It's awards season, and the case studies keep rolling in. This one, from Jung von Matt in Germany, for a campaign to get drivers to stop talking on their mobile phones, should do well among radio judges who enjoy simulated violence for the greater good.
The agency set up a stunt during a live radio show (not during a commercial break) in which a person called in to request a song—and admitted he was driving on the highway. Of course, from there, it doesn't end well.
Water Is Life and DDB New York's latest spot is, like much of their other work, heartbreaking. The ad focuses on the struggles of a young girl born in the slums of India, and does not pull its punches.
The new PSA, titled "The Girl Who Couldn't Cry," is an incredibly powerful piece of film, leaning heavily on shock value. But as with the organization's previous efforts, it makes its point all the more effective by creating that discomfort in—and compassion from—more privileged viewers.
Ever met someone with a disability and felt unsure what to say or how to even shake hands? If so, you're not alone, and British advocacy group Scope is here to help end the awkwardness.
Grey London worked with Scope to create a campaign "based on the insight that most people don’t know how to act around disabled people—which usually doesn't come from deep-seated prejudice but is due, primarily, to 'innocent ignorance.'"
The ads below show situations that almost anyone will recognize: How to shake a hand that isn't there, how to get the attention of someone you've realized is deaf and how to talk to someone in a wheelchair without looking like you're trying to comfort a child.
Offering play-by-play commentary on the situations is Channel 4 presenter Alex Brooker, who was born with multiple disabilities and wears a prosthetic leg.
The "End the Awkwardness" campaign strikes a great balance of tackling a real barrier between people while also avoiding the implication that you should feel like a monster for making the occasional social blunder.
"We're extending the hand of friendship to those who feel awkward around disability," says Vicki Maguire, deputy ecd at Grey London. "This is not a blame game. There's often no malice involved—many people just don't know how to act. We've had great success with education through comedy, and our aim here is to remove the stigma that often exists around disability. It's time to break the ice."
The campaign has a quiz to help determine your awkwardness level. Despite having friends with a wide range of disabilities, I tried to be honest with my answers and learned that I'm "a big dollop of cringe." The site's advice? "Next time you feel a nervous laugh or 'what the heck do I do now' coming on, stay calm and just remember, you can do this."
CREDITS:
Project: "End the Awkward" Client: Scope Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard Creative Director: Vicki Maguire Creatives: Lex Down, Jamie Starbuck Agency Producer: Holly Blackwell Account Management: Bill Scott, Katharine Easteal, Sophie Fredheim, Rosalie Jones Planners: Matt Tanter, Mike Alhadeff Media Agency: Mediacom Production Company: Biscuit Director: Jeff Low Editor: Anne Perri, Workpost Producer: Kwok Yau Director of Photography: Daniel Bronks Postproduction: The Mill Audio Postproduction: Scramble
Attractive models are great at being sexy in commercials—until the dialogue on the cue cards starts getting super weird and unsexy.
Have a look at this video without spoilers, then scroll down for more on the campaign.
Spoilers below…
Creative studio and production company Big Block Live created the video as a Mothers' Day campaign for Save the Children, which is on a roll lately with some great viral PSAs. Josh Ruben and Vincent Peone (Josh + Vince) directed the spot, having connected with Save the Children more than a year ago.
"We connected last year when Michael Amaditz from Save the Children saw our talk at SXSW about making funny content," Peone tells AdFreak. "They challenged us to come up with an idea that dealt with the subject matter in an evocative way."
"We essentially said, 'Let's take this a step further and add some organic reactions from our talent,' " Ruben adds. "Viewers respond to visceral material like that, and the turn really hooks you in such a fun, darkly awkward way. Save the Children already knew they wanted to use sexy content to drive attention to the cause, which is wise because, to put it bluntly, even the keyword 'sex' is an instant leg up for views."
So, how awkward did it get on the set?
"It certainly wasn't the most comfortable day on set," says Peone. "We had cast a 'director' character, Aubyn Gwinn, who did a great job at being supportive to our talent, encouraging them to give it their best shot. In the end, we were really happy with the level of commitment the models gave us, despite the ridiculous circumstances. Once the ruse was up and our models learned that they were in a Save the Children commercial, everyone was relieved and happy to have lent their performances to the cause. We were thrilled—we knew this piece could only work with genuine reactions, but we were highly sensitive about not ruining anyone's day in the process."
Gwinn, in fact, has done fashion ads, which was critical. "We made it a priority to run the set like a fashion shoot. It was crucial that it looked and felt legit," says Ruben. "We knew if we said we were directing it, there would be a slight chance we'd get recognized from CollegeHumor."
