Hasta La Creative!

McCann, New York has a new campaign for Verizon FiOS, touting the brand’s “Speed Match” — matching download and upload speeds.

To do so, McCann set up an experiment slowing down an up escalator. When riders finally reached the top, a spokeswoman asks, “Shouldn’t up be as fast as down?” and then continues to make the point that the same should true of Internet connection speeds. It’s a pretty obvious visualization of the feature, and may help those who have trouble understanding tech issues appreciate FiOS’ “Speed Match” (even if they still don’t quite understand what they’re talking about). (more…)

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This morning McCann Worldwide announced that John Mescall will be its newest Global Executive Creative Director.

Mescall, who currently serves as ECD at McCann Australia (but did not appear in this brilliant piece of satire), will relocate to New York “in the coming months” to join fellow GECDs James Dawson-Hollis and Bill Wright; the move is part of McCann Global Creative Chairman Rob Reilly‘s efforts to consolidate and strengthen the larger agency’s creative leadership.

Reilly had this to say about Mescall, who led independent Australian shop SMART before its 2011 acquisition by McCann:

“John’s all talent and no ego and he has helped lead McCann Australia to become one of the best agencies in the world.”

The new GECD himself writes:

“It’s a seriously exciting time at McCann. The opportunity to work closely with Rob was just too big not to take, and we’re very aligned on the kind of work we seek to do.”

Mescall has earned a plethora of awards throughout his career, most recently scoring 5 Grand Prix for Metro Trains’ 2014 “Dumb Ways to Die” PSA campaign (which is now being used to sell life insurance).

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McCann New York has a new campaign for Jose Cuervo that takes viewers on a journey through the brand’s history via handcrafted dioramas housed inside, you guessed it, Cuervo bottles. The results are pretty intriguing, and make the dioramas of your grade school past look pretty crappy by comparison. Called “History in a Bottle,” the campaign also includes an augmented reality app, which can be downloaded at CuervoHistoryApp.com. The app allows users to  “hover over a bottle of Tradicional (Silver or Reposado) and bring the campaign to life.” It’s no surprise that the dioramas look so good. McCann commissioned LAIKA/house, the animation studio behind the stellar films Coraline and ParaNorman to handcraft each of the five distinctive dioramas, as well as the other imagery of the campaign. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Last October/November, CP+B helped launch Xbox One with a series of TV spots designed to show off how with the next-gen system “games and entertainment are no longer separated.” Well, following a series of Playstation 4 ads that positioned that system as the one “For the Players,” CP+B and Xbox One return serve with a new television spot reminding viewers that, oh yeah, “first and foremost, Xbox One is a gaming console.”

The new effort, entitled “Lost,” focuses on the realism of Xbox One’s graphics, imagining them as so realistic that a young man playing Ryse: Son of Rome actually believes he’s sustaining injuries. That, or the dude is just tripping balls, in which case he should probably play something a little less intense. The spot concludes with the somehow familiar sounding tagline, “If it was any more real, it would be real.”

As mentioned, “Lost” does feel like a direct response to the PS4 ads that position it as the system for gamers, which makes a lot of sense for Microsoft. The Redmond, WA giant may have overestimated the appeal of the whole “gaming and entertainment in one” selling point, and now it seems they can’t let Sony claim the “For the Players” crown without a fight. It will be interesting to see how the advertising battles for the two systems play out as both fight to win the next-gen console war. With the systems selling at a pretty close rate, it doesn’t look like things will let up any time soon. and perhaps that’s a good thing. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Wow, figured the encroaching holidays would be a slow time but just got official word that Rob Reilly, 10-year vet and partner/worldwide chief creative officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky is leaving the agency to “pursue new ventures.” According to the Crispin camp, which also lost UX lead Matt Walsh recently, the creative department has been restructured as a result of Reilly’s departure, which will now all allow all of its camps including Boulder, L.A. Miami, London and Gothenburg to have “increased autonomy.”  The “restructuring,” which follows Reilly leaving along with his wife, 16-year CP+B vet and managing director/partner Laura Bowles, was concocted by Reilly, CEO Andrew Keller and CP+B chairman, Chuck Porter. From the announce,  executive director of creative development Evan Fry  (who rejoined CP+B over a year ago) and director of art & design Dave Swartz (the CD who we most recently noted in this Roman Coppola-directed Microsoft effort) will help guide the new creative structure while still reporting to Keller.

So, what does CP+B CEO Andrew Keller have to add? Well, in a statement, he says, “I am extraordinarily lucky to have Rob and Laura as friends and to have worked with them as partners through some of the most exciting and courageous times at CP+B. This structure really speaks to the immediate needs of our clients and our vision for meeting those needs. This is an incredibly exciting step in delivering outstanding creative work to our clients.”

During their career, both Reilly and Bowles led CP+B accounts including Domino’s, Burger King and more. As for Bowles, the MD moved up the charts during her career at CP+B from content supervisor to VP/account director to her most recent role as partner/managing director, working with other clients including Hotels.com and on new biz efforts. Sources say the parting was on good terms but we no word as to what Reilly and Bowles are up to next.

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With the Xbox One’s November 22nd launch date looming ever nearer, CP+B’s marketing blitz for Microsoft’s next-gen system continues with two new spots. Coming on the heels of the “Invitation” spot released late last month, the two new short spots highlight the system’s diverse capabilities while otherwise taking different approaches.

