Hasta La Creative!

When copywriter Matt Bull was given free use of a Dallas billboard for a month, he did what many of us would do: He devoted it to sloth-related violence. Since the billboard was a reward from Clear Channel for Bull's quirky creativity, he chose to advertise SlothPunchClub.com, a URL he offered to hand over to whomever could come up with the best proposal for how it should be used. This week, Bull announced the winner: artist Timmy Hamm, aka "Sloth," who plans to create a series of sloth-related custom shoes and give them away to lucky monthly winners.

"Timmy plans to keep the community-driven/freeware/contest spirit of this enterprise alive, which is cool," Bull writes on his startup agency's website, DepartmentOfPersuasion.com. "His idea for Sloth Punch Club is to create one pair of shoes every month featuring a sloth punching something, and give them away. Each winner gets to be a member of the very exclusive Sloth Punch Club, and also gets to choose what exactly the target of the sloth's fists will be on the next pair of shoes Timmy gives away. It's simple and stupid and I love it."

As for Bull, who rapidly rose to Internet prominence when his first solo client work went viral, he reports his major source of life stress has shifted from finding paying work to simply getting all his new work done. So congrats to Matt, and to Timmy, and to the future members of the highly exclusive and well-shod Sloth Punch Club.

Last week we wrote about Heineken's JFK airport stunt, in which the brand dared travelers to drop their existing plans and go somewhere new and exotic with the push of a button—without knowing where. Today, we have video of some of the gameplay from the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York. It's pretty amusing. It begins, fittingly enough, with people who won't play the game—i.e., the sane ones to whom we can most easily relate. Then we get to the nutjobs—those outliers who are willing to make that call to friends and family and say they won't be visiting after all, but will be boarding a flight to who-knows-where at the request of people who've clearly been drinking. Most of the folks who take the plunge seem pretty happy with their new destination, although the guy going to Laos—he looks more than a little ambivalent.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Project: Departure Roulette

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele
Copywriter: Will Binder
Art Director: Jared White
Interactive Producer: Victoria Krueger
Executive Producer: Nick Setounski
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes
Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie
Project Manager: Rayna Lucier
Sr. Community Manager: Mike Vitiello
Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan
Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry
Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker
Lead/Sr. Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan
Sr. Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright

Production Company: Legs Media
Director: Dan Levin
Post-Production Company: Legs Media In Collaboration with BrehmLabs

Editors: Frederic T. Brehm, Ian Park, Gabriela Tessitore
Sound Designer: Eric Hoffman
Colorists: Frederic T. Brehm, M. Scott Vogel
Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp.
Design & Build Team: The Guild

The fur flew, painfully, in Lowe Roche's recent street promo for Toronto's Fuzz Wax Bar. A guy almost completely covered in wax strips walked around town and invited people to tear them from his skin. Cartoon smiley or frowny faces on the strips indicated the level of pain the guy would feel. They were also emblazoned with copy such as "From bear arms to bare arms" and "We'll take the monkey of your back," along with the salon's slogan, "So good, it hurts." Yeee-ouch! Each strip could be redeemed for a 25 percent discount at Fuzz Wax. (Personally, I'd want to keep mine as a hairy, sweat-stained waxvertising souvenir.) Last year, the zany madcaps at Lowe Roche photographed a local dealership's Porsches in people's driveways to create ads targeting those very homes. That was clever, but this body-hair stunt was less creepy and provided an oddly memorable product demo. Congrats to the agency for pulling it off. More photos and credits below.

CREDITS
Project: Street Waxing
Client: Fuzz Wax Bar
Agency: Lowe Roche
Executive Creative Director: Sean Ohlenkamp
Copywriters: Jeremy Richard, Eli Joseph 
Art Directors: Ryan Speziale, Kunaal Jagtianey
Producer: Shannon Farrell
Makeup: Alyssa McCarthy
Account Director: Frederic Morin
Director: Dean Vargas
Postproduction: Motion Pantry

It's an image that was nearly too hot for Los Angeles, a town that regularly sees bare bums and lithe bodies in various states of undress along its famous streets and highways. But after some wrangling with ad sellers, and the threat of a ban, Lifetime will be able to launch its risqué billboard in L.A. after all to promote the 12th season of Project Runway.

The ad, from agency Ignition Print in Santa Monica, Calif., shows Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn lording over a bunch of nude models. The same image, by the way, got a swift and unconditional OK in New York, where it's debuting Wednesday on hundreds of bus shelters, kiosks, newsstands and other high-visibility spots. Guess the Nanny State of Bloomberg doesn't extend to public displays of flesh. The cable network, which wouldn't comment on the flap but said privately that it didn't want to scrap the campaign, had planned to make adjustments via Photoshop for L.A. But now, the image, sans added clothing, will appear in a single spot in L.A.—above the storied Sunset Strip, where no one impressionable ever goes.

If the models had had Glocks in their hands like all the one-sheets for Hollywood action flicks, this would've been a non-issue to start with. The series, which has used suggestive advertising with the smokin' hot Klum many times in the past, returns July 18.

Witness the cautionary prankvertising in this viral spot for a Belgian bank warning you not to give out financial information online. Recounting more than just a simple case of credit-card fraud, the video shows how one truly creepy guy befriends an ordinary Belgian dude on Facebook—who was stupid enough to give out his deets in response to a phishing email—and tries to steal his life. Not content to post hilarious or insulting messages on the poor guy's hacked Facebook page, creepy bank rep has facial prosthetics made so he looks exactly like his victim, and starts posting pictures that the guy's wife probably won't find too funny. Then the doppelgänger orders an antique harp, has it delivered and signs for it, eventually appearing face to face with our our woebegotten protagonist to serious freak the crap out of him. Duval Guillaume Modem, the same agency that was behind "A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square," brings the whole thing to life in a chilling way. Those who heed the warning can check out tips at safeinternetbanking.be to make sure they don't become the subject of the next freakishly disturbing identity theft.

