You're walking down the street and you see a giant 3-D mouth singing opera. Maybe you see an enormous, realistic rugby player taking a shower. Perhaps a gigantic Marilyn Monroe dress blowing in the breeze grabs your attention on your way to a bus stop that plays disco music if you touch the weird medallion-adorned hairy chest of a swarthy dude.
Well, if you're in France and you encounter any of these scenarios, you've probably come across the latest outdoor campaign from SNCF French Railways and agency TBWA\Paris. These crazy larger-than-life ads aim to inspire people to travel to places they are passionate about.
If you are not in France and you see these things, you may want to seek therapy.
Taking your kid to the beach means worrying he or she will wander off when you're not looking. Enter sunscreen brand Nivea and FCB São Paolo with a campaign that basically provides you with a LoJack for your child.
Titled "Sun Band," the combination print-and-mobile execution lets you pop a bracelet out of the magazine ad, wrap it around your child's arm, download an app, sync them and set a perimeter. If your kid wanders outside the safe zone, an alarm sounds, so you can go chasing after him or her. (Presumably, if you lose your phone, too, just whip out your tablet and Find My iPhone to recover your gadget, and then your child.)
The ad ran in April in select copies of Veja Rio magazine sent to a group of subscribers. The bracelet is supposedly "humidity resistant" and reusable, though one has to wonder how much water it can really withstand.
Anyways, it's a fun idea that effectively signals the brand's devotion to protecting your offspring. If you're still not satisfied with the mechanics, you can always do it the old-fashioned way and get a harness and a leash—or, you know, just stay close and pay attention to your child.
Adweek responsive video player used on /video.
CREDITS Client: Nivea Agency: FCB Brasil, São Paulo Executive Creative Directors: Joanna Monteiro, Max Geraldo Digital Creative Director: Pedro Gravena Creative: Victor Bustani, Raphael Leandro de Oliveira, Andre Bittar Digital Production: Geek Group Art Buyers: Tina Castro, Daniel Gonçalves Photographer: Lucio Cunha Image Treatment: Boreal Graphic Production: Edgardo Pasotti, Diego Bischoff Graphic Design, Development: Companygraf Media: Alexandre Ugadin, Tiago Santos, Sergio Brotto, Rachid Antum, Caio Melo Project: Lia D’Amico Technology: Gerson Lupatini, Caio Mello Creative Technologist: Márcio Bueno Account: Mauro Silveira, Cristiane Pereira, Tania Muller, Mariana Mozzaquatro, Vitor Borragine Planners: Rapha Barreto, Lia Bertoni RTV: Viviane Guedes, Ricardo Magozo Production Company: Edit 2 Director: Rodrigo Fleury Account Production: Daniela Andreade Finishing Production: Priscila Prado Animation: Rodrigo Resende, Eduardo Brandão Composition: Eduardo Brandão Editor: Rodrigo Resende Finishing Production: Edit 2 Audio: Satélite Audio Sound Producer: Equipe Satélite Audio Account: Fernanda Costa, Marina Castilho Client Supervisors: Tatiana Ponce, Patricia Picolo, Beatriz Vale, Lilian Cruz, Ana Borges, Katia Margy, Julia Sabbag
SensaBubble sounds (and looks) like something Wile E. Coyote would use in his Sisyphean pursuit of the Road Runner, but it's actually a real idea that could become a popular new toy among marketers and event planners.
When popped, the bubbles release aromatic puffs that linger in the air. Marketers will appreciate that the system also lets you project images and logos onto the bubbles as they fly around the room. If used in moderation, this idea could definitely be a dream for certain brand categories (air fresheners, fragrances, etc.) and a nightmare for people who have to cover their noses while sprinting through the perfume section of a department store.
In a kind of low-fi version of Jay-Z's celebrated Decoded outdoor campaign, Coldplay has been promoting its new album, Ghost Stories, with a worldwide scavenger hunt—hiding lyric sheets in Chris Martin's handwriting inside ghost stories in libraries around the world.
Clues were given out on Twitter. The lyrics were hidden in nine different countries, one for each song on the record. Eight of the sheets have been found—in Mexico, Singapore, Finland, Spain, England, New Zealand, Ireland and the U.S.
The final clue was posted today, hinting at South Africa.
One of the hidden envelopes also contained a "Golden Ticket," good for a trip for two to London to see Coldplay perform at the Royal Albert Hall on July 1.
Peru is in the middle of a construction boom that generates a lot of unhealthy pollution. Peruvian engineering university UTEC and its ad agency, FCB Mayo, decided to create an air-purifying billboard designed to mitigate the environmental damage the school causes as it builds a new campus.
The billboard has the added advantage of promoting the new campus, boosted by the claim that the school will help students learn how to do things like create billboards that filter about 100,000 cubic meters of clean air a day, reaching as far as five blocks away and equivalent to what some 1,200 trees would do.
