can come to being Elvis without abusing Percodan. (It’s also a step up from Airbnb’s Ikea listing.)

“On November 28, 29 or 30, you have the chance to spend the night inside this fly apartment. Tell us before November 20 why you would like to spend the night. We’ll fly in the winners from anywhere in the world,” the listing says.

Unfortunately, KLM stomped on this raging fire of awesome with some seriously bogus house rules, including “no marshmallow roasting with the jet engines” (lame), “the consumption of alcohol is not allowed” (lamer), “no flying” (OK, that one makes sense) and worst of all, “don’t use the inflatable emergency slide.”

Whatever, KLM. If I didn’t want to use an inflatable emergency slide, I would stay in a building like a normal person.

Via Design Taxi. More photos below.

Welp, it’s basically Christmas now, but we’ve got one more Halloween ad to share with you. Yeah, it’s November now, but this gem is still as fresh as that stash of Twix bars you stole from your child. 

PepsiMAX, no stranger to scaring the crap out of people with ad pranks, delivered what might be the coolest use of tech for nefarious purposes this Halloween. Watch below to see how the brand really freaked out unsuspecting moviegoers at a London cinema. 

And try to imagine not soiling yourself.

There’s a grand tradition of marketers building fancy vending machines, but it’s not every day you see one that doubles as a piano.

For the Alfa Jazz Fest in L’viv, Ukraine, this past June, mineral water brand Borjomi and its agency, Banda, set up a publicity stunt inviting passersby to play a sideways keyboard in exchange for free product.

The new video below shows some people eking out melodies and others banging out full-blown performances while crowds gather and cheer. It has some of the dubious over-enthusiasm of heavily edited case study videos—people get really, really excited, and jump up and down—despite (or maybe because of) how awkward it must have been to hit the right notes while craning over.

Then again, a piano-playing machine made of razors is probably still weirder.

If it’s more comedy you want from your billboard, Sprite is happy to oblige.

Ogilvy Kenya recently put up “Bill the Billboard” at a busy intersection in Nairobi, and programmed him to endlessly crack jokes. He’s sort of an outdoor version of the famous Pringles banner ad from 2009, offering seemingly stream-of-consciousness quips to keep viewers entertained.

The jokes aren’t exactly side-splitting, and the case study’s boast that Bill is the “first ad ever with mental issues” isn’t exactly P.C. But at least he’s a little different than your typical boring digital ad.

Fancy yourself the outdoorsy type, eh? You’ve got all the slickest gear for the rugged lifestyle you live every day. Maybe you even have a gnarly beard and a Clif bar in your pocket. 

Well, what if next time you went shopping for gear you were immediately put to the test?

Shoppers in Korea faced this challenge in a terrifyingly hilarious stunt by The North Face and South Korean agency Innored titled “Never Stop Exploring.”

Unsuspecting customers at this pop-up North Face store were startled when the floor below them slowly began to disappear, and they were forced to grab on to the walls, which happeedn to have rock-climbing holds attached to them. Then, a perfect North Face item descends from the heavens, just out of their reach, and a 30-second timer appears.

Totally freaked out, they are given a choice. Watch the video below to find out how these sudden extreme-sports participants fare.

Nestlé’s Fitness cereal brand, which last year brought us the tweeting bra, has upped the ante with the hidden-camera bra. Watch below as a woman walks around London capturing footage of men and women furtively (they think) checking out her boobs.

It’s a fun little social experiment from McCann Paris—and one, predictably, that has caused a bit of a flamewar in the YouTube comments. But it turns out the point of the video isn’t really to comment on objectification at all.

Also, check out the behind-the-scenes video here:

CREDITS
Client: Nestlé Fitness
Agency: McCann, Paris
Creative Director: Sarah Clift
Art Directors: Kate Pozzi, Sarah Clift, Caroline Gozier
Copywriter: Kate Pozzi
TV Producers: Sasha Mantel, Arnaud Lemens
Social Strategist: Mariam Asmar
Account: Cédric Vanhoutte, Cynthia Decant, Laurie Chappel, Leslie Adam, Julie Colombani
Production Company: Outsider | The Corner Shop
Director: Ellen Kuras
Producer: Mel Nwanguma
DOP: Ellen Kuras
1st AD: Julian Higgs
Costume Designer: Lydia Kovacs
Edit: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Ted Guard
Post Production: MPC LA
Music: Human