CREDITS Client: Save The Children Title: "The Most Important 'Sexy' Model Video Ever" Air Date: 5/6/14
Creative Director (Save the Children): Michael Amaditz Manager of Video Production (Save the Children): Suzanne Klaucke
Production Company: Big Block Live Directors: Josh + Vince Managing Director: Kenny Solomon Executive Producer: Mary Crosse Producer: Corwin Carroll Director of Photography: Joe Victorine
When it comes to PSAs about controlling the pet population, most of us have come to expect well-intentioned lectures from the likes of Bob Barker.
Enter Scooter, the neutered cat, ironic love child of Barney Miller and Shaft. He's the coolest cat on the block, ya jive turkey, with "hip spectacles, no testicles." What this pimp-ass cat lacks in testicular payload, he makes up for in spunk.
This spot from givethemten.org and agency Northlich/Cincinnati aims to educate humans about the cat population with directions to spay and neuter clinics, adoption information and a kitty cam.
As their website states, "The cat is America’s favorite pet. At 73 million vs. 68 million, house cats outnumber pet dogs. Yet an additional 70 million cats are without a home due to overpopulation and lack of spay/neuter. Most of those 70 million will never find a home."
Who's your daddy? It's certainly not Scooter, even though this tomcat is definitely getting busy with all the particularly gussied-up female felines.
CREDITS
Client: GiveThemTen.org Spot Title: "Scooter" (:30) First Airdate: April 28, 2014 Agency: Northlich/Cincinnati Producer: Diane Frederick Creative Director: Kerry Broderick Art Director: Laura Gels Copywriter: Terry Dillon Production Company: Superlounge Director: Jordan Brady Director of Photography: Wyatt Troll Executive Producer: Dave Farrell Postproduction: Red Echo Post Music: Circa Music
The White House has issued a new PSA empowering people to stand up against sexual assault as part of its "1 Is 2 Many" campaign.
Seeing President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and some of Hollywood's elite (Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Steve Carrell, Dule Hill and Seth Meyers) speak out against sexual assault is heartwarming, and hopefully the use of celebrities—and maybe our collective fascination with celebrity culture—will help this message spread.
Watch the PSA and you’ll take note of how it is carefully worded: "If she doesn't consent, or if she can't consent, it's rape, it's assault, it's a crime." The important distinction of whether someone can consent is thankfully highlighted, as many sexual assaults happen while the victim is drugged, drunk, passed out or otherwise incapacitated.
The PSA also emphasizes that if you see something happening you should do something (which, duh!) and that the victim shouldn’t be blamed. "If I saw something happening," says Craig, aka Mr. James Bond, "I'd help her. I'd never blame her."
St. John Ambulance, the first-aid teaching and awareness organization, has put together some incredible, horrifying PSAs through the years.
We've covered many of BBH London's ads for the group. Last year, the agency won a silver Film Lion at Cannes for "Helpless," a two-minute film based around the statistic that first aid could prevent 140,000 deaths a year—the same number who die from cancer. BBH followed that up with the heartbreaking "Save the Boy" spot last fall.
Now, here's a new spot—for St. John Ambulance in Australia. Created by The Brand Agency in Perth, it's equally heart-wrenching and difficult to watch. And effective, at least in my case. After watching this, I found myself searching the Internet for local first aid courses.
This is what it sounds like when you drink too much, then get behind the wheel. Surprise: It does not have a happy ending.
A new PSA by ad agency La Chose for French road safety organization Association Victimes et Citoyens uses a simple yet effective single shot of a vinyl record player to offer a fresh version of a familiar and important point.
Perhaps counterintuitively, the absence of any violent footage actually increases the power of the message. The literal realization of the casual "same old song" metaphor (translated from "la méme chanson" in French) risks coming off as a little off kilter or even off color, since there isn't actually a song, and the subject matter is so serious.
But the whole concept hinges on the idiom, and the ad does too good a job of illustrating the point to nitpick much. The skips in the audio easily build suspense, to the point where, sadly, anyone with half a brain will know where the storyline is going—but has to hear it out to be sure.
La Chose also made 300 12-inch vinyl records featuring the ad's soundtrack and sent them to journalists. That should be a hit at parties.
Here's something I never thought I'd say: I just got weepy listening to "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.
In an incredibly touching tribute to the group's frontwoman, Chrissy Amphlett, some of Australia's top singers have recorded a largely a capella version for a video encouraging women to self-examine their breasts for lumps.
Amphlett, one of the most shockingly sexual pop artists of the 1990s, died from breast cancer on April 21, 2013. According to Billboard, an ultrasound and mammogram initially missed the cancer, which Amphlett ended up finding on her own through self-examination.
Friends say her dying wish was that her 1990 hit song could become a reminder for all women to check themselves regularly for lumps and other signs of breast cancer. So Australian advocacy group Cancer Council NSW (New South Wales) worked with Amphlett's widower and supporters to create the beautiful rendition below.