The environmentally friendly campaign is part of a tried-and-true strategy for UTEC and FCB Mayo. Last year they famously created a billboard that helped address a rainfall shortage in Lima by converting atmospheric humidity into clean drinking water. (That work earned numerous accolades, including Adweek's Isaac Gravity Award and a gold Lion in Outdoor at Cannes.)
The new one is a welcome follow-up, possibly even more powerful—though perhaps less so—as it addresses a problem the school helped create. In fact, the thing that may be most wrong with it is that it makes every other billboard in the world look bad by comparison.
Agency: FCB Mayo Chief Creative Officer: Humberto Polar Creative Director: Juan Donalisio Copywriters: Rafael García, Renato Farfán Art Director: Keni Mezarina Account Director: Valeria Malone Lo Presti Production Team: Geoffrey Yahya, Juan Pablo Ezeta, Rodrigo Tovar
Media: BPN/Media Connection General Manager: Gloria Herrera Media Planners: Rafael Gutiérrez, Jessica Arizmendi
Plan B (Case Study Video) Design Director: Kurt Gastulo Editor: Alex Ocaña
La Sonora Audio Producers: Alonso Del Carpio, Willy Wong
All Awards (Case consultant) Senior Consultant: Juan Christmann
Rats and mice are not endangered species in New York City. (There are thought to be at least as many rats as people in the Big Apple, and there could be five times as many.) But d-CON, the rodent control company, is taking its small victories against our furry friends and publicly celebrating them in an amusing new campaign from Havas Worldwide.
As one part of the integrated campaign, the agency put missing posters for rodents all over the city, at mice level (though presumably not in the subway, where they'd be more likely to be proven wrong in an instant). Havas also created the darkly comic videos below, in which mice families deal with the horror of having ingested d-CON products.
Because if there's one advertising category where depictions of painful death are acceptable, even enjoyed, it's pest control.
CREDITS Client: d-CON Agency: Havas Worldwide, New York Chief Creative Officer: Darren Moran Group Creative Directors: Dustin Duke, Jon Wagner Creative Director: Eric Rojas Creative Director: Gian Carlo Lanfranco Creative Director: Rolando Cordova Writer: Eric Bertuccio Global Chief Content Officer: Vin Farrell Co-Head of Production, North America: Sylvain Tron Executive Producer: Deepa Joshi Producer Erin Jackson Chief Strategy Officer: Tim Maleeny Group Planning Director: Kerin Morrison Senior Strategist: Chris Lake Global Brand Director: Betsy Simons Group Account Director: Joe Maglio Account Supervisor: Darah Rifkin Production Company: Bar 1 Director: Joe Barone Mixer: Tim Leitner Casting Director: Dawn Mjoen Production Designer: Radek Hanak, Unit+Sofa Editor: David Bartin, Studio 6
The trend toward branded out-of-home machines that actively hate humans might have reached its apex with this stunt by PlayStation, which shocked commuters in Antwerp's Central Station by, uh, literally shocking them.
To promote the PS4 game Infamous: Second Son, a mysterious booth was set up in the lobby. People were goaded to stick their fingers in two holes in the front. Those who did got an electric shock. If they could endure it for five seconds (like that one guy at the end, who is eerily nonchalant about it), they were rewarded with a free copy of the game—whose hero apparently has some kind of electricity superpower.
I wonder if the creatives behind this ad were Mr. Show fans, because the execution here isn't unlike a G-rated version of The Joke: The Musical.
As if the Photoshop-perfect faces on outdoor ads weren't nightmarish enough, German street artist Vermibus ratchets up the horror by using chemicals to transform such posters into grotesque visions for an art project called "Dissolving Europe."
This guy's acid wash has nothing to do with jeans. He targets noses, lips, cheeks, chins, ears and eyes. By the time he's done, his subjects resemble nuclear-blast victims, their features twisted into misshapen parodies of the human form.
Of course, "ugly" is in the eye of the beholder. Some will find his creations possessed of a certain warped beauty that exposes the truth underlying our pervasive consumer culture.
That's a valid interpretation, and it's clearly in line with the artist's view as he traversed Europe, removing promotional posters from their displays and replacing them with his freakish creations. (You can view more of his projects on his website.) A 10-minute film chronicles his journey, and it's fairly hypnotic. The best scene shows Vermibus wearing a gas mask to protect himself from toxins, like some hybrid artist/terrorist, as he defaces/transforms an advertisement.
Ultimately and unfortunately, these efforts become footnotes on the overloaded media landscape. They're fodder for thoughtful articles and blog posts, but all too quickly forgotten. Billboards brake for no one. Ad campaigns keep coming. There's always another pretty face.