William and Kate's incoming royal baby has been a hot topic of conversation in England for a while now, but apparently it's also the subject of high-stakes betting. In fact, gambling website Paddy Power is still taking bets on pretty much everything about the baby's life, and dressed up four people as ugly babies to reflect the current hair-color odds as a weird and somewhat tasteless promotional tactic. The babies even made a stop at Buckingham Palace, so at least Paddy Power is as gutsy as it is coarse. Via Copyranter.

If you're ever tired on a subway or train, be careful—a new advertising medium might put some ideas in your head. Literally. BBDO Düsseldorf has developed a special window for public transportation that uses a transmitter to silently release high-frequency oscillations that your brain will convert into sound. Futurama fans will note the similarities between this and Fry's Lightspeed Briefs dream, and Transmetropolitan fans could draw parallels to Information Pollen. I'm sure people who aren't huge nerds also have something to compare this to, but hell if I know what it is.

I'm not sure I'd swipe my passport through a vending machine, regardless of the reward, but perhaps I would if I were Canadian and needed a beer badly enough. Molson Canadian recently visited several European cities and placed fully stocked beer fridges in public places there. The catch? The fridges could be opened only by scanning a Canadian passport. Footage from the sites was then cut into the 90-second online ad below, from ad agency Rethink and director Jonty Toosey of Partners Film. A :30 broke on TV during the Stanley Cup Finals. The campaign also brings back the classic tagline, "I am Canadian."

It's a fun idea, and continues the trend toward more installation-based public branding and entertainment stunts. Coca-Cola has always done that very well, of course, but these days everyone's trying it—from Hot Wheels to those crazy Fantastic Delites stunts. Beer fridges that won't open are particularly galling, of course, and wondrous when they finally relent—as we learned last year with the JWT office fridge that only opens when everyone has done their time sheets.

Making-of video and credits for the Molson effort below.

CREDITS
Title: "The Beer Fridge"
Client: Molson Canadian

Agency: Rethink
Creative Directors: Aaron Starkman, Chris Staples, Dré Labre, Ian Grais 
Associate Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Art Directors: Joel Holtby, Vince Tassone, Christian Buer
Writers: Mike Dubrick, Aaron Starkman, Matt Antonello, Dave Thornhill
Account Director: Ashley Eaton
Broadcast Producer: Clair Galea 

Production Company: Partners Film
Director: Jonty Toosey
Executive Producer: Aerin Barnes
Line Producer: Neil Bartley
Director of Photography: Bruce Jackson

Postproduction: Rooster Post
Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn
Editor: Marc Langley
Assistant Editor: Nick Greaves

Postroduction: Fort York VFX
Music, Sound Design: RMW Music
Producer, Composer: Steven MacKinnon

Colorist: Eric Whipp, Alter Ego

Texas copywriter Matt Bull became an ad-industry folk hero of sorts last month, when his first solo client work became an instant Internet sensation. But if you thought his billboard promoting Chicken Scratch restaurant—located "between some trailers and a condemned motel"—was odd, check out his first self-promotional board.

Bull, the owner (and sole employee) of The Department of Persuasion, tells Adweek that the coverage of his work for Chicken Scratch won him even more free publicity in the form of donated ad space. "Clear Channel Outdoor wanted to do something with me after your article," he tells us. "They gave me a month of digital boards to promote myself. I decided on something very, very silly."

As you can see above, the billboard simply says "SlothPunchClub.com." Once again illustrated by artist Elliott Park, the board directs viewers to a blog post by Bull, who says he's going to donate the URL to whomever comes up with the most creative way to use it. "Slothpunchclub.com is your domain to do with as you please," Bull writes in the post. "Anything at all. It could be an online graphic novel, a flash game hub, a text-based MUD, a collection of skewed illustrated poems disguised as children's picture books, a poorly written blog about second-tier sororities, an elaborate mythos for sloth-based fantasy neckbeards. Those are some free starter ideas. It would even make an excellent base for spreading malicious trojans. Not my business, frankly."

Ideas for the URL can be sent to slothpunchclub@gmail.com. Bull is also encouraging the winner and any participants to consider donating to Dallas-based charity Baal Dan, dedicated to helping street children in India.

Beef jerky raining down from the sky. We've all dreamed about it. I'm pretty sure it's prophesied in the Bible somewhere. Well, Jack Link's and ad agency Carmichael Lynch brought the fantasy to life on Tuesday night to celebrate the second annual National Jerky Day, which, of course, is today (as if you didn't already know). Thousands of Jack Link's packages with tiny parachutes were dropped from a helicopter over the Omaha Champions Village baseball complex. This is what passes for entertainment in Nebraska. More salty, meaty events are planned for today nationwide. The brand's Sasquatch mascot will hand out samples at the Hollywood & Highland Center, though passersby might just think it's Kevin Smith. The jerky drop was the culmination of "Operation Sky Meat," which featured teaser videos of a pigeon, plane, rocket and radio-controlled toy chopper attempting to sky-drop Jack Link's products, though all climaxed in fiery explosions. Yes, I spoiled the endings, and I've had a crap attitude through this entire post. It is Jerky Day, after all.

Teaser videos below.