The singers are Connie Mitchell, Deborah Conway, Kate Cerebrano, Katie Noonan, Little Pattie, Megan Washington, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Blasko, Sarah McLeod and Suze DeMarchi. You can watch interviews with each of them on Amphlett's YouTube channel.
"It is a song that celebrates female sexuality like no other. Like Chrissy, it is bold, brave and brassy," the group says in its video summary. "It rocked our world. And when Chrissy developed breast cancer, it was a song she wanted to become an anthem for spreading awareness about the importance of touching ourselves for early detection of the disease."
Note: The video below ends on a scene that might be NSFW. But you really shouldn't let that stop you from watching it.
Grey New York and its client, States United to Prevent Gun Violence, won a silver Lion in Film at Cannes last year for "Ed," their brutal spot about gun violence, set in a workplace.
The sequel, released today, titled "The Monster Is Real," takes place in a family home. Directed by Hornet's Yves Geleyn, the spot may be a cartoon, but that makes it no less devastating. We won't give away the plot, though the conclusion doesn't exactly come as a surprise. But again, that doesn't dull the impact much.
Critics will say that the kid wouldn't play with the gun if he was this afraid of it, though of course children aren't known for tempering their curiosity, either.
"In the wake of so many tragic mass shootings, the nation's focus has been on strengthening gun laws," says Sue Hornik, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence. "But one preventable threat to children's safety is unlocked and loaded guns found around the house … the proverbial 'monster in the closet' of our new public service announcement."
In a release, the group also offered these sobering statistics:
• 1.5 million American children live in homes with unlocked and loaded firearms. • Every day at least six children 18 and under are injured in an unintentional shooting. • 75 percent of gun shot injuries to children under 10 that are serious enough to require hospitalization are due to unintentional shootings.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: States United to Prevent Gun Violence Spot: "The Monster Is Real" Agency: Grey Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren Deputy Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Per Pedersen Executive Creative Directors: Rob Perillo, Rob Lenois Art Director: Evan Ortolani Copywriter: Daniel Alvarez Director of Broadcast: Bennett McCarroll Agency Executive Producer: James McPherson Agency Producer: Zach Fleming Account Director: Elizabeth Gilchrist Account Executive: John Nelson Production Company: Hornet Director: Yves Geleyn Executive Producer: Jan Stebbins Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh Music Company: Mutato Muzika Music Producer: Natalie Montgomery Music Engineer: Bradley Denniston Music Supervision: Zach Pollakoff Music, Sound Design: Dante Desole (Vision Post) Principal Talent: Samantha Mathis, Anthony Arkin
The most memorable safe-driving PSAs tend to be made overseas—in Britain,Mexico,Australia. But the U.S. adds a powerful new entry to the mix with this brutal spot from The Tombras Group for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Ushering in National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the spot is so riveting, you should stop reading now and watch it, then share it with your friends and family. It's OK, we'll wait.
Welcome back.
Aimed at teens, it's incredibly straightforward, simulating an everyday scene cut short by a distracted driver. The theme is "U drive. U text. U pay," with the hashtag #justdrive. The police officer's dialogue is perhaps a bit confusing—he almost doesn't need to be there.
According to the new site distraction.gov, more than 70 percent of teens and young adults have sent or read a text while driving. The campign aims to get teen drivers to take a pledge to refrain from texting and driving, as well as give them the tools to help raise awareness.
It's certainly a step in the right direction. Now, please make one for adults, too.
Warning: This video is violent and may be upsetting.
Most cancer charities want to highlight how easy it is to check yourself for lumps or other danger signs, but Testicular Cancer Canada decided to grab some attention by getting guys to do it the hard way.
BBDO Toronto and video production house Crush threw a party at which 20 young men were challenged to have their balls waxed while their reactions were filmed. The results are about what you'd expect, with red-faced screaming and a myriad of facial contortions. And like half the ads on earth, it's set to the increasingly frenetic tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg.
So is it a good idea to associate extreme pain with a simple and painless preventative ritual like feeling your testicles? A spokesperson for Crush sent AdFreak this response: "Given that the target audience (young guys) don't ever think about cancer, or checking themselves out, we wanted a light-hearted way to get them thinking about their own groins."
On the bright side, if you decide to go for a full wax instead of simply cupping your crotch after a shower, I'm pretty sure it unlocks an achievement for completing the challenge in Nightmare Mode.
Do black people and fat people deserve to earn less money than skinny white people?
Well, no, but the arguments in favor of such a wage gap are somewhat entertaining in two new spots from equalpayday.be, a Belgian organization whose mission is to raise awareness about equal pay for … another demographic. (You can probably guess where this is going, but we won't spoil the surprise.)