It's easy to forget that for every flashy, handpainted wall advertisement you see in a city, there are a handful of people who endure discomfort (and risk death) to put it there.
Online tabloid Vocativ made this mini-documentary about these painters, who call themselves "wall dogs," and it's a refreshingly straightforward and unglamorized piece of work. The painters mostly talk about how they prepare for a job where they spend most of the day hanging from a chain, at the mercy of the elements and unable to step back and get better perspective of their work until it's complete.
But there's no bitterness or false bravado in any of them. In fact, they all seem pretty happy with what they do, which isn't something a lot of us can say about our jobs. Watch this as an antidote to the other cynical garbage you read online in a given day.
After seven years overlooking Baltimore's Penn Station, the Smyth Jewelers billboard showing National Bohemian beer mascot Mr. Boh proposing to the Utz girl has to move.
Turns out the dorks who own the billboard itself want to switch it over to a digital video display in May, so Smyth is trying to find a new home for its now-classic ad, which was put together by Owings Mills, Md., agency MGH.
"Natty Boh and the Little Utz girl are Baltimore's version of the royal couple," Smyth president Tom Smyth tells the Baltimore Sun, "which is why it's imperative that their next home pay homage to the sense of pride they instill in our city."
I don't know that I'd go that far. Clearly John Waters and Divine are as close as we here in Baltimore are ever getting to royalty, but he's right that the city has a fondness for that image that won't extend to a video board. That kind of gaudy, touristy crap should be restricted to the Inner Harbor.
Luckily, the smaller version of the Boh-Utz ad in North Baltimore doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
It's just like your mom always said: When life gives you a plague of rabbits, make a rabbit-pelt billboard.
Hell Pizza in New Zealand has been grabbing international attention in recent days with a new billboard advertising its rabbit pizza. The outdoor board is made from hundreds of rabbit skins, which it makes clear by noting: "Made from real rabbit. Like this billboard."
Like several parts of the world, New Zealand suffers from an overabundance of rabbits, which can devastate crops and native ecosystems.
"As well as being a delicious meat, and even quite cute, rabbits are unfortunately also a noted pest that is damaging to the New Zealand environment, particularly in the South Island," the pizzeria noted on its Facebook page.
"For those who are concerned, we sourced these rabbit skins via a professional animal tanning company, who in turn sourced them from local meat processing companies where the skins are a regular by-product."
The pizza is made with smoked wild New Zealand rabbit, toasted pine nuts, beetroot and horopito relish, cream cheese, rosemary and fresh spring onions.
Not since Alice Cooper ran for governor of Arizona under the slogan "A troubled man for troubled times" have we seen such refreshingly honest political advertising.
Actually, these new campaign ads, for decidedly unglamorous mayoral candidates in Toronto, are fake. But they're still pretty amusing. They were put up by a group called No Ford Nation, which is dedicated to getting anyone besides the crack-smoking Ford elected in October. And apparently they do mean anyone.
To that end, the website, NoFordNation.com, includes information about whoever else is running. "You don't want to say 'anyone but Ford' and then not give them any resources to make an informed decision," says Christina Robins, who started the site. "We want to get back to a mayor who doesn't embarrass us."
An outdoor ad campaign in San Francisco is trying something novel to stop people from texting and driving: public shaming.
Graphic designer Brian Singer has furtively been taking photos of people texting behind the wheel along the 101 Freeway and posting them to a website, Texting While in Traffic, or TWIT for short. (Singer says he's always a passenger, not a driver, when he snaps the photos.) Lately, Singer has been paying out of his own pocket to put some of the photos on billboards around town, Gizmodo reports.
He says the number of offenders is outrageous. "For every nose picker, there's 20 texters," he estimates. He's not bothered by privacy concerns, either. "I don't think people driving on 101 have the expectation of privacy," Singer says. "All I'm really doing is taking photos in a public place."
Singer tried to get a road-safety group to fund the project, but is going it alone for now with 11 billboards. He says he hopes the billboards freak people out enough to stop texting and driving—and even hopes other people start taking photos, which "could have a dramatic affect on people's behavior."
If you're a cupcake lover, you live in New York City and you're a fan of machines that dispense things, we have good news for you.
Sprinkles Cupcakes, a supplier of gourmet delectables to the elite, including Holly Madison,Mindy Kaling and even Santa Claus, is giving you what you need—a 24-hour cupcake ATM.
New York's first Cupcake ATM, which can hold 760 cupcakes at a time in 20 different varieties, is located next to the Sprinkles Cupcakes bakery on the Upper East Side. The cupcakes cost $4.25 each in flavors like red velvet, Cuban coffee, banana dark chocolate and cinnamon sugar. You can also get two special mini cupcakes designed for your dog for $5.
It's hardly the neighborhood where people are generally jonesing for a midnight fix. But who knows? Perhaps this machine can turn the UES into Alphabet City of the '70s.