The first spot, “Retirement Home,” features recently retired NFL linebackers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher. Urlacher asks Lewis if he’s having any trouble adjusting to retirement as both watch football and play Madden 25 at the same time. Lewis claims not to be having any adjustment issues, but his actions say otherwise. It’s a funny little spot that will appeal to the (sizable) segment of the Xbox crowd who have always wished they could play Madden while watching the NFL.

The second spot, “His and Hers” addresses the apparent sexism of the “Invitation” spot (in which the only female featured uses the system only to watch movies, not play games). It highlights the voice recognition system by showing a woman command the Xbox One using her voice after arriving home to find her boyfriend watching soccer. She tells the system “Xbox go to Dead Rising 3″ and begins to play. Then she starts similarly commanding her boyfriend in a similar matter, telling him to get her a beer. It’s a bit over the top, but a welcome reversal of the gender stereotypes displayed in CP+B’s “Invitation” spot.

Credits and “His & Hers” after the jump.  continued…

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I may be something of a Sony loyalist, but I’ve got to admit CP+B’s new spot “Invitation” makes the Xbox One shine. Even some of Sony’s biggest fanboys might concede it looks a lot better than the recent PS4 spot.

Directed by Hungry Man’s Bryan Buckley, the commercial vet who recently helmed the R&B-inflected DirecTV spot starring the Manning bros (and who earned an Emmy nod for Grey Poupon’s “The Chase,” also from CP+B),  “Invitation” features users invited into the world of several different games, and one movie. The spot opens with a giant robot warrior crashing a business meeting and making a “come here” gesture to a man giving a presentation. Then we see soccer player Steven Gerrard inviting a fan down from the stands. Spock invites a girl along for some sci-fi adventures. A sports car parks itself in front of some dude’s car and opens its door for him. (This is the automotive equivalent of “come here” apparently.) A zombie attempts to cajole a student in a library to join him, loses an arm, and then tells him to come along with the other arm.

Emphasizing the immersive nature of the next-gen platform, the spot announces, “This is an invitation to a new generation: where your games and entertainment are no longer separated, but together, in one.” Showing Xbox One users utilizing the system’s voice activation to launch games like Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, and the movie Star Trek: Enter Darkness gives fans an idea of what they can expect on launch day. The spot also shows users making use of the motion sensitive Kinect. You know, the camera that might be spying on you.

Mixing live action with just the right amount of actual gameplay, “Invitation” is slickly produced and should have Xbox fanboys chomping at the bit for the console’s Nov. 22 release date. My biggest problem with the spot is that the one woman featured uses the Xbox One not for gaming, but to watch a movie. Aside from this perpetuation of the gaming industry’s prevailing sexism (which most people won’t even notice), it’s a really solid ad. The whole “invitation” approach works to emphasize both the immersive nature of the system and the all-in-one entertainment value it offers. The $499 starting price, however, is less inviting. Credits after the jump.  continued…

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In CP+B’s new Roman Coppola-directed spot for Microsoft, sweet children sing in asparagus suits while their parents frantically capture every moment using their iPhones and Androids. A brawl ensues, with parents fighting for the perfect panorama, jostling one another to avoid phone photobombing, and climbing into the ceiling pipes for the ideal aerial shot. Of course, the couple with a Nokia Lumia 1020 sits calmly in the back with their superior cameraphone, knowing they got a great photo of their daughter dressed as a carrot.

This spot is in line with Microsoft’s last video, “The Wedding,” where the same scene occurs, but at a church. Both ads end, “Don’t fight. Switch.” Considering photo sharing has become one of the most important parts of owning a phone, it’s not a bad idea. Ad-wise, this spot is a great portrait of modern day life. If only an unintelligible child vegetable chorus could always soundtrack petty adult hysteria.

Credits after the jump.

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Men with comb overs look hapless. Little boys with comb overs look creepy. To see the difference, please watch the latest Jell-O television spot, appropriately titled “Comb Over.”

In the forty-five-second ad built by CP+B, a balding father whose depressing life resembles a deflated balloon schools his son on the importance of the little things, like a cup of Jell-O pudding. In turn, we see some surreal daydream where the son, still about six years old, goes through a day in the father’s life, only now he has a giant cone head and a comb over. If you ever wanted to know what the male offspring of Lord Voldemort and Francis Dolarhyde (Manhunter version, not Red Dragon) would look like, here you go. Is that not the definition of creepy, a little boy who somehow resembles two fictional psychopaths all because of a comb over? Still, the commercial’s surrealist twist manages to make it stand out in an otherwise standard concept. It’s almost sweet, if not for the whole hapless/depressing/pitying reaction that comes along with comb overs.

Credits after the jump.

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CP+B originally ran with the idea of a blow-up doll lunch decoy last year, suggesting that people could secure more time at Applebee’s by tricking their bosses. In 2013, the same old bag of tricks comes in the form of a longer ad – 102 seconds – showing various worker bees running out of the office to indulge in some Applebee’s. I’ve never been a fan of the fine dining cuisine at such establishments, but I’m told customers can enjoy hundreds of lunch combos starting at $6.99. If you can get a restaurant combo for that cheap, you may want to think twice.

The spot itself isn’t digging much into new ground. There is one interesting bit, when a black construction worker uses a white lunch decoy. I’m not sure what that is trying to say, if anything at all, but the man’s boss must not pay very good attention to his staff if the lunch decoy can be effective while using a different skin color than the man who is jolting to Applebee’s (Ed. update: CP+B clarifies that it did use the likeness that most resembles of its construction worker as part of the campaign. Go here). Maybe the man’s boss is using his own lunch decoy, at which point the men would run into each other at an Applebee’s and ruin the trick for everyone. Credits after the jump.

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