Hasta La Creative!

Boy, Elizabeth Banks can sure get inside your head.

The actress returns for a self-consciously wacky house party in Pereira & O’Dell New York’s latest work for Realtor.com. In new ads, she invades the homeowner fantasies of prospective buyers, to tout the client’s site. 

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Back in April, Pereira & O’Dell launched its “Crossroads” campaign for Coca-Cola Latin America with a pair of lengthy online spots exploring themes easily related to by teens such as friendship and the damage caused by rumors while introducing the fistbump as the campaign’s visual metaphor of togetherness. Now the agency has rolled out what Adweek refers to as the campaign’s “crown jewel,” with “The Text.”

The ad, which examines the close friendship between two teen boys, does indeed seem to be a kind of centerpiece for the campaign, which explains why Coca-Cola and Pereira & O’Dell chose to release it well after “Crossroads” had established momentum. Directed by Dustin Lance Black (probably best known as the screenwriter behind Milk and J. Edgar), the spot takes its time in establishing the boys’ friendship, which viewers can imply is very close and goes back a long time. After establishing the relationship and hinting at secrets yet to be revealed, the spot reaches its dramatic climax when one of the boys goes to grab Cokes from the fridge while his friend sees a text on his phone from his boyfriend. The ad ends with the friends closer than ever, and engaging in the visual trademark of the campaign, the fistbump. While this moment seems a bit forced as a way to work in the gesture, as does working in going to the fridge for Cokes as the impetus for the spot’s climax, the ad does manage to believably portray the boy’s relationship and the way the dramatic moment unfolds is actually pretty believable.

Pereira & O’Dell’s previous spots for the campaign (which were also directed by Black) traded in teen melodrama, but “The Text” avoids seeming as over-the-top, and feels dramatic rather than melodramatic. While its lengthy runtime (it clocks in at over seven minutes) could probably have been cut a bit, the long buildup does work to establish the nuances of the boys’ relationship.

“‘The Text’ was perhaps the most personal for me to direct,” writer/director and LGBT activist Black told Adweek. “As an artist, I feel I have a responsibility to share the stories of who LGBT people truly are, in order to dispel any atmosphere of fear that might prevent LGBT people from sharing their lives openly.”

Credits:

Client: Coca-Cola Latin America
IMC Director LATAM: Marta Fontcuberta
IMC Director: Ismael Pascual
Content Excellence Director: Diego Bracamontes
Coca–Cola IMC Senior Manager: Eduardo Ruiz
Coca–Cola IMC Manager: Layla del Razo
Coca–Cola IMC Junior Manager: Adriana Sahagun
Coca-Cola Trademark Brand Director: José Luis Basauri
Coca-Cola Brand Director: Unai Alvarez
Coca-Cola Brand Manager: Valeria Lopez

Coca-Cola Design Team
Global Design Director: Rapha Abreu
Vice President, Design: James Sommerville
Senior Global Design Director: Tom Farrel
Global Design Project Manager: Craig Stroud
Global Designers: Chrsitine Lee, Megan Libby
Senior Design Manager: Aidee Rodriguez

Agency: Pereira & O’Dell
Chief Creative Officer: P.J. Pereira
Executive Creative Director: Jaime Robinson
Creative Directors: Rob Lambrechts, Rafael Rizuto
Senior Art Director: Luke Acret
Senior Copywriter: Omid Amid
Senior Designer: Moses Kelany
Chief Strategy Officer: Ana Cortat
Strategist: Sara Lezama
Vice President, Production: Jeff Ferro

Senior Film Producer: Victoria Whitlow
Co-Director, Client Services: Henry Arlander
Account Director: Mona Gonzalez
Account Executive: Rose Valderrama
Trailer, Interactive Editor: Collin Kriner
Senior Production Designer: Aaron Rodriguez

Vice President, Distribution: Josh Brandau
Project Manager: Lauren Parker
Agency Marketing, Public Relations: Molly Parsley

Business Affairs Director: Russ Nadler

Visual Effects: Laundry!
Editing: Umlaut Films
Editor: Alex Rodríguez
Poster Designer: Erik Buckham
Illustrator, Retoucher: Adhemas Batista

Theme Music: One Direction, “Clouds”

Music Supervisor: Aminé Ramer
Original Score Composer: Grayson Sanders, Music Dealers

Pereira & O’Dell launched a new campaign for Realtor.com starring actress Elizabeth Banks.