Here's an unpleasant if novel way to recommend the use of seat belts: Show people detailed instructions on dealing with injuries from not wearing one.
Gyro's Dubai office did just that in a new campaign to educate people about the importance of wearing seat belts in the backseat of cars. The campaign, for a charity called Buckle Up in the Back, takes the form of instructional guides—"How to Get Around in a Wheelchair," "How to Change Your Colostomy Bag"—for dealing with injuries you can sustain from not wearing a seat belt.
The guides are being tucked in the the seat pockets in the backs of taxis and rental cars in the UAE, where people will probably wish they didn't see them. The tagline is: "If you don't wear a seat belt, you're going to need all the help you can get."
"Instead of just telling people they are wrong for not buckling up, we decided to accept that people are ignoring these kinds of public health messages and give advice of how to deal with the day-to-day consequences of life without seat belts," said Gyro Dubai creative group head Neil Harrison. "These guides illustrate a very realistic and unfortunate future that can easily be avoided by buckling up."
Guides and credits below.
CREDITS Client: Buckle Up in the Back Agency: Gyro Dubai Executive Creative Director: Gui Rangel?Account Director: Anna Start?Planner: Mark Haycock?Group Head/Copywriter: Neil Harrison?Art Directors: Charlotte Morand and Moses Anthony?Illustrator: Moses Anthony
Artist Luke Jerram is turning one street in Bristol, England—specifically, Park Street—into a giant waterslide for a day. Sanitary issues aside (what happens when pigeons crap in it?), the stunt is meant to raise questions about urban planning and how to avoid the high costs of traditional infrastructure.
"Park and Slide will be a unique and memorable once in a lifetime experience and asks people to take a fresh look at the potential of their city and the possibilities for transformation," he writes on his website. "Imagine if there were permanent slides right across Bristol: linking Clifton with Hotwells; Cotham with Stokes Croft. This is our city, and maybe it's up to us to shape its future?"
I'd love to bring this guy to the U.S. just so he can freak out an entire country's worth of city councils that still think light rail is a left-field idea.
Jerram has raised £3,217 of his goal of £5,618 so far.
Nothing enhances a commute like coming into physical contact with a bunch of strangers at the bus stop.
Cossette's "Moments of Warmth" campaign for Duracell had public-transport patrons in chilly Montreal join hands to complete a circuit and activate heaters in a branded bus shelter. I suppose this marketing approach has positives and negatives. (Such battery puns fall into the latter category.) On the one hand, it's not as touching as that Norwegian "Would you share you coat with a freezing child at a bus stop?" stunt. And having the subjects kiss would've provided more sparks.
On the plus side, at Duracell's shelter, no one can pick your pocket.
Wearable tech is so played out. The real future of wearables? Billboards!
In this installment of "Things That Would Never Work in New York City, Because Eww," we travel to the mystical land of New Zealand to find these clever advertisements from soft drink maker L&P. To remind people to "Hold on to summer," the ads literally give away summer gear. Some of the ads are draped with removable beach towels. Others have foam flip-flops that you can pry out and walk around in or scold your disobedient friends with. Try doing that with your smartwatch.
It goes without saying that you're probably thirsty at this point and should buy a plane ticket to New Zealand, where it's totally fine to wear advertisements. I have it on good authority that it's only 18 hours from New York. Book it with your smartwatch, aye.
German home-improvement chain OBI is advertising its renovation products by actually renovating homes. Well, parts of them. Ad agency Jung von Matt/Elbe measured out billboard-size sections of run-down buildings and fixed them up—creating visually delightful billboards that really show the difference between before and after on an improvement project.
Germany has something of a tradition of doing inventive ads for home-improvement stores, as seen in the rich, weird and often epic marketing done by OBI rival Hornbach.
Credits for the OBI work below.
CREDITS Client: OBI Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt/Elbe Chief Creative Officers: Dörte Spengler-Ahrens, Jan Rexhausen Creative Directors: Felix Fenz, Alexander Norvilas Art Directors: Michael Wilde, Max Pilwat, Michael Hess Copywriter: Felix Fenz Creative Team: Michael Wilde, Max Pilwat
If you've ever thought to yourself, "Man, choosing toppings for my pizza by talking to a waiter is so tedious and annoying—I sure wish I could smash my grimy hands all over this table to accomplish this insufferable task," well, you're in luck.
Pizza Hut and Chaotic Moon Studios have teamed up to create a concept table that cuts out the terribly social process of customizing a pizza via your piehole. Instead, it allows you to design a masterpiece like you're a pizza Jedi or Tom Cruise in Minority Report. And after you're done "ordering," you can play something like "Flappy Stache" or "Dragon Academy" instead of having yet another awkward conversation with your life partner.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
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