The comparison certainly isn't perfect, and this tactic likely won't win over many who are unconcerned with the real wage gap at issue. It also probably won't go over too well with people who earnestly do feel held back in their careers because of their race or weight. But with ads so joyously sarcastic, it's hard to hold too much of a grudge.
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
Colorado is proud to be the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use. Ad creatives in Colorado are happy to have an opportunity to make stoner references.
Three new PSAs for the state's Department of Transportation (by Denver agency Amélie Company and HSI director Simon Cole) gleefully remind would-be weed smokers that they are free to act like idiots while doing many things—but not while driving. Get high and do a bad job installing your TV. Get high and do a bad job playing basketball. Get high and do a bad job cooking steaks. Don't get high and drive. It's pretty simple.
Everybody wins, except for maybe some viewers, who might find that after chuckling at the hopeless handyman spot, the joke burns out a little too quickly. Plus, that lady shooting daggers at the ill-equipped grill master clearly needs to mellow out. Really, it's hard to believe she hasn't already … especially when she's wearing that hat.
Here's a clever ad that starts off as a preview for a horror movie called Schizo and ends with Glenn Close talking about BringChange2Mind, the organization she founded.
Watch the video for more. Since horror movies often use mental illness as an easy diagnosis for their villains, not to mention the number of fictional serial killers who wear plaid shirts, the juxtaposition here is rather astute.
Google Glass videos are notable for their seamless first-person perspective, which puts you not only in someone else's shoes but in their eyes. You see what they see. No wonder, then, that the empathy-rich form is being hijacked by a PSA effort—to show you something you wouldn't want to see in the first place.
A group of London creatives put together the unbranded video below for International Women's Day on Saturday, according to Osocio. Google was not involved.
The video has been polarizing on YouTube so far. As awareness messages go, it is blunt and unpleasant—which is the point of all shock videos, although the trend lately, of course, is toward more uplifting and empowering work.
As a distressing reminder of an intractable problem, it works well enough—though it will have its critics who see it as gimmicky and gratuitous. It would help if they spelled the #womensday hashtag correctly at the end.
Warning: Video contains violence and may be upsetting.
For PSA campaigns aimed at getting people to help the children of Syria, job one is making the crisis feel immediate rather than remote.
Last month's hidden-camera stunt in Norway, in which a child sat freezing without a coat at a bus stop in winter, did just that. Now, Save the Children has released its own U.K. campaign to make the horror in Syria feel real—the 90-second video below, which does so to devastating effect.
The ad, by creative agency Don't Panic, imagines if what has happened in Syria were to happen in London. Amazingly shot, it uses the structure of the popular one-second-a-day videos to show an ordinary girl's world falling apart over a period of a year (from birthday to birthday)—as her comfortable middle-class existence evaporates and she finds herself a homeless and fatherless refugee amid the horrors of war.
The video coincides with the buildup to the third anniversary of the Syrian crisis, which has left 100,000 people dead and 2 million more as refugees. On-screen text at the end reads: "Just because it isn't happening here doesn't mean it isn't happening."
"It's easy to forget that Syria was a middle income country, where children enjoyed the benefits of education, healthcare and the other basic rights our children take for granted—not to mention Facebook accounts, video games and youth culture," says Jack Lundie, director of brand and communications at Save the Children.
"We hope the video will resonate with the public, particularly those who don't know much about the situation in Syria, and offer a new perspective on the devastating impact this conflict is having on innocent Syrian children."
Hey, it's filmmaker Jason Headley! You might remember him from such short films as "It's Not About the Nail," and now he's lampooning the "It Gets Better" project with this mock PSA from people who peaked in high school.
"It Doesn't Get Better" has its moments—the IROC-Z guy and the brunette have great delivery—but it showed up kinda late to the party and isn't quite clever enough to compensate for that. Also, the whole nerdy teen/yacht owner thing almost never happens in reality.
If life in the workforce has taught me anything, it's that most high school nerds end up working for rich, thick-headed dudebros with MBAs.
Fifteen months and 71 million YouTube views after its storied premiere, McCann Melbourne's "Dumb Ways to Die" train-safety campaign is back with this cute, grotesque little spot for Valentine's Day. Turns out the greedy little blue blob who sold both his kidneys on the Internet now has easy access to other vital organs through the stitched-up wounds. Despite his best intentions, death, naturally, ensues. "Be safe around Valentine's Day … and trains," says the on-screen copy.
This is just the second new "Dumb Ways" video released since the staggeringly successful original—following a 15-second promo made for the Melbourne International Film Festival last July. For those who have to sing it loud, though, there is also the official karaoke version of the original.
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.