The campaign, entitled “Real Estate in Real Time” launched with two broadcast spots directed by Fred Savage. Banks brings a lighthearted humor to the 30-second “Jim,” getting progressively excited with real estate related alliterations as the spot goes on. There’s a sense of looseness and fun to the ad that makes it really stand out in the real estate category as Banks is seemingly enjoying herself on set. The freewheeling feel of the ad makes sense as Banks shot eight broadcast spots and five 0nline ads during four days, improvising some of her lines, Dave Arnold, chief creative officer at Pereira & O’Dell in New York, told Adweek. In the 15-second “Constant Change,” Banks plugs Realtor.com’s app.

“This campaign is really about Elizabeth playing a real-estate-obsessed version of herself,” Andrew Strickman, head of brand and chief creative for Realtor parent company Move told Adweek, also characterizing the campaign as Banks “having fun with it in a way that doesn’t make her a shill.”

“Real Estate in Real Time” will continue rolling out throughout the year, so expect to see more from Banks and Pereira & O’Dell for the brand soon.

Credits:

Client: Realtor.com
Title: “Real Estate in Real Time”
Agency: Pereira & O’Dell New York
Executive Creative Director: Dave Arnold
Associate Creative Directors: Jake Dubs, Alexei Beltrone
Copywriter: Michelle Lamont
Art Director: Alex Parodi
Head of Production, New York: Tennille Teague
Producer: Montea Robinson
Managing Director: Cory Berger
Account Director: Annika Roden
Account Supervisor: Jessica Williams
Associate Strategy Director: Mike Lewis
Strategist: Anna Bedineishvili
Business Affairs Director: Russ Nadler
Production?Company: Uber Content
Director: Fred Savage
Executive Producer: Preston Lee
Line Producer: Tom Lowe
Editorial Company: Arcade
Editors: Jeff Feruzzo, Dave Anderson, Ali Mao
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Producer: Lauren Cancelosi
Flame Artist: Trisan Wake
Color Company: Co 3
Colorist: Tom Poole
Audio Company: Heard City
Engineer: Keith Reynaud

Every plastic bottle in your bathroom dreams of a better life.

At least, they do in Keep America Beautiful’s new recycling ads from Pereira & O’Dell. The next phrase of the “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign launches today, and shows bathroom bottles looking forward to future experiences that are way more fulfilling that getting your grubby body clean.

The two 30-second spots below, created in partnership with The Ad Council and sponsor Unilever, personify products’ dream of being recycled into something new by being told through first-person POVs.

The campaign is based on new research that says that nearly half of Americans (45 percent) aren’t recycling their bathroom products. It also suggests 52 percent of people don’t know which bathroom items can be recycled, and 47 percent don’t have a recycling bin in their bathroom.

The “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign, launched in 2013, has gotten nearly $68 million in donated air time and media space, and ranks as the second most supported Ad Council campaign by network cable TV.

Now that Airbnb, that controversial apartment “sharing” (read: renting) business, has grown beyond its startup roots to become a company with an estimated value greater than the entire Hyatt Corporation, it needs a little creative work to show the world what it’s all about.

Today Pereira & O’Dell provided that work in the form of the very first Airbnb spot:

We’re not sure whether the business will catch on with the public at large and we can’t imagine warming to the idea of swapping apartments with strangers, but we also can’t think of a better way to summarize Airbnb’s appeal than with a series of views from alternate windows in a “you could be here, or here, or here” montage.

Unfortunately, you may still have a tough time describing the company’s product to your grandmother.

Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Pereira & O'Dell tells stories from the point of view of trash in its new "I Want to Be Recycled" pro-bono campaign for the Ad Council and Keep America Beautiful. (No Honey Boo Boo jokes, please.) In one spot, we follow a plastic bottle's long journey from an alleyway garbage can over highways, through forests and down urban thoroughfares until it winds up as part of a bench made from recycled materials that overlooks the sea. Another ad presents a discarded aluminum can that dreams of one day being part of a shiny sports stadium. The bottle and can narrate, and the ads close with the tagline, "Give your garbage another life," ultimately pointing viewers toward IWantToBeRecycled.org.

These well-made PSAs are certainly affecting and will probably resonate with many viewers. Still, I wonder if powerful copy like, "They said I couldn't dream. Called me a piece of trash and swore that's all I'd ever be," isn't at least somewhat muted when only bottles and cans are shown on screen. This approach is quirky and memorable and does, in fact, work just fine in the context of the campaign. That said, I don't find it especially compelling, nor does it do much to convince me to recycle. (Can't say I care if your dreams come true, Mr. Can. Frankly, benches and ballparks will be built regardless of whether I recycle. That's not much of an inducement for me to change my behavior.)

The campaign's stories seem human, yet they lack a personal touch. It's tough to empathize with plastic containers and soda cans, no matter how sharp the writing and evocative the visual storytelling. Close-ups of actors looking straight into the camera and reading the lines—"People think I'm trash, but they're wrong"—might have better captured my attention and perhaps taken the premise to the next level. Sure, that set-up would be a bit goofy, but no more so than having the trash itself provide the voiceovers. Shots of narrators intercut with the bottles-and-cans footage might also be more distinctive and riveting. (Check out "I Want to Be a Bench," a 90-second video in which Keep Iowa Beautiful executive director Gerry Schnepf explains the genesis of the campaign and discusses the importance of recycling. This guy's low-key, folksy, matter-of-fact style made me want to start recycling more than the actual commercials did.)

Keep America Beautiful's iconic Iron Eyes Cody anti-pollution spots from the early 1970s were enduring because of their intense humanity and one-to-one connection with viewers. It was never a stretch to see ourselves reflected in those weeping eyes and understand that we all share responsibility for the planet's well-being. "I Want to Be Recycled" appeals to our desire for second chances and rebirth—redemption, if you will, given the items involved—but for me, the can imagery falls flat and the bottle's half empty.

CREDITS
Client: The Ad Council
Vice President, Campaign Director: Rowena Patrick
Campaign Director: Amanda Bagwill
Assistant Campaign Manager: Dana Vielmetti

Client: Keep America Beautiful
Senior Vice President: Lynn Markley

Agency: Pereira & O'Dell
Chief Creative Officer: P.J. Pereira
Executive Creative Director: Jaime Robinson
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Eduardo Marques
Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Rafael Rizuto
Copywriters: Ross Cavin, Earl Lee
Art Directors: Chris Adams, Arnau Bosch
Project Manager: Katie Shesgreen
Account Director: Ashley Brown
Account Executive: Jennifer Wantuch
Vice President, Director of Strategy: Nick Chapman
Strategy Director: Justin Cox
Strategist: Alina Shabashevich
Executive Producer: Jeff Ferro
Broadcast Producers: Judy Kreiter, Elisa Moore
Print Producer: James Sablan
Senior Interactive Producer: Erin Davis
Business Affairs Director: Xandra Ess

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Victor Garcia
President: David Zander
Executive Producer: Kate Leahy
Producer: Greg Ferguson

Editing: Arcade Edit
Editor: Greg Scruton
Assistant Editors: Laura Sanford, Hilary Ruggiano
Managing Partner, Executive Producer: Damian Stevens
Executive Producer: Nicole Visram
Producer: Denice Hutton

Visual Effects: MPC
Telecine Producer: Claudia Guevara
Lead Nuke Artist: Alex Harding
Lead Smoke Artist: Marcus Wood
Compositor: Jonathan McKee
Computer Graphics Lead Artist: Liam Griffin
Colorist: Adrian Seery
Audio: POP Sound
Mixers: Zac Fisher, Stephen Dickson
Music: Stimmung